Just chickin' in!

Howdy! I'm back as promised with a second card for the latest Catered Crop Recipe Swap, this time playing with some fun stamps for the sponsor of the current challenge, Texana Designs!


We're playing with print for this Recipe Swap, so I had more fun with my old book pages. I think the Texana Jam'n Chicken looks pretty darn cute paper-pieced in print!
The card sketch is the latest Mojo Monday challenge, flipped on its side:


Thanks for stopping by!

• Stamps: Jam'n Chicken, Just chickin' in from Texana Designs
• Paper: Red, Black cardstock (Stampin' Up), Kraft cardstock (Recollections), old book page
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic marker (E31)
• Other: American Crafts twine, paper tape (Smash Book line), paper crimper, scallop edge punch, heart buttons

My Ode to CNN...

Today's card is all about the news!


It's one of my creations for the current Catered Crop Recipe Swap. Linda has us playing with print! When she first told us it would be print, I thought about newsprint. And that made me think of this cute Newscaster image from the Hambo Stamps Digishop - I had to play with him!! I also had to give him some lovely silver hair. But more on that in a moment... First some more about the challenge!!
Linda is creating the most gorgeous Pinterest boards for her challenges, I just love them! Here's her summary inspiration board, but also click on over to her Pinterest board for the current challenge for even more inspiration. It's gorgeous!!


So all you have to do to play along is create a card that incorporates some sort of print! Even though I was thinking about "newsprint" for my card, I actually used a page from an old book I keep in my stamp room just for using on projects. But any sort of print will do! One of my favorite companies - Texana Designs - is this week's sponsor!! YEEHAW! :-) I plan to be back tomorrow with another Recipe Swap card featuring Texana stamps, yay!

For linking up YOUR creation, and all the other deets, visit Linda's blog!

I also played along with this month's Sketch For You To Try (SFYTT) for my card layout. Jen always has the best sketches!!


Ok now back to my love of news. I am a certified (certifiable?) CNN junkie. I have it on a lot, mostly for background noise. And I am a huge Anderson Cooper fan!! I just love him. Especially when he giggles. I live in the Atlanta area now. Home of CNN! Of course Anderson doesn't work from Atlanta, boo hoo! But I still like to visit CNN Center. And drag my kids along. They have a foodcourt there so it's a good place to go for lunch. The kids can have nuggets and mom can have her CNN fix. Here's some photos from our last visit.


Courtney with the big logo as you enter.


Courtney saying "Look mommy, it's that man you love!"


Yes Courtney, Anderson is someone you can look up to. Hee hee.


I also love CNN's weather guy, Rob Marciano. Because, um, he knows so much about the weather.... yah, that's it...


I sent him a tweet on Twitter the other day and OMG HE REPLIED TO ME!!! Cheap thrills.


Ok I better stop now, I'm embarrassing myself a bit with this post. Time to go fold some laundry. And turn on CNN... ;-)

Happy Stamping!

• Stamps: Newscaster digi image from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Bazzill cardstock (blue), Flourishes paper (ivory), October Afternoon DP, book page
• Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Other: Spellbinders die (circle), PTI die (scallop), brads

Hambo Blog Hop!

Welcome to "Green Eggs and ......Hambo" sponsored by Hambo Stamps! Today Hambo customers and the Bacon Bits Design Team are bringing you fun creations that depict book titles! It might be our favorite book, or just one that was fun to design. If you arrived here from Andrea's blog you are in the right place! If not, you might want to start back at the beginning at the Hambo blog to make sure you are eligible for the hopper prize!

A prize will be awarded to one participant whose book-themed creation tickles the Bacon Bits’ fancy in a hammin’ jammin’ way! Another prize will be awarded randomly to a hopper who comments on all the blogs along the way. The winners will be announced on the Hoedown blog, as well as on the Hambo company blog, Talk to the Ham, on Wednesday, February 1.

So I was chatting with my friend Leslie about what to make for the hop, and she mentioned this book - but she didn't own a stamp to make it happen. But woohoo, I did!! And she said I could borrow her book title. Can you guess what it is?


