And the Oscar Goes To....ME!

I have a couple more FUN awards to share & pass on - and a tag! It's been busy in the blog-o-verse, huh?

First, from Vicki, my uber-creative sister in Prickley Pear rubbah designing:

Isn't it pretty?! I haven't gotten this one before. I'd like to pass it along to with Emily, Lynn, AJ, and Wanda. I've been reading their blogs for awhile now and they're all very talented. Check them out!

I also have this beeee-utiful golden Visa BFF award from not one but THREE of my bestest girls, Danyelle, Deb and Kisa. Danyelle, you know I luuuurve you, I shall wish for some darkness for you to calm down the WJs and let you get some rest! And Deb - Y.K.Y.R. woman!! {'nuff said}. Kisa - welcome home, we missed you, you creative genius!

Should we think for a minute the damage that could be done with this baby were it a REAL gold card? And someone else was getting the bills? Aaah...now there's a fantasy I can really get into.

Of course the best things in stamping accessories {and blog awards} are not free. The deets:

1. You can only award this to 5 blogger friends.
2. Four of those must be hardcore addicts of your blog.
3. One must be a relatively new follower from another part of the world.
4. You must link back to the person who gave you the award.

I am thinking hard to figure out if I *HAVE* any hardcore addicts of my blog. Let's pretend...Heather {she's an in-town BFF too!}, Kari, Deb, and Allison. The new follower hat goes to...Lorie, the newest Belli Challenge gal!

aaaannnd...Jeani tagged me. Thanks Jeani! These are really fun, but I do have trouble coming up with stuff sometimes - I guess I'm not that interesting - LOL. This is the 7 random facts tag. The rules are simple . . . you reveal 7 facts (random, funny, weird, etc. facts) about yourself and then tag 7 other people (with links to their blogs) & post a note on their blog that they've been tagged!

You may be sick of reading about me {WHAT? No!} but I'll see if I can come up with some fun ones.

1. My favorite fast food place is Taco Bell. I don't care what anyone says! It's delicious.

2. I have spent quality time in the tube maze of the McDonald's play land. As an adult.

3. I have that Child-Activated Attention Defecit Disorder you've been hearing about. It's an epidemic!

4. One of the last times I was visiting back east {NJ}, I went to Atlantic City with my aunt, uncle and some cousins. My uncle won big at Three Card Poker so he took us all to lunch at the Hard Rock on the boardwalk and my cousin told the waiter that it was my birthday {wasn't}. So the waiter gets me a shot in this nice Hard Rock AC glass, drags me up on a table, yells to everyone it's my birthday and pours the shot down my throat. Literally. He wouldn't let me hold the glass and he tipped and MY HEAD back so fast he almost choked me. It was kind of embarassing actually. But I got to keep the shot glass. ;-)

5. The first movie that DH and I saw on a date was Gangs of New York. I know. It's amazing he got another date after that tragic choice.

6. I have read every Harry Potter book at least three times.

7. I've been to the ORIGINAL Ron Jon Surf Shop. It's in Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island in south Jersey and it's the only one of the stores where all the screenprinted clothes and stuff actually say "The Original". All the others say some variation of Ron Jon Surf Shop is #1.

Whew! I am going to tag some of my SBS13 sisters, I have been a little bit of an absentee sister lately with all the moving, but I do still read all your blogs! Richelle, Linda, Angie, Debi, Nessy, She, and Karen -- let's hear your facts girls!

Long Overdue Award

From the Naughty Blogger files {not like that - I can't believe your mind works that way!}, I have a very long overdue award to post. Allison, Deb Kari and Debi awarded this very cool blog tag to me and I am a couple weeks behind in passing it along.

Thanks ladies for the shout out! It always gives me a warm fuzzy {yes I really mean that} - and you're all super talented too! I read all your blogs on a regular basis. Here are the award rules:

• By accepting this Brillante Webblog Premio 2008, you have to award it to seven more people whose blogs you find Brilliante Award worthy.
• You can give it to as many people as you want but please award at least seven.
• Make a comment on the nominated blog.

