From Courtney's Closet: Round-up & Announcement!

Well friends - I have some good news and some bad news. First the bad news - I'm throwing in the towel on posting a new From Courtney's Closet card this week. It's been a rough couple of days around here with a boy who doesn't want to sleep (not sure if it's because he misses Daddy, or because we watched "Beauty and the Beast", which he loved yet between the Beast, the wolves and mean old Gaston he thought it was pretty darn scary...) (and btw - we've watched it twice now - I can't seem to watch it without getting teary, which I think freaks him out a little too, doesn't like seeing Mommy cry!!) and a baby girl who's cutting teeth and also not wanting to sleep. But here's the good news - one reason I've decided to just skip this week is because I am planning to come back sooner than usual with a big, fun From Courtney's Closet celebration next week, with a super sweet blog candy challenge and everything!!! Yay!! My plan is to post that on WEDNESDAY - a day earlier than "normal" - so if I still tried to make a card this week and post - it would make this week's challenge even shorter than last week's. Follow that? LOL! So anyway - I'm just going to focus on the next one instead. You will not want to miss it, I promise!! If you've been thinking about playing but never have - this will be the week you want to jump in!! Ok, here's a little mini-contest to warm you up - can anyone guess *why* I'm doing a From Courtney's Closet celebration on Wednesday??? First person to guess right will get a little goodie from me! :-) Now for the round-up... Above is the photo that I shared last week for inspiration, and here are the awesome chicas who made some super cute cards!! First up, Anita's daughter Katie with this cutie! Her post just cracked me up - she said the bug represents how Courtney can be cute as a bug, and yet bug her Mommy at times... LOL! So true, so true...!Maria played again this week and created this fun card - I love how she broke up the sentiment, too cute!!Like Katie, Sue also went with a bug on her card, although I'm not sure it was for the same reasons. :-) I just love the top of Sue's card, it looks so much like the ruffley sleeve on Courtney's outfit. And that little bug is just adorable!Sharon took the hot pink flower on Courtney's outfit as her source of inspiration, used some GORGEOUS sparkley DP, and then paired it with purple. I loooove purple, so that was a very good call in my book! :-) Just gorgeous!My favorite this week came from my friend Karen - so many things I love about this card! The texture on the flower is really fun, the curve cut into the card is so elegant and pretty, and I love how she placed the sentiment on the bottom/inside of the card. So very lovely!!Thanks for playing ladies - and I hope you all tune in again on Wednesday for my celebration!!! Hopefully I'll post another thing or two between now and then as well! (And actually - come back on Sunday to check out an opportunity for a Super Deal!) :-) Happy Stamping!!

A couple of Hambos

So I lied about having my FCCC card tonight - I had a difficult evening with my "sweet" three year old - several tantrums and then a struggle at bedtime - so when all was said and done all I felt like doing was vegging on the couch! This is something about me that I don't really understand - I love stamping - yet sometimes I am just too exhausted to stamp? It's not like it requires that much energy. But, I suppose sitting like a lump watching TV requires even less. :-) So anyway, instead I'm going to share a couple cards I made last weekend but haven't gotten around to posting!! They both use some of the super cute new releases from Hambo Stamps. The first card was made to play along with Jen's latest Sketch For You To Try. It's a fun sketch, but I struggled a bit trying to figure it out - I'm still not entirely happy with this card but I give up. :-) But I just loooooove this little cowboy!!! As soon as I saw the new releases I new I *needed* him - I am a Texan, you know!! So cute. I colored him in with Copic markers, and paper pieced his bandana with the same paper I used as one of the background panels. I love that bandana paper, so perfect for a cowboy card! The denim is pretty darn fun too. Yee-haw! :-)

• Stamps: Cowboy and Howdy from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: SU Kraft, Bazzill cardstock, DP from Flair Designs (I think?) - or maybe K&Co!
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Janome Sew Mini & thread, Marvy punches, big gold brads from JoAnns

