(pink) limelight birthday card

i love thursdays! at least, i love EVERY OTHER thursday...and vastly prefer the ones which contain one of mandy's gorgeous LIMELIGHT sketches, like this one:



i went really literal this time. also really REALLLLLLLLLLY pink!!! in fact, anyone who is prone to migraines or epilepsy may want to don protective eyewear before viewing my card, ok?! :)

READY??!?!?!

(patterned paper: echo park, heidi grace, sei; glossy white cardstock: ranger; ribbon & bling: michaels; rub-on: american crafts; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape; other: sewing machine, maya road mini acrylic album used as cupcake template)

told ya--i went a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle wild with the pink patterns--i apologize if it was more than your retinas could stand, lol! but see, it started with that ribbon from michaels' dollar spot... then i added in a bunch of echo park papers... a paper-pieced cupcake seemed like a nice focal point, what with the cool ribbon and all... what can i say? sometimes "pink-n-girly" is a slippery slope!!! :) :) :)

so now ♥YOU♥ want to play, right?! ok, here's what to do:

**Use the sketch provided to make a BIRTHDAY CARD!
**Key word for SCS upload is LLPC070.
**Post a comment with a link to your card on Mandy's blog by midnight of Sunday, April 3rd.
**Of course there'll be a lovely PRIZE awarded randomly to one lucky participant, who'll be announced on Mandy's blog Monday!

...but a week at home is nice too...

(stef gave me this awesome vintage florida pc folder last fall!)

...although slightly anti-climactic if you had, say, just spent a quite a bit of time and energy packing, cleaning, working ahead, making a zillion arrangements, making a travel book, downloading some special sunshiney playlists, and just generally being very excited about a fun trip to florida!

unfortunately, sometimes "STUFF" happens and in this case the "STUFF" came copiously to lovely husband jeff in the form of the worst stomach flu ever. thankfully it hit him 12 hours before our departure and not actually ON THE PLANE. in fact, i am so grateful for that one amazing bit of luck that i have tried... (& mostly succeeded) (ok, i did say, "MOSTLY!") ...not to whine about this disappointing development. the only thing that sort of inconsolably upset me is that gina and i had REALLY BIG PLANS for last saturday!!!!! and whilst i can philosophically shrug off a week of sunshine, warmth, palm trees, fabulous food, and lazy days by the hotel pool...missing out on that was (and is!) a serious blow to my insouciance. (next time, missus! next time!!!)

nevertheless, i am trying to use this "found time" constructively: i'm working on NEXT MONTH's pixie kit, which soooooo rocks; i had a shaun the sheep marathon over the weekend; i got a FABULOUS new photoshop/digidesign manual (digital expressions by susan tuttle) which has already taught me more about using PSE the way i want to use it than all my previous books and tutorials combined (seriously!!! i am NOT a written instructions person...and yet...i "get" this!); i treated myself to a tiny (largely holtzian) shopping spree at my (semi)-lss (hi, bonnie!); plus, it turns out those sunshiney playlists work pretty well at the gym, too.

(see those ring binder thingies? yeah...i've got biiiiiig plans for those...)

the best news is that a still slightly shaky (& suddenly quite svelte!) LHJ is finally eating "REAL" food and sleeping through the night!!! which is really ALL that matters!

(i was goin' for a "citrus" theme with all the orange & yellow...sigh...)

and the travel book? well, i can always convert it for use on my california trip in april, right?

♥♥♥

ps: Did you know there’s a new challenge blog in town with articles, swaps, interviews, videos, challenges, great prizes and MORE?! Check out Lily Pad Cards! (b/c in addition to currently having fabulous previews...there's a verrrrry cool giveaway with the most generous prizes imaginable!!!

it's a "party cone" party!

this month's pixie kit came with not one but two pretty white embossed paper cones for us to decorate, embellish, and fill with candy or little presents. would you believe i managed to mess up *BOTH* of mine??! yep. i was a bit miffed, actually. but then it occurred to me that they were only cut, scored and folded paper...and hey...that's what i do! :)

so i decided to use one of my sadly failed experiments as a template, flattened & traced it carefully onto a piece of the pink paislee "sweetness" paper from the kit, and made version THREE:


if you're going to try something similar, i would suggest doubling the paper or xyronning it onto a bit of plain index stock, for extra added strength, but other than that, this one came out really well! i love how the flowery pattern of the paper travels around the cone, giving each side its own decorative elements.


i wanted to add a bit of extra interest to the front, so i die-cut a two-layered butterfly and a heart and embellished them with ink, rub-ons, and a bit of our signature crinkled pixie dust seam binding from the kit.

i used more seam binding to make a tie-closure and hanger, as well as a pretty flower that i adorned with a tiny tim holtz bauble. which is sweeter: the candy or the holder? i think it might be a tie! :)

...but... the sweetest thing of all is that our entire crew of pixies made party cones this month...and you can see them all today on the pixie blog!!! can i get a "♥WOOHOO♥"?! ta very much!

