Vintage blue skies

Happy Sunday, and welcome to lawn fawn inspiration week!  I'm so excited to be able to share the new sets - they are all so adorable!

Today, we're highlighting "blue skies," a hot air balloon set with lawn fawn flair:



I stamped the adorable hot air balloon, colored it in with copics and then stamped the chevron pattern from "interlocking backdrops" over-top for some subtle pattern.  A flying banner was easy to create: I stamped the full banner, and just drew in a few lines to close it off and make it look like the balloon was carrying it across the *pink* sky.



The clouds are subtle, but so cute!  (I love that they are flat-bottomed, don't you?) I stamped them in a pink ink, and then swiped some copic shading into them.

I hope you like today's card!  See you tomorrow for more lawn fawn inspiration ♥

wavin' happy birthday!

Lawn fawn is teaming up with Perfect Paper Crafting to show off what you can do with the perfect tears tools.  I used the wavy rulers to create an ombré ocean for my party dolphin to jump out of:

For the dolphin, I stamped the hat first and masked it, before stamping the dolphin overtop.  I then cut around the entire dolphin/hat combo.  For a bit of extra party pizazz, I added a little bow-tie.

The ocean was made in a snap!  I grabbed a few different blues from my card-stocks stash, and went to work with the rulers (I used the largest wave).  They even provided a little water-pen so that I could break down the cardstock fibers with a little water before ripping.  Every rip scored me two wavy layers - how awesome is that?  Four tears later, I had a full ocean that I stitched together along the sides before adhering it to the card-base.



The sentiment is a bit of a mash-up: I grabbed the first part from "critters of the sea" and the second party from "so much to say."

Thanks for stopping by!  Starting Saturday, it will be lawn fawn inspiration week!  Kelly Marie posted a sneak peek of all of the new sets on the blog - check it out!  (You know what that means over here, right?  Get ready for another round of 2 and 3 posts a day for a few... eeep!)

sweet dreams {my CSS faves!}

The entire CSS design team is showing off projects made with our favorite CSS products.  Sweet dreams is the set that made me fall in love with CSS stamps.  I couldn't help but mix it up with my favorite dies for a little baby ensemble.

It was so hard to narrow down my fave CSS products!  But here's what I came up with:

The favor flags were stamped with the nursery rhyme text border, and I gave the card-base a stripey look.  

For the main image, I die-cut the label die (also tracing around the die and hand-cutting a brown mat for it) and stamped the sleepy moon image onto the label.  I love a book-wormy-moon.  I paper-pieced the images (I love the soft texture that you can get with monochromatic papers), and added some fun glitter touches to the moon.  I don't think you can tell in the pictures, but I added a foam square to the middle of the label, and then firmly glued the outline of the label to the card base.  It gives a bit of texture and dimension without having it stand out too much!

Ever since CSS came out with their envelopes and matching liner die, I don't think a card is complete with a matching envie.  I stamped the liner with the nursery rhymes, and then stamped the moon in a very soft brown ink directly over-top.  Look, ma - no masking.  ha.  I very carefully dabbed some copic color into the moon image, being careful not to smudge the (non-memento) brown ink in the process.

What's a baby card without a baby gift?  I whipped up a little gift box using my favorite CSS favor die - and that's saying a lot, since CSS carries so many different options!  I stamped the box in the same stripes as the card, and included a matching favor flag.

I paper-pieced the cow-jumping-over-the-moon.  Isn't he the cutest?  (designer tip: adding a tiny bit of copic coloring is a fun way to dress up your patterned paper...)

I hope you like my baby-themed CSS faves!

The rest of the DT is showing off as well:  

Audrey ♥ Lori ♥ Jennifer ♥ Laura ♥ Steph ♥ Tracy ♥ Kim ♥ Amber ♥ CSS blog

nautical dad {saturday creations post}

Party update: It's 5am here, and whisper quiet.  In a few hours, a gaggle of girls will be here to celebrate Sofia's 8th birthday... I may be taking a few instagram pictures of the day, if you want to check them out.  But, I won't be able to share too much or post to the blog for at least a few weeks: I crafted the party using brand new CSS stamps and dies!  I can't wait for our upcoming May release - it's all so cute!  I am on pins and needles to show off Sofia's spa party with you!

For now, though, I can definitely share this one with you - another Saturday Creations post with Precious Remembrance:

I thought it would be fun to take some of the images from the mom & dad set and do something a little different with them.

I stamped the border onto a sheet of blue cardstock, cut it apart into strips, and then adhered them under the boat.