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This second card played along with this week's Our Creative Corner sketch. The little froggie has been around the Hambo site for a while, but that sentiment is new! I LOVE IT!! "Make Love, Not Warts". LOL!!! I'm on a froggie kick lately anyway - I'm trying to finally decorate Courtney's bedroom, and I'm doing a frog prince/fairytale theme. (which, BTW, did you see the Build-A-Fairytale in the new Stampin' Up catalog?? LOVE IT!! It's going on my first order once SAB starts...!) Sometime soon I may need to stamp this little frog again and draw a crown on his head. Except I can't draw. Hmm. Monica is so lucky to have Timbo in the house - she's working on something and just has to yell "Dear, can you please come and draw me a crown?" or hair, or clothes, like in her SUPER CUTE Brady-inspired card. And did you see Timbo talk about how to create a scene here or here or here? Geesh. He makes it look so easy. As if! :-) Ok... I'm rambling - time to wrap this up! See you back here soon, thanks for stopping by!!

• Stamps: Not Warts and Frog from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Bazzill green, American Crafts DP (I think??)
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Spellbinders dies, green felt ribbon, heart brad from JoAnns

There's No Place Like Gnome...

I missed last week's Cinema Saturday Challenge, so this week I was determined to play along! This week's challenge was one of my all-time favorite classic movies, The Wizard of Oz. Right away I thought of this blue gingham paper I've had forever, and how it resembles Dorothy's dress. And then I found these red glittery dots in my stash - very ruby slipper-like, I must say! But what to do about the main image?? I thought about doing a dog, but I don't really have a Toto/terrier stamp. Then I remembered this cute little Stampendous gnome. Gnomes are kinda sorta munchkin-like? Yes? Maybe? Then it hit me - THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE GNOME!!! hee hee!! Ok I know it makes no sense. I was going to try and tell you (ie LIE) that I'm sending it to a friend who just moved to Gnome, Alaska - but unfortunately the town is actually Nome, Alaska! LOL (and btw - yes - I had to research that bc I wasn't sure how they spell it - and it turns out on the Nome, Alaska website it in fact says "There's no place like Nome!"). :-) So anyway, I've decided my own personal theme for the Cinema Saturday Challenges is to make silly cards! Or at least that's what it seems to be, remember my Lord of the Rings card?? Although I've also decided my new goal in life is to earn an Audrey, so one of these weeks I better come up with something good! LOL! This card is fairly straight forward - I stamped the gnome three times just for fun. I paper pieced their hats with that red polka dot paper. The sentiment was printed from the computer. And I added the silver cord because part of the challenge this week was to use metal on the card. Hmm. Not sure that's what they had in mind, but it's what I did. :-) I had a lot of fun again with this card - I can't wait to see which movie they pick next!! Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Stampendous
• Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Making Memories & Doodlebug Designs DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Slit punch, red glitter dots (ordered from GinaK), silver cord, sentiment printed from Word

PS... I'll be back later tonight with From Courtney's Closet!

A Hambo challenge - Inspired by Jamie Oliver!

Monica thought up another fun design team challenge this month! We were to create a card, using our Hambo stamps of course, drawing inspiration from a favorite TV show. I went back and forth quite a bit, trying to decide what to do - in the end I'm not sure many of you will even know mine, but it is one of my favorite shows these days. It's "Jamie At Home" on the Food Network! On this show, Jamie Oliver focuses on one particular vegetable each episode, showing how it grows organically in his AMAZING garden, and then he whips up some super duper yummy looking dishes. I just love this show - it makes me long for a nice garden (and to live somewhere where having a nice garden isn't such a struggle against nature!!) and also long for Jamie to come by my house and cook dinner for me, his food always looks soooo good! :-) And it's also the only cooking show that Joel likes watching with me - and he doesn't even hardly like veggies!! Jamie's just so funny, and the show is so interesting. I've even caught Joel watching one of the episodes I Tivo'ed without me - I nearly passed out from the shock! LOL! Joel got me Jamie's cookbook for Christmas - it's the only cookbook I've ever actually sat down and read cover to cover - the photos in it are awesome and it's just so interesting, info about the various veggies and how to grow them. So if you like cooking, and gardening, and watching a cutie patootie with a yummy British accent muck about in his kitchen - I highly recommend this show. :-) As for my card... I took one of my favorite stamps - Flower Pot Girl - and made her hold a carrot instead of her flower pot. I've said before that I think this stamp is me (hee hee) - so this is me when I have my dream garden and I bring my homegrown veggies inside to cook like my favorite chef! I stamped the carrot multiple times to create the background paper for the bottom half of the card. The design is one of my simple, go-to layouts, but it never lets me down. And I used more super fun ribbon that I found at Archiver's on this - this time pom-pom ribbon - so sweet! And it's sorta like the fringe on some curtains I imagine Jamie having in his English country home on the show! This is one of those cards that just makes me happy. And what else makes me happy? Seeing what my design team buddies came up with! Hop on over with me to Jane, Judy, MacKenzie, Holly, and of course Monica to see what they're up to! And thanks for stopping by today!!

