Make a Wish - Fun Fringe Frame

When I first saw BoBunny's Surprise collection, I knew I had to have it.  It is such a fun birthday collection and was absolutely perfect for scrapbooking my youngest son turning one. 

I absolutely LOVE this paper because it is already decorated so well...I just needed a big photo and a few accents to really make this page shine.  I embellished the paper with some sequins and die cuts (BoBunny Surprise Noteworthy) which I popped up on foam squares for added dimension.

However, my favorite part of this page is the frame I made for the photo. 

I simply took three pieces of red tissue paper, folded them together multiple times, and cut a rectangle slightly larger than my photo (make sure to cut your rectangle so there are no folded sides being used as an edge).  Then cut little slits all around the edges...be careful around the corners.  Finally, separate and fluff up the layers a bit and adhere the photo into the frame.

Let me know if you give this a try...I'd love to see your project too!

It's Birthday Creations Week!

It's Birthday Creations week over in the Moxie Fab World and on the Paper Crafts blog and I couldn't be more excited!   My happy birthday cake banner is on the cover (my first cover appearance!) and I have a fun All Star Birthday Bash party ensemble published in the magazine.  I already have my copy and I can guarantee you that it is an issue you do not want to miss!  You can have a chance to win a copy over on the Paper Crafts blog today or can participate in fun birthday challenges over in the Moxie Fab World.

And in honor of this fun birthday issue, I thought I would share a birthday card I made recently for Crate Paper's June Creative Weekly - Polka Dots. 

I created this card using Crate Paper's The Pier collection.  I decided to take my scissors to one of the pinwheels (gasp!) but love how it turned out...I think they frame the card/sentiment nicely.  And don't you just love the aqua and gold combination?!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to check out the new Birthday Creations: Volume 3 and congrats to all of you out there who had your lovely projects published in this issue too!  I kept oohing and ahhhing every time I turned the page! :)

Happy Birthday Sweet Thing! - Ice Cream Card

Hello friends!  I am still in birthday mode here...enjoying all the photos from our party and starting to scrapbook them too.  So, I thought I would share another birthday card that I made recently.  Sometimes I like to get out some pen and paper and draw out ideas I have for cards or layouts and that is how this card came together.  After a little trial and error, I designed this triple scoop ice cream card...

For the cone I stamped Unity's Worn Grid background stamp at a diagonal to give the cone a more textured/realistic look and I scored some lines around the top too. But, the cone still looked too plain so I decided it was the perfect spot for the sentiment.  I used a sweet paperclip from GCD Studios Pure Bliss collection and created two little flags for the stamped sentiment.

Then for the ice cream scoops, I used my Bo Bunny Double Dot paper...I just love the sweet little dots and vibrant colors.  :)  I simply used a circle die to trace an arc and then used scalloped scissors along the bottom of each scoop.  Finally I topped off my ice cream cone with real sprinkles...fun, right?! 

We are in end of school year mode around here...lots of celebrations, fun activities, and tons of excitement as we get ready for summer.  I am looking forward to relaxing days at home with my boys, trying new things (like rock climbing), and a trip to the coast.   Wishing you all a wonderful start to your summer!

Step Right Up! - Tips for throwing a fun Carnival Party

So, for those of you who haven't heard me talking about it yet, for my son's first birthday party we had a carnival theme and it was sooooo much fun!  In fact, both kids and adults had such a great time that I am considering having a carnival BBQ this summer! :)  I mean...really...who doesn't love a good fair with games, prizes, and treats?!

I wanted to share some sites that inspired me, ideas for games, treats, decorations, and prizes, and photos from our party that hopefully will get you excited about throwing your own carnival party! 

First up, a little eye candy to get you in the spirit...

Click HERE to see these fabulous Etsy items up close along with links to the great shops that make them.

For decorations I went super colorful and fun with THESE great printable items, bright little buckets and baskets from the Target dollar spot, that great popcorn bucket from The Dollar Tree, lots of jars wrapped with Bo Bunny Double Dot papers (to hold various signs, prizes or treats), THIS cute collection from Party City, and of course lots of balloons.

Now, onto the food.  It was easy to find lots of treat ideas for a carnival themed party but not much in the way of 'real' food.  We went ahead with hot dogs, marinated chicken wings, and my personal favorite...'fruit on a stick'.  The boys had a lot of fun making these fruit skewers and I love the color they added to the food table.

