Happy Birthday Becky!

This past Friday was my friend Becky's birthday (I'll keep her age to myself!). I wanted to take her out to dinner to celebrate and tonight was the day that worked best for her so she came over after school (she's a Para-Pro at a nearby middle school) and we chatted for a bit then headed out to visit TJ Maxx to see if we could find a lamp for her and then to dinner at Chili's followed by Chick-Fil-A for dessert! I can't tell you how GREAT tonight was! I loved getting caught up with Becky and making plans for next week. We've both got some milestone events coming up that we'll be working on.....Brittany's graduation and 18th birthday for me - her son & her mom's weddings for Becky. It's going to be a busy few weeks coming up!

I know that Becky needs some pampering so I made a very simple gift bag to hold the bath gel, body scrub and lotion I got her and a faux alligator skin purse to hold the bath beads. Does the card look familiar? ;o) After I made the card that you can find in the post below this one, I thought, "That card screams BECKY! I need to make one for her!" so I did! LOL! I didn't want to post these projects until after I had given them to her....just in case she visited. I would hate for her to see her gift before she got it so I waited until after we visited tonight. ;o)

Faux Alligator Skin purse, bag & card...notice how the colors coordinate...

AND they're same colors that Jaron challenged us to use?

Sorry for the glare...I had to take a very quick picture & I had already put it in an envelope.

Faux Alligator skin purse

Close-up of purse. How stinkin' cute is this?!

Bag holding bath accessories.

I wanted to keep this VERY simple so I just covered a small paper bag

with some DSP and punched the "handle" with the large oval punch....easy peasy!

What do you think? I would love to hear what you think of Becky's gifts. ;o)

Melissa's 23rd

I sat down to make my older step-daughter a birthday card and knew that I wanted it to be simple and pretty. I had just made Kehley's engagement card (see previous post) and loved the way the Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder worked with the vellum and I decided to do it with Melissa's birthday card.

I embossed the vellum and cut it down to 5 1/4" x 4". I stamped "Happy Birthday" on the same size Whisper White card stock and then adhered the vellum to the card stock using mini glue dots on the two upper corners (you couldn't see them through the vellum either!). After I did that, I wanted just a tad bit of color so I gently went over the raised edges of the vellum with my pastels and a sponge dauber. It doesn't really show up, but I used blue to give the rose some color...I didn't want a lot so I barely did it.


I wanted something more than the sentiment on the inside of her card so I stamped the big rose on the inside bottom corner. I *really* liked the way this card turned out!



Now that you saw the card that I created especially for Melissa....this is the card she'll get in the mail! Why? Because when I gave Gary the card to sign I didn't specifically say, "This is Melissa's card." and he signed "Gary" instead of "Love, Dad". I didn't because I told him earlier that I was making cards to get into the mail along with Melissa's birthday card that we would send her and another that we'll give her when we take her to dinner Sunday night.....I thought he would remember that his daughter was the only birthday card I would be making. Yeah, I know what you're thinking...."Are you kidding?! He's a man! Men don't remember things like that!" Oy! It was late last night and I was not going to make another card to get in the mail this morning so I went to my box of cards and grabbed this one. I'll most likely re-make the one above to give her Sunday night because I liked it so much but this is the one she'll be getting in the mail. :o( Oh well, at least she'll be getting one!

Happy "Sweet 16" Kimberly!

Yesterday was our youngest daughter's 16th birthday and I really wanted to make a special pop-up 3-tier cake card for her! I knew I wanted to use chocolate and pink and this is what I came up with. I really like the way this one turned out...hope you do to! Let me know what you think of it. :o)

16 candles just for Kimberly

Haley's Birthday Card

April 10th was our niece, Haley's 13th birthday and I decided she needed an extra cake! This is the new Sizzix Pop-Up Die (the Cake 3 Tier Die). You do need to have some type of closure for the card because the cake makes it pretty bulky but I didn't add it to Haley's card. I thought these colors worked well for a 13 year old...how bout you?

This is the outside of her card. I used the Scallop Oval punch that is in the Occasions mini catalog to punch the purple oval and the large oval punch to punch out the birthday greeting.

