Hero Arts 2010 Catalog Blog Hop!!

Hello and welcome to the Hero Arts 2010 Catalog Blog Hop!! If you are just joining us, head on back to the Hero Arts blog and start at the beginning, because you surely don't want to miss anything!! To say that I'm absolutely THRILLED to be a part of this is a ridiculous understatement. Honestly, I can't even believe I'm here! Quick, somebody pinch me, please!! :-) But enough of my gushing, I know you don't want to stick around here long, you have some major hoppin' to do, so let me cut the chit-chat and get down to business. You want to see some new stampy goodness, right??

For my first card, I decided to try out some gorgeous butterflies from the new Antique Engravings set. I created the background using alcohol inks, and added some Stickles to the butterflies because, well, I can't help it, I love Stickles!! The sentiment is also from a fabulous new set of greetings called Essential Messages.I also had to play with one of the adorable new little girls - this one is called Girl Holding Flowers. As a mom of a sweet little girl, I can tell you right now that I *must* own all of the cute new girlie stuff in this catalog!! LOL! Again I used a greeting from Essential Messages. The stamp is straight, but I just curved it on my acrylic block to fit on the circle. That's one of the things I love most about clear stamps, the way you can manipulate the greetings!The next stop on the hop is the wonderful and talented Judy Jung! I'll head on over there with you, I cannot wait to see what she created! And I also can't wait to head up to my stamp store today and check out more of the stamps in person. I've seen the new catalog in person - it's FABULOUS - I'm so excited!! :-) Remember, if you find a link that doesn't work, you can always hop back to the Hero Arts Blog for a list of direct links to all the blogs in the hop! Thanks for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

• Stamps: CL383 Antique Engravings, CL371 Essential Messages
• Paper: Bazzill cardstock, Archiver's cardstock, glossy paper
• Ink: Black StazOn, Ranger alcohol inks (Stream, Meadow, Eggplant)
• Accessories: May Arts ribbon, Diamond Stickles, punch, sewing machine & black thread

• Stamps: H5330 Girl Holding Flowers, CL371 Essential Messages
• Paper: Hero Arts notecards, October Afternoon DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers, brown ink
• Accessories: Spellbinders Nestabilities dies, Diamond Stickles, AMuse pretty pearls, ribbon, sewing machine & brown thread

Cards from Class

I'm trying to get back into the groove of teaching card classes in my home on a regular basis - so far I've only managed one, but I do have big plans for the new year!! And on a related note - anyone have good ideas for card classes they could share? hee hee

Here's what we did at my first class, which was holiday-themed and focused on, of course, all wonderful Hero Arts stamps!! I'll go ahead and start out with my favorite of the bunch. The gorgeous Stunning Snowflakes background was stamped in white pigment ink on a Hero Arts kraft notecard. It just called out to me to add tons of bling & Stickles!!I'd love to drink some "holiday cheer" in a red glittery cup like this, LOL! I tried out my Tulip Puffy Paint for foam on my cocoa from the Cozy Moments set - it worked just like Liquid Applique, yay! It's MUCH easier to find in the local craft stores. And yes, I said it was holiday "cheer" but then called it "cocoa" - I'm not telling what I added to my cocoa.... :-DThis card is a CASE of a card I created a while back - I loved the sketch for round stamps like this one, also from Cozy Moments. The white border is colored in with a gel pen. I found the yummy velvety rick-racky ribbon by the spool at Archivers, fun!And finally - THIS CARD IS NOT MY DESIGN - it's a complete CASE of one of Lisa's cards from the Hero Arts blog. If you like it, she even did a video tutorial for it, so awesome!Thanks for stopping by today!

Fun with Felt!

A few weeks ago I treated myself to a crafty class at an awesome place here in Austin - The Stitch Lab!! I felt I deserved it after surviving multiple weeks alone with my childebeests this fall while my hubby went on business travel to Asia. Ok on second thought, I deserved it even if he hadn't gone anywhere! HA! :-) I actually found the place because I was in search of a crochet class - they didn't have any offered at the time, so I decided to try Felt Fun. Leslie, the owner, taught the class, and she was so much fun and so helpful and PATIENT with a doofus like me who barely knew how to make a stitch going in! So are you ready to see what I made!? Would you believe I made this?Or this???!!I didn't design either of these, I just used her patterns. But I love them soooo much and I am so very prideful!! And boy do I love The Stitch Lab!! I asked Leslie if I could live there. She said no. Sad. But I will certainly go back for more classes! And, get this - I have since made another little bag similar to the cat bag - but I designed a cupcake version!! It turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. I gave it to a friend before taking any photos, oops! But I'll ask that friend if she'd mind snapping one for me, and show you once I have it. :-) Hooray for felt!! Thanks for stopping by today!

One Last Snowglobe Before Retirement...

