Always in My Heart

My card today was made for the Cards in Envy "From the Heart Challenge." I was sad to read that the blogging world lost another wonderful card designer who came up with the Cards in Envy idea. You can read all the details about Denise here and perhaps send a card to her family if you have the time.

I used a Unity stamp for the image and colored it with Copics, matting it on a black circle cut with Lil Inker stitched dies. The SB lotus was cut with Melon Mambo and the hearts were done with a SU! mini heart punch. The arrows were done with matching colors using a Momenta arrow die.

I'm also entering this into the Snippets Playground #214.

Thanks for stopping by and make it a great day whatever you do. As Darnell always says, life is too short.

Carol

Thanks X's 2

Today I have a couple thank-you cards that were sent in my last box to OWH but never posted. I was trying to use up a BG paper pad that I've had for ages and just wasn't sure what to do with the graphic patterns. I paired the paper up with some Razzleberry cardstock, an OWH sketch, and a Unity thank-you stamp and thought it looked like a good masculine thank-you card, so I decided to make another one with a different color..........

I used the same sketch with some Midnight Muse blue cardstock for this one. I made a few more of this design in other colors and tucked them into the box before mailing it off to OWH before they closed earlier this month.

I'm entering these into the Unity FWF challenge ......and......

the SOS #215 "Layer it On Me" challenge since these cards have a few layers of paper and cardstock.

Thanks for spending a few moments of your day with me, and I wish you all a wonderful weekend ahead!

Carol

Unity Two-Fer

Today I have a card for the Unity FWF Friday challenge as well as the Unity Be Inspired challenge, using the monthly sketch and beautiful color scheme below.

I started off by making a Bokeh background on watercolor paper using the colors of the challenge, matting with orange and using melon mambo for the top panel. I paper pieced Alfie's little heart with some melon mambo cs and added a tiny white heart to the center. The finishing touch was adding some mini black brads . All stamps are by Unity.

Thanks for checking in today and I wish you a wonderful Friday!

Carol

Alfie's Heart & Soul

Here's my entry for this week's Unity FWF using Alfie's Heart & Soul itty bitty. I colored him with Copics, adding some fluorescent pink color to the heart and middle mat. The card base is smoky slate and I used stitched rectangle dies along with some heart-shaped clear gemstones.

Happy Friday everyone! Thanks for stopping by!

Carol

Friday FWF

I've challenged myself to try to use up paper pads that have been collecting dust before buying anything new. The paper pad I used for today's cards came as a free gift with an order I placed several years ago. I wasn't fond of the dull colors, but I met the challenge and used them to make cards for OWH. This design is one of my favorite OWH sketches, and all I did was add a sentiment from a Unity missing you Itty Bitty stamp set, 3 punched hearts, and this was done. For me, it has a bit of a masculine feel.

Here are some of the grey/red papers from the same paper pad, but I should have used a darker color for the hearts because they don't show up too well. I made 3 more cards using this sketch and paper pad, so I partially met my challenge. It would have been ideal to use the entire paper pad, but I don't have enough time to accomplish that before OWH closes on August 1st.

I'm entering these cards into the Friday FWF challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and make it a great Friday!

Carol

Sending Love Your Way

I wanted to include some love-themed cards for my last OWH box, so I pulled out some Unity stamps and took some inspiration from their monthly challenge by way of the sketch and colors, and this is what I came up with.

The borders were done with a MS doily punch and I added some yellow ribbon from my stash. The Unity balloons were colored with Tombow markers and the sky was sponged with some Ranger Broken China ink. The sentiment (from Itty Bitty Sending my Love) was matted with a Lil Inker stitched rectangle, and all of those tiny hearts were in my doo-dad box of negative die cuts. Lucky for me, I had just the right colors in yellow, red, navy and sage!

I'm entering this into the Unity Friday Friends with Flair, as well as the Unity  "Be Inspired" challenge.

Thanks for the visit, I always appreciate it!

Carol

Hexagon Thank-you Cards

While sorting through my stash of pre-made card elements, I found two strips of hexagon panels I'd made a long time ago, and decided it was time to put them onto some cards. The panel was embossed with a hexagon ef, and all of the snippets of dsp were embossed with the same ef, then hand cut and inserted into the embossed areas. It's tedious yes, but relaxing for me at the same time. I used papers from a Teresa Collins Everyday Moments paper pad - one of my all-time favorites. I added some daffodil cardstock for the punched border along with some border punch negatives I found in my doo-dad box that were turned into flowers. The flower centers are actually tiny hexagons (squeal!) I did a little scoring on the white panel and added the Unity sentiment along with a little gingham bow.

