Birthday Balloons

This week Fusion Card Challenge has a gorgeous photograph as inspiration with a delightful sketch that paired beautifully.  I couldn't stop thinking about all that yummy yellow!

It really makes me want to eat a cupcake.  Anyone got a really great vanilla cupcake recipe?  While the picture makes me want to eat cupcakes, I didn't reach for them in the creative process.  I went with balloons instead.  

Balloons and polka dots...fun birthday card!  But I still want a cupcake.

Thanks for stopping by my bitty piece of the internet.

Amanda

Supplies

Stamps: PTI (Mixed Messages, Polka Dots, Bow)

Dies: PTI (Oval Shakers, Balloons, Tiny Tags)

Paper:PTI (Fine Linen, White, Harvest Gold Patterns)

Other: Divine Twine, Susie Sparkle Glitter, Marvy Matchable Ink, Brilliance Ink, Sticky Stuff Embossing Powder, Versamark Ink Pad, Stampendous Embossing Powder

Neon Rainbow

I was so excited to get to the Shopping Our Stash Challenge this week because it gave me a reason to play and experiment with my new neon embossing powders.  I received them recently as a gift and hadn't had the chance to play with all that much.  I pulled a lot of stamps out of the cabinet to play with, but settled on this birthday block from Purple Onion Designs.

It's so bright and happy.  I embossed the card front to add a little interested.

Thanks for sharing a moment of your day with me.
Amanda

Supplies
Stamps: Purple Onion Designs
Paper: PTI (Enchanted Evening, White), Stash (Neon Pink)
Dies: PTI (Numbers)
Other: Wow Embossing Powder, Versamark Ink, Sizzix Embossing Folder

Birthday balloons

I have a sweet little birthday card to share today based on the Sketch at CAS(E) this sketch.  I pulled out a few oldies, but goodies when it came to images, but then that's why I have a hard time parting with stamps.

The balloons are from Stampendous  from years ago, but they are classic and the turtle is from C.C. Designs from not so many years ago.  The balloons are also bumped up with foam tape.  And while this kind of looks like a kid card, it's perfect for my hubby.  

Inspired by:

Thanks for looking.

Amanda

Supplies

Stamps: C.C. Designs (turtle), Stampendous (Balloons), PTI (sentiment)

Paper: PTI (Limeade Ice, White), Stash blue marble

Other: Copics, Momento Ink,  Brilliance Ink

Spring into Action!

As the Papertrey anniversary celebration continues the challenges keep coming.  I am a few challenges behind, but today I am springing into action with an underused set.  The challenge actually called for using a set that you had never inked up, but I couldn't find one in my stash.  I'm pretty good about breaking out the new stuff, but sometimes the older stuff gets pushed aside.  As I was looking through my stuff, I came across Tiny Treats: Birthday.  I bought this set for the tiny rocket to match the bigger one that is part of their Boy Basics line.  I swore I would never buy a set of that size for one stamp, but when you are asked to plan a spaceship birthday party you do what needs to be done (ok, I'm a sucker for planning parties to the best of my ability!).  So, while I didn't have any unused sets I did have the rest of the set that was just going to be sitting until someone, or something, pushed it to the forefront of my mind.  So I came up with this sweet little card.

And then it occurred to me there are lots of stamps sitting in the stamp cabinet that have seen nearly enough use.  So...I took inspiration from the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch to get going on St. Patrick's Day cards.  The sketch is a great one to work with.

I brought in the rainbow and a cute little leprechaun to create this.

He's such a fun little guy!  I just don't make that many St. Patrick's Day projects to use him all that much.  And sadly he was purchased as an unmounted rubber stamp without any label so I don't know where he comes from.

Thanks for stopping by!

Amanda

Supplies

Birthday

Stamps: PTI (Tiny Treats: Birthday, Fancy Flourishes)

Dies: Sizzix (Label), PTI (Limitless Layers 1 3/4" Circles), Memory Box (Square)

Paper: PTI (Kraft, Ripe Avocado Patterns, Aqua Mist, Pure Poppy, Rustic White)

Other: Ranger (Distress Ink), Momento (Gray Ink), Ribbon

St. Patrick's Day

Stamps: Unknown

Paper: PTI (Pure Poppy, Orange Zest, Lemon Tart, New Leaf, Blueberry Sky, Royal Velvet, Rustic White, White), Stash Gold, Indigo

Other: Copics, Momento (Black Ink)

With a Cherry on Top!

Today I am sharing a birthday card for a little girl whose birthday is coming up.  I used the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch with the Color Play Combo that was in the Papertrey newsletter this month.  The sketch is really fun.

And the colors screamed birthday.  After seeing the sketch I knew I wanted to use this oldie, but goody ice cream stamp and when I saw the color combo the rest just fell into place.

Normally I don't particularly like color challenges, but this one was screaming at me.  It fit perfectly with the image I had already decided to work with on this project. 

I stamped and embossed the ice cream then colored it to ensure maximum color pop and applied glitter on top.  I painted pigment ink on the hot fudge and embossed it with clear embossing powder to make it glossy like freshly melted chocolate.  The whole ice cream panel is popped up, though it's hard to tell in the photo.

Thanks for taking a peek.
Amanda

Supplies:
Stamps: Stampin' Up (ice cream from years ago), PTI (sentiment)
Dies: PTI (One liners: Happy)
Paper: PTI (Sweet Blush patterns, Hawaiian Shores, Raspberry Fizz, White, Royal Velvet)
Other: Versacolor Ink, Momento Ink, Stampendous Embossing Powder, Copics, Glitter

Stamp-A-Faire Limited Ingredients Challenge

Next up is the Limited Ingredients Challenge with what felt like a very short list of ingredients.  And for the record I started to reach for things that weren't on the list more than once.  Scallops were the piece I kept trying to add. 

