Guest Designer for Top Dog Dies

Hello, friends! On my last post, "A little about me . . . ", I mentioned that I'd be back soon with an all-crafting post for a guest designer gig that I was super excited about. Well, the time has come!! I was absolutely thrilled when I was contacted a few months ago by Top Dog Dies, asking me if I'd be interested in guest designing for them. Boy, was I!!! Not familiar with Top Dog? Here's a little about them:

Top Dog Dies is a new online store that offers their own brand of wafer-thin and steel-rule dies, along with dies from brands you already know and trust, including Little B, Lawn Fawn, Taylored Expressions, Savvy Stamps and Cheery Lynn Designs. Top Dog Dies is also the leading U.S. retailer for Tattered Lace, a new line of intricate dies designed by British designer Stephanie Weightman.

The wonderful folks at Top Dog Dies sent me three fantastic die sets to play with--Top Dog Dies Birds & Nest, Top Dog Dies Vintage Alphabet, and Top Dog Dies Tag Album--and I couldn’t wait to get started with them.

I made three Top Dog Dies projects in all, and you'll find the first two over on the Top Dog blog today. One is a set of note cards and the other is a masculine birthday card. I hope you'll go and check them out!

My third project is a gift tag that I made to coordinate with a lovely box I picked up (on clearance!) at IKEA recently. I thought it would make the perfect gift box! I used the smaller tag from the Top Dog Dies Tag Album set and diecut letters from the Top Dog Dies Vintage Alphabet set to personalize it. The apple stamp and sentiment come from Unity's to the core! Itty Bitty stamp set.

Perfect for Mom's next birthday, don't you think?

And now, how about a giveaway?

Top Dog Dies is doing a guest designer giveaway for the whole month of August! The winner will receive $50 worth of exclusive wafer-thin dies of their choice from Top Dog Dies.  Enter HERE! Deadline to enter will be Sunday, August 31, 2014, at midnight Central Standard Time.

Thank you so much for dropping by to visit me today. Don't forget to visit the Top Dog Dies blog today to see my other Top Dog projects AND enter the Guest Designer Giveaway!!

Have a day filled with bliss!
Emily

Holly Jolly Christmas

If you came by my blog on Friday, you will recognize the gingham gift bag in today's project. Yes, it's true--I got a super deal on those kraft/gingham gift bags after Christmas last year at JoAnn Fabrics!! I'm having a blast finding different ways to dress them up. :)

So today's gift bag is brought to you by Purple Onion Design Rubber Stamps! I made this bag for my stint on the the P.O.D. 2013 Holiday Design Team. Sadly, it is my last official project for the holiday DT, but you can count on seeing many of the P.O.D. stamps I acquired again and again! Anyway, let's take a look at the gift bag:

I am so in love with Purple Onion's noteblock stamps! These subway art-style sentiment panels are very cool, and have been around long before they became "in" recently. The one I used on this bag is the Happy Holidays Noteblock. I also used the sweet snowman from the Hanging with Pete set, a sentiment from Handwritten Holiday, and the smaller frame from the Deluxe Labels set as my gift tag.

I stamped the noteblock and label with Crimson Red Versafine ink and colored Snowman Pete with Copic markers. A few red rhinestones and Martha Stewart holly leaf punches were the perfect embellishments!

I can't believe that we have just one week of school left before Christmas! I've got a lot to accomplish this week. Here's to being a merry and productive little elf!!

Thanks for stopping for a little slice of bliss!
Emily

More Holiday Treats

Today I'm continuing to share some of the projects that I've made as a member of the Purple Onion Designs 2013 Holiday Design Team. This December I'm making lots of holiday treats to give as gifts to teachers, friends, and neighbors. You've already seen my packaging for my homemade caramel corn and chocolate peanut clusters. Today I'm showing off more holiday treats. Let's start with some peppermint bark!