Ok, I know since I am so late, a lot of people may have already gotten this award by now. But that's ok. You can get it again. :-) My Brillante Picks are:

• Heather - The Best in Life
• Danyelle - Hangnailz N Papercutz
• Jo - Only Joking
• Lisa - Lab Geek Turned Artist
• Kelli - Yard Sale Kind of Luck
• Jessica - There She Goes
• Lauren - My Time, My Creations, My Stampendence

An Award & New Shout Outs!

The fabulous Deb at Paper, Ink, Scissors & Stamps gave me this cool award. She's amazingly talented with a wickedly funny sense of humor - I check her blog every day and am so happy to have "met" her. If you haven't given her a visit yet, you should!

So the award - can I just say that I LOVE the graphic! It totally does rock socks. I am giving this award to a few of my newly discovered blogs - they may not be new, but new to me and I feel very fortunate to have found them. All were immediate adds to my daily Google Readering and have lots of great projects and ideas to share.

• Andi Mead - Family, Friends and Stampin' Up!
• Jill Dunn - Inkgenious {yes she is!}
• Paula Williamson - Paper Possibilities

Awards and Tags!

Happy Monday! I am finally getting some time to post some WAY overdue awards and tags from some of my fabulous blogging friends. I know I've been a bad blogger lately ~ sorry! We are trying to sell our house and boy does that take a lot of TIME.

First up, a tag from Lorraine. If you haven't seen her blog, you should check it out - she's got great ideas! This is the Seven Random Facts one - tell Seven Random Facts about yourself and tag seven other bloggers. I have trouble with this one - I am just not that interesting I guess! I did do it once before but I thought up some new facts for today. heehee.

1. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher "when I grew up" - beacuse my dad was a teacher at the time. That only lasted until about middle school though, when I realized that I have NO patience for the kind of explaining and time it takes to teach someone school subjects - like math.

2. I'm such a hoarder - always have been {what papercrafter isn't right??}. When I was younger, whenever I got "more" of something, or something new, my dad used to say "look, something shiny!" because I'm such a pack rat. {get it - because the pack rats take all the shiny stuff and run it back to their burrow or wherever and keep it forever, never using it for anything or throwing it out....kind of like patterned paper.}

3. When I was pregnant with my DS #1 I had some memory problems. Either from "mommy brain" or from lack of sleep, not sure which! One day we were doing some landscaping and I went into the garage to get something, completely forgetting what I needed when I got in there. As I'm standing there my DH comes to find me and asks what I'm doing. I remember - sort of. I told him I was looking for "the hole-maker thing". He stared at me....then he says {in the voice they use with the people at the "special" hospital} "do you mean that you need a shovel?". Honestly! I could not remember the word shovel for the life of me, or where I would find one in our garage. Once he said that it all clicked back though. It was a bit bizarre though.

4. I prefer Diet Coke over Diet Pepsi any day.

5. I love to read. If it is "my time" and I'm not stamping {or blog surfing!!} you'll find me reading.

6. I always wanted to be able to sew. My mom can sew really well - she's amazing, actually. Doesn't even need patterns. But I can't! Although I recently bought one of those Hello Kitty sewing machines (a 3/4 size no less!) for sewing on cards and layouts. Now, if I can just figure out how to use it...

7. My cell phone ring tone is the song "Rockstar" by Nickelback. I love that song!

So - what's the verdict, am I dull? Did you even read down this far? Well, I'll try to get some better facts for the next tag, how's that sound? :)

I am going to tag:

• Kisa at Kisa's Paper Cuts {I know I tagged her not long ago but I think her facts will be funny so I wanna hear 'em}
• Jessica Lynn at JessicaLynnOriginal
• Danyelle at Hangnailz n' Papercutz
• Ely at Confessions of a Teenage Scrapper
• Karen at Karen's Creation
• Debi at Just Me and My Rubber Stamps
• Linda at The Stamper's Touch

I also have a "You Cheer Me Up" award from Monkia Davis at M.A.D. Stamper. Thanks Monika! I've been stalking {um, I mean reading} her blog for-evah and she does amazing work. She's also got a feature "Treasures of the Day" sharing great cards she's found in her blog adventures for even MORE insiration. Very cool!

