Swappin' in North Texas!!

Ok consider yourself warned - this post is going to make you sooooo jealous!! I just got home a little while ago from a weekend trip to Dallas, where I spent alllllll day yesterday making 45 cards with some of the most fantastic stampers on the planet!! I got to attend the Splitcoast North Texas Shoebox Swap!!! Woohoooo!! It was so much fun!! The cards were fabulous - I learned a couple fun new tricks that you'll be seeing on some upcoming cards I'm sure. And I got to meet some amazing stampers!! This is going to be a long post with lots of photos, so sit back, relax and enjoy... and keep in mind I was a big dope and didn't really break out the camera until the end of the day, when we were all looking oh so lovely after stamping our little hearts out for ten hours or so...! (it sorta pains me to show these awful photos of me, but at the same time, I just can't help it!!) :-)

First up, me and our wonderful hostess, Suzy Tyler (s00zy66). She did such an amazing job putting this event together!!Here I am with my sweet table buddies - we spent the entire day together making our cards, traveling from table to table. Becky (tggrfriend), me, Christy (cpine) and Susan (susanrosser).It was soooo much fun getting to meet Megan (deborahmegan)! I've been following her blog ever since she made one of my all-time favorite Courtney's Closet cards - she was so much fun and so nice and friendly!Here's my NEIGHBOR Rae Anne (huera90), and her good buddy Yoorah who flew in all the way from California for the swap! I'm hoping I'll get to see Rae Anne sooner than at the next SCS swap we both go to... :-)I had met Sharon (stampscout) when she worked a Rubbernecker booth at a stamp show in San Antonio last fall - it was so nice chatting with her yesterday and getting to know her a little better!And now... I have to totally brag and show you the SUPERSTARS I got to meet!! Holy cow! And let me tell you, they are all just as nice as they are mega-talented! First there's Dirty Dozen Alumnus and super nice Joan Ervin (who I had also met briefly at that Rubbernecker booth last fall).Here I am with Karen (kikikaren, who is my hero - I went to an all-day cardmaking event without any adhesive, can you believe that?? She hooked me up with a big box of Mono Adhesive, woohoo!) and the famous stamping diva Susan Liles (susiestampalot). She even offered to give me her autograph! ;-)And here I am with the amazing Jen del Muro (genie1314) - you've seen me try many of her awesome sketches on here!!And finally, Shannan Teubner (steubner), whose blog I absolutely adore. She was so funny and so sweet!And speaking of sweet - look at this awesome cake Suzy's friend made for us! I thought it was just beautiful. And it was yummy too!I told you you'd be jealous! I can't wait to spend another day like this, I hear there may be a swap coming up in Austin in October! Yay! I'll be back tomorrow to post the card I made for the swap. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as I did!

FCD Gets Patriotic!

Hi everyone, welcome to another FireCracker Designs by Pamela blog hop! This month we are making patriotic cards featuring the gorgeous So Far Away set. I loved this set the first time I saw it - it was released just as my nephew was heading out to Iraq, so it really hit home.

Here's some good news - during this hop Pamela is offering this set at 20% off! Woohoo!!

My first thought was to make my card red, white & blue, but then I found this My Mind's Eye DP and fell in love with it, and thought it would be perfect with this set. I paired it with Stampin' Up's Chocolate Chip and Sage Shadow papers. The soldier is stamped in brown on the sage paper and cut out, then popped up.

This month we're doing a circular blog hop, where the only beginning is wherever you start!! If you started here, you will know you are at the end of the hop when you make it back to my blog! Somewhere along the line there is a "mystery blog hostess" - we don't even know who it will be until the hop is over... so make sure and leave a comment on EVERY blog along the hop so you don't miss out!!

**To find out if you’ve won… you will be contacted by Pamela via e-mail (so be sure to leave it with your comment) - you can also find out on Pamela’s blog after the blog hop ends on Wed, June 3 at 8:00 PM (EST).**

Now, continue the circle by hopping on over to Julie's fabulous blog - I have no doubt whatever she made will be GORGEOUS! Thanks so much for hopping with us today!! Happy Stamping!

