Happy Birthday Gracie!

Today Charlie's at his friend Grace's birthday party.  She's been his friend since they were born, her mum and I were in the same ante-natal class with our first two and then the friendship has continued between us all.  They will be celebrating the party at a falconry centre and so I couldn't resist the urge to use our cute owl punch.  You can turn this little fellow out in all sorts of colours and outfits and all you need in addition is the two step bird punch for his wings.  My bunting is from the Party This Way set and the lettering is Just Perfect Alphabet set which is really useful as it big enough, but small enough if that makes sense.  Balloons are always good for parties and so these are from Crazy for Cupcakes with the sentiment from the same set and I used a marker pen to pick out the parts of the sentiment I required. 

My butterflies from the new Beautiful Embosslit turned out to be perfect to mask a little hiccup, because whether you are a beginner or a little more experienced we all make mistakes, but the beauty of papercrafting is you can usually find a way around those inky finger smudges!!!!!

Have a great party Gracie and you all have a wonderful Sunday!!!!

Hugs Zx

C for cupcake, chocolate, candy......................or Charlie!

zoe tant stampin up demonstrator

Isn't it funny how sometimes good things all start with the same letter like cupcakes, chocolate and candy!  Who cares really which letter they start with when they all taste that good!  Today I'm sharing my cupcake with you.  I love signs and have wanted to have a go at something along a sign line for a while and Shelli's creative challenge this month has inspired me to finally get around to it.  It just so happens that I love all these 'C' words too!  Sadly it's all those things that remind me of the phrase 'A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips!'  Ah well you have to enjoy life and if creating, inspiring and sharing means C for cupcakes, chocolate and candy I'm in!

The downside with projects like this is that they don't easily fit into my photo cube and the light today isn't great for pictures, but hopefully the selection of shots gives you the general 'C' idea!!! Are you getting my drift now! Yes I have a sweet tooth.

When the in colours arrived, I have to admit I wasn't keen, but it's like lots of things once you try them you can't say no.  I've fallen for them now and the whole sign is decked out in 'in colours'.  From our paper stack of in colour dsp I've decorated the background and embossed my own wall paper print from Crazy for Cupcakes in white.  Chipboard letters have been coloured with markers and embossed in clear several times to give an enamelled effect and the 'c' got the dazzling diamonds treatment.  Punches have given a base to the 'for' and the cupcake case is made by fan folding a piece of dsp to give a concertina which I've then adhered to the base.  My 'frosting' is made by stamping one of the tree tops from Trendy Trees on blushing bride cardstock in versamark and then I've used heat and stick and dazzling diamonds to give the rich, piped effect.  My cherry is poppy parade with a linen thread stem and to bring the whole thing together I've used poppy parade stitched poly ribbon. 

Of course one thing that my son has reminded me about is that I could have made this to say 'C for Charlie'  which potentially throws my theory about good, sweet things all beginning with the same letter, straight out the window!!!!!!!!!  Thankfully he has his moments!!!

Happy Crafting
Hugs Zx

Birthday Wishes for Rosella

My children are currently at Rosella's birthday party.  I decided that whilst Rosella is such a beautiful name the chances of getting badges, mugs or anything with her name on would be limited and probably non-existant unless you make them yourself.  Having posted my dream sign on the previous post I started thinking what I could do beyond just a card with her name on.  Also one of the greatest things about being a demonstrator is that not only do you get all your stash at a  fabulously discounted rate you also earn lots of free stuff and don't always have the time to use it and so I decided to use up some of my retired as well as current supplies on this sweet little girl's birthday and make her a sign to hang in her bedroom.

A sign, I hear you cry!  Yes a sign because once opened she will be able to remove the bottom portion and it will turn into a sign with her name on because I used the perforator from our cutting kit to enable this to happen and attached a ribbon through eyelets on the inside of the card as you can see below.

I think it's kind of clever and I'm really hoping she likes it. Report back from Olivia today who has been to panto practice with Rosella.  She told Olivia "Your card is fantastic!" Good news!

The rest of the card is fairly simple and I've used the current Brights DSP stack to stamp the balloons and cut them out and attached them to stamped images on the card base allowing the strings to remain in tact.  Being a very girly, funky girl, Rosella that is, I've done a 'pink' job with sparkly rhinestones and dazzling diamonds glitter.  Rub-ons have been used for the sentiment with the spritzer tool and my own 'smudging' to finish it.

Now whilst I have used chipboard before I've not really covered it with dsp before or glitter so this is my try something new for a challenge on Shelli's blog.  I've also used my new crimper again and I got it straight this time remembering a tip from the lovely Pam Morgan at Convention; start to run the cardstock through a little then reverse slightly before you send the whole piece back through the crimper.

Have a great weekend and imagine that your only trouble this weekend is to browse the sale-a-bration brochure and decide which set you want to earn next!

Hugs Zx