Birthday Happy Mail!

Not only was April 8th Easter Sunday, but it was also my birthday! Check out the happy mail that I received from some very special ladies!!

from Gloria:

from Amanda:

from Paula:
from Angie:


from Pete:

from Jane (notice the special "treat" that was inside the little bag!):


from Rose:
from Cindy:


from Kathi:

from Terry:

A very BIG thank you to all of you!!! I love each and every one of my birthday greetings!! I sure had fun going to the mailbox!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my birthday and I received many beautiful hand-stamped cards. Going to the mail box was SO fun this past week! :) Here are the cards that I received this year:

*****

Amanda

Paula

Paula (inside)

my Mom

Dee (aka Cookiemonster on SCS)

Angie

Rose

Gloria

Dawnmarie

Kathi

Vera

Jen

Cindy

I loved each and everyone of them and I want to thank you all for making my birthday extra special with your thoughtfulness!!

A Rainy Day = A Good Stampin Day!

Today was a dark, dreary and very rainy day...the PERFECT day to get into my hideaway and stamp the afternoon away. (My hubby was working on the taxes, so I wanted to stay far away!) :) I've been working on building up my stash of birthday cards. Here's another one that I made today. I will be submitting this to The Crafty Pad's challenge to use RIBBON.

The image is Birthday Ridley by Digital Delights by Looby Loo. He was printed onto GP110 white cardstock and colored using my much-loved Copic Markers. Cardstock used it SU's Concord Crush and Green Galore; the patterned paper is unknown. The birthday sentiment is from Stampin' Up. I attached green stick-on gems to the cupcake for the "sprinkles". I wish MY cupcakes had pretty gems on them! :) The 1" wide purple grosgrain and the 3/4" wide pink satin ribbon are from Offray.

This Ridley image was so much fun that I think I might need to order some other ones!! Check out the cute images from Digital Delights here.

Make sure to come back tomorrow to see what else I made today! Hope to see you then!

More Birthday Cards I've Received...

I've received some wonderful birthday greetings this year! My birthday was on the 8th. Here are a couple more that I got this week:

This beautiful card is from a new stamping friend, Paula, who happens to live 'just around the corner' from me.
I've never tried to make a latch card. Maybe she's inspired me?! Hers is beautiful!
This is the card that my mom made. Isn't that a pretty floral image? I think I might need to borrow it from her! And she colored it beautifully. I think she loves her Cuttlebug as much as I do!

I recently joined the Birthday RAK group on SCS. I received this cute Hanna Stamps card from Loretta as a BRAK. I agree, Loretta, I'd rather be stamping than vacuuming any day!!!

My Birthday Celebration Continues!

Yesterday, I went out with some friends to Savage Mill in celebration of my birthday. Savage Mill is a historic mill in Savage, MD that has been converted into a very cool mall with some wonderfully 'different' shops. Our first stop was at The Queen's Ink, a very 'artsy' stamp store. I had never been to QI before and was excited about seeing what I had been missing! I was NOT disappointed! The store is beautifully decorated and filled to the rafters with all sorts of stamping and scrapbooking supplies! It was almost overwhelming!! After shopping to our hearts content at QI, we went to lunch at Ram's Head Tavern...yummy! After getting our fill of good food and good conversation, we decided to walk off our lunch by meandering throughout the mall. These lovely ladies also gave me some lovely birthday gifts. Here's what I got:

From Loretta, an adorable post-it-note holder made from a chipboard coaster. She attached a decorated RSVP pen with a matching ribbon. Now, maybe I'll be able to find a pen when I need to write something down! She also gave me a cute little bag with my initial on the front and inside it was filled with all sorts of dimensionals. This was such a sweet thing for someone to do who had never even met me before!
This is a card that Rhonda made me. The card has a cut out flower and she placed packing tape on the back and then put glitter on the sticky side. It's SO pretty! She also made 'party favors' (on the left) for everyone. It was filled with chocolates...notice I said WAS! :)

Rhonda also gave me this...a wooden box that she had covered with patterned paper. The box looks like a book, and she painted the edges of the 'pages' in gold. Inside she also lined the box with patterned paper and filled it to the brim with all sorts of stamping goodies- stamps, ribbons, fibers, brads...This box will look so pretty sitting on the coffee table in my living room!

It was such a fun and relaxing day. Thanks, ladies, for inviting me!!

Birthday Celebration- Meade Girls' Style!

Last night, I was treated to a great birthday celebration dinner at Cheeseburger In Paradise by the Meade Girls. What a fun time- good food, good friends and lots of great gifts and cards...and yes, they made me wear a silly hat! Here are pictures of what they gave me:

Tracy gave me a collection of altered items all with a seashell theme. The larger container is filled with bath salts with a hanging tag. The smaller container is a delicious smelling Yankee Candle. She also altered a cute little spiral notebook- perfect for taking notes, and some wonderful hand lotion. Notice the matching card behind the candle? Sure makes me think of summer and the beach!
Amanda gave me this fabulous hanging calendar. The year runs from April 2009 through March 2010. I love it and it'll look great in my stamping room (once I get it organized- see the next post!)

Kathi gave me a gift certificate to Create IT Crafts, one of my absolute favorite stores! I can't wait to spend it!

Stacy gave me a great little embossed bucket filled with embellishments and candy-filled eggs. I can't wait to try the Glimmer Mist!

Dawnmarie gave me a whole bunch of Bath & Body Works stuff (my 2nd favorite store!) It all smells SO good!! (Sorry, for some reason I just couldn't get a clear picture of this! )

...and then there was Kimme's gift. Kimme wasn't able to make it to the dinner celebration, but she sent my gift through one of the other girls. Well, if you know Kimme, she's a sweet, innocent little thing- or so I thought! Here's the gift she gave me:

...a lacy pair of pink panties and a set of candy nipple tassles!!!! Well, I guess I had Kimme pegged wrong!! :)

After gifts and a delicious dinner, there was cake- well, I think there was a cake under all those flaming candles! I was afraid the fire alarm was going to go off! The wait staff had the whole restaurant sing Happy Birthday and boy, was THAT embarassing...well, not as embarassing as it would have been if they had seen Kimme's gift!!! :)

What a great birthday I'm having this year...and it isn't even my birthday, yet!!

Early Birthday Surprise!

My friend, Gloria, surprised me today with an early birthday present. She gave me a 24-pack of Prisma pencils, some stumps, a bottle of OMS and an Amuse stamp pad. There is an inside joke between us about me owning a VERY large set of Prismas for the past several years and my not sharpening them because I didn't want to 'ruin' them. So, she made sure to sharpen the pencils before she gave them to me, so now, I have sharpened pencils AND everything else needed to learn how to color with the Prisma pencils and OMS. So, I have NO EXCUSE not to learn how to do it!! Keep an eye peeled here to see what I create as I learn! She also gave me THE most ADORABLE card! Here it is:
She used a Stamps by Judith stamp. She double stamped the woman and popped her up with pop dots. The verse inside says "I love the smell of paper, ink and stamps first thing in the morning!" I just LOVE it! You can't tell from the picture, but the striped background paper has a glitter strip running through it. I just adore this card! And I still can't figure out how she found a stamp that looks just like me when I wake up! :) Thanks, Gloria, for everything!! You can check out her SCS gallery here--> http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=119540