Happy Birthday Card to Wrap Up a Fun Week

What a week it has been!  The only think that could possibly top Cricut's 5th Birthday Party and release of the Expression 2 was a Royal Wedding!  I may need the weekend to recover from this fun, fun week.  I thought I would wrap up the week with a fun birthday card.

The card was created using Imaginesce cardstock and chipboard stickers, the I-Top tool, Stampin' Up stamps, and a Stampin' Up punch.   I really like the bright and festive look of this card.  The cake and present chipboard stickers really pop off of the brown cardstock on the cover, but then I took the card to the next step.  I added a stamped and punch tag, color coordinating flowers, and an I-Top brad. 

I like the fold of the card.  Begin with a 12" strip of cardstock.  Fold the cardstock in half.  Then fold the top half of the card in half again, folding back toward the fold.  You will create an uneven Z fold.  You then attach a small rectangle to the top half of the card.  The photo above shows this fold far better than I could possibly explain it to you.

The top of the card pulls to the left to open.  Inside the card I stamped Happy Birthday again and left plenty of space to write a personalized message.

Royal Wedding Breakfast and Celebration

Good morning royal watchers and blog readers!  Today is the big day for Prince William and Catherine Middleton and here in Aiken, MFK (my friend Kathy) is hosting a Royal Wedding Breakfast event.  She has worked all week to be ready to host the Aiken location (Buckingham, Southeast??) of the Royal Wedding.  Rumor has it that we will be enjoying some of the same amenities as the wedding guests at Buckingham Palace - or "Buck House" as the late Queen Mum liked to refer to the palace.

My plan is to update this blog post all morning to ensure that you stay up to date on the Royal happens here in Aiken.  I am supposed to arrive at Kathy's house around 6:00 am.  I think Kathy thought if I could get up for the E2 launch, I should be able to get up for the Royal Wedding Breakfast and Celebration. 

  

I bet you are wondering what you might expect to see at Kathy's Royal Wedding Breakfast?? Well every woman attending a royal wedding needs head cover.  Of course royalty will be sporting diamond and other precious gemstone tiaras, but the vast majority of the female guests - friends, family, celebrities, dignitaries, etc will be wearing hats or facinators.  You can expect to see something appropriate in the way of head wear here in Aiken.

When attending a royal wedding you can also expect to see fine linens, china, silver and crystal.  The same hold true for our venue here in Buckingham, Southeast!  You can expect that Kathy will "put on the dog" for us and pull out her best silver, china, linens, etc.

When attending the royal breakfast, one would expect lovely food.  I am not going to reveal more right now, but I am going to tell you that you can expect to see some fun and surprising food items at Kathy's Royal Wedding Breakfast.

Drop back by regularly today for updates on Busy with the Cricky's and The Laker Scrapbook Guild's morning adventures at MFK's Royal Wedding Breakfast and Celebration.  I will be taking my laptop, camera and video camera to make sure that you feel like you were "almost" there with us!!!

For your copy of today's Royal Wedding Program click on the name to download a pdf copy.  

8:00 AM update:

Kathy had a breakfast buffet for us:  English muffins, jams, bacon, tomatoes, and strawberries and clotted cream. Our beverage choices included orange juice, champagne, mimosas, and coffee. 

Here were are, in our glory (and PJs), modeling our facinators that Kathy and her sister Kimberly made for us.

 Our happy hostesses and Minnie the poodle, all wearing their Royal Wedding facinators.

 Kathy found the recipe for Prince William's groom's cake from a link provided by The Today Show and made this for us.  We are currently all sugared up on this fabulous cake.  We all completely understand why this is William's favorite cake. The cake is like eating a large candy bar.  

Here in Aiken there we have a British store called The Curiosity Shop.  It is a wonderful store and I shop there for quilts, hats. scarves, Dr. Who toys (!), Beatles items, etc.  They also sell British foods and that is where Kathy found many of the ingredients for the cake.  The cake was completely worth the effort!

Bird Tassel for Grandfather - Clock, That Is.

I took a break from paper crafting and spent a bit of time making a decorative tassel, known to some as jewelry for your home.  I wanted a little something special to hang from the key on my grandfather clock door.  Previously I had a cranberry colored tassel hanging from the key and while cute, the tassel was very ordinary looking.  I wanted to jazz things up a bit.

I started by checking out some of my favorite tablescaping/home decorating blogs.  I carefully searched for ideas to enhance this small area.  One of the ads/links I followed lead me to an Etsy shop specializing in decorative tassels.  I promptly selected a tassel and ordered. 

When the tassel arrived I had a good news/bad news moment; while I loved the tassel, it was too large for the clock door.  I ended up handing that cute tassel, with it's large ceramic bird, full and bushy tassel, and adorable bow, on the switch to the Tiffany stained glass lamp on the buffet.   But before finding a home for the purchased tassel, I inspected how it was made. (insert wink)!!

