A lovely friend had an adorable baby girl last month and this is the card I made for her.
While I had my Stamping gear out and in use I also made a Little boy version too!
STAMP SETS USED ON THESE CARDS and available from my online store
“Baby Prints”
“Parlour Prints”
THREE of the colours used on these cards will be retiring at the end of next month- “Pretty in pink”, “Bashful Blue” and “Certainly Celery” Be sure to snap up these colours before they retire!
Sometimes I find myself really pressed for time- don’t we all!? However, I still enjoy making my handmade cards so I’ve got to find little tips and ideas that allow me to make my cards and fit that around my busy lifestyle. It is times like these that I will do something like take one card design and complete different cards based on that one design. Not sure what I mean? Take a look……
Here’s one card I have made. I’ve used some of the ‘Tea for two’ Designer Series paper and some stamped images. (Retiring colours Baja Breeze and Certainly Celery)
A simple change of colours and stamp sets…but still the same basic design and we have a different ‘look’ all together (Retiring colours- Not quite Navy, River Rock and Lucky Limeade)
and again….. (Retiring colour Bashful Blue)
On each of these cards I’ve used at least one of the colours that will be RETIRING at the end of the June. Already some of the reinkers for these colours have sold out! If you would like to order some of these colours before they are gone forever….please contact me as soon as possible
STAMP SETS USED ON THE CARDS ABOVE (Not to scale) These stamp sets are all available for sale. You can contact me for more information OR order through my online store.
PAPILLON POTPOURRI (pg 115) Product code 123757 (w) 123758 (c)
FLOWERING FLOURISHES (pg 121) Product code 126365 (w) 126367 (c)
FROM MY HEART (page 139) Product code 126555 (w) 126557 (c)
DARING ADVENTURE (page 104) Product Code 122600 (w) 122602 (c)
PERFECTLY PRESERVED and matching FRAMELITS (Cannery Set) From Holiday catalogue
Product code 126690(w) 126692(c) Framelits Product code- 127822
I was going through some photos the other day and stumbled across the following layout that I created for a Scrapbooking class some time ago. I thought I had shared it on my blog but it appears that I haven’t….so here you go!
This is the sketch that was offered to participants. People were able to use papers and colours that worked with their photos.
One of my sample layouts was of my son- This was actually last year’s School Swimming Carnival (2012) and we’ve already had this year’s School Carnival….oops! Time does pass rather quickly. This photo from last year shows Jared and his good mate after the carnival. Last year Jared was runner-up Champion Boy and this year he was awarded Champion Boy which he was rather chuffed about….I must get around to scrappin’ that photo too! ( I must add that in the other photo in this layout I tried to capture my son swimming in our backyard pool. He couldn’t resist ’posing for the camera’- There’s no way he would stop and grin like that in an actual race! )
For this layout I used the International Bazaar Designer Series paper (pg 164 Product code 126920)
I also created a second layout that was a little more girly. This is my precious daughter, Erin and my sweet Great- Niece (as in I’m her Great- Aunty not that she isn’t ‘great’ as well!)
I used the Floral District patterned paper for this layout (pg 163 Product code 126919) The title was cut with the “Typeset Alphabet” Dies and my bigshot (pg 193 Product code 127553)
I hope all the ladies enjoyed a lovely Mother’s Day yesterday. I have a nice relaxing day. My husband made me pancakes for breakfast and I received some lovely handmade cards, gifts, cuddles and kisses from the kids. We popped in to visit my husband’s Mum and then had lunch with my Mum. Here is the card I made for Mother’s Day……..
I really enjoyed playing with the “Dress up” Framelits. They are so easy to use..but really effective. I even took these dies and my bigshot into school and my Pre-Primary class made Mother’s Day cards using these framelits.
These framelits could obviously be used on a variety of different cards- for a variety of different occasions. Just as an example, if you cut the dress a little longer it could be made into a Wedding gown. Of course- a simple change of sentiment or patterned paper can change the ‘look’.
In my last blog entry- I shared Adam’s Angry Birds Birthday Party . The day after Adam’s party we had a party for his twin, Erin. This was a GIRL ONLY EVENT! Even her 3 brothers had to spend some time outside with Dad while the girls enjoyed some crafty entertainment….much to their disgust! (Having said that all the boys- including Dad were allowed into the craft classroom after the party and were allowed to get creative too!)
