A treat for you

As promised I am posting the goody (or is it goodie) boxes from the birthday party. Of course, they had to fit into the theme of an American BBQ. Thinking, thinking, thinking...baskets. Lucky for me I already had the Pack a Picnic template from Papertrey. The only question was how to make it scream USA and basket. My Time Made Easy digital papers to the rescue. I used the Well Woven papers with the Fresh Fabric Collection 1 to make it looked like a lined basket. I made blue baskets with red liners for the boys

and red baskets with blue liners for the girls.

A birthday basket wouldn't be complete without a little sparkle so I continued the star theme using the same stars as were on the invitations (here if you missed them) glittered up with a glitter combo called Freedom (don't you love it?).
I love the fact that this template has a lid. And what better place to personalize it for the kids? So I took the same star punches and put the kids names on the lids.

Then we filled them up with gummie hot dogs and hamburgers, a candy necklace, a tootsie roll pop, a patriotic stress baseball, and two cans of playdough. I think the kids liked them. I know the birthday boy was excited about giving them to his friends.

Challenges:
Just us Girls template challenge
Thanks for looking.

Red, white, and blue...Happy Birthday to you

In case anyone is wondering where I disappeared to, I got in way over my head with birthday stuff for the little man. When inviting children to a birthday party in the middle of the week in July one should consider the possibility they will all come (or at least the large majority). I did not consider this would be the case. And of course, I had to make everything. Somewhere along the way I also got talked into letting him invite 12, yes TWELVE, kids ages 3-6 to this party.

The smart thing would have been to start with the invitations. I wasn't smart. In the end it all worked out and everyone had a great time with only one melt down and one incident. I call that good given the age group. Most importantly the birthday boy had fun and was happy.

Ted over at Happily Ever Crafter has a challenge going on this month honoring Old Glory, the American Flag. You should check it out if you have a minute. He's offering up a $10 PTI gift certificate to the winner and who doesn't love a bit of red, white, and blue in July??

The birthday party, an American BBQ, was the perfect place for a little red, white, and blue.

Here's the invitation.


I decided on an American BBQ to give his German friends a taste of American culture. Initially I wanted to make pinwheels, but it just wasn't working. While working on plan B I found this pinwheel stamp I've had for awhile but rarely use. I really wish I knew who made it. If anyone happens to know please pass the info along. Lucky for me, the pinwheel had stars and stripes. I stamped and embossed the pinwheel image and then colored it with copics. At this point I had already designed the goody bags (I'll post those a little later.) so I knew I wanted to use stars and glitter. Hubby was gracious enough to punch out tons of stars in a few sizes using the Creative Memories star punches. I then ran them through the Xyron to get a good layer of adhesive on them and then covered them in red, white, and blue glitter. Then I randomly placed the stars across to make a fun, festive, very American border. After my first run on a white card base, I realized something had to change. I had a pack of premade black cards sitting on the shelf. I had my answer. A simple "you're invited" was perfect for getting the point across through the language barrier.

I hope you like my take on Old Glory. Thanks for looking!

Back on track

A bit ago I said I was going to focus on thank you cards and then, of course, I got distracted. I am happy to report I am back on track to getting a few thank you cards at the ready. This will be short lived as it is about time to focus on birthday stuff for the little guy which will take all my time 'cause I'm just that kind of mommy. Until then we're doing thank yous.

Here's a sweet little card made with a Bella image I received in a swap somewhere along the way.



The musical border (from OnyxXpressions) is beautiful and now that I remember I have hopefully I get it inked up a bit more. The sentiment (from Papertrey) is classic. A nice combination.



Challenges
Raise the Bar - Sweet Music
Truly Scrumptious - Sketch

Thanks for looking!

Just because...

Don't you just love it when something comes together beautifully all by chance? I saw the sketch on the Papertake Weekly Challenge blog and it spoke to me so off to the art room I went. I had wanted to see if these sheer materials I have (and have used on cards) would work as a border or accent instead of a whole background and these sketch sent me straight to them. As I was looking at my choices I decided I liked this one best for today.