From Courtney's Closet #43 - an inspiration challenge and a birthday celebration!

Hi all! Welcome to another edition of From Courtney's Closet, where I make a card inspired by one of my daughter's outfits! But before I get to that, I would like to wish a GREAT BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Joy from Eclectic Paperie!! Her good buddy Cambria is throwing a big cyber birthday bash for her, and when she asked me to join in of course I said YES!! The added bonus was that I got to preview this ADORABLE new Our Craft Lounge set, Hangin' Loose with Kona, which is an eP exclusive! You can only purchase him here! Isn't he adorable!? Joy happens to adore him, so a whole bunch of us have made birthday cards for her using this cute set. Hop on over to Cami's blog to see the whole list of peeps you can visit!! Well today also happens to be Thursday, so I needed to make my birthday card based on one of Courtney's outfits!! I just love this one - I found it this past weekend on clearance at Old Navy. I love dressing my sweetie in blue because it really makes her blue eyes shine! I wanted to use striped DP on the card to match the background of her shirt, but I didn't have any - so I just cut out strips of Tempting Turquoise and attached them to a Cool Carribean panel. If you can't tell in the photo, the pink backing to the sentiment is a piece of wide grosgrain ribbon. And I like how the rhinestone flourish hints at a wave sweet little Kona may be about to ride. I hope Joy likes my card! And I hope you find some inspiration from Courtney's outfit! If you do, and you make a card, leave me a comment back here with your link so I can take a peak! Unfortunately Mr. Linky isn't working for me anymore - that site is going through major server issues so I'm one of the lucky blogs to have it disabled. Grrr. So it's back to doing it the old-fashioned way! And just a reminder, last week's contest is still open for another week, so it's not too late to get in on that! If you play this week I'll also put you in the drawing for the free set. Alrighty then - thanks for stopping by today!!

Post-Memorial Day Food Coma!

I don't know about you, but this is how I felt yesterday! We had a nice little cookout here with family - although ours involved smoked chicken, not hamburgers. But I didn't have a smoked chicken stamp. :-) I made this card to play along with two of the card challenges on the Stampin' Out Alzheimers site. Have you checked it out yet? I'm telling you - you should!! It only takes a small donation to an important cause to get into the site. They have done such a fabulous job!! Already lots of freebies, challenges and giveaways happening!! So exciting!! For this card I used my cute little Our Craft Lounge elephant. Sprawled out like that, he just looks to me like he's over-indulged in hamburgers! (not to mention a brewsky or two!) The beer mug is from Flourishes, and the fun hamburger stamp is from Hambo Stamps. I spelled out the sentiment with some Stampin' Up peg alphabet stamps (which one exactly I am forgetting at the moment...!). One of the challenges I played was to STITCH on a card. *snort* A no-brainer for me, I do it all the time. I feel like such a cheat when I claim to be playing a challenge like that. But hey, they are offering a prize! So sssh... don't tell that I do it all the time, ok?? I also played a Color Throwdown challenge from a few weeks back - Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze & Certainly Celery. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are easing back into the daily grind ok. I have a ton of stamping to do this week, yikes! I'm going to a huge SCS shoebox swap in north Dallas on Saturday, and I haven't even designed my card yet, much less cut out the nearly 50 kits needed for the swap. Someday I will learn not to procrastinate...!! Thanks for stopping by today!!

Inspiration Award

My friend Chris at Mudmaven Designs gave me this sweet award today. Thank you so much Chris!

I have about a gazillion blogs in my Reader, which is why I am forever falling behind - and I love sooo many blogs so much! But I'm going to pass this on to the three blogs I always check first, and am always up to date on - even though they may not realize it, because I'm not always great with the comments! And ladies, I know you probably don't do these tag games yourself, and that's perfectly ok with me. :-)

So the blogs are:

Leslie at Running With Scissors - her work is beyond gorgeous, she is generous with her tutorials and she occasionally takes us for walks in her magnificent garden.

