Happy Birthday to Me!!

Well ok, not to ME per se, but to my blog!! Today is my "blogiversary"! I've been blogging, albeit intermittently, for SEVEN years now. Wow. That's a long time, if you think about it. Sadly I haven't had time to create a new card to post to celebrate, so instead I thought I'd share the very first card I ever posted, all those seven years ago...

Isn't it lovely? Isn't my photo background lovely? LOL! You can see the original post HERE (and holy cow look at who my first two comments were from!!! SUPERSTARS!), and my first couple weeks of blogging HERE. And check out THIS photo of Carter that month! Squeeee he was just a baby! *sniff*

I'm going to come back really soon with a new card and a big GIVEAWAY to properly celebrate this milestone, but for today, this was a fun little trip down memory lane. :-)

Thanks for stopping by,

Hambo's "Ham & BACON" Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome to the "Ham & BACON" blog hop!! I'm joining the Hambo Stamps team today for this hop. They always come up with the best, funniest themes for their hops! And this one is no exception... "Ham & BACON" is... wait for it... a KEVIN BACON inspired hop!!! LMBO!! We are sharing cards inspired by Kevin Bacon movies!! HOW FUN IS THAT?!? But before I tell you which movie I chose, let me back up a little. You should have arrived here via the talented & fabulous Lisa Cassidy's blog. If you didn't, why don't you head back to the very beginning, at the Hambo Hoedown challenge blog, so you can take in all the Kevin Bacon-inspired goodness? :-)

And here is my card. I played with a few different Hambo stamps for this! Rabbit - 0917 is sitting atop a diecut bicycle. The cute little clouds are Hambo, too. Clouds - 3407 to be exact. And the message is Get This Party Started - 2706. I used my watercolor paints to add color to the bunny & the clouds. And that watercolored starburst pattern - the reason I did that was because I was inspired by the movie poster for the film I chose. Can you guess which Kevin Bacon movie this is?? Going way back to 1986, it's Quicksilver!!

I couldn't actually decide which movie to do. I immediately thought of The Greatest Kevin Bacon Movie of All Time, Footloose, but I was worried everyone would choose that. Then Monica reminded me that he was in a movie about bikes. So of course I had to pick the bike movie. HELLO! (If you don't know me - I like bikes.)

And now I shall ramble on for a moment - feel free to skip this paragraph if you'd like! ;-) It's kind of funny that I couldn't think of a Kevin Bacon movie to do, because he's famous for being in sooooo many movies! Remember the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game?! My brother reminded me about The Oracle of Bacon - a site that uses IMDb to figure out the link from any actor to Kevin Bacon! This site has been around for soooo long but it's still there, generating Bacon numbers. In case you ever have a Bacon emergency and just HAVE TO KNOW! And you know what? I'm not in IMDb, but I *was* an extra in a movie once!! My husband and I sat in a Texas high school football stadium for the better part of a night while they filmed the movie Varsity Blues! James Van Der Beek was there. Jon Voight was there. So yes, I was TOTALLY in a movie with Jon Voight! I plugged him into the Oracle and got a Bacon Number of 2. Jon Voight was in Zoolander with Endre Hules (who??), who was in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon!! And I was in a movie with Jon Voight, so MY BACON NUMBER IS 3! I rock. Heh.

Ok enough of that nonsense, you've got some hoppin' to do!!! There's a prize involved!! Hambo is giving away a $15 shopping spree to their digi store to one lucky person who comments on every blog along the hop. There's only 9 of us hopping today, so it's not too much work for you to get entered! And Hambo's digis are adorbs so you totally should. The deadline for comments (for prize consideration - you can leave me a comment ANYTIME just to make me smile!) is Monday, April 14 at 10:00pm EST. The winner will be announced on the Hoedown blog on Wednesday, April 16.

Head on over to Jane Elizabeth France's blog to continue on!

Did you ever see the movie Quicksilver? Did you like it? I actually never did! Or if I did I don't remember because, you know, 1986 was ages ago. Maybe I should check it out sometime. If you remember it, let me know what you think down there in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by,

More Flower Fun

Today's card is another painted background done with my watercolors, similar to this previous card. But this one is more purple than blue. Violets, perhaps?

I just painted it, let it dry and then added the birthday message from Message with Flourish, new from Hero Arts. This is my favorite sentiment set at the moment, I just love the pretty font!

