A couple more things...

First of all, I forgot to tell you one more time to go over to the Hambo Stamps website *TODAY* and place an order!! Quick!!! Before August arrives!! The Hambos, errr, I mean Hunters are donating 15% of all sales to a good cause this month, and I want that check to be BIG, so if there's stuff you've been wanting (and I know there is!) you need to buy it RIGHT NOW!! Got it? Good! ;-)

Second... I am what you can call a totally CLUELESS blogger (just ask my brother!). I really don't know the ins and outs of this stuff. So when Monica asked me today how I get the "links to this post" to show up, I said "huh??" So I went to last week's From Courtney's Closet post to investigate, and saw a link there to my sweet blogging friend Mimi's blog, and found out she played last week too!!! I am hopelessly behind on blogs in my Reader (585 unread at the moment!) so I hadn't seen her post yet. Doh!!! So here's her beautiful card (LOVE that ribbon!). And if I've ever missed a card from any of you, PLEASE let me know!! I'd be so bummed! I also forgot to mention today - if you upload on SCS, please use keyword FCCC so I can find you! :-) :-) :-)

Not working...

Ok my Flickr thing isn't working, it seems to be showing random photos from other people (even though it looked just fine in my preview). I am pretty sure I have my account set to public viewing, but maybe not - but I can't fix it right now, I have a very cranky, 103 fever boy on my hands. Will try to fix it later! Let me know if you know what I'm doing wrong... :-)

ETA: I'm still clueless about adding Flickr slideshows, but I put my awesome, tech-savvy little brother on it, and he fixed it for me! HE ROCKS!!!! But to enable his help, I set him up with admin privileges on this blog... so if you see anything crazy posted... it was him, not me!! ;-)

From Courtney's Closet #11 - an inspiration challenge

Welcome to another edition of From Courtney's Closet, my weekly challenge where I pick an outfit from my baby girl's closet and let it inspire a card. If you're new to my blog, you can see all of the past weeks here. Since I'm doing "Hambo Week" this week, I sort of cheated on the challenge a little - I started looking at her clothes thinking "hmm, what could I put her in that would go with a Hambo stamp!" ;-) Then I saw this little ballerina outfit that Courtney's Aunt Laura bought for her, and we had a winner!! Isn't this little ballerina stamp cute?? Although I have to admit, this outfit is getting a little tight on Courtney - you can sort of see how tight the fabric is over her sweet baby belly, and look at those chubby legs - makes me think the Hambo ballerina I used on this card may have been a better choice... ;-) I'm also not so sure about this particular bow for Courtney - it sorta looks more like a sweatband. If I only had some leg warmers for her... makes me have to sing "she's a maniac, maniac on the floor, and she's dancing like she's never danced before..." LOL Today's card is quite self-explanatory. Typical me - polka dot and scallop goodness. A couple tidbits that you may find interesting - I wanted to make an oval shadow under her, so I punched one out of cardstock with my SU oval punch, and then used the negative cardstock (square cardstock with an oval hole in it! ;-) ) as a template for coloring her shadow. And also there's Frosted Lace Stickles on her tutu and on the sentiment, not sure how well those are showing up.

Last week was a banner week as far as participants goes!!! So many, in fact, that I'm going to just post all the links to their ADORABLE creations here and then attempt to add them in a slideshow. I'm trying Flickr this time and I haven't used it before... so cross your fingers it will work... But first, a HUGE thanks to Kim (x2!!), Karen, Nancy, Leslie, Kathryn, Sue, Monica, Susan and Diane for playing!!! That is just so exciting! (And btw, a couple of my stamping idols have told me that they may play, and I will completely pee my pants if they ever do (Hi Sharon, Hi Susan!) ;-)) Thanks everyone for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Ballerina and Tutu-ly Fun from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Kraft, Pretty in Pink, Neenah Solar White, Making Memories DP
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Spellbinders dies, slit punch, tag punch, Frosted Lace Stickles, photo corners, Martha Steward twine, ribbon from Michael's

FYI...

...Courtney tried her first peas tonight, it wasn't love at first bite for her either. :-)

But she DOES like to dress up like a little ballerina - more on that in the morning! ;-)

You've got mail!

I couldn't possibly have Hambo Week on my blog without including a card featuring one of the cute pig images! This little guy is Flower Pig, and he's so happy to be getting some fun mail rather than bills for once, it's made him dance around the room sniffing a flower! So what do you think of this Groovy Guava, Always Artichoke and So Saffron color combo? I'm still undecided, it's a little out there for me. The flowers were white, but I colored them with my Copics to match. Only other detail you can't necessarily see are the piggie's hooves, I colored them shiny black with my Glaze pen.