Carole at Mother's Little Helper - her work is cute, funky and fun, and she is a fantastically funny writer who always brings a smile to my face.

And third, I've never tagged a challenge blog before but what the heck - Brooke and Sankari at Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. The most fun I have in the stamp room is creating cards inspired by the movies they choose.

:-)

Memorial Day - remembering a hero

If you're looking for my Cards for Heroes blog hop post, please scroll down or click the link.

On Memorial Day in the US, I wanted to take a moment and remember one of the heroes in my own family, my great uncle Milner. I never met Uncle Milner, my Gramma's brother, because he was killed in action on Iwo Jima during World War II, several years before my mom was even born. When I look at this photo I am struck by how young he was, and how eager to defend our country. He was killed by sniper fire on March 11, 1945. The Battle of Iwo Jima ended March 26.This is where he lays, in the Fourth Marine Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima.My dad served in the Vietnam War, and when I was a kid he was active in the local VFW. I remember going with him to cemeteries in the morning on Memorial Day, with other members of the VFW, to fire rifles in a salute to fallen soldiers. I didn't really understand what I was watching, I just liked the loud noise the guns would make. I sometimes stop and think that it's a little odd that the tradition in this country is to spend Memorial Day, a day dedicated to remembering the brave men and women who have lost their lives defending our country, hanging out by the pool, grilling, generally having fun. But then I think it makes perfect sense. Thanks to them we enjoy this freedom - it's a perfect way to celebrate all they have done for us. As long as we pause for at least a moment to remember what this day truly means.

But don't worry, my blog hasn't turned somber and serious - I will be back soon with a silly, light-hearted card for you to enjoy! :-) Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

Cards for Heroes Blog Hop

Hello my blogging friends - I'm here today to tell you that even hippie liberals like myself care deeply about our troops!! :-) I was so honored when I got an email from Cards for Heroes, asking if I'd like to participate in their blog hop this weekend. I was not familiar with this organization - but wow, what a great group of people!! CFH's mission is to support our nation's armed forces by sending blank greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them. How many of us create card after card, many of which end up just sitting in a box somewhere in our craft room?? I encourage you to take some time this weekend and look through your stash, put a few together and get them sent off to CFH! Or, spend your stamping time today creating some new hand-stamped happiness to send! Check their website, there are some guidelines - for example, the cards cannot contain glitter, as it can be a safety hazard! You also should not send potentially offensive cards. And I do realize the card I'm sharing today has the potential to offend, so I will not be sending this particular one to CFH. But it will go to a soldier in Iraq! Last night as I was banging my head on the desk, trying to decide what to create for this hop, a chat window on Facebook popped up with a message from my friend Gary. Gary and I have different political views, but we are able to laugh about it - and he was actually teasing me about something I had posted. Gary also served in Iraq, so I mentioned what I was working on. He told me that when he was in Iraq he received cards like this and really appreciated it - so that of course warmed my heart, to hear that feedback. Then I told him, jokingly, that I was going to make a hippie card to show that even liberals like me care about this - and he told me he knew a fellow hippie liberal currently serving in Iraq who would love the card!! So then I had to make it!! So this particular card will be going to an Air Force officer stationed in Iraq, who was thrilled when he got to meet President Obama and Rahm Emanuel during their recent visit to Baghdad. I don't know this man, but I am so completely thankful for what he is doing for our country, and I plan to tell him so. I'll write a note to him on a separate sheet of paper, so he can in turn use this card to send to one of his own hippie liberal friends back home who will appreciate it. And then I'm going to go through my card stash and find another stack of cards to send off to Cards for Heroes. I can't think of a better way to spend my Memorial Day weekend!! If you'd like to send a note of gratitude to a soldier, visit the AnyHero page at the CFH website. And now I'm sure you are anxious to keep hopping, and I'm thrilled to be able to link to one of my absolute stamping idols, Leigh at Sunflower Studio!! I'm sure you're in for a treat, her work is always fantastic!! And if you just happened upon my blog here in mid-hop, I encourage you to go back and start at the beginning, at Cards for Heroes. Thanks for stopping by today!!