For treats we had just about everything you could imagine...popcorn (I found cinnamon sugar and apple crisp popcorn at Whole Foods), cotton candy (freshly spun from THIS Etsy seller), strongman dumbbells (lollipop sticks with chocolate donut holes on each side), lemon cupcakes, caramel apples, and of course cake!

I drew up a sketch for the cake and gave it to my local bakery along with one of our dessert plates for inspiration and they did an amazing job, don't you think?!  Then for a little dimension I created a sweet little banner using two wooden skewers, some Doodlebug Twine, and Bo Bunny Double Dot paper.   I also placed the cake on top of a round hat box to give it the attention it deserved.

And although I didn't make these, they look fabulous...
http://www.sprinklebakes.com/2012/09/classic-candied-apples-and-marshmallow.html

Next...the games:
We had a horseshoe toss (ring toss is also great), basketball free throw, baseball toss, and the fish bowl game (definitely a must!). 

 Find a few hat/circle boxes of different sizes, attach them to a piece of plywood, and lean up against a wall for this deceivingly simple game.  The angle of the plywood does make a difference so test out the game ahead of time to see what angle is challenging but not practically impossible.  We used hard foam baseballs for this which tended to bounce out just enough to make you really proud when you actually got it in!

 Set up some clear plastic cups on a table, fill with water and some plastic fish.  Then have 3 cups of ping pong balls so more than one person can play at a time.

We also had a kissing booth and a photo booth...so much fun!

The photo booth was such a great way to capture special memories from our day and who doesn't love to play dress up?!  :) Decorative frames painted in bright colors, mustaches are a must have, fun headbands, hats, and glasses from The Dollar Tree, chalkboard looking signs/speech bubbles (made with black posterboard and a white pen), and a strongman dumb bell (not shown...but simply paint two styrafoam balls black and stick onto a wooden rod).

Extra photobooth inspiration: https://www.etsy.com/listing/77444825/luna-bella-on-the-high-wire-circus?ref=shop_home_active

Finally...the prizes:
I wanted everyone to win a prize and did not want to be handing out prizes at each table/game so I decided to create a Prize Table that guests could choose a few prizes from when they were headed home.  This worked out great...everyone loved picking their prizes and it was like a goody bag/thank you for attending the party.   The sign says..."Ladies and Gentlemen...At the close of the show, please help yourself to a few prizes." 

And I wish I had discovered these before the party...so fun!  (They are on my list for next time...these are especially perfect if you have the fish bowl toss game.)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/120836472/pet-goldfish-soap-carnival-party-favor?ref=shop_home_active

Here are 2 other parties that inspired me as well:
http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/the-wedding-carnivalcarnival-games/
http://celebrationsathomeblog.com/2011/07/circus-themed-birthday-party.html

Whew!  Well, if you are still with me, maybe you are just as excited as I was about a carnival party!  So, I hope this post helps you and please don't hesitate to email me or leave a comment with any questions...I have a few more tips I'd be happy to share.  Once I got the idea in my head, I got quite ambitious with all my plans but it all came together fabulously and will be a party that we talk about for years to come.  It created many wonderful memories of my son's first birthday and for that reason it was totally worth it!  :)

Happy Bot-Day! - Boy Birthday Card

With 3 boys of my own and 2 nephews, I am always in need of fun cards for boys.  And I think sometimes masculine/boy cards can be challenging since so many wonderful embellishments are sparkly or floral or more feminine in nature.  However, recently I played around with My Mind's Eye's Boy Crazy collection to create this robot themed birthday card that is just perfect for the little guy in your life!

I just love the great colors and patterns in this collection...not to mention the fun brads!

Since there were not enough layered brads, I simply punched out two circles from coordinating patterned papers to create a third layered brad (the one to the left of the robot brad).  And I wanted a little bit more dimension so I broke off the prongs on the robot brad and popped it up with foam squares along with the arrow.

The letter stickers are from Carta Bella's So Noted collection.

I will be back later this week to share pictures of my son's first birthday along with tips and links to help you plan your own fun carnival themed party.  We had a blast and it is a party that will be remembered by all for years to come!  :)

Have a wonderful day!  The sun is shining here so we are headed outside to play!

Birthday Party Decor & I'm a Cover Girl!

