Balloons! And BLOG CANDY!!!!!

I made a card for the Mini Virtual Stamp Night over on Splitcoaststampers last weekend and LOVED the challenge that said USE BRIGHT COLORS...absolutely NO problem for me whatsoever. I recently went through my box of ready-made cards and realized 90% of them are BRIGHT.  Which fits my personality quite well since I'm kinda loud. hehe.  I did throw in a little Pool Party (the teeny clouds) to tone it down a bit. Yeah....right.

I freaking LOVE THIS STAMP SET (Up Up and Away). I totally SQUEEEE'd out loud when I saw it in our new Catalog! I've seen hot air balloons for real once in my life....Abilene had a hot air balloon festival when we happened to be up there visiting my Brother in Law and his family.  It's so amazing to see them in action.  And the crazy people who are willing to stand in that teeny, tiny basket and fly HIGH in the sky!!! I'll watch safely from the ground thankyouverymuch!!!

Here's some pictures from the real thing....

Look at the TEENY TINY basket! GAH!!!




 And my card... 

All by Stampin' Up!--Stamps: Up Up and Away, Cardstock: Pear Pizzazz, Tempting Turqoise, Melon Mambo
Ink: Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party
Accessories: Scallop punch, circle punches, Corner Rounder punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

I used markers to color some of the balloons, and popped up some of them with dimensionals.

So...for the BLOG CANDY!!! I recently discovered I have ordered 2 different background stamps TWICE since our new catalog came out! That is how disorganized I am! (I also have flibbertigibbet tendencies...I know this. I also need an Organization Intervention in my Stamp Studio!!! GAH!!!) That also tells you how much I LOVE these particular stamps because I wanted to make sure I had them! BWAHAHAHAHA!!
So I'm going to have back-to-back blog posts with blog candy! CAN YOU STAND IT!!!
SO--to get your name in the hat for this week's stamp--the Stampin' Up! DISTRESSED DOTS background stamp--please leave a comment.  You have until midnight CST, August 13th, 2011. I'll announce the winner on 8/14/2011! Good luck!

Lots to share!!!

I cannot even begin to tell you how busy I've been.  Flyin' by the seat of my pants kinda busy...I'm tired of being busy...but enough whining. Lemme show you a couple of things I've been able to eek out the last 2 weeks!

First--my brother graduated from college 2 weeks ago! SQUEEE! So excited for him--and I got to go spend the weekend with him! Fantastic weekend.  Here's a picture of him at his graduation in San Diego.

(He looks happy there, right? He is the funniest guy on the planet, just so you know. I got the best ab workout that weekend from laughing!!)

Ok, so I needed a card for his graduation.  A couple of weeks ago my friend Libby Hickson made THIS super cute card. I obsessed over that stamp set from The Greeting Farm, but it's currently discontinued! I was able to find a brand new set in Australia thanks to eBay, though!!! SQUEEE

So...using some inspiration from Libby...here's what I did:

Stamps: The Greeting Farm--Fly Away

Papers and ribbon: Stampin' Up

Ink: Memento and Copic Markers

Tools: Martha Stewart Fringe Scissors , Big Shot and Swirls Embossing Folder

Isn't Piggy super cute? My 10 year old saw me coloring him and she HAD to have a Piggy to color too! He makes me smile!! He made my brother laugh when he saw him.  A very non-traditional Graduation card!!

This weeked I'm traveling to Houston to visit my BFF of many, many years and the sister I never had...this woman and I have laughed so much over the years I'm sure it's extended our lives by at least a decade.  Since I knew I was seeing her this weekend I neglected to mail her a card for her birthday last month...I wanted to give it to her in person.

This is a stencil!! I love this idea! I saw THIS card from my friend Dreena, and modified it just a bit.

Stencil: Stampin' Up

Paper & Ink: all Stampin' Up

Accessories: ribbon, Hodgepodge Hardware-Stampin' Up, Shimmer Spritz

This weekend we're going to Pinot's Palette--a studio where you learn to paint a masterpiece, and you bring your own wine! We'll be painting Van Gogh's Cafe at Night and I'll be VERRRRY interested to see how well my replica is after a couple of glasses of wine!!! I'll keep you posted!!