Girly Birthday Set...AND news!

April is a big month for birthdays in the Nellis house. My daughter turned five this month, my neice turned two, two days later. On top of that is my aunts, and my husband's mother and brother. I'm sure there are more family members out there that I'm forgetting- but those are the closest that I can think of. Being as Bella's and Tori's birthday are so close I'm usually a busy beaver making party favours and cupcake treats. I made three batches of cupcakes in three days! To top that all off, I found a cute cupcake wrapper template and decided to jump on that bandwagon! It was fun! I have no idea how people punch the edges out- I tried (and failed) so I improvised! Then, of course, you need the cupcake toppers- cuz no cupcake would be complete without them! So here is the ensemble for Bella's birthday party- I used cupcake wrappers and toppers for Tori's birthday (didn't have time to make the wrappers for Bella's) and the invites and favours were for Bella's birthday with different cupcake toppers.

Pink pink and MORE pink- no greater colour was ever introduced for a little girl! (or boy- no being sexist here!) I remember the old Crayola 8 colours box of crayons. You had your primary and tritary colours- plus black and brown. Pretty basic. Then you could go up to 16 colors- with various shades of the basic 8. And white- that was cool- and pink. Sometimes 2 shades of pink! I joke on those internet quizzes that ask "if you were a crayon, what colour would you be?" and I always answer- as girly of a pink as you can get! I love doing girly projects, I find boy projects so much harder, but girls are way easy with the flowers and the glitter and the ribbon! I am lucky I have 2 girls that I can do that with- but I need to expand my 'boy' repitoir for my 2 sons!

So as you can see- I couldn't figure out the swirl star decorators tip for the cupcakes- I REALLY want to take the Wilton cake decorating class. I can do the star pattern for liscensed cakes- just not that darned "swirl" for cupcakes :( someday tho! I printed out the cupcake wrapper template, stamped it with my jumbo "It's Beautiful" stampin' around wheel and then I cut some mini and small daisies from my Marvy Uchida punch and sporatically 'zotted' them around the top to give a raised look. I finished with some sheer ribbon at Michaels- easy peasy and so cute! I used the colour scheme to make the cupcake topper too- in fact, I carried the scheme to the whole set. I love sets :)

I tried my hardest to make the cupcake wrapper into a mini flower pot by cutting strips on the bottom and adding a circle inside and out for stability- well- they looked so stupid. So I went for the traditonal 'box'. I stamped it with the jumbo wheel, added scalloped edges peices with some 3D pop adhesives and added a ribbon and some more daisies. I filled them with Smarties and Ju-jubes (I always thought they were jubejubes. Meh). Then I went gung ho and made some caramel lollipops covered in chocolate. *drool!* they were so good! I ate all the leftovers!- there were only a few- and I DID share with the kids! The lollipops, for all you candy makers out there, was simple. I have an AWESOME caramel recipe that I used, smooshed into a Wilton lollipop mold (with the smiley faces) and added the sticks. I froze them so they'd be easy to dip then I dipped them into chocolate and let set. I REALLY wanted to make some lollipop covers- I'd seen a really cute pattern- but alas, time ran out! Besides, little 4/5 yr old girls wouldn't appreciate the craft as much as the candy underneath. So I'll save that project for another time!

Now, the invites were REALLY fun and I was looking for something new, so I decided to try the Free standing pop up card tutorial found on Splitcoast stampers!

The second pic didn't turn out too well as the batteries in my camera DIED! BUT I really enjoyed doing these and thing they turned out great! I printed the party info on my cardstock (I love using my printer and all my fonts- makes it easy and then I don't have to buy a multitude of saying and phrase stamps). I used the same Stampin' Around wheel, sheer ribbon and daisy punches. I also used a Flourish stamp set that I have and some silver ink and embossing powder. The moms all thought they were neat- and I love how they stand up on the tabletop- so simple too!

So that's it for birthday party stuff! I made 'Banana Split' cupcakes using white cake mix and it turned out fabulous and then Bella had cherry chip for her party while I made Tori some Spice cupcakes. Fun fun fun- I want to learn how to decorate them SOOOO BAAAAAAAAD- especially with how cute they look with all their paper get up.

Now- I said I had news didn't I? Well, DH is a computer tech and one of the customers came in and they started talking. Somehow the subject of 'me' came up- she was saying she owns her own store and Chris mentioned that I did too- only it was on Facebook. She proceeded to ask what I did and he said that I am a cardmaker and make some amazing things out of paper (his words- not mine- thanks for the ego boost hon!) and she said that she would be interested in seeing my stuff and if she likes it, she'll set up a space in her store for it. EEEEEEEEEEK!!! I KNOW! I love how supportive my husband is! He keeps getting on me to call her and then we went down (they were closed for inventory- so no go this week!) and even let me buy some materials to make stuff to show her (and getting him to fork over for crafting stuff is- well, not very hard cuz he's good about that- but having him mention it is down right miracleous!) I am so blessed to have such a support and encouraging husband :) So I need to go and review some Angel policies and start making tags for them- but other than that- wish me luck! A whole new door is about to open :D

~Brandie~

Just (Hat) Dance

Oh the envy of it all. My good friend is going to Toronto to see LADY GAGA! aigh- so excited for her- so sad that it's not me. But then again- I'm not much of a concert goer- so I'll stick to cranking up her music on my computer while I clean the house. So trying to get this done quickly as SOMEBODY (ahem-Matt-ahem) is having his grumpy time tonite, but really wanting to keep up with blogging more often.

So anyways, my friend-going to Gaga- messages me on facebook asking if I could create a small hat headpeice. Well- I really didn't think I could considering my material of choice is paper. I declined. But then I kept thinking about what she had said (she called me Wise and Crafty One- that kinda goes to a person's head! lol) and THEN I had a dream about the damned hat. Seriously. So then my mind was REALLY reeling on ideas. So I sketched some ideas, looked up how to make lolita style hats on YouTube and blog sites. Went to Michaels and bought a mini top hat (meant for teddy bears) and came up with THIS:

I personally love how it turned out- and thankfully so does she :) It was so simple- basically all I was doing was embellishing an existing item- and what crafter (especially paper crafter) can't do that? I used some black and hot pink silk roses that I found in the wedding ailse, some feathers in the doll ailse and lace, tulle and sequins found at Fabric land. That and some hot glue (soooo much hot glue hurting my poor fingers) and some alligator hair clips and VOILA the look came together- very Gaga if I DO say so myself! And it only took me 2 hours to whip it all together. Now, being a paper crafter I just KNEW this project was not finished! It needed to be displayed properlly when not fixed onto my friends hair-do. So being as the hat is 4 inches round I had to work on a box that would work, and be large enough- which as we know- working with 8.5x11 paper- getting things big enough can be a challege. So after 2 botched attempts- I came up with this adorable box to display the hair peice in:

I basically just made a 4.5x4.5 base out of hot pink cardstock, just a basic box upside down, then attached some black cardstock cut at 8.5x9.5 and scored at 2.5 on both sides, and attached some acetate cut and scored the same length on the front. Then I made a lid, used my Martha Stewart punch for flare, created a tag and finished off with some extra hot pink ribbon and left over black and hot pink rosettes.

So that was my project for today! My daughter turns five in two days and her party is in four- so I'll be busy with some kid friendly party favours and cupcake treats. I found templates for cupcake wrappers and am SO thrilled to get them going for her b-day. But the hat is the it for now- so now that the baby is calm I am taking advantage of it and going to go and relax- have a great night everyone!

~Brandie~