Day 1

Hello! It's Sunday night here, the same time it is most everywhere else in the states! It feels so weird to be typing this and not being a day ahead of most of my friends:)

Day 1 in Nashville and it was SO FUN! I slept in until 10:00 (yeah, jet lag baby, gotta love it! I had to TEAR myself out of bed, I could have slept another 5 hours! A 35 hour day will do that to ya;) Then I had lunch with Jessica at the Olive Garden! OMG Soup, Salad, bread sticks, and friends=HEAVEN! It was so fun:) Then Jess took me to TARGET (It was amazing Christy, just like we remembered, lol!) and Michaels and JoAnn!

Here's a picture Jess took of us on her camera phone in front of the stamps at Michaels, SO appropriate!

Here's my day 1 scores:

8 paper pads, some primas (the two prima bottles, two ADORABLE stamps from the Greeting Farm, and the awesome card are from Jessica, she is seriously the SWEETEST thing EVER!) and a bunch of other goodies! Tomorrow I plan on hitting the Opryland Mills, a big mall right across the street! Oh yeab baby, momma needs another suitcase, lol!

Okay, I'll have more pics later this week but It's 10:00 and 7:00 am is going to come super early!

See ya later!

Songbirds

Hey there! It's a lovely day for some Unity, doncha think?;) I'm using my February KOM, Nothing but Blue Skies!

I really love this sweet bird, he's so fun to paper peice! I used papers by October Afternoon and cardstock, ribbon, and buttons by PTI!

I have a friend over right now so I gotta run! I just had to make sure I didn't forget to post, lol! Check out the Unity Blog for today's specials and a list of the rest of the DT girls playing along today! Hope you have a MARVELOUS Friday-eve!

PS--Christy, ya like how I used NO nesties?;) Christy is babysitting all my nestabilities while I'm gone for the next two weeks and I thought I might die tonite without them, but I didn't, lol!!!!!! Whodathunk?

No stamping?????

Craziness, that's what it is! And this card STILL took forever, lol!

If you haven't noticed, I'm trying my hand at a new style and I'm loving all things vintage and shabby:) Yesterday I was just going through some old paper deciding what to throw and what to keep and found this old paper by Bo Bunny and just loved the color combo! So I started throwing things on my desk that I thought might match, including the awesome cloth scrap by Webster's Pages!

I also used a fun Hambly frame, chipboard butterfly (SU!) die, buttons, lace, ribbon, sewing, all of my favorite things!

Here are a couple close ups-

Have you been watching the American Idol Hollywood week? Well they're narrowing down the top 24 right now, and the commercial is over so I gotta go, lol! See ya tomorrow!

Something New?

Unfortunately, NOT for me:( I went over to Christy's house to stamp with her and Missy so I just loaded a bunch of stuff into my car, made a couple kits to create the following cards with using Jen D's SFYTT and Karen G's Sweet Sunday Sketch, and completely forgot that today is MONDAY and the Monday Chicks were creating something using NEW goodies! Well, besides the fact that I forgot, I really don't have anything new anyways, I've been on a spending freeze for the past 2 or 3 weeks so I could save all my money for my trip to the states! I leave on Saturday and I'm SO excited!

Even though there isn't new stuff on these cards, I'm posting them anyway:) I made the first two at Christy's house! Very productive day:)

This is the card I made using this weeks Sweet Sunday Sketch! I wanted an excuse to use Blooming Button Bits by PTI again:D The papers are from BG's Porcelein paper pack, I'm almost out of it, eek!

Next up is my card for this weeks SFYTT...

Still on a kick with my Melissa Frances paper! I can't get over how gorgeous these papers are, they just make me happy! And add to that the fact I used my favorite stamp set ever, Love's Flower by Verve, and used some gorgeous lace, I just adore this card!

This next card kicked my butt all day. You can ask Christy! I had it in my head all day that it was going to be masculine, what with the houndstooth and all, but after creating my cards for this months Dirty Dozen gallery (Which is open NOW!), I am BURNT out on man cards. Good thing I have 8 of them to last me through any I might need this year so I don't have to make anymore, lol! So after agonizing over what stamps to use on it, I decided it was going to be a girly card! I busted out my Bella Blossoms stamps and really love how this turned out:) Sometimes you just have to be in your own stamp room for stuff to turn out, lol! I am surrounded by my things, have my punches (which I didn't bring with me to Christy's house), and things just happen to fall into place:)

The houndstooth stamp is a scrapblock from Cornish Heritage Farms. I was lying in bed last night and all of a sudden, visions of Ripe Avacado houndstooth on Rustic Cream cardstock jumped into my head! I just got up right away and stamped the houndstooth so I wouldn't forget in the morning, lol! Thank goodness I was able to pull this card off, it was going to happen today, even if I had to stay awake all night!

