Dot & Whimsy : May 2012

Girly Land

Happy Friday, peeps!

It's my day to share with you a little creation using

Unity Stamp Co. and Webster's Pages

GIRL LAND COLLECTION

That's right...not only can you have the beautiful papers, stickers,

trim and bling from Webster's, but you can also pair them up with

wonderful red rubber stamps from Unity that match Girl Land just perfectly.

For my project, I went with a layout of Syd and two of her besties :)

This is just a peek of it...hop on over to the Unity Blog to see a full photo, plus
other projects created by the Unity Design Team!

I used the Bubbles Unity Stamp, and everything else (with exception to the felt circles

and paper flowers) are from the Webster's Collection!

**PRIZES**PRIZES**PRIZES**PRIZES**

Will be given away...just leave a comment for each day of the blog hop this week.

I appreciate you dropping by!

girl land I Heart Ippity live half full totally terrific thursday unity blog hop webster's pages

It's All Good

This Thursday let's look at things

Half Full

instead of half empty!

I've used the cutest stamp from Ippity.

I can imagine making several tags and labeling pitchers

of various flavored drinks with them.

LIVE HALF FULL
IPPITY-IB-018

Aside from stamping the image onto white cardstock, I also stamped the

fruit onto a yellow dot paper and then trimmed out. I colored in the juice with

a watercolor pencil and the fruit and straw with Zig markers.

Green scalloped tag by Jillibean Soup.

I'll be back tomorrow with my contribution to the

Unity Stamp Company and Webster's Pages Blog Hop

We'll be showing off the new and girly Girl Land Collection!

As the banner says, come and visit...leave comments and you'll be in

the running for some beautiful prizes :)

See you all tomorrow!

cards challenge every breath my scrapbook nook Unity Stamp Company

Nook Soup!

Happy Wednesday!

I have my last CARDS Challenge for the month up at

My Scrapbook Nook

For this week's challenge, I roped in members of the Nook Forum

to help cook up a unique soup.

Here are the ingredients to choose from:

1. TWINE
2. BUTTONS
3. BUTTERFLIES
4. DECORATIVE EDGE
5. MIST
6. STAMPED SENTIMENT
7. STICKERS

Just use any FIVE on your card and use a Nook Kit.

I've used the May {This & That} Kit by Echo Park

For my card I used twine for stitching the buttons, butterflies, decorative edge,

stamped sentiment, sticker strip and mist.

Stamp sentiment (Every Breath) by Unity Stamp Co.

Simple and sweet...my kinda card :)

See you all tomorrow and as always, thanks so much for stopping by today!

girl land unity blog hop webster's pages

Webster & Unity GIRL LAND Blog Hop!

It's all starting today!

The Webster's Pages and Unity Stamp Company

GIRL LAND BLOG HOP

So many cute projects brought to you by

the two Design Teams and centered around the

Girl Land collection by Webster's Page and Unity! Yep, Unity

carries the most adorable background stamps that match Girl Land just perfectly.

Come on over to the Unity Blog to get more details...chances to win

from both companies!

I'll be up on Friday...can't wait to show you my sweet Girl Land layout :)
Thanks for stopping by!

imaginsice jewelry magni-top makin waves necklace

Jewelry With Imaginisce

Did you know that Imaginisce

carries a variety of alterable jewelry, headbands and hair clip pieces?

Dream of opening up your own little accessory shop on Etsy?
With Imaginisce, designing and creating jewelry has never been easier!

This week at the Imaginisce blog, the Design Team will show you

the many ways to create with the Magni-Top portion of the I-Top line.

Like to win your very own collection?

Just visit the blog each day and leave a lil 'ole comment :)

Here's my contribution

For the pendant, I printed my daughter's name onto a piece of Makin' Waves
patterned paper. After attaching the paper to a Large Magnet Daddy, I covered
the entire top with Liquid Glass...I love the sheen that it gives to the pendant!
I topped it with a few pieces of colorful ribbon, a bit of baker's twine and a pearl
attachment that once belonged on a bracelet.
With the Magni-Top Jewelry, you can interchange the pieces whenever you like!
Don't forget to stop by the blog...and good luck at winning!
Have a wonderful day!

EAD Designs Monday Blog Hop and Giveaway patriotic stickerz

God Bless the USA

Good Monday and Memorial Day

First I would like to thank all of the service men and women who have served

and do serve our country. It's only because of your sacrifice and God's grace

that we live in the comforts of FREEDOM!

And HAPPY 44th Birthday to my hubby...who always seems to have a nice long

weekend to celebrate his birthday LOL

Now, let's do a little celebrating with the

EAD DESIGNS MONDAY BLOG HOP & GIVEAWAY

You should be arriving here from the very talented Rose of

Rose's Happy Place...if not, be sure to click here so you don't miss a thing :)

For today's assignment, I wanted to represent Americana.