Come back tomorrow for this week's From Courtney's Closet challenge. I'll also post the roundup from last week, there were several wonderful entries!! You all are making me so proud - if I get a few more to play I may even have to start doing one of those nifty slideshow things! :-)

Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Flower Pig and You've Got Mail from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Groovy Guava, Always Artichoke, Neenah Solar White, So Saffron Prints DP
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic markers for coloring, black Glaze pen
• Accessories: Swiss Dots embossing folder, Spellbinders dies, Cuttlebug, flowers, clear button, Martha Stewart twine, tiny green brads

I {heart} manatees!

Here's another thing I love about Hambo Stamps - they have a manatee stamp!! How random is that?? Actually, probably not that terribly random, considering Monica is originally from Florida! But, it's not an animal you see very often. Have you even heard of these gentle sea creatures? Did you know that although they have no natural predators they are endangered, thanks to human beings? Well it's true. Ok I'm done with my public service announcement. On to the card! I played another Dare to Get Dirty challenge from Splitcoast - this time Jen's sketch challenge. I am bad with sketches like this because I rarely get things straight - so please don't look TOO closely! If you insist on looking closely, instead look at my coloring - I'm really happy with how it turned out, that blue underbelly makes me happy. :-) I liked the monochromatic theme on yesterday's card so I did it again for the most part, this time with Bashful Blue. So are you enjoying Hambo week so far? Well... it's going to get even bigger and better as the week goes on... there may be some sort of fun giveaway involved... stay tuned....! ;-)

• Stamps: Manatee and Gray Wrinkled Thing from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Bashful Blue, Basic Gray, Neenah Solar White, Bashful Blue Prints DP
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic markers for coloring, white gel pen
• Accessories: SU ribbon, MM brads

Give Peas a Chance!

I'm declaring this week on the ol' blog "Hambo Week"! Why, you ask? Well, for a few reasons: 1) Because I love Hambo Stamps, they always make me giggle 2) During July, 15% of all Hambo sales will be donated to a special cause - July is nearly over so you need to get crackin' on your purchases! and 3) Because I am the world's biggest procrastinator and waited until the end of the month to make my DT samples!!! Three pretty darn good reasons, wouldn't you say? ;-)
Today's card was made with Lauren's Dare to Get Dirty challenge in mind over at Splitcoast. I know I've been on quite a green kick the last few posts - I promise you tomorrow's card will not be green! But I love green so it's the first color I think of when asked to go monochromatic! Today's greens are Wild Wasabi and Certainly Celery. Hmm. Both food related! That fits this post more than I thought. I just love punny sentiments like this, they make me chuckle. And this one immediately made me think of the first time Carter tried eating peas! He was NOT impressed... Doesn't this face just say it all? C'mon Carter, give peas a chance!! LOL. I'm happy to report that as a two year old, they are now one of his favorite veggies. :-) My card is pretty self-explanatory. I used polka dots and scallops. Again. I'd say tomorrow's card won't have polka dots or scallops too, but I'd probably be lying... ;-) Ok, time to go and see what the munchkins are up to - Happy Monday and have a great week!

• Stamps: Pea Pod and Give Peas a Chance from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi Prints DP
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic makers for coloring, white gel pen, black glaze pen
• Accessories: SU ribbon, MM brads, slit punch

Scrapbook Sunday

It's Sunday and time for another Scrappy Sketch!! Cyndi posts scrapbook sketches over at her blog, The Scrappy Chick, and I'm lucky enough to get them ahead of time to play with and hopefully inspire you to scrap too?? Well if I'm not inspiring you, at least I'm cranking out some pages myself and finally making a little headway on my kids' books...! I have a big box of stuff to scrapbook about Carter's first year - all the various things I saved from the hospital, his first haircut, his first birthday, etc etc - but that box is still sitting at my sister's house! If you've been reading this you know that we are trying to sell our house - I purged a bunch of stuff out of my craft room to get ready for showings, including the majority of my stamps (waaah I miss them!), and most of my scrapbook stuff! I didn't think I'd be scrapping anytime soon. And... I thought we'd sell our house faster than it has gone (silly me!). So anyway - I still need to get that box back from my sister and get cracking on Carter's first year, but since I haven't done that yet, I instead chose to scrap our recent adventure into cookie making, even though I had already posted the photos here on the blog not too long ago. It was a fun page to make. One thing I like about this page is the little button embellishments I put together - stacking some clear buttons with heart shaped buttons that have been in my embellishment stash foreverrrrrr and tying them with embroidery floss. One thing I don't love is the journaling - I would love it much more if I printed it up on the computer - but I'm trying to just suck it up and write it myself, assuming someday Carter's grandchildren will enjoy seeing my actual handwriting... who knows, maybe by then nobody will even write anything by hand anymore... :-) So now that you're feeling all inspired to scrap, make sure and hop over to Cyndi's blog and check out what she did, and check out Lynn's blog too! Thanks for stopping by today!

A challenge three'fer!

