Bella?? What's a Bella?

When was it ... 18 months ago? ... I think just about every card I made had a Bella on it!! So, I felt positively old school when I made this card for a friend at work who just had a baby! And, I used a SU background stamp!! Simple stripes hasn't seen ink since I don't know when!! Very straight forward design, but pleasing all the same! By the way - that isn't a booger on her head ... it's an A Muse twinkle sticker! I am somewhat photo challenged, and I always get a strange shadow when I use one little twinkle sticker! I think I need to change my angle! Oh, and I learned something else from this card ... if you let Staz On ink sit for like a year, you can color it with Copics without it bleeding!! The Bella image was stamped for me by a friend last year, and I am just now using it! Amazing! Just a bit of advice for you long term stampers out there!!

Details: Stamps by Stamping Bella & A Muse & SU, paper by SU and Basic Grey, Brads and Ribbon by SU.

Do you LOVE A Muse??

Do you love all things A Muse (like ME!)?? Check out the new A Muse Addicts Message Board - see that pretty purple button on the left side of my blog?? Click there, or here - you know you want to!!

Geeta, Rhonda, Michelle and Jennie have done such an amazing job putting together this new site where we can all go to chat about A Muse, have fun challenges, swaps, RAKs, etc, etc!! Go show 'em the love!! I'll see you there!

Lily the Ladybug turns 1!!

Well, I am a bit delayed in getting this posted, but I wanted to share some cute pictures from my daughter's first birthday party! I can't really believe that she is one already!! And, since she is the end of the line, it's crazy to think that this is the last first birthday party that I will have!! Really, I'm okay with it - it's just crazy to think about!! We had a great party - good friends, good food, good times!!


Here is the Little Princess with her Daddy!







Our Lady Bug cupcakes!! These are a the reason that you should NEVER stop at page 1 on a google search! I think I found these on page 4! You can learn to make them, too at The Whimsical Bakehouse! They were incredibly easy! The party was at 3:00, and I started decorating these at 1:30 (the cupcakes themselves I had baked the night before!)!!












Lily with her new bling!! Lily received this beautiful bracelet with her name and birthday on it from Auntie Sarah & Auntie Aura!! She loves it!!
















And of course, some obligatory cake-in-the-face pictures!! Lily really enjoyed her cupcake - she ate it ALL!! Thanks for letting me share some pics of my cutie-patootie! I promise some actual STAMPED things soon!! Take care!

Our family is growing!!

Oh no - not that way!! My uterus is DONE - D-O-N-E - DONE!!

I completely lost my mind and said OK to a new puppy!! He is a 10 week old boxer, to join our 7 year old boxer, Zena! We finally decided on a name - Diesel! I swear it was harder and more heated than naming our kids!! The kids were really rallying for Mater (like the tow truck in the Cars movie), but I just couldn't do it! We are a bit of a car family (my husband is an auto technician and drives a race car), so Diesel fits! The puppy is really quite cute, and pretty well behaved! All I can say is that it is a good thing that we were planning on replacing all of our carpet soon, anyway!! So , here he is: At the vet yesterday, he weighed 9 pounds! It's crazy to think that in 6 months he could be 75 pounds!!
Here's Henry (10) and Parker (3) with Diesel! When Henry is reading on the couch, the puppy loves to curl up on his lap and sleep!! It warms the heart to see a boy with his dog!!

Thanks for looking! I promise to post something stamping related soon!!

My friends are the flowers of my life!!

I am so blessed with amazing friends! I never had a sister, but now I am so blessed by some amazing girlfriends that would do anything and everything for me!! Thank goodness for girlfriends!! Where would we be without them??

Details: Stamps, notecard, ribbon by A Muse, green CS from my stash, colored with Copic markers.

Not so Valentine-y after all!!

I love these new stamps from A Muse!! I could see using this image for some great cards for little boys - congrats for a job well done, good grades, etc - even birthday cards! I sometimes struggle with "guy" cards - so I'm sure this image will get a LOT of use!! At the same time, this image still rocks for a girl, too!!

Details: Stamps, note card, twinkle stickers by A Muse, punches by Marvy, red CS and ribbon from my stash!

My first spinner card ...

"You spin me right round, baby, right round, like a ... something, something" Don't you just hate it when you get a song stuck in your head and can't remember all the words! I would never do very well on any of those new lyric game shows!! My husband, on the other hand, can't remember what I told him I need at the store, but can remember the lyrics to just about every song played on country radio (yes, I married myself a country boy) for the past 10 years!

Anyhoo ... this was my first attempt at a Spinner card - there is a tutorial at SCS here - I probably should have looked at that before I made this! (and now I look at it and they call this a suspension card instead of a spinner card and that just totally blows the song that played in my head the whole time I was making this!!) I think I need a bit more fishing line to make it spin a bit better, but it's not too bad for my first attempt! There was mucho punching and coluzzing going on here - the middle piece is 1 3/8 inches, then the "hole" is 1 7/8 inches. The pink is the Mega circle - punched around a 1 7/8 inch circle, then the blue is a Giga scallop punched around a 1 7/8 circle. The black layer is a twice coluzzled circle to make a frame. I lined the inside of the card with more blue paper just to tie things together and the make the white spinner pop!!

Here is the back side of the spinner with a cute twinkle sticker in the center of the flower!! The flower is colored with my French Blue (i think?) Copic. One of the things that I love about the Copics is how true the color is, even on colored paper! I debated putting ribbon around both sides, but decided it might be too much. Whadda-ya-think??

Details: Stamps, notecard by A Muse, Coluzzle, Punches by Marvy and EK Success, black, pink and blue CS from my stash!

Lovin' the new Valentine's Day Stamps!

A few months ago, SCS had a tutorial on this cute Triangle Trifold - it is so quick and easy, and just the perfect size for A Muse stamps!! I also am just loving how most of the new Valentine's Day stamps can so easily be used for other occasions. Here is the card closed - FYI - leave your ribbon a bit on the long side, or it is pretty darn hard to re-tie the card!! The octopus is pretty sparkly IRL! I used my clear Spica Glitter pen all over this baby!

Here's the open shot - I used not quite one whole A Muse notecard for the front and the inside.

Details: Stamps, notecard & Twinkle Stickers by A Muse, punches by Marvy, green CS from my stash, ribbon by May Arts.

I NEED HELP!!!

I'm just going to put this out there for someone, anyone to help me! I need help with my blog! I really, really, really want it to look good, and I am willing to spend some $$$ to make it happen. Does anyone know anyone good to help with blog design?? Specifically, I would like a new banner that looks like a moderately creative person lives here!! I am not really computer-inclined, but I would be open to trying it myself (maybe using digi-scrapping stuff) if anyone has any resources for how-tos!! So, thanks in advance for any and all help!!