WINNER!!!

It was so much fun doing the Growing In Unity posts last week!! I can't wait to do it again! Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments...you really know how to make a girl feel special! :)

So, on to the reason why you are here...the winner of the two itty bitty's....

drum roll please............... 

SHARON G.!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Congratulations!!! 

Just send your address and your choice of any two itty bitty's from the Unity Stamp Co. site to me at  mycraftycreations@hotmail.com. 

Thank you for stopping by!

Love, Patricia

Growing in Unity: DAY 5

Today is the last day of my Growing in Unity time. :( The good news is there will be a winner posted in the next few days! Don't forget to leave a comment on here to be entered into the draw! You may just be the lucky winner!

Today I have a birthday card to show you. I made it for my dad since his birthday is at the end of the month.

I really like how this one turned out! I used the ippity set "Alphabetically Adorable" for the letters and the ippity set "How you doin" for the happy birthday sentiment. The patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket: circa 1934. The button came from a big bag of Walmart buttons and the twine came from Noelle! <-----You can order some by clicking her name. My inspiration for this card came from here. 

Well, it's been a fun week for me! I can't wait to do this again! And if you are interested in becoming a Growing in Unity gal check it out here for the information. 

Thanks for dropping in today and all week! 

Love, Patricia  

Growing in Unity: DAY 4

WOW! Day 4 already! Well, I'm happy to tell you all that the hurricane passed on by this area and, aside from some rain, we didn't get anything! YAY! Other parts of Newfoundland had some damage to property because of the VERY strong winds, but there were no deaths so all is good! :0)

On to my project! Today I have a card that I made for my aunt's birthday. Wanna see?

I used a piece of clear plastic for the mason jar, which is from the "December 2011 Kit of the Month" and it looks really nice...although this picture is doing awful things with it! I promise! It looks good in the flesh! I stamped it on the plastic (It was some sort of packaging material for something!) with Stazon and heated it a little with my heat gun...but it started to curl...which is probably what the camera is picking up. Then a drew some stems with my Crayola's, glued some ribbon from my stash around the neck of the mason jar and stuck it on the card. Then I embossed some flowers from the "Eco Chic" set on yellow paper with black embossing powder, cut them out, and added them to the end of the stems. I stamped the happy birthday sentiment from the "How you doin" ippity set on white card stock and matted it with black cardstock. A small piece of the same pink ribbon was folded and stuck to the back of the sentiment. Voilà! An aunt's CAS birthday card! :0) Inspiration for this card came from here. 

Remember to leave a comment for a chance to win the Itty Bittys (which I have found out is TWO Itty Bittys not ONE! Even better!) !

Thank's for stopping by!

Love, Patricia

Growing in Unity: DAY 3

Its my Growing in Unity day 3 which means this gig is half over. :( I'm sad to see it go...I've been enjoying doing these posts and getting lots of love for you guys! 

Speaking of love...today I have a scrapbook page to show you featuring one of the loves of my life (yes, I have more than one!!) and he is SO handsome! Here he is:

This was his very first day of Kindergarten and, of course, he had to be silly for our photo shoot! He did think this was the best day ever, so I thought the HUGE ribbon stamp from the "Summers Best" set would be a fine fit! And I included the "seriously best day ever" stamp from the same set for the center. The cute little crossword banner is from the Ippity set "The Best". I stamped two of them and clipped them on with an American Crafts brad. I also used my label maker to put his name on them. All of these colorful papers were, again, from the dollar store! Sometimes  you can find some awesome stuff there! 

By the way, this was a totally scraplift from someone else! You can see my inspiration here. 

You know the drill! Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered into the draw for the itty bitty at the end of the week! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Love, Patricia 

Growing in Unity: DAY 2

Welcome back for day two of my Growing in Unity turn! Today I have an anniversary card to share with you. My parent's will be married for 32 years on the 19th of September! So I made them this card:

Like most of my ideas...I totally stole this one from Pinterest! Go here if you want to see the original link. 

For this card I started with a piece of stationary that I have had for more than 10 years!! I bought it to use on my very first scrapbook page...which was the baby shower for my first born...and he will be 11 in January! YIKES! Anyway, I though the clouds went well with the theme. Then I drew the tree branch free hand using my good 'ole Crayola coloring pencils. For the owls I used the Ippity set "Wise Guy" and then gave them some cute googly eyes...and gave the girl owl some cute eyelashes and a cute hair sequin. I also added a little glossy accents to their wings and beaks. The banner came form the "You did it" set and I wrote happy anniversary in myself. I also used some twine that I got from the last  Growing In Unity girl, Noelle!

Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered into a draw for an itty bitty of your choosing and come back tomorrow to see a scrapbook page of a VERY handsome man! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Love, Patricia

Linky Party and Leslie!

Its official...hurricane Leslie is due to hit Newfoundland sometime tonight or in the early morning hours. I just hope it waits until my partner, Brent, gets home from work. Its a half hour highway drive and he has to do this at midnight so I hope he gets home safe and sound before the bad weather.

On a good note, its the Unity/Ippity Linky Party and I have something to share! Now, I have to warn you, I tried to emboss the sentiment and I really thought I might have to invest in a new glue pad...the embossing powder just would not stick once the heat tool got near! I have figured out how to do it now, though...emboss from the bottom, not the top! The powder stays put but melts just the same! SCORE!

Here it is:

I made this card for my grandfathers 94th birthday, which was just last week. I used some paper that I got in a grab bag of paper from Walmart a LONG time ago. I sanded the edges to give it some wear. Then I matted some white paper on brown and embellished with brads, twine, and a dog sticker. The sentiment that is horribly embossed is from the Ippity set : Party Hat Wishes. It is a wonderful stamp that I have used MANY times...my embossing did not do it justice at all!

Anyway, thank you for stopping in! And check back for the rest of the week because I'm the Growing in Unity gal this week! YAY!

Love, Patricia

Growing in Unity: DAY 1

I am the Growing in Unity girl this week and I'm so excited!!! I love Unity more than my 10 year old loves his Xbox360! And that's a love you can't mess with! Hee hee! Don't forget to leave comments on my blog posts this week. One lucky commenter will win a Unity Itty Bitty of their choice! How awesome is that! 

My nephew's 8th birthday party was yesterday...and it was a no-brainer on which stamp set I wanted to use for his card. "Hoppy Birthday" came to mind right away!

Isn't this an awesome set for a boy?! 

And here's the card:

For this card I used some bright, happy colors of paper that I got at the dollar store, a button I got in a big bag of various buttons from Walmart, and the twine is a Halloween themed twine from Doodlebug Designs. The image was stamped with StazOn black ink and colored in with Crayola Coloring Pencils. 

I hope you liked the card! Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered in the draw and don't forget to come back tomorrow to see more Unity goodness!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Love, Patricia 

31 Days to a Better Photo: Day 8-11

Its me again! More of the "31 Days to a Better Photo" series from "Life with my 3 Boybarians" coming your way! This time I looked at days 8-11, which included lots of useful information on exposure, scales, and metering. Did you know there is a meter on your camera in Manual mode that lets you know if you are using the right combination of ISO, shutter speed, and Aperture to get a good exposure?? You did? Oh...well, I didn't!!! This is all news to me! No more trial and error to get the right exposure! YAY! 

On day 11 we were asked to go play with the camera in manual to see what we can do with it...emphasis placed on looking at the meter. So, I found the most handsome model in the world and we had a photo shoot!

1/30 f/16 ISO 100

 1/250 f/5.6 ISO 100

1/200 f/14 ISO 400

Am I right?? Isn't he the cutest???

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia

31 Days to a Better Photo: Day 4-7

Hello! If you have been reading this blog over the last...oh...16 hours or so, you will see that I have been following the "31 Days to a Better Photo" series on "Life with my 3 boybarians" blog. Ok...perhaps its more like "been OBSESSED" with the series!!! But, its a good obsession since the program is great for beginner photographers, or people like me who have had a DSLR for a couple of years and STILL don't understand everything about it! 

I went through days 4-7 last night and was waiting until this morning to do the assignments. Yes! There are assignments!!! But, don't worry...these are FUN assignments! In these couple of days the topics that were discussed was ISO, Aperture, and Depth of Field. While I had a little understanding of these (and that is extremely little!!!) everything I THOUGHT I knew went out the window as Darcy (the fabulous lady who has these tutorials for FREE!) explained these very important topics VERY clearly. Its like I had one of Oprah's A-HA moments! It was finally clicking in! Why oh why did it take me so long to find this blog!! I would like to thank PINTEREST for helping me get there!!

