Happy Birthday to my Loonie Friend Wendy!

I want to send a big shout out to my friend Wendy Bond - HAPPY BIRTHDAY girlfriend!!

I met Wendy and several of her friends on the Stampin' Cruise in the fall of 2008 - what an amazing experience and what a LOT of fun these girls brought to our stamp class group. We had the BEST group of gals for classes.  :-)  In those days I knew nothing of blogging or challenges etc.  I soon discovered that Wendy is a Mojo Monday DT girl - YAY!  Anyhow - we have continued our "cyber" friendship since the cruise and it's been great to get to know Wendy and the collection of women affectionately called the Loonie Stampers. (I'm still not sure if that's relevant to the Canadian Loons or to their personalities *snort*)

So here's to you Wendy.... have a blast - enjoy the day and celebrate like there's no tomorrow. Wish I could be there to pour you a glass of wine to celebrate (or was it margaritas? No I think it martinis? Oh maybe it was the drink of the day!! ACK you know what I mean LOL) Couldn't pick a more appropriate stamp for you than the fun and flirty Bella we got on that memorable cruise....

A super simple layout but using one of my favorite techniques, paper piecing... with some delicious Basic Gray papers.

Now how's that for some WILD pants?? LOL But wicked fun eh?

And here's a little close up of the Bella girl....

That's all for today - thanks for stopping by and Wendy - truly girlfriend - have a WICKED birthday :-)

 Now hop on over to the rest of the girls who are also participating in our Birthday Blog Hop for Wendy (gee that sounds like a cause - anyone want to contribute?!?)

Dee Woodland
Regan D'Agostino  
Maria Fiscella  
Jewels Wells  
Charlene Austin  
Stephanie Day  
Dana White  
Karen Motz  
Pam Imholz  
Charmaine Ikach    
Jackie Pedro  

Hugs n smiles,

A Loonie Stamper Birthday (and Mojo Monday)

Happy Birthday Char!!! I am honored to have been asked (again) by the Lovely Loonie Ladies to help celebrate a birthday! This time for Charlene Austin - you may know her blog, Willow and Paisley (and if not get OVER there and check it out!)  Char, I understand your actual birthday was a couple of days ago but gosh - if it's not on a Friday then it can't be a Loonie Challenge :-)

So - here's to you, girl. I guess by now some of you have figured out that I just rediscovered my Stamping Bella stamps that I got on the cruise (and that I had forgotten how much I LOVE!) I pulled out the mini version of the "Content -to-be-a-Bella" (the big one was too big.) I would almost rename this one Chillaxin Bella!  I decided to work with this week's Mojo Monday challenge for my layout and I am loving the Basic Grey Lemonade DP (I refuse to give in to winter just yet LOL) so here's a colorful, girly card to help you celebrate - the real one is, as they say, in the mail! Hope this was one of your best birthdays EVAAAHHHH.  Muuuaaahhhhh! (Said in my best Bella voice LOL) The sentiment is Verve and the dots under the word come from one of my PTI sets. (LOVE those dots.) I decorated the inside too but forgot to photograph it (geeesh) and it IS in the mail. LOL

Be sure to get to all of the Loonie's blogs AND they will take you to the rest of the girls who are hoppin along to wish Char a fantabulous birthday.

The Loonies:

Dee
Jewels

Maria

Regan

Wendy

And friends of Loonies:

Ashley Newell

Sue Pardue

Char Cundy

Steph Day

Carly Robertson 

Dana White

Jessica Diedrich

Michelle Woerner

Nancy McKinney

Christie Ortman

Krissy

Ciao ladies - thanks, as always, for stopping by.

Just Us Girls Birthday Blog Hop!

Hi "JUGS" fans - today is a SPECIAL DAY! It's Kristin's birthday and Just Us Girls is having a Birthday Blog Hop in her honor.

If you are hopping along, you should have arrived here on my blog from Mona's blog. If you have arrived here without starting at the beginning of the hop, please pop on over to the Just Us Girls Challenge page and start the hop there. You will be directed to each DT member's blog in order - and you'll all be able to wish Kristin a very happy birthday.

Here's my birthday card for Kristin....

I used the Color Throwdown Challenge as my color inspiration. Fun colors, girls!

