something wonderful

as you know Operation Write Home has great weekly sketches and this week was no different, OWH Sketch# 196



All this great Green Printed Cardstock is from My Mind's Eye Lush Collection


Image Stamp - Unity Stamp Co. Feel the Joy

Sentiment Stamp - Unity Stamp Co. Empowered Words

Ink - Tim Holtz Forest Moss

Ribbon - Stampin' Up

do you feel the love?

I took the Pals Paper Arts Sketch #169 and just kinda went crazy with it.  I thought it was perfect for these little cut-out cards that I very rarely use



Don't you just love this background paper?  I got it from The Canvas Corp Warehouse (it's just north of me about a 40 minute drive) but this paper is actually from American Crafts called Love Always



I think the little Cards I cut out are from the same American Crafts line but I'm not positive.

Tiny Heart Stamp - Unity Stamp Co. Love Bug

Ink - Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs









Cardstock is all from DieCutWithAView



Ribbon - misc but it was in my Stampin' Up jar so I suppose it is from SU

Sentiment (Left) - Unity Stamp Co. Let Your Heart Take Flight

Sentiment (Right) - Unity Stamp Co.the Time is NOW

Ink - CloseToMyHeart Tulip




These cards will all get shipped off to Operation Write Home for our Soldiers to keep in touch with those they love.

miss you

the last retreat I went to in Branson, which was earlier this month, we saw this cool little plate that can be used in the Big Shot that has a beveled middle so you can die cut without cutting that area, it made some really cute pop-ups for cards. I got home & didn't have a single butterfly die!  what?!  today I finally made it to the store but Hobby Lobby had NOTHING *gasp* Off to Joann's where I find they've had all their dies on sale, needless to say they were extremely picked over, I chose on from Fiskars and was assured by one of the ladies working there that it does work in the Big Shot.  I bought it home & was pretty much ready to take the thing back but finally had success with it, although I'm not thrilled with it.

Sketch - Freshly Made Sketches #109

all the papers I used are from my miscellaneous pile I'm trying to work down

Cardstock - DieCutWithAView

Butterfly Die - Fiskars Fuse Creativity System Die Medium (I will have to get some smaller butterfly dies at some point as this one is just way too big.)

Ink - Tim Holtz Ripe Persimmon

Viva Pearl Pen in Cream

Miss You Stamp - Unity Stamp Co. Miss You So Much

Ink - Tim Holtz Walnut Stain

Thanks & Love

I have all this paper... no wait, I have all this paper that doesn't go with any of my other paper so today I enacted the paper reduction act... I gathered up several of the papers and found the current Pals Paper Arts Sketch 177 to be VERY inspiring. So I made all these cards!



I started out really being loyal to the sketch (the one laying down) but then I started matting & liked it better.

I love two-sided papers... nuff said

All the sentiments are from two different DieCutWithAView Quote Stacks that my awesome friends, Casey & Tricia, donated to my card making cause!

and at this point I started playing with scraps that weren't big enough for the SFF sketch

that's it and I got rid of a few papers from my miscellaneous pile!

love love loe

well it's been a little while... October is such a crazy busy month for me!  but here I am now :-)

I just happened to have a couple of free hours on my hands today & looked up the current Operation Write Home Sketch (#195) and I decided I have time for that!

So I snagged three misc printed papers,  snagged an old Basic Grey stamp, slapped on some Hollyhock ink from CloseToMyHeart, punched it out with an old Creative Memories punch and distressed the edges with Tim Holtz Peeled Paint, wrapped it all up in a little ribbon from craftsmart - TaDah!  I think it turned out cute.... but really I made EIGHT of these... hope the soldies/significant other

lotus love

as some of you know I was Unity Stamp Company's Growing In Unity Gal last week, well at the end of your week you turn in what two itty bitty sets your winner wants plus what set you would like to have.  I chose this one..... Donna Downey's Imperfection is Beauty... it is Wonderful!  Plus I got it super fast, it was in my mailbox today.  Expect to see some of these stamps on my scrapbook layouts in the near future :-)  A very special THANK YOU to Unity Stamp Co for letting me join them!


Using a sample of some cream pearl cardstock, I stamped the large lotus image and fussy cut it. Then applying the CTMH Hollyhock ink directly from pad to the petal tips, I applied CTMH Baby Pink to a rubber brayer and worked the color onto the flower. Last I used a dauber with CTMH Sunflower for the center.