I found a source for this cute little bird - made of metal - and I purchased him.  I then purchased tassel trim.   I wrapped the tassel trim around the original cranberry colored clock tassel that was on the clock door.  Using wire and hot glue gun/glue, I assembled the tassel into a nice full cone shape.  I almost attached the bird at this point, but decided that the bird needed a pretty nest. 

I went and looked around my scrap room and found this awesome Prima flower.  I hot glued the flower to the top of the tassel, then hot glued the bird to the flower. 

I know these photos have a lot of glare, but trust me, this small bird nest tassel is adorable on my grandfather clock door. 

I will be back with another project to share tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by.

Cricut Birthday Bash - Third and Final Layout

Wow, was yesterday a fun day, or what?  Are all of you as tired as I am?  I am going to confess to taking a late afternoon half hour nap to get through the evening! 

I was super exited to have won an Expression II first thing yesterday morning!  I could not believe that I went to bed after 2:00 am and got up at 6:00 am to watch more HSN and interact with Provo Craft on FB.  Imagine my shock when they posted the 6:20 am winner and it was me?  I was on the phone with MFK (my friend Kathy), who I had just awakened.  She had been up until 3:00 am watching HSN!  I felt horrid for waking her - she is almost always up very early - but she says it was okay since she was talking to me when I won.  What a good sport and GREAT friend!!

Today's layout is the third of the three I entered into the Birthday Contest.  This design took a design from my data disc DVD set and incorporated a few changes to come up with the Cricut Birthday layout.  (So is anyone like me and wondering WHAT PC plans to do with almost 500 birthday layouts?).   I used Imaginesce Birthday Bash cardstock along with Bazzill and glitter cardstock to create this layout. 

The decorative background piece was created in Design Studio using a cut from Cindy Loo, welded together multiple times to form a square.  I used medium weight glitter cardstock and multi-cut the page two times.

Similar to my Cricut birthday layout, I had fun with a birthday hat.  I thought the number 5 needed a birthday hat topper.

I finished the layout with a few gemstones, doodles, ribbons, and Imaginesce birthday candles and chipboard circle.  I cut a flower and mounted the circle on top.  I used a thick line of zip-dry glue to hold the candles on the corners. 

Thanks for stopping by today and thank you for all of the kind wishes from yesterday!!  I will be back tomorrow with a new - NON-birthday project! 

I read yesterday now that the Expression II release is over we all have to move on to the Royal Wedding (both being historic events and all!!).  Well, more on this later in the week but.... MFK is having the girls over on Friday morning (arriving at her home between 4-6 am) for a royal wedding bash!  I'll keep you posted......

Happy 5th Birthday Cricut Day 2

Happy Birthday, Cricut!  It's day two of the Cricut's birthday celebration and I have another birthday layout to share.  This was the second of the three layouts that I submitted to the Cricut Birthday Celebration.  I love the large background doily from the Basic Cake cartridge, especially in Cricut Green!

**** UP DATE **** This layout won!!! At 6:37 am this morning Cricut announced that this layout won for best Cricut theme!!!!  Woo-hoo!!  I am so excited that I am having trouble typing!!!

Using my lastest Cricut Circle cartridge, Cricut Everyday, I cut the large logo cricut circle, then used scissor to cut away part of the top circle to create the letter "C" in the work Cricut.  I used bright colors - Cricut green, pink (for the Pink Cricuts) and blue because I have a blue expression. 

I have always loved this party horn cut from Celebrations.  I cut the top layer twice and used scissors to cut away the mouth piece on the pink cut and to keep only the mouth piece on the blue cut.  The shadow cut is in dark blue.

I put a fun party hat on the "C" cricut head - It is Cricut's birthday after all.  I added a flower behind the top of the hat and I added a gem to the middle of the hat top.

I have one other thing to share today.  I ordered a glass tile backsplash tile kit from DIY Network last week and it arrived this afternoon.  The box claimed that the entire project could be done in two hours, which I did not believe, but I decided to install my tile last night anyway.  Over all, including cleaning up, the tile took me about three hours to cover 15 square feet.  I hope you don't mind, but I am going to share photos of my first tile project.

I went with Almond colored tile, which has a touch of metallic copper and gold as well some tans and light browns.  I thought that the almond would work with our white cabinets and multi colored earth tone counter tops. 

The almond tile also blends well with the 4x4 ceramic tile over the sink and cook top.  I just need to do a few finishing touches, but the work is really finished. 

I will be back tomorrow to share my final Cricut birthday layout.

 

Happy 5th Birday, Cricut

Let the Celebrations begin!!!  It's a happy birthday party for Cricut and we are all invited! I cannot wait until tonight's release of the Cricut Expression II machine - the limited anniversary (birthday) edition!  Like so many of us, I will be tuned into HSN tonight at midnight to see Jinger start get the release going! 

I am taking a break from making Cricut birthday hats to complete this post.  I have invited MFK (my friend Kathy) and Kimberly over for the 9:00 pm Everyday Cricut livestream.  And then they are going to stay for the midnight show!!