Erin enjoyed the afternoon with a group of really lovely young ladies. They were beautifully behaved the entire time! What a gorgeous bunch!
Here is the invitation that went out to her guests (Created in “My Digital Studio”)
GETTING SPOILED ROTTEN!
A SNAPSHOT OF SOME OF THE DECORATIONS (Luke asked me why Dad and I hung up ‘lots of those things you use to wash yourself in the shower’….Hmmm I guess some of them looked a little like a ‘shower puff’)
The girls were invited into my ‘craft classroom’ (that I use for adult classes) for a bit of creative ‘girly time’.
Each guest made a bracelet, a little purse to carry the bracelet and an ice cream card.
They cut out the purses using a die and my Bigshot. Aren’t they cute!? The ice cream on the front of the card was cut out of the shapes on the petal cone die.
I’m pretty sure they all enjoyed themselves and they all did such a wonderful job! 
We got so distracted that we ‘almost’ ran out of time for the party food. I had just enough time to throw the party food on the table before the parents arrived to collect their children. Please excuse the photos….it was my intention to make it look ‘pretty’ but in the end it was just placed on the table randomly and the sun was in an awkward position to take decent photos.
The main food was of course- Ice Cream! All the girls were able to make their own ice cream Sundaes. (I think a few were so ‘creative’ that they went home with a belly ache!) There were a variety of toppings to create their own ultimate Icecream Sundae! The other party food included cupcakes, sherbet cones, purple butterfly shaped biscuits, fairy floss, ice cream ‘cake pops’, marshmallows, popcorn, lolly teeth and other tasty treats!
THE CAKE
I must admit that I wasn’t entirely happy with how the cake turned out! I’m not one to make too much of a fuss of a birthday cake. I am normally one to just throw on some icing and lollies and hope for the best…..but I’m not sure I pulled it off this time! I just didn’t get the balance of colour right! I was hoping the chocolate on the icecream would be a deeper turquoise, the purple icing darkened over time and the pink wasn’t ‘pink enough’ (I used most of the food colouring on the red part of Adam’s cake the day before oops! ) At about 11pm I wasso disappointed that I was very close to starting up the oven to bake another cake and Jason convinced me that it would be crazt- reminding me that it only takes a moment to sing “Happy Birthday” and then the cake is cut into pieces! No-one seemed to mind that I didn’t bake another cake.
ERIN BLOWING OUT THE CANDLES ( I can’t believe she is NINE!)
THE AFTERMATH
Each guest took home the items they had made, a bag of lollies (decorated by Erin using retire Stampin’ Up! papers that matched her theme perfectly) plus a small wrapped gift containing a journal and shower gel, lotion etc all wrapped up with gorgeous Stampin’ Up! ribbon.
It is our final family birthday this month (All 6 birthdays are within a 6 week period) – I must give some serious thought to what I’m going to do for Jared’s birthday in about 9 days time!
Sincere apologies for my lack of blog entries lately. As always, it can be tricky balancing blogging with living life. April is a busy time in our household with lots of birthdays including our twins who turned 9 years old on Sunday 28th April. They each had a party with their friends and also a family BBQ. As their birthday fell in the WA school holidays they got to celebrate with friends a little early. Here are some snapshots of Adam’s Angry Birds/ Gamer Birthday party.
Firstly the invitation. I created Adam’s invitation using MY DIGITAL STUDIO which is a Stampin’ Up! product for creating digital projects.
If you would like to try out this product- You can download a free trial from my online store. Just click on the button that says ‘shop now’. The full version is only $24.95 and includes lots of great content. Try it out and let me know what you think!
Anyway- back to the birthday party. I didn’t use a lot of Stampin’ Up! products for Adam’s decorations but I can assure you that my Stampin’ Up! PAPER SNIPS got a good workout (It is great that my kids are now at an age where they are lots of help with the party preparations! Thanks for your help with all of the cutting!)
THE DECORATIONS
OPENING THE GIFTS….with a little bit of ‘assistance’. Thanks so much to the party guests for all of the lovely gifts for Adam!
