Jo's Birthday Blog Hop: Party in a Book!

Good Monday mornin', y'all! And welcome to...



For her birthday, one of my BFFs, Jo, invited several of us to join in on this fun birthday blog hop!

You should have come from my new friend, the lovely Ashley Nguyen Newell's blog. If not, please head over to Jo's blog and start at the beginning.

Jo is offering up some awesome blog candy for this hop, and in order to qualify, you must follow each of our blogs (via Google Reader, a blog reader, or Google Friend Connect) and leave a comment on each of our blogs.

The hop will close on Sunday, September 11 at 5 pm EST. Pls make sure that you leave your name and blog address/ email at the Mr. Linky on Jo's blog.

I am also offering up a small blog candy of my own. You can see more below! Now onto my project:



As she is one of my BFFs, I wanted to make Jo something special. I saw Dear Lizzy's It's Your Day Board Book and wanted to make her my version.

It's pretty easy to make, and I love how "each page is each own's confetti filled present," as Elizabeth said.





I took a Basically Bare book and took out the envelope pages so that only the board pages were left. I decorated with some washi tape, Basic Grey, American Crafts, and My Little Shoebox items. The stamp in the front is TGF's Cheeky Beach, minus the ball (we both love Hawaii!). For the envelopes, I got some glassine favor bags from Michael's and filled them with pics, word confetti, bling, and punched out butterflies. You take the washi tape and seal the bags and out comes the surprises! The fun part is you can re-seal or even take out the 'party' embellies and use them to scrap or make cards.

I even upcycled and used the Basically Bare tag twine and re-used it to decorate the brad above the word "goodies" and the heart button on the left page. The green button is from an old shirt. I also get to enter this for the current Lessology project: The Altered Book.

Here is the second part.





As you can see, the book only contained five pages and two envelopes filled with goodies. But I can assure you, it is very fun and it's like having a party in a book! :) Hope the birthday celebrant likes it!

And here's my additional blog candy. All you have to do is leave me a comment below & follow my blog. I cringe when I ask people to do that but I promise to be somewhat entertaining, and I think it'll be a great way for me to meet new people/ new blogs. I'll make sure that the winner here would be different from Jo's blog candy. I'll use Random.Org by September 11th, 5 pm EST.



Included are the new Amy Tangerine's Mini Book by American Crafts, a Whiff of Joy stamp, and a TGF Cheeky Beauty stamp. All are new/ un-used. I will ship anywhere...you heard right, peeps...anywhere! LOL!

Anyway, you are to head over to Diana's blog next. In case you get lost along the way, here's the blog hop order:

Jo - http://joboogie.typepad.com/
Amber - http://my3escrapbooking.blogspot.com
Ashley - http://hearthugsdesigns.blogspot.com/
Corinne - http://rinnesbliss.blogspot.com/ <----- That's Me!
Diana - http://dianamlarson.blogspot.com
Jacilynn - http://jacilynndashwood.blogspot.com
Lisa - http://indymermaid.blogspot.com
Susan - http://cricutandgrasshopper.blogspot.com

Whew! Thanks so much for visiting and leaving some love! I know that my post was a long and picture-heavy one :). Happy Birthday, JoAnn!!

ABAC Jungle Tray

Good Sunday morning, everyone!!

It's my turn at PaperWorks Company's Anything But A Card Sundays. Today, I decorated this tray from Maya Road with Safari Friends.

I've got a couple of nieces and nephews whose birthdays are coming up and also some friends who are expecting babies. I'm not sure who this will be for yet but it could be used as a trinket holder or a hanging wall decoration. I left the top middle part blank for personalization with a sentiment or picture.

I kept the embellishments to a minimal (actually none). Just used the colorful papers and animals!

For the sentiment, I plan to use tiny letter stickers from My Little Shoebox. I may take a pic of the finished product and show it at a later time.

Hope you all are having a great weekend so far! And for those in the U.S., Happy Labor Day!

Supplies:
Stamps- PWCO's Safari friends (all four) and Jungle Jester (Timothy the Tiger)
Tray- Maya Road
PP- Echo Park (from PWCO's June monthly PaperCard kit)
Misc- Copics. Memento ink.

