Sweet Little One

I was looking through the file of card photos on my computer and realized I never posted this one!! At least, I don't think I did?? (I'll feel VERY foolish if I did!) I made this card for my sister, who's due to have her first baby girl in October. If you're keeping track, it's the second card I've made for her. So far. :-) This time I colored a super sweet Elzybells UK (ie BIG!) image which the mega talented, kind & generous Carole sent to me right after Courtney was born. Yup, that's right - I've had it in my stash for quite a while! A little ribbon, a few buttons, some stitching - there ya go, a sweet baby card! And I sure hope you haven't seen it before. :-) Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Baby Moon from Elzybells, sentiment from Stampin' Up
• Paper: Regal Rose, Bo Bunny DP
• Ink: Copic markers for coloring, Sakure Stardust gel pen on the stars (I think??)
• Accessories: Janome Sew Mini & white thread, American Crafts ribbon, SU ribbon, buttons, embroidery floss

Miracle & Wonder

I was able to sneak away to the stamp room for a little quiet time this afternoon, and this is what happened. :-) I wanted to make a card for my little sister - she's having a baby, and found out this week that's it's going to be a girl! Yay!! Courtney can't wait to have her first cousin close in age that she can play with!! :-) Laura isn't too into pink, she's more of a purple girl, so I decided she needed a purple teddy bear on her card! I told you a few cards ago that I was bummed I hadn't been able to play the last few Color Throwdown challenges - well here I am catching up on another one! This is from the previous week, Color Throwdown #44, and the colors were Bordering Blue, Elegant Eggplant and Barely Banana. I pretty much NEVER reach into my Bordering Blue drawer, so it was fun to give that paper a little love! The yellow is actually PTI, not Barely Banana - but close! This Stampin' Up teddy bear from "Bundle of Joy" is one of my all-time favorite baby stamps! For this card I stamped him in Black StazOn on Confetti White paper, and used the lids of my ink pads to color him with Bordering Blue, Eggplant and a little Pretty In Pink on the cheeks. I cut him out when I was done - and would you just look at what he's mounted on!!?! I SEWED IN A CIRCLE!! I was so proud of myself!! It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn good! LOL! The sentiment is one of my all-time faves too, it's from the Close To My Heart set "Celebrate Life" and I adore it, for one thing, because it's a Paul Simon lyric and I looooove me some Rhymin' Simon! And, I just think it's so fitting for a baby card - especially a first baby card - those truly are days of miracle and wonder! I'll never forget our first night home from the hospital with Carter, it's was like we were in our own magical world, trying to figure out the new little person in our house. I can't wait for my sister to experience that! Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Bundle of Joy from SU, Celebrate Life from CTMH
• Paper: Kraft, Confetti White, Bordering Blue, PTI DP
• Ink: Black StazOn, Palette Noir, Elegant Eggplant, Bordering Blue, Pretty in Pink
• Accessories: Janome Sew Mini, Cuttlebug & Swiss Dots folder, Marvy punches, SU slit punch, Eggplant grosgrain ribbon, aquapainter

Another In Case You Missed It Wee Tees!

Happy Tuesday everyone! I was looking through my files, and I don't think I ever shared this card here on the ol' blog! It's another one I made for Melanie to feature on her awesome blog when I was her Wee Tees guest designer last month. I paired Wee Tees with another one of my favorite Melanie sets for Gina K, Cuddles and Hugs. I just love that kitty image - it's one of the reasons I simply could not resist this set when it came out! (that, and the flamingos, and the lions, and...) :-) I thought this particular sentiment in Wee Tees was just too cute - so my idea was that the kitties are supposed to be like big brother and little sister.

Alrighty, I need to do a little more cleaning around the house and then head to the airport - my parents are coming in today for a visit! My dad (aka Papa!) will be here for a week, but my mom (aka Grammy!) is staying until July 7th! Woohoo! They live in Michigan and don't get to see their grandkids as much as any of us would like, so Carter and Courtney are so looking forward to this - Courtney doesn't say many words yet, but "Papa" is all she's been saying this week!

Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Wee Tees, Cuddles and Hugs from Gina K Designs
• Paper: Basic Gray, Regal Rose, GP White, AMuse DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Regal Rose, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Cuttlebug, embossing folder, Nesties, Janome Sew Mini & white thread, lace, grosgrain ribbon, heart brads

From Courtney's Closet #42 - An Anniversary Celebration!!

Hello and welcome to my From Courtney's Closet one year anniversary celebration!!!! One year ago last week I posted my first outfit-inspired card, not having any idea that I'd still be doing it a year later, or that several awesome ladies would feel inspired enough to play along, and in the process become some of my best blogging buddies!! I'm so happy that it's played out the way it has. That you enjoy this challenge. And that you put up with my often erratic posting schedule! :-) I had completely meant to post this last week, on the ACTUAL one year anniversary, but I suffered from some post-vacation loss of mojo, not to mention that even though it's very simple, this ended up taking me much longer to put together than I had anticipated!! But better late than never? I hope??

So let me get to the details - I cannot celebrate one year of this challenge without sharing some happiness with all of you!! As you know I've been Melanie's guest designer this month for her adorable Gina K set Wee Tees - a set that was absolutely MADE for me and my love of baby clothes!! I thought it would be fun to take a year's worth of Courtney photos and make a Wee Tee onesie decorated to match each photo! I found a little 4x6 photo album in the dollar spot at Target, which I will decorate and slide each of these pages into. I will show you once I've finished that last step - I just didn't want to wait any longer with what I *do* have done!! :-)

For this week's challenge - you are welcome to choose ANY of the twelve months as your inspiration!! Just mention in your post which month it is, in case it's not obvious (hee hee). I will put everyone who plays into a hat and randomly draw a winner - who will receive a Wee Tees set of your very own!!! (or if you've already rushed out to buy Wee Tees, then a different Gina K set of equal value) Sound good?? You are welcome to do more than one month, I will enter you as many times as you play along.

Wait, there's more!! I will have a second contest - some of the photos below have been featured in the past on From Courtney's Closet. Do you know how many of them?? SEND ME AN EMAIL (do not post your guess below!!!) to stampinlibby at gmail dot com, with FCCC GUESS as the subject (I'm setting up an email filter, so make sure and do this or I may miss your guess!!) and put your guess in the email, and I will draw a winner for a smaller RAK from me from all the correct entries!! (You don't have to say WHICH months, just guess a number!) :-)

As usual I will also say who made my "favorite" card, and that person will get my featured badge for their sidebar, if they want it!

So here we go... a year worth of Courtney... sorry this post is so long...!! :-)

1 Month - looking at her brother in awe. This cute outfit was from my sweet friend Leslie, and actually had owls all over it - but this teddy bear is just too cute so I couldn't resist using it instead!2 Months - my little Cupcake in her first of many cupcake outfits! I loved the lace "frosting" on this one!3 Months - for this onesie I drew the stripes with my markers and a ruler, and freehanded the little elephants.4 Months - again I drew the cherries, as I'm sure you can tell!! LOL!5 Months - sweet as a bug!6 Months - sitting on her own, I just love that big grin!!7 Months - enjoying the sun on a pier in Cape Cod. This flower is from the Stampin' Up ABC Images set, which has so many stamps that work well with Wee Tees!8 Months - in the pumpkin patch! Again I'm sure you can tell I drew that pumpkin! :-)9 Months - I tried drawing a monkey, but it was Not Good. :-) So I used Changito instead.10 Months - eating blackberries for the first time! I love her messy face, but I'm not thrilled that I had such an UGLY bib on her for this photo!! The baby food jar is also from ABC Images.11 Months - my sweet little snow bunny!!! The bunny stamp is from Inkadinkado.12 Months - HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY!! Again, cupcake from ABC Images.My plan is to also add some journaling about what happened each month in the empty space at the top right on each page.

So there you have it!! I hope you'll play along!! I'm actually going to leave this open for another TWO WEEKS - so you have until Wednesday June 3 at 9pm CST to play along!!

Happy Stamping!!! And truly, thanks for reading my blog!!! Please scroll down below Mr. Linky to see my favorite from the previous challenge!!