• Stamps: Flower Pot Girl, Carrot, Carrots Your Birthday from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Kraft, Whisper White, orange plain and shimmery cardstock from Bazzill
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Marvy punches, white gel pen, black marker for doodling, Cuttlebug & Swiss Dots folder, fun ribbon

Dollar Stamp swap card

I signed up for a swap over at Splitcoast where the theme was to actually USE some of the gazillion dollar stamps you feel compelled to buy at Michael's!! Please tell me I'm not the only one who cannot resist them, even though I seem to just collect them more than USE them? I mean c'mon, they're only a DOLLAR!? They practically fly into my cart on their own when I'm there... :-) Some of them are just sooooo cute - resistance is futile! Like this Valentine's Day sentiment! Love it! The double-line circle is part of the stamp - I colored it in with white gel pen. The color scheme came from this week's challenge over at the Color Throwdown blog - Kraft, Pink Passion and Black. What a great combo!! And WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT RIBBON?!?!? I found it at Archiver's this weekend - American Crafts - velvet scallop ribbon!!!! Be still my heart!! I went all old-school on this card and added staples - I still love staples, even if they are no longer en vogue. :-) This card is so simple, but I just love it! And since it was for a swap - gotta love simple!!! Ahhh, it's Valentine's season and I'm just full of love today! ;-) Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Studio G from Michael's
• Paper: Pink Passion, Kraft, The Paper Studio (Hobby Lobby) DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Accessories: white gel pen, Marvy scallop circle punch, American Crafts ribbon staples

From Courtney's Closet #28 - an inspiration challenge

Well here I am posting my From Courtney's Closet challenge on Sunday, much later than I had planned. But, I'm not going to apologize for it!! LOL! A great big thanks and cyber hug to all of you who left such sweet, encouraging comments on my sneak peek post, I so appreciated that!! And I know some of you were probably thinking "uhhhh, why is she feeling the need to say this, it's not like she posts regularly anyway. Didn't she just come back from a month-long break??" hee hee True, true. But the difference is, before I would actually feel guilty when I didn't post, and now I'm trying to release the guilt. To blog without obligation. :-) (Thanks Chris & Leslie for the links!!) Soooo anyway... nobody was able to correctly guess the other color in Courtney's outfit - it's MAGENTA!! But... hmm... not seeing a lot of MAGENTA happening in my card now are we? I think Stampin' Up's old Marvelous Magenta would have been PERFECT, but I seem to have sent all I had remaining to a friend a while back (so, ahem, friend, you really should play this week! LOL!). Instead I went with Purely Pomegranate, which is close but not quite as magenta-y as her outfit. And then with my coloring of the rose, although I did use Pomegranate, it took on a much more pink tone. Ah well. So about that rose - don't you just LOVE IT?!?! This is actually the stamp that made me fall in love with FireCracker Designs, long before (well ok, like a month or so before) I ever dreamed Pamela would invite me to join her design team. The set is called Paper Roses and it's one of many gorgeous flower sets she's created. And I call this my Marie card, because I was trying to channel a little of my design team pal Marie when making this card - her cards are always so elegant and gorgeous. And I was also inspired by that awesome blinged-out buckle that I just got in the mail this weekend from Cheryl as a little RAK. LOVE IT! So are you at all inspired by this week's outfit? I know I haven't given you as much time, but if you'd like to play along I'd LOVE to see it!!! Leave a comment back here so I can check you out! :-) Last week I shared what I thought was a completely adorable animal print dress with you all - but apparently only a few people are inspired by animal print. :-) But boy, did they make some CUTE cards!!! First up is Sue, who has played my challenge more than anyone - I was soooo happy to see her back at it! And, she doesn't even like animal print. Her other Stamping Nemesis is the color orange, which I've subjected her to a couple times in the past. So what did she do? She made this challenge even harder on herself by using BOTH animal print and orange on her card!!! Too funny! But I love what she came up with!My sweet Maria played this week too, yay!! I just adore her little horse, it is ooooh so cute!!!My favorite this week is Anita! Anita and her daughter Katie have been so sweet to play my challenge many, many times too - I so appreciate that! This week Anita had a very different take on the outfit. I love how she combined different textures and patterns on this card. Nicely done, Anita! I have your address so I'll put a little something in the mail to you... someday... ;-)Thanks everyone for playing!!! And thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Paper Roses from FireCracker Designs by Pamela
• Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Bazzill cardstock, Little Yellow Bicycle DP, Shimmery White
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Purely Pomegranate, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke
• Accessories: white gel pen, Janome Sew Mini & pink thread, doilie from Michael's, bling buckle from Cheryl, ribbon from a Jody share, Making Memories stick pin, embroidery floss

