From Courtney's Closet #67

Happy Friday! Today's a happy Friday for me, because I found time this week to let my daughter's outfits inspire me in my stamping. And it involved cupcakes! Yay!! Here's this week's From Courtney's Closet card:


And this was the inspiration. I have a hard time getting my little bug to look right at the camera these days, but even though she's looking away I think there's something sweet about this photo.


I dug out my Cupcakes set for this one. Here's a bit of trivia - this was the very first Hero Arts set I ever bought! I used them to make Courtney's birth announcements, since I always referred to her as my little cupcake when she was in my tummy. Sigh. And look at her now - such a sweet little three year old! Where has the time gone?

Thanks for stopping by!

• Stamps: CL158 Cupcakes and CL489 Yummy Treats from Hero Arts
• Paper: Bazzill purple, Hero Arts kraft, GP white
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers, white gel pen
• Accessories: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, Stickles, Glossy Accents, CTMH ricrac

From Courtney's Closet meets Texas Tuesday!

It's time for another From Courtney's Closet, where as the name implies, I share a card inspired by something from my daughter's closet. Well actually, today it's from the dress-up bin, not the closet! Since I missed making a Texas Tuesday post earlier this week, I just had to make this card after I snapped a photo of Courtney playing dress-up!


And here's the inspiration photo:


Usually she's in princess dresses or tutus, so it was lots of fun to see her take a break from those and put on this cute little Jessie costume! I bought it on mega-clearance the week after Halloween - one of my brighter ideas, I have to say. I got the kids a bunch of Toy Story & superhero dress-up clothes that week, for very little money!

I had also been itchin' to make a Texas Tuesday card using this new little cowgirl stamp from Hero Arts. I totally squealed when I saw her in the new catalog. I just knew Hero Arts created her **JUST FOR ME**, for my Texas Tuesday posts. HAHAHA! (a girl can daydream, right!?)

I am often drawn to using hemp twine on my Texas-y cards, and tonight I thought it would be fun to try to shape some into little rolled flowers. I think they turned out rather fun!


I had a couple blog challenges in mind as I made this card. First, the Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge, which had the theme this week of "Live Laugh Love". I think this post fits, because I was inspired by a photo of my sweet girl living her little 3 year old life, she makes me laugh almost everyday and I love her and her brother more than anything on the planet. :-)


I also took inspiration from Card Positioning Systems #205, turned on it's side. Have you been to that blog this week? It's anniversary time so they've shared a ton of fabby cards!


I want to give a little shout-out to my Texas Tuesday friends before I go - make sure and check out their blogs if you like Texas-themed stampy goodness! The links are over on my sidebar.

Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: CG272 Howdy from Hero Arts
• Paper: Hero Arts layering paper, Memory Box, Making Memories, The Paper Studio DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Accessories: Hemp twine, green grosgrain ribbon, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, SU scalloped edge punch, brads

From Courtney's Closet #65

Yes it's been a zillion years since I was actively posting From Courtney's Closet posts, but I'm still keeping my tally going! This is #65. Wowza! And, it's two weeks in a row, woohoo! Here's today's card:


And it was inspired by this dress:


I didn't go as hot pink as the dress, I guess I wasn't in a hot pink kind of mood. I did try a fun trick, though, that I've seen done a few times, and I think I learned first from the super sweet Anita Recksiedler when she did this fabby Hero Hostess intro card. See the flowers? They are from the Hero Arts set Big & Small Flowers. The stamped a flower from it first the "correct" way, and then again with the clear stamp turned upside down on the acrylic block! That way you can get a solid stamp in roughly the same shape! Isn't that a super cool trick???


After I stamped the flowers, I spritzed the entire panel with Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist, so it has a really pretty shimmer to it that doesn't show up in the photos.

Part of the reason I didn't hit the really hot pink was because I also wanted to play along with this week's colourQ challenge #71. As I may have mentioned in another post, I adore pink and kraft. hee hee


Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: CL374 Big & Small Flowers, CL371 Essential Messages from Hero Arts
• Paper: SU Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Hero Arts Kraft, GP white
• Ink: Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar, Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks
• Accessories: SU Slit Punch, Felt flower leftover from Courtney's birthday crown making, machine stitching, Glimmer mist, Maya Road heart pin, button, hemp twine, ribbon

From Courtney's Closet - and a tutu tutorial!

Today is a very special day in our house - my girl is turning three! As some of you know, I used to make cards every week inspired by Courtney's cute baby clothes. I had so much fun with those cards, and I've missed making them. Now that I'm stamping somewhat regularly again, it's time for a return of From Courtney's Closet! And I figured, what better day is there to do it then my sweet baby girl's birthday?? So here's today's card...


