From Courtney's Closet #56 - Roundup!

Last week we had Sue's adorable grandson Cole join us for a playdate!Katie joined us with this completely fun and sassy card! She was inspired by the "playdate" theme. Her card is just wonderful - love that image, her perfect coloring, the bling, all the little details. Fantastic!Thanks so much for playing along Katie! If you'd like to have my "featured" button send me an email and I'll get it to you. And thanks everyone else for stopping by today!

From Courtney's Closet #56 - Courtney's Playdate!

Hello and welcome to another edition of From Courtney's Closet! This week it's playdate time!! And guess what? Today a little *boy* has come over to play! And boy oh boy is he a CUTIE!! He is my friend Sue's sweet grandson Cole - if you follow Sue's blog (which I'm sure you do!), you know full well what a proud Gwamma she is! As soon as I started posting these playdates she emailed right away - "can grandbabies play too??". Well of course they can! :-) Cole and my Carter have a lot in common - they both love trucks! So Sue chose this adorable photo of Cole in his truck jammies to inspire us. I decided to dig out my Dress Up Billy from Pink Cat Studio and put him in his firefighter outfit. And I love the colors in Cole's jammies - light blue and red always look so great together, and I really love the added touch of gray. I have to say, even though it's simple this card took me much longer to create than expected - I get so rusty when I take time off from stamping! (and yes that is why I'm posting this on Friday instead of Thursday - thanks Sue for your patience with me!!)

I absolutely adore the card Sue created! Her coloring is perfect, and the card is put together so well, all of the touches are wonderful! And best of all - I love the added "gwamma" to her watermark! :-) Thanks so much for playing Sue, and for sharing this photo of your sweet grandson with us! If you'd like to play along too, please leave a comment back here we can see what you did. :-)

On a side note - not sure you care to read this part - it's completely a coincidence that we're posting these sweet fireman cards on September 11 - this post was supposed to happen yesterday. But as I was thinking about our cards it hit me how fitting this is. I'm sure like all of you, I will never forget that horrible morning eight years ago today. I've never documented my experience, so I thought I'd do it here. It was long before I had kids, and I was working as an engineer at Motorola. I was running late for work that morning and had Good Morning America on. I remember they came in with breaking news, that there had been some sort of "explosion" in one of the towers. They were showing a live picture of the World Trade Center when the second plane hit. I remember Diane Sawyer gasping. I didn't fully understand at that point what I was watching, but I knew it was something horrible and immediately started crying. I paged my boss and told him I'd be working from home that morning, I couldn't leave the TV. Then there was the Pentagon. Then the plane in Pennsylvania. It was like the entire world was turning upside down. I began to panic - my husband was actually in the air as all of this was happening. He was not anywhere near these places - but everything was just so bewildering at that point, I didn't know what was going to happen next. I had to join a conference call for work - my boss was trying to focus on work, but the engineers we were talking with in Israel kept asking me to keep them updated about what was on the TV - both towers fell while we were on that call - somehow the widgets we were working on just didn't matter at that moment. The experience made me so angry with my boss - I could not understand how he could be so heartless. Later I understood - not everyone deals with trauma, shock and grief the same way. When Joel finally landed in Nashville he of course had no idea what was going on. The landing had been delayed, the pilot gave some vague explanation about congestion in the airport. Joel thought it was odd that he couldn't get his phone to work, not realizing all lines were jammed at that point. He saw people huddled around TV monitors but continued to the rental car line, where he found probably a hundred people waiting. Finally he realized something was not right. He literally got the *last* available car in Nashville that morning, and when he got in contact with his boss, he told him to start driving home because the site he was to visit was in lockdown (they had nuclear facilities there) and he would not be getting a flight out anytime soon. I remember being completely numb for days and days. I'm a news junkie anyway, and I watched *way* too much news then. I don't think seeing it replayed over and over was good for anyone. It was interesting to me that at some point all of the news stations seemed to have decided that they wouldn't show the actual clip of the second plane hitting anymore. This morning I saw it again for the first time in years, they were replaying the live coverage from that horrible morning on MSNBC. It was shocking and emotional all over again. I don't think it's possible for me to ever forget the details of that morning and the days that followed, but I feel better having them documented here. Such a sad day.

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!!

From Courtney's Closet #48 - Roundup!