Ok so I promise you this will be my final snowglobe before going into retirement. Well, at least until next fall, I make no promises about what will happen then. Well ok, I make no promises about what will happen in the next couple months either, because I just had a sudden flash of a cute Valentine's snowglobe idea... hmm... LOL! But I digress... I'm here to show you one last snowglobe for this particular holiday season because a) I was dying to use this ADORABLE snow shepherd from FireCracker Designs by Pamela and b) I want to show you an alternate, EASIER way of putting together a snowglobe than what I shared on Splitcoast during my tutorial. No, OF COURSE I didn't think of the easier method BEFORE writing up the tutorial. I wish I had!! I realized it after the fact, and only because my dear little Courtney bug had gotten ahold of one of my snowglobe cards and totally pulled it apart. Sooooo as I was figuring out how I would repair that particular card I had a bit of an ah-ha moment! And I'm sure some of you smarter-than-me stampers out there already figured this out on your own, long ago! But here goes my new explanation...

First, go and start reading along with my tutorial on Splitcoast. But when you get to Step 6, here's the first change. Don't worry about that little flap I am telling you to make. And, you can use a smaller piece of cardstock - it will definitely fit on a quarter sheet of 8.5x11, rather than needing to be 6" on one side. Just trace around the front of the snowglobe on an unfolded quarter sheet in Step 7 & then cut out in Step 8 without creating any little flaps.

The next major change is in Step 9. Instead of creating your little snowdrift on a single layer of white scrap cardstock, you will do it on a folded over piece of paper:So when you cut it out, you will have this:In Step 10, instead of attaching the front to the little flap, you just use your folded snowdrift piece to attach them, like this:And you can skip that troublesome Step 11 altogether! :-) Voila, pretty cool, aye!?? :-) Then you just decorate as you wish and end up with a slightly easier to make, slightly sturdier little snowglobe!

Now before I go, I want to tell you about some things going on over at Pamela's site, while I make you ooh and aah with a couple more details from my card (HA HA!). First of all, even though Pamela is a stamp company owner and people like me tend to think of people like her as being goddesses - it turns out she's actually just a regular boring ol' wife & mom, and has many things to do to get ready for the holidays and, get this, actually likes to SPEND the holidays with her family! So in light of all that, she's shutting down the store for the holidays. What does this mean for you? Well, when you see this post and decide you MUST have the Shepherd Snow Family (among other things), you will need to rush IMMEDIATELY to the store and order it because TODAY (Tuesday December 15) IS THE LAST DAY SHE IS SHIPPING ORDERS UNTIL AFTER JAN 4!! But if you do place an order during shutdown, that's ok - she WILL get it - it just won't be filled in her usual superduperlighteningquick manner. And by the way, this doesn't apply to her Digital Designs - they will go out to you automatically when you order them. Ok got all that? Well here's something else that you need to rush over and check out - she's having an INVENTORY BLOWOUT SALE! It's a progressive sale, with the discount getting larger each week until all supplies are GONE. She's already to 50% off!! Check out the details on her blog here and check out the sale items here!! (Hint: Flower Soft at $3 each?!?) And finally, guess what - she now does gift certificates! WOOT!

Ok now I'm tired after typing all of that and must sleep - thanks for stopping by today! :-)

Meet my sweet little niece...

Well it's been so long since I've been a good blogger, you all completely missed my sister Laura welcoming my sweet little niece Morgan Elizabeth to the world!! I've been an aunt ever since getting married 11+ years ago, but this is the first time I'm the aunt of a sweet little teeny tiny baby from one of my own siblings! :-) Morgan was born back on October 29. Today she is six weeks old!! Mommy brought her over for a little holiday photo shoot, and we snapped this cute one in a giant teacup!!When she was born she was only 5 pounds 15 ounces, so compared to my eight and nine pound babies, she was absolutely tiny!! Now at six weeks she's still not as big as my kids were at birth, LOL!

Back before she was born I threw a baby shower for Laura at a local restaurant. Her bedding in ladybug-themed, so we went with that for the shower. These were the invitations:I found several examples of these when searching SCS, aren't they fun? I think my sweet friend Sue maybe even made one for a From Courtney's Closet challenge many months ago! :-)

I also decided to make some baby shoes for party favors. I made about a zillion of these. They had hershey kisses inside. They are actually quite fun and easy to make! I found the template online here.Maybe in a couple days I'll show you some baby shoes I made out of FELT! Yay! Thanks for stopping by!

Mini Snowglobes! (and my return to blogging...!?!)

Hellllooooooo my stampy friends! Remember me? The Girl Who Used To Blog? :-) Well, I miss it. And I'm going to make an effort to get back into it! And so of course I pick this quiet time of year to make my return, when there's not much else going on... HAHAHAHAHA! We'll see how it goes.

So... perhaps you've heard, I have a thing for snowglobes? **snicker** What can I say, I'm completely addicted to making them! And when I got my first box of goodies from Hero Arts (YES I AM NAME-DROPPING!! CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE I WORK FOR HERO ARTS?!?!) (ok, sorry for the obnoxious bragging, I lost control for a moment but I'm ok now...) there was a set with a bunch of cute smallish images, and I thought, WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE, these NEED TO go into snowglobes!! So that's what I did.Aren't they cute & fun?? I had to include the Stickles bottles in the photo, for size perspective. :-) And I thought they would be fabby gift tags, so I stamped "a gift for you" on the insides. Here are some closer looks. First, the penguin:And the bird:And my personal favorite, the cutie patootie kitty!!Ahhhh, snowglobes! I love 'em. And btw - I figured out an easier way to make them than what I did on the SCS tutorial, so I'll be posting that update here soon too. Oh, and if you made a snowglobe and posted it to the gallery on SCS - ugh - I've been ROTTEN about going in to comment! I hate being so rude! So it's a goal of mine to look at them all this weekend!!

