Amy Jo's (that's me!) Birthday Bash & Blog Hop

Good morning my wonderful, beautiful, amazing friends!!!  In case you didn't know, today is my Birthday!!!  I have decided to host my first hop to celebrate today.  The hop is two days long so everyone will have time to go through the entire lineup.  There will not be new projects on the second day (unless noted on individual blogs), just a continuation of the hop so everyone has a chance to enter to win prizes... Prizes, you say?  Oh yes!  I have some wonderful sponsors for this hop!  Out of the kindness of their hearts, these ladies offered to sponsor and help celebrate my birthday!!! 

I am super duper excited for this because, as you all know by now, I live with Fibromyalgia (no, that's not a nickname for my hubby) ;).  LOL  -  I can't celebrate the way most people do, by going out & having drinks & things like I used to because I'm generally in too much pain and/or too tired to do anything.  So, I asked myself, what is it that I can do for my birthday and what would make me feel excited to celebrate it and here you have it! What better way than to spend the day with my friends online & to make new friends too?!!  And here we are!  That is why I entitled this Amy Jo's Birthday Bash and Blog Hop, because to me, it's both!  Just thought I'd mention (for those who don't know this about me) Amy Jo is just a nickname.  Long story as to why I have that particular nickname, but it stuck so now I use it because there are so many Amys out there, but not so many Amy Jos!  Makes it easier to find online. :)  The gals were all asked to create something using any pick from my list of favorites.  For example they could use the colors I love (black, white & pink -- could you tell?) ;), or my favorite theme -- Alice in Wonderland, or my favorite animal (frogs & others, fashion, etc.  This is going to be a very eclectic hop indeed! :0)

We have some fun prizes for this hop so I decided to make it a two day hop so everyone would get the chance to see everything as I mentioned above.  To be entered to win, you must be/become a follower of my blog and leave a comment.  I would also really love it if you would leave comments and become followers of my friends;  however, there are a lot of people in this hop so it's not going to be an actual requirement.  So to give you more incentive to finish out the hop, I will personally be offering a surprise blog candy package to one person who does comment on & follow the other blogs.  I will be choosing winners over the weekend so that gives you plenty of time to leave your comments!

Prize #1 -- $20.00 Gift Certificate to Scraptastical Kreations-- offered by Kristy 

Prize #2 -- Set of Martha Stewart Stamps -- offered by Angela Creative Craftin'

Prize #3 -- Gift Certificate to Creative Kuts -- offered by Cheryl

Prize #4 -- Set of gorgeous handmade corsage pins from Jessica's Craft Shaque -- offered by Jessica

Prize #4

Prize #5 - Crinkle Ribbon from 3 Girl Jam -- offered by Julie

Prize #6 -- Surprise blog candy package from me!

Of course I couldn't have a hop without posting a project so for today I have a birthday card that I created for a client.  His wife (my friend) just loves Hawaii so I thought this would be perfect for her!

Front View (Closed) -- used Recollections cardstock, white gelly pen for details, Cricut Expression (can't remember if this was an SVG or a Cricut cartridge), a Stampin' Up stamp for the greeting & rhinestones from Creative Charms.  The straw is made from a bamboo texture sample.

Closeup of the Flower

Card Open

Thank you all so very much for joining us today and celebrating my birthday!  I am honored that you took the time to stop by!  Now you're off to see what wonderful project Angela made today.

Here is the entire lineup in case you get lost or in case a link is not working.

Amy Jo:  http://lv2scrapandfibrofacts.blogspot.com -- that's me
Angela U. http://creativecraftin.blogspot.com -- next stop
Linda Simpson http://lindasimpsoncraftypieceofheaven.blogspot.com
Yolie http://www.justyolie.com
Liz- http://decadeofscrap.blogspot.com
Tina- http://craftyandgreen.blogspot.com
Gill - http://creationsbygillm.blogspot.com
Barbara B.  http://barbarab3.blogspot.com
Ashley - http://theglamoroussideofscrapping.blogspot.com
Liz - http://tryin2craft.blogspot.com
Dana-  http://danascraftycorner.blogspot.com/
Jamie - http://scrapqueen141.blogspot.com/
Creative Kuts - http://creativekuts.blogspot.com/
Lisa P - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/
Suzanne-http://cricutcraftingrammy.blogspot.com
Jessica - http://jessicascraftshaque.blogspot.com
Lisa - http://indymermaid.blogspot.com
Liz Mullen http://scrapiliciousLife.blogspot.com
Beckie - http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com
Julie  http://jk-littlebitofbling.blogspot.com
Jearise - http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com
Anita-  http://anitaandbugs.blogspot.com
Christina - http://flowersribbonsandpearls.blogspot.com
Naomi - www.scrapbookingforbeginners-naomi.blogspot.com
Anna -- http://stampanna.typepad.com
Heather -- http://blessed2cre8.blogspot.com