This is another super easy candy to make at home! And the results look (and taste!) so impressive. Once I've made my peppermint bark, I package it in small cellophane treat bags and slip it into one of these sweet little gift bags. I made it using a downloadable template for sale from DeNami Design. Simply print onto the back of a piece of patterned paper, cut, fold, and adhere. Done! I dressed up the tote with a fun tag I made with Purple Onion Designs rubber stamps: label from Vintage Journaling Set, Holiday Treats Logo, and Treat Word Set. Have I told you how much I love my Treat Words??? I've used them to label lots of candies and treats, but this set is perfect for cookies, too, with words like "linzer," "sugar," "gingerbread," "snickerdoodle," "thumbprint," and "shortbread." YUM!! So perfect for holiday baking!!!

I'm also making chocolate-dipped pretzel logs as edible gifts this year. Here's a peek at how I'm packaging them.

I'm using my beloved Treat Word Set again, of course! I also used the Homemade Treats Logo and the largest label from the Plain Jane Labels set.

How is your holiday goodie making coming along? We did the bulk of our baking last weekend, making our traditional stash of Christmas cookies that we'll keep for our own munching. We made (and decorated!) cut-out sugar cookies, holiday chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter blossoms, and satin-glazed date cookies. Everything is so delicious! I just love having a variety of cookies to indulge in :). You know, it's funny, we always do a ton of baking in December but do tend to keep it to ourselves. It just seems more practical to give candies and treats as gifts instead of cookies--I always feel like they are less likely to go stale than cookies (and who wants to receive a stale cookie as a gift???). And I'm not going to lie:  candy & treat making (or at least the ones I tend to make) require fewer ingredients and a bit less effort than cookie baking. And when you are mass producing for gift-giving, that really seems to pay off!!

I hope your day is going just swimmingly today! Thanks so much for dropping by for a little slice of bliss,
Emily

P.S. Just in case you are interested, here is my recipe for peppermint bark.

Peppermint Bark

1 14-ounce bag of Make 'n Mold White Vanilla Flavored Candy Wafers
7 candy canes, crushed

Simply melt the vanilla candy wafers in the microwave according to the package directions and then stir in the crushed candy canes. Pour onto a waxed paper-lined baking sheet and spread out out into a "puddle" of uniform thickness. Allow chocolate to harden at room temperature and then break into bite-sized pieces. No need to refrigerate!

For a different size bag of candy melts, simply use 1 candy cane for every 2 ounces of candy melts. So for a 12-ounce bag of candy melts, use 6 candy canes; or for a 16-ounce bag, use 8 candy canes.

Snowflake Thank You Note Gift Set

Good Monday morning to you! We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning--our first tracking snow! Only about an inch or so, really, but everything is white and pretty. The snow is to turn to sleet and rain later in the day, so I know this won't last, but still--it makes me happy to see it!

I'm going to celebrate by sharing a little snow-themed gift this morning! I made this snowflake thank you note gift set for the Purple Onion Designs Holiday Design Team. It's a set of six one-layer thank you notes with three each of two different designs. I used both gorgeous snowflakes heat-embossed in white, from the Vintage Snowflakes Set, both embellishments from the Vintage Journaling Set, and a beautifully scripted Thank You sentiment, all from Purple Onion Designs.

I slipped the set of notes along with six envelopes into a clear note card box and set about prettying up my packaging. I used the smallest label from the Plain Jane Labels set to make a gift tag just the perfect size for the "let it snow" sentiment from the Handwritten Holiday set. I decorated my tag with a little blue rub-on snowflake embellished with a tiny pearl. Finally I stamped the Merry Christmas tape from the Holiday Border Tape Set on a cardstock band to wrap around the base of the box.

And there you have it:  a snowy little card set all ready for holiday giving!!

I hope you have a fabulous day in your neck of the woods today! Thanks for stopping by,
Emily

Holiday Treats

Today I'm continuing to bring you ideas for holiday gift-giving using Purple Onion Designs rubber stamps as part of the 2013 Holiday Design Team! Today the team is focusing on holiday food gifts, and I have a couple to share.

My high school freshman daughter loves to give her teachers a little something at the holidays to say thanks for all of their hard work! She has 8 different teachers this year, so we had to come up with something that has a low cost but a big impact. We decided to go with small bags of homemade caramel corn this year, and here's our design for the packaging:

I decorated a small white paper bag by stamping POD's Candy Cane Background in red, topping the bag with a punched red border, and then centering an embossed label stamped with the awesome Celebrate the Season Noteblock over top of the whole design. So festive!

