I've been INSPIRED!

That's right... i've been inspired! After doing my morning coffee drinkin' blog hop... i read a couple of the Papertrey Ink design team's blogs. Nichole Heady (the owner of papertrey ink) has challenged her design team members this month to do a "pass it on" challenge. You can read about her challenge here. Each DT member is called to find a cause that means something to them, and then use their stamping gift to contribute to this cause. I think it's a fantastic idea. She has urged her readers to do the same. Well, i've decided to take it one step further! I want to do this every month (and hopefully get some of my own readers in on it as well!)

You'll see over in my side bar a little button that looks like this...


Feel free to take the button and display it on your blog as well if you'd like. :) Each month there will be a new cause (and some can repeat from time to time). Clicking on that button will take you to my blog entry about that cause.

What is done that month will probably change with what might need to be done for the cause. In most causes, if you feel like participating i can give yout he info of where to send things, or you can send them to me and i'll make sure they get there!

The first Cause of the Month is an organization called "Let There Be Mom". It is a local organization here in Greenville, South Carolina. LTBM is an organization that helps mom's battling terminal illness. They help support the mom and her family in the preparation of her passing. Often times they hire a photographer to take beautiful family portraits. A local store, The Scrapbook Supply Store provides materials and local scrappers and stampers help create a scrapbook for the family, coordinate family events or plan special family outtings and also the little things that go unnoticed of helping with family meals, cleaning, etc. It really is a fabulous organization.

I'm going to start by collecting Thank You cards this month. I'm certain that a lot of thank you's need to be said by both the organization and the mom's. This team is comprised all from volunteers! If you are interested in making thank you's please contact me! I havent started making my thank you's yet, but once i get crackin' on those, i will make a post for sure!!!

I hope you all feel inspired as i did this morning. You can find your own cause, of choose mine, or any of the papertrey design team's causes. Just remember November is all about being GRATEFUL for what we have! And i believe the best way to show our gratitude is by giving back!

ADDED NOTE!
Angela from UNITY has offered to give free shipping to 1 lucky winner of a drawing i'm going to do. For every card you send to me, i will put your name in the drawing. and 1 lucky winner will get free shipping to Unity! So what are you waiting for? It's a chance to help out a wonderful cause and you can win something too!

Read more...

One more happy halloween!

No crafty thing to post (though i did get to craft a card today (and some more candles for the craft fair tomorrow at church) but i just thought it's be fun to post a couple of photos of the boys in the halloween get ups! :)




(this was at our playgroup's halloween party this morning)


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Read more...

Hang Over Friday and Happy Halloween!

No, i'm not THAT kind of hung over! It's HangOver Friday in the Unity forum. For those who havent discovered how fun the unity stamps are might be thinking... geez... can't this girl get enough? Well, no, i can't. haha. Actually, Hangover Friday started a couple of hip hops back. We all had so much fun chit chatting and game playing and if we could squeeze it in, making a card or 2, that it was darned near next to impossible to see everyone's cards! So thats what Hip Hop Friday is all about. A day to post what you did make during the hip hop. So in the morning, everyone can get their coffee and go hip hopping thru blogs (which are all posted on the Unity blog... so check that out today too.

Sadly, i only got 1 of the unity challenge's done yesterday. Well, technically i got 2 done, but i already posted one of them. :) But we had a halloween party in the am, and i was pooped most of the day. haha. (and i had to get my verve card done, which i posted yesterday). But i do have some unity goodness for you. :)

First, here is my Let them eat cake card. It was a pretty easy peasy card that doesnt take much explaining. So i'll let it explain itself!

The stamp is from Unity's Sentiments O Simple kit. Lots of fun stuff in that one! I made this card for the challenge to use something sweet. This sentiment about cake was all i had! But i hadnt even inked it up yet so it was due! The paper is by SEI and that big ol' flower is a vinyl decal by SU. :) It looks black as does the mat behind my sentiment but it's just the lighting. It's actually a dark chocolate brown color.

Ok, thats all for now. I'm hoping to post a pumpkin project i did a bit back a little later today in honor of halloween but we've got a halloween party this AM and i have to get out snack ready for that and then we'll just see how the rest of the day goes! Thanks for stopping by!

Read more...

A little OCC Verve challenge

I finally completed this card! I made my sentiment piece days ago but i figured i better get into action to get the rest of the card done so i could finish this challenge on time!!! The rest of the card came together easily... it's just been 1 crazy week!