(I'M SORRY TO SAY MR. LINKY HAS DISABLED MY WIDGET DUE TO HIS SERVER OVERLOAD ISSUES - SO PLEASE DO IT THE OLD FASHIONED WAY AND INCLUDE YOUR LINK IN THE COMMENTS! THANKS!!)




And now... at looooong last... my favorite from Week 41, which was three weeks ago!! It was tough, all the cards were adorable, I debated for a while - but my favorite was this cutie from Katie Autore! It just made me smile when I looked at it, I just love that little monkey stuffing his face with that cupcake!! And since both "Cupcake" and "Little Monkey" are among the many, many nicknames I have for Courtney, I loved that too. And - the cherries that Katie punched out herself, such a cute addition to the card. Katie is a long-time FCCC player, and I'm always so thrilled when she joins! Her and mama Anita are the coolest mother-daughter blogging team I know, I sure hope Courtney and I are like that someday! :-) Katie send me an email if you want the "featured" badge and I'll send it to you asap! And thanks everyone for playing last time!

Another Wee Tees card...

Hi all, just wanted to let you know Melanie has another one of my cards on her blog today... go and check it out if you'd like!

In a funk...

I'm in a major mojo-less funk over here, and still have nothing new to show you!! I am so bummed because I'm completely late on my Courtney's Closet anniversary celebration! Waaah! Well after I post this, my plan is to head into the stamp room and CLEAN, because the disaster area I've created in there sucks out any mojo I can muster everytime I go in there! It's awful!! Then maybe once my space is clean, I'll feel like cranking out some handstamped goodness? Anyway - this is the card I made for Melanie to post on her blog last week. I pretty much cracked myself up as I made it. It's what I wish for all mom-to-be's, really - to have a nice BABY! hee hee And if anyone is at all interested, I've finished blogging all seven days of our San Diego vacation on my family blog, you can look at it here. :-) Thanks for stopping by today, I do hope I will come out of this funk SOON! I've only managed to create one new card in the last two weeks! EEEEK! What's wrong with me???

And another one...

Here's the last of the scheduled posts for this week, and it's another Wee Tees card! Can you tell I adore this set?? This time I felt like going very pretty and girlie. I forced myself to stop hoarding my pearls on this one and used a bunch! The little hanger is really made from wire - no, of course I didn't bend the wire to form that myself!! You give me way too much credit! ;-) I found those little gems at a friend's craft garage sale, I knew they'd come in handy sooner or later...

Thanks for stopping by today!

Rock On!

Even though I'm not posting a From Courtney's Closet challenge today, I thought I'd still post a card inspired by my baby girl! But, unfortunately I can't show you *how* this was inspired by my baby girl!! I had this entire cute post planned, where I'd make a little video to share - but of course Little Miss Thing would NOT cooperate when it came time to film. You see, Courtney has a favorite song that she completely *ROCKS OUT* to when it comes on in the car... "So What" by Pink!! You know... "so what, I'm still a ROCK STAR, I got my ROCK MOVES, and I don't need you..." She sits there grinning from ear to ear and head banging!! It's the cutest thing ever. Of course she got it from her big brother - she wants to do everything like her big brother! He loves that song too - we can't go anywhere anymore without him whining "I wanna hear the rock song!!". As a matter of fact, I can tell you that it takes precisely 4.5 times in a row listening to that song to get from our house to Carter's preschool...! So, I took my little video camera to the car. I put in the Pink CD. I pointed the camera at Courtney. And she just sat there, no smile, no movement, nothing. *sigh* So, you'll just have to believe me when I say that's what inspired this card. :-) The card of course uses Wee Tees, and the "U ROCK" is from Little Tees. And now I can't get that Pink song out of my head. :-) And, it only just now occurred to me that it would have made much more sense to make a card inspired by Pink actually be pink. Oops. :-)

Make sure and visit Melanie's blog today, she is featuring another one of my Wee Tees cards. And this particular one cracked me up as I was making it... I hope you like it... :-)

And a reminder - you still have another whole week to play last week's From Courtney's Closet challenge!! So get on it! :-)

Thanks for stopping by today!

In case ya missed it...

You may have already seen this card when Melanie posted it last week on her blog, as well as a little interview with me. But, I loved how this one turned out so I just had to post it here too!

