A Splash of Poppies!

I made another card! Yay! And it's a challenge two-fer!!


First of all, I played along with some of my favorite challenge peeps - the talented ladies over at The Play Date Cafe! This week was a color splash, so I splashed with an orange poppy!


And I'm so excited about the second challenge I played, because it's actually my very first time joining them! Ever! I KNOW!! What can I say - it's CAS-ual Fridays, and I'm just not usually a clean & simple kinda gal.


The poppies I used are from one of my all-time favorite clear sets from Hero Arts. So so pretty! I decided to color just one little blossom for my color splash, and pop it up on a tag for CAS-ual Fridays. I wanted to dull the base poppy a bit, so I went over the panel with Picket Fence Distress Stain. The poppy center has a touch of Midnight Black Stickles, and Hero pearls finish it all off.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

• Stamps: CL449 Delicate Blossoms from Hero Arts, message from Taylored Expressions
• Paper: Black, white
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Other: Prismacolor pencils, gamsol, Hero Arts tag (Silhouette), Cuttlebug embossing folder (Swiss Dots), Hero Arts pearls, Ranger Distress Stain (Picket Fence), Stickles (Midnight Black), twine, machine stitching

Texas Tuesday!

Something truly horrible happened a couple days ago. My son was reading a book for school about people who wear glasses. He was reading along... "Moms wear glasses. Doctors wear glasses. Mail carriers wear glasses." Whatever. Then the page said "Cowboys wear glasses." And his response to that... are you sitting down???... "But mom, there is no such thing as real cowboys!" ***GASP*** ***THUD*** Did my child really just say that?? We clearly took that boy out of Texas much too soon!!

So, in my own warped little way of righting this incredibly horrific situation, I feel the need to start doing Texas Tuesday posts again, STAT!! I cannot let my family forget their Texas past! Because me making and posting Texas-themed cards makes such a difference in their lives... HA! So last night I played with one of my favorite symbols of Texas, the bluebonnet...


I broke out my Prismacolor pencils for this one. I really need to do that more often, I just love them! The background is from a page in a book I bought used just to sacrifice for cards. Can anyone tell what classic novel it is by scanning this bit of text? I would be very impressed!! (and fyi it has NOTHING to do with Texas!) :-)

But mostly I was playing along with this week's Catered Crop Follow The Recipe challenge!! My friend Linda invited me back this week as a Top Chef Emeritus! WOOT!
Here are the elements I chose to borrow from the featured recipe:

• Papers: Kraft
• Colors: kraft, black, cream
• Ink: pencils, distress ink
• Tools: embossing folder, die cuts, circle punch
• Miscellaneous: ribbon, pearls
• Techniques: dry embossing, distressing

The gorgeous bluebonnet stamp is from my dear friend Jimmye Sue and Texana Designs! She is the sponsor of this week's challenge. I do hope you'll play along, because I know you'd just love to own some Texana goodness for yourself!

I have to steal from Linda for a minute and share this photo that she has on her blog today! It's me, Linda & Jimmye Sue from a little while back. Oh how I miss my Texas friends!

And one more little announcement before I go!! I've set up a new Etsy shop called COWBOY CARDS!! I will be posting all of my Texas Tuesday cards in there, if you're at all interested. And sorry that the shop doesn't look pretty yet - I just set it up today and I still need a banner! :-)

Happy stampin', y'all!

• Stamps: Texana Designs
• Paper: Hero Arts Kraft, Eggshell, Text is a book page
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Other: Prismacolor Pencils, Hero Arts pearls, American Crafts twine, Spellbinders die, Cuttlebug folder (Swiss Dots), circle punch, ribbon

Queen for the Day

So... did you see the Hero Arts blog today?? Did you see who was mentioned on it. That's right, little ol' me!! Woohoo!! I feel like Queen for the Day. HA! I made some tags:


Lisa took this photo (which is why it's way better than the photos I typically post, HA!) after she added my tags to her boxes for her A-M-A-Z-I-N-G advent calendar project. Be sure to hop on over there and check out her finished project. It is simply gorgeous! She has totally inspired me to get my hands on one of those advent calendars for myself! If you want one too, hurry and get it this week, and use the promo code HERO for $10 off!

I used a ton of Silhouette cuts on my little tags. I am soooooo in love with my Silhouette these days. I have big plans to jump back into scrapbooking - BIG PLANS - so I even subscribed to the Silhouette store. It's such a great deal if I actually start USING my Silhouette regularly!

Oh and by the way, we were getting all tagalicious this week because it's one of the themes for the Hero Arts monthly contest. I hope you'll play along - they offer really wonderful prizes!! (And if you win I get to talk to you via email - bonus for me!!) ;-)

And Lisa - thank you thank you thank you for inviting me to help out a bit with your project. You're the best and I miss you soooooo much!

Thanks for stopping by. And sharing in my joy. I feel so special. I'll be signing autographs later. Right after I make dinner, do the laundry and clean the toilets... hahaha

Happy Birthday Timbo!!

Today I am here to wish a very happy birthday to Timbo, the creative genius who draws all of the ADORABLE images for Hambo Stamps!! The Bacon Bits are surprising Tim with a little birthday blog hop!! Won't you join us? If you arrived here from Michele's blog, fantastic!! If you just happened by, be sure to start at Karin's blog for the whole story and to have a chance at winning the birthday prize!

Some of Tim's favorite images he's drawn are all the cute Farm Animals. So all of the animals are heading to a big ol' party at the farm to celebrate with Tim!! This cute little chicken is setting off from here in Marietta, Georgia...


Chicken had to stop and ask for directions in Marietta. In Marietta, all directions are given referencing the... wait for it... Big Chicken! Chicken was told to take a left at the Big Chicken, then head north to Richmond.


So chicken headed toward the Big Chicken. But silly, silly chicken, he decided to take a peek inside. You would not believe what he found!! It was horrifying!!


EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!!!! He hightailed it out of there and continued on as quickly as he could to join his fellow animals at the farmyard party!!

Now off to Melissa's blog, where you can see what happens next at Timbo's Birthday Bash! If you get lost, here is the order of birthday fun:
Karin
Stephanie
Jessica
Michele
Libby
Melissa
Andrea
Judy
Talk to the Ham

Thanks for stopping by to help celebrate Tim's birthday! Don't forget to comment for a chance at the goodies!!

Happy Stamping,

• Stamps: Farm Chicken Digital Image, Goes Without Saying - 4113 from Hambo Stamps
• Paper: Hero Arts Kraft, SU black, red, turquoise, GP white, green gingham DP from stash
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Other: Cloud die (Lil' Inker), circle dies (Spellbinders), fringe scissors (Martha Stewart), embossing folder (Cuttlebug Swiss Dots), gingham ribbon