A Valentine Birthday

My sister-in-law's birthday is February 10th. I chose a freebie image by Sylvia Zet from Wee Stamps that works for a birthday that is close to Valentine's day. I loved that it had two little birds that could be my 2 little ones. I just had to add eyelashes to the one little bird because my daughters felt that was what made them girl birds, ah kids. I outlined the image with my Zig markers. The sentiment and stitching were added in my Silhouette program and then printed on white cardstock. However I also went over the sentiment with my black marker too.



I would like to share my card at:
CAS-ual Fridays use markers, closes Jan. 31,
Charisma Cardz hearts and flowers, closes Jan. 31,
Card Makin' Mamas clean and simple, closes Feb. 1,
My Time To Craft things with wings, closes Feb. 2,
Addicted to CAS code word heart, closes Feb. 9

ABC123

I followed a sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches ***Top 5!*** for this birthday card for a Teacher friend of mine. The image is from Sassy Studio Designs. I used Kraft cardstock as my base. The red polka dot ribbon was from my stash and I made a fork bow from the thin green polka dot ribbon, also from my stash. I cut the hexagons out of my dp's using my Silhouette. I added Making Memories Funky Black 7/16" letter stickers to them. The image I printed onto white cardstock and colored with Prismacolor pencils to match my friend. I added the cuffs and shirt tails with a white get marker as well. The chalkboard I paper pieced with kraft paper to tie in to the cardstock and colored with a black opaque marker. A white gel pen added the sentiment. Glossy Accents on the apple and glasses finish things off. I've included a picture of my friend too, shhh, don't tell her ;o)

I would like to share my card at:

Crafts and Me Challenges something new, MME Lime Twist dp's, closes Jan. 23,

Moving Along With The Times birthday card, closes Jan. 24, ***Top 3!***

A and T Emerald Faeries celebrations, closes Jan. 31

My Abby is 3

My last catch up post from a very busy holiday season. My Abby turned 3 right before Christmas. So because we have a live tree and have to have the tree up, I always try to incorporate the Christmas decorations into her birthday party theme. This year the theme was Christmas Candy. The awesome tree decorations were from Michael's. I used 2 pool noodles, rolled and tied with ribbon (to hold their shape) and then wrapped in cellophane to look like 2 large candies.

The cake was a Pinterest inspired chocolate cake with chocolate icing, Kit Kat bars and Smarties. Be very glad your child wasn't having a piece before being sent home, lol! I baked 2 9" round chocolate cakes (from the box). Then made some chocolate icing and iced them both. The Kit Kat bars were placed around the outside. If they pulled away from the cake at all I used a little bit of chocolate icing as 'mortar' if you will. This held them on so well that I didn't need to tie a ribbon around to hold them on like some the Pinterest cakes I had seen. I realized part way around that I was not going to have enough Kit Kat bars to place each one side by side with no gap, so I had to space them far enough apart to make it all the way around, but not too far apart that the Smarties on top would fall out. My advice: buy extra Kit Kat bars, really not going to go to waste even if they are not used on the cake ;o) But the little gaps actually made cutting the cake easier, so I leave it to you to decide. Smarties go on top, I did push some in, but the icing had firmed up by this point so I didn't push them all in and yet they stayed really well. What I learned: that this cake can look good, really good, even if a regular person makes it!

For the tray underneath, another Pinterest idea, I bought the hard peppermint candies at Bulk Barn. Here's the link to my Pinspiration. We unwrapped each candy and put them on our pizza pan with some parchment paper on it. You can make them into any shape you like. Then into the oven at 350 degrees for around 8 to 10 minutes. Then remove and let cool completely before removing from the pan. My lessons learned: our tray did have a bit of a bubbled bottom, I think possibly from the holes in the pizza pan. Next time I'd try a cookie sheet. It is also quite fragile. And you will have to watch the children, I had a least 2 try to lick it!



Merry Kissmas

This is the second of my holiday catch up posts. These were the little classroom treats we made for the all the kids in Kaylee's Kindergarten class. I used the print and cut feature on my Silhouette to cut out all the circles with the students' names on them (2 for each child). Then ran the circles through my Xyron and stuck the names on the bottoms of the Christmas Hershey Kisses. I used red cellophane, cut into squares to wrap both kisses, and tied them with curly ribbon at the top. I used my Silhouette to print and cut the tags that read "Merry Kissmas Love Kaylee" and then wrote each child's name on the back of the tag just for good measure. Sorry about the not so great pictures, they were kind of an afterthought and the flash whites out her tags, but you get the idea, I hope :o) They could pretty easily be made up as personalized Valentine's or Easter treats too.

I had to include a picture of my assistants too. Kaylee was part of the assembly line. Abby really did most of her helping by playing by herself and not making a big mess doing it ;o)

I thought I would link up to some linky parties too:

The Answer Is Chocolate how perfect is that?

Somewhat Simple 

   

Craft, Create & Inspire Linky Party

Happy New Year

I will have a few holiday posts to play catch up but I need to start by wishing you all a very Happy New Year! For my first catch up post we are going to start with Kaylee's Teacher gifts. I made 2 post-it note monogrammed keychains. Her teacher's name is Amanda and she had an intern named Katrina until the end of December as well. I decided to go with their first initials because last names can change. I used MME's heavy Lime Twist cardstock and basically just measured, cut and scored it to fit the large 3"x3" post-it notes. It should be added here that I only used about a 1/3rd of an actual pad because otherwise it is too thick to punch through it. I only used the sticky paper on the back of the notepad to stick it to the cardstock because I wanted them to be able to add another notepad when this one ran out but you could definitely add another strip of adhesive along the back of the pad if you wanted to. I decorated the front with sparkly ribbon, a flower and then their monogrammed letter as the flower center. I used an awl (and the Husband) to punch a hole in the corner of the pad and put a binder ring through it. Some colored ribbon around the ring finished off my project! TIP: I used a lighter to singe the ribbon ends to keep them from fraying.
The binder ring is mostly so that they can clip them onto their purses. That way they'll always have a little pad of paper with them, handy when you're a Teacher!

I would like to share my project at:

Simon Says Stamp and Show anything goes, closes Jan. 6,

Make It Monday linky party, closes Jan. 7,

Top Tip Tuesday anything Christmas, closes Jan. 8,

Tuesday Throwdown bright and happy new year, closes Jan. 8,

4 Crafty Chicks ribbons and bows, closes Jan. 8,

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge favorite embellie (ribbon), closes Jan. 9, ***Winner!***

By the Cute and Girly cute and girly, closes Jan. 31,

Ladybug Crafts anything but a card, closes Jan. 31