Computer Problems

Hi Friends,

I apologize greatly to both of the ladies that put on these wonderful hops that I signed up for and was unable to fulfill my obligation.  I know how much work goes into getting a hop to run smoothly and I feel just awful!  I had computer issues yesterday that I wasn't able to get fixed in time to put everything together.  Not to mention, I'm in another severe fibro flare and haven't been able to do much other than lie in bed. Today seems to be the most painful in a while.  I've been up on and off all night with body aches all over and the meds just aren't helping.  It gets very frustrating sometimes.   Not meaning to complain, just letting you all know what's going on.  I am so very sorry to my followers as well and to make it up to everyone I will do "make-up" projects and get them posted as soon as I am able to do so.  Thank you all for stopping by and for being so understanding.  

XO ~ Amy Jo

Tina's 30th Birthday Bash Blog Hop

*Please note, this is the post for day one.  Day two will be up late. but I am working on my very first video to go along with it so please, please come back in the afternoon or early evening.  I would so appreciate it! *  ~ Thanks for your patience. :0)

Good morning everyone and welcome to Tina's Big Birthday Bash!  I'm feeling a bit ill and am late in posting, but luckily this is a two day hop so my project will be up either later today or tomorrow for sure for everyone to see.  Happy happy birthday to Tina!  

If you arrived here from the awesome Shawnee from Blessed on the Bright Side then you are in the right spot!  If you just happened upon my blog then be sure to start at the beginning with the birthday girl herself at Crafty and Green.

I'm not gonna leave you all totally empty handed here so I'm posting a pic of another b-day card, but this is not the one that's for Tina.  The one for her will be up tomorrow.  This is one of the very first cards I did.  I'm sure you can tell. ;) LOL  I'm not even sure which cartridge I used... I think it was Sweet Treats.  I promise, tomorrow's card will be much better!  If you've seen this one before, I apologize.  I  started putting things in proper folders about 3 months or so after I started blogging (about a year ago). 

Alrighty!  Off you go then to the fabulous Nikki of Creations by Mommy.  Thanks for stopping by today and please come back tomorrow!

XO ~ Amy Jo

FCCB Snow Fun #94

Hi Friends,

It's another Fantabulous Challenge me Monday at FCCB!  This week's project is "Snow Fun".  Please join us for this challenge!  You need to use either a snowflake or a snowman on your project, along with at least one Cricut cut!  Easy peasy, right? :)

We have an awesome sponsor this week that provided some of our DT with product to work with. I thought that EAD only sold vinyl words and sentiments for your walls, but boy was I wrong!  They have a fantastic selection of stickers and other super fun scrapbooking and card making products!  I found lots of goodies that I want and I'm sure you will too.  Oh, and their prices are very affordable, which adds to the fabulousness of EAD!

E.A.D. Designs

For my project today I used the MS Holiday Cakes cartridge, Mr. Frosty (printed paper on the Imagine), and Wild Card.

The snowman and all the lovely snowflakes are E.A.D. stickers.  I used pearls from Creative Charms and from CTMH.  The snowglobe stamp is from Flourishes.

Please pop over to FCCB and see the rest of the team's awesome creations and to enter the challenge, yourself!  Thanks for stopping in today!  Please scroll down for my first post of the day.  This is post 2/2.

XO ~ Amy Jo

Twine-ology

Hi Fabby Friends!  I am so excited!  I just had to share this with you... There was a naming contest from Twine-ology by Timeless Twine for two of their awesome new colors and I decided to give it a shot.  I really didn't think I would get picked, but I did get picked for one of the colors!  Yay!  So please check out this awesome site and their new "Strawberry Truffle" (the one I named) gorgeous twine that is now available for sale at Bella Creationz!  They also have the lovely new "Aqua Delight" for sale too.  I will be picking up some of that very soon, but for naming the Strawberry Truffle, I am getting a free roll!  So very stoked!  They have lots of other fun stuff in their store too.  I just checked it out and looks like it's time to go shopping again! ;)

Thanks for checking in with me today.  Hope you all have a great Monday!

XO ~ Amy Jo

Valentine's Day Blog Hop Day 2

*I am in FOUR blog hops this weekend!  Please check them all out.*

For the Based on a Book Blog Hop click HERE.

For the Four-Legged Friends Blog Hop click HERE.

For the Valentine's Card Blog Hop for Kids with Cancer click HERE.

