The Play Date Cafe Challenge #77

I'm so happy to be playing along with The Play Date Cafe this week, I've missed it sooooo much the past two times when I've been up to my eyeballs in house selling madness. And I'm back just in time because this week the sponsor is The Greeting Farm, yay!! Check out this ADORABLE "Cheeky Shooter" - just perfect for this Texas girl to end up with, wouldn't ya say?


I just love her. I combined her with a Deadbeat Designs greeting. I've had that fringe in my ribbon stash for ages, just waiting for the perfect image to use it with. Today was the day!! :-) I also made a rolled ribbon flower. I have a die to do that, but I was too lazy to pull out my Big Shot so I just cut it by hand. Guess what - it worked just fine.


These are the fabby PDCC colors I was using as inspiration - LOVE the green and kraft!


This week we are completely honored to have the amazing, talented and all-around wonderful Jessica Diedrich guest designing with us. I love her to pieces!! And speaking of loving people to pieces - be sure to check out what my fabulous PDCC sisters created this week!

Julie Ranae * Savannah O'Gwynn * Ruby 2 Shoes * Andrew Ewen * Fiona Shultz * Jaclyn Miller * Jinny Newlin * Michele Gross * Tracey Kuzniak * Colleen Dietrich

This week's prize is a $25 gift certificate to The Greeting Farm. I know you won't want to miss that!! Head on over to The Play Date Cafe Challenge site and get your crafty on! :-)

Happy Stamping,

• Stamps: Cheeky Stamper from The Greeting Farm, Deadbeat Designs greeting
• Paper: BoBunny (green DP), Jillibean Soup (rope DP), SU brown, GP white
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Accessories: fringe ribbon, green felt, Bazzill gingham ribbon, American Crafts twine, Tim Holtz memo pin

Cinema Saturday - UP!

Hi stampy friends! I'm so excited to be making my first blog post on my pretty new blog! What do you think of my new digs?? I am soooo in love. I've been working with the fabulous Sara Williams to get my blog tweaked into a more clean & simple design. She has done such a fabby job!! Make sure to click through all the pages & see what's what. As I get back into the posting groove I'll need to attempt to get people to visit me again (Helllooooo? Is there anyone out there anymore???) so I'll be having an Extreme Blog Makeover + 3 Year Blogiversary celebration very soon!

But for now, let's just look at a card, shall we?


I had said in January that my "new year's resolution" was to play ALL the Cinema Saturday challenges this year. *AHEM* It's now mid-April and THIS IS MY FIRST ONE!! Ugh, that is such a crime against humanity, I tell ya!!! This is my favorite challenge in all of blogland, I have missed it so much! So this week's movie was Up!


The rule for this week was to use balloons on the card - this cutie little Greeting Farm pig was the most Up-like stamp I had, so I went with it. And the movie is about an adventure right? So I thought the "It's Your Turn" sentiment from the set sorta fit.

I also played along with this week's Mojo Monday challenge, another of my favorites!! YAY!


I cut the grass using my Martha Stewart fringe scissors. You know about these, right? They are the coolest things ever!

It felt good to be back in the stamp room last night! I truly hope to make regular appearances there from here on out...! Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Fly Away from The Greeting Farm
  
• Paper: Ballet Blue, Kraft from Stampin' Up, white paper, Reminisce DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Accessories: Corner Chomper, SU scallop border punch, embroidery floss, Diamond Stickles, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder, brads, Glossy Accents

Happy Birthday, Lydia!! - a blog hop!

Today I want to wish A GREAT BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LYDIA, aka @understandblue!! To celebrate in style, some of her Twitter friends (Tweeple??) had the grand idea to throw a little blog hopping celebration for her! If you just happened upon my blog, make sure to go back and start at the beginning - Angelique's blog! Me, I like to think I'm more of a Blogging, Facebook, and now IRL friend of Lydia's - I came onto the Twitter scene late. :-) But because Lydia is so sweet and friendly and all-around wonderful, right away she introduced me to her aforementioned Tweeple! So here I am, hanging out with them on this blog hop, celebrating our @understandblue's birthday! I decided to make a card for Lydia, because as most of you know, that's what I do. I made my card mostly blue, because rumor has it Lydia is quite fond of blue...! :-) I chose this cutie patootie pig image from The Greeting Farm because I had to do something with a critter on it - Lydia is one of the biggest animal lovers I know! And although I'm not quite sure how much she adores pigs, I do happen to know she is quite fond of bacon. Doh! :-) I played with Jen's latest Sketch For You To Try for the layout. The sentiment - "The Sky's the Limit" - just seems so appropriate for Lydia. With her talent, and the enthusiasm she puts into everything she does - truly, the sky is the limit for her. Actually, maybe she's not even limited by the sky!