This was last week's From Courtney's Closet inspiration - a SERIOUSLY CUTE photo of sweet little Mattea, daughter of stamping superstar Maria Gurnsey, visiting us for a playdate!Needless to say that photo inspired several stampers to get their creative juices flowing! First of all - I was THRILLED to get a comment from The One And Only Susan Roberts (aka Rainy) saying that she played along. EEEEEEEEEEEK! One of my favorite stampers in the entire universe. So exciting!! And just look what she created - wowsa!! Soooo pretty. But of course. Why wouldn't it be? :-)Caryl knew just what to do to make Maria love her card - look at that gorgeous gingham ribbon!! Love it!Stacey is an absolute expert at adding big, gorgeous flowers to her cards. This is such a beauty!And speaking of big, gorgeous flowers - I love the one Ella added to her card as well! Not to mention that sweet butterfly! So happy to have you back, Ella!Hip hip hooray!! Kim played!!! I've been waiting and waiting. ;-) I just love her card - those birds are too much fun!And holy toledo, Karen is on an absolute ROLL! She played AGAIN! Love the big flower stamps on her card, sooooo pretty & fun!Picking a favorite this week was extremely difficult, every single card is fantastic - but I have to say I did love Sue's the most. Those buttons are just way too pretty, and I love the fun flower background she chose. I'll email you Sue, I think I owe you a few things now... :-)Now go and show these ladies some love on their blogs! Thanks everyone for playing, and thanks again to Maria for sharing such a sweet photo with us!

From Courtney's Closet #48 - Courtney's Playdate!

Hi everyone! Courtney is soooo excited that it's time for another playdate already! This week her friend Mattea came over to model an adorable outfit for our cardmaking inspiration! And boy oh boy look at this photo of sweet Mattea - did her mama Maria have her totally POSE or what?? I just love it - what an adorable photo of a beautiful little girl! And look at that dress, so cute and colorful!! I'm sure you all know Maria of Scraps by M! She's one of the many stampers I'm so fortunate to have gotten to know thanks to this little challenge. I think of her as my Gingham Girl - gingham is to Maria as polka dots are to me! :-) So of course I couldn't resist adding some gingham ribbon to my card this week! The stamp I used is from Penny Black, and I won it as a door prize from Julie (aka Jag_Bug) at the Dallas shoebox swap. Love it! I added a little Spica glitter pen to the pink flowers and yellow center, but you can't see it in the photo (sad!). I've been in a major stamping slump lately, as I'm sure you can tell from my lack of posting! I went looking through some of my favorite blogs last night to try and find inspiration, and this beauty by Amy Sheffer inspired me to pull out a Top Note diecut for the image, still using my stash that sweet Anita sent to me a while back! Mattea's cute outfit inspired three things about this card - the color palette, the urge to use a flower stamp (although quite different from the outfit!) and the row of pink buttons. Mattea's mommy Maria made a fabulous card inspired by her daughter too! I just love the fun grouping of flowers, the big gorgeous button and of course the Maria-signature gingham going through it! Hop on over to Maria's blog and let her know how much you love her card too!Thanks so much for letting Mattea inspire us this week Maria!! If anyone out there is as inspired by this as I was, go for it! Make a card!! :-) And link back here so Maria and I know you did. Thanks so much for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Burst of Stars from Penny Black, Sentiment from Stampin' Up!
• Paper: Regal Rose, Wild Wasabi, K&CO Citronella mat pad, white SU Top Note diecut
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring, Copic Spica glitter pens
• Accessories: Janome Sew Mini & thread, SU Slit punch, pink buttons, white embroidery floss, gingham ribbon from JoAnn

From Courtney's Closet #45 - Roundup!

