My Birthday surprise for YOU!

Hello All!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here since I've been more active on Facebook. I don't want you to forget about me so here's a little enticement to find me on Facebook -- today's my birthday (*yea!*) and I have a gift for you!

Check out my Facebook page to find out how you can get your free gift from me!

July Stamp of the Month

This is a fun stamp set that I had to share with you!

I don't usually go head-over-heels for a Stamp of the Month (though I regularly collect them!) but this one is special enough that I wanted to point it out - it's an alphabet!

I love alphabet sets - I own every one available since I became a consultant. They are so versatile and  easy to make any size title, phrase or just to personalize notecards, envelopes, etc. I even use them to make personalized labels for my kids (using Archival Ink).

This is a fun alphabet too, I imagine I will use this on a lot of home decor items for my daughter and niece, it just fits their personalities!

The stamp set includes both upper case and lower case letters and numbers!

Here's the deal: You will need to place a $50 order (before tax and shipping) then you will be able to add this stamp set for an additional $5. This is a great way to get your retiring items and anything you want that will have a price increase soon. (Check out my other post for more information on this)

Also, since it is my birthday, I will extend the party all weekend... Any orders this weekend (until 7/13/14 at midnight) will be entered to win an exclusive grab bag of brand new product! Any size order qualifies for this deal so hurry over to my website - but don't forget the stamp of the month, retired items or items that may be increasing in price.

Winter and Spring Studio J layouts

This will conclude my posts about Studio J - I hope you didn't mind all these layouts or the extra posts! This was a fun promotion to use (who doesn't like catching up on their scrapping in a few nights?!) and I got a lot of out of it. Here are the last layouts I made using Studio J.

Enjoy!

Snow Days layout using Studio J from LavenderSageDesigns.blogspot.com

Truckin' Buddies layout using Studio J from LavenderSageDesigns.blogspot.com

The Longest Winter layout using Studio J from LavenderSageDesigns.blogspot.com

Karate Master layout using Studio J from LavenderSageDesigns.blogspot.com

6 layout using Studio J from LavenderSageDesigns.blogspot.com

Karate Invitations

Little Man isn't so little anymore! On his last birthday, he turned FIVE! OH my, where has the time gone?!

Since I was also planning Missy's first birthday party among some other things, I decided this will be the year we "buy" a birthday party and invite ALL of his friends. I contacted his karate instructor and she (thankfully) already had a program in place. The package included invitations but since I'm just a little bit crafty (ahem) I wanted to do *something* special. It is my kid's birthday, after all.

Searching Pinterest was a great starting point but I didn't find anything that got me excited. So I went to my own drawing board. This is what I came up with and I was so excited to find that I designed and made 25 invitations in just 90 minutes! I am never that fast!

I started with a plain, white envelope. I trimmed about 14" off the left side to create a pocket. Using a black marker, I traced a black line along what would be the the collar of the uniform. I sealed the bottom of the envelope flap and tied a black ribbon around the whole thing. So quick and simple!

I whipped up a quick invitation on the computer to fit the envelope and slid it inside. 

Designed and made in almost no time at all! It was a little expensive to mail because of the ribbon, but thankfully we see our friends often enough that I didn't have to mail too many. A perfect start to a great party!

Here's his favorite part of the party - getting to break a board!

Don't forget about the Ultimate Homemaking eBook Bundle - it's only on sale for a few more days! Get a copy for yourself and one for a friend. It's a great gift idea - especially for Mother's Day coming up (hint, hint!). Check out the details of what's included here. 

Little Miss is One!

I can't believe my little girl is a year old already! We celebrated her birthday this past weekend with family and I wanted to share some of the decorations with you.

This cute little battery tea light is decorated with CTMH's washi tape - it's so cute and so easy to use and best of all - the adhesive is tacky so it's easy to remove from the tea light when I want to change it up for the next party.

And since washi tape is available in so many colors and designs (non-CTMH) I used other fun designs in my color scheme to make little toothpick flags for the food trays.

Then using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, I cut four pages of flowers in Hollyhock and Gray Flannel (retired) and adhered them to some garden twine to make a garland. I used the soft set eyelet punch (retired) to cut the circles out of Glitter paper for the flower centers.

Also using the washi tape and Art Philosophy cartridge, I decorated clothespins to make another banner full of monthly pictures of the birthday girl.

I hung the banner up over my china closet for guests to look at while they waited in line for the food. (Little Man helped me decorate, he wanted his toys out on display too!)

I did make the invitations for the party, but I used my computer skills for this one. I wanted to go super trendy and I knew it would be faster and easier to just make it in Adobe Illustrator.

My sister was a great big help getting this whole party ready. She and the kids came the day before to help clean the house and even assemble some of the decorations. She also made the fondant flowers for the cupcakes. Here's a picture of Little Miss's cupcake - so cute!

Here's a shot of the table. It was a storybook theme - guests were asked to bring a book as a gift to build her library (since Little Man doesn't want to share *his* books) and all the food was from a storybook: Jack & Jill's water, Strega Nona's spaghetti, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", "Peter Rabbit"s veggies, Snow White's apples and "The Little Boy Who Shared His Lunch" (bread).

Everyone had a great time and while they were asking when the next party is going to be, I was patiently waiting to go to bed! I am now done with my long list of parties, gifts and such so I will be recuperating in my craft room for a few days.

Disclaimer: I apologize for the horrible quality of the photos. I pulled my camera out of the padded camera bag to take pictures and it wouldn't focus on anything. So I had to use my cell phone to take these photos. Not the best start to the party... but it got better from there! :)

Scrappy cards, part 2

After getting out my Fanfare paper pack of scraps, I noticed I had four card bases cut and scored already. Inside, I found some cut B&T. After scrounging around for my Fanfare WOTG instruction book, I realized that I started to do the cards that were included in the WOTG but never finished. Since I couldn't find the stamp set that went with the paper pack, I improvised with left over Stickease that were in the pack. The sentiments are from the Card Chatter - Birthday stamp set and Outdoor Denim ink.

Scrappy Cards, part 1

I had some time today to simply just browse the internet looking for card ideas. After collecting some ideas, I sat at my desk and pulled out a retired paper pack full of scraps.

This is a card design out of one of Jeannette Lynton's design books: xxx on page xxx. It's perfect for a birthday, anniversary, wedding or any other event where you would bring a gift. I used the Fanfare paper pack because all I had were scraps in this pack and got to work.

 The stamps are from the Card Chatter - Birthday stamp set. White grosgrain ribbon and cranberry ribbon from Cherry-O Creative Basics. I used Cranberry & Outdoor Denim inks and cranberry marker to draw the line.