We have a winner!

Hey ya'll! Thanks so much for letting me know you're out there! It was so fun to hear from you, most of you for the very first time. I also was surprised to know that I have some international readers--specifically Belgium (hi, Annelies!) and Panama (hola, Michele!).

Alright, so enough telling you that I enjoyed hearing from you. Getting down to what you really want to know...the winner of the blog candy is:

entry #14--Stephanie from CO! Click here to visit her blog! Lots of cute stuff here! Stephanie was our winner because she got 2 entries for linking my blog to hers.

Stephanie, click on my profile and send me a private email with your address, and the stamp set will be on its way to CO ASAP!

Again, thanks so much to all of you for participating by commenting. It really does make a difference! Please, feel free to be honest and keep talkin' back to me!

Thump Thump Thump...A Doggie Love Birthday Card

One of my dearest friends, Jodie, is a dog lover. She has two--a chihuahua (I had to look up how to spell that, which would make her smile)named Dutchess and a poodle named Candy. Another thing about Jodie...she's no girly girl! I have never in my life seen her wear anything remotely resembling lacy or flowery, so when I was thinking about her birthday card, I wanted it to reflect her style as well.

I have been hoarding a large piece of cool patterned paper by Shabby Princess, and I was inspired by Stephanie's color scheme and design at Steph's Stampin' Stuff. SO, after seeing her work, I determined to stop the madness and use it all up to make Jodie's card.

The design that Stephanie used is from Jen del Muro's weekly feature, Saturday Sketch For You To Try. When I saw it last week, I wasn't all that moved by it, but, as may happen to you when you visit this or any other blog, seeing somenone else's take on a layout or how she uses a stamp set can change everything!

I just pulled some colors from the paper and followed the sketch. The strip with the brads on it is supposed to make you think of a dog collar. Was I successful? Since this dog stamp was a stand-alone purchase, i.e. not part of a SU! set so it didn't come with a saying, I had to come up with my own. I think it'll make her smile.

Today's the last day to enter the blog candy contest (see this post)! I've enjoyed hearing from you, many of whom I've never met! I love this! The winner will be posted tomorrow after I get home from my early morning shift at Starbucks, so don't get up at 4am to see if I post the winner before going to work!

Good Day and other things...

Real mail was in the mailbox for me today, which makes it a good day! I don't know anyone who doesn't like to get personal mail, and when it's a package, that's doubly great!

My childhood best friend lives in Vietnam with her family. She's the one I was pictured with in my last post. I hope you have someone in your life that you have as much history with as I do with Shelly. We have birthdays 3 weeks apart, and we exchange presents. This bracelet is one she bought this summer while she was in CA. A boy and his family were raising money for him to go with his parents to get his adopted baby brother in Russia. How cool is it to be part of that! I love it, Shel! Thanks so much...

Recently, I received this card from fellow demonstrator Nadine. She and I are former Illinoians, and she made 100 of these cards for her husband to send out to colleagues. She's done with her Christmas cards already, gals!!! Amazing! This card is beautifully sparkly in real life. Great job, Nadine! You inspire me to get on mine!

Something else I designed this week is a bookmark using the Wanted stamp set. I'm taking it to a swap with other demonstrators in a few weeks, and I wanted to do something a little different than just a card front. It's hard to photograph, but the top is a copper metallic scalloped punch circle, then the image secured with an eyelet. The gingham moss ribbon travels down through the book and is anchored by a paisley from the set. I was inspired to make this by something I saw on splitcoaststampers.

Hope your weekend is going well. Gotta run and get ready for dinner...beautiful day today. Picture perfect!