How time flies…

I’m not quite sure how this happened, but this week my son turned 36. My firstborn. The boy who made me a mommy; the man who made me a grandma. Amazing. It is; he is.

And so of course I had to make him a card. Because that’s what I do. I make lots of cards. Unfortunately most of them never see the inside of an envelope. This one did. And it actually got mailed, too.

This card made me smile like crazy before it got mailed. I really liked the way it came out, but mostly it made me smile because it’s the first card in a long time that I just made. I didn’t (consciously) CASE anybody’s work, I didn’t follow a sketch challenge, I just made it. And it was good.

What I used:
Stamps: Big Birthday Wishes (PTI)
Paper: Teresa Collins Everyday Moments
Dies: By the Numbers, Hexagon Cover Plate (PTI)

This makes me smile, too: my son as a baby, and my son as a daddy.

How time flies…

IHP October DT Challenge: Birthday Colors

While browsing Pinterest, our Challenge Coordinator Deb came upon a fabulous website with all kinds of party treats (see photo below) that just happened to be in the i {heart} papers logo colors! What better way to celebrate our birthday than with a color challenge inspired by these lovely photos. 

Since IHP is turning 4 years old this month, I just had to make some party goodies for the occasion! 

For the goodie bag, I found some super-cute pastel-colored marshmallows at a local grocery store (they’re made in Guatemala – I know little else about them) and put them into a little zip-lock snack bag (that I bought by accident thinking they were sandwich bags). I made a topper using Nestabilities Labels 8 and paper from the gorgeous Hopscotch 6x6 pad by Fancy Pants. I used the uber-versatile I’ve Got Your Number stamp set by Mint Motif, airbrushed and colored with Copic markers, and for the requisite bling, filled in the number “4” with some Icicle Stickles. The whole thing is held together with i {stick} papers redline tape.

But what’s a birthday party without some cake? For a little party favor, how about some tiny little birthday cakes using battery-powered tealights (available just about everywhere, but I got mine at Walgreen). I got the idea from Jill George here. The directions are really easy to follow. For this one, I used more paper from the Hopscotch 6x6 pad, and punched the scalloped circles out with an old SU! punch.

Here’s another one I made when I realized that washi tape was just about the perfect width to do these! For this one I used Nestabilities scalloped circles instead of a punch, and used some glitter paper to decorate the top. The sky really is the limit with these cuties. You can match the colors of any party theme, and they’re cheap and easy!

AND NOW FOR SOME EXCITING NEWS:

i {heart} papers is thrilled to be celebrating our 4^th birthday this month! We know there’s no way we could have made it this far without each and every one of our loyal customers sharing their IHP love with their friends or following us on Facebook, Twitter, our blog or through our newsletter. So, our celebration is really a celebration of YOU and our gift to you is a 25% off coupon for the whole store, valid 10/16 through 10/20 (valid on in-stock items, not valid on gift certificates or prior orders). Use code: 4bdayDT

NOTE: Shop early! Once seasonal items are sold out, they will most likely not be restocked. Also, the store will be closed from Oct 18-25th and there will be no shipping during this time. Orders will resume shipping on 10/26.

We will also have a giveaways on the blog and on Twitter during these days (they’ll be linked from Facebook too but since giveaways aren’t technically allowed on Facebook we have to do it on the blog!) so be sure to check in daily to see how to enter.

But wait! There’s more! Long time customers know that Kate is a huge dog rescue advocate, volunteering for a local dog rescue, transporting dogs in need and doing rescue work on Facebook. October happens to also be Adopt A Shelter Dog month, as well as the birthday of one of Kate’s dogs and the Gotcha/Adoption day of the other. So, in honor of all of that, IHP will be donating 10% of all sales during the birthday sale to Home For Good Dog Rescue, Eleventh Hour Rescue and Pilots ‘n Paws. And if you make your own donation to any of these organizations, we will send you a gift certificate to IHP for 50% of your donation amount (these will be sent at the end of the month). Just email us a copy of your donation receipt and we’ll email you a gift certificate!

OK, now it’s time for you to check out what the rest of the Design Team did with this challenge.

• Carole (October IHP Guest Designer)
• Carolyn (you are here)
• Deb
• Gretchen
• Judy
• Lori
• Taylor
• Tracy
• Kate

If you’d like to play along, just use the keyword ihp1012 when you post it to the SCS or PCP galleries. And don’t forget to post them to our Facebook page to be entered into our weekly WOW Wednesday contest!

Put Your {Heart} Into It

Happy Friday!

This week the CAS-ual Fridays challenge is being sponsored by i {heart} papers as part of our 4th Birthday Celebration, and appropriately, the challenge is to make a clean & simple card with a heart in it. How could I not play along?