If you're curious, these are the watercolor paints I've been using. Simple and cheap! I bought the set at Michael's, with a coupon!

Have a nice weekend,

Watercolored Sand Dollars

I'm still having fun with my watercolors! One of these days I'll put them away and move on to another coloring medium. But not today. Or tomorrow. Or...

Instead of creating a background, this time I used them to color in a stamped image...

The image is the new Jam'n Sand Dollar from Texana Designs. It's really big and fun to color. It was created with the idea of filling it with Zentangle - I'm going to have to do that soon!! But this time I used my paints. I just kept adding color until I liked it - gray, cream, blue, pink, green, brown... just more paint, more water, let it dry... Once it was completely dry I traced the outlines with black glaze pen, and added a little white gel pen detail. And twine bows!

For the card base, I had a little fun with my Distress products. I started with Kraft paper, then added some Picket Fence and Broken China Distress stain. I wanted something "more" and decided to play with my Distress crackle paint. I just brushed some on and allowed it to dry and crackle. I love magical products like this! :-)

Once the crackle paint was dry, I added Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy inks with a blending tool. A little distressing along the edge and more Brushed Corduroy, and that was that!

The message is another great one from Texana Designs, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

MAMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT!

Today is the day. I am staging a Stamping Comeback! Or at least I'm going to try. I miss stamping!! I have this big, beautiful stamp room and oodles of stamps and supplies and THEY JUST SIT THERE!! Getting dusty!! IT'S A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY!!!!

So I did some more watercoloring...

I love to add watercolor to a piece of paper and see what happens. I just used my Neenah paper. I know, I know. I really need to get some watercolor paper. But Neenah works surprisingly well! It didn't even pill up. But it does get all ripply - perhaps watercolor paper is more stiff and would remain more flat? Once this particular piece dried, I decided to make a starry scene out of it. Why? I'm not sure. It looks absolutely nothing like a night sky! LOL! Oh well. Picture yourself deep in some amazing astronomy photo of a nebula or something...

I was happy to play with my new Constellation Star from Hero Arts. I embossed it in Ranger's Enchanted Gold EP - it's light gold and sparkly! I used the same EP on Hero's You're a Star message.

Finally, a bit of washi and some sequins (I believe from an old Studio Calico kit?) to finish it off.

Last night when I had my paints out, I created a whole bunch of watercolored panels to use on cards. So the first week of my Official Comeback may also be Watercolor Week. I hope you don't mind.

I mentioned my Official Comeback on Facebook, and my friend Dina said I reminded her of this song. I've decided it's my new theme song. My daughter and I were just jamming to it as we were getting crafty. But as LL Cool J says - don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years...

And I promise not to knock you out. Except, perhaps, with my creative genius. HA HA HA!!

:-)

Watercolored Flowers

Hello! I recently noticed this incredibly gorgeous card from Donna Mikasa, and was inspired to try the watercolor technique she used. She was inspired by Joni Andaya, who made another drop-dead gorgeous card and even shared a video tutorial on this fun technique! So a big thank you to both of these ladies, I had a ton of fun making this card, inspired by them!

I just used some cheap watercolor paints from Michael's. I'm talking $7.99-plus-a-40%-off-coupon cheap! I love it when fun techniques can happen with little money leaving my pocket, LOL! I followed the technique Joni shared - but I added more and more paint, I couldn't stop myself! So my flowers aren't quite as delicate and beautiful as hers were. But I still like them!

I finished the card with one of my favorite older sentiments from Hero Arts, die cut with a frame. The Kraft and Azure papers are from Hero too, as well as the Cornflower ink.

Have you heard about the fun new challenge in Blogland? Virginia Lu has created her own challenge blog. This is for her very first challenge - the inspiration is to watercolor! So of course it was thanks to Virginia's challenge that I found Donna's blog post, to be inspired in the first place! :-)

Thanks for stopping by,

Tutorial for Hero Arts - Ink Daubers + Project Life

Hi everyone! I'm over on the Hero Arts blog today, sharing a Project Life layout I did of my daughter's 6th birthday party. She had a spa day - pretty fancy, no? I found an amazing deal on Groupon for this local company called Jola's Joyful Events, they come into your home and set up the spa party. They do EVERYTHING!! It was so cute! Courtney had a blast with her friends, being pampered. Although I usually do my Project Life layouts weekly, for events like this (aka times when I take way too many photos!) I go ahead and dedicate it's own special two page spread to the event. Afterall, it's not everyday that my baby turns six! True story - when I was making this layout, I put "5" everywhere, including that big cutout "6" in the title block!! I had to pull it apart and fix it. This mama is in denial that her baby is six!! LOL!