This of course is using some cutie patootie little boy images from the Gina K Wee Tees set which Melanie designed. The sketch for this card was one of Jen's - it worked perfectly with these little images! Each image is cut out and raised up with dimensional tape, just to give the card a little more somethin'-somethin'. I used little letter beads strung on embroidery floss to spell out the sentiment. I for one am glad that Melanie has boys - I love finding stamp sets with really cute boy images!!

Make sure and tune in tomorrow - Melanie will be featuring another one of my cards, and I'll have a new one here as well! Yay!

Thanks for stopping by today. :-)

Sweet Wee Tees!

I've actually scheduled several posts for while I'm on vacation, can ya believe it?? This is very unlike me. Maybe I'll come home to a bunch of sweet comments in my inbox!?! Maybe?? :-)

Here's another card I made with the sweet little Wee Tees set from Gina K Designs. I have no idea why I just referred to this set as "little", it's anything but little - Melanie included 67 different stamps in it! Yowsa! I made this card to play along with this week's Mojo Monday challenge. Oh how I love a good sketch challenge!

Thanks for stopping by today. :-)

From Courtney's Closet #41 - an inspiration challenge

(Make sure and read to the end for a couple announcements...) Hello and welcome to this week's edition of From Courtney's Closet, my blog challenge where I make a card based on one of my daughter's outfits. If you're new to my blog, you can check out all of the past weeks here. So I have to admit - I really love this week's photo of Courtney! I took it this past weekend at a friend's birthday party. I knew I needed to get a photo of Courtney in this outfit asap, because silly me, I went and bought a white shirt again!! I *really* should know better. But really, how can I resist such cute tops? Especially when they go with such cute skirts?? And when they are only $3.50 at Walmart?!!?! But of course - we had spaghetti for dinner that night, and I didn't change her shirt beforehand, and now it's covered in tomato sauce stains. *sigh* But anyway, enough about that - let's talk about the card!! (but real quick, I also have to point out her pink Converse!!! How cute are they??) :-) As you may know if you saw this post, where I nearly hyperventilated because I was so excited, Melanie Muenchinger asked me to be one of the guest designers for her latest Gina K release, Wee Tees!!! I just loooove this set! And of course it's very *me*, since I'm obsessed with baby clothes!! Today Melanie's featuring another card I made with this set, as well as a little getting-to-know-me thing, so check it out. :-) One thing I discovered with her Little Tees set is that it's super fun to combine it with the Stampin' Up ABC Images set. Well, it's even more fun with Wee Tees!! There are so many little images in that set that are just perfect for a onesie!! For today's card I used the ice cream, adding a couple additional scoops of ice cream to match Courtney's shirt, and coating them with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Courtney's shirt says "Party Time", so I thought this sweet "Party at My Crib!" saying from Wee Tees was just perfect! I also used a new toy - I just picked up a couple sets of Cuttlebug border embossing folders, and used two of the folders on this card. So what do you think? Do you feel like making an ice cream card? Or perhaps finding inspiration from these fun, bright colors? If you do make a card, please link it up back here with the Mr. Linky thing below. Last week's safari outfit inspired some ADORABLE projects!! But I was absolutely thrilled to have a new name joining my little challenge - Cathy Tidwell!! She is such an amazing stamper, and of course created a real stunner for this challenge. I absolutely adore her card - the animals, the flower soft flowers, the tree she created from cloud stamps, everything!! Cat, I'll send you my sidebar blinkie, and would love it if you choose to display it on your blog!And now for a couple of housekeeping announcements - we're going on a family vacation next week, so I won't be posting a From Courtney's Closet challenge. So check back in TWO WEEKS for the next one. Which means you have two weeks to play this week!! No excuse not to join in! :-) And... in two weeks it will be the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of this little challenge! Of course I have to celebrate that just a bit - so make sure and tune in for that!! That would have normally been the "Courtney's Playdate" Thursday, but because it's our FCCC anniversary I'm going to skip it this month. Plus - nobody has emailed me yet saying they'd like to play along...!! *sniff* ;-) Alrighty - thanks so much for stopping by today, I need to get this posted and hit the hay!