CASE'ing Lori Craig!

I actually made this card Sunday night, but never got around to posting it - oh, the horror! ;-) This was to play along with the Featured Stamper challenge on Splitcoast this week - and this time it was Lori Craig! I own a couple of Cornish Heritage Farms Elvis stamps, and it's basically all Lori's fault! As soon as I saw her first sneak peek of a card made with them, I *KNEW* I had to get me some Elvises!!! So naturally I had to find an Elvis card in Lori's gallery to CASE, and I chose this one. It's probably not the best choice for the FS challenge, since Lori was playing along with one of Beate's sketch challenges when she created it - but it was the fact that it's Elvis, and because I *LOVE* the way she did the guitars along the edge, that made me choose it, so I went with it anyway. So what did I change?
1. I used different, but similar, stamps.
2. I added color - Lori's was monochromatic.
3. I stamped my sentiment directly below Elvis rather than putting it on it's own panel.
I loooove how Elvis' jacket turned out, completely blinged out! I colored it first with a gold paint pen, then went over it with gold Stickles! BLING BABY BLING!! :-) Thanks Lori for the super fun inspiration, and for "making me" buy these Elvis stamps in the first place. :-) And thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Jazzed Up from SU, Finger Clickin Elvis and Thank You Very Much from CHF
• Paper: Pacific Point, Basic Black, Whisper White
• Ink: Pacific Point, Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics for coloring
• Accessories: Sakura gold paint pen, gold Stickles, SU gold brads, SU scallop edge & corner (?) punches

FCCC Sneak Peek and some personal blah blah blah

Hi everyone! Wondering where today's From Courtney's Closet post is? Yes, I'm a slacker once again - I opted for an outing last night instead of stamping - left the kids with Daddy and went to play pub quiz! Yay! We lost. But it was fun! :-) So here's a little sneaky peek at Courtney's latest outfit - hopefully I'll have a card to post for you by tomorrow, but no promises since I have a full slate of TV viewing to do tonight, including "Lost" which is still sitting unviewed on my Tivo!!!!! So, you can see one of the colors in Courtney's latest outfit - sort of a seafoam green - can you guess what color is paired with it? I bet you can't! (Sue, I sure hope you like this better than orange or animal print!) (and Laura, no giving it away!) :-) Now as for the personal blah blah blah... I probably shouldn't even ramble on about it in a blog post, it's not like you're really interested - but here goes. I've decided to try and put MYSELF first more than I have in recent months. I'm trying to focus on getting healthy. Staying up into the wee hours because I feel the need to make a card to post on my blog just isn't good for accomplishing my health goals. Neither is stressing about cardmaking, which is supposed to be my fun, relaxing HOBBY. So... if sometimes I go for a stretch with no posts, I'm going to be ok with that. I hope you'll be ok with it too - stick with me and be happy when something from me does happen to pop up - but I know there are about a gazillion blogs you can read and if you prefer the more reliable posters, so be it. (I'm actually still shocked and honored that anyone reads my blog with all the amazing choices out there!!) So there you have it. I saw a little sidebar banner on somebody's blog once that said something like "blogging without guilt" (was that you mudmaven??) - I need to go look for it after I post this. :-) And now that this is out of the way, I'm going to post this and then post a little hunka hunka burning love to hold you over until the FCCC post! :-) Thanks for reading.

