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Friday, January 13, 2012

My First Guest Design Spot

Hi there! I am so excited that Tina from Crafty and Green has been kind enough to have me as a Guest Designer!  This is my very first Guest Design spot!  I would love it if you would swing by her site to catch my post over there and leave a comment either here or there, or both, please!  We would love to hear from you.  I have sent her some bio info about myself that some of you may not be aware of so it might be fun for you to check that out and also she's having lots of super fun things going on right now on her blog.


I have listed my project in great detail here, and I warn you, it's quite a long explanation of actually creating the card.  If you skip through and just check out the pics, I won't mind. ;)


For today’s project, I have used Tina’s sketch and theme (music) for January as my inspiration.  I chose to do a card and yes, it will be up for sale in my store soon!  I have a few pictures here for you all to see the details.  The details on how I made the card are below…



1 Front of Card - Inside is Blank (for now)
2 Closeup of Bird Stamped on Chipboard and Crinkle Ribbon

3 Closeup of Sentiment, Punched Edge, and Popped Flower with Note
4Closeup of stamped background paper and popped flower

First off I cut a white piece of Recollections card stock down to 10”x7”, scoring it with my Martha Stewart Score Board to make the fold at 5”, making the finished card 5”x7”. 


Next I cut down a piece of polka dot patterned paper from my stash, rounded the corners with a corner rounder and inked the edges with a Colorbox Cat’s Eye – Dark Brown ink pad. I adhered it to the white card stock with my ATG.

After that, I cut down a piece of plain coordinating yellow paper and stamped the background with Stampin’ Up – Summer Sun ink, then again with Stampin’ Up More Mustard ink, using a stamp that I won as blog candy by Stampendous – Cling Music Score (again, sticking with our music theme here).  I punched one edge of that same paper with a Fiskars punch (which broke after I did that one edge and that is why both edges were not identical L) and finished by inking all the edges again with the Colorbox Ink. I actually liked the way it looked with only one edge punched.  It made it unique. J  Then, I adhered it to the patterned paper with my ATG. 


Next up, I fussy cut six flowers from that same paper line in my stash (it’s a generic brand) and cut out the center circles with an X-acto. I then used my 1” punch and cut out six more flowers with it to layer under the flower borders with the circles cut out so the yellow background would not show through and to add a little more texture.  I inked all my edges of the circles and the flowers and put them together by first running them through my Xyron and then layering -- 1.) 1” flower circle 2.) fussy cut flower border 3.) stamped the remaining flower circle centers with black pigment ink, a note stamp from Fiskars, and used Stickles, a Zig pen, and a white gelly roller to make them really defined 4.)  put a pop dot on the back of the note-stamped centers and went around the pop dot edges with my black Zig marker so if you look at the side it won’t be so noticeable – great trick btw ;), then added them up and to the side a little of the flowers that were already pasted down to create a bit of a shadow.  Notice the flower centers on the bottom layer are a different color than the pop dotted ones. 

The next step I did was to add a gorgeous piece of 3 Girls Jam ribbon in Goblin Green, which I had also won as blog candy!  I decided to leave it wrinkled and to make it stay that way I first put down a line of ATG adhesive, then kind of smooshed the ribbon on top of that.


To stick with the music theme I found this perfect little bird stamp (notice he’s singing) J from Inkadinkado, to go with my music notes.  I found a great chipboard embellishment from my stash and decided to ink him on to it by using StazOn ink.  Since the pattern still came through I wanted to color my bird in so I used Pearl Ranger Ink to color him in.  I then took my orange Zig marker to add some color to the beak and music note, and finished off by adding some more white detail with my white gelly roller.  I then glued down the embellishment with Tombow liquid adhesive and outlined around the embellishment with my black Zig pen to make it “pop”.

Finally, I added some Palette glue from a glue pad to the yellow part of the card and sprinkled all over with Holiday Glitter in blue that I also won as blog candy and then I added the cute sentiment which was from the same stamp set.

There you have it!  I’m sorry for the super long instructions, but as simple as this card looks, there were a lot of steps involved to create it!  


Thanks so much for joining us today and I really hope you’ll pop over to my personal blog to become a friend and follower.  Thanks again to Tinaeco-friendly.  She's the kind of gal I'm proud to call my friend!