The tag I tied onto the bag of caramel corn was so easy to make! All I needed were the ever-useful Holiday Treats Logo stamp and accompanying Treat Word Set. I stamped the logo in red on white cardstock and then had fun stamping the "caramel" and "crunch" words to complete the package :).

Now, the last time I shared photos of my family's "famous" caramel corn, I had comments from readers asking how to make it. So I figured it's high time that I shared the recipe! Here it is:

Oven-Baked Caramel Corn

4 quarts popped popcorn (we usually use our air popper to pop about 1/2 cup unpopped corn)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Heat oven to 200 degrees F. Place popped corn in large ungreased roasting pan (I use our black enamel turkey roaster! Or divide popped corn between 2 rectangular 9" x 13" cake pans.) Heat brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt in saucepan, stirring occasionally, until bubbly around the edges. Continue cooking over medium heat for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat; stir in baking soda until foamy. Pour over popped corn, stirring until corn is well coated. Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

**********

We also like to give gifts of homemade candies to family and neighbors. My aunt particularly loves our chocolate peanut clusters, so she'll be getting a batch in the mail in a few weeks. Here is the packaging I designed with Purple Onion Designs stamps to dress up them up.

The plastic clamshell container is repurposed packaging from a dozen mini cupcakes I picked up at our grocery store's bakery recently. It's perfect for holding mounded peanut clusters! After whipping up a batch of peanut clusters to nestle inside, all I needed to do was decorate the package lid. I used these Purple Onion Designs rubber stamps: Homemade Treats Logo, Treat Words Set, the larger label from the Deluxe Labels Set, and the Happy Holidays border from the Holiday Border Tape Set.

Making these yummy chocolate peanut clusters is even simpler than the caramel corn! Here's my super-easy recipe:

Chocolate Peanut Clusters

1 14-ounce bag of Make 'n Mold Milk Chocolate Flavored Candy Wafers
2 1/4 cups salted peanuts (not dry-roasted)

Simply melt the chocolate candy wafers in the microwave according to the package directions and then stir in the peanuts. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Allow chocolate to harden at room temperature and then store in a covered container. No need to refrigerate!

**********

That's all I have to share for today! I hope I haven't made you *too* hungry ;). Don't forget about the Purple Onion Designs Christmas sale that's going on now:

Oh, and be sure to swing by the Purple Onion Designs blog today for lots more ideas for food from the POD Holiday Design Team! 

Thanks for dropping by!
Emily

Christmas Stamped Gifts

Happy December 1st, my friends! It's time to start those Advent calendars--what a happy time!

Today I'm bringing you a few more holiday gift projects as part of the Purple Onion Designs Holiday Design Team. Today the team is focusing on stamped gifts. I think I've mentioned before that I'm trying to make as many of the gifts my family will give this year as possible. First I have another item that will make a perfect teacher gift--what elementary school teacher ever has enough thank you notes?

I started by making a set of six one-layer thank-you notes, two each of three different designs using the super sweet Laurel, Filbert, and Elm characters from Stacey Yacula's holiday rubber stamp collection and a whimsical Thanks sentiment (#PF01), all from Purple Onion Designs, of course. Stamped on linen-textured cardstock and colored with Copic markers, these simple notes will be easy for a teacher to use and mail (with lumps, bumps, or extra postage!).

Next up--some packaging to make this gift extra special! I slid the notes and six envelopes into a cellophane treat bag and stapled on a hand-stamped bag topper created with a variety of Purple Onion Designs rubber stamps: an oval frame from the Vintage Journaling Set, the smaller flake from the Snowflake Set, a fantastic sentiment from the Handwritten Holiday Set, a pair of To/From sentiments for the back of the topper, and, of course, another sweet Filbert the Penguin!

 

Here's a little peek at the back of the package. You can see the tone-on-tone snowflake stamping a little better here, and there's the To/From sentiments that make this packaging gift-ready!

My fifth-grader is already excited to give this gift to one of his teachers!