I have no idea where I got the rainbowed butterfly or green dotted papers from, but they are really fun prints to work with.

Cardstocks - The Pink ones are from Stampin' Up and the Greens are from DCWV.

Sentiment, Image & Distressing Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa

Stem Ink - CTMH Olive




I used Unity's Be Inspired Card Sketch, but changed it from a Christmas ornament hung from the top of the card to the Lotus growing from the bottom

Ever Changing

Kids are constantly changing and what I thought would be a great photo op (mostly for the funny pics sure to happen) was a total let down.  You see my oldest son had all four wisdom teeth taken out at once, this was a MAJOR affair for us because he is terrified of needles!  The oral surgeon gave me plenty of meds to all but knock him out and it was a complete success.  Here he is Day 3 post operation... you see that?  no chipmunk cheeks!  While I was extremely happy for his good experience, I was terribly letdown that I did not get the fun pics out of it.






Unity Stamp Co. Layers of Life Stamp Set Ever Changing (through time) was PERFECT for this event

Printed Papers - Basic Grey Periphery (one of my all time favorite paper packs!)

Sentiment - Stamped in Top Boss with Stamp Affair in Copper

Embellishment Stamped in Tim Holtz Forest Moss

Splatters - Tattered Anggels Glam in Hay Ride

Chippie - UmWow Studio Cattail with come Distressed Stickles in Scattered Straw to top it off

Edge Stamp - Tim Holtz Walnut Stain






I've submitted this layout to Unity Stamp Co.'s Friends with Flair.... go on, make something!

GIU Winner!

To determine what day to choose from I did 1-5, here is my result:

And my Random drawing (I used 1-27 as I had one duplicate posts so I deducted that from my total of 28 comments), here is my result:

Therefore, the winner of my TWO Unity Itty Bitty stamps of their choice is:

jmahugger, please get with me ASAP about which TWO Itty Bitty sets you would like to have.... email me at...

my blog name (no ' or spaces) @gmail.com

awe man, it's my Day 5

makes me sad because I have been having a wonderful time this week!  For my farewell, I've created a double layout using an older Unity Stamp Co. Kit of the Month called Follow Your Own... I LOVE these Bikes!  This day DH & I took our oldest son and his two friends (who just happen to be brothers) to the Fayetteville Bike Trail. We rode from the north end of Fayetteville all the way to the south end of town and back north again but those boys, well they just weren't finished yet so we allowed them to ride up to Veteran's Park then around Lake Fayetteville while we lounged in the grass under the beautiful sky together.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and for supporting Unity Stamp Co.!!!

Tag It Thursday... GIU Day 4

ok so I'll confess right off.... I made this tag very late last night and my sweet husband isn't home from his hunting trip yet (he left on Sept. 29) which means I'm not sleeping very good... Anyway, sorry for the delayed post this morning, hopefully tomorrow will find me well rested at a resort with my bestie of oh let's just say Forever!  The hubster called & he is on his way home right now... YAY!



I love how my tag turned out... I'm a complete nature freak so you see that in a lot of what I make.  I used one of my freebies that came in a Unity Stamp order... The Tags!  I love these tags and I thought what better thing to use than something I got from the company itsself?!



This Tag features Unity Stamp Co. Sets from Donna Downey called Imagine It (Flourish) and Empowered Words (Sentiment)




Working with the large tag: First thing I did was find my Chicken Wire Mask and Coarse Texture Gel, using my fingers on one had to hold the mask in place and other index finger I spread the Coarse Texture Gel across the Tag. Next I used a craft gun to heat dry the Gel, it will be hard & very rough when dry.

After that I grabbed my Tim Holtz Distress Stains in Broken China, Wild Honey & Peeled Paint to make a few swipes across the card surface and the Gel, next I sprayed a fine mist of water & used a paper towel to dab dry. Then I got out my Staz-On in Timber Brown and dragged it lightly across the dried Gel.  Using the large flourish from Imagine It & stamped it onto the top and bottom of the tag using Memento in Rich Cocoa.



Working with the small tag: using Tim Holtz Distress Stains in Broken China & Wild Honey, again I just swiped them across the tag then spritzed it with water and dabbed it dry with a paper towel. Using Memento in Rich Cocoa I stamped the sentiment from Empowered Words. I cut about a foot of the three colors of twine from The Twinery, folded them in half & ran them thru the hold in the tag then knotted the ends and gave them a trim so they were all different lengths. Last using Glossy Accents I attached a piece of an UmWowStudio Spooky Branch to finish it off.

