2009 in review...

2009 was a wonderful year of kids growing older and memories being made. As we enter the new year I thought I'd take a moment and reflect on a few of the things that the previous year has meant to us...

An Inauguration celebrated in icing.A baby girl turning one.First steps.First attempts at art.A lot of mommy's time spent here.A celebrity (chef) encounter!A brother and sister having fun times together, sometimes.And other times, not so much.Springtime traditions.A family vacation to California.Spending time with family in Michigan.The loss of a friend.A boy with a blankie.And a girl with her bunny.A day out with a favorite engine...And a costume to match.Meeting a sweet new baby cousin.Indoctrination.Happy Christmas memories.And a big boy turning four.Happy New Year! May 2010 bring you many treasured memories of your own!

A Boy Who Loves Cake.

Four years ago today I became a Mommy. Look at this sweet little baby! Who would have guessed that he'd grow into such a cake fanatic?On Carter's 1st birthday, he was a bit tentative about the cake. He was more interested in how it felt between his fingers.By his 2nd birthday he had most of his teeth - including his sweet tooth!Birthday #3 rolled around and it was all about the frosting!And today - on his 4th birthday - he meant business. No messing around. Insert fork into piece of cake. Lift entire piece of cake to mouth at once. Attempt to open mouth as wide as the cake. Yummmm!Happy Birthday Carter!! You definitely inherited this love of cake from your Mommy!

I'm certifiable!

Well I guess you already knew that, now didn't you? HA! What I meant to say is that I'm now officially a Copic Certified Designer! Yay!!I had been wanting to attend one of these classes for soooooo long, so I was thrilled when Sally Lynn MacDonald journeyed all the way down to San Antonio, Texas to show us her Copic marker magic a couple weeks ago! I actually made a bit of a weekend getaway out of it, heading down Saturday night to take a Ranger class Sally Lynn taught at one of the local scrapbook stores, Stamp Antonio. I had so much fun in both classes! And of course I did the paparazzi thing! Are you ready for some photos? Here I am with Sally Lynn:Guess who was at the classes assisting Sally Lynn!!?? None other than Sharon Harnist!!! Eeeek! Checking another stamping idol off the list of people I've met, yay!!Speaking of stamping idols - even though she didn't take either class, much to my own delight Jenn Balcer made appearances at both!! Yes, JENN BALCER!! You know what a Jenn groupie I am! HA! At least this time I managed to speak to her without stammering or making a complete fool of myself. Well, I hope I did anyway... (By the way, would you think I'm a completely crazy stalker if I mentioned that she smells really good too? Well she does!)One completely FUN thing was that I got to meet one of my "pretend" friends from Twitter, Dana Keith!! She is @darthsunshine on there. She rocks. She's tall and gorgeous and has an irresistible laugh. It was so fun meeting her in person!! I will stop calling her a pretend friend from here on out, now that I have proof that she is in fact real!I got to spend my time in class sitting next to Linda McClain, which was great!! Linda is such a nice lady, I'm so glad she's a local stamper, which means I can (theoretically!) see her on a regular basis. She even attended my last stamp class, yay! (not that she needs any stamping classes, mind you!!)And speaking of not needing stamping classes - the next photo is of a woman who really didn't need any COPIC training either, she is a coloring whiz! But nevertheless, one of my favorite stampers on the planet, Shannan Teubner, was in my class as well. It was so great seeing you again Shannan!!One of the best parts about Sunday was getting to spend time with my Hero Arts "boss", Lisa! We visited a couple stamp stores together, and I gave her a ride back to Austin. Just as you'd guess if you read her blog or the Hero blog, she's as nice as can be and so much fun!! But DUH, I didn't make her pose for a photo with me!! Next time I see her it's a must. :-) So how do you like my new glasses?? Do they make me look all artsy-fartsy or what? hee hee! Well now that I'm all Copic certified, I need to actually color some images and make some cards using all the cool info I learned! Yay!! Maybe my next card... :-) Thanks for stopping by today!

Merry Christmas!

May your holiday be filled with love and laughter! A very Merry Christmas from my family to yours.

Same cards, different colors...