Okay, now that you got an eye-full of my "not-so-new" stuff, head on over to the rest of the chicks' blogs and see what they've been up to!

AJ, Maren, Brooke, Jeanne, Jimmi

Also, if you haven't had a chance yet (and you're a FAN CLUB Member) you gotta check out the new DD gallery! The theme this month is Bold, Masculine, and DIRTY! There are so many amazing masculine cards in that gallery! I know I personally struggle with this theme everytime I think about it, but I have to admit that after dedicating this past month to all things manly, I'm a little more comfortable with it! Also, go check out the new Dirty Girls and congratulate them! THey really deserve it, they had a really tough first gallery and hit it out of the ball park!

**Love me do BLOG HOP!**

**If you're looking for my Unity Stampin' Store kit post, scroll down below this post!**

If you're joining me from Spike's blog, you're on the right track! See THIS THREAD on SCS for the line-up, just in case there are breaks in the chain, so you'll know where to go next:)
Today, a bunch of Bellarific sweeties are bringing you some fun Stamping Bella projects! The theme for today's hop is LoVE, SWEET lOve!
As soon as I saw these ADORABLE birdies, I HAD to have this stamp! How fricken' cute are those sweet birds? This stamp is called "Romantic Cage", so sweet:)
This is a 4.25x4.25" card. The card base is white and then I have a piece of Sweet Blush cardstock layered on top. That gorgeous dp is from Basic Gray from the Porcelien paper pack! It has bird cages on it and they actually match pretty well!
I colored the birds and the cage with my Copics. That big ole' beautiful ribbon is from Faith's store, Mark's Finest Papers. This ribbon ties like a DREAM! I normally don't like wide ribbon because the knots are too big and it's hard to fit stuff on the card close to the ribbon. Not a problem with this stuff! Also, to girly it up even MORE, I added some white pearls by Melissa Frances and a Prima Hydrangea flower with a button center!
How is this for a sweet card? Probably a little too girly for DH, so I'll just sit it on a shelf and stare at it, ha!
Well thank you SO much for hopping by my little blog! I love visitors:D Your next stop on the hop is the sweet and talented EM! Go on and show her some Bellarific LOVE!
Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

Stampin' Store Kit HOP!

I miss the days of our Hip HOp blog hops, so every time we do these, I cherish them:)
Today, we're showcasing this month's Stampin' Store Kit, "Life is Fabulous"! It really is, too, isn't it?:) It's a three-day weekend, nothing but CRAFTY time, and I'm participating in TWO blog hops today! Yep, I've been a busy lil stamper but it's been so fun:)

I created TWO cards using the Stampin' Store Kit, and you'll see that I've got quite an attraction to the beautiful Monarch butterfly:)

This first card was SO fun to make! Just the other day, Billy, my darling, honest, husband, told me that I should think outside the box and make cards that don't all look the same, lol! He was particularly concerned with how I don't do any cool folds (his mom sent us a Christmas card that was sort of a gate fold style, and he loved it, lol!) so this card is in honor that funny moment, lol!

I just trimmed about 2" off the top of the card front and it opens half-way, very cool! How gorgeous are those butterflies? OMG they are SO fun to color! I pulled out my Copics and shaded away! I kind of went with a traditional Monarch butterfly colors. I cut them out and then popped them up on the card front! The card base is Melon Berry. I stamped the large floral element from "The Artist in You" in Mushroom ink right on the card front and then popped the butterflies up! I cut a small strip of Spring Moss cardstock and cut it with my Apron Lace punch and then stuck it on the top of the front (it looked goofy without it, lol!)

Here's what the inside looks like:

I glued some Summer Sunrise Bitty Box dp on the inside and stamped the "magical" sentiment from the 2009 November KOM, "Simply Magical"!

Lastly, I wrapped some Melon Berry ribbon around the card and tied a sweet little bow:)

You'll noticed I blurred the sentiment on the inside of the card. That's because it's from a different stamp company! This is going to be my folks' Anniversary card and I didn't have a Unity anniversary sentiment.

