Yay! Happy Birthday to Me I'm on A DT!!!

Hi there!

Amanda, you guessed it first... I was chosen to be on a Design Team for the wonderful Robin at Fantabulous Cricut!!!  I've known for at least a month or two and boy was it hard to keep that a secret.  ;)  I am so incredibly honored and excited for this amazing opportunity.  I think this is every scrapbook bloggers dream and I still can't believe that Robin actually picked me!  Thanks to Robin and all my wonderful followers.  I've noticed some new ones today so thanks for joining and I've got lots of fun stuff in store for you all!  Please check out the wonderful team I'll be working with for the next few months over at Fantabulous Cricut.  It's an awesome site and there are always awesome challenges and fun things going on over there.  This is my first time ever to be on a team like this and I can't wait to get started!  Wish me luck!

XO ~ Amy Jo

P.S.  ~ Amanda shoot me an email at amyjrockstar at gmail dot com and I'll get your candy (RAK) out to ya!

Birthday and a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT to come!!!

Good evening you beautiful, talented people, you! ;)  My birthday (32) is tomorrow and I have some HUGE news to share with you all, so please be sure to stop on over tomorrow.  It's so exciting and I'll give you a clue... a scrapbooker's dream is coming true!!!  If you guess what it is before I get my post up, the first person to guess correctly will win some candy!  Friends who already know, don't spoil it please.

XO ~ Amy Jo

Sleep well and wonderful wishes for your Monday. 

Just Yolie

Hi Yolie,

I sent you an email, but your form said something about it not going through so please send me an email at amyjrockstar at gmail dot com.

XO ~ Amy Jo

Valentine's Cards 2011

Hi all my wonderful friends and followers!  I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything scrappy.  I have a million posts to do, but for today, I am posting some of the Valentine's cards that I made.  The first set that I will post is from a kit that I bought at http://www.shopcapture.com/.  Hit them up on FB as they may have some kits left!  I am not going into detail as to what all supplies were used, but please, if you have any questions, leave me a comment and I will do my best to answer them!  I know some of you like to know the supplies so you can recreate them, as do I, but I'm really sore, so can't type them all out right now.  Without further ado, here are the first four cards.  BTW, if you are interested in purchasing any of these from me (for next year or whatever occasion you want), I still have some for sale.  I am asking $5.00 each for these particular ones, unless you want more than one or two, then you get a pretty good discount, depending on the quantity!  Let me know if you are interested and refer your friends please!  I need to start covering the cost of this highly expensive addiction, errr... hobby.  Yeah, hobby. ;)  Without further ado, here are the cards...

3 Hearts

Detail Closeup of 3 Hearts

Be Mine with Polka Dot Tulle

Closeup of Be Mine

Love you with Lace

Happy V-Day with Feathers



This is by far one of my all-time favorite kits.  Of course, I added my own touch to all of them, but did stick with the designs as they were shown in the kit, mostly.  I love the way they turned out and this is how I want my new crafting room to look!  These will be the colors and I get to start on it as soon as we get our tax returns!  Yay!  It will be a great birthday present for me as well, to have my own room to decorate how I want.  I turn 32 on the 28th of this month! ;0)  I think I have one or two of these cards left for sale, but can duplicate if more are wanted!

Please come back real soon as I will have tons more to post!  Next up will either be my latest haul, blog candy I've won, or more Valentine's.  Surprise, surprise! ;) LOL

Thank you all for hanging out with me a little bit this evening and I hope you have a craftabulous day tomorrow!  I certainly plan on it!

XO ~ Amy Jo
amyjrockstar at gmail dot com

Sleeping Through It All

Hello wonderful friends,

I have so many beautiful things to post and first of all, before I get too far, I really want to thank Kristal for putting on the Cricky Across the 50 Hop.  I realize that's old news almost, but for me it's still fresh in my mind because that was the first hop I've ever had the pleasure of participating in.  She's an amazing gal and put in a LOT of hard work to get that all pulled together for us!  I don't know how she got it all done and organized.  There were 38 participants!!!  I was also one of the lucky ones!  I won a Scrap N Tote off of her blog http://www.gettingcricky.com/.  Also thanks to the awesome sponsor of my prize http://www.cricutcartridgestorage.com/.  I won it in pink!!!  If you happen to go to their site and make a purchase, please mention my name and my blog info as they give credit for that if you do and I would greatly appreciate that!!!  It's definitely the time to check it out as I believe they are having a sale on these!!!