Do these cards look familiar? Well, they should! They are very similar to cards I put together for my last class, which I shared in a recent post. But as I mentioned a couple posts ago I had been in an olive green kick, and that's when I made these! I really like the green/red/kraft color combo!I'm completely in love with the major sparkle on this cocoa mug!! I used lots of Stickles, and then added the foam to the top of the cup with Tulip Puffy Paint. Fun stuff!
Ok time to skedaddle - the minutes are ticking by and I still have soooo much to do before Christmas!! EEEK! Thanks for stopping by today! :-)

For Yayoi, my friend forever!

Back in the summer of 1989, my family had the pleasure of hosting the sweetest girl from Japan for a month. Although I haven't been great about staying in touch with Yayoi, I have thought about her often over the course of the past TWENTY years. Wow. I cannot believe it was really that long ago. I suddenly feel very old! :-) Anyway, imagine my surprise and delight when a few months ago I got an email from Yayoi, completely out of the blue!! And get this - she found me because of this blog!! She googled me, found links to my blog, and found my email address here on my sidebar. YAY!!! Even more reason I am thankful that I started this blog on a total whim about two and a half years ago...! :-) And everytime I see the sweet little Asian stamps from Hero Arts, I always think of Yayoi. So, I made this card with her in mind:The idea for the card came from the Hero Arts blog challenge a couple weeks back, to make a card inspired by one of the 2010 catalog sneak peeks. I used the same basic layout as some of the cards here. This particular challenge is long finished, but I encourage you to check out the current challenge - cards that give - because Hero Arts gives away some AWESOME prizes with each new challenge!!! Plus if you win, you get to email ME at the winner's email address, and that is fun for me so GO PLAY ALONG NOW FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!! LOL! Some other details on the card you may not be able to see in the photo - I colored all the girls' hair with black Glaze pen, to give it a nice, healthy shine. :-) The dresses are highlighted with Sakura Stardust pen, Stickles, white gel pen and a little bling on the flower of the middle girl. I borrowed the Four Dolls stamps from my friend Rae Anne a couple MONTHS ago, intending to make this card! It took me that long. Geesh. Thanks for the loan, sorry I've had your stamps this long Rae Anne!! :-) The background on the Hero notecard was created with the flower from this set. Can you tell that I love purple?? LOL!

Yayoi, thank you again for finding me, I hope we will stay in better touch now (and I *STILL* dream of visiting you in Japan someday!!) and everyone else, thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Four Dolls from Hero Arts
• Paper: Hero Arts notecard, Bazzill swiss dotted cardstock, white cardstock
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Accessories: Spellbinders Nestabilities dies, Sakura Stardust pen, Stickles, white gel pen, black Glaze pen, Hero Arts gems

More Holiday Goodness

Ok first of all, I just have to say - WOW!!! Taking part in a Hero Arts blog hop is FUN!!! I cannot even believe all the visitors and comments I've had on my blog this past weekend! I have a hunch it was more than I had the entire rest of 2009, LOL!! Thank you all for your sweet comments, I read and loved every single one of them!!

Today I thought I'd share some more Hero holiday goodness with you! This time I played with my GORGEOUS Antique Flower Background. Love love love it!! And so glad there's nothing strictly "holiday" about it - I can use this baby all year long!! Woot! For the colors - I've been on a blue & red kick this holiday season, if you can't tell. And this time I threw in a little olive green. I've also been on an olive green kick... as you will see soon...! :-) The message I chose is from Holiday Cheer.And speaking of holiday cheer - yikes - I cannot believe there are only a few days left!! I need to get this posted and go wrap a mountain of presents!! Thanks for stopping by today. :-)

• Stamps: Antique Flower Background and Holiday Cheer from Hero Arts
• Paper: Brocade Blue, Real Red & Old Olive from Stampin' Up!
• Ink: Brocade Blue and Craft White from Stampin' Up!
• Accessories: Marvy punches, Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder, Liquid Pearls, wide grosgrain ribbon

Hero Arts 2010 Catalog Blog Hop!!

Hello and welcome to the Hero Arts 2010 Catalog Blog Hop!! If you are just joining us, head on back to the Hero Arts blog and start at the beginning, because you surely don't want to miss anything!! To say that I'm absolutely THRILLED to be a part of this is a ridiculous understatement. Honestly, I can't even believe I'm here! Quick, somebody pinch me, please!! :-) But enough of my gushing, I know you don't want to stick around here long, you have some major hoppin' to do, so let me cut the chit-chat and get down to business. You want to see some new stampy goodness, right??