Over on the Hero Arts blog, I shared a tutorial on how I made the journaling cards using ink daubers and a sheet of wax paper. Check it out!

I had lots of fun creating this layout. I definitely have the scrapbooking bug again, which is what got me into paper crafting in the first place. Yay!

Thanks for stopping by,

Texana Designs Blog Hop!!

Today is an exciting day!! The Texana Designs team is hosting our very first blog hop! Yay!!

I wanted to make something that really screamed "Texas"! Texana Designs carries many stamps that are not specifically Texas-themed, but since a piece of my heart is still in central Texas, those are the stamps I love most of all! This card features TX018 Boot and TX014 Somebody in Texas Loves Ya!. I colored the boot with my Copics, and the patterned paper is from a great Texas-themed 6x6 pad - Giddy Up! from Carta Bella. The little stars are Studio Calico wood veneers.

My card is based on this sketch, created by teammate Karen Lambert for our hop! Thanks Karen!

You're going to want to hop along and visit all of the blogs - if you comment on them all, you'll have a chance at winning all of the cards featured during the hop. Fun!! Here's the hop list:

Texana Designs Blog - JimmyeSue Mitchell, Texana Designs Owner
Texana Designs Blog - Joyce Meyer Stamp Artist
Texana Designs Facebook - Jilda Bolton DTM
Janet's Gems - Janet Bradshaw DTM
Made by Design - Megan Bickers DTM
Libby's Little Addiction - Libby Hickson DTM ← You are here
Who I Am - Karen Lambert DTM

And before I go, I just want to share a couple photos. Back in January I was able to take a little solo trip back to Austin. If you don't know, I moved to Georgia from Austin about 2.5 years ago. Family, friends and Austin itself - I miss them all lots. And also in the Austin area is my wonderful Texana Designs family!! I had done a couple playdates via Google Hangout with them, but I had never been able to be in the same room with the entire team! It was so much fun!! I'm so thankful I was able to do see them, they are the nicest and most supportive group of ladies. We even posed for a photo.

And this is me with the owner of Texana Designs, my friend Jimmye Sue Mitchell. She is one of the sweetest ladies in the stamp industry!! I am so very fortunate to be a small part of her team.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Elephant Birthday

Hello! It's me! Making a card! Crazy, I know. I'm a little rusty, so bare with me... but I do hope to make this cardmaking thing a regular event in my stamp room once again...! Today I was brought back to the world of stamping because the Hambo Hoedown theme is to use an animal stamp. And I loooooove Hambo animal stamps! Especially my all-time favorite dancing elephant...

I paired the Elephant-5213 stamp with one of Hambo's great sentiments (Forgot to Remember - 1120). They have THE BEST sentiments if you like funny. The inside of this card says "I just forgot to tell you I remembered!". Yup, that's totally me! I wanted to put a little balloon in his hand so I drew that myself and colored. The Hemptique cord and the fun Simple Stories patterned paper both came from i {heart} papers. And the sketch is the current retro sketches.

This particular Hambo Hoedown challenge ends in just a few hours as I type this - but they post a new challenge on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday each month!

Thanks for stopping by,

Seasons Givings Blog Hop - WINNER

A huge thank you to everyone who visited my blog over the last several days and left your sweet comments - it was absolutely wonderful getting to have so many visitors and so much blog love!! You all made my day! And to those of you who subscribed while you were here - my sincere thanks! I am not the most regular of bloggers, but I do plan to spend more time creating this year than I have in years past. The kids return to school tomorrow, and I will return to my stamp room! Yay!

So without further ado... I've used random.org to choose a winner! Comment #179 - Chark, who said...
Love Hero Arts! Thanks for the chance and I like it without the sequins too...but Stickles were a good choice!

Please email me at stampinlibby@gmail.com and I'll get your goodies out to you!

Thanks for stopping by!