Hip Hop Hangover

Happy Friday everyone! Here are a couple of cards I made for challenges over on Unity Stamp Company's Thursday Hip Hop.

This is for the "Get Krafty With Unity" challenge to use Unity stamps and kraft paper.

This card also follows the SCS Wednesday Sketch Challenge #232.

The adorable mushrooms are from the Unity May Kit of the Month. I colored them in with a blender pen. The paper is from Basic Grey's Archaic collection. The corners are made from tons of brads. You should see the back of the card front!

This next card is for the "Piece, Love and Unity" challenge to use a Unity stamp and paper piece.

I feel like I went all "old school" on this one. I dug out the Basic Grey Lily Kate paper collection and I rounded the corners. I haven't used my corner rounder in AGES it seems. (You've got to admit this industry moves fast - lines and techniques become obsolete and outdated in a matter of months!)

I stamped the birdcage images on 5 different Lily Kate patterns, cut them out, and pieced them onto the base image (on a 6th pattern!). Some of the cages are popped up with foam dots for dimension. The whole birdcage mat is popped up with foam, too. The frame mat underneath is a Storybook Cricut diecut. (Surprised?) It's cut out of a light yellow cardstock and inked with a light pink and a green ink to coordinate with the blossoms in the background pattern (a 7th Lily Kate pattern). The card is finished with a gorgeous green velvet ribbon and a couple of copper brads.

Details (Krafty Mushrooms): Paper - Basic Grey, The Paper Company; Ink - StazOn, Stampin' Up!; Brads - SEI, SU!, (white & light blue unknown); American Crafts white gel pen; SU! blender pen; foam squares.

Details (Birds Sing): Paper - Basic Grey, The Paper Company; Ink - Stampin' Up, Ranger Distress Ink; Cricut diecut; makeup sponge; foam squares; unknown velvet ribbon and brads.

One of these days I'm going to have some time on a Thursday to actually sit down and follow the Hip Hop! I can't wait.

To see the list of all the other uber-ly talented people who love Unity and are participating in the HHH bloghop, go HERE.

Thanks for popping by and taking a look. Happy weekend!!

Heidi

p.s. Be sure to stop back by tomorrow to see my final entry for Vintage Plum's Star Search challenge. This week's challenge is "Red Carpet Time" - to pile on the embellishments!

Woodland Love Note

I think this card is pretty adorable if I may say so myself.

I made it mainly for the Hero Arts weekly challenge of which the theme is "manly" this week. Do you think it's "manly" enough? The love squirrel image is from the Hero Arts Whoo Loves You clear stamp set. The trees image is the Unity Stamp Co. So & So Loves... single. The images are colored with ink and a blender pen.

The argyle background is a Cricut die cut. The argyle and colors were inspired by that gorgeous DCWV ribbon. The green diamond shaped brads were originally silver ones that I covered in Ranger Distressed Embossing Powder. You know, there's something quite powerful in discovering that you can alter the color on just about anything with a little ink or embossing powder. It opens up a whole new (and more cost-effective) crafting horizon.

Finally, this card follows this week's Mojo Monday sketch #88:

Details: Paper - The Paper Company, SU!; Ink - StazOn, SU!, VersaMark, VersaMagic; Stamps - Hero Arts, Unity Stamp Co.; Cricut die cut; SU! circle punch & brads; Ranger Distressed Embossing Powder; DCWV ribbon; foam square.

TFL!

Heidi

Unity Hip Hop Hangover

Happy Friday everyone!

I feel like I got a bit of my creative mojo back today. After this post it's back to my craft room to work on my Vintage Plum Star Search week #3 challenge - "All That Glitters". I gotta tell you, I've been feeling stumped about this one. It's so easy to go overboard. I'm hoping my great creative flow with the following two cards carries over! Check back Saturday for the post of my "bling" creation - see how it turned out.

Both of these cards sport images from Unity Stamp Co.'s May Kit of the Month. It's just so darn cute!!

"ENJOY YOUR DAY"

Both images were embossed and then colored with Stampin' Up! ink and a blender pen. Then I cut each image out. The patterned paper is Basic Grey's Urban Prairie.

The layout of the card is inspired by the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge sketch #69:

"HAPPY"

This image is also colored with SU! ink & a blender pen. The edges are sponged on. The herringbone (sp?) background is Cuttlebug. The base paper is Certainly Celery and then I sponged Wild Wasabi over it. The I Cuttlebugged it and sanded the embossed areas to reveal the Certainly Celery color underneath.

The color combination for this card is inspired by Moxie Fab World's citrus color challenge this week.

Detail (Enjoy your day): Paper - Basic Grey, The Paper Company; Ink - SU!, StazOn; Unity Stamp Co. stamps; Stampendous embossing powder; SU! Blender Pen; foam squares.