Anyway, on to the assignment that would help us get comfortable with the depth of field. For this I had to set up my tripod and focus on my subject while changing the Aperture for each shot. This showed how the Aperture changed how blurry the background (the depth of field) was. I'll show you a few shots that I took.

1/2500 f/6.3 ISO 100

I know what your thinking...beer bottles?!?! But, they were close and they make GREAT subjects!! They don't move!!! 

1/1000 f/9 ISO 100 

1/800 f/14 ISO 100 

 1/250 f/22 ISO 100

 1/160 f/29 ISO 100

1/100 F/36 ISO 100

As you can see, as the aperture number increases, the clearer the background becomes and the bigger depth of field you have. I have learned something new! Awesome!

I may have another post ready to go up before the day is over! Make sure you stop back to see!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia 

31 Days to a Better Photo: Day 3

Wow! I con't believe this is my second post in less than an hour! I just really got into the "31 Days to a Better Photo" series over at the "Life with my 3 Boybarians" blog. 

Day 3 talked about shutter speed and how shoot fast compares with shooting slow. The task was to set my camera at the same ISO and Aperture and shoot using different shutter speeds. Just to get an idea of how it differs. I picked Nick's flower that he has been taking care of all summer as my subject. It is just starting to flower! Please ignore the background (my house!) because this was just an experiment shoot! Not taken for beauty! 

And here they are, using an ISO of 400 and a Aperture of 5.6 on my Canon T1i:

Shutter Speed: 1/10

Shutter Speed: 1/15

Shutter Speed: 1/25

Shutter Speed: 1/40

Conclusion: The faster the shutter speed the less light that gets in and the darker the photo will be. I am assuming that every shutter speed has a benefit based on the conditions...ie, the lighting, the time of day, ect. (I bet you can't guess that I have a science educational background and are used to doing labs, can  you? Hee hee!) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia 

31 Days to a Better Photo: Day 2

So, its been a long time since I have blogged...too long. I've had a few ups and downs over the past few months including two weddings (the ups!) and two deaths (the downs). One of those deaths was my grandmother...a woman that I have been close to all my life. We were more like friends than family and she meant the world to me. Because of losing her, I have had a difficult time doing the "normal" things in life...like keeping up with my blog. 

I am slowly coming back to reality...and my camera is helping me find my passions again. I figured there was no better way to get back at it then to continue on with the 3 days to better photo. 

Day 2 requires that you read your camera manual...and this was NOT easy! Can you say BORING! LOL! But, I did learn quite a bit about my camera, so that's good. There were buttons on there that I didn't use because I really didn't know what they were for. I also learned how to take a picture of a waterfall and make it look soft...I've ALWAYS wanted to be able to do that!! 

The truth is, I learned (by total accident!!) a few nights ago what cool photos you can get by using a slow shutter speed! Wanna see?

This one I left in color...I thought it was pretty cool! (This is my nephew, by the way!)

But I REALLY liked it in black and white!

And here is another nephew...

And my youngest (Nick) making "squiggles" with his sparkler.

The fire that we sat around...

And one of the sausages that got roasted...yummmmm!!!

Well, that's all I have for you today. Hopefully I will blog a lot sooner than last time! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Love, Patricia 

31 Days to a Better Photo: Day 1

I found a cool blog on Pinterest today! It is called "Life With My Three Boybarians" and they have a series on there called "31 Days to a Better Photo". 

I have had my Canon T1i SLR for about two years now and I am still not 100% comfortable using it in the manual mode. It something that I need to get used to. Something that I would love to be able to do. 

So, I have read the first day of this series and it posed two questions to think about: When did you realize how much you loved photos? What motivates you to love your images?

My answers to the questions are simple. I have always loved photo's. A camera is something that my family always had...even when times were tough. The first camera that I remember is an old Polaroid that my mom had. My brother and I loved taking pictures with it and waiting for them to appear on that hard black and white square! They weren't the clearest imges, for sure, but they were fun! We also had a 35 mm film camera that my mom used to take pictures of us all the time. I loved to flip through our family albums of pictures taken by various family members, some of them sent to us in the mail. I would always stop and look a little longer at the images that were really crisp, or the images that seemed artistic to me. Most of the time, the ones that caught my eye were of things that you wouldn't normally notice in everyday life. Bridge spans, rocks, things taken at different angles. They all appealed to me. And I think that would be my answer to the second question. I love images that are different than the norm. That's what motivates me. And I love pictures the brings out the beauty in people, animals and everyday life. 