ETA: Oops! I wasn't supposed to be posting so much info about these challenges on my blog!! Silly me! So I've deleted most of this post. If you want more details about the challenges, become a Fan Club member!!!
I mentioned a couple posts ago about the Dare to Get Dirty '08 challenges over at Splitcoast and said you should be playing them. I'd like to clarify that. FIRST you should play yesterday's From Courtney's Closet challenge, and THEN you should play some of the DTGD challenges... ;-) Last night I was able to crank out a card that fit three of the challenges, woohoo! This beautiful image is from my Coffee with Friends* set from Flourishes. And in case you're curious - I'm a few challenges behind now on getting them all done (three from today plus one other...) but I have ideas in my head for all of them. Just need to find some stamping time! Guess I should have been stamping NOW rather than blogging, oops! I hear the kiddos waking up, darn it! :-) Oh and if you're curious about the Cuttlebug situation - I am using my partial B plate and continuing to use my Cuttlebug, and it's working fine so far. Thanks to those who replied to my post with suggestions!! Being the slow sort that I am, it actually hadn't occurred to me to just use the big broken piece - duh! Ok better go, have a great weekend!!!

• Stamps: Coffee With Friends from Flourishes
• Paper: Gable Green, Basic Black, Whisper White, Making Memories DP
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic marker, white gel pen
• Accessories: Spellbinders dies, Swiss Dots embossing folder, Cuttlebug, May Arts ribbon, straight pin

* if you love this set as much as I do, fyi it's currently out of stock at Flourishes but will be back soon - I realized this when looking for the link, it's missing from the store at the moment!

From Courtney's Closet - an inspiration challenge

I literally spent more time today trying to get a good photo of Courtney than I did making the card! She LOVES the dress she's wearing this week - loves to EAT it, that is. And to just grab at it and wave it up and down. It's such a big, full skirt - so many ways to entertain herself with it...! But anyway, thanks to the digital age and the ability to just keep snapping a zillion photos without having to pay a fortune to develop them, I did manage to get a couple of keepers. And... do you notice anything new and exciting (other than the dress!) in the first photo?? Courtney is sitting on her own, not in the Bumbo! That's another reason the "photo shoot" took so long - I wanted to show you her new skill, but it's a very new skill, so she only stays up for a few seconds. So I got a lot of blurry photos of her tipping over...! I *love* this dress she's wearing! I was bad and went into the Carter's store - I try not to do that because I lose all self control! I didn't lose ALL control but I did manage to buy this too-adorable-to-resist full priced dress rather than the sale racks dress I had pictured I'd buy upon entering. Oops. I just loved the color combo of the dress - green and brown. And of course it has polka dots! I had to attach a second photo of Courtney to show you the bow on the side of the dress (or maybe because she just looks too cute!). My card is pretty simple, only one layer of paper! I decided to try that fun, whimsical, groovy kind of haphazard sewing I've seen on other cards - I like it! The flowers are from the Verve Stamps set Feeling Groovy. The flowers have a little diamond glaze in their centers, and are popped up on dimensionals. IRL this card has a lot more depth and texture than I could capture in the photo. I inked up just the word "groovy" from one of the sentiments. I just love the sentiments in this set, they are so much fun!! So - if you love Courtney's new dress as much as I do, why don't you play along?? If you do, be sure to let me know about it! And if you post on Splitcoast please use keyword FCCC so I can find you. There were some super cute cards inspired by Courtney's duckie dress last week! We had another first-timer with Dannie - not just the first time doing my challenge but the first time doing any inspiration challenge! That's just so cool!! And check her blog, she even gave a great tip for coloring brads along with creating this adorable card!
New blogger Kathryn was inspired to make this super cute pocket card! What a great take on the challenge!!
Diane played again - I love that she added the bubbles behind the duck, too cute!
And of course my FCCC BFF Sue, who's now played seven of the nine challenges I've posted up until now (this week is the 10th already, can you believe it??). I just love her bright, cheerful card - and would you look at that, she also thought to add bubbles. :-)
Thanks so much for playing along, you gals ROCK! And thanks everyone else for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Feeling Groovy from Verve Stamps
• Paper: Wild Wasabi Textured CS, Whisper White
  
• Ink: Chocolate Chip
• Accessories: Janome Sew Mini, brown thread, May Arts ribbon, scissors, dimensionals

Inspired by a Ribbon Addict...

I've decided to try and play along with all of the Dirty Dare '08 challenges over at Splitcoast... yes kids, I said *all*! So far I'm five for five! Woohoo! Can you believe it? I'm sure I'll fall behind and then eventually drop off though - I have my stamp room back but it's only short lived, on Friday night my in-laws arrive for a visit. But who knows, maybe I'll still get some stamp time in! Anyway... here's one of the cards I made today. They are supposed to be candles. Can you tell? I hope so - if you have to explain what it's supposed to be, it's probably not a very good card. :-) I'm happy with how it turned out though, I think it's fun! But I had a really hard time photographing it. Does anyone else have trouble photographing black paper? It always turns out really drab looking for me, I'm not sure why. The card is cuter IRL (isn't that always the case??). Thanks for stopping by - and go play the fun SCS challenges if you aren't already!