Detail (Hello): Paper - SU!, The Paper Company; Ink - SU!, StazOn; Unity Stamp Co. stamps; Cuttlebug; SU! blender pen; make up wedge; Offray ribbon.

TFL!

Heidi

How Old Would You Be? - Caardvarks & Mojo Monday Challenges

This card satisfies the challenge on two sites today - Caardvarks Unity Quote challenge and Mojo Monday's week 86 sketch challenge.

The Caardvarks' Unity Quote challenge was to make a card with a quote on it - if you're not familiar, Angela from Unity Stamp Co. loves to collect quotes, especially those she can design into another stamp. I Unity Stamp Co.!! I am finally a proud owner of one of their sets - Tiny Trinity - which I used on this card. The quote says, "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are? - Satchel Paige". Seriously, think about it! How old would YOU be? Up until this past year, I think I would've been someone in their 20s. (I'd even gotten carded about a year ago!) Now, I'm not so sure. I feel and think I look more my age nowadays (38 *gasp*).

The Mojo Monday sketch challenge was to use this sketch:

Details : Paper - The Paper Company, Stampin' Up!, Die Cuts With a View; Ink - StazOn, SU!; Stamps - Unity Stamp Co., Inkadinkado; SEI buttons; Fiskars border punch; Michaels ribbon; DMC floss; blender pen.

TFL!

Heidi

(Don't forget to vote for me for Vintage Plum Guest Design Team - go to THIS POST HERE for details - and blog candy!)

Vintage Plum Star Search Challenge #1 - Fussy Cuts

I am having so much fun participating in Vintage Plum's Star Search Challenge. The talent on this website is amazing, the product is adorable, and the message boards are so much fun to read!!


The Plum Star Search Challenge is an awesome opportunity to become Vintage Plum's July Guest Design Team member!! We have challenges every week for 5 weeks and each week Vintage Plum members get to vote on our offerings. The winner each week gets a prize and then the person with the most cumulative votes at the end of the 5 weeks gets the July Guest Design Team position.

So PLEASE go - become a member on the Vintage Plum website and VOTE FOR ME!! You can find my week #1 submission HERE in the Plum Star Search gallery.


The voting happens every Sunday & Monday for the next 5 weeks...mark your calendars! (**BLOG CANDY ALERT!! See below for info.**)


OK, so on to my week #1 entry. The challenge is fussy cutting. Here's what's fussy cut on this layout: "imagine", the circles border on the left, individual circles that are popped up on the border, the triangles in the "wheels" in the top right corner, and the flower accent in the bottom right corner.

May 2011 issue

The stamped images are embossed and then shaded with Stampin' Up! inks and a blender pen.

I've tried to show in these detail pics the amount of fussy cutting on the stamped images. McSteamy better make room for me at Seattle Grace with the amount of "precision" cutting I did. LOL!

Since the theme of the layout focuses on my son's learning to ride a bicycle without training wheels, I tried to reinforce the wheel theme with lots of circular elements. This detail pic shows all the popped up and dimensional circular details along the side border.

I thought the colors in the paper and the stamped images nicely compliment the bright colors in the pictures. The layout uses Basic Grey's new Lime Rickey collection (can you tell how much I love it?!). The "wheel" accents in the upper right are inspired by BG's print ad for the collection:

The "today you" label stamp at the bottom is an Ali Edwards set by Technique Tuesday. I love the whole set but I mostly got the set for the little border stamp that says, "THIS MOMENT, THIS STORY, THIS DAY, THIS EXPERIENCE, THIS LIFE." The date stamp is a Heidi Swapp stamp - isn't it amazing how similar the "handwriting" is in both sets?




The journaling says, "TODAY YOU decided you were done with training wheels. You set your mind and achieved your goal. With determination like that, you can do anything you can IMAGINE."


Finally, here's a pic of my son "proudly" displaying the finished layout. Is that not the epitome of a hurry-up-Mah-ah-ahm-and-take-the-picture look? There was a much more interesting and pressing Buzz Lightyear Nintendo 64 demo competing for his attention.



Details: Paper - Basic Grey, Stampin' Up!, The Paper Company; Ink - Stampin' Up!, Staz-On; Stamps - Autumn Leaves, Technique Tuesday, Heidi Swapp; Brads - Stampin' Up!, SEI, unknown; Crop-a-dile grommets; Zig Millenium pens; Stampendous embossing powder; foam squares and dots; Cutterbee precision scissors; Stampin' Up! circle punches; Crop-a-dile; bone folder (to set grommet prongs).



Remember -I need your votes!


** BLOG CANDY ALERT !!! **


Check back here on Sunday for the link to my layout waiting for votes over on Vintage Plum. I'll be giving away some yummy blog candy to one of the lovely people who so kindly vote for me. Here's a sneak peak at the candy (look familiar?)...



As always, thank you so much for looking!


Heidi