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Tag Archives: Birthday

Olivia’s 60th Birthday Party

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A lot has been going on in the past month, so I have some major blog posting to catch up on. We’re going to start off with pictures from James’ Mom’s birthday party. It was a surprise party put on by Joe, Olivia’s good friend Liz and me.

I took care of invitations and putting together a party book that attendees signed and some non-attendees virtually signed. I’m currently working on adding pictures from the party to it, so give it two weeks and then ask Olivia to see her party book. I made the invitation in Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist 2 using Missy’s Bits Sugar Plum kit. I then printed them with Costco’s 6.5×7 photo card option that comes with envelopes.

Olivia's Birthday Party Invitation

Olivia actually arrived early, 10 minutes early. It was kind of ironic since she is usually late. It was very difficult to keep it a surprise, but she was definitely surprised when she arrived.

Surprised Olivia

Olivia, Joe and Dawson

Olivia and Liz

Liz took care of the cakes and some decor. She also found a really great 60 beaded necklace we insisted Olivia wear.

Olivia Blowing Out the Candles on the Chocolate Cake

Nana got some help from her grandkids in opening the presents.

Olivia with Jessica and Dawson Helping Out a Gift

Overall, the party was a huge success and I think everyone had a great time.

Happy Birthday Mom!

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Today is my mother-in-law’s 60th birthday. We had a little surprise party for her yesterday to celebrate. Here is the card I made for her. Now, all my crafty stuff is still in boxes, so my supplies were limited. Fortunately, my rolling 12×12 craft drawer tower had a bin with pre-stamped pre-colored images. It also had the black and white PP. This was great, because who knows where the box with my nesties as well as the box of patterned paper are hiding. The cardstock box happened to be on top. The sentiment is handwritten. I think I would prefered some matting, but without nesties (the pre-stamped pre-colored elephant happened to already be cut in a circle), I thought it would be weird to have matted background panels, but no matted image panel.

I used Jen del Muro’s May Sketch for You to Try. I’m now 5 of 5 for the year’s sketches. I am also trying to play along with the current Hambo Hoedown challenge to use texture. Hopefully, the felt curlicues, the crocheted flower and the 3D paper flower provide enough texture to meet the challenge.

Olivia's Birthday Card

Stamps: Hambo Stamps Elephant
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Lavender Lace
Designer Paper: DCWV All-Occasion Ultimate Stack
Ink: Stazon Jet Black
Embellishments: crochet flower, paper flower, felt curlicue
Tools: colored pencils

Happy Birthday Sarah!

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My uber sweet, beautiful younger sister turned 29 last Friday. I sent her a present via Amazon and I was so stoked that even though I procrastinated, it would arrive on her actual birthday. Alas, the abnormally cold wet weather the DFW area was experiencing messed that up. Hopefully, it arrived today.

Hopefully, she also received her card by now, because I am too excited to wait any longer to share it with the rest of ya’ll. Her card was inspired by this card by Maribeth, a DT member for the Anyone for Anya Challenge team. I loved the unique S-fold of the card, the stitching, and the coordinating pattern papers. So I took the sketch for last week’s Anyone for Anya Challenge and her inspiration and ran with it. Granted, the deadline for that challenge was Saturday night, but I posted the pics of the card to an online gallery and guess what.

Yep, I made the top 3, which is way cooler than being the randomly selected prize winner (although that is nice too). My card for Sarah was chosen by all the members of the DT as one of the top three cards entered in the challenge.

Anyway, on to more details of the card. I tried to color the image to look like Sarah. The cupcake was stamped a second time and popped up on dimensionals with the frosting made with glossy accents and glitter.  The stitching was done by hand,  and that is definitely not a technique I would do for just anyone as I probably spent at least an hour just stitching. The flower was made using a scallop circle punch with the scallops cut a bit and then the edges rolled. It also uses two pieces punched from a Marvy flower punch and stacked on a dimensional on top of the scallop circle part. Since I used a C.C. Designs image, it meets the requirements of the All That Scraps Weekly Wednesday Challenge #65, which is an anything goes challenge this week. I’m also entering it in Meljen’s Designs Challenge #44 to use a fun fold and I definitely think the S-fold is a fun fold in addition to being fitting fold for girl whose name starts with S. Yes, I used Baja Breeze again. I must be on a Baja Breeze kick, although I hadn’t intended to use it on this card. I wanted to use Sarah’s favorite color blue and the PP I decided upon just happened to work with Baja Breeze.