• Stamps: Hippie from Stampola, Feeling Groovy from Verve Stamps
• Paper: Kraft, GP white, blue DP from Kaiser, red DP from Making Memories
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black & Rich Cocoa, SU Creamy Caramel & Chocolate Chip, Copics for coloring
• Accessories: Janome Sew Mini

From Courtney's Closet #42 - An Anniversary Celebration!!

Hello and welcome to my From Courtney's Closet one year anniversary celebration!!!! One year ago last week I posted my first outfit-inspired card, not having any idea that I'd still be doing it a year later, or that several awesome ladies would feel inspired enough to play along, and in the process become some of my best blogging buddies!! I'm so happy that it's played out the way it has. That you enjoy this challenge. And that you put up with my often erratic posting schedule! :-) I had completely meant to post this last week, on the ACTUAL one year anniversary, but I suffered from some post-vacation loss of mojo, not to mention that even though it's very simple, this ended up taking me much longer to put together than I had anticipated!! But better late than never? I hope??

So let me get to the details - I cannot celebrate one year of this challenge without sharing some happiness with all of you!! As you know I've been Melanie's guest designer this month for her adorable Gina K set Wee Tees - a set that was absolutely MADE for me and my love of baby clothes!! I thought it would be fun to take a year's worth of Courtney photos and make a Wee Tee onesie decorated to match each photo! I found a little 4x6 photo album in the dollar spot at Target, which I will decorate and slide each of these pages into. I will show you once I've finished that last step - I just didn't want to wait any longer with what I *do* have done!! :-)

For this week's challenge - you are welcome to choose ANY of the twelve months as your inspiration!! Just mention in your post which month it is, in case it's not obvious (hee hee). I will put everyone who plays into a hat and randomly draw a winner - who will receive a Wee Tees set of your very own!!! (or if you've already rushed out to buy Wee Tees, then a different Gina K set of equal value) Sound good?? You are welcome to do more than one month, I will enter you as many times as you play along.

Wait, there's more!! I will have a second contest - some of the photos below have been featured in the past on From Courtney's Closet. Do you know how many of them?? SEND ME AN EMAIL (do not post your guess below!!!) to stampinlibby at gmail dot com, with FCCC GUESS as the subject (I'm setting up an email filter, so make sure and do this or I may miss your guess!!) and put your guess in the email, and I will draw a winner for a smaller RAK from me from all the correct entries!! (You don't have to say WHICH months, just guess a number!) :-)

As usual I will also say who made my "favorite" card, and that person will get my featured badge for their sidebar, if they want it!

So here we go... a year worth of Courtney... sorry this post is so long...!! :-)

1 Month - looking at her brother in awe. This cute outfit was from my sweet friend Leslie, and actually had owls all over it - but this teddy bear is just too cute so I couldn't resist using it instead!2 Months - my little Cupcake in her first of many cupcake outfits! I loved the lace "frosting" on this one!3 Months - for this onesie I drew the stripes with my markers and a ruler, and freehanded the little elephants.4 Months - again I drew the cherries, as I'm sure you can tell!! LOL!5 Months - sweet as a bug!6 Months - sitting on her own, I just love that big grin!!7 Months - enjoying the sun on a pier in Cape Cod. This flower is from the Stampin' Up ABC Images set, which has so many stamps that work well with Wee Tees!8 Months - in the pumpkin patch! Again I'm sure you can tell I drew that pumpkin! :-)9 Months - I tried drawing a monkey, but it was Not Good. :-) So I used Changito instead.10 Months - eating blackberries for the first time! I love her messy face, but I'm not thrilled that I had such an UGLY bib on her for this photo!! The baby food jar is also from ABC Images.11 Months - my sweet little snow bunny!!! The bunny stamp is from Inkadinkado.12 Months - HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY!! Again, cupcake from ABC Images.My plan is to also add some journaling about what happened each month in the empty space at the top right on each page.

