Hey friends! I hope you've been enjoying your holiday weekend. I really really have! I've had 5 beautiful relaxing days off and it's been so productive craft wise!
December 1st kicks off a new sketch challenge at the Imaginisce blog and you have a chance to win a super generous prize package from Imaginisce!
Here's a peek at my layout for the December sketch challenge

So make sure you check out the Imaginisce blog December 1st for the latest sketch and the deets on your chance to win some fabulous Imaginisce products.

You still have time to submit your application for the Imaginisce Design Team Try Outs.

In just 3 days...

It will be December 1st!! I am so excited to be taking a leap and participating in Ali Edwards December Daily. I created my album a few weeks ago when Unity featured both Ali Edward's December Daily and Shimelle's Journal your Christmas and I've been gathering ideas for my stamps I'd like to use from the Unity website. Here are some fantastic sets I'd like to share with you if you too are taking this adventure or to help you get off the fence. And even better, Unity is having a BIG sale thru Monday November 27th 10 AM Central...but we'll get to that later.

First I love Lisa Hetrik's 25 days set

So many perfect sentiments for photo captions here. The 25 days image is perfect for your December Daily cover.

Next I love Samantha Walkers Christmas in the Kitchen set

I just love the vintage look of this set. That's all I'm sayin...

Not only is the Jillibean Soup's Countdown to Christmas perfect for your December Daily and Journal your Christmas but those images are perfect for your holiday layouts too!!

And for those of you that love vintage, Webster's Pages Christmas Delivery is perfect with Webster's holiday collection Waiting for Santa.

And here's the best part of my post...

All these holiday collections are more are available on the Unity website and not only are they totally fabulous, they are totally on sale and Unity is giving every order in US and Canada Free Shipping thru January 2010!  

And when you spend...

$25 = grab bag 

{random stamps -$8 Value}

$50 = FREE BELLA Snowman

$75 = FREE City of Love

BRAND NEW Kit

Our very own Unity Artista

Lisa Hetrick

i adore this kit.

unique and PERFECT for the upcoming VALENTINE SEASON.

isn't it SO UNITY? - Uniquely UNITY.

FREE with $75 purchase!

Now why wouldn't you want to jump on board with me and start December 1st??

Bag it or Tag it...Introducing the latest Co-Brand from Unity...Bella Blvd!!

Hp Hop Helloooo! We are having Hip Hop a day early this week so that we can get this PARTY started and so that everyone can have tomorrow to be with their friends and family! Now let's talk about what's happening at Unity this week...

OMG! I am so excited about this release! Can you believe another family has joined Unity! Yep it's true...

 I was lucky to get this beautiful set to create with for this week's Hip Hop challenge Bag it or Tag it!

So I created a bag....handbag that is

So what was my inspiration for this project? Well my friend Jimmi's blog Stamping and Shopping of course! I totally love the button, don't you?? I happened to have some of Bella Blvd's Super Stud collection and used the star pattern paper for my purse.

and what's on the inside??

 

Yep, I made a gift card holder out of the big beautiful birthday cake stamp.

So here's what's going on this week at Unity

And...

   $.50 cents of EVERY Total Sale made through SUNDAY will be DONATED to the LOCAL Food Shelf.

Thanks so much for making my blog a part of your day! I am so thankful for all my crafty readers and friends. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!! 

Gobble Gobble!

Now onto the beautiful Brooke!!

It's kind of a big deal...

BIG things have been happening at Unity! We have 7 Co-Brands at Unity right now! The latest announcement THURSDAY introduced the Webster's Paper Co-Brand...SWOON! I can hardly wait the create with these stamps and my Webster's stash I have here at home!

And what's even better...you get FREE SHIPPING to the US and Canada! How Awesome is that? Yea I know AWESOME!!!

Oh and you even get a FREE Itty Bitty when you order $25.00

and  every. single. order. placed - gets their name in a jar and qualifies for a PRIZE PACKAGE including a BIND IT ALL and accessories.  If you are a KIT OF THE MONTH member you get an EXTRA 25% off these sale prices!!! 