Sarah's Birthday Card

Close-up of the Girl

The Card Open

Stamps: C.C. Designs Cupcake Kiki, The Cat’s Pajamas You Say It’s Your Birthday (outside and inside sentiments)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Regal Rose, Basic Gray
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Walk in the Park
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Baja Breeze (inside sentiment)
Embellishments: Papertrey Ink Vintage Buttons Holiday Mix; grayish brads, clear ultra-fine glitter, white embroidery floss; Inkessentials Glossy Accents (shoes and ponytail holders too)
Tools: Stampin’ Up scallop circle punch, markers; Copic markers; atYou Spica clear marker (on skirt); Marvy flower punch

Thanks for stopping by.

Magnolia Texas Tuesday

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It seems so weird that it is already 2011. As a kid, time always seem to drag (unless I was lost in a novel). It seems like the older I get, the faster time flies. I wonder if when I reach 80 the year will seem like a millisecond. Anyway, you didn’t visit my blog today to listen to my ramblings on time. You came for Texas Tuesday, the first Texas Tuesday of the new year. I decided to start off 2011 Texas Tuesdays by actually putting the rest of the posse’s blogs as links on my sidebar (look to the right —->). I’ve decided that I’m wasting time putting direct links to everyone’s specific Texas Tuesday post. Maybe this will help me to not be the slacker I sometimes turn out to be. Make sure you check out their creations today. I especially enjoyed Mark’s Texas tree and Karen’s Texas Our Texas card.

I think the Cowgirl Tilda is a perfect stamp for a Texas themed card. When my parents hosted an exchange student while I was in college, he was surprised that my family didn’t have horses. I think a lot of the world thinks that way. He also didn’t realize that you really wouldn’t want to drive across the entire state in one day. Texas is bigger than a lot of European countries, Germany included, which is where he was from.

My card meets the requirements of Just Us Girls Challenge #65, which happens to be a sketch this week. I kinda wish I had stuck with the rectangle the sketch called for, but I was trying to hide the fact that I had accidentally bent the cardstock and a rectangle wouldn’t have hidden it, but an oval did.

Magnolia Texas Tuesday Birthday Card

Stamps: Magnolia Cowgirl Tilda; Stampin’ Up On Your Birthday, Canvas (background on Creamy Caramel panel)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Creamy Caramel
Pattern Paper: Stampin’ Up Paper Patterns Bashful Blue
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel (edges of oval); VersaMark Dazzle Frost (for canvas stamp)
Embellishments: Stampin’ Up 5/8″ satin ribbon Bashful Blue; Papertrey Ink Holiday Mix vintage button; The Twinery Cappuccino twine; A Muse sheer ribbon French Roast
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Copic markers

As a side note, since today was rainy I took the photo of the card at my craft desk under the natural lighting of my new OttLite that I received for Christmas. I’m pretty impressed. Now I won’t have to wait for daylight to photograph my creations when I finish them up late a night.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Few Birthday Cards

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I’m in need of a number of birthday cards, so I’m trying to stay on top of it. Hopefully, I will and people will receive birthday cards before or on their actual birthday. We’ll see, I still need to make two for November birthdays.

The first card was made with two challenges in mind. First up is the Phindy’s Place Challenge #29. It is a 3-2-1 recipe challenge, meaning I have to use 3 of one thing, 2 of another, and 1 of yet another. I used 3 brads, 2 different stickles on the cake, and 1 ribbon. The second challenge was The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #81. I had a hard time deciding on the things for the recipe challenge yet still meet the sketch. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out though. I hope Shanan, my college roommate, and Tami, James’ sister, like it. Yes, I made two. They don’t have to share. 🙂

Let's Celebrate Card

Stamps: Phindy’s Place Celebrate with Cake; Stampin’ Up On Your Birthday (sentiment), Background Basics (swirl on kraft)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Kraft; A Muse Kitchen Purple
Designer Paper: Frosty Day, Summer Picnic
Ink: Dell printer; Stampin’ Up Elegant Eggplant, Creamy Caramel
Embellishments: Stampin’ Up Elegant Eggplant 1/4-in. grosgrain ribbon; Karen Foster plum mini brads; Stickles Xmas red, Frosted Lace
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; 1-1/4-in. and 1-3/8-in. circle punches

This second card is for our friend Nick. His birthday was Monday and we’re getting together for dinner tonight. Initially, I had wanted to make a camera related card, but my first idea didn’t pan out. Then I decided to use this cute little balloon carrying party boy, a C.C. Designs stamp, for the All That Scraps Wednesday Challenge #53 to make a birthday card. I then decided to use the Get Sketchy Sketch #63. I think this sketch is perfect for a boy card, since the embellishments are minimal.

Happy Birthday Card

Stamps: C.C. Designs Party; Stampin’ Up On Your Birthday (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Basic Black
Designer Paper: Frosty Day, Summer Picnic
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Craft Whisper White
Embellishments: Stampin’ Up Basic Black eyelets; Inkessentials Glossy Accents (on balloon); dimensionals
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils

Thanks for stopping by.