Since Memorial Day is the unofficial kick-off-to-Summer, and because I LOVE

all things red-white-and-blue, I decided on this

I used the whimsical hat and star Stickerz from Patriotic Party

I applied the Stickerz to white cardstock and then trimmed out. I like to do this

if I'm planning on popping up the Stickerz images with foam dots.

Check out the huge assortment of Stickerz at EAD Designs...

those, along with Rubons alway ship FREE!

Now, off to see what the creative Amy has in store for you today.

Thanks for stopping by!

SOTW thanks Unity Stamp Company

Thank You!

It's Sunday and that means

Stamp of the Week time at Unity Stamp Company

This week's stamp:

I paired up the sweet stamp with elements

from Simple Stories and a bit of October Afternoon.

This came together rather quickly. I stamped the image

three times onto yellow, green and red patterned papers, then carefully

cut out with a pair of micro-tip scissors. After assembling the pieces and

adhering to the Simple Stories journal mat, I embellished with a bit of

jute and wooden buttons.

The Unity SOTW blog is loaded with lots of cute ideas for this stamp!

$5.79 per week gets you the exclusive SOTW directly from Unity...

and that includes shipping ;)

---------------------------------------

I have a full week's worth of projects on hand for the upcoming week, so stay tuned.

See you then!

Authentique Design Team Annoucement

Authentic and Unique Opportunity!

When I received an email a couple of weeks ago from

Emily Lanham, the new Authentique Design Team and Social Media Coordinator,

asking me to join their Design Team, I pretty quickly said YES!

And I really had no other plans of joining anymore Design Teams for now, but...
always the BUT...

but having just recently purchased some of the newer Authentique products, and

having fell in love with the superior quality of their papers and stickers, I couldn't let

this dream opportunity pass me by :) I even told Emily, "I really don't

'scrapbook' much...I'm a papercrafter and cardmaker more or less"

She said that was exactly what they were looking for...lots of

altered artsy stuff, home dec projects, cards, etc.,

which is so authentically and uniquely ME (get it? hehehe)!

I will be crafting alongside two other newbies to the group (and two fellow DT'ers all ready):

Guiseppa Gubler and Angie Blom, as well as veterans: Heather Conklin, Natalie Dever,

Emily Lanham, Janeen Shember and Loes DeGroot.

One of my first assignments will be using one of the newest collections: FRESH!

Fresh is described as:

Our Fresh collection is reminiscent of the olden days of summer, celebrates sandy
toes and invites ocean-blue water. As the sun warms the soul and
refreshes the mind, so also, this line is soft and relaxed, creating the exact emotion
one hopes for when laying on the beach. Hints of red pop in and out, warming the
cool blues and neutral tones.

For an up close & personal look at FRESH, you can visit Authentique or the

Authentique Blog :) If you haven't experienced Authentique, then I hope you'll

give it a try! Holding their papers in your hands can't hold a candle to simply

seeing them in a photograph.

That's all for today! I couldn't wait to share my news with you all!

Until tomorrow...TTFN :)

Unity Memorial Weekend

Unity Stamp Company knows how to celebrate!

In honor of MEMORIAL DAY, they're having a sale...

a big sale.

(Just click on photo to take you directly to SALE items)

**Begins today at 1:30 PM and will end Sunday**

We thought we'd share it early so that you can get your shop on before

the festivities of a fun-filled weekend ensues!

It's a great time to stock up on Unity Stamps!

Have fun shoppin' and savin'

and

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

to my US friends :)

cards challenge echo park this and that my scrapbook nook

Give Them An Inch...

...and they'll take a yard!

I love that old saying.

It's the theme for my CARDS Challenge at

My Scrapbook Nook

this week :)

For the month of May, we've enjoyed the beautiful collection of

Echo Park Paper's This & That. One of the papers is lined in different colors

and sizes of yard sticks, or rulers. I love it! With that design in mind, I thought this

would make a great challenge. I sought out several photos

from Pinterest and Etsy. I'm not showing all of the inspiration photos here, but you can

check out the entire challenge at our Nook Blog or on the Forum.

Inspiration Photo:

My Card:

These butterflies from Maya Road are cute. Since they're canvas, you could mist them,
paint them, stitch on them, etc. I decided to leave them plain. But because they're not
really stiff and I wanted the wings to 'stand-up', I inserted a brad through the center
and then pointed the prongs upward...this made the wings stand up just as I wanted!
I love this card...it has so many great textures, yet it's simple <3
----------------------------------------------------
Thanks for visiting me today :)

000 celebration on facebook 10 imaginisce teacher appreciation week

Teacher Appreciation

At one time I thought that I wanted to be

a school teacher...seems to be a lot of little girls' dreams, right?