Wow, where have I been? I can't believe over a week has slipped by without so much as a peep from me!! I've just been busy busy busy with my mom visiting and my hubby out of town and my mojo apparently on summer vacation to someplace far, far away!! But... last night I was finally able to do some creating, and I'll be back in a minute to show you some new stamps that I *LOVE*, but first I wanted to do a roundup of the From Courtney's Closet challenge from week before last!!! If you remember, super duper cutie patootie Sophie came over for a playdate!Four wonderful, awesome, talented ladies took me and Sophie's talented mama Katie up on the challenge and created these beauties! First up, my good friend Sue. She stamped her gorgeous background paper herself. I just looooove her Penny Black hedgehog out collecting butterflies, so cute! Those orange butterflies completely pop off the card - and we all know what a struggle it is for Sue to embrace orange!! It turns out she also has an aversion to bug stamps, even butterflies! Craziness. ;-) But she pulled off a great card anyway, well done girlie!Spicey Cat Chick (*smiling at that name again!*) played this week too, YAY! And her Fluffles is absolutely ADORABLE with all the yummy sparkles!! Love it!As always, Chris created a beauty for this week's challenge! That flower stamp she chose is really perfect to mimic the pattern in Sophie's cute little pants.And my favorite this week - this BEAUTY from Stacey!! Wowza! I just love how she created that torn flower, what a cool look - I'm going to have to give it a try sometime.Thanks ladies for playing along! And thanks to the rest of you for putting up with me. I have some new stamped goodies to post this week - and *DO* plan to be back with a From Courtney's Closet challenge this Thursday! Tune in for that (and play along!!). :-)

From Courtney's Closet #45 - Courtney's Playdate!

Hi Everyone! Welcome to another edition of From Courtney's Closet, where I make a card inspired by one of my daughter's outfits. Remember way back in April, I claimed I'd start doing a monthly playdate, where one of Courtney's best blogging buddies would come and visit and we'd all ooh and aah over the friend's cuteness and make a card inspired by the friend's outfit?!? Wellllllll... we are finally doing another playdate!! This month we are playing host to Katie Brooks' *adorable* little munchkin, Sophie!! Could she be any cuter?? And YAY, Mama Katie put her in blue for this challenge, which I love!! The first card is what I was inspired to make from Sophie's cute photo. I played with my new Unity stamp set called Floral Friends - it was a doorprize at the recent SCS shoebox swap I attended in Dallas! (the bonus of having stamping superstars in attendance - they gathered up an AWESOME table filled with goodies from lots of wonderful stamp companies!!) It's hard to read in the photo, but this flower's stem says "friends are the flowers in the garden of life" - so nice! :-) I'll be giving this card to one of my sweetest friends who's birthday happens to be today (we'll see if she reads my blog, hee hee!). I stamped extra copies of the flowers on scrap paper so I could cut out and pop up the flower and then the flower center. The very center has a little AMuse rhinestone, and the tiny background flowers have dots of Stardust Stickles in their centers. And next is the super duper adorable card that Katie made! Make sure and head over to her blog and let her know how much you love it!! I think she's waiting on me to post, and as usual I'm being a mega-late-slowpoke, but I'll update with her direct link once it's up! (Here's the link to Katie's gorgeous card!!) Thanks SO MUCH for playing along Katie, and for letting us be inspired by your beautiful little girl! The flowers on your card are soooo cool, I just love them!! And the bottom half of the card is such a perfect match to Sophie's outfit!If you're as inspired by Sophie's outfit as I was, please make sure and let me know with a comment on this post and a link to you, so I can come and see!!

Last week's challenge only inspired a few of you to play along, but the ones who did made such CUTE things!! Sue made an adorable tag that matched the pattern on Courtney's outfit so well! And I was soooo excited to have Spicey Cat Chick play along for the first time with a sweet card with an image I *love* of the House Mouses sniffing lilacs!! (and isn't Spicey Cat Chick the coolest name ever??!) :-) But, my favorite this past week was Chris!! As she often does, she blew me away with both her creativity and her computer whiz skills!! She took the photo of Courtney and made patterned paper out of it, which she then used on her cards!! So of course she had an EXACT match of the outfit!! Sooooo cool! She made several cards, make sure to check them out here! I love them all, but I'll say this was my favorite:So Chris, I'll send you my little "featured" button that you can display if you'd like, and thanks to all of you for playing along! And thanks to everyone else for stopping by today!!!

And now, if anyone is curious about my tardiness, I have to tell you about my fun day! First I had a dentist appointment in the morning, which no, I don't completely consider *fun*, but I do like having nice, clean teeth! :-) Then I went to a morning scrapbooking outing with my friend Brenda and some other really nice scrapbooking chickies, and then later in the afternoon I went on a quick little shopping excursion at Archivers with non other than my sweet stamping friend (and hero) Shannan!! And then Melissa also showed up!! Yay! So, today was fun. :-)

• Stamps: Floral Friends from Unity Stamp Company
• Paper: Ballet Blue, Bashful Blue, Stampin' Up DP (from SAB)
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder, SU Scallop Edge punch, AMuse rhinestones, Stardust Stickles, Chatterbox ribbon

From Courtney's Closet #38 - Courtney's Playdate!

