Winner!

The Cutting Cafe Blog Hop winner is Amy Jones! Amy wins the Summer Fun Printable Stamp Set. Congratulations Amy! I sent you an email telling you how to claim your prize. Thanks everyone for all of your nice comments. I hope you'll stop by again sometime.

Card Cupids

I'm very honored & proud to be one of Card Cupids' guest designers for April. Card Cupids, with the help of numerous volunteers, provides Card Cuddle Care Packages to children in hospitals, foster care, and homeless shelters as well as children facing difficulties, regardless of their economic background. If you'd like to learn more about this wonderful organization and how you can support their efforts check HERE.

Card Cupids also has a Birthday Bundles Program that provides ongoing support to a homeless shelter in the Northern Virginia area. They provide each birthday child with a goodie bag filled with a bundle of cards and a new toy, game, or book.

Here are two of the cards that I designed for Card Cupids for their birthday project. The first one uses a cute image from Whimsie Doodles called Birthday Turtle.

This one uses Silly Monkey from Hambo Stamps.

I'll be sending both of these cards to Card Cupids, along with some others that I've made.

Thank you Card Cupids for the wonderful job that you do and for choosing me as a guest designer.

I am also submitting my Silly Monkey card to Party Time Tuesday's Anything Goes + Kraft challenge.

Hoedown Recyle Challege

I bought this craft frame on clearance for 50 cents. Actually I bought 2 planning to let my granddaughters color them. Well it never happened and they've outgrown coloring premade projects. They would much rather use my stamps and stuff and design their own. Yeah!! So they've been in my stash for ages...perfect for this week's Hoedown challenge to use Goat or any Hambo image and a sentiment to create a project that incorporates something recycled.

Here's my desk calendar made from the recycled craft frame...

Wouldn't checking this calendar for the date give you a chuckle?

When I saw this sentiment that comes with Goat digi, I knew it would also go perfectly with Ham on the Run.  This little piggie and his cute smile and bare butt just crack me up!

It was easy to turn this frame into a base for a desk calendar. I sawed off the crayon point sticking out on the side so both sides were straight. Then sanded the edges and sponged the edges with Old Olive ink. I added papers, calendar (thanks, Angie), felt flower recycled from a birthday decoration, and ribbon along with the image and sentiment.

Check your stash. I KNOW you have something you can recycle. Then come over and play with us at the Hoedown.

I've also submitted my desk calendar in the Anything Goes Challenge Blog - Time or Steampunk...a calendar is time, right?

Fun Background

I enjoy doing SCS challenges but haven't try one recently, so I decided to do the Ways to Use It Challenge today. The challenge was to Get Inky by using reinkers. There are quite a few techniques for using reinkers in the Resources forum on SCS. I decided to try the Rolling Marble Background because it reminded me of rolling marbles in paint and then on paper which I used to do with my preschool classes. Basically it's the same thing except you use reinkers instead of paint. I changed the technique a little because I didn't have any marbles. I raided my hubby's golf bag and used golf balls instead! So here's my fun background for a fun-gal!

I love this punny stamp and sentiment. They're Hambo Stamp's 2902 Mushrooms and 2909 Real Fun-gal. There's also a sentiment for Real Fungi. I also used the spotlighting technique for the first time. I think it worked well and added just the pop of color needed for this fun-gal!

Pick FOUR

The Hambo Hoedown Challenge this week is to use Candles or any other Hambo image and create a project that incorporates four of something (4 brads, 4 buttons, 4 patterns, 4 colors, etc.). I used 4716 Duck Umbrella along with 4704 Sunshine & Happines to make my card. I paper pieced the umbrella and used four dewdrops, one in each corner.

Hop over to the Hoedown and see what the other Bacon Bits have made to inspire you. Then "PICK  FOUR" and play! You might win a free digi!

 I'll add this card to the others that I'm making and sending to Card Cupids during my month as Guest Designer. If you'd like to help support Card Cupids, check HERE for details.

A Fitting Birthday...

The Cutting Cafe is featuring an adorable set called Fun with Dress Forms this week. This template cutting file and printable stamp set features shaped cards, lots of images and great sentiments to go with them. Here's the card that I made...

The inside says " to wish you a Happy Birthday."

I'm also submitting my card to Chocolate, Coffee & Cards Challenge 10~Pearls and Lace.