I have also won many, many things that I need to post, but tonight's blog post is about what's been going on with my fibro so scrapbook posting is on hold for a day or two.  Sorry to keep you all hanging!  It's been really rough going over here.  I'm not writing this for a pity party, but I want to share with you all a little bit of a glimpse into my life with fibro.  Hopefully I can help someone out there reading this.

For a while now, I've been experiencing overwhelming fatigue.  It's bad enough to make me sleep almost all day every day.  I have switched medications and I'm not sure if that's what's going on or if my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is really just kicking in on top of the fibro or it could be possible Shingles on top of everything else (which does cause extreme fatigue as well - going in to get diagnostics done soon).  Either way, it's pretty rotten.  A typical day for me lately goes like this... I wake up between 7 and 9 in the morning in the worst pain you can imagine.  Then I take a pill and wait 45 minutes and take some more pills and pray that they will kick in.  In the meantime I either call a friend, get online, or watch TV or read a bit because there's no way I'm falling back to sleep in that much pain.  I have changed to the Fentanyl patch, btw, which is 100 times more strong than Morphine!  Well, for me, it's not doing much.  I think I was better off on my Opana which I'll explain in a later post in a Q & A format.  Anyways, then I'm usually up for a few good hours and try to get as much as I possibly can done like either posting, scrapping, email, etc. not to mention taking care of the pets and making sure I've got coffee to help keep me from pulling my hair out. :p LOL  Coffee is a must for me!

So some days I get a couple of hours in before the fatigue hits and some days I get more.  This past week it has been next to no time at all before I get so fatigued that I sleep on and off all day and all night without being able to do anything that requires me to get out of bed.  It's horrible and I am the type of person who really likes to do a lot.  I feel like a complete slug when I'm not multitasking on 5 things at once so this is like torture for me to not only have the severe pain, but to be too tired to even function.  I have had to cancel every event and meetup I've had set up.  Had to quit my very part time job at the scrapbooking store and have stepped down from my meet up group (as organizer).  I think I'm on the right track though.  I haven't quit all that just because I'm tired.  I quit it all so I can focus on what I really want to do when I have energy to spare and that is to continue building my little card business and expand it as well.  I also plan on doing more with the blog and really focus on those two things.  When you are this sick, it's impossible to focus on anything so I figured, rather than spreading myself so thin with all these other things I've got going on, I'm going to save every last bit of energy to be able to do the things I really love.  I have major goals that I want to achieve with my card making and scrapbooking and this blog and the only way I can do that is by sticking with strictly working on these things when I feel well.  I am hoping that will be soon because I have a million ideas running around in my head all the time of things to accomplish and things to create!  I write them all down now so I won't forget them.  I have been told over and over by my friends and family that I am too hard on myself and I'm trying really hard to accept that and realize that if my body insists I need to sleep, then I need to sleep.  Yes, it's boring and I feel like I'm wasting space and life, but for some reason, my body is insisting that I listen so I am.  I really hope all of you hang in there with me through this.  A lot of people don't understand how to help people with an illness because it's hard for them to hear about it and they don't know what to say.  I can tell you (being on this end) we don't want someone to come along and try to fix it all.  We just sometimes need to vent and we need some leniency.  If people get mad easily if plans are cancelled then they probably won't like being friends with me because I can feel ok up until five minutes til I'm supposed to go somewhere and suddenly, right before it's time to go, I get consumed by so much pain that I can't even move and have to cancel at the last second. Or if it's not the pain, it's the fatigue or the dizzyness or nausea. (They say fibro is like having the flu all the time and this year I have really found that to be true.) I was always very good about giving lots of notice and doing what I said I could and would do.  That has all changed for me and it's really hard to remember that and not get angry with myself that things aren't like they used to be.

Well, the tired stick has hit me again.  I'm sorry to stop mid-ramble (and sorry to ramble on for so long!), but my hands hurt and well, I've no energy left.  I will continue sometime soon, but in between I'll try to get some of my latest cards posted.  I did have some time to get some great Valentine's done!

XO ~ Amy Jo and thanks for listening!

Winner!!!

Hi all,

I have so much to say, but I am in so much pain today that I'll have to post later.  I did at least, want to get the winner up so she can have a great day!  I used the good ol' radomizer and it picked the very last comment, #163 which is Just Yolie!!!  Please contact me with your address so I can send out your goodies.  I will be sending you an email later too.  It's funny because I just joined Just Yolie's site about a week ago, so congrats! 