...which was inspired by this sweet photo of my little ballerina...


Courtney looooooves tutus! She wears one every single day. Truly. She started taking dance classes in the fall and gets so excited every week when she gets to go. The result is that her mama has become slightly obsessed with buying ballerina stamps!! I have quite a collection going. And this precious image from MFT's Ballet Recital Jolinne is one of my absolute favorites. In the photo of Courtney, she's wearing a tulle tutu I made for her - so of course I had to make a little tulle tutu for the card, too! :-)


I played along with the latest MFT WSC sketch challenge, it worked perfectly for this card!


And now, I thought you might like to learn how to make a tutu for your own little ballerina! It's sooo easy to do!

1. Gather your supplies. You'll need ribbon, ~4-5 yards of tulle, scissors and a measuring tape. The amount of tulle just depends on how full you want your tutu. Cut your tulle into strips 4" wide. The easiest way to do this is to roll up the tulle & then cut.


2. Measure around your little ballerina's waist, and use that measurement to tie knots in your ribbon, leaving tails of ribbon beyond the knots for tying. The tulle will be tied between your two knots.


3. Tie the tulle to the ribbon using the loop method - make a loop and then bring the tails of the tulle up through the loop. Pull to tighten.


4. Continue in this method to fill up your ribbon, making the tutu as full as you'd like. Here I used two different colors of tulle. After I finished with the tulle, I also added some strips of ribbon in the same manner.


5. Voila! My finished tutu! :-)


If you make a tutu, or a tutu-inspired card, leave me a link so I can check it out - I'd love to see!

And I have to tell you, I just got the BEST compliment on my ballerina card. Courtney came over here and saw it and said in her sweet little 3 yr old voice, "Mommy can I have that ballerina card? It's amaaaazing!" Yay, the very best approval. :-)

Have a wonderful weekend!

• Stamps: Ballet Recital Jolinne and Happy Thoughts from MFT
• Paper: SU Pink Pirouette, Hobby Lobby hot pink dots, Memory Box light pink dots, GP white
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Accessories: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots , tulle, pearls, Stickles, velvet ribbon, PTI scallop edge die, straight pin

From Courtney's Closet #63 - an inspiration challenge

It's Thursday so you know what that means! Well ok, you know what it sometimes means...! Today I do indeed have another edition of From Courtney's Closet, where I make a card inspired by one of my daughter's outfits, and you're welcome to do the same. Today's card is quite sweet...


And it's inspired by Courtney's yummy little dress, covered in sweets!


I love this photo of her, but unfortunately she was also showing off her Doras! But, this is what happened when I asked her to be a little more modest...


So anyway, back to the card. I used my Hero Arts cupcake. Since the dress has a little blanket stitch around the collar, I decided some blanket stitching on the card would be fun. The rest of the card - yikes - it was kinda a free-for-all. I couldn't decide what to put on this card, so apparently I put a little of everything...! But hey, it was fun, so what the heck.

I'd like to send a big THANK YOU to Betty and Cat for playing along last week with their fun cards! If Courtney's outfit inspires you at all this week and you'd like to play along, link up your card down below so I can pop by and check it out!

Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: LL247 Birthday Cupcake, CL307 Mini Messages from Hero Arts
• Paper: Bazzill Carob Cream, Strawberry Splash; The Paper Company Petal Pink
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Accessories: Tim Holtz Alterations Styled Labels die, Spellbinders circle die, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder, embroidery floss, rhinestone flourish, Star Dust Stickles, Ranger Glossy Accents, buttons, ribbon
  

From Courtney's Closet #62 - an inspiration challenge

Hello and welcome to another edition of From Courtney's Closet, where I make a card inspired by one of my daughter's outfits and encourage you to do the same! If you're visiting for the first time, you can view all the previous cards HERE. Well today I have a very special From Courtney's Closet for you!! I'll get to that in a moment, but first I want to give a shout-out to Betty, Chris & Karen who made my day by playing along last time. You ladies rock!! Sorry it's taken me so long to acknowledge that!

And now onto today's card:


Which was inspired by this silly photo of my little pea:


I loved the color combo in Courtney's shirt, but decided to go with a butterfly theme rather than flowers, mostly because I wanted to try a technique for coloring the butterflies that I learned from Jill Foster (jillianavery8222 on Flickr) in her fabby tutorial she did for the Hero Arts blog, HERE. You might say I was inspired by Jill! Which, by the way, happens to be the name of her FANTASTIC blog!! Jill is an amazing stamper, I am always in awe of her creations! Her blog is so much fun - she picks a different stamper to be inspired by each week. Well would you believe this week she picked ME?!?! It's been such a thrill to see what she's come up with every day!! You can see all of her Libby-inspired (squeal!) cards HERE.