ENTERTAINMENT
The entertainment included an ‘off screen Angry Birds Game”- complete with a slingshot. Erin blew up and tied lots of green balloons and Jared drew bad piggies faces faces on them
We also had a game where we popped “Goomba” balloons”, a Mario pinata and “Pin the moustache on Mario” Game
TIME to “PIG OUT!”
(The labels for the food items were cut out using my Bigshot using the Petal cone die and Apothecary Accents Framelits)
TIME FOR CAKE
and finally……the PARTY FAVOURS
Call me crazy but I love all of the birthday party preparation. I was even crazy enough to hold a party for Erin the following day. Stay tuned for pictures!
Only hours remain to take advantage of the extra 25% off the starter kit. For only $169 you can select $294 worth of Stampin’ Up! products PLUS you get a business kit with catalogues and order forms and so forth…..and just for good measure for anyone who takes up my offer to join my team on this last day of the promotion then I will throw in a ‘welcome gift’ of $40 worth of products of your choice. You can read more about it on the ‘join my team’ page which includes the link to signing up online. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions! http://www.creationsbymiriam.com/?page_id=368
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Blast off!
It is the start of the ‘birthday season’ in our household. The first birthday for the year is Luke and he will be turning 5 years old tomorrow! I’m in disbelief that my ‘baby’ will be FIVE! As his birthday falls over the Easter weekend he celebrated with a party with his friends on Wednesday. I was quite rapt when he requested an alien/ space themed birthday. Luke has quite a vivid imagination and I was worried his ideas would be a bit too ‘out there’ for me to achieve but I knew I could pull off a space themed party- especially as I had the “Blast off” stamp set and “Outer space” wheel sitting on my stamp shelves ready to be used.
I obviously started with the invitations. I didn’t want to have too much cutting out or anything too fussy/ time consuming so most of the stamping was on a single layer of whisper white cardstock.
At this point I hadn’t even considered a colour theme- but when I stumbled across as a space themed tablecloth and a space shuttle pinata I decided I would go with blue, orange and yellow (and black and white)- or in stampin’ up colours Pacific Point, Tangerine tango, and Daffodil delight. I managed to find lovely paper lanterns and stars to decorate the backyard
Of course, all of the party food was linked to the theme and I used the petal cone die to make rocket shapes and the Apothecary accent framelits to make labels for the food items.
I made little cupcake toppers using the “Blast off” stamp Set, circle punches and scallop circle punches
There was so much left over food. At least some people stopped to enjoy the sugar feast
Luke LOVED his birthday cake
If laughter and excited squeals is anything to go by, then the kids all had a great time. We played traditional games such as pass the parcel and musical bobs. They went hunting in the backyard for planet tokens. Those who managed to find Saturn received a prize. I found a great rocket that the kids enjoyed colouring in
They also had fun with the Space Shuttle Pinata
There were smiles all round!
Of course, no 5 year old birthday party would be complete without a fun loot bag to take home
Here are the “Loot bag” contents. I must confess that I think I have just as much fun as the kids trying to find items for the loot bags to fit the theme.
Luke tells me his party was AWESOME and he is already looking forward to his 6th birthday party! I need to make it through the next 3 kids’ birthdays in April and May (as well as Jason and my birthday too) before I start thinking about his 6th birthday.
Were you one of the people who considered joining my team? You might be interested to know that the he ‘special’ has been continued until the end of March. For only $169 you can join my team and select $294 worth of merchandise in your starter kit. Please let me know if you have any questions. You can also find more information if you click on the tab at the top that says “Join my team” Here’s the online link for signing up…..
NEWSFLASH- ONLINE ORDERING
I’m thrilled to let you know that I can now offer ONLINE ORDERING. Any time you would like to place an order you can simply visit my blog and click on the button that says “Shop now” This will take you to a page where you can place your own orders online. Of course, you are still more than welcome to contact me the traditional way and I can lodge your orders on your behalf but it is such a handy little option for you. You are still eligible for stampin’ rewards when you reach at least $300 when ordering.
MY DIGITAL STUDIO
In other exciting news- we now have “My Digital Studio”. This is a great option for those who enjoy creating on their computers. I am still finding my way around this new option and you can too- with MDS trial for FREE (30 day free trial)
