Day 5 of GIU ;(

Today is my last day to be the GIU gal;( I'm very sad, I have enjoyed this so very much! Each and every comment has brought a little sunshine and a smile to my life this week, THANK YOU to those of you who have been so kind to me :)

The last two days outside of my little bloggy world have been fabulous! The kiddos and I took an overnight field trip to visit one of my girlfriends that lives down by Madison. I enjoyed time with some friends playing cards and was able to meet up with one of my childhood friends and take her out to lunch for her birthday <3 On my way home I stopped by my friend Pam's store in Baraboo and picked up a reconditioned Sihloutte for a steal of a deal! Thank You Pam! I think I'm about to enter a whole new world of die cutting, so excited :D

Now I'm home and very sleepy so my grand plans of having a fabulously altered wall art piece to share with you have failed miserably. The rain also hindered my plans for this too since I needed to spray paint the frame before I altered it.... (excuses, excuses, blah, blah, blah). So you will just have to wait till next week to gauk at it, because it will be extrodiare, lol! Alright I think the sleepiness might be making me a bit loopy, I hope you are all laughing at me right now like I am, hahaha! Ok, on with the project already, you say...

Squirly Girl Creations presents you...

I am very pleased with how this card turned out. I was a little leary because these are not my usual color choices and I have this little fear of stamping directly on pattered paper, shhhh don't tell. I with my recent counceling sessions I may have conqoured my fear, lol! I hope this card helps you see just how versitle all of your Unity stamps can be.

To make this beauty I used:

Stamps: Unity Stamp Co. (KOM October 2010) and picnic blanket background stamp

Tools: Fiskars triple-track trimmer, Spellbinders circles, Ek Success border punch

Paper: My Mind's Eye (Stella Rose 6x6 collection), WorldWin (Black and grey)

Embellies: Jolee's hotfix crystals

Inks: Copic, Momento and Ranger-TH distress

I hope you have all enjoyed my week as GIU gal and have become one of my new followers. Sorry about the long post tonight (you can't make me go! Do you see me kicking and screaming like a 3 year old here??). If you have a blog leave me your addy and I will hop over and become a follower of yours :)

Till next time,

Day 4 GIU Itty Bitty birdhouse

Hi Ladies and Gentlemen! I truly appreciate all of you who have been by this week and left me wonderful comments, I have had so much fun reading all of them! Tonight is a short (pre-scheduled) post since I am away from home at a girlfriends house playing cards. I know you all appreciate the value of this since I am a stay at home mom, LOL!

So here is today's card!

I used a technique my friend taught me this week. You use a baby wipe to wipe away the portion of the background stamp that you want to stamp you main image in. Not rocket science I know, but her card was stunning. Mine not so much, but it was my first attempt.

I am lovin my WeRMemory Keepers paper lately and how about that fab flower. I used my Maya Road satin pleated ribbon and an American crafts brad.  My inks are all over the chart on this card, Momento, Colorbox and a random unlabled ink from my stash...Oh yes and my new Tim Holtz distress ink in antique linen (thanks for enabling Natalie, hehehe).

Hope you all enjoyed! Now back to the card game at hand :) <3

GUI day 3 Rain or Shine

Happy Administrative Professionals Day to all of you hard working ladies and gentlemen!If you are back for day 3 of my GIU week, THANK YOU! If you haven't figured out that Unity Stamp Co. is my favorite stamp company now you know. Let me tell you why though. Unity is so much more than just a stamp company, they are a fabulous community! Did you know that they have their own community? Check out My Unity Place it is a wonderful place to showcase your Unity creations. They also have a forum on Split Coast Stampers. I also love Unity's Kit of the Month (KOTM)! For only $31 (shipping included) you get a full 8.5 x 11 sheet of FABULOUS images PLUS you get 25% off all of your other Unity purchases AND if you buy $35 worth of stamps you get a set of your choice for FREE, I have not been disappointed once! If you want to check out all the details go {HERE}. If you decide to sign up for the KOTM please tell them that Becky Gromala referred you and then make sure you let me know and I will send you a special thank you :) If I haven't enticed any new comers to go check out Unity Stamp Co. then maybe a look at one of their fabulously priced Itty Bitty ($6.99) stamps will... so here we go :)

My dp is My Mind's Eye and the buttons are random from my stash. I colored my image with my Copic markers on Copic X-Press paper and paper pieced the umbrella.

Don't forget that if you stop back everyday this week and leave me a comment you will be entered for some blog candy at the end of the week. I'd LOVE it if you became a follower of mine as well :) 

Now what are you waiting for? Go check out Unity Stamp Co!!!!

GIU day 2 Unity wall canvas

 

Welcome back for day two of GIU week! Some of you may recognize this wall hanging because I made one almost identical on a 4x6 canvas a while back, but I loved it so much I wanted a larger version for my wall. To start this project I sprayed my canvas with Tattered Angel's glimmer mist in coffee, bronze and copper. I then cut the vase from my Walk in my garden cricut cartridge. Next I sprayed my Prima flowers, some with Maya Mist and some with Tim Holtz alcohol inks and Clear Snap's shimmer spritz and let them dry. That beautiful bling is from Prima as well, I just cut it apart and repositioned it to look like the flower stems. My Unity sentiment is called Blossom and you can get it  {HERE}, I layered it with a Spellbinders die, stamped with Momento tuxedo black ink and blinged it up a bit with Jolee's hotfix gems. Last I punched my large butterflies two times each with my Tonic punch and layered them to give a 3d effect and a bunch of little butterflies from an older EK punch. All of my DP is Stella Rose from My Mind's Eye.