Here's another version, where the hexagon panel was done with navy cardstock. I let the designer paper do all the background work for me, just adding the Unity sentiment.

I'm entering these cards into the Unity Friends with Flair as well as the Snippets Playground #180.

Thanks for stopping by and make it a great Friday!

Carol

What's the Word Bird?

I wanted to play along with this month's Unity Be Inspired challenge, so I used both the sketch and the colors from the photo inspiration. I don't know why my mind went to a winter-themed card with those bright summery colors, but it is what it is :) I used Copics to color this Unity Itty Bitty "What's the Word Bird?" image and sentiment, adding some liquid applique to the fur on their hats. The snowflakes and small circles are all stickers, and I cut the panels with Lil Inker stitched rectangle dies, using bubble gum pink and raspberry blue cardstock for the background.

I'm also sharing this with the Unity Friday Friends with Flair.

                                          

Here's to adding some bright summer color to every season of the year! Thanks for stopping by!

Carol

Friday FWF

I love navy & yellow colors together, so I used them for my Unity Friday FWF card today. I used a Unity background stamp called "cooped up notes" and stamped one in yellow, and one in navy. The yellow panel was embossed with a Tim Holtz alterations embossing folder by Sizzix, and I went over the raised embossed lines with a navy marker. I matted with yellow and blue cardstocks, then added the satin flowers, yellow brads, and a few tiny butterflies. The sentiment is a Unity Itty Bitty.

Thanks for stopping by today, and good luck! Someone commented on my blog last week and won a grab bag of stamps from Unity, so you never know when you might be a winner for commenting too! :)

Carol

Friday FWF Thank-You

Here's a card I'm sharing over at the Unity Friday Friends with Flair. I won this cute little image stamp in a grab bag prize for playing along with a former FWF! (still doing a happy dance) I colored the image with fluorescent Copics in blue, purple, and lime green, adding some clear gemstones to the flowers, and pale green gemstones to the pitcher/vase. (click the picture to enlarge detail) The turquoise and white panels were die cut with Lil Inker stitched rectangles and the belt loops were done with a Quickutz, and colored with matching Copics. 

Wishing you all a wonderful Friday, and thanks for stopping by!

Carol

Just Dance

Recently I watched a precious video of my 5-yr old DGD dancing around the tables in a cafe when a Taylor Swift song came on the speaker system. She was in her own little world as she twirled and danced around and around, pretending she was Taylor and acting out the video in her own adorable way. As soon as I watched it, this Unity image came to mind, so I pulled out the stamp, made a card, and I'll be sending this to my DGD.

The card base is Pacific Point, and the mat was a white one that I colored with my orange Fluorescent Copic to coordinate with the image, which was colored mostly with fluorescent Copics. I had to make her shoes pink, since my DGD was wearing shiny pink boots in the video. The panels were all die cut with Lil Inker stitched rectangles. Her tutu was lightly colored with pale pink Copics and covered with some frosted lace stickles for a little sparkle.

I'm sharing this over at the Unity Friday FWF challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and make it a great Friday! 

Carol

Using my Stash of Large Printed DSP

I have 3 cards today that I made for my next OWH box that I'll be sending in soon. I posted these two cards back in February, and today I'm sharing the rest that I made with this design. I have many sheets of dsp (dsp=designer paper) from my scrapbooking days that have very large prints and they're difficult to use on cards, but once I cut the paper into strips, I found I could easily use them for cards. I laid them into the staggered diagonal pattern, added assorted punched flowers, brads, and the perfect Unity sentiment from "Sending my Love." This one uses a dusty pink card base.....

This one uses a pale plum card base...

and this one uses a lavender card base. The dsp is BG Wisteria Wonder.

I'll be sharing these over at the Unity Friday Friends with Flair.

Wishing all of my US friends a great first day of spring.......even though we're bracing for yet another snow storm here in Eastern PA!