I also "loosely" used the latest Mojo Monday sketch as a starting place for layout inspiration.

I wanted to send Kristin some "relax girl!" sentiments so I'm using one of my favorite Stampin Bella stamps - the "Content-to-be-a-Bella". I paper pieced her pants and shirt - a wee bit o' copic coloring and some BIG birthday wishes for Kristin. Added a few pearls for pizzazz and a little embellishment.

Speaking of Kristin....did you know that EVERY PARTICIPANT in the JUGS 5 challenge gets a special gift this week - thanks to Kristin?!? If you have not yet played along with Challenge #5 on the Just Us Girls challenge site please stop by and play along. Be sure to scroll down to the Challenge #5 - (just below this post.)

NOW - be SURE to hop over to Tracey's blog and see what Tracey has cooked up for Kristin - you're almost to Kristin's blog - be sure to wish her a Happy Birthday when you arrive. :-) Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Just Us Girls Technique Challenge and BLOG CANDY!!!

Hi everybody! Boy am I super excited for today's post. It's a long one - sorry but I have so much to share. First off - do you want some BLOG CANDY??? Then stay tuned and read on...

Today we kick off WEEK 2 of the Just Us Girls Challenge. We bring you a technique challenge today and it is to make a card that includes Paper Piecing. See the Just Us Girls blog for links to tutorials if you're not sure how to do this. Since the Just Us Girls acronym (JUGS) was deemed to be "sort of" appropriate for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October (our inaugural month) it's also OPTIONAL to include the color pink on your card as well.

For my project I just HAD to break out one of my Bella (StampingBella) girly, girly stamps for this challenge (in honor of Just Us Girls) and I had to go with ALL pink. I will be giving this to a close friend who just started treatment for breast cancer.  :-(

First I stamped my image on cardstock and colored the parts that would not be pieced.  I then stamped the image again on my patterned paper and using very sharp scissors, I cut out the dress from patterned paper.

I adhered the pieced dress to my stamped and colored image.

Finally, I flipped this great sketch #136 from CPS and completed my card. My sentiment is also from StampingBella and was intended to help my friend keep up her amazingly positive attitude.

NOW for the Blog Candy - full deets are on the Just Us Girls blog but I will tell you that this week to KICK OFF the JUST US GIRLS challenge blog, we are giving away a $25.00 gift certificate to either Gina K Designs or PaperTrey Ink (winner's choice) to one lucky winner!  To enter you need to participate in our Week 2 challenge by creating a new card with the Paper Piecing technique, post it DIRECTLY to your blog or online gallery, then link it to the Mr. Linky on the Just Us Girls Challenge site. Deadline to post to Mr. Linky is Thursday, October 15, 9:00 PM EST. We will post the winner on the Just Us Girls blog on Friday along with our very special "top pick" stamper called our "Chic of the Week".  I really, really hope you will play along!

Finally - here's the list of "Just Us Girls" - check out all the sites for some fun and inspirational ideas!

Kristin - Mindless Creativity

Dana - Paper Daydream

Lisa - Kind Creations

Mona - Cupcakes Creations

Maria - Ria Creations

Tracey - Insert Creative Witty Blog Name Here
Alicia - Happy Stampin

Pam - Paper and Ribbons and Stamps! Oh My! (*tee hee* that's me!)

Thanks for stopping by - can't wait to see what you create!!!

Hugs n grins!

WCMD - Mexico

I was only able to make two cards for WCMD - the first one was for PTI's challenge for Japan - this one was to make a card that reflects Mexico. I pulled out one of my Stampin Bella stamps from our stampin cruise to MEXICO because I was all about warm, bright colors, tropical beaches.

PTI Summer Sunrise and Berry Sorbet with some SU! Green and Teal. A little bit of Cuttlebug, some copic coloring and a wee bit of glitter on the sun. Added some shimmery "coconuts" to the center of the tree and a couple of Primas for those "tropical flowers" we see all over Mexico.

Warm wishes seemed to be fitting with the theme - and I now have a card to send to one of my dear stampin friends in either Canada or Montana where they have already had SNOW!

Thanks for stopping by - stay warm (unless you are in Phoenix in which case - ENJOY!!)