I started out my first year of college with the 'basic' courses

geared towards an education degree. Quickly I learned that I

didn't think this was the route for me career-wise! And since I have been

a substitute teacher and school nurse I know that I made the right decision LOL

So, kudos to all of those wonderful teachers out there...you really deserve it!

To celebrate the ending of another school year,

Imaginisce

is recognizing educators with

TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK

For my project, I went straight to SVG Cuts and grabbed

a file for the sweetest apple container.

For the inner part of the container, I used one of the

HELLO CUPCAKE papers with the blue/white polka dots on the back.

For the stem, also a paper from HELLO CUPCAKE.

The stars were punched from the sunny print from MAKIN' WAVES.

I also used the star punch to create the dove-tails on the ends of the banner strips.

And what would an Imaginisce creation be without a Brad Daddy?

I dressed up a medium brad with a scrap of gingham fabric.

After assembling, I trimmed out the apple shape (front only) with

Maraschino Baker's Twine by The Twinery :)

And have you heard the word?

Imaginisce is only a few hundred LIKES away from 10,000!
If you don't all ready 'like' Imaginisce on Facebook, then please come by
simply click "like"...once we reach 10,000, we're gonna have a par-tay!
Tons of goodies and prizes to be had!

That's all for today...later y'all!

cupcake stamp of the week Unity Stamp Company

More Than Cupcakes?

It's Stamp of the Week time with Unity Stamp Company!

Lovin' this so-sweet-you'll-get-a-tooth-ache stamp set

I like the stark look of the white journal heart on hop of the distressed

manila tag and distressed/stamped images...doesn't it POP?!?

Quick, quick, quick tag...just stamp the cupcake image onto three

different scraps of paper; trim out and assemble!

Now, you can only get this sweet set this week, as with all of the SOTW

Check out the details here:

STAMP OF THE WEEK

Unique stamps mailed to you each and every week for only $5.79/mo.
and that price includes shipping ($7.79 Internationally)

As always, I really and truly appreciate you stopping by!

And I haven't forgotten the giveaway...just getting as much fun stuff rounded up

as possible so that it's tha bomb ;)

Authentique EAD Designs Monday Blog Hop and Giveaway Unity Stamp Company

Monday EAD Blog Hop

What a great weekend...I got so much accomplished

and I absolutely love the feeling of accomplishment :)
Let's start this Monday off with the

EAD Designs Blog Hop & Giveaway

You should be here from the very talented Rose's blog,

but don't forget to start out at EAD to see the giveaway!

I'm a little stuck on hot air balloons it seems!

This is the third project that I've created with the balloon motif on it

in the past week. But I love them...they're happy.

I used the Vintage Treasures and Birthday Sentiments Stickerz

I applied the clear Stickerz onto a patterned paper and trimmed out!

Patterned papers by Authenique

Stamp by Unity Stamp Co.

**STICKERZ and RUBONS SHIP FREE WITH EAD**

Now it's off to Amy's wonderful blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by...I'll be back in a bit!

bella blvd Dot and Whimsy mini album paper bakery sunshine and happiness

Love is all that matters

I managed to squeeze in a mini album this week.

These sweet Bella Blvd papers from the May Paper Bakery kit just kept staring

at me and I just had to use them!

{THE LOVE IS ALL THAT MATTERS}

Sydnee had a few Valentine's cards left over and I couldn't resist these chipmunks :)

The colors match perfectly with the Sunshine & Happiness papers.

Here are a couple of the inner pages...you can see all of them here.

I have it listed at Dot & Whimsy at Etsy.
Thanks for visiting...hope you're having a nice and relaxing weekend :)

bingo cards cards challenge echo park this and that I Heart Ippity my scrapbook nook Vintage Street Market

Happy Friday!

So I actually got out of the house today.

(I'm the type that can spend days at home and never get bored!)

I went and visited with Michi at Scrapbooker's Emporium

in Texarkana and will be teaching my very first mini album class

there in August :) I can't wait!

Then I went to Wal-Mart...I hadn't been in close to two months; seriously.

I came across two friends who were shopping. They both said the same

thing "I'm just trying to get my stuff and get outta here!" I guess a lot of us share that

same disdain for stepping through the doors of Wal Mart LOL

But it's done. Thank the Lord, it's done.

Now on to scrappy stuff!

I had the best intentions of blogging my other projects that were

featured here and there yesterday (and Wednesday!), but I just didn't get around to it.

So, here we go...

I HEART IPPITY

I have been in love with this stamp ever since I laid eyes on it

and can't believe that I'm just now getting around to using it:

BE BRAVE...BRANCH OUT

IPK-153

I used my watercolor pencils and Zig markers on this one.