Well, I have been busy crafting for some submission calls but I wanted to stop in to share one project that I decided to make just for fun!  I am getting ready to celebrate my little guy's first birthday so I have been looking around the blogosphere for all kinds of inspiration and trying to decide on a theme and decorations.  So, last night I was playing around with my supplies and came up with this project...perfect to add a little fun to your food/dessert table or even to place at the birthday boy's place setting.

 

Fun, right?!  For this project I wrapped a little juice can with washi tape (4 layers to hide the images on the can).  Then I had fun decorating the can with Echo Park's Scoot stickers.  To create the flags I used a wooden dowel (although wooden skewers work well too).  I made a larger pennant style flag and decorated it with more stickers then accented it with the two smaller flags.  I love the candle and confetti paper...if you are in a hurry, simply creating a few of these would add a little whimsy to your party table decor!

 

Still not sure what I'm going to do for my little guy's party but I'm sure I'll have more party decor items to share soon!  And in July, Paper Crafts' new Birthday Creations magazine will be coming out and guess who has a project on the cover?!  Me! :)  Sooooo excited!  

Finally, in my search for great birthday party ideas I discovered a fabulous blog that I'm sure many of you would love as well...The Hostess With the Mostess.  There are truly some AMAZING birthday themes/parties that people have come up with and photographed beautifully. 

Have a lovely day!  I am hoping to get a few more projects started...

Birthday Celebration

Hello all!  I'm back today with some fun birthday decor items I created this past week using American Crafts Confetti collection as well as some of their yummy ribbon and glitter cardstock!

First I made this fun cupcake...it was pretty time consuming since I didn't have any die cuts or patterns to work with but it was all worth it in the end.  I started with a styrofoam ball and fan folded the happy birthday paper to create the cupcake wrapper.  Then I punched out a bunch of circles and used straight pins to attach them to the styrofoam ball.  Finally I finished it off with some fun ribbon and of course a birthday candle! :)

Then I wanted to make a coordinating decoration using the great new large Flair from American Crafts so I decided it would be the perfect centerpiece for a birthday banner.

How fun would these be to surprise a teacher or someone at the office?!  I think they would be a great way to decorate someone's small work area on their birthday.

Okay, I am off for a day of shopping and packing!  I'll be back soon with a new layout to share!  Have a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday To You - Etsy Inspired Challenge #131

Welcome to another Etsy Inspired Challenge! This week's featured Etsy shop is Doll Birdies which offers a variety of fun bags, wallets and pouches.  I was inspired by this colorful bag, the turquoise and orange flowers especially caught my eye and inspired me to create this card.

 This card uses Crate Paper's Snow Day collection, May Arts ribbon, and My Mind's Eye Lush rhinestones, as well as a dollar stamp from Michaels (gotta love that!).

Our sponsor this week is SRM Stickers.  They have tons of great clear stickers!  I especially like all their sentiment stickers...perfect for a quick card or layout.

Are you feeling inspired?!  Then head on over to Doll Birdies and find an item that inspires you. Create a project of your own and link it up to the Etsy Inspired Blog by Friday at noon for your chance to win a great prize from SRM Stickers or Doll Birdies!  (See the Etsy Inspired Blog for prize details)

And be sure to visit these talented ladies for more Etsy Inspired projects!

• Angi
• Ashley
• Carole
• De
• Emily B
• Jackie
• Joy
• Kerry
• Libby (March Guest DT)
• Ruby
• Savannah
• Sherry
• Virginia

 Have a wonderful weekend!

Relaxed, Refreshed, Renewed!

So, yesterday I had a whole day to craft and hang out with friends...kid-free! It was a much needed and much overdue break for me and I am feeling so great today! I completed several scrapbook pages yesterday, enjoyed chatting with friends, and had a lovely dinner out too. I am feeling rested and full of energy, patience, and joy today...yeah! It is just what I needed and it made me realize that I really do need to be better about taking time for myself because it's good for me which in turn is good for my kiddos too! :)

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend too! I thought I would share the birthday card that I made for my friend who had the party yesterday.

I really love the fun colors in this Creative Imaginations Studio 101 birthday line and the cute cupcake 3d stickers too! Did you notice my ruffled ribbon? I actually created that myself using some seam binding and my sewing machine! :)

I also thought I would share my new treasury which was inspired by Cath's new Moxie Fab challenge using the ever so trendy...chair. Yep, who knew furniture images would be so trendy?! I don't know that I will create any chair projects myself but I sure had fun finding some great chair items on Etsy...take a peek!

