Happy 5th Birthday!

My daughter turned 5 today! Where does the time go? We had a pretty busy day starting off with oatmeal with sprinkles, with a candle and a Happy Birthday song. Next was lunch, chicken casserole and rice, with a candle and a Happy Birthday song. Then after my husband got home we headed to McDonald's (Riley's choice) and followed it with cupcakes, with candles, a Happy Birthday song and presents. She's really into Barbie now and she got a Barbie house. I'm so excited about her really getting into Barbie, I think I played with Barbie until I was 12. I'm looking forward to many hours of playing and dressing and redressing Barbie, Ken, and all their friends. The only downfall to the Barbie house was the 50 bazillion stickers, ok it was only 51, but still, that's a lot of stickers! Happy Birthday Riley!

Not that you asked

But I'll show you anyway. In my last post I mentioned that I gave my new neighbors a tower of brownies. Well, here's what it looks like. I totally swiped the idea from Erin Lincoln from the Creating Keepsakes message board. The paper is from DCWV. It's 12 sheets of 12 x 12 folded and made into boxes. If there's paper folding involved I'm all over it. Guess that has to do with living in Japan from preschool thru 2nd grade and having to take culture classes. I was all about the origami. I made up the boxes and tied them up with some pretty green ribbon. I also made a couple of the boxes with baby themed paper for my stepmom to give as a baby gift. Inside those boxes was an outfit with socks. So cute, but of course I didn't take a picture of that one. I made a little card to go with it. Keep in mind I gave this to them in October, hence the fall theme.

I used the house stamp from ABC Images for the card. I have to tell you that ABC Images is, hands down, my favorite stamp set from Stampin' Up! You can come up with so many different projects with this set, from teacher gifts to New Baby, and everything in between.

All products Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: ABC Images, Nursery necessities (welcome)

Ink: Kiwi Kiss

Paper: Die Cuts with a View (Fall Stack, I think:)

Accessories: Kiwi kiss striped Ribbon

Punches: 1 3/8", 1 1/4", 1" circles, Scallop Circle

Happy Birthday Deana!

Today is my friend Deana's birthday. Happy Birthday Deana!! I wanted to make a fun little card for her, because she's a fun little woman. She's the tiniest person I've met in a long time. Not only is she a friend, she's also my neighbor. We live in a brand new neighborhood, my family was literally the first family to move in and we were by ourselves for over 3 weeks before anyone else moved into the neighborhood. There are only a few houses at the front of the development, and Deana, her husband and their sweet little boy moved in just 2 doors down. Of course I did the neighborly thing and baked some brownies and made a card to welcome them. After that we just hit it off and Thank the Lord, I've been praying for someone just like her, we're alike and SOOO different that it works. She's visiting family in Texas right now and I can't wait for her to come home!
As for the card, I loosely based it on a card that was in Stampin' Success, the magazine that Stampin' Up! demonstrators get every month. There are always very cute and cutting edge projects in the magazines, so I altered a card from the magazine and made it my own.

Stamps: Wow Flowers
Ink: Kiwi Kiss
Paper: Baja Breeze, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White
Accessories: Kiwi Kiss Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Flower Fusion Too (Chocolate Flower), silver brad
Punches: 1 3/8", 1 1/4", 1" circle punches, corner rounder

Valentine's Class

These are the projects that we did at my Valentine's Class at K'Cee's house. Simple and easy cards that are easy to reproduce and a little pop top fruit can treat holder. The Riding Hood Red Circle under the Birdie card was done with the Coluzzle, which sadly is being discontinued. But now I have a legit reason to buy the new Circle Scissor Plus from the new catalog. Stamps: Curly Label and Goody Goody Gumdrops (Level 3 Hostess)
Ink: Riding Hood Red
Paper: Bella Rose
Accessories: RHR Striped Ribbon
Stamps: Love You Much and Goody Goody Gumdrops (Level 3 Hostess)
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Close to Cocoa
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, Riding Hood Red, Candy Lane DSP
Accesories: Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon
Punches: 1 3/4" Circle Punch
Other: Coluzzle
Stamps: Love You Much
Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White
Punches: Scallop Edge, Heart to Heart

Valentine Mailboxes

I am in love with the little mailboxes that you can get in the dollar spot at Target. I think I bought about 20 of them. These 2 are for my son's teachers for Valentine's Day. I used some Riding Hood Red DSP to cover them and the Love You Much stamp set to embellish. I printed a little box (available to demonstrators on the Stampin' Up! website) on RHR cardstock and cut it out, stamped and embellished and filled it with chocolate. The little box fits perfectly inside the mailbox. I tied some RHR striped ribbon around the flag and TADA, a cute little gift. I'll help Ethan with is cards and pop them inside and there you have it, a super cheap, super cute teacher's gift.

Lollipop Holder

These little lollipop holders are my son's Valentine's for his kindergarten class. I was trying to think outside the box and this is what I came up with. I got my measurements by measuring the lollipop itself. The ones I used are Jolly Rancher lollipops. The bucket that I have them in in the picture above came from Wal-Mart last year. I just took my crop-a-dile and punched 2 holes in the front and threaded some Riding Hood Red Striped Ribbon through and tied a bow. I love my crop-a-dile for projects just like this. That little booger can cut through almost anything.
My youngest decided to join me for the last part of the video and I didn't have time to reshoot, so this is reality. It's actually how I stamp almost every time I stamp, with her in my lap "helping" me. I was thinking that I might try to reshoot at nap time, but no dice on a nap today, so you get it Raw and Uncut! Enjoy and if you have anything that you would like to see in a video write a comment or send me an email. Thanks!

Sale-a-Bration

Today marks the official kick off of Sale-a-Bration 2009. For every $50 you spend (before tax and shipping) you get a free Sale-a-Bration item. This year there's the obvious stamp sets, but also Designer Series Paper and a Ribbon Bundle. Check out my sidebar for the catalog or visit my website for more details.