For my second project, I'm sharing a snowflake Christmas ornament. I started by stamping the six-pointed snowflake from Purple Onion Designs' Vintage Snowflake Set and heat-embossing it in silver. After trimming it out, I mounted it on a snowflake diecut and blinged it up with silver Stickles and rhinestones.

I wanted to make my snowflake commemorative, so I stamped the date (using a retired mini alphabet/number set from POD) and a "Merry Christmas" sentiment from the Handwritten Holiday set on the back of the ornament.

Be sure to swing by the Purple Onion Designs blog today for lots more ideas for stamped holiday gifts from the POD Holiday Design Team!

Enabler alert!! Purple Onion Designs is running a Holiday Sale right now, with 25% off ALL STAMPS in the store! The sale runs through Tuesday, December 10, 2013. So be sure to check it out!

Thanks for stopping by today!
Emily

Winter Wonderland Notepad

Good Thursday morning to you, my friends! I'm so very pleased to be sharing my first holiday project as part of the Purple Onion Designs Holiday Design Team! This year I've vowed to make as many as the gifts that my family will be giving as possible. Today's project will be perfect for one of my son's fifth-grade teachers. It's a decorated note pad, created entirely with Purple Onion Designs stamps. Here's a look at the front cover I designed for it:

And now here are a few peeks at the pad I made to fit inside:

Yes, I made that little notepad inside myself! And it's actually super easy to do. First, I cut sheets of printer paper down to size (3" by 4") and then stamped each page with Carolyn Draws' Doodle Grid from Purple Onion in light pink ink. Next I went back and stamped each sheet with both snowflakes from POD's Snowflake Set in turquoise chalk ink.

When everything was dry, I simply stacked up the notepad pages, stacked them on a piece of tag board cut to size as a backing, and then applied four coats of PVA bookbinding glue along the top edge of the pad to adhere all the pages together. (Allow each coat of PVA glue to dry between applications.) All that was left to do at that point was create a cover and mount the pad inside. Done!! Additional Purple Onion stamps that I used for this project: Holiday Border Tape Set (on the front cover), Handwritten Holiday Set (inside), and the medium label from the Plain Jane Labels Set (inside).

Purple Onion Designs just released another collection of holiday stamps and stamp sets. And may I say that they are all fantastic! Here's a peek at one of my favorites, called This is December:



Awesome, right? And how about this cute set? This is Holiday Sweets:




You can see the entire release right HERE. You should go check them out!!

Oh, and Michele has also added a new mounting product called Tack 'n Peel to the Purple Onion Designs website. It's a cling sheet that is perfect for adhering to acrylic block handles for unmounted stamps. I've put this on my wishlist!! The link includes a video on how to use it, along with tips on other methods for stamping with unmounted rubber stamps. Lots of great information here!!

Thanks so much for stopping by to take a look at my holiday project today!
Emily

Good News!

Greetings, friends! I'm popping in here quickly to share a bit of good news: I just got word that I've been selected to be a member of this year's holiday design team for Purple Onion Designs! Over the next two months I'll be sharing holiday projects featuring Purple Onion Designs' fabulous rubber stamps. I have some fun decorations, gifts, and packaging all planned out and I can't wait to share them with all of you. I'm so excited to be part of it all!

Not familiar with Purple Onion Designs? I first discovered POD's unmounted rubber stamps a few years ago and have loved working with them. In fact, I've been published several times with POD stamps. Here are two projects featuring POD stamps that I had published in Northridge Publishing's Simply Handmade: Holidays 2012 issue last year:

Stamps:  USA map, star circle, and airplane from Road Trippin’ set by Purple Onion Designs

Stamps:  Vintage Journal Label by Purple Onion Designs

Purple Onion has tons of fabulous alphabet stamp sets, trendy subway-style noteblock stamps, cool vintage elements, and ultra-handy scrapbooking-themed stamps. Lots of variety! Sound intriguing? Be sure to head over to the POD website to take a look.

Right now Purple Onion Designs is promoting the release of a new line of holiday stamps from the very talented illustrator Stacey Yacula. Between them, Purple Onion Designs and Stacey Yacula are giving away two sets of her Winter Wishes collection and you can be a part of it! Check out the details on the Purple Onion Designs blog and Stacey's blog. The giveaway ends tomorrow (that's October 31, 2013) at midnight EDT. Be sure to swing by for your chances to win, and if you do, let them know that I sent you {wink}.