So there you have it!! I hope you'll play along!! I'm actually going to leave this open for another TWO WEEKS - so you have until Wednesday June 3 at 9pm CST to play along!!

Happy Stamping!!! And truly, thanks for reading my blog!!! Please scroll down below Mr. Linky to see my favorite from the previous challenge!!

(I'M SORRY TO SAY MR. LINKY HAS DISABLED MY WIDGET DUE TO HIS SERVER OVERLOAD ISSUES - SO PLEASE DO IT THE OLD FASHIONED WAY AND INCLUDE YOUR LINK IN THE COMMENTS! THANKS!!)




And now... at looooong last... my favorite from Week 41, which was three weeks ago!! It was tough, all the cards were adorable, I debated for a while - but my favorite was this cutie from Katie Autore! It just made me smile when I looked at it, I just love that little monkey stuffing his face with that cupcake!! And since both "Cupcake" and "Little Monkey" are among the many, many nicknames I have for Courtney, I loved that too. And - the cherries that Katie punched out herself, such a cute addition to the card. Katie is a long-time FCCC player, and I'm always so thrilled when she joins! Her and mama Anita are the coolest mother-daughter blogging team I know, I sure hope Courtney and I are like that someday! :-) Katie send me an email if you want the "featured" badge and I'll send it to you asap! And thanks everyone for playing last time!

My Sparkly Vampire Card

Here's my latest Cinema Saturday card. Can you tell what movie they picked this week?? That's right - TWILIGHT!! Sure, Edward doesn't wear a cape, and his hair is WAY more stylish than this - but I just couldn't resist pulling out my favorite little vampire stamp!!! It's from a Westrim Crafts set called Spooky that I found on the clearance rack at Archiver's just after Halloween last year, so I'm thrilled to be getting him inky for the first time. You see, I *love* vampires!! It's a little known fact about me. (although, if you read this blog regularly, this is not the first time I've admitted it!!!) However - Twilight - well, I resisted reading it for the longest time. No offense to some of you, but I just thought it was a little creepy that all these middle-aged women were in love with a teenage vampire!! But then I thought more about it - wait! He's a vampire! He's probably been seventeen for a very long time, so really, he's MUCH older. Oh. But that means he's like a hundred year old vampire hot for a seventeen year old girl. Still creepy. But then I decided - who cares - he's a vampire and I love vampires!!! hee hee So I actually just finished the first book the other day, and watched the movie when I knew this would be the challenge this week. I really do like it - but I'm not going to claim to be one of the FANATICS out there. I just love all things vampire!! (ok fine I'll admit it - Edward is totally dreamy!!) Well anyway, I had a super fun time making this card!! One thing in Twilight that's different than the other vampire books I've read is how she dealt with them going out in sunlight - she has them SPARKLE in the sun!! So my little vampire has a super sparkly face, thanks to my Stardust Gelly Roll pen. There's also sparkle on the chipboard heart (Christmas Red Stickles) and the hearts on the DP are sparkly too. I also colored over the vampire's hair, cape and shoes with my black Glaze pen, so he's sparkly AND shiny! I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch for the card, which was awesome as always, and as luck would have it a Verve sentiment fit with my theme quite nicely! So there you have it, my sparkly vampire card and my confession about my love for vampires, which began long before they were sparkly teenagers. Yes, I am a weirdo. :-) FYI you have until Thursday 9pm PST to play along with Twilight! You know you want to!! ;-) Thanks for stopping by today!!