• Stamps: Wee Tees from Gina K Designs, ABC Images from Stampin' Up
• Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Regal Rose, GP White, The Paper Studio DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds glitter, punches, CTMH rick-rack, Cuttlebug border embossing folders, Mike's ribbon

I *heart* Mommy

Tonight I decided to pair up the new Gina K Wee Tees set (which will be released on Thursday with six (6!!!) other new sets!!) with one of Melanie's other sets, Little Tees. One of the things I loved most about Little Tees was the "I *heart*" stamps - I've proclaimed my love for both cupcakes and Duran Duran with them on previous cards! :-) Well when I saw that Melanie included the word "Mommy" in Wee Tees, I knew I had to make a card saying "I *heart* Mommy". Wouldn't this be a sweet card for a mommy's first Mother's Day? Plus, what new mommy can resist getting at least one onesie that says someplace on it that the baby *hearts* her? I know I couldn't! For this card I turned to one of my favorite color combos that I use fairly often - Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue and red (in this case, PTI's Pure Poppy Bitty Dots DP). I got this card together and stared at it for the longest time - it was a little boring, it was missing something. So I decided to sew on it. I cannot tell you what a difference a little bit of stitching makes! It completely brings the card together and makes it pop. If you haven't tried sewing on cards, I truly recommend you give it a go. I just love the finished look it gives a card. Well it's late, and I still want to spend a little time with Edward and Bella tonight so I better go. Yes, I've finally succombed and am reading it - I always thought all these middle-aged women in love with a teenage vampire were a little whacked - but now I am becoming one of them!!! ;-) Thanks for stopping by, hopefully I'll see you back here again tomorrow. :-)

• Stamps: Wee Tees, Little Tees from Gina K Designs
• Paper: Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue, GP White, PTI Bitty Dots DP in Pure Poppy
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: Marvy scallop circle punch, SU slit punch, CTMH rickrack, Cuttlebug & heart folder, Janome Sew Mini & white thread

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!

Um. Can you tell I'm excited? :-) WELL I AM!! I got an email last month from one of my absolute favorite stamper/ blogger/ stamp-designer/ all-around creative genius chickadees, Melanie Muenchinger, asking if *I* would like to be a guest designer for her upcoming Gina K stamp release. I seriously had to reread the email about ten times before replying, to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding. Of course I said YES!!! Melanie knew I would love this set - her Little Tees set is one of my all-time faves, and I've wished outloud in her comment section on multiple occasions for a similar set with onesies. Wellllllll... guess what!!! She did it! (she, of course, was way ahead of me on that, see above about her being a CREATIVE GENIUS!) And it is soooooooooo cute, exactly as I pictured she'd do it! It's called Wee Tees (such a cute name!!) and tonight I had to share the image I love most in the set - THE PEANUT!!! When I was pregnant with my son, I called him Peanut. So I just looooove that she included that in this set! And you know me, I love to make cards inspired by photos of my babies... so in my typical obnoxious mommy fashion, I have to show you a photo of my own little Peanut in his peanut onesie. This was taken when he was about 3 months old, he's 3 years old now. :-) For this card I used Taylor's latest sketch. I did stop and think as I was making this that it might be slightly odd to have so much black on a baby card, but oh well - I like it! I added the safety pin for more of a baby feel. :-) Ok... I need to get this posted!! Make sure and check back throughout the week, I have soooo many more things I want to show you with this set! And make sure and check out the whole Gina K team as well for more peeks... Asela Hopkins, Carolyn King, Cindy Lawrence, Donna Baker, Emily Giovanni, Erika Martin, Gina Krupsky, Jessica Fick, Joanne Basile, Kurtis Amundson, Theresa Momber as well as Melanie's other guest designer, Laura Jean Nygard.The set will be part of Gina K's big release on Thursday!!! Yay!! Thanks for stopping by, and happy stamping!

• Stamps: Wee Tees from Gina K Designs
• Paper: Basic Black, Kraft, GP White, The Paper Studio DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Copic markers for coloring
• Accessories: SU circle punches, scallop edge punch, black grosgrain ribbon, safety pin