Ok, wow, I feel like a blogger again!!! I hope to be seeing much more of all of you. I miss you. ***GROUP HUG***! :-) Happy Stampin!!

And we have a winner...

Thanks to all who joined us for this past weekend's FireCracker Designs by Pamela blog hop! I enjoyed reading all of your comments!! And now for the winner of my blog candy...

Lulu said...

This is so creative Libby!! I love it!

November 21, 2009 4:57 PM

Congratulations Lulu! Send me an email (stampinlibby AT gmail DOT com) with your mailing address and I'll get your prize sent out to you asap!

Happy Stamping!!

FCD Blog Hop: Giving Thanks (+BLOG CANDY!!)

Hello and welcome to another FireCracker Designs by Pamela blog hop! This month we thought it would make good sense if our cards and projects had a THANK YOU theme, considering Thanksgiving is right around the corner! And for my card, I decided to use my favorite FCD set, one that I'm so THANKFUL that Pamela designed - Theater Lights! Oh how I love this set. *sigh* And the sentiment I used is one that I actually suggested to Pamela - "Thanks for propping me up." heh heh You see, I used to volunteer backstage with my hometown community theater group, and would often be propmistress - so - I just loved this saying to be part of a theater set. :-D The panel of roses on the card is stamped and colored, and for the theater masks, I did something I've been meaning to try for ages - I stamped it on some text in a magazine! My friend (and former FCD guest designer) Lydia introduced me to this, she is a master at reanimating things in her crafts! The color combo - chocolate, olive, cream & dark red - came from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge - one of my favorite blog challenges!

Now that the card deets are out of the way, let me tell you a little more about this month's blog hop. Pamela has very generously given the ENTIRE team blog candy to hand out!!! I get to giveaway a set that is SO PERFECT for this time of year, Clearly Calendar!I bet you could make some adorable 2010 calendar gifts with this set! So leave me a comment and I'll pick one winner after the hop ends on Monday night.

And if you've hopped with us before, you know the drill - this is a circular hop, so wherever you begin is where you'll return when you finish! So hop around the full circle and leave comments as you go, there's lots of yummy stampy goodness up for grabs. From here, go see what the boss-lady herself is up to at Pamela's Blog!!!

And thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Theater Lights from FireCracker Designs by Pamela
• Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, PTI DP & cardstock
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Black StazOn, Encore Gold, Copic markers
• Accessories: SU punch, magazine page, Swiss Dots folder, gold EP, May Arts ribbon

My new gig!!

Are you sick of my snowglobe cards yet? hee hee Welllllll... you can read more about this one on the Hero Arts blog today. Yes, you read that right - ON THE HERO ARTS BLOG!!! Head on over there to see what I'm up to. And then pinch me, because I really can't believe it.

Maybe someday soon I'll have to tell you all the story about how this came about, it's pretty unbelievable...! :-)

Have a great weekend!

Snow Globe Card Tutorial - ON SCS!!

I AM SO FREAKIN' EXCITED!!! Ok. Trying to remain calm. But would you believe that little ol' me has a tutorial on the one and only Splitcoaststampers today? No? NEITHER WOULD I!!! But it's true. Do you remember last winter, I saw some adorable snow globe cards around the web and decided to try my hand at one? WELL. The one and only amazing Beate got wind of it and asked me if I'd write a tutorial for the following year's Holiday Tutorial Blitz. Did it blow my mind to find a message in my inbox from Beate Johns? Um, YES! Did I pee my pants? Just a little. :-) So... FOR THE PAST YEAR I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DAY TO ARRIVE!!! hee hee Give me a little thrill and head on over to Splitcoast and take a peek. Watch the video if you must. ;-) I'm just kidding - it took a lot of courage for me to actually make that video, but I did it (YAY!) and I'm not completely horrified by it. Mostly because you only see my hands. And perhaps one gratuitous arm shot. And have to hear my voice. Eek. I better stop thinking about it. (I'm just kidding - I'm actually somewhat proud of myself for actually figuring out how to film it AND edit it!) (Yes there are bad transitions, flubs and mumbling, but it's my first time!) hee hee So anyway... for my snow globes I used this ADORABLE snow girl image from FireCracker Designs by Pamela's Gifts of Love set. The snowflakes are from the companion Love Never Melts set. I just realized I goofed on the video and said they were from the same set - please forgive me, Pamela!! I have a couple other FCD snowman sets sitting on my desk uninked, so I may be back with a few more snow globes! :-) Let me know if you make one too, I'm dying to see what people make!! I'll be stalking the SCS gallery!! Thanks for stopping by today!