I'm giving this one to Deb at Paper, Ink, Scissors and Stamps {she's so fun and I LOVE her blog} and Mary Dawn at My Pink Mexico because they cheer ME up!

Last one, I have a You Make My Day award from Sue at StampinDaly. Thanks Sue! I know I've been a bad blogger lately with {not} leaving comments much - just been too busy. I am so happy to have such great blogging friends to still think of me even when I am MIA! You're all fabulous. I am passing this award on to Richelle at Lady Bug Spots {for ALWAYS leaving me such wonderful comments!}, Giovana at A Place to Praise and Craft {I hope you get your trip to Peru SOON}, Wendy at Inkling of Love {for giving me your blog addy to check out - I love it, you're such a doll!}, and Delia at Scrapping With Friends {she's a newer blogger but sooo talented - I LOVE her layouts and she's so sweet too!}.

Whew, I think I am caught up with tags now at least. I have a lot of projects sitting here too, but I have to run to preschool for awhile. Hopefully I'll have some more posts later today!

Arte y Pico Award!

Ugh, this is soooo late, but I am finally getting to some of my "backlog" blog posts. Choosing who to pass these along to is so hard because I love so many blogs! There's so much talent being shared out there, it just makes me smile every time I load up my {ever-growing} Google Reader list.

The award - thank you goes out to Chris Dickinson! Yes, Ms. Weekly Belli Challenge herself has showered me with a little love. :-) I am so happy to get this, Chris, you know you made my week!

There are 5 rules attached to this:

1) You must pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributions to the blogging community...no matter what language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given them the award itself.

4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of the

"Arte y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin.

5) To show these rules.

The 5 blogs that I am awarding are:

• Linsey Rickett at Outside the Lines
• Monika Davis at M.A.D. Stamper
• Michelle Zindorf at Freedom in Creating
• Kisa Peters at Kisa's Paper Cuts
• Tammy Hershberger at Stamp Happy

Check them out for some SERIOUS inspiration!

An Award, For ME?!

Thank you Richelle! She said I made her day - isn't she the best? Of course this was like a week ago but it still counts! Sorry I'm so late with this Richelle, I am working on getting caught up. :)

Getting this note from Richelle (she's one of my SBS13 Sistas!) just made me smile. I hadn't stamped in DAYS and was into a little bit of a Jennifer Pity Party and this turned my attitude around!

In turn, I'd like to give a quick shout out to the following fabulous ladies and their inspiring blogs:

• Jody Morrow with her AWESOME creations using the Essence of Love stamp set (well, and everything else too, but especially these the last few weeks!). She made me buy it - even though "I'm just not buying any more stamps right now".
• Nancy at Scrap This! She makes the most amazing scrap pages, I am in awe of her talent.
• Wanda at My Creative Corner. She's got great tips and art to share and she posts all the time - I don't know how she gets so much stamp time but whatever it is I want some!
• Coley, also one of my SBS13 sistas, who is always dropping by and leaving sweet comments, I LOVE getting feedback and this always gives me a little lift.
• Lesley, another SBS13 sista, who is always swinging by to say hi - just like I'd think a real sista would!

I hope this can brighten your day as it did mine. I'll be back later with this week's Tutorial Thursday post!

Another Award!

I've been tagged again with a Blog Excellence award! So fun! This time was by Maria (riaann) at Ria Creations. She's the sweetest! Go check out her stuff, she has great taste and she's a guest designer for Starving Artistamps too - they've got a ton of cool new images and she's got SAMPLES!

This time I wanted to give some recognition to a few of the awesome blogs that I've been stalking since the very beginning - the stamping royalty, as it were. :-) They probably get these all the time, but still. They deserve them.

Gina K - A Day in the Life - Gina is so generous with her knowledge! She does amazing things with Copics & colored pencils too. I love her blog (and her store), she has a dangerous amount of adorable images at her disposal.

Jody M - Confessions of a Ribbon Addict - All around amazing projects and awesome shares! I've been following her blog forever!