Ok - so hop on over to OCC (our creative corner). You can see all of the entries for this challenge there. but Julee from Verve Visuals is hosting this week at OCC and her challenge was to use something called "Vintage Values". Thats when you use ink to shade in the edges. She does a superb job of explaining the process on her blog... so i'm just gonna suggest you hop there next. Here's a link to that entry. But let me just say that her card is AUH-Mazing! Really. I was blown away.

Ok, here's my card...


First, i do love how my sentiment piece turned out! I stamped out my sentiment from Verve's Beautiful You set using Juniper ink from CTMH. Then using versamark, i stamped the flower from the same Verve set. Using shimmering chalks (by pebbles ink), I added color to the flower focusing on the petals away from the sentiment. I did still chalk the petals under the sentiment, just not with as much color. Then i used the vintage value technique all the way around using Juniper Ink and Twilight Ink (both close to my heart). The rest of the card i think is pretty self explanatory!!!! My other cardstock choices were sweet leaf and colonial white both by CTMH. :)

Read more...

Hop Hop Thursday!

Hello! It's thursday again, and you know what that means!!! HIP HOP! If you're new to my blog and dont know what hip hop is... you can check out all the deets here on Unity's forum.

For my first post today (with any luck, yes there will be more!), i'm posting my card from Unity's Wednesday Challenge. Cyndi chose our challenge this month. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month she picked a "HOPE" challenge.
So we had to think PINK and use these HOPE elements on our creation:
H…Use a sentiment having to do with Hope
O…Put some ribbon on your card - Think Pink
P…Use something Pink!!
E…Embellish with something that starts with an "m" for Mammogram

Here's my card... I took the breast cancer awareness theme a bit literally!



I was please with how it turned out. I really wanted to do some stitching, but when i started using my machine, it completely blitzed out! No joke. The thread is so tangled inside around the bobbin cartridge that i fear it's just unusable! I really hope my mom does come in november now so she can take a peekie and maybe help me fix it (no mom, that's not the only reason i want you to come!!!). But even without the stiching around each layer, i think it's a pretty card. I couldnt get a good picture to save my life though! I tried 3 different rooms in my house and outside! No matter what i did i could capture the pretty but small details of the card. So sad am I. Anyhoo - I used Unity's WISH STICKS and stamped them with versamark ink. Then i colored over them with chalk. By the way, this is one of my fav techniques! The outcome is always so soft and pretty. It created a great background image or focal image! Maybe i just like it because my big tray of chalks looks like a huge eyeshadow palette! Today (and usually) i used shimmery chalks by Pebbles Inc. I actually used 2 colors of pink, though thats hard to see. I just used a dab of a darker pink in the center of each wish stick to give a little more dimension. You also cant see the shimmer in the picture. Then i covered the ends of each fluff with glue using Creative Memories Precision Point Adhesive (any glue pen would work) and applied PINK fun flock! Oh it just turned out so fun. I'm not sure if you can see the "fluff" in the picture, but in person you just have to touch it! :)
For something with the letter M the only thing i could come up with was metal or making memories. And then i though, AHA, i have metal embellishments BY Making Memories! So i looked thru the stash and low and behold... i had a metal ribbon slider with the word HOPE on it. Perfect! This challenge was just made for my unused stash! Originally i had stamped a sentiment that was pretty but not as "hope" related as i wanted it to be. I was just using the wishsticks for my "hope" inspiration. The sentiment i had punched out in a oval shape was was going to lay across the pink awareness ribbon. it was pretty too, but not as perfect as this. :)
I think the rest of the card explains itself. But here are color and paper deets:
Cardstock: Base is Regal Rose by SU, mat is Blush by CTMH, White is White Daisy by CTMH
Ribbon is Regal Rose by SU

Thanks for stopping by! Jack has his Halloween party today at school that Gabe and I are going to go to. But after thats over, i'm really hoppinh to hip hop and with any other luck, do the other challenges for Hip Hop. But seeing that Jack will be hopped up on sugar from the party, i'll be lucky to get to chat online. That is until his sugar crash that is bound to happen later in the day. :) HIP HOP!

Read more...