It's time for me to get back to work, so that's it for now. I hope you have a fabulous Wednesday!!

Thanks for stopping by and take care!
Emily

Guest Designing for Playing In Paradise #93

I'm thrilled to be the Guest Designer today for Playing In Paradise Challenge #93! The new challenge is to "CASE Yourself!"

Here's my card for today's challenge:

Sentiment stamp is from DeNami Design; toile cardstock is from Recollections

And here's my card from January 29, 2012, that I decided to CASE:

Sometimes simple is best, right?

This was a really fun challenge for me--I enjoyed looking back through my card posts to find something to CASE! I hope you'll try to play along--everyone is invited to play! There are no requirements or restrictions on what products you can use to create your challenge entry. Just check out the Scrapbooker's Paradise blog to link up. Challenge #93 is open until noon on Thursday next week.

Thanks for stopping by!
Emily

The Craft's Meow October Release Blog Hop

Happy Thursday, friends, and welcome to The Craft's Meow October New Release Blog Hop!!

I've been honored to have the opportunity to guest design this month along with the fabulously talented TCM design team. These ladies rock! After previewing the new release Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we've finally come to the release day for all six brand-new TCM stamp sets:

Christmas Angel
Hearth and Home

Winter Fibi & Lilly
Christmas Cheer

Holiday Foundations

O Christmas Tree -- free gift with a $50 purchase

Be sure to check out images of the full sets over on the TCM blog today!

OK, let's get down to business. If you are hopping along, you should have arrived here from the blog of Jennifer Cuthbertson. (If not, you can start the blog hop from the beginning over on the TCM blog.) And if you get lost along the way, the TCM blog has the complete blog hop listing.

Want to win all 6 new sets from TCM? To be eligible, you will need to visit and comment on each blog on the hop. The deadline to comment is 9:00pm PDT, Saturday, October 27, 2012. One lucky commenter will be chosen at random to win the entire October release!!

Now, here's my card for today's blog hop. I used images and a sentiment from the new stamp set, Christmas Cheer.

The patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye. Of course, I just had to add lots of stitching, and it was so fun to top my trees with little star-shaped rhinestones. The blue patterned paper I used for the middle panel has a subtle snowflake pattern, so I decided to play that up with tiny rhinestone centers on a smattering of flakes.

Thanks so much for dropping by today. And a HUGE THANK YOU to Lisa Hjulberg for the chance to be this month's guest designer for The Craft's Meow. I've had a blast!!!

Now, leave a comment before you go for a chance at that fantastic prize, and then head off to the blog of Jessica Fick next. :D

Have fun!
Emily

TCM October Previews, Day 3

This is my second post for the day.

For my DeNami Design Product Spotlight post,

please scroll down or click HERE. Thanks! 

Welcome to Day 3 of the October stamp release from The Craft's Meow! I'm back again today as the TCM October Guest Designer, and I'm sharing cards made with the last two sets of the six-set October release. Today I'm previewing Holiday Foundations and O Christmas Tree along with the TCM design team. I've gotta tell you, folks, the entire October release is fantastic, but I think that The Craft's Meow owner Lisa Hjulberg saved the best for last. These two sets are my favorites!

Let's start with Holiday Foundations. First, you need to know that this is a big 8" x 6" set. Second, it is filled with six fabulous 6-inch-long borders that may be used singly as bold borders or stamped repeatedly for easy-to-make backgrounds. There's also two over-sized holiday sentiments and four smaller companion sentiments. All of the graphic elements have a fun distressed feel to them. I can't tell you how excited I am about this set--it will be perfect for making quick and easy cards with maximum impact. Like this one:

When mass-producing holiday cards, I always love a great one-layer design, don't you? And pink and green are so fun for Christmas; I love the preppy feel. (For ink I used SU Pretty in Pink and VersaMagic Aloe Vera. The cardstock is Rustic White from PTI--a great match for the distressed look of this set, I thought.)