And because Jill and I are sort of blogging together this week (although granted she is ACTUALLY blogging, so far I've just been sitting back watching her blog, LOL!), it only made sense to invite her to play along with this week's challenge. Here's what she came up with:


Jill is the queen of gorgeous backgrounds, and this one does not disappoint! And she also went with a beautiful butterfly, but a completely different style than mine. The pearl is such a perfect touch. I love your card, Jill! Thanks so much for playing along!

And would YOU like to play along with me, Courtney & Jill? You know I'd love it if you did! Just link up your creation down below so I can find you. Thanks for stopping by!

• Stamps: CL383 Antique Engravings, CL272 All Occasion Message, CG139 Cling Dots from Hero Arts
• Paper: Archiver's cardstock, October Afternoon DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Distress Ink, Versamark
  
• Accessories: ribbon, machine stitching

From Courtney's Closet #61 - an inspiration challenge

Hello and welcome to another edition of From Courtney's Closet, where I make a card inspired by one of my daughter's outfits and challenge you to do the same. First of all, I have to say a great big THANK YOU to Betty, Lin, Diane, Chris & Sue, who played along last week and made me oh so very happy with their pretty purple cards! You ladies are the best!!

Today's card is inspired by a Tinkerbell dress-up outfit that Courtney got for her birthday:


And here's Courtney back in February, right after the outfit arrived in the mail from her Aunt Lori in Michigan. As soon as she opened it she exclaimed "I wuv it!!". Too cute.


For my card, I went a tad more bold with the blue color in the outfit. I used the little fairy and tree from the Hero Arts Adorable Baby Girl set, and the cloud and sentiment from Magical Castle. The clouds and fairy have some Star Dust Stickles on them (my favorite of all the Stickles, and very hard to find around here!). I was inspired by Lucy to make the three rows of scallop border.

Feel like making a fairy card this week? Or a green and blue card? Or anything else you may be inspired by this picture to make?? You know I'd LOVE to have you join me!! If you do play, let me know by linking it up down below. And thanks for stopping by today!


Love this card? Find it in my Etsy shop!

• Stamps: CL265 Adorable Baby Girl & CL392 Magical Castle from Hero Arts
• Paper: Bazzill cardstock
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Accessories: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder, Star Dust Stickles, heart punch, Hero Arts Crystal Gemstones

From Courtney's Closet #60 - an inspiration challenge

Remember long, long ago on a blog far, far away... well ok not far away, THIS BLOG... there used to be a weekly challenge where my sweet daughter became blog fodder as I made a card based on one of her outfits?? Wellllllll... the time has come for From Courtney's Closet to make a return! I realize there are about a zillion blog challenges out there these days, so I don't really expect a bunch of you to play along - I'm just doing this because *I* think it's loads of fun. BUT... you know I'd be thrilled if you did join me!! So without further ado, here's today's card:


It was inspired by Courtney's Easter dress this year. It pretty much feels at home on this blog. Gee, can you tell what my favorite colors are? hee hee When I saw this new Hero Arts Rose Background stamp, I *knew* it was the perfect stamp to match this dress! Oops, I still haven't SHOWN you the dress. Here it is - and of course Courtney is riding on a pony, because isn't that what everyone does in their best Easter dress??


Here's a shot of the back of the dress - I adore the bow, so of course I had to incorporate that into my card.


Can you believe how much bigger my little bug is compared to the last time I shared a photo of her for card inspiration?? Time is a-flyin'! Courtney turned two in February. TWO!! She's pretty much potty trained (except at night) and she's talking up a storm these days. She's silly as can be and cracks herself up all the time. She adores her big brother and wants to be doing whatever he's doing. Sigh. She makes her mama proud! So now you're all caught up with the goings-on of Miss Courtney. Time to make a card!! I hope you'll join me. If you do, leave a link below so I can check it out! And if you don't? No worries, I'll still be back next week with another Courtney-inspired creation to amuse myself. hee hee

Happy Stamping!

• Stamps: CG179 Rose Background from Hero Arts
• Paper: Neenah white, SU green & gold
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Accessories: PTI scallop border die, Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist (spritzed over flower panel), pearls, satin ribbon (Mike's, by the yard)

From Courtney's Closet #59!!

Hi there! Today I'm popping in to share a card that was inspired by a little something From Courtney's Closet! YAY! It's been too long since I've said that! I actually created this card for today's Hero Arts blog post - this week Tami has been sharing cards inspired by Easter dresses! If you've been hangin' out around here for a while, you know I have a thing for cards inspired by cute outfits! (And if you are new here, you can stroll through the entire history HERE.) This has gotten me so inspired! I plan to be back with another Courtney-inspired card on Wednesday, and a revival of my old inspiration challenge, YAY!!