Blog Candy and a little Whiff of Joy

Man - i cant seem to catch a break from this weekend til now! The baby developed thrush which has made him fussy, and when the baby is fussy and i'm holding him more jack gets clingy. All the while my hubby has been very busy working, and quite frankly, a little cranky the past 2 days which means he goes to retreat mode in his office when his day is done (not that i can blame him, i like to retreat to my craft room too!) but i just havent been able to stamp a thing! I really want to redo my craft room, but i have so many projects i want to work on too. ACK! Jack is in school right now, but i really need to do some grocery shopping before i pick him up. With any luck the boys will let me craft the afternoon. I'll give jack paint if i have to! :)

Ok, now on to my posting for today...
first i'll let ya know about a little blog candy because everyone likes blog candy and bonus - it's a 10.00 gift certificate to my friends store, a page at a time. But she's doing this candy in a super fun way. You go to THIS POST and leave a comment saying that I (katie cotton or paper makeup) sent you. You can then turn around and post it on your blog and tell your friends to tell her that you sent them. :) How fun, huh? For every person that you send, you get another entry into the pot. The winner is still pulled randomly so it isnt whoever has the most wins, but the more you have, the more likely you are to get pulled. I think it's a super fun idea! So go check it out! HERE

Ok, here's my creation that i actually made on thursday or friday?? Heck, i dont even know any more! haha. It's a gift box/bag. I have filled it up with hersey kisses. :)

This stamp is from the Whiff of Joy stamp collection. She's one of the guardian angel stamps called Melinda Blowing Kisses. I just love these designs by Elisabeth Bell. They are so beautiful! And the box template i got from the owner of Whiff of Joy, the fabulous Katharina Frei! You can see the tutorial yourself here. And all i can say is i want a scorpal! I'm either really dumb when it comes to scoring, or i just cant convert centimeters to anything my brain understands. But i managed to adjust a few things and get this box to work for me. Haha. I think it might be a little bit skinnier than her box.




The image is colored with Copic markers (my fav way to color) and then i've added my highlights with a signio white gel pen. I've also done a little extra love with a spica pen for some pizazz. But that doesnt usually show up in my photos. But it's a really pretty effect in person! :)



Here are some other deets of the card...

Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate by SU, purple pizzazzill (textured patterned cardstock) by bazzill, bubble blue by bazzill, Sweet Blush by PaperTrey Ink
Stamps: Melinda Blowing Kisses by Whiff of Joy, Sentiment is from Mixed Messages by PaperTrey Ink
Ribbon: Chocolate twill and Sweet Blush swiss dot satin ribbon both by PaperTrey Ink
Other tools: Dotted Scallop border punch by martha stewart, word window punch by SU

Thanks for stopping by today!

Read more...

What a DAY!

Wow, what a day i've had today!!! I woke up and actually thought "you know, i'm NOT going to stamp today!". And i thought i'd dedicate my extra time today to cleaning my craft room. It needs another overhaul. Especially after having so much company after the baby was born (not that i didnt LOVE having them here!) But it's just time to go thru, reorganize, purge, yada yada. Well... that didnt happen today because my day went to you know where in a hand basket! (where the heck did that phrase come from anyway?). I wont even bore you with all the details but it was just ONE OF THOSE DAYS!! I had a bridal trial this afternoon that took me by surprise. I didnt know she was still coming because she only asked if i was free and i said i should be. Usually i hear back from the bride again before she actually comes over. I was please with the outcome of her hairstyle but it was one of the most intricate designs a bride has ever come to me with and her hair was super long and thick! So it took an hour and 30 minutes just to figure out how to get it all up! (and after 6 bridesmaids yesterday with super long thick hair... i'm a little hair-styled out right now!) Today it didnt help any that Jack was being wild and go figure, Gabe is having a ROUGH day and has been fussy and really hungry wanting to eat every hour and a half. *sigh* Other things were crazy too. I wont get into it.

But i'm still going to post something i worked on earlier this week at the Unity Hip Hop.



I'm still thinking something is missing. I just cant figure it out. I used my NEW So & So Loves stamp from Unity. I won this stamp along with Two People Fell in Love from the Stamp Challenges blog! If you havent checked out this blog before, you really should! There are some fantastic ideas to be had!
For the card i embossed my cardstock front with the argyle embossing folder by cuddlebug. I distressed all my edges with my tim holtz edge distresser. I stamped my image onto colonial white cardstock with rich cocoa memento ink and then colored it with twinkling h20's. I still need to practice with them. But i'm was mildly pleased with the coloring. My sentiment is from the Simply Said kit from Unity. You gotta love UNITY! (everytime i type unity, especially in caps i cant help but sing the old school Queen Latifah song!).