Thanks for looking again today! Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered into the drawing for some bloggy candy!

Tweet Tweet Card #2

Oh my and a third post too! Ok really I just wanted to be able to enter both cards I made over at the Unity Blog...

So here is the second card I made for the bird challenge.

  On this card I used My Mind's Eye design papers and that wonderful blackish-brown sparkly gold cardstock is from The Paper Cut. I paper pieced my bird, I love paper piecing! Embellished with a few Ek Success punches, my stardust pen, Karen Foster's scrappers floss. And that AMAZING button is from Martha's Etsy shop you can see her blog Creating is Fun {HERE}. Martha was the GIU designer two weeks ago.

Time for a tweet tweet challenge

Oh my, two posts in one day :p Did you know that they have a new challenge every month over on the Unity blog? Well they do and you should play along is fun and the prize this month is SOOOOO generous! For this months challenge they asked that you use Unity birds in some way on your creation. I actually made two cards for this challenge because I just couldn't help myself, lol.

Here is my first creation that I also entered in the Outside/Inside challenge over at My Unity Place .
There is tons of Unity love on this card! All of the dp is from Crate Paper's Brooke collection, the crystal bling is Imaginesce (i-rock) and the yellow pearls are Memory box. I used Momento rich cocoa ink. Oh yes and I almost forgot a cuttlebug folder on the front panel.

I hope you love this card as much as I do :)

All things Unity Sketch challenge #29 And GIU Post #1

Thanks for joining me today! I hope you will join me all week long for my Growing in Unity (GIU) week for Unity Stamp Company. I am so excited to be featuring projects that I have made with Unity's wonderful stamps all week long. I can't tell you how in love I am with Unity Stamp Company. I love their story, I love their community, I love the quality of their product and most importantly I love how they make me grow as an artist. Some how I feel like I have a little stampy family with Unity. If you don't know about all the wonderful things that Unity has to offer make sure you stop over and check out their blog at www.theunitystampco.blogspot.com or community at www.myunityplace.com and let's not  forget about their website at www.unitystampco.com . They have wonderful spotlights and challenges and just make you feel at home :)


Alright now on to today's card.... I am joining the fabulous crowd over at All Things Unity  for their bi-weekly sketch challenge again. These girls were wonderful enough to feature the berry adorable card I made last week. I am so honored, it is the first time I have ever been featured :) This weeks challenge is to use your imagination and make a creation based on this sketch.

 

I used my Unity April Kit of the Month for all of the stamped images on this card. You will learn this week how much I LOVE being a Kit of the Month member. My patterned paper is by Basic Grey. I also used a cuttlebug folder, iridescent gold glimmer mist by Tattered Angel's, one of the labels dies by Spellbinders, some miscellaneous bling that was laying on my desk and some smooch paint on the center of the butterflies. 

Now make sure you stop over and leave these girls some love and play along with all of us!

I hope that you all enjoyed today's post and remember that if you leave me a comment everyday this week I will enter you into a drawing for some yummy blog candy at the end.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Today is just a quick post because of the holiday but I thought I would share these adorable and super easy peasy baskets that I made for my classmates. I also wanted to remind you that starting Monday I will be Unity Stamp Company's Growing in Unity girl. I'm really stoked about this because I LOVE Unity Stamp Co.!!!  If you come back and leave me a comment everyday next week you will be entered to win some fun bloggy candy. Winner will be announced next Monday.
  

These little buggers make the quickest gifts. I decided to make first picture tutorial for you so you can make a few. They don't just have to be Easter baskets, I'm thinking wedding favors, baby showers and birthday party favors :)  So here goes the tutorial, please be kind to me (remember its my first), I know the pictures aren't the best.

Step 1:
To start your basket cut 2 pieces of 4.25" x 5.5" (A2 card front) and adhere a strip of 1 3/4" x 5 1/2"  to each piece then adhere your ribbon.

Step 2:
Run your basket pieces through a cuttlebug folder of your choice. ( Sorry no picture for this step)

Step 3:
Tape a small spellbinder inside of a large spellbinder to crate your basket front using painters tape. (stick the painters tape to your shirt or pants to remove some of the stickiness or it will rip your paper) Now cut your basket front and back out. You may have to cut your ribbon by hand out.

Step 4:
Cut one piece at the dimensions on the top of my little yellow sticky (lol).
Cut two pieces at the dimensions on the bottom of my sticky :D

Step 5:
You should now have all of your pieces to finish your basket and your pile should look like this.
Fold the basket on the score lines and assemble. Adhere front and back, embellish and add goodies to your basket.

Your finished product.

I used my January 2011 Unity Kit of the Month to decorate these little cuties.  Well I hope you found my first picture tutorial useful :)