rock star (pixie) birthday

one of my favorite challenges to myself in the last few months has been to try and make one full-on "guy card" from each of my pixie dust paperie kits. i did it last month; i did it in december; admittedly, november's was holiday themed, but still quite masculine. however, when i first saw this month's FLORIBUNDA KIT --full of soft feminine papers, elegant embellishments, and flowery goodness--i confess i was not entirely sure i could pull it off. luckily, i was WRONG:



it turns out that bright colors, some dymo labels, the judicious application of ink, and some hardcore stitching were all i needed. woohoo! more deets on the pixie blog...where guy cards ♥ROCK♥! :)

jingle belles: card 13

this week's JINGLE BELLES prompt is based on yet another festive song. this time, for "the holly and the ivy" we're incorporating holiday foliage into our 13th card of the year!

i used pixie-in-chief kirsty vittetoe's current pixie sketch to compose my card; she generally posts one on the pixie blog at the 20th of the month; you've got until april 5th to use this one & link it up for a shot at a prize!


as for festive foliage, you can see i've covered all the bases: my card has holly (in the form of vintage fussy-cut illustrations, stickers, and printed cardstock frames); some mulberry paper ivy leaves; poinsettias of the home-made AND store-bought variety; and a mistletoe-bedecked tag! i think this *MIGHT* be my favorite card of the year so far...i'm glad it's still a bunch of months before i have to give it away! :)

(vintage: bird cut from greeting card; holly cut from an old book; sheet music; patterned paper: basic grey, dcwv, sei; bingo card: jenni bowlin; florals & ivy leaves: prima; frames and tags: making memories, dcwv, my minds eye; stickers: mrs. grossman; gems: mambi; brad: creative imaginations; ribbon: may arts + misc. scraps; label: dymo; inks: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape & doublestick tape, gluedots; other: sewing machine)

as usual, i've got a zillion layers, and lots of elements overlapping each other. recently, when i ran out of the 3m foam mounting tape to which i'm utterly addicted, i discovered that "pop dots" are NOT the same thing! for starters, they are twice as thick as the lovely stuff i buy at the office supply store; and for another i don't think they stick as well. so i am quite firmly back to my old habits and feeling much happier about collage again! :)



head on over to JINGLE BELLES to see miss stef's lovely card...and think about what you'll do for "the holly and the ivy"!

that's a really big "M"

i believe i've mentioned before how much i ♥love♥ this month's pixie dust paperie kit, FLORIBUNDA. it's not JUST because i love pink paislee products... although of course i do; it's not JUST because every single item is perfectly coordinated to make projects fun & easy to complete... although of course they are; but what i love most about this kit is, it inspired me to make THIS:




it's a wall-hanging for niece madeline's room, of which i am inordinately proud. i'm also very slightly not wanting to actually give it away...because i like it so much; so just as well her birthday is in may, and not march, right?! :)

details of the construction and additional photos of said lovely letter can be found on the pixie blog... along with lots and lots of other ideas for this kit which has been ROCKED most exuberantly by my fellow pixies all month! ♥♥♥

it's a *SPRING* ing list!

featuring a few of the things i am enjoying right now:

reading: the thousand autumns of jacob de zoet by david mitchell. this is a reading group selection that i confess i was not entirely sure i'd love, but it's so involving and so very well written that i was won over completely by page three!!!

watching: (or rather, re-watching, and i suspect not for the last time, either!) anthony minghella's brilliant adaptation of the no. 1 ladies detective agency for hbo. (and regretting more than ever the loss of such a cool guy at such a young age!)

learning: A LOT of fabulously inky new stuff last weekend from jen starr's "altered journey" class at my (semi) lss, creative inkling. got to play with loads of cool tim holtz goodies, as well! i'll do a whole post about this later, b/c i am VERY proud of my little book!!! (hey mari: i know TECHNIQUES!!!)

marvelling: daily over pricey-but-WORTH-IT bliss softening socks, which really REALLY do work brilliantly even without lotion or cream on the very dry, cracked, stubbon skin of my feets.

making: lots of projects with april's upcoming pixie dust paperie kit including an uber-cute "school days" mini book for niece madeline, of which i cannot show more than this yet! (& it's KILLIN' me!!!!!!!) eating: too many of these...but they are delicious and possibly the chocolatiest (yes that is SO a word!) thing you can have for 100 calories? (note: the "nutter butter" flavor... which i thought, as a big p/b fan, might even be better ... sadly... should be avoided at all costs!)

listening: to the sherlockian by graham moore on audiobook. i *LOVE* audiobooks...somehow i never ever outgrew the idea of being read to...plus it more than doubles the number of books i can "read" at any one time! :)

planning: not one but two VERY last-minute trips, to florida (this friday) and california (mid-april)... both are short-notice and long stories, but in excellent, happy ways! so please forgive me if i am even worse than usual in terms of email & comments!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, darlings!!!