One of my favorite Co-Brands is Melody Ross. She's amazing. She has reminded me that no matter what anyone thinks about me, I am special... I am beautiful...and I can FLY! Love that God channels his love thru other people and I really believe that Melody is spreading God's hope for us as women.

So I used my favorite sets today for my layout

Melody Ross She Sprouted Wings

And the birds from

She Did it Anyway

  Supplies: All papers and Embellies are from Paper Posies November kit

I am terrible about scrapping about myself but I realize it's a great voice from me to my children to have long after I am gone. Finding a balance between mother and woman can be really hard at times. So I wanted to remind myself that it's OK to just Be Me and be a Mom too!

So I am the last stop today and I hope you enjoyed the projects the other DT members created for you. Go back to Unity and make sure you didn't miss anything and then LOAD UP YOU CART with all the new yummy Unity RUBBBAH!

 

Remember...you only have til Sunday at midnight to order!!

A Thankful Blog Hop

Hello friends! So glad you've made your way over to my blog today! We are celebrating what we are thankful for with a My Little Shoebox thankful blog hop today. I love it when the holidays come around every year because they bring a sense of warmth to us all. I am so thankful for many blessings in my life but most thankful for my family. They are the reason I believe in my dreams and never give up. My children make me a better mom everyday.

I created this Thanks card for the blog hop today with paper from our Green and Simple Life collections.

I also used our glitter alphabet stickers for my sentiment and one of our journaling die cuts.

If you'd like to check out all of the Design Teams creations head on over to the My Little Shoebox blog here to begin our Thankful blog hop! We've also got a chance for you to win some fab goodies too!!

Some Sneaks and 2 Sketches 4 You

So here's some fun news I wanted to share with you...I've been asked to Guest Design at Cupcards {to go} for the month of December! How fun is that! I was really honored when my good friend and fellow designer at Paper Posies, Sonda asked me if I'd like to join the team for December.
For those of you that don't know Sonda and have never heard of Cupcards, here's some info:

My name is Cassonda Tadlock (aka Sonda) and I am the proud owner of CupCards {to go}.  When I was thinking of a name for the company the first thing I thought of was my love for cupcakes.  (ok, really, my obsession.  haha)  They are so cute and sweet and yummy!  The perfect little treat!  So I combined the two and CupCards was born.  (cupcakes+cards)  I'm sure you are wondering about the {to go} part.  The credit for that has to go to my husband, Duane.  It was his idea.  I won't spoil it here but you will know why once you receive your box of kit goodies in the mail.  I'd like to think it's a little bit of our specialty.
Why cards?  Well, after contributing to a card making design team for several years I couldn't help but think what a great business it would be.  My love for cards has grown tremendously over the years, not only in designing cards but also in providing sketches for other companies and on my blog.  You will find lots of inspirational designs and sketches here on the site and in the gallery.  Please feel free to take advantage of them!

This week Cupcards is also the sponsor at 2 Sketches 4 You. I enjoyed creating a card with the December kit and Kazan's sketch

Here's my card

 I have to share with you that I love playing with 2 Sketches 4 You. It's been my favorite card challenge site since I first came across it a few years ago. I only wish that I had the time to play as often as I used to. I am always inspired by Laura and Kazan's sketches as well as the beautiful cards the design team creates week after week. If you haven't stopped by, make sure you do and play along! It's fun!!
Now I get to leave you with a few sneak peeks of my work that you'll get to see real soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Unity Hip Hop Thursday: Decorate your tree with memories

Hip Hop Hello friends!! Thank you so much for making me a part of your day! It means so much that you Hip Hop with us every single Thursday!
Big things are happening at Unity and you can score some great deals on the fabulous new co-branded stamps and SO MUCH MORE! First this week's specials:

FREE SHIPPING USA & CANADA
Everyone that ORDERS gets their name in a jar to qualify for a FREE Bind it all Prize Package.
FREE ITTY BITTY with every order over $25 placed thru Sunday!

We are having a blast with our themed Hip Hops! This week we are inspiring you to create your own tree ornaments! I have actually been making my own ornaments for years. It all started when I gave my mom a personal hand made ornament. She loved it so much that each year I'd try to outdo the previous years ornament. I've always had fun creating these ornaments year after year but I really enjoy creating photo ornaments. I always loved looking back at how much the kids have changed from one year to the next.