OWH "Make 'em Laugh" Blog Hop

Hambo Stamps is proud to support our nation’s deployed heroes through Operation Write Home^® This organization has sent over 1.5 million cards overseas so our service members can keep in touch with their loved ones. Hambo's "Talk to the Ham" blog is participating in the "Make 'Em Laugh" blog hop this weekend! Hambo's owner, Monica, and some of the Bacon Bits have made some funny cards for the Blog Hop. Here's mine...

I used OWH Sketch #114 and Hambo Stamps'  4581 - Ham on the Run and part of the sentiment 4106 - Crack a Smile. I love this image. His sweet smile and his cute "crack" seemed to go perfectly with the first part of  this sentiment.

Stop by Hambo's Blog "Talk to the Ham" to see some more funny projects and take some time to check out OWH’s blogs and all the others participating, starting at the top of the hop, http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org.

Card Cupids

I'm very exicted to have been chosen as one of the Guest designers for Card Cupids. Card Cupids is a wonderful organization that "provides encouragement and joy by sending cards and goodies such as stuffed animals, coloring books and art supplies to children who are facing difficult challenges in their young lives regardless of their economic background." Read more about Card Cupids and how you can help here.

I've aleady sent some cards to Card Cupids and I'm working on more. I made this card using a cute image from Whimsy Doodles April release called Birthday Turtle.

Card Cupid also has a monthly challenge. This month's challenge is to creat a journal. It can be a store bought journal or composition book that you alter or you could get really creative and create the whole journal. You might even win a prize. You can find all of the details here.

Smile!

Today is the last day to enter your project in the Hoedown. The challenge is to make a card with an extra fold using the free digi image Paper Boy or any Hambo image. I used Hambo's 4105 Gator and 4106 Crack a Smile to make a gatefold card with a twist.

The twist is that I adhered the right side of the image and the left side of the sentiment to the gatefolds. So it opens like this...

Isn't that paper prefect for this image? It's bumpy just like a gator's skin, not that I've ever touched a gator's skin, but that's what it reminds me of! I got it at Hobby Lobby. I made the gator's skin on the image "bumpy" by dabbing it with the tip of my blender pen after I colored it.

So hurry over and join in the Hoedown!

Did You Win?

To find out if you are the lucky person who won the prize from my blog or the grand prize, stop by TALK TO THE HAM tomorrow (Thursday) where all of the winners will be posted!!

Fun with Jars

The Cutting Cafe is featuring a set of jar templates and jar printable stamps this week. The Jar Shaped Card Set has three shaped jars - mason, candy and cookie jars. There are also fillers for the jars and lots of cute sentiments. The Fun with Jars stamps have over 90 images, including three jars, cookie, candy and mason jars, with fillers and sentiments for each type of jar.

I used the mason jar in the Fun with Jars set along with a bug from the Cute Critters Set featured last week to make a get well card. The sentiment is Caught a Bug from Hambo Stamps.

Be sure to check out the Cutting Cafe's Blog to see what the other DT members made with these sets. You'll love what you see.

It's a Hambo Slop Hop!

Welcome to the “Go Ahead, Laugh at Us!” Hambo Stamps Slop Hop! The Bacon Bits are here to help you start your month off right with a little April Fools laughter and fun.
If you arrived here from Jenn's blog, you are in the right place. If not, you will want to start back at the beginning at the Hambo blog – TALK TO THE HAM. We don’t want you to miss anything!

A little surprise is hiding on one of the blogs today, so be sure to leave some comment love as you “hoof it” around the hop. One lucky commenter on the mystery hop spot will be in hog heaven and win a $15 gift certificate to Hambo Stamps!

Plus I am giving away Spring Bunnies digi to one of my lucky peeps.

Just leave a comment and I will randomly draw a winner. Of course I love comments anytime, but the deadline for prize entries is Tuesday, April 3 at midnight CST.

A week from today the bunny comes, so I thought I'd give you a little Easter giggle. I used Hambo's Fractured Funnies stamp Tragic Egg to make my card. The template for the eggs and grass are from Cutting Cafe.

                               Inside...                              

Are you laughing yet? Well next up on the hop is Libby. You will love what she has to show you today!

　
Before you go, here's one last laugh for you...my pig joke for the day...

MOTHER PIG: What did you learn in school today?
FIRST PIGLET: Oink! Oink!
SECOND PIGLET: Oink! Oink!
THIRD PIGLET: Woof! Woof!
MOTHER PIG: WHAT?
THIRD PIGLET: I'm taking a foreign language!

Happy April Fools' Day!

* I also entered my card into Party Time Tuesday's Challenge #61 Anything Goes. Check it out for some fun challenges each week.