The ship is from an adorable little set by "my cute stamps" - ahoy.  (Full disclosure:  when paper smooches came out with their "wicked nauticool" set, I was itching to have it.  It's adorable.  Then, there was this flash of remembering that I already have my own nautical set.... that I've probably only used once... that (in my opinion) has a cuter sailboat.  sigh.  Do you ever do that?  I obviously have too.many.stamps.)

I stamped the sails onto white cardstock, filled them with a text background, and cut them out.  The base of the boat was stamped onto red carstock in the same light ink.  I wanted to cut it out without showing off the stamp outline at all.



The clouds were stamped onto pieces of masking paper and then just placed onto the card-front as masks.  I blended inks for the sky before sewing my boat into place.

I hope you like my nautical dad card, and get inspired to look at your own stamp sets a little differently!

my world is brighter... {mama elephant guest designer}

I'm thrilled to be able to show off the cards I made using Mama Elephant's "bling" set.

First up, I had to use my fave gal with this sentiment - they are such a perfect match:



I layered some patterned papers and tried my best to fussy-cut around her for a fun focal banner.  Coloring in the dots of the word "brighter" is a great way to accent it!



Next up, a much softer take on the set:



I used some of the same notebook-style patterned paper on the left, and brought in a frame  and added some twinkle in the night sky.  I added a luggage tag behind the frame - it doesn't move or anything (although that would be cool) but I think it still adds to that "wish you were here" feeling.



I colored in only the lights in the building where I pointed the speech bubble.




I hope you like my ME projects today - thanks for stopping by!

Star Wars party

When my son said: "for my next birthday, I'd like it to be either a star wars or a batman party.  I like batman, but I also like Yoga," I totally overlooked the fact that he mispronounced Yoda and gently nudged him in the direction I preferred.  By that I mean, I started playing "Return of the Jedi" almost immediately.  By the movie's end, he was clear on his choice.... ha.



I used printables from Hello My Sweet to decorate the party, and the sweets (all but that big chocolate cake and the cinnamon rolls) were delivered by Montreal Confections. They made the party!  When the boys saw all of the desserts, their eyes went wide (and that includes the dads who snapped iphone pictures...)



The detail on the cookies and cupcake toppers is unreal.  The little Chewie in the fighter ship is edible - I was told that they were completely handmade and hand-painted.  Incredible.

The signage was so fun and helped to create a fully cohesive party.  I'm showing off my very favorites, but we also served "han-burgers," "palpatine's pizza," "hutt dogs," and "thermal detonators."  Great fun.  For most of the boys (including mine) it was the first time they were trying any kind of soda.  We mixed limeade with a touch of 7up and called it "Yoda Soda."

My favorite is still "Leia's buns." Thanks to my sister, Melissa, for making them for our party!

I didn't use all of the printables that came with the pack.  But, since I paid for them, I found another use for all of the cupcake toppers and other character signs that I didn't need for the dessert table: a mobile.  I strung  up double-sided pictures from our dining room's light fixture.  It was a fun touch that made a big statement.  Instead of tablecloth, I opted for a length of wrapping paper, and die-cut black stars to scatter over the length of the table.

The party can't be all nice-to-look-at and no activities, right?  

1. my happy 6 year old!

2. pool noodles, cut in half and wrapped at the base with masking tape, make for awesome light sabers.

3. Darth Vader meets planet-of-the-apes masks - they were a weird hit.

4. We froze Hans Solos in, er, jello and then made teams race to dig him out.  It took them about a minute.  

5. initiation into jedi training involved tattoos.

6. the best thing about throwing a themed party?  The parents know what will make your son happy.

After all of the party excitement, we sent the boys home with their mask, light saber, one of these Star Wars cups filled with goodies, and the most amazing Vader cookies I've ever seen: 

These were my fave.  When Marlyn dropped them off, my eyes bugged out.  I even took an extra and popped him onto my cake.  To give them as favors, I wrapped them individually in cello bags, and for extra fun, cut a little paper cape - he was much more menacing that way.

I hope you liked our Star Wars party!  The kid in me loved every minute of it, and my son has been grinning and talking about it ever since.  

darth vader, r2, and chewie - oh my!

a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....

or rather, in our home and in just a few hours...

for a completely stress-free way to have fantastic decor at your next party, opt for a printable set.  I got mine from Hello My Sweet.  They are a super friendly and professional shop on Etsy and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them.

keeping it real: not paper-crafting a party from the studs has me feeling like a bit of a cheat, but I do have two other parties coming up for the next two weekends.  And really, no star wars stamps in my stash ;)

if you'd like to see more, follow me on instagram!  I already have a picture of the cake, and a few shots of the decor and my baking assistant.  I'll be snapping a few more throughout the day, but I will be sure to come share them here as well sometime next week.

♥.