Good Morning Friends and welcome to the Valentine's Day Blog Hop hosted by Nicolette of Beyond Scrapin'.  This is Day 2 of 2. You should have arrived here from Playing with Paper.  If you just happened upon my blog today, please be sure to start with Nicolette as there will be great projects and blog candy along the way!  I am offering blog candy as well.  Please leave a comment and become a follower.  You must be a follower to win!  I will be picking one random name from the combined blog hops today so be sure to leave a comment on each of my hops for an extra chance to win!  I will be giving away a surprise bag of scrapping goodies. :)

As you can see, this hop is all about Valentine's Day!  I have a few Valentine's cards to post that I created last year or the year before.  I apologize if I've posted them before, but so many of you are new since then that I figured most of you won't have seen them anyways.  Hope you enjoy! :)

Please click on each picture for a larger view and all the details.  These were made from foam kits I got at the $1 store last year and were sent to my MIL to use for the grandkids.  I can't believe how cute they turned out, but I added a lot of detail to make them much more fancy. ;)

 I put the cupcake together, added some random foam hearts and then added Stickles and used my Zig pens for faux stitching around the hearts on top.

 First I decided to thread the white heart with ribbon (love the way that turned out), then I decided to use my Zig pens and totally dress up the foam rose and added it to the white heart.  I put on a few red foam hearts and adhered the whole white heart to the big red heart and there ya have it!

For this one I outlined the letters with a Zig pen and added a little doodled heart to the "B".  I then added the bees and used Stickles on them and my Zig pen for faux stitching.  I outlined the "Mine" with my Stickles as well.  Super simple and so sweet!

Anytime you see these little foam kits, I recommend purchasing them and putting them together with your own touches for kids.  They love them!  

Thanks so much for joining us this weekend!  Don't forget to leave a comment and become a follower to be entered in the drawing for my blog candy.  I am the final stop on this hop.

XO ~ Amy Jo

Based on a Book Blog Hop

*I am in FOUR blog hops today!  Be sure to catch them all!*

For the Four-Legged Friends Blog Hop click HERE.

For the Valentine Cards for Kids with Cancer Blog Hop click HERE.

For the Valentine's Day Blog Hop click HERE.

Good Morning Crafty Friends and welcome to the Based on a Book Blog Hop hosted by Tanya! Ashley of Marine Wife's Scrappin' Life is the first stop today.  You should have arrived here from Memories in Tyme.  If you just happened upon my blog today, please be sure to start with Ashley to catch all the awesome creations and blog candy along the way!  I will be having blog candy as well, but you must leave a comment and be/become a follower.  Only my followers get candy! ;)  I will be drawing one name from all of my hops so leave a comment on each and you will be entered to win four times!  I will be giving away a bag of scrapping goodies to one lucky follower. 

Thanks so much for hopping along with us today.  I was so excited when I saw this hop came up and I just had to participate!  I love reading (it's one of my favorite pastimes) and had the perfect stuff in my stash to use for my very favorite book ever, Wicked by Gregory Maguire!  I love this spin off of the Wizard of Oz and of course I love the classic Wizard of Oz, so I kind of combined them here with this piece of "altered art".  Lots of times I like to make "art" for my house rather than a layout or a card and since there were so many elements that I wanted to add here, I just had to do that instead!  So, we're doing two books in one!

This one is VERY picture heavy and I apologize for that, but I added so many elements to this, that I wanted you to see them all from every angle possible! I had sooooo much fun working on this one and am quite proud of how it turned out.  If any one is interested in buying it, please do let me know.  I have enough stock so I can create another for myself if anyone likes it enough to buy it. :)  I would be so thrilled!   Anyways, onto the pictures!  Oooh, I just hope you all like this one as much as I do!  It's 3:30 in the morning and I just got it done! LOL  Phew! ;)  I will be listing some details in the captions and some at the end.  I won't bore you with the deets of the ink and adhesive, gems, etc. I used, but if you have questions, please do ask! Oh, and please click on the pictures to see them all in greater detail and larger size.  It's hard to see all the cool stuff w/o clicking on them.

 12x12" Paper from Recollections - Midnight Magic (amazing Halloween paper pack if you can still find it).

 Right-hand corner - semi/closeup 

 To create this part I folded down a corner of the background paper and inked it a bit with black ink.  I took a length of Doodlebug Blk/White twine and wrapped it around the corner, glued it down a bit, then tied it into a bow.  I stapled the corner down.  Then, I used a circle punch to cut out a compass from the Graphic 45 (G45) - Magic of Oz Collection (8x8" Paper Pack) and adhered it to a bubble epoxy sticker (so it's rounded on top, not flat).  Next I added a triangle of printed paper from Authentique and another triangle layer of Bazzill textured cardstock.  I just love the way this corner turned out!