The pictures here were just taken out in my front yard.  A big thanks to my little guy Nicholas and my big girl Daphney (named from the Scooby Doo cartoon!) for being good sports and letting me take their pictures! 


Thanks for stopping in!


Love, Patricia 

Summer Bucket List

I finally have decided to do a summer bucket list! Actually, I have decided to do two. One that we can use as a family and one just for me. The second one I am hoping to have filled with relaxing things, crafty stuff, and DIY projects.

I asked the kids to help me with the family bucket list and here is what we came up with so far:

1. Go to the beach
2. Play at nanny's
3. Go geocaching
4. Have a water balloon fight
5. Go to Riverview (a local place on the river where we swim and have a fire)
6. Go to mommy's beach (where my families cabin is...I always refer to it as my beach!)
7. Go to the Insectarium  (this is a place that have live insects as well as a butterfly tent)
8. Go see the Alpaca's
9. Go to Corner Brook (a larger town about 2 hrs away)
10. Go see a movie 
11. Go bowling
12. Walk to boardwalk
13. Go camping
14. Hike Starlight Mountain
15. Have a Nerf War 
16. Go yard sailing
17. Go on Seadoo's
18. Make cookies together
19. See the caves in Corner Book
20. Go to the Heritage Tree in Deer Lake
21. Go to Shipwreck Cove
22. Go to Rose Blanche
23. Go to Winters Pool
24. Host a BBQ

Most of the places we want to go to are only short drives from our house. No more than an hour. We are not done with our bucket lists yet. I think I would like to have a rainy day list as well. 

I will post the the rainy day list as well as my bucket list as soon as I get them figured out!! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia 

June Blog Hop!

Wow! Is it June already??! Its hard to believe that! Soon, my oldest will be finished Grade 4 and will be home for the summer. Then the "fun" begins! The MOM I'M BORED!'s and the CAN WE GO TO THE BEACH?'s and the fighting and the screaming...Is it September yet? LOL!

So, since it is June, WELCOME TO THE IPPITY JUNE RELEASE BLOG HOP! You should have gotten here from Jennifer's bog. If this is your first stop you may want to go on over to Ippity Blog to start off so you don't miss anything!

Here is the list of participants in case you get lost!

{ippity} blog 

mary - mary's creative journey

rona - a little inspiration from rona

jennifer -  mitten's papercrafting

patricia - my crafty creations **you are here**

barbara - {ippity} do da

andrea - ippity stamps 4 you

jenmarie - taylor-made by jenmarie

angie - {stampsings of the shug}

christine - christine's creative therapy

cheri - the paper freak

heather f. - i heart {ippity}

maria - ria creations

rebecca - blooming pink

noelle -noelle scraps alot

aletha - aj's designs

lisa -  schnauz scraps

cyrstal - crystal's craft corner

{ippity} blog 

On to my project! To tell you the absolute truth, time has been something that has been scarce in my life lately. I'm not complaining, though! I've been getting things done! So, I looked at the new releases to see what I could use quick with the little time I had. I saw the little guy from the "What's Cooking?" set and knew right away I had to use him! So, I colored him, cut him out and stuck him on a cute 6X6 DP to use in my recipe book! I think it turned out pretty good!

If you want to order some Ippity goodness, you can go to the Unity Stamp Co. site and order or you can send me an email at mycraftycreations@hotmail.com and I will help you get what you need!

Now, hop over to Barbara's blog to see what she has created!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia

BIG SALE!!!!!!

Go to http://www.unitystampco.com/shop/48-ippity-by-unity.aspx to shop now!!!! 

It Ippity/Unity Release Day!!!

Hi! Welcome to the May blog hop for the new {ippity} by Unity stamps release! Aren't you excited? I know I am! OK! If you just started at this blog hop and you would like to start from the beginning, here is the list of participants:

{ippity} blog 

rona - a little inspiration from rona

rebecca - blooming pink

susan - paper and joy

sabrina - ippity online

maria - ria creations

barbara - {ippity} do da

jennifer -  mitten's papercrafting

noelle -noelle scraps alot

andrea - ippity stamps 4 you

joan - tails in the stamp room

jenmarie - taylor-made by jenmarie

heather f. - i heart {ippity}

lisa - schnauz scraps

patricia - my crafty creations *you are here*

jen - jens cup of creations

angie - {stampsings of the shug}

{ippity} blog 

 And here is what you have been waiting for...the NEW STAMPS!!!!