I started wondering if I had a coordinating stamp - some kind of flower that would at least "go" with the ones on the material. And what do you know? Yes, I do. They look almost like they were made to go together. Happiness. And in my favorite colors too!

The stamp was bought awhile ago unmounted, I don't know from where. The sentiment is from Papertrey's Damask Designs. The background is embossed with an old Fiskars embossing plate. As a side note, hubby bought these for me and I refuse to discourage him so I keep them and use them despite other, more current options. It was then brushed with white ink.

Thanks for looking.

Just in case

This card is one of those that's nice to have around because if you need it you likely won't feel like making it. I hate making sympathy cards. I like happy cards and cheering people up. Sometimes though you need something else. Coming across the Corrosive Challenge blog I took a look through my die cuts and found this rocking chair which led me down the path to make this card that will hopefully sit in my room on the shelf for a long, long time.



The sentiment reads, "Sending thoughts of love and praying for the Lord to sustain you with bright and restful days." It's from Stampin Up. The background was made using PTI's Guidelines.

Challenges:
Truly Scrumptious - Sketch
Charisma Cardz Challenges - Flowers
Tuesday Taggers - All that Blooms
Colour Create Challenge Blog - Baby pink and pastel blue
The Corrosive Challenge Blog - die cuts

Thanks for looking.

Father's Day

I'm back from my travels - for now. Paris was wonderful, of course! I'm finally getting back into the art room and back to my creative work. One look at the calendar and I realized the Father's Day projects that had to be mailed had to be the first priority. While it seems so far away the mailing deadline is practically here. Now first up is my dad. Let me just say, he is the hardest person I make cards for. He loves his work and isn't really into the typical guy stuff but he certainly isn't into anything remotely girly. Tough I tell ya.

I got a little nudge from a few challenges and here's what I came up with. This is not my usual style, but I'm happy with it and I think it fits the bill.



The border around the image is embossed with distressed embossing powder and the blue around that is painted with distressed paint. The staples are from the fastenater (is that how you spell it??). They were brown, but have been sanded to go along with the whole distressed look. The image is an old PSX one and the sentiment is from a set that was given to me.

Thanks for looking.

Challenges:
Just Us Girls #46 - Sketch
Tuesday Taggers - Touchy Feely Texture
For Fun Challenges - Card for a man
Delightful Sketches - Texture
Cute Card Thursday - Black, blue, and orange
Cards for Men - Father's Day

Birthday treats

In case anyone is wondering, I have been on vacation. Two weeks in northern Italy, Croatia, and Slovenia. I haven't gotten back into posting because it is a quick turn around to our weekend in Paris! Life in Europe is great!!

However, before I hit the road again I really wanted to take part in Ted's latest challenge over at Happily Ever Crafter. This month's challenge was a menu from which I am a five. So I needed a yellow base with dry embossing featuring ribbon and having something to do with the kitchen.

I didn't do a card. All month I've been planning on making this little cupcake type box to send to a friend as part of her birthday package and I finally got it done. Sometimes I really wish my kids were nappers, but both seem to require less than the average amount of sleep. Anyway, here is my take on the menu.



Please excuse the bad picture. I live in a country where it rains all the time in a house that has really bad lighting and at the time of this picture my little guy is sleeping in the room with the portrait lights. Life.

The box itself is a template from My Time Made Easy. I used Stampin Up cardstock from the In Colors pack. The ribbon is from my stash and I used a lot of it. The bottom (yellow) of the cupcake is embossed with a Fiskars texture plate (does anyone remember those??) so I could get the curve on the bottom and then brushed with Pearlescent Yellow ink. I was going to add some other embellishments, but I was happy with how it looked and didn't want to go overboard, especially since the ribbon is sparkly. Inside are two Nutella to go packs - something where a little melting won't ruin the product.

This is also going up on the JUGS34 challenge for the week.

Thanks for looking! Hope you like.