Proud to be an American

I made this card for this week's Technique Lover's Challenge on Splitcoast (TLC204) - Faux Mosaic! How fun is that!?!? To make the USA part, I used the Stampin' Up Sticky Cuts letters - I'm not sure they can handle the heat tool as well as the tacky tape, the embossing powder ended up a little funky in those areas - and did not smell too great while I was melting it!. Hopefully short-term exposure to toxic fumes won't do TOO much damage - LOL! I was pretty excited when I found that my Snap Stamps had enough letters to spell out "proud to be an american" in its entirety - I didn't think I'd be able to. Ah, the little things that make my day... ;-)

I also have to show you some patriotic cookies my sister and I made - she works at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library here in Austin, and she took them into work for their little Inauguration Day viewing party. I know many of you who read this are slightly more conservative than I am (LMAO - I am a total bleeding heart liberal, I'm sure you all know that by now - and if that bothers you enough to leave me nasty comments about it, hopefully you unsubscribed long ago!) - anyway - we had a ton of fun making these cookies! And I am so incredibly proud to be an American this week. Even if you don't agree with President Obama's politics, you have to be proud of the fact that our country has finally overcome some UGLY chapters in our history book. Yay us! :-) Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Karen Foster Snap Stamps
• Paper: Night of Navy, Whisper White, The Paper Studio DP (ie Hobby Lobby stuff)
• Ink: Night of Navy
• Accessories: Tacky Tape, SU Sticky Cuts letters, Gold EP, SU buttons, SU hemp twine, star brad

PS... and if you are one of those conservative stampers - please note we did make some elephant cookies too... hee hee

One Cupcake To Feed Them All

I have a pretty silly card to share with you tonight!! I had soooooo much fun making this card!!! I *finally* got to play along with my favorite challenge in all of Blogdom - the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge!! I just love the idea these ladies came up with - each week they give you a movie to use as inspiration! And they make it so much fun - before the big reveal on Saturday, they show just a little tidbit of a photo from the movie as a teaser - I can never figure them out! And, they give an award called an Audrey for the card creations. You know, as in Audrey Hepburn, who we all love. I love movies, so I just think this is the most fun challenge ever. :-) I was sad that I missed Grease (it was before I discovered their blog), I sooo wanted to play The Sound of Music and Harry Potter but never found the time - but this week, I just HAD TO play!! The movie is Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring - one of my all-time favorites!! So I thought, and I thought, and I thought... what to do for this challenge... I kept thinking about the One Ring, and the inscription "One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them." I wanted to do something with this. But I didn't have a ring stamp. And I didn't want to just make a circle. Hmm. So I gave up and made a cupcake instead. LOL! But not just any cupcake... a GREAT BIG cupcake... One cupcake to feed them all!! Oh, I just kill me. :-) This cupcake is SU's Simple Birthday Thanks stamp - LOVE IT. I have an old Celtic set that I bought long ago, at Barnes & Noble of all places - I used a stamp from that to put little Celtic symbols on the base of the cupcake. I chose the colors to use on this from the movie poster they shared - I thought the letters looked like Cool Caribbean. The brown background panel has the French Script stamp, and is sponged with Chocolate Chip and Encore Gold ink, although it's difficult to see all of that in the photo. And the sentiment - I had to make it authentic!!! I did a web search for Lord of the Rings fonts and found a very cool site - I used "Bilbo Hand" for this. So YAY - I made a Cinema Saturday card!! Unfortunately I think I'm past their submission deadline now (I assumed it was Friday, not Thursday - oops!), but oh well - hopefully next week I can play on time. :-) Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Simple Birthday Thanks and French Script from Stampin' Up, Celtic stamps - unknown
• Paper: Old Olive, Cool Caribbean, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Encore Gold, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa
• Accessories: Janome Sew Mini & brown thread, brads from my stash, Martha Steward Florentine Gold glitter, font downloaded from internet