Amy R - Prairie Paper and Ink - Amy's was the very first blog I started following. She has the best ideas and tutorials - and she posts things allllll the time! I don't know how she does it! I've considered eliminating sleep from my life and I probably still wouldn't have the time to come up with half the fab things she does.

Jeanne S - Inky Paws - I started out stalking Jeanne's gallery on Splitcoast Stampers. I love her style - she makes UNBELIEVEABLE cards. When I grow up I want to be just like her. heehee.

Beate J - Fresh & Fun - I don't even know where to start. I mean - it's BEATE - what else is there to say?

A well-deserved "we're not worthy" for each of you! *grin*

And The E Goes To...

Whew! Busy day over here! I have finally had some time to think about who to award my E's to so I wanted to get this post up. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, check 2 posts down or click HERE - I received a nomination for a blog award and now have my chance to spread the love and give out some accolades of my own! The winners, in absolutely no particular order, are:

Kelly - Diaries of a Stamper - Want to peek at all the dirty secrets of uber-amazing stamping? Then this is the only diary you'll ever need!

Etha - More Green Wool - Multi-talented and super creative, Etha has a real eye for the little details and also shares great tips in every post. How do you say "rockin' stamp woman" in German?!

Debbi - Debbi's Design Stamping - What can I even say? Debbi is amazing. I feel like I'm in a Wayne's World sketch - "we're not worthy!".

Paula - Love Blooms In Me - Hands down the layer and embellishment QUEEN of the WORLD, I am in love with every card she's ever made. I should be curtseying just thinking about it. Curtseying - is that even a word? Anyway, you get the idea.

Linda - Celebration Moments - One of my PPRS design team sisters, Linda does it ALL. Scrap pages, cards, a weekly sketch challenge...you absolutely don't want to miss her little corner of cyberspace.

Sue - StampnDaly - Oh my, tons of drop-from-your-chair gorgeous projects here, super cute 3D gifties plus plenty of cards. A new find for me but a definite must stalk blog!

Teresa - Inkfully Yours - Another new blog find for me, but what a gem! And she's a guest designer for Starving Artistamps, you know how I love their images (even though I didn't make the DT this time around, boo hoo!).

Heather - Ink on my Ear - Heather is my absolute bestest friend, as well as a fabulously talented stamper, even though SHE doesn't think so (I figure she must be blind or something). Drop in and give her some love.

Tangii - Tangerines Dream Creations - Yet ANOTHER new blog to me, but Tangii is both super sweet and (as my DS #1 would say) WAY talented. She does amazing things with Prima flowers - you must see!

Allison - Stampin' When I Can - Last but definitely not least, Allison at Stampin' When I Can....what can I say? She has the best blog in the world, it is full of amazing stamping links for just about every topic there is, plus her cool card creations, weekly challenges, and more. I am sure she's single-blogedly responsible for 90% of my hits to date with her generous link ups. She spends so much time surfing blogs for great info to share with the stamping world and deserves so much love from all of us. I know she's had some computer issues of late so send some happy thoughts out her way.

Ok, there you have it, my February 11th, 2008 E awards! Ladies, I religiously stalk each of your blogs (hope you don't mind) - and you're all tremendously talented. Thank you for sharing that!! I hope you will each spread the love by making some award nominations of your own. Stamp on!

Here is the graphic again for you to copy and display on your site:

It's Red Carpet Time!

OMGosh! Such a busy day yesterday I was barely even online (*GASP*, right!?) and this morning I had an e-mail waiting from the insanely talented and wickedly funny Danyelle over at Hangnailz n' Papercutz giving me this "E" for Excellence blog award!! *shriek*

I am still soooo excited & honored by the sweet comments! I'd like to thank the Academy....wait that's not right. I would like to thank my two DS's for hopefully TAKING A NAP (please oh please) every day so I can stamp. *snort* - I don't know, do you think begging like that actually helps? Anyhoo...if you haven't seen Danyelle's place, swing by - it's a definite add to my daily Google Reader reads!

One of the coolest thing about this award - I get to pass it on to ten fabulous bloggers myself!! Woo hoo! Check back tomorrow for that list, I am not going to get to finishing my selections tonight. Happy blog surfing!