Okay, this next card is Asian inspired! As soon as I saw this kit, I was instantly drawn to the Asian inspired stamps! There are sweet little paper lanterns, these Kanji stamps, the trees, it's all so beautiful!

The color combination is also sort of Asian inspired, I find alot of browns and oranges over here in the art, china, pottery, you name it! These papers are from Pink Paisley and the Vintage Moon collection. Ya see that purdy butterfly again?:) I'm all about butterflies lately! Maybe it's cause spring is a-comin! Well, it's pretty much spring here, but for you poor peeps in the states, with all that snow, you probably won't see any butterflies for awhile, lol!

So do you love this kit? Scroll to the bottom of THIS page to find all the lovely stores that carry this kit! Remember, you can't buy it from the Unity store, so get to shopping!

Swing on by the Unity Blog for the entired list of all the lovely Unity DT ladies offering up eye candy! Thanks for stopping by:)

It's time to CELEBRATE!

No special reason, other than it's UNITY THURSDAY!:)
I still don't have my KOM so unfortunately I don't have any fun KOM creations for you, but I DID pull out my favorite bday set, "It's Your Day" I used this weeks Mojo Monday sketch for the layout, isn't if fun?
I love the polka dot paper! It's from MME in the collection called Garden Party. You can't really see the sparkle, but I used some pink glass-shard glitter on the cake, it's super sparkly! I aged the card a bit with Old Paper Distress Ink, it's one of my fave distress ink colors. JUST enough dirty to make it look soft and vintage:) The ribbon is Spring Rain by PTI, as is the blue cardstock!

That's it from me today, I'm off to watch more Dexter!:)
Make sure you stop by the Unity Blog to see what kind of fun and sales Angela has waiting for you! You'll also see a list of the other DT girls who have worked hard to bring you more fabulous-ness:) MWAH and have a GREAT day!

Beautiful You

At last, my Verve card:)

I played in today's sketch challenge on SCS! This was a super fun sketch challenge, if you have time, head over to the thread and PLAY!

I wish the colors in my photo were better, but it's a little yellow:( Bad lighting, that's what I blame it on!

I pulled out Beautiful Kindness and Celebrating You by Verve for this sweet little card:) Aren't those butterflies fun? There is also a smaller butterfly in this set, which I started with, but they were much too small and it made this card really unbalanced. I'm very happy with how it turned out with the bigger butterflies (I used to call them birdieflys when I was a kid, how funny!) And I realize maybe the buttons are overkill? But ya know what, I love them and that's all that matters, lol! The sentiment (from Celebrating You) was cut out with my large oval punch (SU!) and layered on a fun tag die from spellbinders! I love how easily the ribbon slides through the flourishes:) The gorgeous paper is from Mellissa Frances, so dreamy and perfect!

Okay, that's it for me! Christy and Lee should be here in couple hours to pick up there pups so I gotta round all their stuff up:)

Have a fabby day, ya'll!

Color challenges galore!

I don't know what you did in your craft room today, but I was inspired to play in a couple color challenges!

First off, I have my eyes honed in on the PTI blog permanently these days, every day Nichole brings FANTASTIC sneak peeks of new products, stamps, and challenges! I am seriously so excited for the 15th (my credit card, not so much, lol!)! Today, Nichole announced new ventures by Heather Nichols and Dawn McVey! Oh, I'm totally ecstatic about these!

Along with the reveal, Nichole issued a fun color challenge! All of the PTI DT posted their personal favorite color combo and we were to choose one and create a card with it! I am a HUGE fan of Betsy's (well, I'm a huge fan of the whole DT, but time is a luxury, lol!) so I chose her color combo of Sweet Blush, Kraft, Aqua Mist, Pure Poppy! Here's my card:

I used alot of fun PTI stamps and papers on this card! The flourishes are from Fancy Flourishes, the hearts on the Sweet Blush cardstock are from Background Basics: Hearts, the sentiment is from Daily Designs Elements! The Aqua Mist patterened paper is from the Pretty Pastels pack. Fun right? I love this color combo! It's staying in my tool box;)

Next color challenge I participated in was today's CC from SCS! Betty chose Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango, and Sage Shadow! This sounds a bit daunting at first, but the more you move the colors around on your card, the more you'll love them;)
My card base is Rustic Cream (oh how I love this color) and I stamped the floral stems from Life (PTI)in Dusty Durango and Mushroom. The main image is by Crafty Secrets, isn't it gorgeous? I bought a whole bunch of these and the cotton scraps and I can't wait to use them all up:) The sentiment is from Big and Bold Wishes by PTI:)

I'm so happy to be getting my PTI stamps inky lately, they're so beautiful and FUN! I know I promised Verve today, but my inspiration took me in another direction, and like a man, I didn't think anything of it, lmao! Oh that was mean!

