I'm so late!

I cannot believe I am only just now posting for the day. Ugh. I cannot handle this pace much longer. I am a homebody/do nothing sort of girl, and being busy every second of every day is irritating me. Sometimes when things get like this, just the thought of what I have left to do makes me hyperventilate slightly. It sort of makes my heart skip a beat, if that makes any sense. Thank heavens I have all of your fabulous sweet comments to get me through days like this!

First things first. I must show you these two Blogger RAK's I received recently but have not gotten posted yet. The first one I got is from Jen at Stamp Your Heart Out. Jen wrote the sweetest note about loving my blog and thanking me for inspiring her! Ahhhhh, it's you guys that inspire ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How totally sweet is that? Thank you Jen for such a pretty card. I love Taken with Teal cardstock, and most especially love Doodle this. The black gingham ribbon just makes the whole card pop!!!

The second card is a BRAK from Nancy Elrick at Nancy's Creative Mess! It's my first birthday RAK so far from the Bloggers group! Nancy used the Cuttlebug swirl embossing forlder on the front of the card, and used the Riveting set for the sentiment which is adhered inside the card, but peeks to the front through the circle punch! I love this technique. I need to do it more often. Thanks so much Nancy, it was such a fun surprise to get a card from the very famous NANCY!!!

Speaking of birthdays....Scottie's is now officially over. We had cake and opened gifts last night after the baseball game, which they won!! Woo-hoo! Now we can get on to celebrating mine, which is in a few weeks:)!!!! I'm going to be 44. Sometimes I feel that old, but most of the time, I feel MUCH younger. I don't think I LOOK that old (at least when I've got makeup on that hides the wrinkles and bags under my eyes), but sometimes I FEEL that old! Most of the time, birthdays don't bug me. Turning 40 was hard, but once the big birthday was here, I was fine. That was the best birthday EVER! Doug rented a convertible Corvette for the weekend for me to drive around in. I totally felt like I was 20, which was whole purpose of doing it! Let me tell you, guys love a girl in a sports car! When I'd be sitting at the stoplight, all these single, young guys would be looking over trying to flirt with the girly driving the hot car! I felt like I still had "it", even though I didn't! We had such a fun time that weekend driving around in that car! I will never forget it!!!

I love the card I'm sharing with you today! Don't you just love the paper by FancyPants? Love, love, love it. I thought it would be perfect with my new Hero Arts bird stamp. I stamped the bird once on Whisper White cardstock and then again on the Fancy Pants paper. I cut only the body out of the bird stamped on the FancyPants paper and then glued it on top of the bird stamped on the Whisper White.

I outlined the whole bird and his beak and legs with my Sakura Stardust pen. Then I matted the bird with the back of the FancyPants paper (a fun lime green colored design), and some Real Red cardstock. I sewed around both the bird and around the perameter of the FancyPants paper.

For a little bit of fun, I cut some flowers out of the FancyPants paper and outlined them with the Sakura Stardust pen. This card really sparkles in real life, but you can't see that so much with this photo! I just love my Hero Arts birdies. I hope you all have managed to buy some of these little guys too!!!

Oh, hey, I forgot to mention that I was one of the winners of Julee's (Poetic Artistry) recent sketch challenge!!!! She announced the winners today, there were 5 winners(!), and I was one of the lucky ones she and her hubby chose! I was floored that I could actually win something, honestly! I haven't had much luck with designer team submissions or print submissions over the last few months, so I am doubting my skills somewhat lately. It was a nice surprise to have been one of the lucky ones chosen, so THANK YOU Julee! You gave me a little hope in the ol' girl again!

Have a great night. I hope I can get some stamping done tonight so I can share in the morning!

Hugs,
Amy