Julie's Blogoversary Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on Julie's Blogoversary Blog Hop to Celebrate Friendship!  If you came here from Friends with Flair or Clear It Out Challenges, there are some fabulous crafty inspirations and some great blog candies along the way, so you may want to start at Julie's Blog to get in on all the good stuff!  You have until midnight on March 3!

We are celebrating a one-year blogoversary of Julie!  Julie is a fellow design team member of mine at Crop Chocolate and a really terrific gal!  To celebrate her blogoversary and her friendship, I created a couple of Unity projects.  The card is also being linked up to Clear It Out challenge (using two ribbons).

First, I inked up Maggie-girl!  Isn't she fabulous?!  (Tip of the day:  Cuttlebug A plates work really well as large acrylic blocks!)

I am going to give away a blog candy to someone who follows my blog and comments on this post.
The winner will be announced on Monday, March 4, so be sure to check back to see if it's you.  Part of the blog candy will be sharing in my obsession for twine!

These cards each have 5 yards of Raspberry Lemonade Timeless Twine on them and feature a SOTW stamp - Hello Pretty.  I'll give one of these cards (along with some stamps and other goodies) as blog candy.  The other has been sent to Julie (along with my Maggie girl card) to thank her for hosting this blog hop!

Now, off to the wonderful and fabulously inspiring Corrie's blog!

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

PS  Here's the order of the hop - in case you're lost :)


Julie Odil - http://muddypawsinkyfingers.blogspot.com
Rebecca Daniel - http://www.bloomingpink.blogspot.com
Polly Zastawnik - http://www.pazasproductions.blogspot.com
Rachel Anderson- http://kitchentablescrapper.blogspot.com
Mary Shrive - http://www.mkbugs.blogspot.com
Angeline - http://scrappyscrappy.blogspot.com
Miwa Lee (Chocolatier Miwa) - http://miwannascrap.blogspot.com
Brenda (centralnyscrapper) - http://centralnyscrapper.blogspot.com
Gwen Teerink - http://windchimesandlilacs.blogspot.com
Maria Levine - http://riacreations.blogspot.com
Christina McAdams - http://thriftysisters-chris.blogspot.com
Paula McClane - http://scrapaddictsattic.blogspot.com/2013/03/celebrate-friendship.html
Lucy Evans - http://littlescrapsoflucy.blogspot.com
Karen Nofziger - http://karey2005.blogspot.com  <-- YOU ARE HERE
Corrie Wagner - http://corriescrafts.blogspot.com  <-- GO HERE NEXT
Kary Lim - http://karyg.blogspot.com
Erin (CelticCrafter) & Ruth - http://celticcrafters.blogspot.com
Laura Sanchez - http://lauraannsbreakfastpizza.blogspot.com
Theresa Krout - http://inkyfingers1.blogspot.com

Let's Ketchup

I made this cute and simple card from one of my Unity SOTW.  A couple years ago, if someone would have told me that I'd stamp a bottle of ketchup on a card, I'd have never believed it!  ha ha

And fitting that I'm using a stamp that I never would have thought I'd use because I'm also using some paper that I really thought I had to have several years back!  Shopping our Stash challenged us to use our oldest designer paper.  Welllll, this brown polka-dot paper has been down at the bottom of the drawer for a VERY long time.  I have no idea what manufacturer made it and, frankly, no idea what I was thinking when I bought it, but I think it goes good with my ketchup stamp.

I'm also submitting this card to 3 Girls Jam Anything Goes with Ribbon challenge.  I just got an envelope full of fabulous crinkly ribbon goodness from 3GJ.  I am IN LOVE with this ribbon!  It certainly won't be at the bottom of my drawer for years to come! 

By the way, that ketchup bottle is covered with glossy accents.  Looks like a glass bottle in person!  Love it!

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Stamping Backgrounds

Crop Chocolate's challenge this week is to use a stamp for a background.  The challenge is inspired by the fabulous Jenni's project on The Crop!

I used Retro Sketch #7 as inspiration for this card.  Their challenge was to select any card sketch, and this one sang to me :)  Here's what I came up with using a couple of my Unity stamps!

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Boots

Last night, I organized my crafty space....and then I went to make my son a card.  He's in the U.S. Army - at basic training.  I'd purchased a fantastic "boots" stamp from There She Goes Stamps.  Well, I organized away my stamp-set!  Eek!  Eventually, after completely tearing up my room again, I found my stamp!  Woo hoo!  I LOVE, LOVE this stamp-set!  It's so perfect for creations for my son.  He told me that I can't send him cards while he's at basic, but he's almost done with his training - so I'm sending this one soon!
This card is inspired by the There She Goes Challenge this week!

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Swirly FWF Birthday

It's a Clear It Out Birthday Challenge (using two ribbons)!  It's Friday!  It's Unity's Friends with Flair time!  Woo hoo!

I used the Unity Fabulous Girl Itty-Bitty.  I love these little dresses.  They remind me of the dresses that I used to wear as a little girl....  I loved to swirl round and round to make the skirt swirl up.  

Here's hoping everyone has a happy swirly weekend full of delight.

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Googly Eyes

The Paper Girls Challenge blog asked us to use washi tape.  Some time ago, I bought a bunch of this and love the extra little pop that you can add to a page.  I used a sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday to come up with this card. I decided to use some rhinestones to highlight the washi tape.  I love this stamp of Unity - anytime I can add googly eyes to a project, it makes MY heart happy :)

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Getting Tipsy

After the last few days caring for the dear husband recovering from surgery, I think I'm ready for a drink!  MFP Simple Salutations said to make a wine or grapes themed card, and this was the one stamp I could find that fit that theme...