XO ~ Amy Jo   

Monday, January 9, 2012

Challenge Me Monday #93 Man Time

Hello awesome friends!  I have a project for FCCB today, so generously sponsored by Boys Rule.  OMG, our sponsor was amazing!  So super generous!  Thank you so much to their awesome company for providing us with this great product.  Ladies, please check out their website.  They offer really amazing kits!  I will have a few more projects coming up for you, but here is the first.

I used papers from the October Big Boy Kit along with that awesome spinner sticker in the middle, which I added to 2 different "cupcake" layers from the Martha Stewart Crafts Birthday Cake Art to make it really pop.  I cut up the cool flag paper that was included and inked it to make a border.  Then I added a few separate flags to finish off the card.  I left it blank so whomever purchases it (it'll be for sale in my store soon) can make it whatever type of card they like, ie. congratulations, happy b-day, etc.

Thanks for joining me today and please join us at FCCB for our challenge this week and to check out the other creations by our awesome design team!

XO ~ Amy Jo

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Snow Days Blog Hop - Day 2 of 2



Welcome to the Snow Days Blog Hop!!  This is day two of two.  If you missed yesterday's post, please scroll down one post. :)

We're so happy you could join us for this super-fun hop showcasing cards, layouts and projects that feature everything about Snow Days!! You'll find an array of ideas throughout the hop -- We hope you'll enjoy each and every project along the way!!

If you'd like to join our Snow Days Fun, then you are in the right place. Keep alert for blog candy along the way as some hop stops will be offering some goodies...

For the hop today, I've created a cute winter card with a figure skating theme.  I have a friend who is a figure skater and every year I make her a card with a figure skate (which, by the way, are not that easy to find)! I have never been ice skating, but my friend says it's the most beautiful when you're out there on the ice and it starts to snow.  We have a gorgeous little rink downtown that is open to the public at night and it is like looking into an amazing snow-globe when it's dark out, snowing, the Christmas lights are everywhere and people are skating.  Such a gorgeous scene.  Anyways, about the card I made... LOL...  I used my Cricut (not sure which cartridge, but can look it up if anyone needs to know.)  For the background of the card I used some shiny blue paper from Recollections (Michaels), I used glossy snowflake paper from my stash, and the rest of the cardstock was from Recollections except for the mirrored silver for the blade.  I'm not sure where that came from, but I'm happy I had it on hand because I can't think of anything more perfect for the blade. :) I used my Spellbinders dies for the first time, however, I just did the cut, not the embossing because I hadn't figured it out at that time! LOL  I got it down now though. ;)  The cute Merry Christmas stamp is from Stampin' Up and I believe the snowflake stamp is too.  I used Staz-On ink for this because I stamped on the shiny blue paper and wanted to make sure it wouldn't smear.  I added a little hand-doodled flourish too.  The outside edges of the Spellbinders shapes were inked and then I added a cute little mitten charm with some silver floss.  There is a closeup below...  For the skate, I did a few layers on the Cricut and added some pop dots.  I then did some faux stitching with my Zig pen and outlined the cut parts with a metallic silver Creative Memories pen, which I think really made the skate look a lot more interesting.  I also added some flocking to the top of the skate to make it fuzzy.  It's hard to see here, but maybe you will see it better on the closeup below.  Last but not least, I added a silver/blue ribbon from Michael's.



 Here's a closeup of all the detail on the skate.  The top is fuzzy!
Isn't that the cutest little mitten charm?

Thank you again for checking out my project... Now hop on over to Mickie!

Here's a list of the entire hop, in case you get lost along the way or want to revisit anyone:

Lisa P - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/ You are here!!!
Bonnie - http://scrap-n-away.blogspot.com/ You go here next!!!
Sherry -http://www.upordowntheyrebeautiful.blogspot.com/
Doris - http://mybugandmecreate.blogspot.com/
Theresa D: http://scrappinginheels.blogspot.com/
Beckie http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com/
Erin - http://deeplyrootedlife.blogspot.com/
Amy - http://www.lovetocrop.com/
Eva - http://evasscrapsncards.blogspot.com/
Cathie-http://cathiescafe/-scraphappy.blogspot.com/
Ashley - http://especiallymade.blogspot.com/
Lisa G - http://www.bljgraves.blogspot.com/
Melissa - http://timeweavers.wordpress.com/
Kristen - http://fantabulouslypink.blogspot.com/
Theresa - http://scrappyartcrafters.blogspot.com/
anita- http://www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com/
Lynne - http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/
Barbara B. http://barbarab3.blogspot.com/
Amy Jo - http://lv2scrapandfibrofacts.blogspot.com/
Mickie - http://www.littlescrapcorner.blogspot.com/
Janet Royer- http://janetscreativieworld.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by!  So happy you joined our hop. :)

Friday, January 6, 2012

Snow Days Blog Hop - Day 1 of 2



Welcome to the Snow Days Blog Hop!!  This is day one of two.