This in the cake on the inside of the card. Isn't it cute?

April Birthday Cards

Open
Closed

These are the cards that I created to send out to the April ladies of the "Birthday Club" that I belong to on an online group. It uses a 12x12 sheet of card stock cut into thirds, then you score it at the 4" mark and fold that over. You end up with 3 cards out of one sheet of card stock and they can be mailed in the regular letter envelopes. Pretty darn smart for the person that has tons of those envelopes! ;o)

I made another one for my mom (her 60th was April 1st....YES, that day fits her perfectly! LOL!!) and did the layout a tiny bit different. Instead of having the stamped image go all the way under the flap, I stopped it 1/4" shy so that I could write in that covered area (under the flap). I like that layout better but forgot to take a picture or scan it before we left to go meet her & take her to dinner. :o(

Now that it's passed....

I can show you Sydney's birthday card! I didn't want to chance her seeing it before her birthday and ruin the surprise so I didn't post it. I can post it now because we all met for dinner last night and the birthday girl had a good time opening her gifts (lots of Stampin' UP! stuff from Aunt Angie!) plus we got to eat at the new Red Robin at The Avenue Forsyth. Let me just say....YUM!! I have never eaten at a Red Robin before and I don't think this will be the last time we eat there! Good choice Sydney!! :c)

Now, her card has two stamps to it - the "Happy Birthday" on the outside and the sentiment on the inside. The dress is made using three different punches (is this not the cutest thing ever?!)! The skirt is made using the large oval punch, the bodice is made using the small tag punch and the straps are made using the word window punch. Once you put the dress together, simply put a strip of 1/4" grosgrain ribbon at the bottom of the bodice of the dress and add another coordinating ribbon knot or some other embellishment and viola - way cute dress for a way cute girl!!

Need a quick card for a bridal shower? Easy-peasy - change the dress to white and add a flower in the brides wedding colors as the embellishment on the ribbon! Want an elegant card for a dinner party hostess? Change the dress colors to black and white! What could be more elegant that those colors together? Need a fun birthday party invitation? Take that Designer Series Paper (or any background paper from your stash that we all have hoarded!) and punch to your hearts content! Are you getting the idea that this dress is not only easy to create but can be used for SO many different occasions? Good! That's what I was trying to get across! LOL!

Happy Birthday Honey!

July 1st is Gary's birthday and I've been trying to upload his birthday card but have had some problems (no internet!) being able to do that. I now have internet access and can upload his birthday card but I think it's a good thing that I couldn't get his card uploaded because now he can't see it until his birthday (or later)! I hope you all enjoy it - I had a great time creating this one! I got the design idea from SplitCoastStampers sketch challenge and I loved this one! I knew exactly which set I wanted to use (AND which stamp!) when I saw the sketch!

{Supplies}
Stamps: Lovely As a Tree
Paper: Soft Sky (base), Wild Wasabi, River Rock DSP, Very Vanilla
Ink: Wild Wasabi (inside sentiment), Basic Brown
Accessories: Stampin' Pastels, Stampin' Dimensionals

My First Project

I said I wanted to post a project per week and I'm posting a project first thing! This is the invitations for our beautiful daughter's 17th birthday party. I'll apologize now for the "fuzziness" of the card. My scanner is on the blink so I'm going with a digital picture instead of a scanned image like I would normally do. Brittany wanted me to use blue and purple for her invitations so I used the trusty "Color Coach" to come up with different purple/blue combinations and let her choose which one she liked best. I added another coordinating color to it and viola!

These are made from a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock so they are not your standard size card. You cut your cardstock into fourths and then fold those in half so you have 4 cards (or in my case, invitations!). Way too cute! All "ingredients" are listed below....

Stamp Sets: Brushstroke Alphabet Numbers (retired), Together Forever, Baroque Motifs, She's All That

Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Buckaroo Blue ('07 In Color), Mellow Moss, Very Vanilla

Ink: Elegant Eggplant, VersaMark

Accessories: 1 3/8" circle punch, Circle Coluzzle, Stampin' Dimensionals