Carol

Using 12x12 Designer Paper

Today I'm sharing 2 of 5 cards I made using some of those large patterned 12x12 dsp's that are hard to use for small cards. All of the papers are BG Wisteria Wonder that I've had in my stash for years. I pulled out some random pieces of matching colored cardstock for the backgrounds, and punched a stamped flower accent. The sentiment is from Unity's Sending my Love stamp set.

Here's another one done in plum colors with a different flower and a brad in the center. The sentiment was heat-embossed with white ep.

I'm entering these cards into the Unity Friday Friends with Flair, along with the Snippets Playground #162.

Thanks for spending a little of your time with me today, and I wish you a wonderful Friday!

Carol

#Stuck on You

Today I have a fun card with 2 punched owls making eyes at each other. I used snippets of dsp and cardstock to put this together, and added a Unity sentiment with a die-cut hashtag my friend Mary Anne shared with me.

I'm entering this into the Unity Friday FWF challenge.

Thanks for stopping by, and make it a great Friday!

Carol

Unity FWF

I did a little paper piecing on my Unity Friday FWF card today. I used some Bazzill Basics dsp along with blushing bride cardstock, piecing the butterfly with matching dsp. I added 2 tiny clear gemstones to the antennae, stamped the sentiment with grey ink, and tied some matching twine around the dsp edge. Rounded corners were the finishing touch to this card of encouragement.

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you a wonderful Friday!

Carol

Masculine Valentine

Here's my entry for this week's Friday FWF. I made a masculine Valentine using a Unity image that was stamped and heat-embossed in silver. I colored one of the hearts to match the pacific point card stock base, and added a silver-embossed, diamond-plate embossed vertical panel to add that masculine touch. The three matching silver hearts were done with an owl punch from SU! Click the photo to see the detail work in the main image. It says "my heart belongs to you."

Have yourself a great Friday!

Carol

Rudolph Knows Santa!

I've been having fun making these little Rudolph faces for cards and tags, so I made one for the Unity FWF challenge today. I started with an old manila folder and cut it into pieces for tags. I embossed this one with a Sizzix ef, and sponged on vintage photo ink. I added a piece of ribbon, a couple snippets of dsp, and then Rudolph - cut from a SU! owl punch with googly eyes, and a big red shiny nose done with cardstock and glossy accents. I hand-drew the mouth with a brown marker. The antlers were done with a Quickutz easter chick die, and the sentiment is by Unity. I doubled this tag up with another tag on the back to make it sturdy and sent it to the grands to hang on their tree after signing and dating the back.

Christmas is sneaking up on us full speed now, so I'm thankful most everything I wanted to do is done.............well almost :) I still have some shopping to do :)

Have a wonderful day and thanks for popping in!!

Carol

Be Inspired

Here's a tag I made for the Unity Be Inspired challenge going on this month. I used the following photo inspiration .......

                                        

 I spotted the door in the photo and remembered I had this Unity Itty Bitty stamp called "shut the front door!" I used an old manilla file folder for the tag, embossed it with a bricked ef, and sponged Fired Brick ink all over it for a vintage look. I stamped the door image on another scrap of manilla folder, and fussy cut it, popping it up on foam tape. I added negative pieces from die cuts along with a little heart randomly around the door image. I put glossy accents on the windows, and red smooch on the lower door panel, along with some wine colored ribbon with silver cording. I punched some MS ferns in embossed silver and white and added a few red gemstones for the door spray. On the reverse side, I stamped "Merry Christmas from our house to yours."

Thanks for stopping by and make it a great day today!

Carol

Dance Like Nobody's Watching

Today I have a card using a fun image from Unity. Whenever I see this, the "Dance like nobody's watching" quote always comes to mind. I colored her with Copics in fluorescent colors and matted with some turquoise and a piece of Bella Blvd dsp. The little sentiment sticker is also by Bella Blvd, attached with a turquoise brad.

I'm entering this into the Unity FWF challenge.

Short and sweet, that's all I have for today, but thanks for stopping by and make it a great weekend!

Carol

Unity FWF

Here's my card for Unity's Friday Friends with Flair. This might just be my all-time favorite Unity image and sentiment combo! I added a die-cut red heart along with some very thin red ribbon. The background was embossed with a Sizzix Textured Impressions Curlique & hearts embossing folder, and I added mats with some Pacific Point blue cardstock.

Thanks for checking in today, and I wish you all a great Friday!

Carol