Okay, I seriously need to pick up dog toy guts from all over my house! Christy's and my dogs have been having *WAY TOO MUCH FUN* together! I don't think there is a toy left in tact, lol! Whatever keeps them happy, there are alot more of them than me, I don't want them turning against me! HA!

PTI Play Day!

Even though I buy up all the stamps, faithfully, every 15th of the month, I don't pull my PTI stamps out often enough! Well, my dear sweet husband left this morning for a 2 month deployment to the Phillipines, so I had to console myself with some stamping therapy:) PTI is having an AWESOME countdown for their 3rd anniversary release and there have been challenges every day! So I got a couple of those done, plus the new CPS sketch that PTI is sponsoring!

This first card fits PTI's CPS challenge, and also fits in with our Monday challenge, to create Valentine's Day cards! I'm really on a Vday kick so it was really no problem for me;) This card is my entry for this weeks CPS sketch too...
I'm so excited about the new 100% felt that PTI will be carrying, so I broke out some felt from my own stash:) I cut it twice with my scalloped heart nesties and then nested a Rustic White heart inside, with a sentiment from Say it with Style. The background is stamped with the text background from Background Basics: Hearts! Fun right? See what the other Monday chicks came up with for this month of love!
AJ, Brooke, Jimmi, Maren, and Jeanne!


My next card is for the emboss resist challenge that Nichole issued a few days ago! I used the new Through the Trees set for this card, along with some Melissa Frances papers. I embossed the leaves with clear ep and then sponged some pink and ocean ink (Versamagic) chalk in on top and wiped away the excess, I love the effect it has!
The sentiment is from Lisa Johnson's new set, Daily Designs Additions.



Last card for today is for TODAY's PTI challenge, Paint by numbers! How fun is that! I actually had a hard time with this color combo, 5 colors is a lot to cram onto a card, lol! But I managed, and I'm happy with what I came up with!
My username on PTI is......go ahead and guess....... AMBER! I know, I'm way creative, and so proud:) Ha!
So based on my username, the colors I had to work with are Ocean Tides, Spring Moss, Lemon Tart, Vintage Cream, and Kraft! Love these colors, but like I said, it was a challenge getting them all on! So if it looks like a couple of the colors were after-thoughts, they sorta were, lol!
I embossed the vintage cream piece with my cuttlebug ( I forgot the name of this folder). I think it gives it a more "natural" feel:) I also used some of the new Pretty Pastels dsp (the spring moss piece). The stamps used are Turning a New Leaf and Say it with Style!

Well there it is! I'm turning in for the night, Christy's two labs plus my two labs are wearing me down, lol! They're a fun bunch, but holy crap they're little bundles of energy! See ya tomorrow with...I don't know...something, probably some yummy VERVE!

Lovely Bits and Baubles

Hey there! Today the DT is showing off the new February Kit of the Month! It's called "Nothing but Blue Skies", isn't that just *SO* UNITY? So uplifting and happy, I love this company:)

Unfortunately, I don't have my stamps yet so I had to play with my OTHER favorite, Lovely Bits and Baubles! I am LOVING this fun new kit! It's not available YET but will be SOON!

I decided to go a little shabby today, mostly because I don't have my mojo with me and I love how ANYTHING shabby is AWESOME, lol! I didn't even have to try to hard, lol! The dp is from "The Very Thought of You" by Sweet Shoppe Designs! I printed it on HP Everyday Matte photo paper:) Also got to use some of my new Prima bling! I love this stuff, I thought it was going to be hard to peel off the acetate sheet and that it would break, but it came off in one piece, yeah! It's the little things that make me happy, lol!

Don't forget to stop by the Unity Blog today, I bet Angela is up to something and has a good sale up her sleeve;) You'll also get to see a list of all the chickies playing today!

Thanks for stopping by!