I promised to have something special today, and here it is! I've decided to do a monthly *special edition* of From Courtney's Closet called Courtney's Playdate!! Each month one of Courtney's BSFs (that's Best Stampin' Friends in case you aren't hip to the lingo!) will come by and play dress-up with her! This month we have one of the sweetest baby girls in all of blogland - Little Miss Avery! I'm sure most of you followed along with Avery's birth and somewhat rough start on her mama Allison's blog, Stampin' When I Can. Avery quickly slipped into her role as Wild Jackal #3 in the Fillo household, and just like big brother Tristan and big sister Charlotte is doing her part to keep her mommy from getting any rest. Oh the joys of having a newborn!! But my goodness, isn't she just THE CUTEST!! Allison actually planted the seed for this post idea by sending me this photo and asking if I'd like to have a "guest blogger" - she thought this outfit might inspire super cute cards, and she was right! (she even sent the link to the outfit if you want to see an unobstructed view, but personally I'd rather look at the photo of Avery!) :-) The first card is what I came up with. Was I lying in the sneak peek when I said the colors were a bit funky?? My card has Perfect Plum, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss and Real Red. Yowsa!! I freehand cut out the tree and leaves. I picked a really funky sentiment to go with this funky card - my photo stinks (as usual) but it reads "I'm so lucky you are my friend". Allison created the second funkalicious card - check out her blog for all the details!! So what do you think?? Wanna play along?? If you find AVERY'S fun little outfit inspiring, make a card and post your link back here so we can find you! And, if you'd like to have your own sweetie join Courtney for a playdate, send me an email (stampinlibby at gmail dot com) and I'll put your name in the hat - I've decided the easiest way to do this is just draw a name each month. There's no way I want to "judge" which sweet child should be on here!! It can be a current photo, or an old photo if your child has grown - and I don't care what age as long as the outfit is cute! :-) I do have to add one "rule" - you can only be featured if you've PLAYED my challenge at one point or another!! So, if you've never played along before but you want your name in the hat, play along this week. :-) Or some future week. You get the idea. The 2nd Thursday of each month will be Courtney's Playdate.

I also mentioned there would be some general changes to this challenge. I've had some things happen recently that have inspired me to simplify my life a bit. Even though I love showing each and every card of the people who play along, it takes me FOREVER to summarize them - part of why I'm always so late with these posts! So, going forward - I'm only going to feature "my favorite" here on the blog. I'm also going to start using Mr. Linky, to make it easier for me to go directly to the entries (and make it easier for all of you to find them too!). Finally, instead of mailing a RAK to "my favorite", I'm going to have a little sidebar button you can add to your blog *if you want to* (no worries if you don't!) that says "I was featured on From Courtney's Closet". And if you are the featured stamper on a Courtney's Playdate, there will be a button that says "I played dress-up with Courtney". :-) So... less cool, I know. I don't blame you if you no longer want to play along, but I truly hope you will!!

Before I implemented these changes, five AWESOME ladies (and one fabulous young lady!) played along last week, so I will show ALL of those cards this week!! Here's how they were inspired by Courtney's little denim and bandana-themed Texas outfit!
First up is Anita and this soft and sweet butterfly card. The pattern in that DP is very similar to the bandana flowers! And you know I love those Swiss Dots in the background!!Next the fabulous young lady I mentioned, Anita's super-talented daughter Katie. I love her squares, and the gingham definitely goes with the Texas theme!Stacey made this gorgeous card - I just love that gorgeous bandana-inspired flower and the rhinestone in the center, as well as the punched card edge!Donna *created* this bandana paper herself - isn't that awesome! All of the white details were drawn in with white gel pen. Love it!!And my favorite this week - Chris! Her pocket card is just the coolest - it looks completely Texan! Yeehaw!!! Love that paisley background, too.Thanks ladies for playing along!! I just love seeing what you come up with every week!! And thanks the rest of you for stopping by today!

Now let's see if I can successfully figure out Mr. Linky...! ETA: I think I did it!! Woohoo!! :-)