• Stamps: Karen Foster Snap Stamps
• Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Taken with Teal
• Ink: Black Stazon
• Accessories: American Crafts ribbon, grosgrain ribbon (old SU), black brads, scissors

RIP my beloved B plate...

...I will forever have fond memories of the time we spent together in the stamp room...

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS??? I cracked my Cuttlebug plate tonight! I am so bummed. I was trying to emboss with my Nestabilities dies in there. Guess my stack was too thick? Ugh. Do they sell replacement B plates?!

I don't know if I'm even going to share the card I was making when this tragedy occurred - I was so distraught that I just stumbled through the rest of the card and I don't like it. I'll share something else instead, up above....

Pure summer

I am absolutely in love with these Poppy Patch stamps from Flourishes. It's one of those sets for me - as soon as I saw it (when Sharon posted it on her blog the night is was released!) I immediately went and bought it. It's just sooooo beautiful. But honestly that's a problem for me. I have a really tough time making cards with Flourishes sets, because they are just so stinkin' beautiful! I am much more at ease with cute stuff. Beautiful and me don't get along very well. But I am quite happy with how this one turned out. Originally I went in the stamp room thinking I'd watercolor - I had just finished rereading some of Leslie's fabulous tutorials (<-- that should be the link to all the tutorials she's posted so far - she completely rocks, she's my coloring (and general cardmaking and gardening...) idol!!) but mine turned out way too ugly and embarrassing to ever display in public. So then of course I had to give it another try, but this time I gave up on the watercoloring (for tonight) and turned to my best friend, my Copic markers. I really have no clue what I'm doing with the Copics, I really need to go to one of those certification classes people keep bragging about... I really hope someday they have one in Texas! At any rate, my method for using the Copics is just mess around with them until you get to a point that you like what you did, even if it's not done "correctly" and even if you have no clue how to shade things right. I really wish I knew how to shade - I know you're supposed to imagine which side the light is falling on the object and go from there, but I just can't seem to get that. I'm sure my end result is as if there is light coming from every which way!! Oh well. It makes me happy when I color, and that's all that matters!! So after I was done coloring these gorgeous poppies, I put them onto a fairly simple layout of a card. Of course I had to squeeze in some polka dots! I played with adding ribbon for quite a while, but in the end decided it just took away from the poppies so I left it ribbonless. So yay, I've conquered my scary but beautiful poppy set! Maybe someday I'll figure out how to color my lilacs!! Thanks for stopping by today. :-)

• Stamps: Poppy Patch from Flourishes
• Paper: So Saffron, Real Red, Neenah Solar White, Making Memories DP
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic markers for coloring, So Saffron sponged along the edge
• Accessories: sponge dauber, tiny brads from my stash

Happy Birthday Cade!

I made this card today for our friend Cade's first birthday. Cade's mommy Karen did such a great job with his birthday party - it had a duckie/bath theme, with a fun duckie cake and cupcakes, blue punch with a rubber duckie floating in it, a kiddie pool in the backyard for all the little "ducks" to play in, even super cute favors with bubble stuff, goldfish crackers, a bath crayon among other things, all to fit the theme. I'm telling you all of this because DUH, if I had been thinking, I should have given him the From Courtney's Closet card in my last post, with the duckie!!! But I'm not that on the ball, so I made him this card instead because Carter has apparently made me believe that all little boys need dinosaurs. Although this is a fire-breathing dinosaur?? I guess maybe he's a dragon. But he's from a super cute stamp set from Stampendous called "Prehistoric Party". I found it at Archiver's, and the package said it's an "Archiver's Exclusive" so if you like it you'll have to find yourself an Archiver's, or just admire the set from afar when I post cards here... ;-) I played along with a couple of fun challenges for this card, which helped it come together really fast - the sketch is from the latest Cupcake Challenge on Taylor's blog (TECC25) (WOW - it seems like just yesterday she started doing challenges and it's already #25! Seriously, where does the time go??) and the colors are this past week's color challenge on Splitcoast (CC175) - Almost Amethyst, Wild Wasabi and So Saffron. I added a little black to make it pop. I also added a lot of texture with my Cuttlebug - D'vine Swirls because they mimic the dragon's fire, and Tiny Mosaic because it looks like reptile scales. I actually used textured Wasabi paper to begin with, so it has even more texture with the mosaic! I really, really love this cute little stamp set, so expect to see some more dinosaur cards (really dinosaurs!) from it soon!! I'm still swamped with other stuff around the house, so my posting may continue to be sparse, but I hope to get back into full stamping swing soon!! Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Prehistoric Party from Stampendous
• Paper: Basic Black, So Saffron, Almost Amethyst, Textured Wild Wasabi, Neenah Solar White
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Cuttlebug with D'vine Swirls, Tiny Mosaic embossing folders and Spellbinders Dies, circle punches

