Happy Birthday Beth!

One of my zoo friends is having a birthday today, and over the weekend in my crafting free time I decided to make her a birthday card and coordinating 3D treat. The "Confetti Celebration" stamp set is such a fun birthday stamp set. It's been a while since I've really had a birthday stamp set that I'm excited to play with, but this one is so fun I had a lot of great ideas when I ordered it.

This shaker card is easy to make, but still gives off a fun "wow" factor for the recipient. To learn to make your own, check out Stampin' Up!'s official YouTube video tutorial. I took Stampin' Up!'s example from the catalog and added some Bermuda Bay to it and changed the ribbon to coordinate. Since I don't have the new Sprinkles punch, I improvised and punched stars from a retired small star punch.

No birthday card is complete without a coordinating 3D treat! I love the new Popcorn Box Thinlit. I bagged up some peanut M&M's for my friend to finish it off! Happy Birthday Beth!

Happy Birthday Blog!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my blog! Today marks the second year that I have been sharing my creative ideas with you. I can't believe it's been 2 years already. :)

Perfect timing too--today marks the roll-out of my NEW blog background layout! I had ordered it back in the fall through Laycock Designs and it was finished just today, on my blog's Birthday! If you are a google-reader subscriber, please take a moment to go check out the design layout...Michelle really did an awesome job on it. I'm so happy with it!

For the project today, I'm sharing a card using a retired stamp set, but it was fitting for the reason I made it. I purchased an ice cream gift card and needed a card to place it in so I pulled out my retired "Sweet Scoops" stamp set and whipped up a quick card. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Today is my hubby's Birthday! For the first time since we've been married, we both took the day off work and celebrated. We went and watched a movie, went shopping and then ate dinner with the family. Part of the weekend celebration included dinner with my family at Ted's, hubby's favorite Mexican restaurant.

Happy Birthday Honey! Hope it's awesome!

Birthday Card Swap Pt. 3

This is the final group of cards that I received in a recent birthday card swap.

Created by Paula Frieders:


No name was given:


Created by Susan Miller:


No name was given:

Birthday Card Swap Pt. 2

Here is the second batch of birthday cards I received from a birthday card swap.

Created by Ann Fitton:


Created by Angela Khan:


Created by Tricia Kaplan:


Created by Susan Miller:


Come back tomorrow for one final swap post!

Birthday Card Swap

Remember the Crazy for Cupcakes card that I made for a birthday card swap? Well, I finally got the rest of the swap cards in the mail, and boy were there some good ones! I thought I'd share the other cards that I received in the swap in case you need some inspiration with some birthday stamp sets.

Created by Kimberly Morris (and happens to be one of my favorite cards):


Created by Dee Yates:


Created by Laura Thorpe:


Created by Ronnda Clarkson:


Come back tomorrow for more card swaps!

Party favors

You may remember this party favor table piece that I messed around with when I first got the petal cone die. Well, I was inspired by Heather Summers and made a more classy one from her inspiration (I have searched her blog to find the post but can't, but I know it came from her). I used the Red Glitter paper, which really helped make the red accent pieces pop. And the little cupcake punch gave the cones just the right touch of Birthday flair!

I also made little matchbook treat pouches using the retired Night and Day DSP, and filled them with candy for the guests to nibble on while sitting at the tables.

Post Birthday Party

Last weekend, before Snowmaggedon 2011 blew through Tulsa, was my 30th Birthday party. I forgot to share pictures with you from our evening, so I'll do that now. Since it was my 30th, I wanted to do something special to celebrate with my friends. So, we had a night of dinner and dancing at The Blue Cottage, this cute little event center in the area.


I wrapped packages in black and white wrapping paper for the centerpieces, and made little matchbox treat pouches for favors and set them on the tables. Added a few balloon bouquets around the room, and we were set. We ate, danced and had a good time just being with friends. It was a wonderful start to a new decade!

I took a LOT of pictures, so I am only posting a few below from the night...

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm no longer in my 20s...today is my 30th Birthday and I am so excited! My Birthday is one of my very favorite holidays. I always get asked if I'm nervous about getting old. Personally, I don't think 30 is old. When my mother turned 60, I realized that SIXTY isn't old. :) I guess it's all a matter of perspective. At some point many years ago, I'm sure I thought 30 was old.

Today's card is another Birthday card-one that I created with my club members this month. It uses the baby wipe technique, a technique that I had never tried until I started planning for this card. I had some extra ink refillers laying around my scrap room from a Christmas class I'd taught, so I thought it would be fun to try. This technique is SO easy! I love the end result. If you haven't tried it before, you must! Simply squirt random drops of ink refiller on a baby wipe (place it on a foam plate to keep it from seeping through). Using another ink color, repeat the process to fill in the white area of the baby wipe. You can add as many colors as you want. Then press your stamp onto the wipe (this is your ink pad) and stamp the image on your card stock! So EASY!

Crazy for Cupcakes Birthday

Tomorrow is my 30th Birthday, so I thought today and tomorrow's posts should be Birthday related. :) I recently signed up to do a Birthday card swap with a group of friends I made at convention this year. I chose to do a swap using the "Crazy for Cupcakes" stamp set (one of my favorite birthday sets).

Requirements included two embellishments (Rhinestone accents and glitter were mine), although they consider punches an embellishment and I did quite a bit of that...I made 14 cards! :) I had a lot of fun doing this card and look forward to participating in more swaps that this group does. Now I just have to wait to get the other swaps back in the mail. Can't wait to see what everyone else created with this stamp set.

Occasions Mini Sneak Peak Pt. 2

Today's Occasions Mini catalog sneak peak features two brand new items: a birthday stamp set "Bring on the Cake," which is chalk full of birthday sentiment stamps, and a cupcake punch! Angels are singing everywhere at the sight of this delightful punch. I only used part of the punch, but it comes with a candle and cherry to top off the icing as well.

Using the many marvelous Stampin' Write markers makes coordinating your cards so easy! I used Melon Mambo and Daffodil Delight to color in the Birthday sentiment.

Sweet Birthdays

Cupcakes are one of my favorite treats, especially at parties. For a recent workshop, I created this simple birthday card using the "Crazy for Cupcakes" stamp set. I added a splash of color to the image using our fabulous Stampin' Write Markers, then took it up a step and added Dazzling Diamonds to the frosting of the cupcakes for some sass.

Happy Birthday

One of my good friends had a birthday, so I made this card to wish her Happy Birthday. It uses the Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set and some retired Razzleberry Lemonade DSP I had leftover.

Strawberry Shortcake

I always try to challenge myself creatively, but this one took the cake. I received an invite to one of my friend's daughter's birthday party. It had a cute Strawberry Shortcake on the front of the invite and I thought, "Hmm, I could make a punch art Strawberry Shortcake, no problem, and put her on a birthday card."

Yikes. It kicked my tail, but here is the result. You probably wouldn't know who she was if I hadn't said, but that's okay. At least I tried, right? :)