And the best part? I dug waaay back into my paper collection and brought out

some old Basic Grey...I love to use up the old stuff!

You can order Ippity (Unity Brand) Stamps here:

http://www.iheartippity.com

MY SCRAPBOOK NOOK

For this Wednesday's CARDS Challenge, I went with a sketch.

Once again, I am a self-proclaimed pretty-pitiful-sketch-artist...but hey, I try hehe!

I've really enjoyed working with the Echo Park This & That Collection

this month...both the masculine and feminine sets are drool-worthy.

I wanted to carry the 'cloud' motif up towards the top of the card, so I hand-cut

these two clouds from cardstock and then embossed.

I made this one for my son, who'll be graduating two weeks from today :)

Both cards were quick and reinforced my love of using sketches!

A hint for June's Nook Kit? It has to do with SIMPLE and FRESH...hmmmm?

VINTAGE STREET MARKET

I've said it before and I'll say it again...I.love.these.BINGO.cards

You can get a huge collection pack of 'em directly from VSM!

This collage art is layered with lots of vintage goodness.

I have several photos and details up on the blog.

And this is the card that I made for my mom for Mother's Day...she loved it :)

Most every single thing on both projects came from Vintage Street Market!

http://www.vintagestreetmarket.com

I'll upload the newest mini album that I made tomorrow.

Off to grab a bite to eat and relax.

Enjoy your weekend!

Banner hello cupcake imaginisce svg cuts treat bags

Graduation and Cupcakes

It's Thursday all ready...wow!

Today is the last day of high school for my oldest son, Tyler.

Bittersweet.

We were excited to find out that he received a Leadership Scholarship

to the university that he'll be attending this Fall. What an answer to prayer!

And I didn't mention before, but he also received the
Bear Varsity Football Leadership Award
and
Varsity Baseball Defensive Player of the Year
at the Athletic Banquet last week.
Eh-hum, in our family we don't call it being a leader, we call it being BOSSY haha!
But we're so proud of him nonetheless :)

(and excuse the shirt...he was in a hurry and didn't have time to properly press it. I almost crawled
under the table when he walked in lookin' like that...ugh)

Now, onto really important stuff like...
HELLO CUPCAKE
from
Imaginisce

It's HELLO CUPCAKE Release Week at Imaginisce Blog...and Release Week means
that there's a giveaway in store :) Stop by the blog and leave a comment on this week's projects
featuring Hello Cupcake...you just may receive the entire collection for your very own!

PARTY TREAT BAGS

By taking a simple 6x6 sheet of patterned paper, I made these cute and functional goodie bags!

Hint: Score your top at 1" and fold over to showcase the other pattern; trim with handmade crepe fringe or other trim. Bags measure 2.75"W x 5" H. And not many projects get by me these days without using the i-top punches to create whimsical embellishments.

I printed out several Thank You's on white cardstock and trimmed to create the

little banner. I use a star punch to create the dovetail on the ends!

The fringe? Why, it came from my Dot & Whimsy Etsy Shop of course :)

When scoring your papers, score at 1 1/2" and 4 3/8"; this will make your bag

approximately 2 3/4" across.

To finish off, I embellished with party hats that I hand-cut from one of the patterned papers.
I topped them with mini pom poms. For the handles, I used a very small gauge pipe cleaner.

HOORAY BIRTHDAY BANNER

I know, I know. This is the only place that I could find to photograph the banner in its
entirety and with good lighting! But I have several up-close pictures
to share so that you can visualize HELLO CUPCAKE's abilities

I used an inexpensive pre-made banner from Hobby Lobby, which included
12 panels sewn together. I cut the banner in half; decorating the first six
and then gluing the plain banners to the backs after finishing. This made the
banner extra sturdy and hid all of my sewing :)

I tinkered around with some scratch paper to create the inset for the banner,

before cutting into my 'good' paper :) After machine

stitching, I outlined the paper in baker's twine and then embellished each one with

letters and scalloped created from an SVG file (svgcuts.com)

Hello Cupcake is loaded with the cutest Sticker Stackers and die-cuts...you will want

to eat 'em up! And of course, I couldn't resist a few polka-dotted buttons!

In finishing, I covered the white sating binding holding the banners together
with an orange grosgrain ribbon!
Now isn't this just a bunch of yumminess?
Hello Cupcake is the perfect collection for any of your party planning and layouts!

**Don't forget: Comment on each day's posts this week at Imaginisce**
http://www.imaginisceblog.com

I'll be back a little later on to share a few cards with you
(need to let my fingers rest LOL)
Thanks for coming by!

Dot & Whimsy