From Courtney's Closet #27 - an inspiration challenge

Welcome to another From Courtney's Closet challenge, where I dress my baby girl up in one of her cutie patootie outfits and try to use it as inspiration for a card. Well... Maria guessed correctly, Courtney is indeed wearing animal print this week! Doesn't she look like Jenn Balcer? LOL I think this little dress is just way too cute - I had planned for her to wear it to her Great Grampa's 90th birthday party in Michigan, but my parents ended up being without power (and heat!) that day, and it was just so stinkin' cold, I couldn't subject her to wearing a dress! So instead it ended up being her "pose for Courtney's Closet and go shopping at Target" dress! :-) And actually, putting her in it yesterday inspired me to stop saving her cute dresses for special occasions - she's wearing another dress today, for no reason whatsoever. Plus, as you may have heard, she's practicing her walking like mad now (can you believe my baby is walking?!?!) so having pants that sag down over her feet just won't do. :-) I have to share two photos of her in her dress this week - the first to show you how impossible it is to get her to wear shoes - the minute I put them on her she pulls them off. I need to find some that are impossible to get off! For Carter, that was Robeez, but Courtney tears those off like they are nothing. In the second photo, she's standing so you can see the full dress, and she's waving hello to all of you wonderful people, saying "thanks for reading mommy's blog!!". hee hee Ok, enough silliness - onto the card! I happened to have some leopard print DP in my stash, so of course I had to use it! I had thought about using a leopard stamp today, but I just wasn't feeling it, so I decided to do a more literal copy of her dress. The flower is chipboard, covered with Very Vanilla cardstock. The sewing is faux (as I'm sure you can tell!). See that straight pin, how it doesn't have a point to it? Well I am pretty sure I'm going to regret this later - I decided to snip off the end of it with my wirecutters, because it was just too long - and the piece I snipped off, with the sharp point, went flying somewhere onto my carpet. Ugh. I hope I don't locate it the hard way - but I'm pretty sure I will. So... feel like making your own animal print-inspired card?? If you do, be sure to let me know about it by linking back here, and if you upload to SCS please use keyword FCCC. Six WONDERFUL ladies welcomed me back into the swing of things last week by creating some adorable cards based on my little snow bunny (or bear) (or sheep) (LOL!). Here's the rundown...
Anita's daughter Katie made this super cute bunny card:Berenice found an adorable bunny for her card as well:See the little bear on Megan's sweet card? It's something very special - read her post to find out more:Sharon used a fun little bundled up bear for her cute card:Stacey was a clever girl and a) buttered me up with polka dots but also b) went with a sheep (or ewe!) stamp, since Courtney's fluffy hat was very ewe-like! :-)But my favorite of the week was Jenn - she REALLY knew how to win me over - by including a cupcake on her card inspired by my little cupcake! Smart thinkin', Jenn! And I just love the sparkle on the cupcake, and the snow on Fluffles' head!! Email me your address (stampinlibby at gmail dot com) and I'll get a little something in the mail to you. (someday - I'm THE WORST at getting things sent, just ask Sharon or many of the others - ack! Please be patient...)Thanks to all of you for playing, it was a very nice way for me to get back into blogging! And thanks everyone else for stopping by today!!

• Stamps: Inkadinkadoo sentiment
  
• Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, The Paper Studio DP
• Ink: Chocolate Chip ink pad and marker
• Accessories: Chipboard flower (I think SU?), circle punches, SU Alpine ribbon, SU button, embroidery floss, straight pin

By the way, for those of you who wondered about the scratch on her nose - it's one of the hazards of having a big brother... *sigh*

FCCC - coming soon - sneak peek!

I'm not quite finished with today's card just yet - thanks to a certain boy waking up far too early this morning - but I thought I'd share a little sneak peek (sorry, Monica!) with you! Any guesses as to what Courtney is wearing today?? Hint: I call this her Jenn Balcer outfit... hee hee See you back here soon!

Who's your doggie?

