Birthday Celebration

My mother-in-law has a significant birthday coming up... her 90th! Of course there's going to be a party to celebrate the milestone, and of course I volunteered to make the invitations -- all 21 of them! 

I wanted to keep them simple (I know, like my usual designs aren't? :P) but distinctive. Embossing this ornate treble clef gives the invitations a focal point that allows the rest of the design to be fairly basic. (Well, in my opinion...) As my mother-in-law is very musical, it seemed quite appropriate, as well. A shimmery gold mat, a computer generated banner, and done! Most importantly, my mother-in-law is very pleased with them. 
I'm going to add these invitations to this week's Simon Says Stamp "Anything Goes" challenge, just for fun! 

Supplies: white & Recollections gold cardstock, Hero Arts musical clef, Versamark ink, pirate's gold embossing powder, 3/4" square punch

Crafty Creations Challenges is Looking for New Members!

Crafty Creations Challenges is looking for some new design team members! If you are interested in a design team position, I can tell you that it is a friendly, welcoming group of crafters. Here are the details, from the blog:

Hello! It's that time again and we are looking for a few new members for our Crafty Creations Challenge Team!!  

If you are creative, crafty and confident that you want to be part of a great team, then you could be just who we are looking for! All experience levels are welcome to apply. 

A few requirements before applying: 

- You must have a blog that you post on at least once a week which would include a post of your challenge project twice per month, if on the DT. 

- Willing and able to use digital images in your creations, supplied by our sponsors

- Able to create and post 2  projects/month

- Able to comment on entries (divided up between members)

- Willing to be on the team for a minimum 6 month term

- Have a positive team attitude and lots of energy to create! 

What you will receive if you join us:

- A casual, non-stressful design team experience

- Sponsored digital images from fabulous designers to create your challenge projects!

- Support and crafting inspiration from fellow members

- Opportunity to make new crafting community friends!

If you are interested, please send Deena an e-mail by August 8, including:

1. Name

2. Link to your blog

3. Your previous DT experience, if any

4. Please tell us a little about yourself and mention if you have played our challenges previously. (Not a requirement, but always nice! :)) 

If you have any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Just leave them in the comments below. Hope you'll try out!

Tag Time

This week at Crafty Creations Challenges, we have a fun challenge for you: make a tag or incorporate a tag into your project. Lots of possibilities! We are sponsored this week by Meljen's Designs. Here's my tag:

Isn't that little cuddle dragon cute? Although I don't know why I can't look more carefully at the fine detail of an image before I decide it would be fun to paper-piece it. :P (I did consider, about halfway through, whether I could get away with making a GIANT tag and then photographing it without any size references. However, I persevered.) Just for a little extra fun, I popped up my little dragon on a homemade spring -- a little coiled jewellery wire and a couple of pieces of pop-dot tape is all it takes. I like to call it a wibble-wobble so as not to infringe on any trademarks. ;) 
Please join us this week at Crafty Creations Challenges -- check out what the other design team members have created, then link up your own tag! 


Supplies: white, kraft & yellow cardstock, Echo Park For the Record digital patterned paper, Meljen's Designs cuddle dragon image, We R Memory Keepers ribbon, Twinery Caribbean twine, jewellery wire, pop-dot tape, corner-rounder punch, hole-punch 

A REAL Challenge!

When I first saw the requirements for the latest Crafty Creations Challenge, I thought I might be in trouble. We have a recipe challenge for you, and here it is:

3 patterned papers

2 buttons

1 ribbon

1 sentiment

THREE patterned papers? BUTTONS? Talk about outside my comfort zone. But after a while, things started to take shape in my mind. Spreading my different papers out all over the place helped. :P Buttons are another thing; I am so not a button person. But there are workarounds if you think outside the box a little. Also, when it comes to cooking, I tend to look on a recipe as a general guideline rather than as an exact prescription, so I applied that to this as well. Put all those things together, and here's what you get:

Strictly speaking, I've exceeded the three-paper requirement -- I never expected that to happen! I used both sides of a Crate Paper calendar sheet for the calendar (duh) and the sentiment panel, a Pink Paislee sheet for the bird image, and what may be Stampin' Up paper for the base. (It was a gift from Ang. As a matter of fact, the other two papers were a gift from Meg.) So that's three. But see that heart-shaped button? Ang made that, and it's backed with, you guessed it, patterned paper! The other "button" is a chipboard one, again from Ang. (Yes, I have some VERY generous friends. :D) Just to round out the whole making-cards-with-donated-supplies, the "happy" sentiment comes from a stamp set I won from my {ippity} chick, Jen. I layered it on chipboard (fine, cereal box cardboard) and popped it up with dimensional tape. The black embroidery floss (that's close enough to ribbon, right?) is from my very own stash, as is the white card base this whole creation is built on. 
If I can fulfill these challenge requirements, you definitely can! Our sponsor this week is Whiff of Joy. Why not see what you can cook up? 

(I'm entering this card into the current Lawnscaping challenge #37, to use dimension.) 

Supplies: white cardstock, Crate Paper, Pink Paislee & Stampin' Up (?) patterned paper, {ippity} A Little Buggy stamp, Colorbox frost white ink, white embossing powder, chipboard button, epoxy button, black embroidery floss, Stampin' Up ticket-corner punch, pop-dot tape

Cards from friends

Happy holiday Monday (and day after Canada Day) to you! Or happy almost 4th of July... or just hello. ;) I thought I'd spend a little part of my extra weekend day sharing a few cards from talented friends. Just for fun, I'm posting them from smallest to tallest. 

There may be a way to make this card cuter, but if there is, I certainly don't know how. It's from my friend and crafting play-date buddy Emily, who is also posting this card today on her blog. Without the tag, this card is just about four inches square. She enlarged a digital stamp and to my amazement, hand-cut it! Love the colours and the little touches of Glossy Accents. Thanks, Em!

This beauty of a card is from Heather. I quite like the irony of her sending ME a thank you card when I'm the one who derives inspiration from her all the time! If you want to know how she created this amazing image, you are in luck, as she wrote an excellent tutorial for this very card. Thank you, Heather!

And finally, this 5" x 7" card from Angela. I'm in love with the little bees, the great colours, but mostly, that amazing die-cut hexagon overlay. Serious Silhouette Cameo envy! (It's a new toy for Ang.) She blogged about this card as part of her Growing in Unity week, But alas, it's too late to comment on her post for a chance to win. ;) Thanks, Ang! 
No card from me today -- summer comes, and my card-making rate goes waaay down. I will be back on Wednesday with the latest installment of Crafty Creations Challenges -- and for me, the emphasis will definitely be on challenge this coming week!