My card uses various sizes of hearts cut out with Nestabilities and mounted with foam dots on a dot-embossed layer. The dotted paper is from the Jillybean Soup Staples 2 collection, and the white heart is stamped with one of the lovely stamps from the Tag Lines set by Flourishes.

Won’t you play along? I hear there may be a coupon on their page that you just might be interested in…

World Card Making Day (Part 3!)

Wow, I’m on a roll! Nothing like a good excuse to stay in and play with paper all day!

This is another take on the IHP Color Challenge in honor of today’s holiday. Check out all the details on the IHP blog.

For this one I went with more of a light blue than an aqua color. And because I wanted to use the Tessatina border die, I needed to make it larger than a standard A2 size – this one is A6 (roughly 4 1/2” x 6 1/2”). This was NOT a quick card to make because of what I wanted to do with that die. I had to cut out the space in the kraft layer so the design would show through – that was the easy part. In order to get the inside lattice part to adhere, I ran my ATG adhesive down it a couple of times on the back, and then once it was adhered, I had to go over the whole thing with a gum eraser to pick up all the adhesive that was showing through. Tedious at best. I need to find a better way to do that if I want to try this again. Or maybe pick up the Piestra Tile die, which will not give me the same issues.

Anyhow. I used the Memory Box Vivienne butterfly die twice, once in kraft and once in brown, and adhered them together only down the middle so I could pull the top wings up. The body is cut in brown and glued on top. The sentiment, from the Hero Arts set Good Friends, is stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa ink.

OK, now I really need to get dressed so I can at least go down and check the mail – I think there’s a goodie package from IHP waiting for me!

World Card Making Day (Part 2)

I’m back again with my take on the Color Challenge part of the i {heart} papers WCMD festivities. For my Sketch Challenge card, you can scroll down or click here. And make sure you check out the IHP Blog for all the details on the challenges (which can win you a gift certificate!) and the SALE!

I love making holiday cards in non-traditional colors, and when I won this Peace & Joy set from Flourishes, my first thought was how awesome it would look embossed in gold. So I figured I would use today’s color challenge to make a lovely, beachy-colored card suitable for the holidays. This is the color inspiration that our fearless Challenge Coordinator, Deb, came up with:

As I said, I gold-embossed the stamp on cream cardstock, and then I randomly colored the letters with blotches of E31, W4, and BG02 Copic markers. I used BG93 for the leaves. I mounted it onto a piece of aqua cardstock that I had embossed with one of the folders from the Whimsy set from Lifestyle Crafts. I mounted it all onto a kraft card base, and wrapped some of this gorgeous satin reversible ribbon around it. Then I made a bow with my Bow Easy (seriously, the only way I can make a bow any more) and stuck it on.

The stamps, ribbon, embossing folder, and more, are all available at i {heart} papers, and for 20% OFF right now if you use the code WCMD2012IHP through Tuesday, 10/9.

I suppose I should get dressed and enjoy what might be one of the last warm days of the year (almost 80 degrees!) instead of staying inside and playing. We’ll see…

Happy World Card Making Day!

Isn’t it nice that we paper crafters get our own holiday?

i {heart} papers is celebrating World Card Making Day 2012 with 2 chances to win a gift certificate and a 20% off storewide coupon code. Use code WCMD2012DT through Tuesday 10/9 for 20% off EVERYTHING in the store. And, yes, you still qualify for free US shipping with your order of $60 or more.

Participate in our challenges - one sketch and one color - for your chance to win! A $10 gift certificate will be awarded for each category. Upload your projects to our Facebook page or add them to the Mr. Linky on the IHP blog. You can play along with one or both and can enter as many times as you'd like!

The card above uses the Sketch Challenge layout, except I rotated it counterclockwise to have a horizontal orientation. That’s one of the things I love about sketches – they give you a starting point to let your own creativity take flight.

The focal point of the card is this adorable stamp from the Happy Halloween set by Chicken Girl Design. It’s stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copic markers. After I mounted it on black cardstock and put the whole card together, the white background just looked a little too plain, so I took my Copic Multiliner and doodled some dots and lines around the edge. The patterned paper is from the Doodlebug Haunted Manor collection.

Won’t you play along to win? The deadline to enter is Sunday 10/7 9PM EST. The winners will be announced on Tuesday! And, as a bonus, WCMD projects will also be counted as entries for our WOW Wednesday! Every Wednesday we pick someone who has shared a project on our Facebook page during the week that uses supplies purchased from IHP. Share your project and be entered to win a $5 gift certificate!

I’m going to attempt the Color Challenge in a little while, so I’ll probably be back later today. Maybe even more than once, since I fully intend to celebrate this day to the max!