We're so happy you could join us for this super-fun hop showcasing cards, layouts and projects that feature everything about Snow Days!! You'll find an array of ideas throughout the hop -- We hope you'll enjoy each and every project along the way!!

If you'd like to join our Snow Days Fun, then you are in the right place. Keep alert for blog candy along the way as some hop stops will be offering some goodies...

For the hop today, I've created a cute winter card with a snowman theme.  I apologize for all the pics, but in order to show off everything properly I have to take pics both with and without the flash.  One of these days I'll get a light box built and won't have this problem.  Thanks for bearing with me. :0)  This was a super simple card to create, but it turned out to be one of my faves this season.  The papers are from Basic Grey - Jovial Collection (I believe) and the cute little snowman and sentiment are clear embellishments from Deja Views.  I just love them! Hope you do too. :)

 I just love these papers together (notice the one on the left is actually a snowflake pattern) and they coordinate so well with the Deja Views!
 With a flash to see the paper colors a bit better, but then of course the vellum tape shows too ;)  I used pop dots on the snowman.

Sorry so blurry here!  I inked all my edges as usual with Colorbox Cat's Eye inks.

Thank you again for checking out my project... Now hop on over to Mickie!

Here's a list of the entire hop, in case you get lost along the way or want to revisit anyone:

Lisa P - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/ You are here!!!
Bonnie - http://scrap-n-away.blogspot.com/ You go here next!!!
Sherry -http://www.upordowntheyrebeautiful.blogspot.com/
Doris - http://mybugandmecreate.blogspot.com/
Theresa D: http://scrappinginheels.blogspot.com/
Beckie http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com/
Erin - http://deeplyrootedlife.blogspot.com/
Amy - http://www.lovetocrop.com/
Eva - http://evasscrapsncards.blogspot.com/
Cathie-http://cathiescafe/-scraphappy.blogspot.com/
Ashley - http://especiallymade.blogspot.com/
Lisa G - http://www.bljgraves.blogspot.com/
Melissa - http://timeweavers.wordpress.com/
Kristen - http://fantabulouslypink.blogspot.com/
Theresa - http://scrappyartcrafters.blogspot.com/
anita- http://www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com/
Lynne - http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/
Barbara B. http://barbarab3.blogspot.com/
Amy Jo - http://lv2scrapandfibrofacts.blogspot.com/
Mickie - http://www.littlescrapcorner.blogspot.com/
Janet Royer- http://janetscreativieworld.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by, please come back tomorrow for another great project!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Blog Candy Winners - Lots of Hops!!!

Winners!  Winners!  Winners!

Good morning ladies!  So sorry for the delay in my posting, but I have a bunch of blog candy that must be given away to it's rightful owners!  Let's just hope that is you!  To all of my winners, please read all the way down to the bottom of the post for directions on claiming your prize!

My PhotoFor today let's start with the winner of the "A Toast to Life" blog hop.  I'm sorry I didn't get to post my 2nd project as I had wished, I never did get to feeling well enough to complete it.  The winner of this hop is...  Ashley Nicole!  Ashley Nicole said...  I really like this LO. Love the colors. Your dogs are beautiful.


Thanks Ashely, and congrats!  You win your choice of My Memories software or a surprise goody bag!  Please shoot me an email with your choice to amyjrockstar at gmail dot com.  (Use email format.)




Next up is the 500 follower giveaway!!!  I have a lucky winner for you and it happens to be... Cathy!

Cathy said...


Good morning, follower here. I understand the struggle of day to day, my husband has a very aggressive form of M.S. Crafting beside him daily with my Cricut is my great joy, my happy place.
mexicopetshop at hotmail dot com
cathyplus5.blogspot.com
Cricut Markers Primary (pictured) & Basic Set (not pictured)
Well, Cathy, I couldn't think of a more deserving winner.  Since you have a Cricut, you will be receiving some awesome Cricut Markers (two sets in fact) and a whole bunch of other fun goodies I've purchased just to giveaway!  I hope you enjoy!  

