Olympic Birthday Party

What a fun day! We celebrated my Littlest's Birthday with a party for some of her friends. She wanted an Olympic theme. The party was a collaborative effort between my husband, my Oldest and myself...each taking on a part to make it all come together. We were rewarded by her exclamation at the end of it all that it was the "Best Party, EVER!!"
We started the party by having them decorate their own flags to carry in the Opening Ceremony. I tore up an old bed sheet for them to use, then stitched them onto bamboo garden stakes.

The Olympics began with a torch relay, lighting of the Olympic cauldron in the centre of the chalked Olympic rings on our driveway, and much waving of their flags. We even had the Anthem for them to march to.
Then the first of the Games started. Cary and A did a great job of putting them through 10 events and charting their progress. There was running, cycling, long jump, 'discus', 'shot put', gymnastics and we finished off with an obstacle course.
We enjoyed chocolate cupcakes decorated with Olympic rings before holding the Closing Ceremonies and Medal Presentations.
Some of the shots I captured of them receiving their Gold Medals ~ cut out with the Scallop Circle Die and our Maple Leaf embossed with gold on Gold paper~ has me thinking they were all pretty proud of their efforts and pleased with themselves!

I'd had this banner up for her Birthday...so I just added a few rows of streamers back and forth across the room around it to liven it up a bit more.

I used the Perfect Pennants Big Shot Die to punch out the pennants and the fun scalloped circles.
 I added buttons, cupcakes and balloons to add a little interest along with the letters.
I used the Colour Coach to choose the combination of River Rock and Melon Mambo to go with Elegant Eggplant .

 

Thanks for stopping by,

 

smiles,

Laurie

Peek-a-Boo

My Littlest had her birthday the other day! I was busy making a banner and her card. I thought I'd share the card with you. It is a pretty simple version.
I have the Peek-a-boo Die for the Big Shot and I thought: who better than my Girlie to do a lift-the-flap type idea for! She was thrilled, even her older sister was keen to peek behind the flaps...

The card is 8 1/2 x 5 1/2. I used Pink Pirouette as the layer panel so I could just stamp directly behind the doors. My timing wasn't allowing for a lot of fiddling. I did texture a couple doors instead of stamping on them, I like the bit of variety...
What could be more important than a card for my baby girl?!  Nothing really...Sadly my creativity doesn't become active until the final hours before a 'due' date and by the time I'd finished the banner it was getting pretty late.

Isn't there a saying something like: If it wasn't for the last minute, I'd never get anything done!

(Hence, I'm up late tonight making a few 'batches' of different items to sell at the Harvest Fair the day after tomorrow...ideas are just tumbling around now, despite trying to put some of it together about a month ago...)

Wish me luck pulling that together!

smiles,
Laurie

Hello

We had such a fun summer, but it's made me a bit off posting some of the projects I got done.
I made a couple of these to send to friends. The sketch was from a swap I'd received last Spring...I liked the clean lines. I think I had some of this Twitterpated Designer paper lying about, so worked the colours from that. I really love Postage Due! The 'Hello' is a new favourite stamp, too, from Lacy and Lovely.

 

I'm off to work on some projects for an upcoming Harvest Fair this weekend. I have a few different ideas, I'm hoping they materialize! LOL.

thanks for stopping by,

smiles,
Laurie

A Twist on Joseph's Coat

I started a class for mid-August with the idea of trying a new stamping technique I'd seen on Splitcoaststampers. The Ladies were lined up for attending, but I still hadn't given it a try myself. I'd read over the idea of Water Stamping and the tutorial looks wonderful. I knew I wanted to use the great set Postage Due...I wasn't sure if I was suppose to use glossy paper or plain...the class was approaching, I gave the technique a try...ack! it didn't work the way I thought it would...panic surfaces. LOL. I scrambled to the inspiration sites.When I laid eyes on a colourful version of Joseph's Technicolour Dreamcoat, I knew the course the class would take! Between this idea and a wonderful swap from Desiree for a versamark resist card using this great set...I was set.
 The original version of Jospeph's Coat is to use black ink, but after playing with this a number of years ago and staining my brayers more than I'd like..I've adapted it to Night of Navy, or Chocolate, even Cherry Cobbler last year for Christmas..but never used such a bright fun colour as Island Indigo. I essentially CASE'd this from a fellow demo. I highlighted the Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo for the card accents and base instead of Tangerine Tango.

Isn't it fun!? Created by sponging ink over a panel of glossy paper. Heat emboss your image (this one says summer to me, I love the bike.) with clear powder, then brayer over the entire panel with Island Indigo.
I ended up mounting my waterstamped image and we all gave our hand at it during the class, it seemed to turn out better than at first thought. It turned out to be the favourite technique of a couple of the gals. I think they had fun sponging all the colours onto the Whisper White panel.

A couple of them used one of the flower swirls from Flowering Flourishes and accented with a few pearls. Gorgeous. I wish I'd taken a photo to share. I love watching what the women create during the evening. I served yummy Red Velvet Cupcakes, made from fresh beets. They were a hit! (I had an extra made to share with my vegetable farmers at the Market the next night...)

smiles,
Laurie