To all the rest of you, thanks for playing along and all your comments.  I promise to have many more good things to come and will be doing another giveaway soon!

XO ~ Amy Jo

Getting Cricky Across the 50 Blog Hop

A Big Cricut Hello & Chirp to each of you! Welcome to the Cricky Across the 50 Blog Hop hosted by K Andrew of Getting Cricky! If you are here from Jennifer Anderson of Scrappin Lil Turtle then you are in the right spot. If you just arrived here and would like to start from the beginning please go to K Andrew of Getting Cricky! For this blog hop K Andrew is celebrating her big move across the country with a big road trip, and of course this hop across the 50 states! It is an honor to be in such an awesome hop and she has worked so hard putting this all together so be sure to send her lots of love and appreciation!  She has asked us all to post a little bit about the state we are representing, and then to post our Favorite Craft Project. I am representing the state of Colorado!

Colorado is an amazing place to live.  That's why I've been here my whole life (just different areas).  The picture above is of Telluride.  I used to live about an hour and a half from there and Tom Cruise and Oprah are just a few of the celebrities that have homes there.  Very cool place to visit! 

Currently I live in Fort Collins and we were voted #2 in the US for best city to live in 2008 from Money Magazine.  How cool is that?  I moved here about five years ago or so and am so happy I did.  We have a fabulous "Old Town" with all kinds of great little shops and awesome free events in the summer, but we also have everything else you could imagine to do, as well, and we are only an hour from Denver and the awesome zoo and botanical gardens!  I'm very fortunate to live here!

As far as states I've visited, Maine and Hawaii are my two favorites.  Very different yet I want to live in both states.  I also love Arizona cause it's so warm and some of my family live there.  We will be going there in April (I hope) to visit them.  The next states I want to visit are Georgia, Virginia, Oregon, and Alaska.  They all are appealing to me for different reasons, but I love road tripping it and seeing all there is to see!  If anyone has any great ideas of places to go in these states, please leave that in your comment!

Now onto the project.  We were asked to post our favorite creation of the past year and while it was hard to decide, this is my favorite one.  For those of you who already follow my blog, I apologize for reposting this as you've most likeley already seen it, but for newbies, this is the one I had the most fun with.

I was supposed to be making a card for my friends who hosted an awesome Halloween party, but I couldn't get everything I wanted onto a card so I decided to make a little hanging sign from chipboard.  The tag, as you can see, is removable and that's where I put my sentiments to them.  I just loved the way it turned out and it was such a fun Cricut project!  I think it ended up being 8" x 8".

Supplies I used were:

• Gypsy Wanderings Cart. for "Thanks"
• Mansion and Fence from Happy Hauntings Cricut Cart
• Ribbon from Offray Spool O' Ribbon
• Metallic Brads from We R Memory Keepers
• Background Paper from Recollections from Michaels - Ravenhead Manor
• Bat Epoxy Sticker from Creative Imaginations
• Tag from full sheet of paper from my stash - purchased at Capture, Inc. http://www.shopcapture.com/
• Cardstock from my stash
• I backed the sign with chipboard from scrapbook.com
• I inked all the edges wit Blackbird Cat's Eye ink
• "Memories Like These" stickers from my stash

Tools Used:

• Cropadile bought at Capture, Inc. http://www.shopcapture.com/
• Scotch adhesive clear glue
• This to That strip glue runner from American Crafts

Now if you've been following the hop, then you know we are all giving away blog candy!  These are some items I've collected from kits and thought I'd share with you.  It's quite a random variety, but there's something in there for everyone so if you would like to be the winner be sure to 1. Become a follower and 2.  Leave a comment to enter to win!  The winner will be posted on Monday, Feb. 14th and will be selected by the Random Generator so be sure to check back and also please leave me your email in your comment.  I want to make sure I'm able to find you if you win!  The winner will have 72 hours to respond or I will have to pick another winner. :(  Good luck to you all and thanks for following! :0)

Please make sure to visit ALL the blogs, as EVERY single blog will have fabulous giveaways (cricut cartridges, paper packs, copic markers, yourstory bundle, clear stamp sets, and tons more). Each blogger was extremely generous with their own personal giveaways

Also, please make sure to leave comments on all of the blogs for a chance to win a ton of different Grand Prizes on Getting Cricky's blog, from these great companies:Scrap N Tote, Scrap N Easel, Cri-Kits, Creative Charms, Memory Miser, Scrappy Chic Cafe, Loralie Designs, My Pink Stamper, Peachy Keen Stamps, Cricut Town, The Scrappin' Table, Piktails, and Pink by Design

How cool is that?  I will be hopping right along with you all! :0)

Next stop on the hop is DELAWARE! Meagan Jarjabka of Beyond Paper Designs http://beyondpaperdesigns.blogspot.com/


Here is the complete blog hop lineup in case you got lost!
 
