Altered Letters

Several months ago I decided to redecorate Carter's room with a sports theme. I bought some new bedding and curtains, and lots of things to hang on the wall, and made a little progress, then came to a screeching hault! Mostly because Joel does the wall hanging in our household, and he's been gone most of this fall! But I set a goal to have it all done by the end of the year (or really, before his birthday party, so I could show everyone how it turned out!). And I accomplished that goal! Woohoo! His room looks so much cuter now that there are things hanging on the walls! So one of the things I wanted to do ages ago (even before the sports theme idea came along) was hang some letters above his crib to spell out his name. I bought some cheap white letters at Hobby Lobby, and they've been sitting around staring at me for a loooong time! Well this week I FINALLY did something with them! This was my first time altering letters like this - I don't think I'm much of an "alterer", honestly - but I think these came out rather cute! I used patterned paper and Mod Podge to cover them, and some sports-themed embellishments - mostly from a little package of sports buttons I found at Michael's - I just cut the button hooks off the backs of some of them. The little beads spell out "all star". These letters are already on his wall (hence the blue background!) and were pretty much impossible to photograph well - they look much cuter in person! But I thought I'd share them anyway, I'm very happy with how they turned out! Now I'm excited to make some for Baby Girl's room, once we're sure about the name - hers will have rhinestones and glitter and lots of ribbon - they will be much more fun for mommy to make then these sports letters! LOL! Thanks for stopping by today - HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE! :-)

*sigh* I can finally relax!

This afternoon was Carter's birthday party. I'm sure most of you breathed a sigh of relief when Christmas was over - it was all DONE and you could finally relax. I couldn't do that until tonight. :-) Carter had a ton of fun at his party though, so it was all worth it! He's a rather shy boy, he gets a bit overwhelmed with large groups of kids, etc - but he did so good tonight! I kept the party small for that very reason - only four other kids (plus two babies) - I think just the right size for him at this point! I had also been telling him about his party for the past week or so, to "prepare" him - I think it really made a difference! This morning I told him his birthday party would be after his nap today - so when naptime came, he got right up from his playroom and walked to his bedroom, more than ready to go to sleep (this isn't common!) and said as I was putting him down "dinosaur cake" - he was sooo looking forward to his dinosaur cake! And when he woke up and saw the house transformed with balloons and decorations - I could tell he thought it was just too cool. :-) And boy did he enjoy that dinosaur cake!! He doesn't get this much sugar very often, so when he does, he's a very happy camper! I did manage to add one little homemade touch to the party (in addition to his invitations) - I stamped some very simple but cute favor bags for all the kids. So with the party finally behind me, I hope to have more stamped creations to show you in the coming days!! *sigh* This week is finally over! Now if only some elves would stop by and take down all my Christmas decorations...! :-)

I *heart* Ellen Hutson!!!

Lookie lookie what I found in my mailbox today!!! EEEEK!! I am now the proud owner of some Nestabilities and some Spica glitter pens!! YIPPEE! HAPPY DANCE!!!! I received cash for Christmas from a couple people, so I decided to finally fulfill my *burning desire* for these items! I only started with the circle Nestabilities - I am hoping my collection will grow eventually! So anyway - the reason for the title of this post. I ordered these fabulous items from Ellen's store, on the 26th. Today is the 29th. And they are already here!!! Wowsers! I did not expect them this fast! I am so impressed! This isn't the first time I've ordered from Ellen, so I should not be surprised, but yet I am. :-) Ellen also always includes a sweet little thank you note and a bit of gorgeous ribbon, which makes the order so special. I just think her customer service is top notch and had to tell you about it. No, she's not paying me to say this. As a matter of fact I highly doubt she knows my blog exists. But I had to gush at least a little about her! Part of me is sad though. I WANT TO PLAY WITH MY NEW STUFF!!! But I can't. Tomorrow is Carter's birthday party. I still have a zillion things I want to do tonight. It's going to be a very small party, but of course I still feel the need to have a clean house, to make some yummy food, etc. A wee bit tiring at 35 weeks preggo, but fun at the same time! I'll share some photos from the party tomorrow night if any turn out worthy of sharing. :-) And I hope to have some more cards to show SOON, made with my new toys!!! Hope you all have a nice Sunday!

My gift from my sister!

Today I thought I'd show you this lovely apron my sister stamped for me for Christmas! Isn't it gorgeous? Only problem is, I'd hate to wear it while cooking and get it dirty!! She chose the perfect colors for me - I love purple!! She made these for all the women in our family - so nice!! Thank you Laura! I'm such a lucky girl!

Grampa's Birthday Card

Hi everyone! I need to get ready to head to the doctor, but I wanted to get this posted first. I'm truly entering the "home stretch" now - doctor appts every Friday from here on out! Anyway this is the card I mentioned yesterday - a birthday card for my Grampa, who will be 89 on January 5! Grampa was a Michigan dairy farmer all his life before retiring some years ago. When he'd work the fields for his corn, or walk in the woods behind his home, he'd occasionally come across arrowheads. Over the years he built up a very impressive arrowhead collection. When I saw this now-retired set in the SU catalog some years ago, I knew I had to get it to make cards for my Grampa! For this card I embossed the Indian chief with copper EP on Creamy Caramel cardstock, then spritzed the paper with water and wadded it up. I wanted to have an aged, leathery look to the image. Once it was dry I distressed the edges with Basic Brown, and also rubbed the sponge lightly over the paper's surface to get some ink into the wrinkles. I watercolored a little Taken with Teal into the image, to give it some color and to make his face stand out a little more. I used linen thread to handstitch a little zigzag, and added copper brads. The teal card base is covered with the blanket pattern stamp from the set, stamped in Versamark. Happy Birthday Grampa, I hope you like it!
Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Dream Catcher, Warmest Regards
• Paper: Taken with Teal, Basic Black, Creamy Caramel, Copper
• Ink: Versamark, Basic Brown, Taken with Teal
  
• Accessories: Copper EP, Linen thread, copper brads, aquapainter, sponge, needle & mat
  

Happy Anniversary Dale & Doris!

I made today's card to send to my in-laws, who will be celebrating their anniversary on New Year's Eve. This will be their 48th! At least I hope it will be - I had written down that they were married in 1959, so hopefully my info is correct. :-) This is another card I refer to as "Nancy-Style" (I loooove Nancy's work!!) - more scrappy without much stamping - and is somewhat similar to this one I made a while back. It was fun to make! I stepped out of my comfort zone again with the color combo - Purely Pomegranate, Regal Rose and OLD OLIVE??? But, it matched the DP I covered the chipboard heart with. At least, I think it did....! And this was my first time covering chipboard with paper in a looong time - I used to think it was a pain in the butt, but today I used my BasicGrey Precision File Kit I picked up a while back, and I must say, I love it!!! Made finishing the edges easy peasey! This is probably too cute & funky of a card to send to in-laws for their 48th anniversary, but oh well. I think it's the first time I've EVER made an anniversary card for them, so hopefully they will just appreciate the gesture if nothing else. :-) I have a goal for the coming year - when I sit down to stamp, when possible, I want to have a recipient in mind! It's crazy how many cards I make, yet how many birthdays and special occasions go by with no card sent. Over the next few days I hope to make all the cards for my January birthday list. I just finished a second card during naptime as well, for my Grampa, but I'll show you that one tomorrow. (I'm also trying to work on that spacing-out-the-posts thing instead of posting everything as soon as I make it!) :-) Thanks for stopping by today, enjoy the rest of your day!

• Stamps: Karen Foster Snap Stamps, SU Straight Up numbers
• Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Regal Rose, Old Olive, DP Piggy Tales Gretel Collection
• Ink: Basic Brown
• Accessories: SU chipboard heart, Cuttlebug & swirl embossing folder, pink ribbon, straight pin, safety pin, BasicGrey precision file kit, needle & mat for paper piercing

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

Two years ago today my sweet little boy was born. It's so hard to believe it's been two years already! I can hardly remember life before Carter - but looking back, it seems so empty. I'm so fortunate to have such a wonderful little boy in my life!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARTER!!

Merry Christmas!!

A very Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

I'm on a roll...

Another post! Wowsers! I haven't posted this much in ages! I guess I should be spreading these out - saving something to post later in the week - but since I actually made time to stamp today (in my clean room!) I thought I'd go ahead and post my creation. I'm not completely thrilled with it - once again I think I've gone rusty from lack of stamping. Well, that and I think for once going into the stamp room with a sketch and color combo in mind was too limiting and sort of kept me from going where this card really wanted to go. Oh well! I made this to send to Jennifer Bartos, the owner of my favorite local cake supply shop, All in One Bake Shop. I took a class at the store earlier this month on making holiday candies to give as gifts - Jennifer is such a great teacher, if you live in or around Austin and want to take some fun cake/candy/cookie/etc classes, I highly recommended doing them through Jennifer!! Anyway - I had received a gift certificate to the store back in August, and proceeded to misplace it! I told her this when I went to the class, because I wanted to buy some supplies after the class to make some candies. WELL - she honored the gift certificate, even though I didn't have it with me! She just trusted me. That's precisely why I *love* supporting local businesses, where you get to know the owner! Do you think Michaels would have ever done that for me?? HA! In my cleaning frenzy this week I've actually located the MIA gift certificate, so I'm going to mail it to her along with this card, to tell her how much I appreciated what she did, and to confirm I wasn't making it up. :-) I used my Flourishes Cake Decorating 101 stamp set today - I got this as a birthday gift from a sweet friend back in August, and FINALLY used it today! Such a fun set!! I decided to try Julee's Mojo Monday sketch challenge today for the layout - I love her sketch, but it made my life a little difficult because I chose an image that was too large to work really well with her sketch. Ah well. And for the colors I went with the SCS color challenge from last week (CC144) - Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery and Rose Red. That's why there's some Pumpkin on this card - it wouldn't have been my first choice really. I don't hate this card, but it's not my absolute favorite either. But hey, I stamped, and it was FUN! And I think Jennifer will like it - she's probably far less critical of my stamping abilities. :-) Thanks for stopping by today!!!! Hope you're enjoying your Christmas Eve! We're about to take Carter for a ride in the car to look at all the pretty lights!

• Stamps: Flourishes Cake Decorating 101, Much Appreciated
• Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, DP Piggy Tales Gretel Collection
• Ink: Regal Rose, Blue Bayou, Pumpkin Pie, Going Gray, Versamark, Encore Silver
• Accessories: Silver EP, Stardust Stickles, aquapainter, scallop scissors, CM circle cutter, silver brads, May Arts ribbon, Word Window punch

Rachel's birthday invitations

Here's the other thing I've stamped lately - birthday invitations for Carter's best friend, Rachel! Carter and Rachel were born one day apart, Rachel on the 26th, Carter on the 27th, so they were bound to be good friends. Rachel's party will have a Minnie Mouse theme this year - it's going to be a big shindig at a new place in our neighborhood called JW Tumbles - it's one of those kiddie gym places, like Gymboree. It's going to be a very different party then Carter's tiny little get-together! For this invitation, I used these Disney stamps I found at Michaels (and purchased the day after Thanksgiving with my 50% off coupon, woohoo!). I searched online for a Disney font to use for the text, and Rachel's mommy Cindy came up with the cute little poem. I paper pieced Minnie's dress and bow to match the background paper (which is from the Provo Craft Holiday Slab V from Michaels). I ended up doing 22 invitations - perhaps paper piecing was not the wisest design element idea to use for mass production, it was a bit of a pain. But, at $3 per invitation, it ended up being worth the effort. :-) I colored Minnie's shoes with Summer Sun SU marker to match the square mat and ribbon, and then made them sparkle with some Stickles. The card size is 4x9", which fits in a standard business-size envelope. Cindy found some cute red envelopes at an office store, and printed mailing labels using the same Disney font. The other super cute touch she added was making photo postage stamps with an adorable photo of Rachel dressed as Minnie Mouse for Halloween this year. We took the invitation to a local cake store, so Rachel will have a Minnie cake that matches the invitation. Can't wait to see how it turns out! Thanks for stopping by today, happy Christmas Eve!!!

• Stamps: All Night Media clear Disney stamps
• Paper: Basic Black, Summer Sun, Whisper White, Provo Craft DP
• Ink: Black StazOn, Regal Rose & Summer Sun markers, Computer Printer
  
• Accessories: Scallop punch, ribbon, black brads, Light Peach Prismacolor pencil & gamsol, Stardust Stickles, Disney font downloaded from internet, scissors (!)

Carter's birthday invitations

Carter's birthday is next week - my little monkey is going to be two already! Where has the time gone? We're having a dinosaur-themed birthday party for him on the 30th. As I mentioned last night, I haven't done much stamping in recent weeks - so I took a shortcut on these and used die cut stickers for the main image! We're doing a small party - I only had to make eight invitations - so it wasn't crazy expensive to use the stickers. They are from Karen Foster Designs - I used the coordinating patterned paper to cover the back of the invitation. I did get some ink out for these babies though! I sponged all of the edges with Basic Brown. Colors are Bayou Blue and Wild Wasabi - I just love these In Colors! Pretty simple invitation, really, but I thought they turned out quite cute. Now I have to figure out the rest of the party details for my little Cartersaurus! But that will probably happen after Christmas...! And if you haven't guessed - of course the set I love most in the new catalog is the cute new little dinosaur set!! That one will probably end up on my first order. :-) By the way - here's a tip that perhaps not all of you know to do - I popped those dinosaur stickers up on dimensionals. I didn't want the sticky from the sticker to end up sticking once the cards went through the mail - so I used baby powder. You just put the dimensionals where you wanted them on the back of the sticker, leaving the little piece of paper on - then sprinkled baby powder on the sticker & rubbed it around. It takes away all the remaining sticky. Then pull off the papers and you are good to go! I learned this at the very first scrapbooking convention I attended, about a hundred years ago. :-) Thanks for looking!

• Stamps: NONE!! (*gasp*)
• Paper: Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla, Karen Foster Designs dino paper (on back)
• Ink: Basic Brown (sponged on edges), computer printer
• Accessories: Karen Foster Designs stickers, Scallop punch, Blue Bayou double stitched ribbon, Michaels ribbon, staples, dimensionals, Kindergarten font downloaded from internet

I'm so happy!!

I haven't been good about blogging in ages, but I'm so excited right now I just have to tell you all about it - I gave myself an early Christmas present tonight - I cleaned my stamp room!!! I know I've sounded like a broken record on this blog, complaining about my messy room (which is my own doing!), and I've wanted to clean it, literally, for MONTHS, but I just haven't had the energy to face it. Do you ever have that big of a mess, that you'd rather just close the door on than face? Well that's been my stamp room. Which is sad, because it takes away my desire to stamp when my room is such a disaster. This is why there's been nothing new on here in over a month! But anyway - tonight I did it!!! It's still not perfect, I've created several different "piles" I want to sort through and organize, but it's now organized clutter rather than horrific chaos, and I can WALK to my desk to stamp rather than having to make giant steps over my piles to get there (which now that I'm HUGE has been getting more & more difficult!)! See that "stuff" in the foreground of my first photo? That's my CARPET!! Tomorrow I think I'll actually VACUUM in there!!! I haven't been able to do that in so long! In case you can't quite understand why I'm so excited - I'm going to post one of my embarrassing "before" photos again...! Awful, isn't it?? Seriously, there were just PILES of stuff as soon as you opened the door. So depressing! But now it's so NICE! Hooray!!!!!!! But I can't end on that ugly photo, so here's one more, of my nice, accessible desk! I also spent way too much time tonight winding various bits of ribbon from shares, blog candies, etc onto embroidery floss cards and organizing in a box - which makes me very happy too! I told myself I was "allowed" to stay up working on this until 2am - I pre-arranged with the hubby that *HE* has to get up with Carter in the morning so I can sleep in - but I have gone past my curfew & it's now going on 3am! Oops! Baby Girl is kicking me like mad right now, probably wondering what's gotten into me. :-)

Ok I have to do one more thing before I post & head to bed - I've been so out of touch with the blogging world lately, I completely missed that my ever so sweet blogging friend Rose Ann is now a member of the SCS Dirty Dozen!!! I'm sure you all already know this, I'm just behind the times, but I wanted to give a shout-out to her anyway! I'm so happy for you Rose Ann, you completely deserve it!!!!

Goodnight. :-)

Stamps for Sale!

I feel kind of like a jerk for posting this, considering I haven't posted any nice, new cards in a few weeks again (the time just slips away from me, it's frightening!!)... but I had a stamp/scrapbook supply garage sale today and thought I'd go ahead and post the stamp sets I have left, just in case somebody out there might be interested! These prices are before shipping - I would just charge you exactly what it costs me to ship it, with whichever shipping method you prefer. If you mail me a check, I'll wait until it clears to ship. Or I can do paypal (bank transfers only). Email me at stampinlibby at gmail dot com if you are interested.

Hope you all are doing well!!!

All the Best - $6

Alphabet Soup - $4

Best Blossoms - $6

Buds & Blossoms - $7

Citrus & Such - $6 - SOLD

Fresh Flowers - $6 - SOLD

Fun Filled - $5

Fun Phrases - $5 - SOLD

Fun with Shapes - $6

Holiday Spirit - $10

Hoppy Easter - $6

Little Layers - $8

Little Layers, Plus - $6

Merry Minis - $10 - SOLD

Ornament Elements - $10

Paint Prints - $5

Petite Patterns - $4 - SOLD

Polka Dots & Paisley - $6 - SOLD

Send a Celebration - $5 - SOLD

Shapes & Shadows - $7

Simple Sayings - $5 - SOLD

Simple Somethings - $4 - SOLD

Stippled Stencils - $4

Tropical Blossoms - $7 - SOLD