And now for the O Christmas Tree set, which is this month's free gift with a $50 TCM purchase. I've gotta tell you, this is one versatile (and super fun!) stamp set! Filled with all kinds of mix-and-match elements, plus lots of great words and sentiments, too. Here's what I made with it:

I love these colors for Christmas! And it was so much fun dressing up those trees for the holidays. :D (Ink: SU Pretty in Pink, VersaMagic Aloe Vera, VersaMagic Sea Breeze, Versafine Onyx Black, Ranger Antique Linen Distress; Paper: PTI Vintage Cream CS, SU Pretty in Pink CS, PTI kraft, My Mind's Eye patterned paper)

Be sure to check out the delightful creations that the rest of the TCM designers made for today's preview of Holiday Foundations and O Christmas Tree over on the The Craft's Meow blog. TCM is giving away a free copy of each of these sets today only over on the TCM blog. You won't want to miss this! For a chance to win, just head over to the TCM blog and leave a comment on today's TCM post by 9:00 pm Pacific tonight. Two winners will be randomly drawn and announced in tomorrow's TCM blog post. Good luck!

That's it for this month's release previews, but be sure to come back tomorrow for the October Release Blog Hop! You'll see lots of inspiration for this month's new stamp sets and can comment for your chance to win all six sets!

Have a great day--see you tomorrow!
Emily

TCM October Previews, Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of the October stamp release from The Craft's Meow! I'm back again today as the TCM October Guest Designer, and I'm sharing cards made using two more brand new sets. Today I'm previewing Winter Fibi & Lilly and Christmas Cheer along with the TCM design team.

Here's my card for Winter Fibi & Lilly:

This set has several delightful Christmas and winter images of Fibi and Lilly, but I thought the angel and coordinating sentiment could make a sweet thank you card for any time of the year! The label stamp I used comes from the TCM Timeless Tags set. (Cardstock: SU Bashful Blue and Not Quite Navy; Ink: SU Not Quite Navy, Versafine Onyx Black, Colorbox Frost White)

And now for a clean and graphic card using Christmas Cheer:

Not much to explain here! But I love how it turned out. :D (Cardstock: PTI White; Ink: Versafine Satin Red, Spanish Moss, and Vintage Sepia)

Be sure to check out the fantastic creations that the rest of the TCM designers made for today's preview of Winter Fibi & Lilly and Christmas Cheer over on the The Craft's Meow blog. There's a giveaway going on, too, and you can find out all about that over there as well. :D

Well, tomorrow is the last day of previews before the big release party on Thursday. I'll be featuring projects made with my two favorite sets from the October release. I hope you'll join me!

Until then, I hope you'll make time for a little bliss in your day!
Emily

Good News: I'm Guest Designing with TCM this month!

I'm SO happy to share that I'm guest designing for The Craft's Meow this month!! Somebody pinch me!! You can read all about it here. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

And today is the first day of previews for the TCM October stamp release. The TCM design team members (and that includes me!) are sharing creations made with two new fabulous stamp sets for Christmas:  Christmas Angel and Hearth & Home.

Let's take a look at what I made with the Christmas Angel set:

I took an understated approach with this set to let that beautifully detailed Christmas angel really shine! I embossed her in gold on a Night of Navy SU cardstock base. The "Glory to God" sentiment also comes from this Christmas Angel set. I stamped it in Night of Navy ink on Vintage Cream PTI cardstock and embossed a beautiful label (from TCM's Season's Greetings set ) around it in gold.

My second card for today comes from the Hearth & Home set:

There's a great selection of images and sentiments in this new set! I chose to focus on the parts that "jingle" ;). I colored the jingle bells image with my colored pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits and paper blending stumps. I just had to add some silver glitter for a bit of pizzazz!! The musical score background is digital paper that I recolored (it was originally black and white) and printed out from the Echo Park Hybrid Mini-Theme kit called Melody of Life. I would have loved to tie on some silver jingle bells with my button and bow treatment but discovered that all I had were gold!! Gotta put some silver ones on my shopping list . . .

Be sure to check out the fantastic creations that the rest of the TCM designers made for today's preview of Christmas Angel and Hearth & Home over on the The Craft's Meow blog. There's a giveaway going on, too, and you can find out all about that over there as well. :D

I hope you'll join me tomorrow for some more previews of new TCM stamp sets!