The paper is from Amy Tangerine sketch-book with an MFP card base.  I got the inspiration for my card from Retro Sketches. It doesn't fit exactly....but it's a great sketch.  Go check them out!

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Unity SO Cute

Unity's new inspiration challenge is ready.  This month, they provided a sketch or a color palette to use.  I decided to go with the sketch and one of my all-time FAVORITE Unity stamps.  You are cute!  This stamp is so stinkin' cute that you can't make a bad card with it.  The yellow design in the background is from their circles background stamp.

Did I say stinkin' cute?  :-)

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Miss You

Sketch Frenzy Friday provided a really great sketch and some terrific design team inspiration.  I scraplifted an idea from one of the DT in the start of my card....  Crop Chocolate's challenge this week is to use glitter (in honor of snow).  I live in Northern California, so it's practically Spring weather.  My nod to my snow-bound craftin' sisters is in the stickles in the center of the flower!

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Thanks

I sat down tonight to make my Unity Friends with Flair post, and I feel thankful.  I based my card on a stamp from Unity Thank You (at the least) and a sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday. 

So why do I feel thankful.  Well, today is Valentine's Day, and my dear husband got me some flowers.  No big deal, right?  Well, he injured himself pretty bad a couple weeks ago.  Tomorrow, he's going in for shoulder surgery.  At this point, it hurts him to walk, but he still managed to get his sore self down to the store for some tulips.  He must think I'm pretty special....and I am thankful. 

It's a LONG recovery from this kind of shoulder surgery.  Please send lots of good positive thoughts for my dear husband, Matt.

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Happy Birdday

Happy Birdday to my big brother!  (Tomorrow!)  He's a good guy, and he'll always be older than me, so that's good.  This is the card that he'll get tomorrow!

I made a second entry into Crop Chocolate's Woodgrain contest.  I used a sketch from Marks Finest Paper.  The paper is all purchased from Crop Chocolate (Carta Bella Traditions), and the stamp is from Marks Finest Papers!  The twist on the MFP challenge is to use multiple colors. 

I love the sentiment most.  Ha ha, makes me giggle!

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

My Boy at Boot Camp

I haven't been doing a lot of scrapbooking lately.  I don't know why...  MFP has started a new scrapbooking challenge, and this week is anything goes.  I had started this lay-out of my son at boot camp at a stampin' up event and decided to finish it up for this challenge.  I'm starting to grow a stash of MFP stamps, so next time I'll use one of those :)

This is my son, Brian - the last picture he sent me just before he started boot camp.  Pretty handsome guy, I think.  I miss him a lot, but I'm also very proud of him.

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Boots

Crop Chocolate's challenge this week is to incorporate some wood grain into our projects.  It's not a pattern I use very often, but it turns out that I had done it on an Anything Goes the week before.  I couldn't find another wood grain easily so I used it again on this challenge.  I had originally started making this background of wood grain chevron for an entirely different card, but it worked better to bring out my NEW boots stamp from There She Goes.  (My son is at boot camp, so this card and stamp are perfect for him...)

I'm also entering this card into Try Stampin' on Tuesday who provided an inspiration sketch!

I absolutely love those little boots!

Love Potion

MFP Simple Salutations challenge this week is to make a Valentine's Cards.  I haven't been feeling super inspired to make by Valentine's Cards this year.  Yes, I do know that it's less than a week away...  ha ha.  So, maybe it's time I got a few done for my loved ones.

There She Goes Inspiration challenge provided this bicycle delivering presents as an inspiration photo.  I had started out using my NEW TSG stamp set to make something with a bit of a grungy background, but the image needed to be bright and cheery that I decided to use that for a different card and brightened this one up.

The card base is from MFP.  The patterned and pink paper are FP Hopscotch.  The banner is also from Hopscotch.  The ribbon is inked-up seam binding ribbon.  They are my nod towards the grunge. *smile*

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

FWF Wood Stamp

I decided to indulge a "little" at Unity's Super Bowl sale.  As promised, with every order of at least $25, there's a free gift.  My free gift was this totally cool old-style wood stamp.  It's quirky and fun.  I paired the wood design in the middle with some Teresa Collins Now and Then paper that had a wooden background.  Add some flowers, ribbon and liquid pearls and look what ya get!

It isn't a stamp that I would have purchased for myself, but I'm really glad to have a chance to play outside my comfort zone!  I'm submitting this card to Crop Chocolate's Anything Goes challenge (my second entry!) and to Unity's Friends with Flair!

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Baby Blues

Scrapbook Steals said to make something with a baby blues theme, but I don't have babies, don't know anyone with babies, etc.....so I decided to make something with baby blue colors.  (Both the sky and the flower below...)  Hope it's close enough.  The flowers are made with my new flower quilling die.  I really like them :)

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Spring Flowers

So, it's beginning to feel a lot like Spring here in Northern California.  I'm participating in a "spring-themed" card swap, and the weather sure is pretty outside - loads of motivation.  (It's supposed to get up to 72 deg F today - it's shorts weather!!)   I sure love swaps because you always get someone's crafty goodness back. 

I used Marks Finest Paper for the card base, and the stamp is also from one of their collections.  I'm submitting these cards to Marks Finest Paper Simple Salutations Challenge (Anything Goes!) and to Tuesday's Alchemy (Anything Goes). 

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)

Hearts and Flowers

Crop Chocolate's challenge this week was to create anything, but they double-dog-dared us to create something using 100% Crop Chocolate's products.  I can do that.  These cards were made using Teresa Collins Now and Then paper and washi tape, EP red CS, Doodlebug Mini-Pearls and some lace. 

Shopping our Stash said to make something that was based on love, hearts, red or valentine.  

I love playing with the washi tape!

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)