• Stamps: Spooky from Westrim Crafts, Wild Thing from Verve Stamps
• Paper: Read Red, Silver from SU, Black & black polka dot from MM, Purple from Marcella, Expensive but Cute heart DP
• Ink: Palette Noir, Encore Silver, Copics
• Accessories: Cuttlebug & folders, chipboard heart from stash, Christmas Red Stickles, Stardust Gelly Roll pen, Black Glaze pen, Marvy punches, SU scallop border punch, metallic red brads from my stash

I *heart* orchids!!

Yay!! I finally stamped something! Were you starting to think all I'd ever post about again was blog awards and websites?? I was having a seriously difficult time finding the mojo / ambition / energy / whatever to even ENTER my stamp room!! Not good. But yesterday I was able to avoid my family the entire day (is it terrible that I like days like that??) and spend some time organizing and clearing the MASSIVE amount of clutter off of my desk and floor (I even found some stamps I forgot that I had ordered - SCORE!) and when I sat down to that nice, clean desk, I was able to stamp. YAY!! I decided to ink up one of my (MANY!) stamps that have never been used. This is yet another one that I *absolutely had to have* as soon as it was released - I adore orchids, and this stamp is soooooo pretty! It's part of the Gina K Botanical Dreams set, designed by Asela Hopkins. The rest of the set is gorgeous too, but I'll admit I bought the entire thing pretty much just to get this one image!! Well ok, this is funny - I just looked at the set online so I could link it up, and I now remember that I also bought it for that awesome Henry David Thoreau quote, yet when I made this card last night I somehow didn't even notice it!!! Aaaaaah! I used a similar sort of quote from a Hero Arts set, because I had decided this would be a graduation card (I have several graduates to send cards to this year!). That is just too funny, I'm such a dope sometimes! Anyway... I decided that not all graduation cards have to include caps and gowns and diplomas. There's nothing wrong with making a pretty orchid card for a graduate! Don't you agree?? The background is a Top Note die cutout that I received as a RAK from Anita a while back - it was white, but I colored it with a Copic marker. The marker is on the verge of drying out, so the coverage wasn't great - which created a really cool effect, that looks sorta like suede! Sadly you can't really see just how pretty this card is - I'm *HOPING* this will be the last terrible card photo I post on here - because today Mr. Brown is SUPPOSED TO be bringing me a brand new light box thingie for taking card photos of my very own!!! I'm so excited!! My dear hubby ordered me one for Mother's Day, isn't that awesome??!?! But it was delivered while we were in San Diego, and apparently somebody STOLE IT from our front doorstep!!! Isn't that TERRIBLE?!?! But thankfully whoever he ordered it from was super, duper cool and sent out a replacement. Which should be here TODAY! Yay. :-) Ok... better post this... I'm rambling and having a hard time even following my own thoughts because my brother is IM'ing me about Twitter as I type this. Blogging, IM, Twitter - don't I sound like I'm just on top of all the social networking stuff? I'm so hip. (HA!) Thanks for stopping by today. :-)

• Stamps: Botanical Dreams from Gina K Designs, Anytime Messages from Hero Arts
• Paper: Chocolate Chip, GP white
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Chocolate Chip, Copic markers
• Accessories: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder, sponge

And another one...

I'm trying to scan through some blog posts I missed tonight (sorry ya'll, I've been a baaaad blogger - so far behind after my trip & my funk, I just gave up and reset my Reader to zero (from 1000+ unread, ack!) so we'll see how I do keeping up with you all going forward...!) ANYWAY - I totally missed this award given to me by the very sweet Betty a few days ago!! The Lemonade Stand Award - it says it's for being a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude. Huh!? And I hadn't even said thank you?? Oops!! Thanks so much for including me Betty, you are so very kind! And now it's my turn to pass it along, let's see...