When we traveled to Michigan for the holidays, our dog Cole didn't get to go with us. As much as he may have enjoyed frolicking in the snow, he got to do something even better - he got to have a little "vacation" from a certain 3 year old, who loves him to the point of exhaustion. :-) Our friend Scott took care of Cole for us - so I made this card to thank him. Yes, it's for a guy - polka dots, scallops, ribbon, glitter...not exactly a guy card - but hopefully he'll like it anyway. :-) I just think this doggie image is soooo stinkin' cute!! It's from the Pat the Dog set from Our Craft Lounge. The pretty red glitter is from Martha Stewart - I'm really loving my assortment of glitters that happened to fall into my cart at Walmart...! The little "thanks" tag is held on with a pewter heart-shaped brad, which you can't really see thanks to the angle the photo was taken at. I made this card after putting together some 3x3 cards with the same image, for a Splitcoast V-day swap I had joined. I *love* the sentiment on the 3x3's, it just cracks me up!! It's actually a straight sentiment, but that's one of the cool things about clear stamps, you can bend them on the acrylic block if you want some curve to them! Alrighty, better go and get some things done while Courtney is napping and Carter is watching "Signing Time". Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Pat the Dog from Our Craft Lounge, sentiment from ??? (will update)
• Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, SU DP, Making Memories DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: SU scallop edge punch, Marvy circle & scallop circle punches, Fiskars tag punch, Martha Stewart glitter, white gel pen, pewter heart brad and satin ribbon from my stash

By the way, some of you remember me mentioning my dog a while back. If you're curious - there's really no update on his situation - he seems just the same as he always did, I'd never know anything was wrong if the vet hadn't told us about it. So... we're just enjoying him, and not thinking about what may happen or when.

BREAKING NEWS!!!

I interrupt your regularly scheduled card viewing to bring you some super exciting breaking news... COURTNEY JUST TOOK SIX STEPS IN A ROW!!!!!!!!!!!!! All on her own! It's just me and her here alone in the house, so I had to tell somebody... :-) Ok, now please scroll down for today's card....

You Rock My World!

Ok, so I love Valentine's Day. And I love pink. But... well... this card. Hmm. I'm thinking it's a little much on the pink, even for me! But, it was fun to make - and that's really what it's all about, isn't it? :-) Monica, my Hambo boss, issued an informal challenge to her design team gals, to make a Valentine's card using a stamp you wouldn't necessarily think of as being a Valentine's stamp. I know, it's not such a HUGE stretch to make this a V-day card with that super cute new "You ROCK my world!" sentiment - but I'm going to venture a guess that Monica never dreamed her new globe would ever look this pink and polka dotted! Although now that I think about it, I have been on her team for nearly a year now, so maybe she IS starting to expect this sort of craziness from me...! :-) The layout for this is from this week's Mojo Monday sketch. The globe is paper pieced with two colors of pink polka dot paper and silver cardstock. For the sentiment, I stamped it out on white, and then stamped it again on the punched out pink heart and lined it up. Those super loud heart brads have been in my stash for ages - I finally found a home for them!! Well I better go and get Courtney some lunch - and I hope you don't lose yours after looking at this crazy card! LOL! Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Globe and Rock My World from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Pink Pirouette, Pixie Pink, Neenah Solar White, SU Silver (retired?), Making Memories DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Accessories: Cuttlebug & embossing folders, Spellbinders dies, Marvy punches, pink grosgrain, old SU silver cord, CTMH mini brads, old SU heart punch, circle punch, old heart brads from my stash

Butt cracks get you noticed!

Like that subject? I cracked myself up once again!! LOL! Ok sorry, I'll stop. :-) But once again I am soooo excited - my little butt crack card was featured today on the Color Throwdown blog!! Yay!! Thanks ladies, that most definitely made my day.

Why is it...

Why is it... in a room literally overflowing with toys, my baby girl only wants to play with the cd changer?? You may think she's just a sweet, innocent little girl, posing in her outfits and looking cute as can be - but don't be fooled by her adorable exterior. Inside lurks the devious mind of a complete troublemaker!!I had to post this second picture... if you look closely, it goes well with today's card. hee hee And ironic, isn't it, that the baby gate is right NEXT TO the cd changer.....! *sigh*

I've got your back!

