Just a Few Birthday Fishes

Of course I had to make a birthday card to go along with the heart note card set, and what better opportunity to play with my until-now-unused heart Nestabilities. Now, I didn't have any of the paper left that I used on the note cards, so it's not matchy-matchy, but who says it has to be?!! But is it ever cute!!!! The patterned paper is from the K & Co. Berry Sweet assortment, and the sentiment is from the PTI mini-set Pond Life Sentiments.

On another note, I will be away for the whole weekend, from Friday afternoon until some time Sunday, and it is just killing me that I won't have computer access the whole time. I cannot imagine how many new blog postings will be waiting for me in my Google Reader when I return. But the hardest part is knowing I'll be missing the PaperTrey release! Seriously. I know I can see them and buy them when I get home, but somehow it's not the same. But you understand that, don't you? It's sort of a sickness... but the good kind.

Anyhow, have a great weekend!

A Trio of Hearts

My sister, stepfather and I are visiting with a family friend this weekend whom we haven't seen in several years. Her birthday happens to be next week, so I made a little package of note cards for her. There are 2 each of 3 cards.

Nancy has a thing for hearts — they're sort of her trademark, so I dug through my papers and found some scraps left from last Valentine's Day. Just enough to get a half dozen cards out of. I honestly can't remember what the outer 2 papers are — they may have been from K and Co. But the middle one is gorgeous. It's got silver foil on some of the hearts and swirls, and I know that that one is from the s.e.i. Chocolat collection that i {heart} papers carries. (Sneaky how I snuck that in there, huh? I'm a good design team member!) Oh yeah, and they also carry the JustRite Monogram Stamper I used.

Here are close-ups of the individual cards. You can click on them to see them even larger.

What I used:
Stamps: JustRite Monogram Stamper
Ink: PTI Berry Sorbet
Paper: PTI White, assorted DP, SU! Regal Rose and Rose Red
Other: SU! Rose grosgrain ribbon, Nestabilities

Blog Candy Alert!

On the off chance that someone is reading this blog who is not already on the i {heart} papers design team, or hasn't already visited their blogs, here's a rundown of who's got i {heart} papers blog candy right now:

Meredith has an adorable collection of paper, ribbon and a chipboard cupcake album.

Cathleen has some gorgeous holiday ribbon.

Sarah has an adorable Christmas stamp set, plus some glittery sparkly stuff to go with it.

Go! NOW!

Oh yes, even MORE birthdays!

Now I did warn you that there were a LOT of family birthdays this time of year, and we just celebrated 2 more this past weekend. My lovely and wonderful daughter (Laila) actually has the same birthday as my lovely and wonderful soon-to-be daughter-in-law (Jannie). Although they each had their own celebrations on the actual day, we had a family brunch at my house on Sunday. So, first things first — the cupcakes!
These are Red Velvet cupcakes, and they were oh so delicious. They were delicious because I didn't take the chance of messing them up by making them from scratch! I figured that Duncan Hines already knew what they were doing, so who was I to second-guess them. The cream cheese frosting is the same recipe I used last week. To decorate them, I sacrificed one cupcake and used the crumbs on top of the frosting. So pretty!

Now the cards. It's getting late and I'm getting sleepy, so I'll forego the details on these. If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I'll fill you in (or get back in and edit this post).

For Laila:
and for Jannie:Night-night!

Pinky-Glittery Goodness

This card uses something that most card makers tend to shy away from — large-patterned papers. But in a case like this, the very scale of the beautiful Cherie paper just makes the card! You can't tell too well from this picture, but the butterfly and flowers are all pinky-glittery.

I also used Nestabilities for the sentiment (which is from Verve), and my SU! corner rounder to make the scalloped border. The ribbon was from American Crafts.

I know this card was inspired by one I saw a long time ago, but I can't find the original to give her credit.

i {heart} papers BLOG CANDY ALERT!!!

This month, Kate at i {heart} papers is giving ALL her design team members candy to give away. This week, hop on over to Cathleen's blog for something truly scrumptious. I know we all {heart} papers, but I'll bet we all {heart} ribbons just as much! Go show her some luv, and get a chance to win an assortment of GOJUS holiday ribbons.

Also, you absolutely MUST check out the new and amazing stuff Kate just got done loading into the store. I'm talkin' about some highly sought-after NEW Nestabilities and stamp sets! Go check it out now (before everybody beats to you it!). And remember, shipping within the U.S. is FREE with orders over $40 (which as we all know, is not difficult to do with all the yummy goodies she stocks). She has also re-done her shipping table for smaller orders, which I know some of you will be very happy about. Go. NOW!

And the winner is....

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

20

Timestamp: 2008-11-07 18:35:04 UTC

Jaspere said...

I love the song Let it Snow although I don't care much for snow :)

November 3, 2008 3:05 PM

Congratulations, Shelly! Please e-mail me (cmustopa@verizon.net) with your mailing info so Kate can get your blog candy out to you!

Thank you all for playing along. I loved reading your comments, and I hope you continue to follow my blog (and my design teammates' blogs) for more papercrafting goodness!

KWerner Color Inspiration #29

Well, I think I'm too late to enter, but here it is anyway. This is my first time actually doing one of Kristina's color challenges, and it was a hard one! These are not colors I would think of putting together, but I guess that's the point of a challenge!

What I used:
Stamps: Winter Birds (Inkadinkado) and Alpine Frost (s.e.i.)
Ink: SU Pacific Point, Taken with Teal, Elegant, Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: All of the above, plus Whisper White
Other: Glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Cuttlebug snowflakes folder, circle punches, sponges

Random observations...