BEGIN: Getting Cricky With K Andrew http://www.kandrewdesigns.blogspot.com/
ALABAMA
Tanya of Scrappy Scavenger http://www.scrappyscavenger.blogspot.com/
ARIZONA
Renee Kowalchik of KoolChik Crafts http://koolchikcrafts.blogspot.com/
ARKANSAS
Teela Young of Coffee24Tea http://coffee24tea.blogspot.com/
CALIFORNIA
Jess Marin of My Scrap Diary http://www.myscrapdiary-jess.blogspot.com/
Nicolette Simpson of Beyond Scrapin http://www.beyondscrapin.blogspot.com/
COLORADO
Jennifer Anderson of Scrappin Lil Turtle http://creativearmywife.blogspot.com/
Amy Courchaine of Scrapbooking, Card Making, and Living with Fibro http://lv2scrapandfibrofacts.blogspot.com/ --- THAT'S ME!
DELAWARE
Meagan Jarjabka of Beyond Paper Designs http://beyondpaperdesigns.blogspot.com/  - NEXT
Peggy Brustman of CeltikGirlCreations http://celtikgirlcreations.blogspot.com/
FLORIDA
Stephanie Hedderick of Always Crafting http://www.alwayscrafting.com/
GEORGIA
Brenda Haskin of Simply Bren is Having too much fun http://simplybrenhavingfun.blogspot.com/
ILLINOIS
Lori Brown of Saving My… http://savingmine.blogspot.com/
INDIANA
Angela Urell of Creative Crafting http://creativecraftin.blogspot.com/
LOUISIANA
Darlene Saucier of Simple Southern Blessings http://www.talesoftayandbay.blogspot.com/
MAINE
Karen Madden of Lilac and Lupines http://lilacsandlupines.blogspot.com/
MARYLAND
Karen Turner of Midlife Mysteries & Masterpieces http://www.midlifemysteries.com/
MASSACHUSSETTS
Andrea Fogleman of Scraplity http://www.scrapality.com/
MINNESOTA
Krystal Gibson of Krystal’s Kreativity http://www.krystalskreativity.blogspot.com/
Jenny Johnson of Paper Crafting Crazy Me http://www.papercraftingcrazyme.blogspot.com/
MISSOURI
Kathy Northup of I Love My Crazy Life http://ilovemycrazylife.blogspot.com/
MONTANA
Kathy Floen of The Beautiful Life http://kathy-thebeautifullife.blogspot.com/
NEBRASKA
Gloria Sleeper of Oma’s Crafts http://www.omascrafts.blogspot.com/
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Kristal of Getting Cricky http://www.kandrewdesigns.blogspot.com/
NEW MEXICO
Brynn Thornburgh of Flair and Frills http://www.flairandfrillscreativity.blogspot.com/
NEW YORK
Erin Span of I am SpantastiKreations http://www.spantastikreations.blogspot.com/
NORTH CAROLINA
Amy Westray of redwolfSCRAPS http://www.redwolfscraps.com/
OHIO
Patricia Logan of MDN Creates http://www.triciatreasure.blogspot.com/
Joe, Carol, Joe, and Betty of CreateNCraft at http://www.createncraft.com/
OREGON
Rebecca Maddux of Crafting with Becka http://www.creationswithbecka.blogspot.com/
PENNSYLVANIA
Midori Vasquez of Scraps for Me http://www.scrapsforme.blogspot.com/
RHODE ISLAND
Karel Jennings of One by One the Flamingos are Stealing my Sanity http://karelj.blogspot.com/
SOUTH DAKOTA
Brenda Burffrau of Creativity is a State of Mind http://createbyburffrau.blogspot.com/
TENNESSEE
Shannon Lefew of My Scrappy Creations http://shannonleffew.blogspot.com/
TEXAS
Kista Orr of Scrapaleupagus at http://scrapaleupagus.blogspot.com/
UTAH
Kathy of Creative Cutter at http://www.creativecutter.org/
VIRGINIA
Chris Hanselmaan of Chris' Crafty Creations from the Corner http://scrappinchris.blogspot.com/ WASHINGTON
Mariam Satchell of Purple Lily Studio http://mariamsatchell.blogspot.com/
WISCONSIN
Janice Wilson of Stamping with Janice http://www.stampingwithjanice.blogspot.com/
WYOMING
Jamie Larsen of Baby Jayden’s Mommy http://babyjaydensmommy.blogspot.com/
Lindsay Loo of Lindsay Loo Designs http://www.lindsayloodesignz.blogspot.com/
END: Getting Cricky with K Andrew http://www.kandrewdesigns.blogspot.com/

Thanks for hopping along and hope to see you all back here on my blog real soon!