Ok, thats all for today, simple and sweet. :) With any luck jack will go to bed early (no nap again today) and i will forgo my "i need to clean my room before i craft again" and i will be easing my pain with some craft time. That or i'll go to sleep. hahahaha.

Read more...

Give a gift of cookies

Today I made a tag using Baking Tilda from Magnolia Stamps. And just so you know... Magnolialicious is having a 30% off the newer fall/halloween images. I'm sitting here looking at the screen, hopping back and forth from this post to the store page trying to talk myself out of buying. I'm not supposed to be spending! I think i'm gonna lose.

Anyhoo - now that i've become a stamping fanatic and am slightly addicted to my blog hopping, i see entirely too many cute ideas for gift giving. And because of such, it's impossible to simply give someone a kind gesture anymore. Like, baking someone cookies. SOMETHING would need to accompany those cookies! But this time instead of making a card, i decided to make a tag! I would be terrific to to just tie to the basket or in this case since i didnt have a basket handy, i wrapped the cookies in a simple piece of flannel fabric i had left over from a baby blanket i made a friend nearly 2 years ago! (i'm almost as bad saving scraps of fabric as i am paper and cardstock!). Put your cookies in a plastic baggie first, but then wrap the fabric up and around and it's super cute, without anyone feeling like they need to return your tupperware (or basket).



The Deets
Stamps: Baking Tilda (Magnolia Stamps), Wild Daisy (Heidi Grace), Monogram Stamp (Justright Stamps)
Paper: Regal Rose, Wild Wasabi (SU!)
Ink: Regal Rose, Wild Wasabi (SU!), White Daisy (CTMH)

Thanks for stopping in today!

Read more...

Verve Visuals October Project Parade!

Phew - i'm am racing a deadline today! I forgot about a challenge i wanted to enter and as i read Verve Visual's blog today i realized i had a half hour! YIPES! So this card took me 25 minutes in entirety but rather than blog about it and be late... i'm posting... and i'll edit it in a moment to add the drama that ensued to make this card! haha. I might even replace the pictures with better ones!

But without further ado... here is my card for THIS challenge!







Using Verve Visuals Starlight Starbright set!


OK! Here is were i'm editing... or rather just adding on to my previous post!

So i'm catching up on some blog hopping, reading my dailies and what not. And i come to the time to read Verve Visuals blog. The card for today is super cute. You should check it out. http://vervevisual.blogspot.com/
Anyhoo - on that post it takes about October's Project Parade and her love of embossing. I think to myself "oh yeah, i want to do that challenge!" It sounded fun plus 1 lucky random winner gets 15 verve bucks! And i'm really wanting the Fairy Tales set. which thru the end of Octber is on sale for 10% off as are ALL their sets in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. They are also donating to the Susan G Komen organization for each stamp set sold! Ok, that was a shameless plug for them. Onto my cardmaking....
Then as i was reading the blog i read that enteries had to be in by noon today! (which ironically this the time RIGHT NOW as i type this). Holy CRUD! I look at the clock... it was 11:25. I could still DO THIS! i thought to myself. Well, it's amazing i did! THis is how it started.