From Courtney's Closet - an inspiration challenge

Well it's that time of the week again - time to make a card inspired by one of Courtney's outfits! Unfortunately this week I didn't find much in her closet to be inspired by - I think I need to go shopping! ;-) But then I remembered the bag of clothes Rachel's mommy loaned to me - I've been afraid to put them on my little sweetie because, not to be too graphic, but lately she's been the queen of the blow-outs if you know what I mean! So I didn't want to ruin any of the borrowed clothes! But I'm happy to report she wore this all day yesterday without any resulting stains. ;-) So... this week's From Courtney's Closet comes to us by way of Rachel's Closet!! If you don't know the back story - Rachel is Carter's best friend, they were born one day apart, and Carter and I hung out with Rachel three days a week for about a year (I was her "nanny"), before Courtney came along. Rachel is like my first daughter, although sadly I don't see her often enough anymore! I asked her mommy Cindy if she had a photo of Rachel in this outfit and she did - she was only three and a half months in this photo - can you believe how well she posed??? Courtney rarely cooperates with me when trying to get a good photo of the outfit! It's as if Rachel knew we'd be looking at her photo to make a card... LOL. So about the card... I was inspired by the colors and the duckies. I skipped the flowers, which is very strange for me! The white part of the dress has a lot of texture to it - like a really lightweight corduroy or something. To mimic that texture, I got out my Scor-pal and scored some lines. I thought I'd have a sweet sentiment on this card, like "welcome little one" or "precious baby" or some such thing - but I just wasn't feeling it. Instead I went with "quack". Not really sure who I'd send a card to that just says "quack"... :-) So... you know the drill! If Courtney, or Rachel!!, inspires you this week, create something and let me know you did! I'd love to see it! If you upload to Splitcoast, use keyword FCCC. And by the way, soooo many of you have said "I really want to play eventually" - well you know, there's no time like the present! ;-) Last week I had four wonderful bloggers get bitten by the (lady)bug and play along with me! Yay!!! Three repeat customers, and a newbie! First the newbie - look at this ADORABLE card from Diane!! I especially love the little row of ladybugs, too cute!
Next is Leslie, who as always created a beauty! Oh, to be able to create something perfect every time I enter the stamp room, like she seems to do...
Monica made my day once again by playing along - and of course she used the same Hambo ladybug that I did, plus another! And HA! *SHE* used polka dots too on this cute card!!
And last but certainly not least, look at the fun card Sue came up with!! I just love it! Make sure and check her blog, she has a lot more detail about this card there.
Thanks ladies for playing along, it's so much fun to check out your creations (and always so nice to read your sweet comments about Courtney's photos!). Thanks everyone for stopping by today!

• Stamps: By Ones and By Twos from Stampin' Up, Karen Foster Snap Stamps
• Paper: Brilliant Blue, Whisper White, DP from Doodlebug Designs (I think?)
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic Markers for coloring
• Accessories: Janome Sew Mini and blue thread, Scor-Pal, blue brads, yellow grosgrain, straight pin

Tune back in on Thursday...

Well first of all I wanted to thank you for all of the extremely sweet comments lately, and for those of you who've just found my blog - so happy to have you here! I also wanted to let you know I'm going to be MIA for a couple days - I have some things I need to accomplish this week, so I'm trying hard not to be distracted by cardmaking or blogging. Not an easy task!! ;-) But I plan to be back on Thursday with a From Courtney's Closet card. Until then - I had to show you some photos of my sweet boy, since lately all I seem to do is go on about his baby sister! Recently we did something that I've been looking forward to ever since becoming a mom - we baked together!! We made some chocolate chip cookies. Carter LOVED it, he had so much fun mixing things together, and of course licking the beaters - he especially loved seeing how different the cookies looked once they came out of the oven, and tasting them!! I'm pretty sure it was his first time ever trying a chocolate chip cookie (one can never be completely sure what happens when you send them off to preschool...). He gave it two enthusiastic thumbs up! So now I'm totally excited about making Christmas cookies with him this year... I know it's a wee bit early to think about it, but I can't help it. It's going to be so much fun! And it will make the cutest scrapbook page... ;-) Have a good week, see you again on Thursday!

Introducing Scrapbook Sunday and a Scrappy Sketch!!