Here's an easy ornament for you to create for your tree this year:

I used the new co-branded Jillibean soup kit Tis the Season for Joy and whole cloves and white sugar kraft paper from the New Christmas Chestnut Soup collection. I made and extra fan fold with a picture of Lily from last Christmas to hang from the bottom. It was hard to catch the right angle but the picture just adds that personal touch.

Here's a closer look of the stamping I did behind the JOY image with cocoa ink my Close to My Heart. I used snowflakes from the Ippity set Season of Joy.

All you need to create this fan fold ornament is 2 3X12 peices of pattern cardstock. Use any border punch you like on one side of each peice. Next you score the 3x12 paper ever half and inch. Then fold, fan and glue! Embellish however you like. This Jillibean kraft paper is so beautiful I could just create these fan folds for my entire tree!

Oh and you have got to get one of these Martha Stewart scoring boards!

 

You will be scoring these fan folds faster and easier than before! I promise! Add it to your holiday wish list.

Now one more thing...Angela made two amazing videos here. Be sure and check them out!So much is happening at Unity and it's SO exciting! I am so very thankful to have the opportunity to be a part of this amazing team of talented ladies!!

Now hop on over to Brooke! I just know she is going to WOW you today!!!

Enchanted Release Party all week long!

Come celebrate all week long with us at the Imaginisce blog as we share projects created by the Design Team with our new release Enchanted! You can win some Enchanted for yourself as well as the new tools we've been talking about! So join us for a week of FUN and all things Princesses! 

I was asked to design some samples for Summer CHA in Chicago with Enchanted. It was fun to create with the paper before anyone else had it. I knew I was going to fall in love with this collection. Here's a few pics from the Imaginisce booth

My altered photo frame

That fun door hanging I showed on my blog last week

And a cute princess card

Now head on over to the Imaginisce blog and find out how you can win some Enchanted for yourself!

A Mother's Love: Unity Stamp Co. Scrapbooking kit release

It's time for the new Scrapbooking kit release from Unity Stamp Co. It's beautiful...it's perfect...it's SO Unity!

Introducing...

 I love this kit. It is SO perfect! I love butterflies and those flowers...I just can't say enough about this kit. Here's a little something I created.

 Supplies: Die Cut cardstock by Collage Press, Patterned Paper Basic Grey, die cut journaling tags Basic Grey. Martha Stewart double loop border punch and doily tag.

Here's a stamping tip...don't be afraid to stamp on patterned paper. I have done this many times and the result does turn out beautiful. I also like to layer my stamped images like I did here on the butterfly.

I also created a Mother's Day cad with this set and some Basic Grey patterned paper. I love creating with micro beads! I used some Tombow liquid glue on this Kaisercraft wood die to create a fun embellishment for my card.

Be sure and visit the Unity blog today to see what the Design Team created with this beautiful new release! Don't forget to check out where you can purchase this set.

Paper Pretties November Release Blog Hop

 Hello and welcome to the Paper Pretties November release party! I am so honored to have been asked to be a guest for this creative blog hop! If you haven't come here from Jackie Rakoski's blog then pop on over to the Paper Pretties blog to begin this fun new release blog hop.
I love Paper Pretties stamps not only for the beautiful images but the high quality of these fabulous stamps! Here's a little info about the NEW Paper Pretties:

“In case you haven't heard yet, Paper Pretties has a BRAND NEW owner.  Now located in Madison, WI, we are so pleased to offer you amazing customer service, faster and cheaper shipping, and a wider variety of stamping "must have" products to go along with all of our new stamps.I was excited to create with Paper Prettie's Thanks Snow much Sophia! Not only is the image adorable but I also love that it came with several sentiments. Here's what I created

 

 Supplies: Patterned paper Imaginisce Cottage Christmas collection. Paper Pretties Snow much fun Sophia stamp, Martha Stewart Double loops border punch, Spellbinders Lacey circle die, Stickles, misc Copic markers, Imaginisce snowflake crystals.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today for the Paper Pretties blog hop! Now head on over to Jana Weaver's blog to see the cuteness she has in store for you!!