This is the first of my three Cricut contest birthday layouts that I am sharing.  To be honest, it is my least favorite and I almost did not even send it.  I truly like my other two and I will share those over the next two days.  What I do like about this layout are the cardstock choices.  I think the papers are fun and bright without screaming "child-like".

So now that I have shared my so-so layout, you can look forward to two better layouts tomorrow and Wednesday.  I promise they will be more impressive.  Also, I will share photos of Kathy, Kimberly and I enjoying the Cricut festivities tonight!!!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!  The Easter Bunny and the table-setting fairy just came to my house!  Actually I feel asleep on the sofa earlier and woke up at 1:00, TV on, computer, dog and husband also sleeping on the sofa beside me!  I sent Doug off to bed and then decided to set the table for breakfast.  One less thing to do in the  morning and I could use the breakfast plates to hold the Easter goodies.  Bethany and Ian were asleep in their rooms so I did not want to wake them to get their Easter baskets.

Doug, Ian, and I had a WONDERFUL trip to Anderson, SC yesterday to visit with my aunt and two of my cousins and their spouses. It was such a lovely afternoon and I enjoyed myself so much. Such a perfect way to spend the day before Easter!  But the long trip and a nice dinner on the way home contributed to my untimely nap!

I am using my pink Bordallo Pinheiro plates for Easter breakfast.  I think the pink plates are perfect for Easter morning!  I went with everyday stainless (can you say, goes in the dishwasher) instead of silver, though I did add stemmed beverage glasses.  I didn't think about before this very moment, but I SHOULD have used my Yudu and made Easter napkins!

Above is another view of the table.  Below is a view of Ian's plate before I added his DVD set and CDs to his placesetting.  As my children have aged they prefer more "stuff", less candy, in their baskets.  Bethany has a bit of candy and two gift cards.  Aaron and Crissie, who will not make it for breakfast, will get a Zoku frozen pop maker, Zoku tool set, candy, a Longaberger Easter basket for Crissie to match Aaron's basket, and a gift card.

Finally, here is one more view of the centerpiece - embellished with Easter 2010 eggs and glitter eggs.  I have had this egg tree in the entryway since completing the decorating.  But I thought it could sit in the middle of the lazy Susan (a name I find so unfair!!) for Easter day.

Stamps + Nesties = Quick and Cute Easter Cards

Blessed Good Friday to all who celebrate.  I thought I would take a break from my in-home projects I have had going part of this week and share my three final 2011 Easter Cards.  Earlier this winter I purchased this adorable little Easter girl stamp as party of a Stampin' Up set.  I just had to make a few cards with her before the season passed.

I used Stampin' Up Rose ink and stamped the image on smooth white cardstock.  I used classic rectangular nesties and one of the newer label sets to cut out my girl and her mattings.   I whipped up some quick cards using leftover Easter papers and white ribbon and pop dotted the stamped images on to the front of the cards.  I added a pink button with floss to each card.

I also stamped the image using Stampin Up "Almost Amethyst" ink and purple cardstock.  I did not show you the entire purple card because the purple looks horrid against my bright pink background. This pink/purple combination  was visually offensive!

I am excited because my younger son arrives in from Atlanta today.  The Easter bunny had to do a bit of last minute shopping this week.  I also have to finish Aaron's and Crissie's baskets, though I did get Crissie a Zoku frozen pop maker.  I have one and Doug and I love it.  Homemade pudding pops are wonderful.
With my family in town for Easter I probably will not post again until Monday - we have a lot of activities planned for the weekend.  I wish you all fabulous weekend and a very special Easter!! 

Over the Moon with Nursery Rhymes

Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.  The dog laughed to see such a sight and the dish ran away with the spoon!   I always liked that nursery rhyme - the laughing dog and the dish and spoon running away always made smile.  Imagine my excitement when I discovered the Over the Moon cut on the Nursery Rhyme cartridge.

I discovered the images back when I first purchased the cartridge but I waited until I needed a baby card to finally cut this image.  My friend Pat has a new baby granddaughter - in fact Pat is spending time with her right now.  But I still want to send Pat a card to be there when she arrives home. 

The cow over the moon image contains two layers - the top and shadow layers.  I cut the shadow in pink, but I cut the top layer in two colors, yellow and chocolate brown.  I trimmed the cow off of the brown moon and glued him over the yellow moon.  Easy, easy to add extra color to the image.

I used a lot of pink and brown on this card - and I love that large dot background on the front of the card.  Though I have to tell you, on a creepy scale of 1 - 10, I may have to give the spoon a 7!  Seriously, this spoon just bothers me a bit - that is why I stuck him inside the card, LOL.

Here is one last look at the card front.  I just love the moon cut.   I also really like the stars on the phrase cut, Over the Moon.  And let's be honest, my friend Pat is probably over the moon with her new granddaughter!!