Hi everyone! I have some fun news to share today!! Back in the day I used to be an avid scrapbooker - long before I discovered stamping. But then just over a year ago I started looking at Splitcoast more, and then found blogging, and then screeeeeech - my scrappin' came to a big hault! But lately I've really been itching to get back into the groove. The reason I even had kids was because they'd be so darn much fun to scrapbook (KIDDING!!) and now, all of the sudden, my son is already two and a half and I've done NOTHING in his book to speak of!! I knew my blogging friend Cyndi was posting scrapbook challenges, and I kept hoping I'd start playing them. I hadn't seen one in a couple weeks, so I left her a comment just asking what was up - and next thing I know she's emailing me, asking if I'd like to be part of her little Scrappy Sunday sketch team! So here I am! What fun!! I'm hoping it will be a good kick in the pants to get me going on the kids' books. I always try to do scrapping in big blocks of time, but really, getting one layout done once a week (or every other week) is more realistic for me, and if I keep doing it - voila, I'll have made progress!! But you're going to have to bare with me for a bit... I am extremely rusty in the scrapping department! It took me FOREVER to make this layout and I'm not even thrilled with it!! But at least I'm doing it. :-) So, head on over to Cyndi's blog and check out this week's challenge. Until school starts back up we'll be posting these every other week. And if you have a chance to play along, be sure to let Cyndi know so she can check it out (and so we all can!). Also hop on over and see what Lynn did this week as well! Thanks for taking a look - mom is cooking brunch (woohoo!) and it's ready, so I need to run - I'll come back later and post my recipe (famous last words for me... I often forget to actually do that so we'll see...). ;-)

Gramma's cheese box...

I mentioned in one of my recent posts that I needed to show you all the AMAZING cheese box my Gramma Betty painted for me. Today I'm "cleaning" (which really means getting distracted by stuff like this or reading an email whenever it pops into my inbox or watching CNN when I'm supposed to be dusting...) - at some point I really DO need to clean because someone is coming to view the house at 3pm. ANYWAY - as I was dusting this box I thought I should snap a few photos and show you, since who knows if I'll have time to make a card to share today. So here it is! Isn't it amazing? It's even more amazing IRL, I couldn't get good photos of it. All of the little details - I took some close-ups of a couple of my favorites, but I would have a massively long post today if I showed you all of them! Man, if I had just a fraction of my grandma's talent...! Well maybe I do have the slightest fraction - but all I can do is color stamped images! She does this stuff freehand!! I should take some photos of my sister's box too, it's so beautiful - scenes from across the USA. She also did an amazing box to commemorate the shows my hometown's community theater group has done - my grandma was one of the founders of the group - the box was auctioned as a fundraiser, but my uncle couldn't let it out of the family and had the winning bid! My mom inherited some of Gramma's talent too - one of these days I'll also have to show you some of the Christmas ornaments my mom has painted...!

Thanks for stopping by today and checking out my grandma's talent - tune in tomorrow, I have a fun new feature to share! I've been invited to be part of a super fun challenge team!! It will take me back to my papercrafting roots a bit... the hobby that started it all for me... :-) Enjoy your Saturday!!

Namaste

Namaste my fellow stampers (puts hands together at chest and bows forward)... today I present to you my attempt at this week's sketch challenge on SCS (SC184). When I saw the sketch with all these diamonds, for some reason it reminded me of something Asian or Indian. I've been wanting to use my MFT "Serenity Now" set for ages - I loved it from the first time I saw it and actually informed my DH back in February that it was my "Valentine's gift" before I placed the order... ;-) But even though I needed it as soon as I saw it, it has sat since then, unloved in my clear stamp drawer. Until this week! I don't know about this card, though. I had such incredibly high hopes, visions of awesomeness when I went into the stamp room, that the end result doesn't quite measure up. I can tell you one thing I was absolutely determined to do, though - make a card without any scallops or polka dots and get Monica off my back!! And I did it, woohoo! Hmm. Maybe that's why I don't love this card as much?? LOL. Anyway - I found this DP in my stash and thought it would be perfect for a yoga card - such a neat pattern. The purple paper is something quite "unique," to say the least - it's actually Mr. Ellie Pooh paper. Paper made from elephant dung. I kid you not! This Mr. Ellie Pooh character was at a scrapbook expo I went to a while back. The guy was quite charismatic. Obviously. He convinced me I needed a bunch of paper made from elephant pooh!!! (man if a certain blogger is reading this she is going to have a field day - she already makes fun of my love of elephants - it goes against my true love of donkeys if you know what I mean...luckily I don't think she actually reads this very often... being a superstar and all... anyway...) The paper is actually pretty cool, I feel like I'm doing a good thing for the earth by using it (I hate to stop and think how many trees I've killed since I started papercrafting...!), the color is great (better IRL, the colors in this photo are a bit goofy) and it's almost like a heavy duty mulberry paper? It has a lot of texture - and I intentionally added some extra roughing up to the edges. The little lotus flower squares were embossed with silver EP. I cooked them a little long, which produced this cool look of the EP really getting down into the paper - it really has an Indian look to me IRL (I spent 10 weeks in Malaysia a while back - there's a lot of Indian culture there - it reminds me of a lot of the handmade paper things I'd see there). I wrote out "namaste" at the bottom by hand rather than using the stamp that came with the set because I wanted it to be a little bigger - but I think that was a bad idea because my handwriting looks crappy (LOL - just like the paper!). I also don't think the freaky headless woman's skin fits into the rest of the card too well - it's too stark or something. Oh well. Enough bashing of this card, it is what it is. So let me know if you've ever been convinced to buy elephant pooh paper at a scrapbook expo before - I'm curious. :-) (actually I do like the fact that it's eco-friendly - as their website says: All of our paper products are 100% recycled, 75% Pooh and 100% fun.) Have a great weekend!!!