I do truly hope you'll take a moment and hop with us - if you're typically only a card-blog-hopper, you're in for a treat. This hop includes other types of people - can you imagine?? :-) Authors, artists, geeks... which brings me to the next stop on our tour, my very own geeky little brother, Jon. If you live under a rock and you've never visited Lydia's blog, you'll certainly want to do that - she's super talented at both cardmaking AND writing, and has a wonderful sense of humor to go along with it! And again, a very happy birthday to you, Lydia!! xoxox

• Stamps: Fly Away from The Greeting Farm
• Paper: Kraft, Brocade Blue, DP from Chatterbox, PTI
• Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Brocade Blue
• Accessories: Janome Sew Mini & white thread, Diamond Glaze, Star Dust Stickles, silver brads, grosgrain ribbon

From Courtney's Closet #53 - Courtney's Playdate!

Welcome to another edition of From Courtney's Closet, where I make a card inspired by one of my daughter's cute little outfits. Except today it's the second Thursday of the month, which means it's time for playdate! Yay!! Today's inspiration came from sweet little Hannah, daughter of the mega-talented Stacey Schafer of Stacey's Stamping Stage. She looks just as cute as can be posing in her sweet little blue outfit!! I love a girl in blue. And when I was thinking about girls in blue, I decided I wanted to break out my new "Wonderland" set from The Greeting Farm. Isn't it the cutest?? I bought it when I saw it at half price recently - with the Alice in Wonderland movie coming next spring, I decided I just *had to* have a Johnny Depp stamp! HA! But today I played with Alice, not Johnny... errr.... The Mad Hatter. :-) But unfortunately for all of you who now *need* this stamp set too, it seems to be out of stock at the moment. Bummer! Details you can't see in the photo - the blue spots on the mushroom and Alice's dress & shoes are coated with clear Glaze pen, and her eyes have a little shine from black Glaze. The heart on her dress is covered with Sakura Stardust pen. The nifty little button/ribbon embellie is something I learned from Susan. And the grid paper behind Alice was a Target dollar bin find. :-) And now check out Stacey's card, it's just gorgeous, as always!! Stacey is an absolute expert at using big flowery-type embellishments on her cards - I just love the accordian flower she made this week! And the flower center goes so well with Hannah's ADORABLE blingie flip-flops!! Make sure you head on over to Stacey's blog and tell her how much you love her card and what a precious daughter she has, ok? :-)So what do you think? Wanna play along with us this week?? Make a card and leave a comment back here so we know where to find you! And an fyi - I'll be away from my computer next week, so you have TWO weeks to play along - I won't be doing the round-up until the following week! (But I do have an FCCC card scheduled for next week...!) So no excuses, you have *two* weeks to play along with this one!! :-) I sure hope you will!

• Stamps: Wonderland from The Greeting Farm
• Paper: Ballet Blue, Bo Bunny DP, grid paper from Target dollar bin
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers, clear & black Glaze pens, Sakura Stardust pen
• Accessories: Spellbinders Labels One die, Janome Sew Mini & white thread, grosgrain ribbons, button, Linen thread

I also wanted to dedicate this card to a friend who is celebrating the launch of his new publishing company, Awkward Press, and the release of their first collection of short stories, Awkward One. Jeffrey and his cohorts are seriously FUNNY - check it out, but a warning it may be a little much for a few of you super conservative stampers out there...! :-) Plus he's one of my brother's oldest friends, and in case you are perplexed as to why this card is dedicated to him - he's also the biggest Alice in Wonderland fan I know. Congratulations & good luck, Jeff!!