My Photo Next up we have the "Christmas Card Blog Hop"... The lucky winner of some surprise scrapping goodies is...  Girlia!girlia said...

cute.



Congrats Girlia! You have won some scrapping goodies! 



P.S. LADIES - The first winner that was picked for this candy, was not a follower of my blog!  I would have given it to her anyways, but I want to be fair to my followers who show me so much love and support so remember, if you want to win candy from me in the future, just click the little button. ;)  

Alright, next up on the list is the "13 Days of Halloween Hop".  Our lucky winner here is one of my sweetest followers, Leanne!!!

  Leanne said...

A lovely Halloween project. Love the spider.
Congrats Leanne!  You have won some surprise scrapping goodies from me!
Now, I told you I was behind!!!  So sorry ladies for my lateness in getting all this done. I do hope you will agree with me with my "late is better than never" philosophy.  I believe that when getting a present, it doesn't matter when you get it, as long as you get it! LOL  I never want to let my followers down and want you all to know that if I say I will be giving blog candy, I will be giving blog candy.  It just might take me a while to get my ducks in a row. :0) 
Next up we have the "Fall/Halloween Blog Hop".  The winner of a surprise bag of scrappin goodies is...JoyDee 1963!  joydee1963 said...

Very cute fall card,I am a follower.joydee1963 at yahoo dot com

Congrats to you, JoyDee!


Alright fellow scrappers and crafters... looks like that's finally it!  For the ladies that won prizes I need you to contact me at amyjrockstar at gmail dot com (convert address to standard email format) and tell me which hop you won and give me your address please.  If you do not live in the US, we will figure something out! :)  Also, I was just going through my old files and I realized I have some RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness) that I still owe some people so I will be working on that this week as well.  If you have won something from me in the past and have not received it, please do not hesitate to send me an email.  It's hard to keep track of sometimes and I don't want to accidentally forget anyone!  Never, ever feel bad about asking!  I appreciate reminders in fact.  :)

Thank you all for stopping by today.  I hope this will be a great start of the New Year to my lucky winners and to all of my friends and followers.  I have a lot in store this month so please check back often!  Also, I'm adding some new things to my online shop and will let you know as soon as I get those posted. 

XO ~ Amy Jo





Monday, January 2, 2012

A Toast to Life Blog Hop - January 2nd - One Day Only




Hello my wonderful friends and family,

I have so many wonderful things to be thankful for and that is why I chose to be in this awesome hop.  Unfortunately my health isn't wanting to cooperate with my mind so my project is not the one I was hoping to make.  I do have one to show you, but please do come back when you have a free moment as I'm hoping I'll have a second project up by around 2:00 PM, after lunchtime.

Liz of Decade of Scrap is the awesome lady who decided to put on this hop!  You definitely need to go see her first if you just happened upon my blog today.  If you arrived here from Barbara from Craftin' but with Barbara then you are in the right spot.  Doesn't she have the cutest blog?  Love her work!  We also have an awesome sponsor; Kristy, of Scraptastical Kreations.  Kristy is offering up a $20 gift certificate to her store!!  I'm sure there will be other blog candy along the way so you won't want to miss this hop!  Go by and tell Kristy thanks too.  I'm sure she'd love that. ;)

I wanted to share with you something that I am very thankful for.  Now, I know this may seem a little unconventional for A Toast to Life, but these guys are what really keep me going.. They make sure I get out of bed each day, no matter how sick I am, because they need me.  I am responsible for taking care of them and they know that when I don't feel well, I'm still gonna do what it takes.  They help me keep my life on track, which is hard to do when you have a chronic illness.  So they are one of the things that I'm toasting to this year...  Yes, it's my dogs!  Well, pictured here are only two of them, but I actually have three.  These two in particular though, are great with my illness.  I often have a lot of pain during day and need to sleep through it and they do a great job of helping me out with that. ;)  Right by my side or more likely, right on me, they lay, to make sure that I know I'm not alone.  They are such loves and give my life so much more meaning than it would have without them.

About the project:  This is my very first digital scrapbooking page,which I used with my new software from My Memories!  You'll notice I have a code for this at the top of my blog to give you $10 off, however, one lucky commenter will have the choice to win this software for FREE or a different blog candy surprise if they already have the software. :)  All it takes is a comment and you must be a follower of my blog!  I will be doing a formal review of the software later this week.  So far, I'm LOVING it!  It was so easy to add all these cute little elements like the stitching, the ribbon, the flower and the words that I put over the ribbon.  I just love how this turned out!

BTW, my dogs are Lexi (fawn colored purebred Pitbull).  She was born on Christmas as was Moku, my mini-pig that I used to have, I'm sure some of your remember that story. ;)  Two pets born on Christmas one year apart.  Odd?  I think so. ;)  Next is Oso (black and white) whom I rescued the night before he was due to be put down at the shelter!!!  Can you believe it?  I rescued him and they weren't allowed to tell us that til after we decided to get him...  When we came out saying we wanted him the whole staff started clapping and many of the ladies started crying.  I asked, is that normal?  They said no... Reason was, was that  Oso (being a Pitbull/Sharpei mix) had been there for a month and he was due to be put down the very next morning and we had gotten him right before closing!  I am so glad we got him.  He is the best dog that I have ever had, hands down.  He was an owner relinquish and the sad thing was, they said all these horrible things about him, and none of them were true.  He is my big bear.  I love all my dogs, but his story is very special to my heart.  He's the black and white one and we got him first.  We decided to get Lexi cause he seemed bored after about a year.  Then we ended up with a little min-pin and well, she's just for me. :)  - Oh, yeah, and the Hubs... Sometimes he won't let me have her and claims she is his dog.  Funny how that works, isn't it? ;)  Men and their tiny little dogs... LOL!  So here's one of the things I'm toasting to this year, my three fur-babies.  Thanks for letting me share with you. :)




You have reached the last stop in the hop, but I would love it if you take a second to come back later because I'm hoping to have another project up. So I will offer a little extra chance for you to win blog candy.  Come back after my second project, leave another comment, and you will get a second entry!  Don't forget, you must be a follower of my blog!

Thanks all and Happy New Year!  See you back here soon!

XO ~ Amy Jo

Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year's Updates

Happy New Year's everyone!!!  I hope you all had a fantastic holiday and are as ready as I am to get back into crafting full-on!  I am so excited about the year ahead, as far as crafting goes anyway. ;)  I am part of two (soon to be three - but it's a secret as of yet) wonderful design teams including coordinating for Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog (FCCB) and using paper piecing patterns created by the awesome Nikki of Paper Piecings by Nikki. I am blessed to have the nicest, most caring teammates ever on both teams!  I am a lucky girl. ;) I will get you info to sign up for our fanpage  soon.  That's where most of our (Nikki's) action takes place.

If you haven't noticed yet, take a look at the right side of my side-bar and check out the awesome blog hops I'm participating in this month!  I have several scheduled for the rest of the year and will be adding the buttons as I get them from the coordinators.  I am also hosting my VERY 1ST BLOG HOP on my birthday February 28th!  I already have about 35 people or so signed up for this one and a few awesome sponsors, but I am in need of some more sponsors and I will allow anyone in, who wants to be in.  Leave me a comment with your email and Facebook name (if you have one) so I can add you to the group. :)  I am also in need of someone to create a blog hop button for me.  I would love it to incorporate black, white, and hot pink as those are my colors. ;)  Some balloons or something would be nice to.  It's to be called Amy Jo's Birthday Bash & Blog Hop.  For more info, leave a comment. :0)

Next up, I will be drawing the winner of my 500 followers blog candy!  Yep!  It's definitely that time...  Don't cha think?  Also, (very embarrassingly) I have hops that I haven't drawn the winners for all the way back from OCTOBER!!! OMG,  there are going to be some very surprised ladies when I do those drawings.  I am hoping to have that post up with all the winners to all the hops on Wednesday the 3rd so please come back for that!  I will be in a hop on Tuesday so I don't want to do it then and have it interfere.

I have a lot more to share with you all, but I will do it in bits and pieces so as not to bore you to death in one post. ;)  Thanks to each and every one of you for making this past year so great for me... for your kind words, thoughts and prayers... for your kind comments and for following my blog and keeping me going.  I appreciate and love you all.  I wish you nothing but happiness and the best life you can live this next year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S FRIENDS!  Muah!

XOXO ~ Amy Jo