XO ~ Amy Jo
http://www.amyjrockstar.com/

New Winner For My Blog Candy

It was time to pick a new winner and the random generator drew #78 - - - Leanne!!!  You have won the blog candy from my 75 follower goal.  Please contact me at amyjrockstar at gmail dot com with your address so I can get your goodies sent out.  You have about a week to contact me, after that I will have to draw another winner.  I will email you as well.

Congrats!
XO ~ Amy Jo

My Whereabouts

Hi All,

Just wanted to say sorry for being MIA.  Been so sick with a cold for the past week that it has completely knocked me out.  I slept for three days straight!  Yucky!  And, it put me so far behind for making my Valentine's orders, so that's where I've been... Sick and making cards like crazy!  I'll be posting soon, as I have a lot of cute new cards to post.  I think I've been getting better about creating with a bit of a different style so you'll have to check out the latest creations and let me know what you think!  If I don't get them up tomorrow, then Monday for sure.  Also, I'm going to redraw for my BLOG CANDY tomorrow or Monday as well!  Yay!

XO ~ Amy Jo

I Keep Winning

OMG,  I have won so much awesome blog candy lately and I will be posting it all soon, but had to pop in to tell you all I just found out that I won the Sure Cuts A Lot 2.0 software program that I have been wanting forever!  I am sooooo stoked and will post all my goodies in a day or so.  Hope you all have a great night!

XO ~ Amy Jo

Baby Sign - Announcement

Hi Wonderful Friends,

Today I thought I'd post a little project I worked on last week requested by a friend of mine for a friend of hers who is having a baby.  This is the first baby project I have ever worked on, but I think it turned out pretty cute.  My vellum glue didn't work as well as I would have hoped so it's not quite as smooth as I wanted, but it's still cute.  I'm putting up some closeups of different parts of the project as well.  I was hired to make a card, but I couldn't get everything I wanted onto a little card so I decided to do a little wallhanging instead and I am very happy I did.  Let me know what you all think!  Sorry the pics are all shadowy.  The colors are actually much brighter and prettier than shown here, of course. :p

Front

Back

Accordian Fold

Sentiment

For those of you who like the details, here they are, but I'm too lazy at them moment to get the stack of everything I used, so if you need further details, please leave me a comment and I'd be happy to find something for ya!

The sign or wallhanging, whatever you want to call it is 6x6" and has chipboard in the middle to make it sturdy. 

Supplies:

6x6" paper is from the amazing stack that I won from Jill at http://www.jillstamps.com/ - By far one of the best things I've won!  All the paper on this project is from her, including the paper for the accordion pleated circle.

Those adorable bears and the word "baby" came from a vellum cut out book from Hot Off the Press. 

The sentiment on the back is from a wooden stamp I have from ebay. ;)

The sentiment on the front is a vellum sticker from one of those quote sticker stacks that you buy at Michael's.

The blue ribbon is from my stash, labeled:  Spool O' Ribbon by Offray

The white floral lacy ribbon is from Making Memories:  kids trims
The little squares behind the sentiment are from a stash I bought on Craig's list so no clue where to get these.

Adhesive - vellum runner, tombow liquid glue, tombow adhesive runner

Crop-a-dile

Bone folder (to smooth the glue after the paper was applied to the chipboard) from Martha Stewart

Brown ink

Chipboard from http://www.scrapbook.com/ (great price)

Phew! I think that's about everything.  It's amazing how many things actually can go into such a small project!

Now - on for an ANNOUNCEMENT...

The winner of the blog candy I was giving away never responded so unfortunately for her, but lucky for you, I will be re-drawing either today or tomorrow!  Keep checking back.  I think I gave her a fair amount of time and SweetSue if you happen to see this after it's too late, I'll send you a lil something anyways! :0)

I'm off to the Valentine's Cards!  Have a lovely, (hopefully not freezing where you are) day!

XO ~ Amy Jo