Until then, have a day filled with bliss!
Emily

Growing In Unity ~ Day 5: A Birdie Happy Birthday

Well, this is it--the last day of my Growing In Unity week. Boo hoo. It went too quickly! I will leave comments open for the prize drawing (any two Unity Itty Bitty stamps of the winner's choosing) until Sunday night, April 1, at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Remember that you can comment on any (or all!) of my Growing In Unity posts this week for a chance to win. I'll be back on Monday morning with a little more Unity/{ippity} goodness for your inspiration and a winner announcement.

I'm also very pleased to be featured today as Guest Designer over at Get Hippity With {Ippity}, a challenge blog highlighting {ippity} and Unity stamps. If you haven't played along with GHWI before, you should definitely check it out. There's a generous {ippity} prize for each challenge! The current challenge theme is Things With Wings. What a fun one! And I'm just delighted to be able to share my wing-y guest designer creation with you as my last GIU project as well as my Unity Friends With Flair project. It's been far too long since I've been able to play along with FWF!!

Let's take a peek:

Squeal! I just love that the lineup of sweet birdies from {ippity}'s Quotes a'la Happy kit are so much like the birdies in the My Mind's Eye patterned paper, from the Quite Contrary--Jack & Jill collection, that I used. I just had to color them, using my Prismacolor pencils, to match the patterned paper! The striped paper is also from the Jack & Jill collection. For those keeping score on my personal patterned paper challenge this week, that's my sixth different collection! I also used {ippity}'s How YOU Doin' kit for the happy birthday sentiment.

I think I may have some difficulty sending out this birthday card when it comes time, and I don't mean just because that big, fluffy bow will make for a challenging fit into an envelope!! I always make my cards with the intention of sending them out to family and friends, but I just love the way this one turned out and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to part with it. We'll see!

Thanks so much for stopping by this week to check out my Unity/{ippity} creations. I've had a blast--a week full of bliss, for sure. I've treasured each and every visit!!

Don't forget to come back on Monday to see who is the winner!
Have a great weekend,
Emily
PS I'm entering this in the Anything Goes Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp.

Guest Blogging on Do More With Less

Happy Tuesday! Today I am super excited to be guest blogging on Yvonne Yam's Do More With Less blog. YAY!! :DA HUGE THANKS goes to Yvonne for inviting me!! Yvonne always has the best papercrafting tips, the coolest projects (she ROCKS upcycling!), the most awesome embellishments, and the most fascinating guests. It's such an honor and a gigantic thrill to be featured there today! As part of my guest stint, Yvonne asked if I'd like to share a tutorial with her readers. I've been asked by many of my own readers about how I make the multi-loop twine bows (like this one) that I've been using on my projects for the past several months, so I decided to write a step-by-step photo tutorial on how I make them. You can find all the details in my tutorial over on Do More With Less today--so, if you've been wondering how to make a bow like this, I'd absolutely love it if you dropped by to take a look!

And, wait!! That's not all!! As Do More With Less guest blogger, I'm also sponsoring a challenge to go along with my tutorial. The challenge is to create your own project with a multi-loop bow made from baker's twine, string, embroidery floss, etc., and link it up over on Do More With Less. Here's the new multi-loop-bow project I created for my tutorial and challenge:


It's just a clean and simple little one-layer note card I made to thank a fabulous teenage pianist who shared his musical gifts at our church recently. That harlequin pattern comes from a brand-new DeNami Design cling stamp set, Modern Borders. I also used the Mini Music Notes stamp, All-Occasion Sentiments stamp set, baker's twine from the Spring Twine 3-pack, Deep Lagoon Versafine ink, and Onyx Black Versafine ink--all from the DeNami Design store.

And no challenge would be complete without a little prize, right? One challenge participant will be randomly selected to receive this lil ol' prize package from lil ol' me!


I hope you'll take some time to play along with my Do More With Less Guest Blogger challenge!! Be sure to link up your creation over on Do More With Less. I can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks so much for stopping by to see what's making me happy today!!
Emily