This first one is the full kit that [ippity} is offering this time called "courage is my strength". It includes 5 beautiful stamps!

This itty bitty is called Java Friend and is has a nice big mug and and a beautiful sentiment stamp.

Here is another itty bitty for you! This one is called "Live Half Full" and would be do cute used in a number of ways! As a pick me up, as in invite for your friends, the possibilities are endless!

This Itty Bitty is called "One of Those Days" and includes a cute little bird on a wire and two sentiment stamps.

And last, but certainly not least, is the Itty Bitty called "Pain and Strength". What I really like about this one is that the tree has cause ribbons in it so, depending on the colors you use, you can alter this one to fit whatever cause you want. I think this tree is probably my favourite out of all this release stamps!

And here are a few things that I did with these stamps.

This set is the "Java Friend" set. For this one I colored the image with my Crayola coloring pencils and used some Perfect Pearl Mist from Ranger just to get a bit of glimmer on the mug. Then I glossy accented the swirl on the mug...but you really can't see it in the picture too well.

This card was made using the "Pain is Strength" set. Did I mention how much I love that tree? (In case I didn't...I LOVE THAT TREE!!!!)

 This was the quickest of all three to make!  It took me less that 5 minutes to cut the sentiment out, distress it a little with my Distress inks, stick the little flower feltie on, and add some ribbon. I really like how this one came out!

And that's it for me! You can get these stamps and any other {ippity} or Unity stamps by going to the Unity Stamp Co. website and ordering from there! If you want me to hook you up with some {ippity} just send an email along to me and I will see what I can do for  you! Visit my sales blog (which is going though some construction right now!) for more info!

Now, hope on over to Jen's blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia 

Ippity Love Hop!!

Happy {ippity} release day!!  Do you want to have some fun and hop along with the {ippity} chicks today?  If you do, you should have started at the {ippity} blog.  If you didn't, then head on over by clicking on the image above and start from the beginning!

I would have loved to use my new stamps for this hop....unfortunately something came up and I didn't have the time to make any creations.. =O(  My poor stamps have not seen ink. But, I do have a creation to share with you that I made for a swap recently.

This may not show the typical LOVE you were expecting, but if you love birthday's then you will love this tag! I used the "Cuppy Cakes" ippity set, which you can get over on my sales blog or directly from the Unity Stamp Co. website!

There you go! Short and sweet! Next on the hop is Andrea. Make sure you leave some love for her on her blog, Ippity Stamps 4 You!

{ippity} blog

angie - {stampsings of the shug}

crystal - crystal's craft corner
susan - paper and joy
lisa - schnauz scraps
sarah - the joys of creating
rona - a little inspiration from rona
maria - ria creations
anita - anita be stampin
barbara - {ippity} do da
jenmarie - taylor-made by jenmarie
rebecca - blooming pink
patricia - my crafty creations **you are here!**
andrea - ippity stamps 4 you
joan - tails in the stamp room
cheri - the paper freak
nancy -  http://jeansinkyhugs.blogspot.com/
jen - mitten's papercrafting
noelle -noelle scraps alot
sherri - sharecroppers kits
mary - mary's creative journey
jen - jens cup of creations

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia

AWESOME SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is FINALLY here! The day you have all been waiting for!!!! You can now purchase Ippity stamps online at the Unity Stamp Co. site!!! Isn't that awesome??!!! And...wait for it....it gets even better! Until Saturday you can get your stamps for 39% OFF!!! Just type ANG39 into the coupon code section...that's it! Plus, you can add Unity Stamps to your order and get 39% off those too! You can't ask for any better!!

Here is a link that will take you to the site: http://www.unitystampco.com/shop/48-ippity-by-unity.aspx

If you start of by going to the Unity Stamp Co. site and not taking my link, just click on "{ippity} - ORDER on the UNITY WEBSITE! (193)" and scroll down until you find your favorite Ippity Chick...I hope you choose me!

Now, here as some things that you can make with those beautiful Ippity stamps!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia