No time to stamp...

Sorry for the lack of posts, it's been a less than fun weekend at our house with sick kids - including another ear infection for Courtney. Poor baby! I'm worried that tubes are in her future, she's already had a lot of ear infections in her short little life!

You won't hear from me for at least a couple more days, too - tomorrow I'm off to San Antonio to hang out with my good friend Diane, meet one of my favorite stampers Carole, and see my all-time favorite band DURAN DURAN in concert!!! Woohoo!!! There's nothing quite like screaming like foolish teenagers with a bunch of 30- and 40-something year old moms!!! Too much fun. Please be sure to keep your fingers crossed for us to end up with seats on John's side of the stage!! :-) I'll be sure to post a recap once I'm back and recovered. Oh and speaking of being recovered - my dear children, of course, shared their germs with me a bit too, and I have a sore throat and cough today. It better be cleared up by tomorrow night - I can't scream like a foolish teenager at my Wild Boys with a sore throat!!!

You guys have no idea how much I'm looking forward to tomorrow - it's been ages since I've really done anything fun and kid-free!! Not that I don't love being with my kids, but you know, sometimes mommy needs a little break...

But speaking of my wonderful kids - I was just looking through my photos and for fun looked to see what we were up to exactly two years ago today. This is one of the photos I took of Carter on November 30, 2006. I think at the time I didn't think this was a very good picture, because his eyes are shut and he's scrunching up his face. Two years later I think it's so stinkin' cute!! And this, my friends, is why I have way too many photos on my computer - I cannot delete!!! :-)

Have a nice week and I'll stamp something to share with you... eventually....!

From Courtney's Closet #25 - an inspiration challenge

Today I'm actually doing a From Carter's Closet!! My little peanut was only about three months old when I took this photo. He had the chubbiest little cheeks as a baby!! You all get to see every week how very thankful I am for my sweet baby girl, but I thought on Thanksgiving I'd share an old photo of my first love. Being a mommy to these two sweeties is certainly the thing I'm most thankful for on this Thanksgiving day! Ok... plus... I never got around to taking a photo of Courtney in one of her outfits before I sat down to work on this card last night, and since we had spent the day at the zoo I felt like making an animal card! So I searched Carter's old photos until I found one that fit the theme! LOL Is that cheating? Nah. :D I used my Spellbinders Labels One dies to cut out the card this week - I've seen these shaped cards around Blogland and have been wanting to try one! I pulled out my beloved Stampin' Up Wild About You set for the elephant - one of the few sets in my stash with solid images - I totally prefer to color so I've finally learned to stop buying solid stamps!! But this is one I make an exception for! But as usual, I wasn't happy with the image after just stamping him, so I went and painted over him with some December Sky Blingz paint. He is soooo shimmery IRL! I am loving that paint! I also put a little Angel Wings Shimmerz on the little butterfly, which is from Papertrey's Butterfly Kisses set. I didn't have any striped DP that I liked for this card, so I went with gingham instead, using strips of three different colors of gingham paper to create the background. I figured if I used gingham, Maria would like it even if nobody else does! :D So does Carter's little jammies inspire you at all?? If so, put the turkey in the oven and head to the stamp room while it roasts! LOL If you make a card this week, make sure and link back here so I can find you. And if you upload to Splitcoast, use keyword FCCC. Last week's little party dress was a hit! And six wonderful ladies liked it enough to jump in and play along! First up, Erin, who joined us for the first (and hopefully not last!) time with this cute card. I *heart* it! (hee hee) :Sue said she didn't have much time for stamping so she threw this one together quickly. Geesh! I wish I could make something so perfect and elegant quickly!!Sharon joined us again (yay!) with this pretty and elegant card:Maria's card is elegant as well, and I just love the way she did the ribbon and button:Berenice's card has a really great background with those diamonds, love that!And this week, my favorite has to be Karen. Isn't this the cutest thing?!? And sooo perfect for the challenge. I just love it - you've really outdone yourself this week Karen!!Thanks everyone for playing!! And thanks everyone else for stopping in to take a peek! I am thankful for so many things this year in addition to my family, and of course one of them is all of the wonderful friends I've made thanks to this little blog!! Your visits and comments truly make my day, I appreciate every single one of them so very much!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

• Stamps: Wild About You and sentiment from Stampin' Up, Butterfly Kisses from Papertrey Ink
• Paper: Ballet Blue, Green Galore, Whisper White, The Paper Studio DP
• Ink: Ballet Blue, Only Orange
• Accessories: Shimmerz/Blingz paints, yellow embroidery foss, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, Nestabilities Labels One dies, rhinestones, black and clear glaze pens

If any of you are curious about our trip to Dallas, I thought I'd share a little update. I have mixed feelings about how it went. The three hour trip each way went ok considering we had two little ones in the car, they both did pretty darn good. The trip back yesterday afternoon was a little less fun thanks to heavy traffic adding an extra hour or so to the trip, but that's to be expected on the busiest travel day of the year I suppose. The night in the hotel room, well - NOT FUN AT ALL!!!! Ugh. I so wish my children would sleep away from home!! I've pretty much sworn off going on any trips until they are grown and out of the house! Ok, maybe not that long... and, well, I do have to take them to Michigan for Christmas... sigh... already not looking forward to the nights up there!! But anyway, we survived. And we had some fun during the days too. Here are a couple photos...
We really enjoyed the Dallas Zoo - it was really nice! Here's Carter at the entrance:We don't really get much fall color here in Texas, but there were several oaks at the zoo, among other trees, and the leaves were really beautiful!It was a fairly chilly morning so we were bundled up - although Courtney didn't enjoy her hood!Here's my little otter drinking his milk:Look Judy, a giraffe!Me and my pumpkin on the monorail, can you tell we didn't get much sleep the night before??Uh-oh!!Thanks for indulging me - sorry this is one of the world's longest posts! And extra sorry if you are on dial-up!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

If everyone in the house cooperates, my plan is to be back a little later today with this week's From Courtney's Closet. I hope you all enjoy your holiday today!

A few things...

First of all, today is my fellow Hambo DT friend Holly's birthday, so I just wanted to give her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out!!

Second, there is still a little bit of time left to get your Hambo 30% off order in, the sale runs until midnight EST tonight (Wednesday!!) - so get to it!

Third, LOTS of good things going on over at FireCracker Designs by Pamela!!! Here's what Pamela has to say:
Shimmerz - Oh yes! 8 new colors arrived today, and are ready for shipping!! We are now up to 23 colors of these beautiful shimmery paints!

Aileen's Tack Over Glue-Back in STOCK!! Need an adhesive to put on the backs of your unmounted rubber stamps? this is the best stuff!! Just brush it on with a paint brush, wait for it to dry clear, and you are ready to stick your stamps to your acrylic blocks! (available on the accessories page). The beauty of this glue? It lasts a good long time,and since it's repositional, when you are done stamping, just peel your stamp off the block and replace it in it's storage space!

NEW NEW NEW!! Subscriptions to RSM (Rubber Stamp Madness) The original rubber stamping magazine!!

Now you can renew, or start a subscription just by clicking the "Get It" button on my site! (and completing the order) smile

Offer good to all US residents, Canada,and INTERNATIONAL guests too!!

Be sure to choose the correct option when ordering YOUR subscription!

THANKSGIVING COUPON!! save 10% on all orders placed from now thru Nov 30th! Type in GIVETHANKS in the coupon box!!

** Coupon is not available on Magazine Subscriptions. Sorry.

Lemurs in Love

That's what this stamp is called - Lemurs in Love. Isn't that the cutest?? It's another one I picked up at a craft fair a couple weeks ago from local company Texana Designs. The majority of their stamps have a Texas flair, but I think the story on this was that the illustrator's girlfriend was doing something or another in Madagascar, so he drew this for her. So sweet!!! Ok I don't have time for anymore chit chat or details because my hubby is literally standing by the door waiting for me to go to the car - we have to go up to Carter's preschool for a little Thanksgiving party, and then we're on the road to Dallas! We're just going for the night, with a plan to hit the zoo tomorrow, if the weather cooperates. So - I'll see you back here later. Thanks for stopping by... and see the post below for my happy news. :-D :-D

I'm so excited! And I just can't hide it!!

I have a card I'll share a little later - I haven't photographed it yet - but I am so excited I needed to do a little post and share!!

First of all, my week started out GREAT when I popped in to read Nancy Riley's blog, iSTAMP, on Sunday. She has started a weekly feature called iPICKS, where she highlights some cards she enjoyed during the past week of blogging. WELL! This past week shePICKED me!! :-) :-) :-) I am such a HUGE fan of Nancy's work, so it was very exciting. I'm sure you all know Nancy, but if you haven't ever been to her blog, you MUST check it out!! Her creations are always GORGEOUS!!

And now for my super duper extremely awesome news...!!! Remember a little while back, I made this angel card and mentioned I'd fallen in love with another stamp company - American Art Stamp? Well, I added their blog to my Reader, and just a few days ago noticed they were doing a design team call. I figured what the heck - you never know unless you try, right?? While I didn't get the design team spot, I did get a spot as Guest Designer for February!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!! I am so thrilled I cannot begin to tell you. For one thing, the DT coordinator is Michelle Giraud, and I am such a big fan! So that makes it especially cool that she picked me.

DOING THE HAPPY DANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish I could go and stamp something to celebrate RIGHT NOW!!! But instead I have to go and brave the grocery store madness in search of a turkey... wish me luck... :-D

A snowy smooch!

This is rare - I actually forgot to post this!! I'm typically hand-to-mouth when it comes to stamping and blogging... as soon as I make something it's pretty much posted. I'm not the type to have a huge reserve of extra cards lying around for when I don't get a chance to stamp. So how I managed to forget to post this, I'm not quite sure! But I had uploaded it on Paper Craft Planet, and Betty left me a comment over there and mentioned she hadn't seen this one on my blog - thanks for the reminder Betty!! LOL. So, yay! On a day I thought I'd have nothin' for ya due to my dear child refusing to nap and therefore no time to finish the card I have nearly done sitting on my desk... I have this. :D Another cutie patootie from my FireCracker snowpeople sets. This snowman is "supposed to be" warming his backside at the fire, but I thought the way his arms are behind his back it looked like he could be leaning in to give his best snowgirl a big ol' peck on the cheek! :D The colors are a little bit... well... green! I was playing a color challenge on PCP for this card, but I ended up throwing in a couple additional shades of green! And the layout is Pamela's FCD06 sketch over in the PCP FireCracker group. Thanks for stopping by to take a peek!

• Stamps: Gifts of Love and Love Never Melts from FireCracker Designs by Pamela
• Paper: Sage Shadow, Neenah Solar White, SU Wintergreen DP, AMuse DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Fun Fluff, artichoke grosgrain ribbon, Stickles, heart brad, Fiskars tag punch, linen thread

Hambo 30%-off Sales Event

Hambo Stamps is running another BIG sale, you don't want to miss this!! Here's the deets:

For 3 days - Mon. 11/24 through Wed., 11/26 - Hambo Stamps is offering 30% off all regular-priced stamps. (Limit 2 of each design/saying) The discount applies only to stamps ordered during these 3 days (ending at midnight Wed. EST), and only to stamps that are in stock, with no back-orders included. Stamps on our "Seconds" and "Retiring" pages can still be purchased for the sale prices listed, though the 30% discount will NOT be applied to these. The free shipping offer does not apply during this sale event, though we will only charge ACTUAL shipping on all orders as usual.

Cami's makin' stamps!!

A couple weeks ago I got home from one of the worst playdates in recorded history - Carter was a complete pill and nearly drove me to a nervous breakdown, I was NOT in a happy mood - and checked my email. There was a message from "The Turnbow Family". Hmm. Turnbow?? The only Turnbow I know is a stamping superstar, one of my idols - why on earth would she be emailing ME?!?! So I opened the message... and it was indeed from her!! Cambria!! *thud* I picked myself back up off the floor and read the message. She said she was starting her own stamp company with some friends, and wondered if I'd be interested in doing a little design work - she'd send me a set to play with as I like. WOULD I BE INTERESTED?!?!?! I had to think about that one for about one millisecond! I was in SERIOUS shock that she'd even think to include me on her list of people to email about this. My bad day instantly took a turn for the better!! :-D So then she sent me a .pdf with all of the stamps that were available, and asked me to pick one. AS IF!!! I couldn't pick just ONE!! They were all so flippin' CUTE!! But, I settled on this one. If you read this blog, you know I like funny stamps - and, well, this just cracked me up!! And I couldn't believe she went there with that sentiment! Hee hee, too too funny!!! But of course I couldn't stop there, I ordered several more myself as well. By now you have probably read about Our Craft Lounge all over blogland, and seen many of their super cute stamps! I am so very happy for Cambria - how incredibly exciting this must be for her. And I am completely and utterly thankful and shocked that she gave me this little thrill. I wish you all the best Cami!! And I'll be showing all of the rest of you several more cards with my fun new stamps in the coming days as well. :-D A couple things about this particular card - I played along with Beate's latest sketch challenge for the layout (WSC67). And I dedicate this card to poor Ashley, who has *ahem* not quite been herself lately. If she sees this, hopefully it will make her smile a little? Thanks for stopping by today!!

• Stamps: Running Sick from Our Craft Lounge
• Paper: Kraft, Blue Bayou, Neenah Solar White, Soft Sky, Kraft DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Blue Bayou, Copics for coloring
• Accessories: Janome Sew Mini, Nestabilities dies, SU circle & scallop punches, SU stitched grosgrain ribbon

RAK from Allison

Well this bit of happy mail certainly had me grinning from ear to ear! Not only did I get this extremely adorable card from the one and only Allison, but just look at the stamp she threw in with it!!! REAL WOMEN LOVE HOCKEY. Sweeeeeet!!! For some reason they don't include such rubber goodness in the dollar bins at Mike's here in Texas! Ok maybe I know why - because people here are CLUELESS about hockey. Sure, there are some exceptions (mostly northern transplants like myself) - but c'mon. We had a minor league team for a while here in Austin (but they didn't survive) - they were called the Ice Bats. You see, Austin has a very cool bat population for part of the year that we are very proud of, so Bats was a fun name. But they had to call them the ICE Bats so the silly people here would realize hockey is a game played on ice. *sigh* Anywayzzzz... thanks for the super cool RAK, Allison!!

RAK from Leslie

Oh lucky me!!!! I don't mean to brag (ok, maybe I do!) but I actually have quite a nice stack of Leslie Originals in my possession!!! I was the very lucky recipient of one of her GORGEOUS Thanksgiving cards this week!! Oh to be able to pull off simple elegance the way Leslie can! Hmm. Perhaps step 1 is actually creating a card without polka dots?? Ack. Perhaps I'll leave simple elegance to the pros, and stick with my own style, cute and silly. :D Thanks Leslie, I *love* the card!!

In case you missed it...

... our recent Hambo Stamps design team challenge - to create a holiday card using nontraditional holiday stamps - has been extended to all of you. Check it out in the Hambo group over on Paper Craft Planet. The deadline is MONDAY the 24th. And there will be a PRIZE!!!

From Courtney's Closet #24 - an inspiration challenge

Welcome to another edition of From Courtney's Closet! If you're new to my blog, each week (give or take a few!) I dress my baby girl up in a cute little outfit, take her photo, and make a card inspired by what she was wearing. You can see all of the past weeks here. Today I decided it had been quite a while since Courtney got all dressed up for a card! Today's she's wearing her latest party dress - isn't it fabulous?? This one just shouted at me from the rack at Walmart - "Buy me! Buy me!" I'm not entirely sure where Courtney is going to actually wear this dress, other than for this photo!! It's pretty fancy for our usual routine, and it's not Christmasy. Hmm. Oh well, who could resist such a sweet dress?? If you could, you are a better person than me. :-) Searching through my stamps to use tonight, I remembered this old Stampin' Up hostess set and thought it would be rather perfect! I used three different colors of markers to color the flowers on the skirt, and then painted a little Shimmerz Pink Poinsettia Blingz in between the flowers. This is my latest toy!! Pamela is carrying these little pots of goodness now, so I had to get one (or so...) to play with. Me luuuvvvv it! It's so shimmery and pretty!! I tried to take a second photo to capture the shine, of course it was difficult - but you get the idea! Yummy stuff! So anyway... does this week's dress inspire you?? I am sorry to go with pink two weeks in a row, believe it or not I *try* to avoid that sort of thing - but I just couldn't wait to show you this dress!! So if you are inspired and head to your stamp space to create something, by all means please let me know about it!! If you upload on Splitcoast please use keyword FCCC. Last week's pink monkey shirt inspired some ADORABLE cards!! This may be my favorite week of cards so far, they all made me smile so much!!
Sue used the Cuttlekid monkey die - isn't it to die for?? And I love that she put the same flower brad behind her monkey's ear that I used on my card!My challenge inspired Karen to drive all over the Maine coast looking for a monkey stamp - which makes me feel both bad and cool all at the same time. :-) She isn't thrilled with what she finally came up with, but I think it's completely adorable!!Anita's daugther Katie didn't have a monkey stamp to use either, but rather than shopping she chose to be inspired by the colors and used other animals instead. Remember there are no rules to inspiration challenges - whatever YOU find inspiring is what you should go with! Super cute cards Katie!Jenn also didn't have any monkey stamps, but improvised with stickers and other embellishments, and the results are super duper cute!!Katie's card is so sweet with the cute monkey and all the wonderful texture and buttons. I also love the sentiment she used, because that's exactly how I feel both about my sweet baby girl, and also about all of you who actually play this challenge!Kathryn's monkey card is so stinkin' cute it hurts. LOL Ok nothing really hurts, but sometimes I just run out of things to say about these cards - I can only think of so many ways to say cute, sweet or adorable... :-) Love your card Kathryn!And though it was a very tough call, this week my favorite card has to be Monica's!! For one thing, she's my Hambo boss and I need to throw her a bone every now and then so she'll continue to send me free stamps. HA! Kidding of course, I love her card because it's absolutely adorable!! And super creative - she used a fingerprint stamp to make her little monkeys! I think the funny lips on the last monkey is what I love most. Plus she really captured the "silly" aspect of Courtney's little shirt. Yay Monica! I'll put a little goodie in the mail to you. (but please do not be too eager to get it, I'm two challenges behind now on mailing out goodies, not to mention a whole stack of RAKs... sigh...) :-)Thanks everyone for playing this week!! And thanks to the rest of you for stopping by today!!

• Stamps: Blooming with Happiness and Fancy Flexible Phrases from Stampin' Up
• Paper: Basic Black, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, SU Prints DP, AMuse DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: SU taffeta ribbon, Shimmerz Pink Poinsettia Blingz paint, black brads

Vincent Van Sow

I just realized I never posted this card on here! And since I'm messing around with Facebook at the moment, checking to see if my blog posts will show up in there, I figured there's no time like the present to post it! LOL! I made this card for our Hambo challenge last week on Paper Craft Planet. It also played along with the sketch and color challenges on there. I've mentioned before that I just LOVE this Faux Van Gogh stamp from smARTworks. This time I paired it with my Artist Pig from Hambo and this cute sentiment, which actually can also be used as a signature on the back of your card. I considered cutting off the piggy's ear, but decided I just couldn't do it. LOL Thanks for stopping by - and don't forget to scroll down to see my Hambo Christmas Challenge card below! :-)

• Stamps: Artist Pig and Good Impression from Hambo Stamps, Faux Van Gogh #2 from smARTworks
• Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Basic Black, Neenah Solar White
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics for coloring pig, SU for painting
• Accessories: Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls, brads, black & clear glaze pen

By the way - if you're on Facebook, say hi! I like having friends. LOL

Hambo Christmas Challenge

My Hambo design team friend Jane had a fun idea for a challenge this month - she challenged us to make a holiday card, but we couldn't use any of the stamps from the Christmas or Winter pages at the Hambo site. So, I had to dust off the ol' thinking cap once again! I actually thought of a couple other ideas before settling on this one. I'm a bit nervous sharing it with you - I truly hope it doesn't offend anyone - my sister tells me she has a snowman nativity scene that she got from her in-laws, and it bothers her a little to have the holy scene made of snowpeople. And what did I go and do? I made wisemen out of vampire pigs!!! But... my sister thought it was a cute idea, so hopefully you will too. :-) As I was looking through my stamps, they called to me because their capes looked sorta like robes. I made the little hats, beards and gifts myself - the beards look somewhat goofy, but they were necessary to hide the fangs...! LOL I was able to avoid inking up the pumpkin this little guy is usually holding with my teardrop shaped ink pad, but the fangs were just too difficult to avoid. I printed the sentiment on the computer. Which again I hope isn't offensive! I think Monica assumed I'd be offensive with my card, considering that she made her card with me in mind!! Geesh. (I told her I didn't like it one bit, but in reality I think it's pretty darn cute and funny!) And check out what the other girls came up with as well: Holly, Jane, Judy & MacKenzie. Thanks for stopping by!

• Stamps: Vampire Pig from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Garden Green, Whisper White, The Paper Studio DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Nestabilities, StarDust Stickles, purple bling, computer & printer

I couldn't help myself...

...I made another snowglobe card!!! I was feeling sad, so I decided to make a very happy card! (see the card request in the post below for why I was feeling sad...) I wanted to see how this would look with today's color challenge over on Splitcoast (CC193), which is one of my favorites: Real Red, Basic Black and Kraft! I love pretty much anything that includes Kraft!! You can see my original card, and links to the sites that inspired it, here. This time I used Dazzling Diamonds glitter instead of Stickles, because I knew I wouldn't be patient enough to let the Stickles dry! I think my favorite little snowgirl looks pretty darn cute in red and Kraft, I have to say. :-) Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to come back tomorrow to see my card for our Hambo design team challenge!

• Stamps: Gifts of Love and Love Never Melts from FireCracker Designs by Pamela
• Paper: Kraft, Whisper White, Real Red Prints DP
  
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, white StazOn, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Acetate, American Craft ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, SU snowflakes from Holiday Mini, SU black button, hemp twine
  

Request for cards

I learned about something so horrible a little while ago on Karen's blog, and I know some of you fellow stampers would want to help if you could, so I am going to pass it along. It's a very sad story, so prepare yourself... the link to Karen's blog includes some details, a link to the card request, and the news story. I am going to send a card this week, and I encourage you to do the same. I can't imagine surviving something like this, and I especially can't imagine being as strong in the face of it as Kristy seems to be. She is truly amazing. View the attachment on the PCP post to read her words. Now I'm off to hug my kids...

Merry Texmas!

Here's my Texas snowglobe card that I promised (threatened?) I'd post yesterday! Isn't it funny?? I found a wonderful little stamp company at a craft show this past weekend. They make all sorts of fun Texas-themed stamps, and they are based right up the road in Round Rock. The company is called Texana Designs, and the owner Jimmye Sue is super nice! She said if I wanted anything else, to give her a call and she'd meet me somewhere, to avoid shipping charges! I'm sure I'll have to take her up on that eventually, because they had a few stamps that I really love but resisted for now (including a bluebonnet, it was tough!!). I did get one other super cute stamp though, and it's NOT Texas-themed, but you'll have to wait and see that one later, hopefully this weekend. :-) For today's card I played along with Julee's Mojo Monday sketch challenge (MOJO61), more or less - I didn't add the sentiment at the bottom since the main image already included the sentiment. And I didn't add the brads at the top of the image, or the ribbon... hmm, ok I guess I hardly followed her sketch at all! LOL I also just realized, I meant to add some StarDust Stickles to the little snowflakes in the snowglobe!! I'll have to do that now, and if it looks good (or shows up in the photo!) I'll change it out on this post later! And a detail you can't really see in this photo (I also meant to do a side shot, geesh, my brain isn't working tonight!!) is that I cut out and popped up the center cactus and the little Merry Texmas plate. I like my card much better IRL - sigh - I just can't take decent photographs in my dark little dungeon of a stamp closet!! I need a bigger Ott-lite, I've decided. Santa, are you listening??? :-) Ok, thanks for stopping by today, I'm off to bed.

• Stamps: Texana Designs
• Paper: Garden Green, white, AMuse DP, Provo Craft Holiday Slab V DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: SU scallop edge punch, hemp twine, paper piercer

From Carter's Closet?

Carter pulled this shirt out to wear today - his "George the Monkey shirt" - he hadn't worn it in quite a while (and it's quite small on him - a trend with my kids' clothes these days!). As we were playing at the park this afternoon it occurred to me that it is a monkey shirt, and goes along with this week's From Courtney's Closet monkey theme. So... if you want to do a monkey card but aren't feeling it with the pink, here's another option for you... :D (or maybe it's just an excuse to post another photo of my sweet boy? Who knows... ;-) )

Snowglobe

Here's another project I made with my sweet little FireCracker snowgirl! I hope you're not getting tired of her! (I don't know how you could be, she's so stinkin' cute!!) I saw this super cute idea to create a snowglobe card on the Hero Arts site. Then I saw JB make the globe portion out of acetate, and had to make one too!! I cut out the acetate with the largest circle nestie I have, and went from there, using the acetate circle as a template to cut out the back of the card. The snowflakes are stamped on the front of the acetate with white StazOn. I loved how JB put a little 'snowdrift' on the top of the globe to hide where it attaches to the card, so I did the same, embossing the piece with Iridescent Ice EP. The hardest part of this card for me was waiting for the Star Dust Stickles on the snowgirl's hat to dry, so I could close it and see the finished card!! I am notorious for touching & smearing my Stickles before they are dry! My mantra is "always add Stickles last!" but that didn't help me in this case. :-)

Tomorrow I hope to post another snowglobe card, but very different from this one - my sister and I went to several craft shows this past weekend, and at one of them I found a local woman selling STAMPS!! I expect to find things MADE with stamps at craft shows, but not actual stamps!! Of course I had to buy some. So tomorrow I'll show you a card made with a cute little Texas-themed snowglobe stamp. :-) Also make sure to tune in on Wednesday, I'll have another Hambo design team challenge card to share. And then of course Thursday is From Courtney's Closet. Is anyone going to play this week?? Or have you all given up on me after I was a slacker and missed one week?? *sigh* :-) Well my whole week of posting is already mapped out... now all I need to do is STAMP!! I better get to it! Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Gifts of Love and Love Never Melts from FireCracker Designs by Pamela
• Paper: Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Provo Craft Holiday Slab V DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, white StazOn, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Acetate, Michael's ribbon, StarDust Stickles, Iridescent Ice EP, flower & brad from my stash

Doin' the Zindorf...

You all know Michelle Zindorf, right? She is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! The things that woman can do with a brayer, WOW. Not only that, but she is an incredibly generous person too - not that I've ever met her, but just from reading her blog - nearly every single blog post is a very detailed tutorial so that you, too, can do the Zindorf. But I should note, she does not tell you to do the Zindorf, I just made that up. LOL Anyway... she recently did a tutorial using a FireCracker Designs by Pamela snowman, and I *loved* how it turned out. I don't own that same snowman, so I decided to give it a go with my sweet snowgirl from "Gifts of Love". Now you have to understand - I have major brayer phobia, and just generally don't think of myself as someone who can "create a scene" while stamping. But man - Michelle's tutorial made it sooooo easy, even I could do it! The only dilemma I had was that she colors her image with Prisma markers, and I have Copics, so I had to strain myself trying to figure out which markers to use to copy her as exact as possible. LOL! I also made some boo boos... she had me go over the stamped & colored snowgirl with my Versamarker (something that's been in my stash for a loonnnggg time and never touched!) and then clear emboss - well I wasn't as careful with the Versamarker as I should have been, so there was an edge of vanilla paper showing around the image after I brayered (KWIM?). I tried to compensate with white gel pen but it ended up looking rather goofy around her hat. Which I'm sure I shouldn't be pointing out to you!! LOL Ok, I confess, I worked on this card for a lonnngggg time last night, but mostly due to my goofs that I had to fix! At any rate, I had a LOT of fun with this, and may even be brave enough to try another of her tutorials sometime. And I definitely encourage you to do the same!! Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Gifts of Love from FireCracker Designs by Pamela
• Paper: Riding Hood Red, Creamy Caramel, Very Vanilla
• Ink: Palette Noir, Not Quite Navy, Night of Navy, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: clear EP, Versamarker, brayer, sponge, white gel pen, black fine tip pen, linen twine, SU snowflake from holiday mini, tiny green brad, tag I cut out myself

(As I was just going to Michelle's site to get the links to include here, I saw this card. Soooo beautiful!!!)

A FireCracker Blog Hop!

It's time for another FireCracker Designs by Pamela blog hop!! I sat out this time around, but I wanted to make sure you have the opportunity to check it out - not only are there some WONDERFUL cards to be seen, but if you make your way around the hop you'll have a chance at some FANTASTIC blog candy at the end - this set they all used, "Be Naughty", and also the eight cards the ladies created!! How cool is that? The challenge was called "8 from 1" - each team member was assigned a different "type" of card to make with this same penguin set, so some ladies had to think out of the box a bit! So without further ado, start out by visiting Sherri's blog, and she'll direct you where to go from there. :-) Have fun!

From Courtney's Closet #23 - an inspiration challenge

At long last... here it is! This week's edition of From Courtney's Closet, my little blog challenge that I started all those weeks ago to inspire myself, and ended up inspiring a couple of you occasionally as well. I sure hope nobody stayed up until 11pm to see my Big Reveal, because as usual I am running behind! And for those of you who guessed... sorry, nobody guessed that my silly little monkey was in fact wearing a monkey!!! Yes, Jenn and Sue, technically there *is* a flower on the onesie as well, but unfortunately that was not the answer I was looking for. :-) Of course for this week's card, I had to pull out the monkey that's currently my favorite - the Stampin' Up Sock Monkey! When my friend Leigh saw this card at stamp club tonight, she exclaimed "Sock Monkey is wearing jammies!". I paper pieced my little monkey and put a flower brad by her ear to match the shirt. This little outfit is one of my favorites, I got it back in the summer on good sale at the Gymboree outlet, and Courtney has worn it A LOT! It's what she had on during her brush with greatness. I'm sad it's getting to be too small on her! Why can't these clothes grow with Courtney!?? LOL The good news for all of you (and me, I need blog fodder!) is that with Courtney moving up a size and colder weather coming in, I get to break out more of the 12M clothes I traded for with my friend Cindy, so there is a fresh supply of new clothes to inspire cards... :-) The last challenge, Courtney's Halloween costume, inspired some CUTE cards!! First there's Berenice and her adorable little card - cute indeed!Kathryn added pink to her super duper cute doggie card - great choice!!I looooooooooooooooooooove Sue's card!!! The image is adorable, and her layout, color choices, punches, everything, is just wonderful!Monica made this adorable birthday card for her hubby - love the cow she used, and the cowpie cupcake. :-) And the touch of blue really sets it off nicely!Sharon joined us for the first time this week, and I'm so glad she did! I love a girl that uses lots of polka dots!!Anita's card is both cute and pretty with all the added lace and flowers!!And this week, my favorite has to be Katie!! Not only did she start a blog like I requested (LOL), she also made not one, not two, but THREE cards for the challenge (you can see all three on her blog), all of which are soooo cute! But what won me over was this photo. You know I'm a sucker for cute kid photos!! And her Klayton sure is a super cutie!! Email me your address Katie, and I'll put a little something in the mail to you!Thanks everyone for playing, and thanks everyone else for stopping by! I hope this week's outfit inspires you - if it does, please play along and report back here to let me know you did!! :-)

• Stamps: Sock Monkey from Stampin' Up!
• Paper: Kraft, Barely Banana, Georgia Pacific White, Prints DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU markers for coloring banana
• Accessories: Nesties, Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder, yellow brads, Making Memories brad