Do you ever make a card that just makes you giggle as you're creating it? No??? Well then you clearly don't own enough Hambos! This one just cracked me up! Hardy har har. :-) This image and sentiment are from the latest Hambo release. I just love all the new stamps, I can't believe it's taken me this long to post something with them! (I claim innocence - they went and released them while I was away for the holidays!!!) Anyway... for this card I played along with two challenges. The colors are from the latest Color Throwdown (Mellow Moss, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla - I added black, hope they don't mind!) and the sketch was Jen's most recent Sketch For You To Try. As I was looking at her sketch and trying to figure out what to use for the bottom embellishment, I remembered that little wrench that's been in my stash for-e-ver! I bought a cute set of tools long ago when I had visions of scrapbooking the construction of our house. Of course those pages never happened. I don't even remember who made the wrench. But OMG isn't it just PERFECT for this??!! The super cute screw brads came from Monica, she included them in my order. Love them! I chose that DP because in my mind it sorta looked like a tile floor, perhaps in the bathroom where the plumber is working. :-) I just love this sentiment with this image - too funny! There's another one to go with it that says "BUMMER!". *snort* Aaaaah. Butt crack humor, just what you expected when you surfed on over to my blog, right? ;-) Thanks for stopping by, and I do hope you come back sometime soon.

• Stamps: Plumber and Got Your Back from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Mellow Moss, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Paper Studio DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Swiss dots Cuttlebug folder, cute screw brads from Monica, cute wrench from my stash, CTMH rickrack

Happy Day!!!

I am so incredibly happy to be featured today at Inspirational blog!!! Yippeeeeee! They feature some AMAZING blogs over there, I can't believe I am among them. What a tremendous honor!!! Thanks so much Deanne, Julie and the team!

FCD goes ABC

It's time for another FireCracker Designs by Pamela blog hop! Sherri sets the rules for our blog hops, and this time our instructions were: "use any FCD stamp sets you already own to make someone something for Valentine's Day". When I think of Valentine's, the first thing to pop into my mind is CHOCOLATE! So of course my project had to involve chocolate of some kind! I happened to have some Guittard chocolate A'Peels in the cupboard, so I set to work making chocolate dipped Oreos. Yummmmmmmm. But how to incorporate the stamping...hmmm... a-ha!! It came to me! I pressed the stamp right into the chocolate while it was still soft! I think it turned out pretty nifty, I do have to admit. It was a trial and error process - the first attempt was certainly an error, the chocolate was still too soft and I ended up with a chocolate coated stamp! And I wasn't able to make an impression in all of the cookies I had dipped, because the last few got too hard before I had time to finish (thanks to my distraction of sending update IMs to a certain stamp company owner who I will not mention by name...LOL!). Since I had some more cookies left, I had to play around with one more thing... I looked at my Craft ink pad... it said the ink is "non-toxic". Hmmm. Ok I'm not sure if it TASTES good or not, but I decided to stamp with it anyway!! So I made a few cookies stamped with white Stampin' Up Craft ink!! I figure the amount of ink is so small in comparison with the Oreo and chocolate goodness, it can't possibly impact the flavor. LOL! The stamp I used for all of this is from the Gifts of Love set (aka My Favorite Snowgirl!). I decided to add tags to the bags of cookies, and then display a few in a cute little tin I picked up in the Target dollar spot a couple days ago. So YAY - I successfully made an ABC project, something I generally stink at! ABC, if you aren't hip to the lingo, stands for "anything but a card" - I prefer to stick to making cards. :-) Sooooooo... now that you've checked out my project, continue on the hop and check out what Ursula was up to! I can't wait to find out myself!! :-) And be sure to travel all the way around the loop to Pamela, because rumor has it she will have a prize for one lucky hopper! Ok now I have to do a little name dropping... are any of you fans of the Food Network, and do you love watching the cake challenges? I DO! (I like to make cakes too!) Well, the owner (Jennifer Bartos) of my favorite cake shop in town (All in One Bake Shop) has been on several of those challenges! She teaches classes at her shop here in Austin, and she is a FANTASTIC and FUN instructor, so if you're in the area I highly recommend you take one of them! I took her class on making gift candies, which included these dipped Oreos. On the cake challenges, she assists her friend Bronwen Weber. Who I've also met. Cool, huh? My little brush with stardom. LOL. Ok, it's mega-late, I need to wrap this up and get it scheduled to post tomorrow. I'm still not tired, though, thanks to all the chocolate-dipped Oreos I ate in the process of making this little project... I'm on a major sugar/chocolate high right now! :-) Thanks for stopping by today!