Here's the list of allowed items. 

white cardstock

white or transparent glitter(Prisma Glitter)

1-3/4" circle punch or die

1" strip of light gray cardstock (Soft Stone)

melon cardstock & ink (Melon Berry)

aqua cardstock & ink (Aqua Mist)

golden yellow cardstock & ink (Harvest Gold)

And here's the card I came up with. 

Here I've made a simple birthday card using Papertrey's Sign Language Set.  I love this set and really, really wish they would had more squares for it.  A snowman would be great, as would a flag, star, or something else patriotic.  I went with a gray ink for the sign post so it would be so overpowering.  And while I'm not sure you can really see it, there is glitter on the present.

Thanks for looking.

Supplies
Cardstock from PTI
Stamps from PTI
Ink from Ranger, Momento
Glitter from Martha Stewart

10 Minute Craft Dash is celebrating!

The good people over at the 10 Minute Craft Dash are celebrating one year of challenges.  So the order of the latest challenge is a Birthday card in under 10 minutes.  I am not so very good at the ten minute thing.  I have issues.  And I have little people that just can't seem to let Mommy go even for just ten minutes.  So, I reached for a punch and then a die, and finally a stamp.  Here's how it came together - in 9:58.  Yes, I cut it very close.

This picture is really rather poor, but the blue paper is all shimmery to add a little something to the quick card. 

Thanks for looking!

Supplies
Cardstock from PTI and Stardream from Marco Paper
Stamp from PTI
Dies from PTI
Punch from Martha Stewart
Ink from Tsukineko
Twine from Whisker Graphics
Brad from stash

The Hungry Invite

Moxie Fab World has been running a collection of birthday challenges over the last month.  One of which is the birthday invite challenge.  We don't have another birthday around here for several months, but I do like a good head start.  So it seemed like a good idea to put the two together and get to work.  Bug's birthday theme this year had already been decided as "The Hungry Caterpillar" since there is so much fun to be had for little people if you just think about it.  Also, this theme is doable all year round which cannot be said for every theme.  The question was how to make the caterpillar fun.  It was really simple once I figured out the overall idea.  And here is it.

Super simple, but big enough to be held by little hands.  But wait, there's more.

The caterpillar is accordion folded to give room to write the party information, which we don't have yet.

Thanks for looking.

Supplies
Cardstock from PTI and stash
Googly Eyes from OTC
Pipcleaners
Stamp from PTI
Ink from Ranger

Happy, Happy Birthday

There are several challenges over at Moxie Fab World ending today.  When they were announced it seemed as though there was plenty of time to get them all done in advance of the deadline.  Of course, if I hadn't rearranged my whole house and didn't have any littles that would very much have been true.  My ideas don't always work out the way I think they will so sometimes the first (or second or third) idea ends up in the recycle bin.  This happened with the sketch challenge.  Here's the sketch.



There was an addition to the sketch here though.  It had to be all stamping or no stamping.  It sounds so simple...until you want to reach for just one little thing.  On top of that I am not a sketch wizard.  I tend to take them too literal and end of feeling very confined.  Until this card.  This one made the light bulb over my head come on, all by accident.  Here is what I came up with - all stamping (and coloring, of course).

The balloons were stamped on vellum and then colored with Copics.  If you have a minute, I'd love your thoughts.

Supplies
Cardstock from PTI and stash
Vellum from stash
Stamps from Stamping Bella, Northwoods Rubber Stamps, PTI
Ink from Momento, Tsukineko, Ranger
Copics

Party Time!

It's no secret around here, birthdays are a big deal.  I love to celebrate the day each of my little people came to me.  July is a birthday month here, though the birthday is so close to Independence Day we have found the party usually has to be postponed.  Of course, that really means we end up having a family party and a friends party, but I'm ok with that.  This weekend was the party weekend.  The not so little little picked a treasure hunt theme.  Here is the party fare I made for said event.

Here we have the invitation, goody bag, and sign for the cake and other sugary goodness.  These invitations were being mailed so they had to be flat.  I also needed 12 of them so they couldn't be overly involved.  Here is a glimpse of what was inside.

I took Rustic Cream cardstock ran it through the printer using a free font from dafont.com that looked like it might be from a pirate and printed the information.  Then I trimmed it down and added it to a piece of Stardream Cardstock in Copper to give it a treasure feel.  It slid in the treasure chest as though the chest were and envelope.  The treasure chest part was just a half sheet of 8.5X11 cardstock with the folds placed in the right places.  The cardstock is stamped, it didn't come that way.  Then I added a lock (bronze Stardream cardstock), cut with a file on my Pazzles backed with black and all sanded to look old.  Finally, I added dark chocolate strips that were inked and sanded to look like leather straps. 

The goody bags (or boxes) were treasure chests made with a template from My Time Made Easy that was altered before cutting.  They were filled with a pirate bandana, pirate and treasure temporary tattoos, and chocolate (only kinds wrapped in gold and silver). 

Which brings us to the "Treasure Cove" banner.  This was never meant to be a pirate party, but a treasure hunt.  As such I went to great pains to bring a little and only a little pirate into it keeping the central focus about the treasure and the hunt.  Here is the treasure cove that went with the cake.

The party was a huge hit!  Everything turned out as I had hoped and the birthday kid was over the moon.  Now that it's done I'm entering this in the birthday ensemble challenge over at Moxie Fab World.

Thanks for taking the time to look!

Supplies
Cardstock from PTI, Core'dinations, Stardream (not sure the company)
Stamps from PTI
Template from My Time Made Easy
Die from Sizzix
Ink from Ranger
Fonts from Dafont.com
Other stuff...sandpaper, craft sticks