{Maddy Bear}

One thing my Sister often has me make for her is invitations. We go back and forth bouncing ideas and after making lots of samples, sending lots of emailed pictures, chatting on the phone and adjusting colors, we come up with something she loves. My sweet niece, Madison is turning 3 next month - 3! Wow how time flies. Anyway, my Sister decided to throw Madison a Build-A-Bear (B-A-B) birthday party and I thought, "Yes!" Stampin' Up just came out with a whole B-A-B line and I, having a thing for bears, had to buy nearly the entire collection! So, my sister and I looked online for inspiration and found this card by "the_tamster" on Splitcoast Stampers and my Sister instantly fell in love with the houndstooth outfit. I took that idea and came up with this:


However, as usually is the case, my Sister wanted to see it in green. Aside from being her favorite color, the party was going to be coed, so since the bear was already super girly, my Sister thought a more neutral colored background might make it a bit more gender neutral. She also prefered the ribbon belt that "the_tamster" used. So, I accomodated and came up with this:


Bingo! Except she wanted the polka dot background back. Easy peasy. So I whipped up 15 of these babies (which is no small feat considering all those tiny die cut pieces) and delivered them to her over the weekend (I usually mail them out for her as well but not this time). She was thrilled with them. They were perfect and adorable and just as she imagined. Madison thought they were pretty cute too. I told her this bear was called "Maddy Bear" and it was her! She thought that was pretty cool. I think I'll have to make her some B-A-B paper dolls!

Even though cutting out ALL those tiny pieces was a bit of a pain, I must admit that I was happy with the way these little bears turned out. I will definitely have to do some more projects with these little cuties!

{Where's Clara?}

Yes, it's been a year but ya know what? I'm baaaaacck!

If anyone is still following this blog you may be wondering where the heck I went. Well, things just got too busy and hectic and although I was still stamping, my internet time was spent elsewhere. Doing what? Well, without going into too much detail, in February of 2008, I was diagnosed with food intolerances and everything about the way I cooked, the way I ate and even my perception of food had to change. My focus switched from stamping to learning everything I could about my offending foods, what they did to my body and how to cook without them. I even started a blog about that journey, Six Food Intolerance Living. Then, after a while, I started writing for an online news source, Examiner.com. I am the Silver Spring Gluten-Free Food Examiner and the National Soy-Free Food Examiner. So, as you can see, between writing for those 3 sources and all my research, learning to cook from scratch, and then actually cooking, I have been quite busy. I still stamped, but I will admit it was in limited quantities, of course my time browsing Splitcoast and my spending didn't change all that much! LOL Well, I am now making a conscience decision to change that! I hope that by reactivating this blog, I will stamp and post more often!

So, with that, I will share one of the favorite cards I've made lately.


This is totally me in the morning, I am a Grumpabella. Except I'm not a coffee drinker. But seriously, don't talk to me, don't even look at me, until I'm fully awake. guess that will have to change once I have kids! LOL Unless, hopefully, he/she is like me and doesn't like to talk in the morning either! With my luck though, I'll have a "morning person" kid who just wants to sing and play in the morning.

So, with that, I am officially back! If you're still checking this blog, hoping for an update, thank you for hanging on! I have lots to share with you!