CTS67 - Happy Birthday

Isn't this fun? I love how this week's CTS sketch pushed me to something I would never have come up with on my own.

I even pushed myself not to do rainbow colours for the PTI 'happys', and I do like the blue and green, but now I'm itching to remake it with all the colours! (Uniko 'birthday').

LIM161 - Yellow and Green

This week's Less is More challenge is to use yellow and green.

I admit that green and yellow is not my favourite colour combination of all time. Somehow I always end up thinking of the Greenbay Packers, which is weird since I don't even watch football.

But given how sick I am of white (ie SNOW), I embraced this classic spring combination to make a fresh and pretty card (if I do say so myself!).

I used a Die-versions die (altered by hand) and a Papertrey flower, with some stickles for sparkle and a yellow enamel centre.

The Card Concept Challenge 5 - Lime, Espresso, White

This is my second post today. For Kate's birthday card, please scroll down!

This time we have a colour challenge at The Card Concept:

I used the shape of the cake pops as my inspiration. BTW - cake pops -what a great invention - cake and icing all in one bite, which is the perfect size - I often feel like I just want a bite!

My Mama Elephant Party Kit balloon is stamped in Green Galore and Gumball Green, using a technique that Jennifer McGuire showed a while ago. This technique is so simple and it adds dimension and interest to an otherwise flat design. The little bow is from the same Mama Elephant set and the sentiment is unknown. I used my brown thin marker to create the string exactly where the 'i' in birthday should be.

Now it's your turn! 

Our Rules

1. Use the Challenge to create a card.
2. Choose one of the design team "styles" to create your card. Click HERE for the different styles summary.
3. Explain in your post which style you used.
4. Link up your blog post here, not your whole blog.
5. Comment on the card ahead of you and behind you in the linky. Everyone loves comments!

This challenge will end on Monday,March 17 at  3:00 EDT.

Happy Birthday Kate!

Oh, look what I made for my daughter Kate, who is turning 11 today! I'm so excited!

I followed this tutorial I found on Pinterest - SO EASY but what a wow factor! Clean and Simple it is not, but hey, at 11, it's all about glitz and glam!

I used my new Papertrey star die, the building blocks die to make the 11 and one of their alphabets for the letters. The balloons are a Paper Smooches die. Lawnfawn DP and a Stampin' Up sentiment.

I changed the dimensions a bit, so that the box is shorter than the one in the video (4.25x4.25 rather than 4.25x5.5). It folds down and fits into a standard envelope:

CASology 85 - Carnival!

This week's CASology Cue Card is CARNIVAL!

And it's no coincidence that today is Mardi Gras! To make this fun but CAS card, I started with lots of white. Added a little black (both unknown stamps) and then tiny dots of Copic colour to add some fun and movement!

Now it's your turn! The DT has come up with lots of different ideas for this fun cue card - I hope you'll join us!

Gillian Ross

Jen Wills
Joyce Mehrberg
Judy Marino
Kimberly Wiener
 Maureen Merritt
May Park
Meghan McMillan
Melissa Chipperfield
Tracey McNeely 

and this week's Guest Designer: Jasleen

Birthday Party Fun!

Kate's birthday is this week, so on the weekend, we had a pool party at the local indoor pool. Here are a few pics, since I had no time to make cards!

Me and the birthday girl, before everyone arrived. Trying out our new SLT camera which we sadly inherited when Michael's dad passed away last month. 

Cupcakes using an idea from Pinterest. Bought the palettes from Michael's. The one off to the side is for the girl who is allergic to nuts (she didn't get M&Ms on hers)

The birthday girl with her decorated cupcake! Much fun was had by all!

Muse 56 - All You Need is Love

This is for this week's Muse, where we have our Guest Designer for February, Lisa Haines providing inspiration with this gorgeous card:

I focused on the monochrome colour scheme, the 3 hearts in the windows (Everyday Labels from Neat&Tangled), the little tail on the end of the sentiment (Hampton Arts) and the two dark horizontal lines.

I filled the little hearts with my new clear Wink of Stella pen for some sparkle. Makes a nice change from Stickles, right?

I hope you'll be able to join us at Muse this week. The deadline is Monday at 8:00 am, EST. Voting starts at that time and continues until Tuesday at 8:00 am and then the results will be posted on Tuesday at noon! You can vote even if you don't post a card!

Things may be quiet here for the next couple of days. Kate's 11th birthday party is on Sunday and it's quite a production! Hopefully I'll have some photos to share - we're planning a scavenger hunt and a special idea for the birthday cake. I can show you the treat I made for the loot bags - birthday cake fudge ( photo and recipe from Pinterest) - it turned out really well!

Birthday Cake Fudge

Ingredients

• 2 cups and 2 TBS white or yellow cake mix
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 stick butter cut into four pieces
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2/3 cup white chocolate chips
• Sprinkles (optional)
• 1 can of icing (optional)

Instructions

line a 8x8 baking dish with foil, very lightly grease foil. In a large microwave safe bowl mix together cake mix

and powdered sugar until completely blended. Add in milk and butter.

Microwave for 2 minutes. You butter should be almost completely melted, if not stick it in for a bit more.

Stir together until blended, it will be a thick consistency.

Then fold in your white chocolate chips. The hot batter will melt them as you stir. Be sure to keep stirring and folding until you can’t see any more chocolate chips.

Pour (more like drop) you fudge batter in you foiled lined dish, smooth out with spatula. I like to use a piece of wax paper and icing smoother to get it nice and smooth and level.

Add sprinkles on top. If your icing these you can skip these steps and sprinkle after.

Let chill for up 30-60 minutes. Then lift foil out pull back, add icing and sprinkles if doing so, and cut into 1inch squares.