How about a closer look. There is real duct tape on the mouths of the "lambs"...


That's right - SILENCE OF THE LAMBS!! hee hee hee!! I used the Hambo Party Sheep, but masked out the party hat & noise maker when I stamped the image. Then I cut some teeny tiny pieces of duct tape to put over their mouths. Which I'll have you know was NOT easy. Turns out duct tape is super sticky. (That's your newsflash of the hop. HA!) I decided after the card was complete to add a little Liquid Applique to the sheep for fuzzy wool texture. Another thing about duct tape - it sorta shrinks and melts when you hit it with a heat gun. Who knew?? Oops.

For the card layout, I decided to play along with the CPS #252 sketch challenge. Thanks for the inspiration, CPS!


And just in case any of you are doubting me, I want to assure you that Silence of the Lambs really is a book. Not just a movie. The book is even better than the movie, if you can imagine! Ok I'm fibbing right now, I've never actually read the book. I just read that the book is fantastic. As was the movie. SUCH a great movie!!

I was the final stop on the blog hop today. I do recommend that you head back to the Hambo Stamps blog one more time, though, and let Monica know how much you enjoyed this hop! Because Monica is awesome, as are Hambo Stamps!

Until next time,

• Stamps: Party Sheep - 3202 from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Stampin' Up cardstock, Echo Park patterned paper
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Other: Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), circle die (Spellbinders), Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), ribbon (American Crafts), twine (American Crafts), Liquid Applique, duct tape

Texas Tuesday + some more DT news!!

So you all know I just *love* creating Texas-inspired cards, right? Well I am over the moon excited to share some news! My dear friend Jimmye Sue Mitchell, owner of Texana Designs, has invited me to be a part of her very first design team! Yeehaw!! And today I have my first "official" design team card for you! We're getting into the Valentine's spirit - Texas style!


Isn't this Barbed Wire Heart fabulous? Thinking about barbed wire made me think metal, and metal made me think of a technique I learned many moons ago - faux metal! Have you ever tried it?


You just add layer upon layer of embossing powder (I used some old copper EP from my stash!) and then, finally, press your stamp into the still-warm-and-melty EP to get your image. Fun! Just make sure you have Versamark ink on your stamp before you press it into the warm EP, it keeps your stamp from getting all gunked up.

So I'm curious - I'm thinking about doing some technique videos, just for fun. Would you want to see something like this? Or is it such an old & well-known technique, it would be silly to film it? I just have no feel for what would or would not be interesting. So let me know what you think!! Is there anything else you'd like to see?

I want to extend a huge Texas-sized THANK YOU to Jimmye Sue for allowing me to be a part of her team. I am extremely honored! Be sure to head on over to the Texana blog & become a follower! And also go ahead and "LIKE" the Texana Facebook page! :-)

Happy Trails,

• Stamps: Jam'n Barbed Wire Heart & Jam'n Love ya with all my Texas heart from Texana Designs
• Paper: Teal & white cardstock, polka dot DP
• Ink: Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black
• Other: Copper embossing powder, scallop edge punch, copper brads, teal grosgrain ribbon, white stitching

Back on the Recipe Swap Design Team!! YAY!!

Here's some exciting news for me - I've returned to my sweet friend Linda McClain's Catered Crop Recipe Swap design team!! Yay! I love this challenge, and I love the changes Linda has made to make it even better! Woohoo!

This week we are playing with buttons...


If you squint, you'll see that I included one teeny tiny little button. LOL!!


The image is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E and it's from this week's sponsor, JellyPark digital stamps. I colored this cutie with my Copics.

And the change I mentioned - Linda has started creating beautiful inspiration boards for her challenges, I love the one this time for buttons!! And even better, she created an entire Pinterest board with all the inspiration (and more!) featured here. So cool!


I really hope you'll play along with us this week! You have until Saturday, January 21 at 8pm EST and all you have to do is make a card and use buttons! Or even just a single button, like I did! I know you can do that! And when you link up your creation, be sure to tell Linda that I convinced you to play along, so she knows I'm earning my keep on the team... :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

• Stamps: Digital image from Jellypark
• Paper: Stampin Up & Georgia Pacific cardstock, Little Yellow Bicycle & Lily Bee DP
• Ink: Copic markers, white gel pen
• Other: MFT snowflake die, American Crafts twine, Diamond Stickles, button

A Tour of my Stamp Room...

It's January 12 (almost 13th!) and I still haven't stamped a single thing this year. So sad!! The main reason is that my desk in inaccessible! It's such a mess. I'm in the process of cleaning it TONIGHT - but in the mean time I took a little "before" video, to show you what I'm dealing with. And hey, what the heck - most people show off their stamp rooms when they are neat and clean and perfect. I believe in keeping it real... ;-) I may do another tour once it's clean, if anyone is interested - I could share more detail about some of my storage ideas. Yes??

I do need to apologize about the quality of this - I just filmed it with my phone, I didn't edit it and I made it at 10 o'clock at night so the lighting is not so super. Guess I won't be getting an Academy Award for this one...

Until next time...

More Make a State-ment Cards

Today Melanie Muenchinger is sharing a couple more of my Make a State-ment cards, featuring Melanie's fabby set she created for Gina K Designs. Here's a peek at one of them:


Head on over the Melanie's blog to see the full cards. And huge thanks again to Melanie for the opportunity to play with this wonderful set!

By the way, did you hear the exciting news that Melanie has published her first book?? My copy of "A Year of Flowers" is on the way to my mailbox, yay! I know you'll want to order one for yourself!

Carter's Bowling Birthday!

Well our Christmas vacation is finally coming to an end - tomorrow Carter heads back to kindergarten, and Courtney returns to preschool on Wednesday! And with this comes a return to our routine. I have big plans for adding regular craft time back into my own routine!

My cardmaking has been pretty much nonexistent for weeks now, but I thought I'd share the one crafty thing I did do! Carter turned 6 over the holidays, and this past Saturday we had his birthday party with friends. We did a bowling them, so I just had to decorate a shirt for him to wear!!


This was completely inspired by this awesome shirt I found on Etsy. I picked up the jersey t-shirt at Sports Authority for $7.99. Perhaps a better deal could be found elsewhere, but of course, as always, I decided to do this last minute, so there was no time to shop around. :-) And I just cut out everything for the bowling pin from my stash of felt - it always feels so good to actually USE the stash! I added stitching around everything after I took the photo above, and of course you can't see the detail below. Ah well, you get the idea! When I showed Carter the shirt, he said "I don't like it mom, I LOVE IT!" Yay!!

Here's a little montage of photos from the party. My boy was so happy to see his friends after missing them over Christmas break!


The bowling cake was from Kroger - they did a really great job with it! And I pulled together some fun bowling-themed favors! I found these mini bowling sets (which the kids LOVED, by the way!), wrapped them and then cut out the little bowling pins with my Silhouette. The "thanks" was stamped, a hole was punched and voila! Bowling pin tags. :-)


Now it's time to shift gears - Courtney's birthday is in a few weeks and she's requested a repeat of last year's princess party theme! I love birthday parties. :-)

Tomorrow Melanie is sharing more of my guest design cards, I'll link you up then!

2011 in Cards

For the past couple years, I've done an end of year post sharing my favorite cards I created over the past year. This year, with our move from Austin to Atlanta, the pool to choose from was quite small, but I decided to continue my little tradition anyway! So without further ado...

January


February


March


April


May


June


July


August


September


October


November


December


Happy New Year! Wishing you lots of happiness and stampiness in 2012!

Guest Designing with Melanie's Stamps!!

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to share some happy news today - the fabulous Melanie Muenchinger, illustrator for Gina K. Designs and all-around sweet and talented stamper, asked me to do a guest design spot for one of her latest sets, Make a State-ment!! It's such a FUN FUN FUN set for people like me who love to roadtrip across the country, I completely squealed when I saw it!
I have a bunch more ideas for this set, but Melanie is featuring a few of my designs starting today, so head on over to her blog, Hands, Head, Heart, and take a peek! Thanks so much for inviting me, Melanie!