 For the upper left side of the page I took a sheet of the G45 paper (mentioned above) and cut out the "cards".  I used my new favorite tool, the Tim Holtz Scraping Tool to distress the edges and make them curl nicely like book pages (which wasn't my original intent, but it made perfect sense after putting a few of them down on the page!)  So the Magic of Oz is actually on top of the Lion and you can open it a bit to see it better.  I added pop dots to some of them.  The Scraping Tool really did a great job distressing these just how I wanted.  It's like $5.00 and you can buy it pretty much anywhere.  My understanding is it's fairly new.

 This element is from the G45 stack and it is on a page of four cut-outs.  This witch is PERFECT for the Wizard of Oz or for Wicked.  I added some green rhinestones to the corners.

 The green cardstock element is a journaling square cut from Bella Blvd. - Too Cute to Spook (#333 Cute Cuts).  I stamped it with the Wicked stamp set by G45, then the hat and sentiment are from CTMH.  I actually won the "Wicked" set (how ironic is that?) from Scrapbooking KampStyle from a previous blog hop. It's a fantastic set and I love it very much! :)  I added a cut out of the word "Wicked" from the G45 paper.  Next to the green journal blog is a little square with the compass that I cut out from that same paper piece and I added a little silver brad to it so now it spins!

 Had to have the flying monkeys right?  Cut out from G45 paper.

 Isn't this guy so cool?  I used that same Authentique

 Definitely click the pic on this one and zoom in.  It's a full sheet of the G45 paper and it has lots of fun "advertisements" on it.  You'll love it!

 I added a button to the top of the 8x8 sheet to bring a little more attention to the top.

This has to be my very favorite part!  I took a piece of cut-out plain chipboard from Stampin' Up and painted it with FolkArt #6711 Metallic Peridot acrylic paint (from Joann's or Michael's).  It's such a great color.  I would recommend getting this for your paint stash. I use it for lots of things.  Then I took the coolest stamp EVER (in my opinion) from Stampendous - Bootiful Boots set, (that I bought at Archiver's) and inked it onto the chipboard with Staz-On to make sure it would be permanent.  I totally dig how it turned out.  I added some gems to the shoes and over to the side is a little popped up cut-out from the 8x8" main page that I wanted to stand out a bit cause I thought it was cute.

Alright Ladies and Gents!  There you have it!  Sorry that was such a super long post, but there was a lot of detail there that I wanted to share with you.  Don't forget to become a follower and leave a comment for a chance to win some goodies!

Now you're off to see Ashley, the Wonderful Ashley of Made Especially for You!  ;0)  Ok, so the song doesn't quite work there, but hey... I gave it a try!  I know she'll have something magical for you today! 

XO ~ Amy Jo

Valentine's Day Blog Hop

*I am in FOUR blog hops today!  Please check them all out.*

For the Based on a Book Blog Hop click HERE.

For the Four-Legged Friends Blog Hop click HERE.

For the Valentine's Card Blog Hop for Kids with Cancer click HERE.

Good Morning Friends and welcome to the Valentine's Day Blog Hop hosted by Nicolette of Beyond Scrapin'.  This is Day 1 of 2. You should have arrived here from Playing with Paper.  If you just happened upon my blog today, please be sure to start with Nicolette as there will be great projects and blog candy along the way!  I am offering blog candy as well.  Please leave a comment and become a follower.  You must be a follower to win!  I will be picking one random name from the combined blog hops today so be sure to leave a comment on each of my hops for an extra chance to win!  I will be giving away a surprise bag of scrapping goodies. :)

As you can see, this hop is all about Valentine's Day!  I have a few Valentine's cards to post that I created last year or the year before.  I apologize if I've posted them before, but so many of you are new since then that I figured most of you won't have seen them anyways.  Hope you enjoy! :)

 This card was made with pink Bazzill cardstock, red stash cardstock, patterned paper from a 4x6 paper pack (Le Creme?), and a Valentine from Fancy Pants.  I used a stamp from the Love Always & Be Mine sets by Pink by Design.

 This one is created with the same materials, but I embossed the pink cardstock.

 Closeup of the embossing from the Cuttlebug Swirls folder.

This is the inside.  The sticker is part of the Fancy Pants line as well.

Thanks so much for joining us today!  Don't forget to leave a comment and become a follower to be entered in the drawing for my blog candy.  I am the final stop, but be sure to come back tomorrow for some different projects!

XO ~ Amy Jo