For my first card, I decided to try out some gorgeous butterflies from the new Antique Engravings set. I created the background using alcohol inks, and added some Stickles to the butterflies because, well, I can't help it, I love Stickles!! The sentiment is also from a fabulous new set of greetings called Essential Messages.I also had to play with one of the adorable new little girls - this one is called Girl Holding Flowers. As a mom of a sweet little girl, I can tell you right now that I *must* own all of the cute new girlie stuff in this catalog!! LOL! Again I used a greeting from Essential Messages. The stamp is straight, but I just curved it on my acrylic block to fit on the circle. That's one of the things I love most about clear stamps, the way you can manipulate the greetings!The next stop on the hop is the wonderful and talented Judy Jung! I'll head on over there with you, I cannot wait to see what she created! And I also can't wait to head up to my stamp store today and check out more of the stamps in person. I've seen the new catalog in person - it's FABULOUS - I'm so excited!! :-) Remember, if you find a link that doesn't work, you can always hop back to the Hero Arts Blog for a list of direct links to all the blogs in the hop! Thanks for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

• Stamps: CL383 Antique Engravings, CL371 Essential Messages
• Paper: Bazzill cardstock, Archiver's cardstock, glossy paper
• Ink: Black StazOn, Ranger alcohol inks (Stream, Meadow, Eggplant)
• Accessories: May Arts ribbon, Diamond Stickles, punch, sewing machine & black thread

• Stamps: H5330 Girl Holding Flowers, CL371 Essential Messages
• Paper: Hero Arts notecards, October Afternoon DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers, brown ink
• Accessories: Spellbinders Nestabilities dies, Diamond Stickles, AMuse pretty pearls, ribbon, sewing machine & brown thread

Cards from Class

I'm trying to get back into the groove of teaching card classes in my home on a regular basis - so far I've only managed one, but I do have big plans for the new year!! And on a related note - anyone have good ideas for card classes they could share? hee hee

Here's what we did at my first class, which was holiday-themed and focused on, of course, all wonderful Hero Arts stamps!! I'll go ahead and start out with my favorite of the bunch. The gorgeous Stunning Snowflakes background was stamped in white pigment ink on a Hero Arts kraft notecard. It just called out to me to add tons of bling & Stickles!!I'd love to drink some "holiday cheer" in a red glittery cup like this, LOL! I tried out my Tulip Puffy Paint for foam on my cocoa from the Cozy Moments set - it worked just like Liquid Applique, yay! It's MUCH easier to find in the local craft stores. And yes, I said it was holiday "cheer" but then called it "cocoa" - I'm not telling what I added to my cocoa.... :-DThis card is a CASE of a card I created a while back - I loved the sketch for round stamps like this one, also from Cozy Moments. The white border is colored in with a gel pen. I found the yummy velvety rick-racky ribbon by the spool at Archivers, fun!And finally - THIS CARD IS NOT MY DESIGN - it's a complete CASE of one of Lisa's cards from the Hero Arts blog. If you like it, she even did a video tutorial for it, so awesome!Thanks for stopping by today!

Fun with Felt!

A few weeks ago I treated myself to a crafty class at an awesome place here in Austin - The Stitch Lab!! I felt I deserved it after surviving multiple weeks alone with my childebeests this fall while my hubby went on business travel to Asia. Ok on second thought, I deserved it even if he hadn't gone anywhere! HA! :-) I actually found the place because I was in search of a crochet class - they didn't have any offered at the time, so I decided to try Felt Fun. Leslie, the owner, taught the class, and she was so much fun and so helpful and PATIENT with a doofus like me who barely knew how to make a stitch going in! So are you ready to see what I made!? Would you believe I made this?Or this???!!I didn't design either of these, I just used her patterns. But I love them soooo much and I am so very prideful!! And boy do I love The Stitch Lab!! I asked Leslie if I could live there. She said no. Sad. But I will certainly go back for more classes! And, get this - I have since made another little bag similar to the cat bag - but I designed a cupcake version!! It turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. I gave it to a friend before taking any photos, oops! But I'll ask that friend if she'd mind snapping one for me, and show you once I have it. :-) Hooray for felt!! Thanks for stopping by today!