• Stamps: Serenity Now from My Favorite Things
• Paper: Almost Amethyst, Brushed Silver, DaisyD DP, Mr. Ellie Pooh paper
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Versamark, silver paint pen
• Accessories: Silver EP, Starry Night Stickles, Paper piercer

From Courtney's Closet - an inspiration challenge

As I've mentioned many times now, my mom has been staying with us for several weeks. Recently she was out running errands and popped into Toys R Us, looking for a Thomas train for Carter (because he doesn't have enough and needed another one...!) - anyway, she came home with the outfit Courtney is wearing this week. And, I kid you not, she said "I had to get this because I thought it would make a cute card." Isn't that hilarious?? So here you have it, a From Courtney's Closet card based on the cute little ladybug outfit Courtney's Grammy brought home for her. She's always cute as a bug anyway, but especially so in this outfit! I actually got some fairly decent photos of the outfit for you to get inspired by this week, too! (ETA: Click on the photos for more detail, too!) I thought it was sort of funny - the front of the outfit has ladybugs with white spots, but the ladybug on the back has black spots! I went with the black spots, but sort of copied the overall design from the front. And of course I *had to* use some polka dot paper, since the outfit has polka dots and all!! I sent this card to Monica yesterday (since it also happens to fulfill some DT obligations - that cute little ladybug stamp happens to be a Hambo Stamp!), and this was her reaction: Girl, we're going to have to do an intervention on you to help you kick that polka-dot habit! It seems to be getting worse and worse. I know how it goes... you need more and more polka dots to equal the same "high" you got from just a polka dot ribbon! Next thing you know, you'll combine polka dot paper, with polka dot ribbon, with a polka dot stamp... Oh wait, you just did! I'm calling 911 ... I think it's an overdose! I know, I am seriously addicted. I need help. But really, in this case, it's not my fault!! The outfit had polka dots!!! What's a girl to do?? LOL. I added the little detail enlargement this time because there's a lot of fun stuff that was hard to photograph - the dots on the ladybugs are colored with black glaze pen, and the red was colored over with the red Spica glitter pen. This card has a ton of dimension IRL! So... you know the drill - if anything inspires you about this outfit - the ladybugs, the POLKA-DOTS, the color combo - anything really - make a card and let me know about it!! If you happen to upload to SCS, please use keyword FCCC so I can find you. Last week's challenge inspired two FABULOUS cards - first my most loyal FCCC player, Sue, made another ADORABLE card!! I just love that Courtney's smiley face in the last photo inspired such a fun card!! Sue really captured the spirit of that photo of Courtney.And second, one of my stamping idols played!!! That's right kids, Leslie Miller. And she tells me it was her first time *ever* playing a blog challenge!! And she played *mine*?!?! Wow. Not only that, but when she posted her creation on her blog, it caused people to flock over here in droves. So thanks, my friend, for playing along - your card is absolutely gorgeous (as always!!).

• Stamps: Ladybug Round and Hello! from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Pretty in Pink, Neenah Solar White, Basic Black, DP from Michael's Holiday Slab
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic markers, Spica glitter pen, black Glaze pen
• Accessories: Prima flowers, black brads, red eyelet, American Crafts black & white ribbon, red satin ribbon from stash, pink Martha Stewart twine, heart stick pins (can't remember who made these), Fiskars scallop scissors

New Stampin' Up scallop edge punch...

Did you all see Mary Jo Albright's post today about the scallop edge punch which will be in the new Stampin' Up catalog in August? You all know what a scallop-aholic I am, I'm so anxious to get my hands on this little baby I can hardly stand it!!! :-)

Yellow armadillos??

This card is a little odd - a yellow armadillo? Huh? Well - I wanted to play this week's color challenge because the colors are really yummy, and also because one of my stamping idols, Carole, was guest hostess! And anyway, if you read this blog you know I have a love for coloring animals in odd colors. I'm thinking it may have been more fun if I had made him a guava armadillo rather than a banana armadillo, but oh well (I may try coloring over him in guava tomorrow, if it turns out decent maybe I'll show you. If it looks awful I'll pretend it never happened...). The sketch is Julee's latest Mojo Monday challenge (MOJO45) - more or less. The cute little armadillo and funny saying are from Hambo Stamps. Speaking of Hambo Stamps - if I can find more stamp room time this week, I really need to try this week's SCS technique challenge, to make a suspension card. I keep seeing them on other blogs and they look like so much fun - and I'm thinking some of these Hambo sentiments (especially Fractured Funnies) would be so great on a spinner! If that happens I'll let you know... :-) Ok I need to hit the hay, there's a fun day in store for us tomorrow. I've mentioned my mom has been visiting for more weeks than I can remember.... tomorrow my dad arrives for ~10 days. Carter is so excited to see his Papa!! And he also heard a rumor that Papa is bringing him some more new trains... actually I think he may be slightly more excited about the possibility of finally getting James and Molly than he is about seeing Papa...! My silly little Thomas fanatic. Thanks for stopping by - not sure if I'll have time to post tomorrow but I'll definitely have a Courtney's Closet card on Thursday, it's already made!! (very unlike Queen of the Procrastinators to be this much on the ball!!) Bye. :-)