It's rainy and yucky today, and my knees hurt and I'm cranky. So cranky that even I don't want to be around me. My boss, smart lady that she is, is laying low and keeping out of my way. So I'm left here to mull over the complexities of life, and I'd love your feedback on the following:

• Why does making 1 single card make such a mess? My table was clear, and now it's covered with "stuff" again. 1 crummy card!!! How does that happen?

• Have you ever noticed that the more "stuff" you have, the harder it is put together a card? It seems like it was so much simpler in the beginning when my choices were fewer. Now I have so much stuff that I forget what I have, and I feel less creative than ever!

Given my mood, this seems more like a rant, but please don't be put off. Do you have any of your own observations on these musings? Am I alone in feeling this way? Talk to me...

Tower o' Cupcakes

I wanted to post this last night, but the darned Stickles wouldn't dry! This is my feeble attempt at Julee's Mojo Monday challenge. I'm still feelin' the love for the Inkadinkado Birthday Cupcakes set, so I masked these little beauties to create a leaning tower of cupcakes. And I just had to use my new Cupcakes paper from i {heart} papers.

I'm actually not too thrilled about how my stars came out. I covered black punched stars with Crystal Stickles, which I also used on the cupcake frosting, but the color came out kinda greenish-blue on the black, which is not what I wanted. There are so many different colors of Stickles that look similar, so I really need to experiment to see what colors they cast.

Almost all of the ingredients for this card are available from i {heart} papers, of which I am a proud design team member. Kate just got a bunch of new stuff into the store, including some of the new Nestabilities (which I can't wait to get my hands on), so go check it out!

Also, don't forget about my blog candy offering — it ends tomorrow (Friday) at noon, so if you haven't already entered, go there NOW! Oh, and Amber also has blog candy, so scoot on over there, too.

Reminder - Blog Candy!

Don't forget, you have until noon on Friday to enter my blog candy giveaway courtesy of i {heart} papers. If you haven't already, go to this post and leave a comment to have a chance to win a gorgeous holiday stamp set.

Also, check out my design teammate Amber's blog for a chance to win her yummy blog candy. Our whole team will have blog candy spread out over the month of November, so check out the whole list on my sidebar and Subscribe to all of us so you don't miss out!

A Public Service Announcement

Don't forget to get out and VOTE today!

Gotta Love the Cupcakes

As I might have mentioned in a previous post, my other current passion — besides stamping — is cupcakes. In a future post, I'll show you some of my favorites from the last few months, but tonight I'll show you the cupcakes I made for the Daddy Shower we gave my co-worker whose wife had the baby recently (the one from the "onesie" post last week).

These are not complicated cupcakes by any means. I confess to using Betty Crocker Butter Recipe Yellow Cake mix, made exactly as the box instructs. The frosting is a recipe I got from my youngest daughter. She brought some cupcakes to my birthday party the other night, and they were to die for, so I called her up for the recipe (isn't it supposed to be the other way around?). Here it is:

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 - 8 oz. box cream cheese, softened
1 - stick unsalted butter, softened
2 - tsp. vanilla extract
1 - 1 lb. box confectioners sugar

In mixer with paddle attachment, beat first 3 ingredients until very well blended. Gradually add the sugar and beat at medium for a few minutes until it is all smooth and light and fluffy.

Easy peasy, and totally delicious! I just plopped it into a disposable decorating cone with a large star tip and piped it onto the cooled cupcakes. The decorations are made by melting pre-colored chocolate candy melts and pouring into a candy mold. Really takes no talent at all!

Gotta get into bed early tonight (actually, it's already too late to do that) so I can get up early enough to vote before I go into work tomorrow!

Want MORE blog candy?

I'll be back later with a real post, but in the meantime, I wanted to tip you off about one of my fellow i {heart} papers design team members who's giving blog candy this week too. Go check out Amber's blog for some yummy-liciousness (don't even bother looking that up!).

'til later,

Get Your Holiday Cards Started with BLOG CANDY!!!!

For those of you who are lucky enough to have stumbled upon my humble blog, you have earned a chance to win some delicious blog candy courtesy of Kate at i {heart} papers. In her munificence (look it up — this is also an educational blog!), she is giving her amazingly talented Design Team members some goodies to give out to celebrate the opening of her splendiferous new online store. But not all of us at the same time. You're gonna have to work for it a little and keep checking all of our blogs! You can see them all listed in my sidebar, or here. It might behoove you (oh, I'm loving this!) to subscribe to all of our blogs. Ya know, so you don't miss anything!

OK, so I have decided to let you vie for a stamp set from Inkadinkado called Winter Shapes that will be perfect for you to use on your holiday cards. Isn't it gorgeous?!!!!!All you have to do to win it is leave me a comment on this entry. Tell me anything. The name of your favorite holiday song, the best holiday present you ever got, what your favorite thing is on the i {heart} papers site, how much you love my work, anything! The deadline for entries is 12:00 noon (EST) on Friday, November 7th. I will somehow figure out how to randomly select from all entries and announce it sometime Friday evening/night, depending on how long it takes me to figure it out! One entry per person, please. EDITED TO ADD: If you are leaving a comment anonymously (without a Blogger or some other account), please make sure your name and email address are in your comment so I can contact you if you win!

Now go tell all your friends, and check out my teammates' blogs to see who else is giving away goodies this week!