Vicki at Stamped Smiles
Katie Ann at KB Stamps
Sue at Sue's Stamping Stuff
Anita at Cards & Coffee
Caryl at Stamps and Stitches

And with that - if you've given me an award somewhat recently and I didn't post it - so very sorry - but I'm no longer going back in time. Will just attempt to stay on top of them moving forward. Thanks so much!! I so appreciate all of my sweet blogging friends!!!

The Renee Award

I have been absolutely awful in the past about doing anything about the sweet blog awards people have given me! I know it's completely rude - I don't know why I don't just take a moment and post and say thank you! It's just one of my many character flaws I guess! So anyway... I'm going to make an effort to change that flaw and become a better member of the blogging community (and on that note - coming soon - a whole bunch of awesome RAKs I've received over the past few months too...!!!)

This one came from Shari, one of my fellow Cinema Saturday fans! Thank you so much Shari, you are too kind!! Here's the scoop on this award: The Renee Award was created by Bella and Ces in honor of their friend Renee. In Bella's own words: "this is a brand new award and I have the pleasure and honor of spreading the seed, watching it grow. I hope it finds it's way to those who are like Renee: the acorn, a small package becoming a tall and sturdy oak, giving more acorns, becoming tall and sturdy oaks, giving acorns..." There are no "rules" for claiming this award, but I would suggest the following: Thank the person who nominated you for the Renee Award. Click on the picture above to see it larger, then download it and post it on your blog. Mention the person who nominated you and link back to their blog. Nominate others to receive the award. Comment on their blogs to let them know you nominated them. Visit Bella, Ces and Renee and let them know you received the award and passed it on. Consider linking your blog post to them, too.

And now I'd like to pass it along to:
Chris at Mudmaven Designs
Melissa at In Stamping Mode
Jennifer at Glitter in my Hair
Kim at Kim's Basement Stamping
Alex at California Stampin'
Allison at Stampin' When I Can

Hooray for blog awards and spreading the love!!! :-)

Another Wee Tees card...

Hi all, just wanted to let you know Melanie has another one of my cards on her blog today... go and check it out if you'd like!

In a funk...

I'm in a major mojo-less funk over here, and still have nothing new to show you!! I am so bummed because I'm completely late on my Courtney's Closet anniversary celebration! Waaah! Well after I post this, my plan is to head into the stamp room and CLEAN, because the disaster area I've created in there sucks out any mojo I can muster everytime I go in there! It's awful!! Then maybe once my space is clean, I'll feel like cranking out some handstamped goodness? Anyway - this is the card I made for Melanie to post on her blog last week. I pretty much cracked myself up as I made it. It's what I wish for all mom-to-be's, really - to have a nice BABY! hee hee And if anyone is at all interested, I've finished blogging all seven days of our San Diego vacation on my family blog, you can look at it here. :-) Thanks for stopping by today, I do hope I will come out of this funk SOON! I've only managed to create one new card in the last two weeks! EEEEK! What's wrong with me???

More vacation photos...

Sorry to those of you who only care to see crafty goodness, but this photo cracks me up way too much not to share it!! Silly girl thought eating sand was a good idea - and despite this initial reaction, she kept on eating it! :-) For those of you interested, Day 2 of vacation photos are now posted here. But still no stamping... :-)

We're back!

Hi all! We're back home from our wonderful vacation to sunny southern California!! Thanks for all of the wonderful, sweet comments you left while I was away - it was indeed very nice coming back to such an overloaded inbox!! I don't have any new cards to show you just yet, but if you're at all interested, I'm posting some of our vacation picts on our family blog. Here's the post about Day 1.

I hope to be back here soon with something creative!!! :-)

And another one...

Here's the last of the scheduled posts for this week, and it's another Wee Tees card! Can you tell I adore this set?? This time I felt like going very pretty and girlie. I forced myself to stop hoarding my pearls on this one and used a bunch! The little hanger is really made from wire - no, of course I didn't bend the wire to form that myself!! You give me way too much credit! ;-) I found those little gems at a friend's craft garage sale, I knew they'd come in handy sooner or later...