Twilight Tuesday on a Sunday!

I've been wanting to place an order with The Greeting Farm for ages now, and last week I finally did it! Here's one of the little cuties I couldn't resist. Edward. Yes, as in Twilight. But I think the stamp is absolutely adorable even if you're not a Twilight fanatic. Which I have to admit, I am not. I'm currently making my way through the series - I like it, and had to read it because I love all things vampire (more background here) but I'm not OH MY GOD ITS THE GREATEST THING EVER in love with it, like some people. Like, for example, my sweet blogging friend Erica! I was chatting about Twilight and stamps with Erica via email, and she mentioned this week's bonus Twilight Tuesday challenge. Can you believe that, an entire blog devoted to stamping challenges focused on Twilight!?? That's pretty darn cool, people who love it, LOOOOOVE IT! :-) Erica advised me not to nose around too much on that blog, because I still need to read that final book and there are spoilers. So fyi, if you are in progress like me! But this particular challenge was "safe" according to Erica. LOL! The challenge was to use a Greeting Farm stamp (check!) and use the "classic" Twilight colors - red, black & silver (check!). I also combined it with this week's Weekend Sketch Challenge hosted by Lori Craig. The silver background is actually aluminum foil, run through an embossing folder on my Cuttlebug - a technique I found over at StampTV. As is usually the case with blingy, glittery cards, I love it wayyyy more IRL than in this darn photo, but what's a girl to do? I used the "just for you" sentiment because, really, what gal wouldn't want an Edward of their very own? Thanks Erica for hooking me up with the inspiration for this challenge - once I finish Breaking Dawn I'll have to visit regularly for more fun challenges! :-)

• Stamps: Edward from The Greeting Farm, Teeny Tiny Wishes from Stampin' Up!
• Paper: Basic Black, Real Red, white
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring, black Glaze pen
• Accessories: aluminum foil, Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots folder, "rings" embossing folder from quicKutz, oval Spellbinders die, Star Dust Stickles, bling flourish from Walmart, metal heart accents from Colorbok, red SU grosgrain ribbon, white American Crafts scallop ribbon, black ribbon from Jody
  

From Courtney's Closet #49 - an inspiration challenge

Hello and welcome to this week's edition of From Courtney's Closet, where I create a card inspired by something from my daughter's closet, and inspire you to do the same! A few days ago I went on a little trip up to Target. It was innocent enough, I just intended to buy a few storage bins to work on organizing the kids' playroom. But next thing you know the darn shopping cart was dragging me over to the clothes section. To look at the clearance racks, of course. But... there on a regular price rack... practically calling out my name... was HELLO KITTY!!! How on earth can I be expected to resist HELLO KITTY!?!? Well, I didn't resist, and immediately put it on Courtney as soon as we got home so I could snap some photos for this week's post. :-D I have to say I'm lovin' how this card turned out!! The Hello Kitty I used was actually on the tag from the shirt - I just cut it out. For the larger clouds I used a stamp, but the smaller ones were just drawn freehand. I put Stickles on them, because the white clouds on Courtney's shirt are also sparkly. The patterned papers were all from scraps in my polka dot drawer. What, you're surprised I have a drawer dedicated to polka dot paper? Do you even know me AT ALL? ;-) The black ribbon is a super cute velvet scallop ribbon from American Crafts that I love - it's a shame it's nearly all covered up. So... what do you think? Feel like making a card? You know it doesn't have to have Hello Kitty on it, you can find whatever inspiration you'd like from this post. If you do play, be sure to link back here so I can find you. Thanks for stopping by today, happy stamping! (Oh and btw - I still need to share with you some AWESOME STUFF that's happened over the past week - hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow! It's funny, I've been sick with a cold all week and yet this has been one FANTASTIC week for many reasons!!) :-)

• Stamps: Fly Away and Wonderland from The Greeting Farm
• Paper: Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, DP scraps from my stash
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Accessories: Swiss Dots & D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug folders, American Crafts ribbon, Star Dust Stickles, Hello Kitty cut from shopping tag on shirt