I'm Back: A Welcome Celebration

Hello dear friends! It has been far too long since I have blogged my crafty endeavors, but it has been quite a full year! I am so glad to have my mojo back!
I am in New Mexico this month visiting my mom who is going through chemo and a bilateral mastectomy for breast cancer. She is being such a trooper and I know her positive attitude will be what gets her through. <3
I flew out from California this week and made sure I took every bit of luggage allowable without having to pay extra, which meant taking along a small scrapbook tote and my Cricut! :) My clothing bag was 7 pounds over the 50 pound limit, so I did have to leave all my patterned paper behind...it clocked right in at 7 POUNDS! I won't pretend I'm embarrassed, a girl needs her supplies!
In light of this torture, I *had* to head out to Hobby Lobby yesterday and happend to come home with some echo park papers, new copics, and tons of Dear Lizzie ribbon. <3 WOOT!
Here's the resulting card after my fun shopping trip with my sister:

I used Dress up Anya by The Greeting Farm and altered her hairstyle by cutting her long locks off and adding the hairbuns from the Flutter Anya instead. Altering this image was SO fun and I foresee many more in the coming days.
If you haven't tried this yet with your TGF stamps, DO IT! You can't tell the image has been cut or altered once it's colored up, see:

I paper pieced Anya's T-shirt from the Dress Me Up set using the new Echo Park papers I bought at Hobby Lobby. The paper pack came as a scrapbooking kit, so I used some stickers from the set as well as some of the banners from the papers to embellish my card. A little Cricut work on that scallop, and I was all set!
I'm so glad you stopped by to see what was new and I look forward to checking in quite a bit while I am here because I have lots of time to craft!
Hugs and HOOTS,
<3 Alicia