Thanks for stopping by today!

Rock On!

Even though I'm not posting a From Courtney's Closet challenge today, I thought I'd still post a card inspired by my baby girl! But, unfortunately I can't show you *how* this was inspired by my baby girl!! I had this entire cute post planned, where I'd make a little video to share - but of course Little Miss Thing would NOT cooperate when it came time to film. You see, Courtney has a favorite song that she completely *ROCKS OUT* to when it comes on in the car... "So What" by Pink!! You know... "so what, I'm still a ROCK STAR, I got my ROCK MOVES, and I don't need you..." She sits there grinning from ear to ear and head banging!! It's the cutest thing ever. Of course she got it from her big brother - she wants to do everything like her big brother! He loves that song too - we can't go anywhere anymore without him whining "I wanna hear the rock song!!". As a matter of fact, I can tell you that it takes precisely 4.5 times in a row listening to that song to get from our house to Carter's preschool...! So, I took my little video camera to the car. I put in the Pink CD. I pointed the camera at Courtney. And she just sat there, no smile, no movement, nothing. *sigh* So, you'll just have to believe me when I say that's what inspired this card. :-) The card of course uses Wee Tees, and the "U ROCK" is from Little Tees. And now I can't get that Pink song out of my head. :-) And, it only just now occurred to me that it would have made much more sense to make a card inspired by Pink actually be pink. Oops. :-)

Make sure and visit Melanie's blog today, she is featuring another one of my Wee Tees cards. And this particular one cracked me up as I was making it... I hope you like it... :-)

And a reminder - you still have another whole week to play last week's From Courtney's Closet challenge!! So get on it! :-)

Thanks for stopping by today!

In case ya missed it...

You may have already seen this card when Melanie posted it last week on her blog, as well as a little interview with me. But, I loved how this one turned out so I just had to post it here too!

This of course is using some cutie patootie little boy images from the Gina K Wee Tees set which Melanie designed. The sketch for this card was one of Jen's - it worked perfectly with these little images! Each image is cut out and raised up with dimensional tape, just to give the card a little more somethin'-somethin'. I used little letter beads strung on embroidery floss to spell out the sentiment. I for one am glad that Melanie has boys - I love finding stamp sets with really cute boy images!!

Make sure and tune in tomorrow - Melanie will be featuring another one of my cards, and I'll have a new one here as well! Yay!

Thanks for stopping by today. :-)

Thoughts of a Stamping Diva...

This is one of those stamp sets that as soon as I saw it, I *knew* I had to have it IMMEDIATELY!!! And yet, inexplicably, it's been sitting on my shelf for months (yes, I said months!!) without seeing so much as an ink pad. It's a crime, I tell ya!! This sassy little diva is from smARTworks. The set comes with a bunch of different sayings you can use in her thought bubble (or wherever!), like "I'll cook and clean tomorrow", "I'd rather be stamping", "Do I really need one more stamp? Yes, yes I do." and the cutie I used here (words I live by!), among many others. I LOVE IT!!!! (Yes, I just yelled at you. Sorry.) So... when you rush on over to smARTworks to buy it for yourself, make sure and tell them that I sent you, because they have a nifty reward program and I want to be earning me some SmartBucks! The set is called Thoughts of a Stamping Diva... ;-) Thanks for stopping by today!

Sweet Wee Tees!

I've actually scheduled several posts for while I'm on vacation, can ya believe it?? This is very unlike me. Maybe I'll come home to a bunch of sweet comments in my inbox!?! Maybe?? :-)

Here's another card I made with the sweet little Wee Tees set from Gina K Designs. I have no idea why I just referred to this set as "little", it's anything but little - Melanie included 67 different stamps in it! Yowsa! I made this card to play along with this week's Mojo Monday challenge. Oh how I love a good sketch challenge!

Thanks for stopping by today. :-)