• Stamps: Armadillo and Armadillo Short from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Barely Banana, Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava, Whisper White
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic markers for coloring, white gel & black Glaze pens on eyes
• Accessories: Slit punch, Cuttlebug & Swiss Dots folder, Spellbinders dies, SU polytwill (?) ribbon, SU linen thread, buttons

Allison's Suggestive Sunday

I finally got to play along with one of Allison's challenges tonight - this week she challenged us to only use words for the stamped image (AFSS25). I love this sentiment from Stampin' Up!, so it was an easy choice to pull it out for this card. The flowers are the ones they sell by the can at Michael's in the wedding section - these happened to be a RAK from Monica (thanks Monica!!). I just pulled out my Copic marker and colored them - I chose "slate" to match the Very Vintage cardstock. I also used something I rarely seem to go toward lately - gold brads. If you saw my little container where I keep my silver and gold brads you'd see good visual proof that I favor silver - I have hardly any of those, but a huge mess of gold! That's about it for this card - I need to get this posted and get to bed, I'm completely exhausted. I foolishly stayed up until the wee hours last night, getting caught up on my blog reading!! I knew as I was doing it I'd regret it today - sure enough, I'm tired and crabby. :-) So off to bed I go! Oh, and if you haven't already, make sure and wish Allison a happy birthday!!

• Stamps: All Holidays from Stampin' Up!
• Paper: Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Vintage Violet, Very Vanilla
• Ink: Always Artichoke, Slate Copic marker
• Accessories: Cuttlebug & Perfectly Paisley folder, ticket corner punch, gold brads, Michael's flowers

Silly Bird.

Here's something from my very first Hambo Stamps order - back before I ever imagined I'd be on their design team! I loved this silly bird as soon as I saw him! And by the way, that's what the other half of this sentiment says on the inside of the card - "Silly Bird." So cute! My DH even chuckled when I showed him this card tonight. And since these are supposed to be silly birds, I decided to make them even sillier with the bold colors and a little Stickles glitter on their beaks. I seem to have a thing for repeating Hambo animals in threes on my cards, I did it with the cute seahorse recently, and with my favorite little elephant a while back. I guess I figure if I love an image, coloring it once is fun, but coloring it three times is like a party in the stamp room! I found the fun pom-pon ribbon by the yard at Archivers a while back. And drawing the little dots around both rectangles was an afterthought, but I think I like it! Thanks for stopping by today - and thanks to all of you who have just recently subscribed!! Yowsers, I'm totally shocked about how many new Feedblitz subscribers I've had this weekend - I guess when Leslie speaks, people listen! :-) Now I am feeling some extra pressure to be creative and interesting and keep you all around for at least a little while... ;-) (BTW - I *heart* Leslie!!!)

• Stamps: Silly Bird and Miss Your Day? from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Neenah Solar White, can't remember who made the DP!
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic markers for coloring, SU journaler for the dots
• Accessories: Pom-pon ribbon, Crystal Stickles

Gift card holders a la Cambria!

I made these little gift card holders as a thank you for Carter's wonderful preschool teachers. He finished up his first year at the end of June - I'm sad, both because he seems to already miss his friends, and more selfishly because I no longer have toddler-free stamping time on Tuesday and Thursday mornings!! Boo hoo! I had bookmarked a fun tutorial for gift card holders on Cambria's blog over a year ago, and it was perfect for this - very cute and so easy to put together (because of course, being the Queen Procrastinator that I am, I waited to make these until the morning of his last day while he was at school...!)! This cute little bookworm monkey is from a Stampendous clear set called School for Changito that I found at Archiver's. I also love the "thank you for being my teacher" sentiment that came with the set. On the inside I put Starbucks gift cards, something that was on both teachers' "wish lists". One of the teachers ONLY listed Starbucks Frappucino as something she likes, so I'm guessing she has more of it now than she knows what to do with... :-) It is HOT here today, so actually, I could go for a frozen frappucino about now. My favorite is mocha frappucino with a shot of raspberry... yummm! :-) I hope you're enjoying your weekend - thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: School for Changito from Stampendous
• Paper: Brocade Blue, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Provo Craft DP
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Scor-Pal, Spellbinders dies and Cuttlebug, Slit, Horizontal Slot and Round Tab punches, grosgrain ribbon, heart brad