Back to the large tag: to finish it all off, using Glossy Accents again, I attached the UmWowStudio Swallow to the top of the card... making sure I got one of the yellow pieces of twine under the beak area.  Under the small tag, I placed three short strips of foam tape and attached it on the dried Gel area.  Last I found a organdy ribbon from CloseToMyHeart to tie off the top of the large tag.



What do you think?

Wintery Wednesday (GIU Day Three)

As soon as I saw Angela's post for the latest installment of Layers of Life, I was super duper excited!  I love looking at wintery stuff... the snow, the frozen scenes, the kiddos playing but actually living in a cold place, well that is not really for me. We get very little of the wintery fluffy stuff normally, this year we keep hearing is going to be bad so maybe we'll get over an inch of snow. We normally get the dreaded ice {shudder} you just can't go on ice. Our roads get very treacherous very fast; we close schools pretty quick when the frozen menace starts to come down. So my fingers are crossed for a nice DEEP fluffy snow that my boys & I can go play in... sledding down our hill is The Best!

I started with a blank piece of heavy cardstock cut to 5.25x4.0.  First I smeared my craft mat with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Stormy Sky, Faded jeans & Tumbled Glass (my mat was already a little "dirty" with some shades of yellow and I chose to leave those too); spritzed it with water and used my fingertips to gently blend the colors. Next I dipped the cardstock into the inky mess I'd made and allowed it to completely dry (ok I helped it along a little bit with my craft gun). Then I went to work with the stamps, first came the lacey one in Chipped Sapphire, second the largest of the snowflakes in Faded Jeans, after that was the medium snowflake using Broken China and last was the smallest snowflake again using Faded Jeans.



I used Top Boss for the main Sentiment along with Zing embossing powder in Silver, then used Memento in  London  Fog for a couple more Sentiments randomly placed.



For the embellishment, I dug out my Jolee's Jewels, Czech Glass Beads (#1 Straight Bugle in Silver) and the Glossy Accents.  I was thrilled with how the "snowflake" turned out and chose to only add one.

Tangled Up Tuesday (aka Day Two of GIU)

Hello again! Today is Tuesday and my Day Two as Unity Stamp Company's Growing in Unity Gal :-) Yay Me! lol  Today is going to have me all Tangled Up because it is our Annual Marching Band Contest here in my little town (pop. 2640).  We will play host to small towns from all over Arkansas and one or two from Oklahoma and Missouri as well, the largest band coming has 180 members and this is their first year to join us... Welcome Harrison!  As a Band Mom, I'm always helping out trying to raise money for not only our uniforms but trips for our kids to take elsewhere to compete or just have fun together (last year was Dallas to compete and have fun while down there, we did fantastic and we were the smallest school to go).  Today I will be working in the concession stand, slinging everything from Hamburgers to Frito Chili Pies from bottled water to Coke (big supporter there! we love Coke) and CANDY... do not forget the CANDY! Anywhooooo, back to my card... this little guy & friend got all Tangled Up in my most dreaded time of the year this year.


Unity Stamp Co's adorable Christmas stamp set is called Twinkling Joy

Stamped with Memento in Tuxedo Black

I chose to color only the lights with Copic Markers then go over them with Viva in Translucent.

Printed Background paper is from MyMind'sEye 12 Days of Christmas

Misc Solid Cardstocks

Don't forget to leave a comment on all my GIU posts for a chance to win TWO itty bitties from Unity!

Day ONE of my Week!

yep, I'm Unity Stamp Company's Growing in Unity Gal of the Week this week :-)  WAHOOOO!  Today in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I used Unity's Fight Like a Girl Stamp Set. Although I personally know a great man this world  lost to breast cancer... he was my dad's best friend and like another dad to me as a child.  We camped together. We canoed together. We drank beer together (ok mine was just a pony beer but it made me feel very grown up and a part of the adults). We Jeeped together (yes one of my user names is JeepMama and I have a 2000 Wrangler). We laughed and laughed and laughed....

The Ink & Colored cardstock is from CloseToMyHeart called Hollyhock

Twine from The Twinery

Scribbles fabric paint



I also used Operation Write Home's current Sketch #193 to create this sweet little card.... ok, I'll confess, I made TWO!  I seem to always make multiples of the cards