Click HERE to see the treasury up close along with links to some great shops! I would love to have those light blue chairs in my dream house! :)

Enjoy the rest of your day! I'm off to play with my boys...I missed not getting to hang out with them yesterday! :) I mean, really, how could you not want to spend every waking moment with these two adorable kids!

Cake Time! - Etsy Inspired Challenge #86

Hello! Today I am heading to a friend's house for an all day crafting event and I am sooooo excited! I don't think I have had a girls' day out for at least a year now (I know I really should be better about taking time for myself...I'm working on it. :) I love being a mom but I do really need a day off and today is the day! I am planning on getting some scrapbooking done, enjoying some good food, and fun time with friends!

Since it's Saturday I have an Etsy Inspired project to share with you all. And in honor of National Scrapbook day, I actually have a layout to share! :) Our featured Etsy shop this week, Isabell's Umbrella, is such a cute paper goods shop. I was inspired by all the fun, adorable images and this birthday card.

I scrapbooked my oldest son's first birthday party using My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary line.

I absolutely love MME's Quite Contrary collection...all the papers are so fun! The little pooh cut out is actually from one of the party decorations that I kept (for 6 years!)...glad I did! :) Here's a close up of my little guy eating his first cake!

This week both Isabell's Umbrella and our sponsor, Lawn Fawn, are offering up some fabulous prizes for the winners!

To play along all you have to do is visit Isabell's Umbrella and find an item that inspires you. Create a project of your own...remember that you can make just about anything crafty (a card, scrapbook layout, altered item, jewelry, a painting). Link your project up to the Etsy Inspired blog by Friday at noon PST for your chance to win one of this week's prizes!

Visit the rest of the Design Team to see what inspiring projects they have come up with this week!

• Ashley
• Clare (May Guest Designer)
• De
• Emily
• Heather
• Jackie
• Joy
• Kelley (May Guest Designer)
• Shannon
• Tiffany

So, what are your plans today? Doing anything fun for National Scrapbook Day? There is a lot going on in blog land and probably at your local scrapbook store too! Have fun! Hopefully I will have lots of scrapbook pages to show for all my kid-free crafting time today! :)

Happy Birthday!

This week I'm working on some Design Team projects for my LSS, Lasting Memories. I am using the colorful and glittery Studio Basics Birthday line from Creative Imaginations to create a double page layout but I took a moment today to use some of the papers to create a fun (and simple) birthday card.

Using the sketch from Card Patterns, here is what I came up with:


Aren't these papers fun?! I love all the glitter on these papers and those great cupcakes!

Okay, off to work on my layout...have a nice evening!

Happy Birthday to...

ME! Yep, today is my birthday and I thought I'd take a moment to celebrate with you all! Let's have a little party, shall we?!

First we'll need to decorate and you know those pom pom tissue paper flowers are all the rage so I whipped up a few yesterday.



These are soooo easy to make and there are so many fun tissue paper colors out there to use! My scrapbook store put a tutorial on their blog for how to make these if your interested. Check it out HERE.

Next up I have a birthday card to share. Yesterday Emma's Paperie was celebrating their birthday and posted a contest to create a birthday project. So, I used more of my Making Memories Flutter collection and the tissue paper pom pom idea (but on a much smaller scale) to create this card.


Now, who would like a little cake?
Isn't this cake so pretty? I found it on Martha Stewart's site here.

And no party is complete without a few presents, right?!

So my first gift to you is a copy of the March/April Paper Crafts magazine. Just leave me a comment telling me something about your birthday...when it is, a great gift you have gotten, or a fun way you have celebrated. I will pick a winner this Friday to receive the magazine so be sure to come back by to see if you won!


My second gift is to offer you 10% off any purchase from my Etsy shop this week...beginning today March 7th through midnight Saturday, March 13th. In order to receive the 10% off please purchase the items you would like and put Birthday Bash in the notes to seller. Then you can wait for a revised invoice from me or you can go ahead and pay for the items and I will refund you the 10%.

I have added lots of new items to my shop lately...some fun felt and corrugated embellishments as well as surprise boxed sets of my handmade cards. Who doesn't love a surprise?! :)



I hope you've enjoyed celebrating with me...now I'm off to do a little celebrating of my own!