I race upstairs and think, i have no idea what i'm going to do! Let's start with my verve stamp sets and pick a THEME! So i decided to go with my recently unloved Starlight Starbright set. It's so cute with all of it's sentiments! They are slightly smaller than i thought they'd be given some other sets i have, but it turns out they are Perfect when you just want to add that perfect little ditty to a card! I LUB them.
So i'm going with STARS! What can i do embossing that would go? Could always just pull of the tried and true fav swiss dots cuddlebug folder. It always makes cards look good. but not good enough (why was i worried about how good it would look? I was under a time crunch! but i needed to do Verve JUSTICE!! So i pull out ALL my cuddlebug embossing folders. The stack is about 6 or 7 inches high. HOW TO CHOOSE!! As i browsed i found a star image on one of the halloween folders. Whoda thunk? So i pull that one out. Then i keep browsing and decided to go with one of the winter folders with snowflakes because some of them look like stars. haha. It'll work.
Now i'm usually really good at pouring thru scraps to use every bit. There was NO time for this! I go straight to the new paper section of my craft room and pull some full sheet of blues. And start hacking away at them. At this point my 2 year old has come in and is saying "momma i have some candy now... PUHWEEEEEASE! I ate cereal!" (earlier i told him he could not have cnady he hadnt even had breakfast". So i decide maybe a piece of candy would not be so bad if it gave me time to finish this card. But he just HAD to come wiht me to chose and as i try to race down the stairs he shouts that i need to hold his hand so we dont fall down! Of all the times of my child to listen to RULES!
Ok, so candy is picked and i've come back upstairs. I emboss my images and punch out my stars using my creative memories circle punch. I start to distress all my edges with my TIm Holtz edge distresser left out on my table form crafting yesterday. I love that thing but i also love inspiration that comes from whatever is closest! I scour my chalk ink bin for the azurite blue. WHy can you never find the right color when you need it but it's always on top when you dont?! FOUND IT. Then i'm off to ink up all my edges when in comes the two year old who has stolen my chair! ugh. So i'm standing hunched over my table with my 2 year old blocking my light and asking what i am doing every step of the way and requesting to help. ARGH! i give him some paper and ask him to help at HIS table.
Got my chair back. So i inky up my embossed stars by placing them on my Close To My Heart white pigment ink pad and GENTLY running my finger on the back to just get a little ink. Then i start adhering all my layers. Please keep in mind i have NO layout plan. But i stick them on my card.
Next i take a sentiment that i dont think i had ever used yet from the set (for shame) and stamp it in Bordering Blue Ink from Stampin Up (my cardstock is all those shades of blue from Rich Regals too by the way). And i cut out some more circles using my creative memories custom cutting system with the circle dies.
Something else is still needed... ribbon maybe? I grab my uber cute tin that my good friend Adele made me with samples of ribbons inside. And i chose a pretty organdy ribbon and attached it askew to my card i have no idea why. It's funny the way your brain works when you're no longer even thinking! I only had about 15 minutes left! No the 2 year old is begging for some milk. Pink milk to be exact which i hadnt allowed him to have yet today either (pink milk is strawberry milk as opposed to chocolate milk). I know he isnt going to stop asking until i get it, so we have another race down the stars and a set up on the couch) then i run back upstairs as my time fleets away! I know something else is still missing when i suddenly remember these fabulous snowflake rhinestones i picked up at Michael's a bit back. On the card they go with no rhyme or reason to where.
I snap some pictures of my card, and then baby starts WAILING. I had ignored his mumblings as he started to wake up. Now he was up, hungry and PISSED that i hadnt come to get him yet. So back downstairs i go and bring him upstairs but not before i plug my camera into my computer which automatically uploads any new photos to my computer.
So then i sit back down at my craft table with a pillow and nursing baby on my lap. I'm pretty good at one handed typing i discover. I upload the pictures then to photobucket because i dont dare wait and see how long blogspot takes to upload them. I type up my super quick entry before adding all this mumbo jumbo that you probably dont care about and all of about 3 or 4 people have continued to read (my mom, beth, maybe Rachel and Christi? Ok, maybe adele and jenn too?). And POST! I made it time. But you should see my craft area. It's a DISASTER! my child has gotten out everything under the sun in my room. The baby is still nursing. And then i decide to go ahead and type all the extra bits of crazy that was the past hour. The even funnier thing to me? Is it took LONGER to type all this out than it did to make my card! CRAZY!

Read more...

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! I gave her a gift when she was here helping me with the baby, but i still wanted to do something special for her today. I know she checks my blog so i thought i'd make a special post for her!



I used this sketch by amber. I completely forgot to add my flourish or flower to the corner of my card. DOH! I suppose it would have taken away from my cupcake (from Unity's Cupcake A La Yummy set) And also my sentiment is from Simply Said

My color scheme is COMPLETELY off my norm. I'm not usually such a bright and lively kinda gal when it comes to my card making. At least not if it means "girly" colors. But it's a birthday card! I wanted it to be FUN!

Well, i'm off to finish my UNITY Blog Hop. You really should check out the design teams creations. They are stunning!
Start here and follow each person's next hop to gal. AND somewhere hidden in all those grogeous creations is some blog candy! Can you find it????

Off to the Hip HOP!

Read more...