FCD Blog Hop: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

It's time for our monthly Firecracker Designs by Pamela blog hop! This time the theme is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - a theme I LOVE - so you'd think I'd be playing along, right? Well, no, I'm not. My mojo is vacationing someplace far, far away, so I didn't manage to get anything together in time. I had already told the girls to skip me, but I thought I'd give it a go tonight anyway. I had a genius plan, or so I thought! I saw this package of Prima flowers lying on my stamp room floor (yes, on the floor - my room is such a disaster zone right now!!)......and thought I could turn one of the little "cups" into a shaker card! Well. It just didn't turn out how I envisioned. First of all, I tried filling it with chunky glitter and microbeads. All I made was a huge glittery microbeady MESS! I was using bird stamps - what I think would really have been cool is to use birdseed in the shaker - but that involved going out into my dark garage alone at night and I was just too wimpy. (yes Sue, I know there's a lightswitch right next to the door, but still!) So - I may have to retry the card with birdseed in the near future, when I've found my mojo...

After I gave up, I took a look to see what the other ladies came up with - and low and behold Tesa had the same idea to use this sort of packaging!!! But of course hers turned out GREAT!! So... why don't you go ahead and hop on over to Tesa's blog and start the hop there?? It's a circular hop so you'll end up right back where you started. And, leave comments along with the way, because as usual our generous boss Pam is giving away some candy!

Have fun, and I promise I will actually stamp again... someday... :-) Thanks for stopping by!

A Surprise Hambo Blog Hop!

Last week I got an email from sweet Isabelle asking if I'd like to join in a little blog hop. The theme of the hop is just to say SURPRISE and WE LOVE YOU GUYS to Monica & Tim over at Hambo Stamps. Isn't that fun?? So of course I said "sign me up!" and went to thinking about what to make. I decided to use this adorable little chipmunk (and yes, I colored him like a squirrel - deal with it! LOL!) and the matching "to my favorite nut" sentiment, because the sentiment reminds me of Monica! hee heeSince I was making a Hambo card, I thought it was only fitting that I also play along with this month's Hogs & Sketches challenge! Check out the challenge if you haven't already - there are fabby prizes involved!! And while you're checking out all the Hambo goodness, you should also swing by their blog, Talk to the Ham, and say hello!

And now it's time to hop on over to MacKenzie and see what she created - I have no doubt it will be fabulous, she's a total rockstar! If you came directly here and would like to start at the beginning, head to Asela's wonderful blog. And big thanks to Isabelle for asking me to join, and for coming up with this super sweet idea! It's making me all sentimental, I miss being part of the Hambo design team so much!! And to the rest of you - thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Chipmunk and Favorite Nut from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Bazzill cardstock, Best Creations DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers, black Glaze pen
• Accessories: A muse chocolate pearls, Hero Arts button, velvet ribbon, Marvy punches, sewing machine & thread, twine

2009 in Cards

I've seen several people posting their favorite cards of 2009. At first I was hesitant to do it myself, I didn't want to come across as full of myself!! But, after some encouragement from my Twitter friends, I've decided to go for it. So, without further ado, here is my "Look at these 12 Cards from Last Year, Because I Am So Freakin' Awesome!" But please don't think I have a big head, ok? :-)

JanuaryFebruaryMarchApril (how can raining Johnny Depp heads NOT be my favorite??)MayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecemberThanks for stopping by, and indulging me! And coming soon - a post dedicated to my own One Little Word for this year - "confidence". :-) Happy Stampin'!

Happy Anniversary, Melanie!! - a blog hop!

Melanie Muenchinger is celebrating two years of blogging and illustrating for Gina K Designs, and today she has invited 25 designers and YOU to join the party! First, hop through the blogs of the designers' listed below, using every set she has created since January 2008, from the first to the 25th! Then go to Melanie's blog to leave a comment for a chance to win a number of different prizes!

I was lucky enough to be asked by Melanie to be one of her guests back in April 2009 for her wonderful WEE TEES set!! I absolutely adore this set, it's so adorable!! You can see all of the designs I created as Melanie's guest here. For this hop, I already had Valentine's Day on the brain, so that was a little part of the inspiration for this baby love card:The heart and "love" actually come from another one of Melanie's fabby sets, Little Tee's. See all of those tiny buttons at the bottom? They are handmade and completely scrumptious, I found them on Etsy in Tessa Ann's wonderful button shop. They actually inspired me to try button-making for myself - I'll show you the results of that soon! :-)

And here's another sweet baby card made with Wee Tees:
So now let's start hopping! Remember, check back in with Melanie at the end for a shot at the prizes!!

Just So Hippy-Charmaine
Just So Hoppy-Donna
What's in Your Tin 1 & 2-Donna
Hip Hop Accessories-Bee
Jumping for Joy-Barb
Cuddles and Hugs-Jessie
Little Tees-Cat
Just So Sporty-Pam
A Year of Flowers-Theresa
Say it with Flowers-Selma
Have a Cookie-Carolina
Tee Talk-Gabby
Hand in Hand-Ally
The Best Things in Life-Shannon, Sankari
A Charmed Life-Cathy
Wee Tees-Libby (<---YOU ARE HERE), Laura Jean
Arranged with Love-Selma
Sporty Accessories-Tina
Inspiration Mosaic-Jennie
School Sports Spirit-Melissa
A Year of Leaves-Geri
Hip to Be Square-Karen
Festive Frame-Linda
Tech Talk- Lee

Finally, Nina and Jessica from the GinaK Senior Design Team have joined in, too! You can also get in on the hop yourself and increase your chances of winning a prize by creating your own project with any one of Melanie's sets and linking it in the Mr. Linky in her post, see full details here. Hope you can join the fun! Enjoy your first hop of the year!