And don't forget to come back here tomorrow for:

Paper-pierced Pinwheel Pandas

Hello out there blog-o-sphere!

Today I'm showing you a card for the Some Odd Girl's Paper Piercing Challenge. I chose Pinwheel Panda..he is soooo cute!

A dear friend recently had triplets, and they are being Christened and will have their first party. My friend had gone through a lot before and during her pregnancy with the babies. And after their births...well, you can just imagine what chaos there was (and still is). But there is more than enough joy to compensate for it and go all around :). So I wanted to make her family a very special card.

At first, I was gonna make the babies individual cards. But I thought one giant card featuring all three pandas would be remarkable and would really showcase the triplets. Each part is unique enough but together they'd make a cool statement.

I don't know what it is about paper piercing challenges but lately, they've got me feeling a little ambitious and a lot ecclectic, LOL!

As you can see, there's a lot going on in this creation. My initial idea was to use the plaid Crate Paper for the Panda, to make him into a stuffed animal. I mentioned this before...I just loved the stuffed critters my Mom sewed for me when I was a kid. As you can see, my affinity for homemade goodies started early. And Pinwheel Panda sure made adorable toys! :) Oh, how I wish I could sew!

And then, I saw the flowery paper and the negative image created when I cut out the eyes, body, and heels for the first bear. Thought I'd make her into a stuffed animal as well. She was harder to put together as she was already 'cut through' in certain places, but it sure was fun (kinda like a puzzle!). I, then, outlined her body parts with my Copic multiliner.

By the time I got to the third Panda/ triplet, my fingers hurt! So I just cut out the stamped image from the SOG packaging (another upcycling moment!),

I tied in the three bears by using these cute, baby-themed papers from Fancy Pants Designs. I also colored their pinwheels with Copics using their three main colors.

Added some twine, misc buttons, and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Toodles,

Teeny Tiny Hello Kitty

Today, I have a teeny, tiny card. I usually make square cards that are 6 x 6, but now wanted to think outside of the box. Plus, these cute Hello Kitty stamps from PSA are super small as well. It's about an inch in height.

I first saw these stamps of my favorite cartoon character of all times from Stephanie. I didn't know what peel & stick packs were and when I ordered these at the local Papyrus store, the clerk insisted that I needed the stamp body. I had just given birth and was ordering over the phone. But I should've known better. Basically, if you are a stamper, you do NOT need the stamp body because an acrylic block would work the same. I was so bummed that I spent that extra cash for something I already had. And I couldn't return it because it was personalized with my initials and address. Anyway, just a tip in case the stores try to talk you into one.

I'm proud to say that all the supplies were left-over scrap papers from multiple projects. They are from Echo Park - I got them from the June PaperCard kit over at PWCO. These monthly kits sure could last and it's only $11.99 (based in Canada).

The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Ok, gotta run! I've got a sick tater tot :(. Hope he feels better soon as we have two parties this weekend.

Timeless Beauty

Upon sifting through my pile of cards, I realized that there was not one I could give to an aunt, or my bosses for that matter. They were mostly cute-sy, and even the clean and simple ones were not 'serious' enough.

For today's card, I chose these papers from a Studio Calico kit. These Webster's pages, Crate Paper, and Studio Calico were timeless and vintage. I paired them with this Japanese beauty from Magnolia and played two challenges. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches' Sentiment Sampler and Word Up.

The first challenge is for Birthday Sundaes, a new challenge blog that focuses on birthday cards. BFF'ers, Jo, is also on the DT. This week's challenge is a photo inspiration. I took in the colors of pink, yellow, green, turquoise, cream, white, and even the black decorations on the plate. I also liked the stripes, and the holes on the trim represented the sprinkles.



The second challenge is for the Deconstructed Sketch # 16, which unfortunately is now closed :(. I missed it by five hours!

I think this card would've looked better with its corners rounded but I could not locate my punch anywhere.

Anyway, speaking of timeless...

here's my current favorite artist and song.



Her voice is so natural and raw. Anybody can relate to her music, and I love how she doesn't need anything but a piano accompaniment and a mike when she performs in front of millions.

:)