So here's the card I created:And it was inspired by this dress:You can read a little more about my thought process over at the Hero blog, as well as find a link to complete card details.

And by the way, speaking of reviving this little ol' blog - I'm in the process of a Extreme Makeover - Blog Edition!! I'll say it one more time - YAY!! The new look should be ready quite soon - so make sure and take a good look now - c'mon, click out of Reader, you can do it! Then you'll be able to compare what I have now to the new look, woohoo.

Thanks for stopping by today, and happy stamping!

From Courtney's Closet #58

Welcome to another edition of From Courtney's Closet, where I make a card inspired by one of my daughter's outfits. Well today Courtney is having a little pajama party here on my blog! I couldn't resist making a card inspired by these cute & funky little elephant PJs! I really loved the chocolate, hot pink and chartreuse color combo! And I've had this sweet little elephant stamp sitting on my shelf for a while now, waiting patiently to be inked up. Here's a funny but true story - I colored the image with my Prismacolor pencils, and as I was playing with them I updated my Facebook status to say that I "love the smell of my prismacolor pencils.". Well my not-so-stampy friend Joe replied with "no idea what those are , but might want to stop when the pink elephants start flying around." HA!!! Of course this isn't what he meant, but I nearly died when I read that - maybe it was the "fumes" of my pencils that drove me to make this little elephant pink? No, it was just the inspiration from Courtney's jammies, I swear! :-) Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: Elephant w/Mouse from Stamps by Judith, Sentiment from Gina K
• Paper: Pink Passion, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, white, The Paper Studio DP
• Ink: Black StazOn, Black Glaze Pen
• Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils & odorless mineral spirts, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, SU Scalloped Edge punch, Marvy punches, white brads, Hobby Lobby organdy ribbon, Diamond Stickles

Another one from Courtney's closet...

There's been many, many times over the past year and a half or so of doing the From Courtney's Closet cards that I've had a couple ideas from the same outfit. Often I think "I really should make a second card!" - well, for once, I actually did it! I mentioned in the original post that I thought about paper piecing a caterpillar. Last night I pulled out my scraps and punches and scissors and set to work. As if it was work! It was a lot of fun to piece together this cute little caterpillar, I must say!! He's mostly made of circle punches, but a few of the elements were cut out freehand - the flower, the hearts and all the various legs & antennae. I considered adding actual machine stitching around the circles to make it look more like the outfit - but then I returned to my senses and opted for faux. :-) I guess I did a good job copying the shirt - Carter just came over and was very excited to see that the card looked just like the shirt. Success! :-) Thanks for stopping by today!

• Stamps: sentiment from Stampin' Up!
• Paper: Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, Pink Passion, white, Wild Wasabi DP, Making Memories DP, Chocolate Chip
• Ink: Pink Passion, Chocolate Chip marker
• Accessories: circle punches, scissors, Spellbinders dies, Cuttlebug Swiss dots folder, Janome Sew Mini & brown thread, Prima flowers, Making Memories brads

From Courtney's Closet #57

Welcome to another week of From Courtney's Closet, where I draw inspiration from my daughter's clothes. Courtney got this cute little outfit for her 1st birthday way back in February, from my sweet friend Theresa. As soon as we opened it I got excited about the card possibilities!! The caterpillar on the shirt has a lot of texture to it, so I considered paper piecing him together, which would have been fun. But when the most recent Stampin' Up catalog came out and I saw the "Love Bugs" hostess set, I just KNEW I had to use it for this card!! So I did what any good stamper would do - I placed a $150 order just so I could earn that "free" set!! :-D But seriously, could it be any more perfect?? In addition to the caterpillar, I found the color scheme inspiring, and also added a flower inspired by the pants. I really love this pink & green color combo! So... I don't know if you noticed the title of this post, but I dropped the "inspiration challenge" part. I'm going to keep making the Courtney's Closet cards, but I don't think I'll call them an inspiration challenge anymore. Unlike back when I started this nearly a year & a half ago, I think there's just way too many challenges out there now - which is GREAT - but I don't think there's much interest in THIS one. Which I understand - the others are run by bloggers who actually are active in the blogging community. Unlike me. So - if you do feel like playing, that's still FANTASTIC, I'd love to see your creation. But I am not very optimistic that anyone will. :-D

Before I go, I have to subject you to a couple other photos. I had a bugger of a time getting a decent photo this week, properly showing off the caterpillar! All Courtney wanted to do was either hug her bunny, right in front of her shirt...Or lie down with her blankies!But considering how sweet she is, I couldn't get too mad at her about it. :-D

Thanks for stopping by today!