Happy Birthday Ryan!

Yesterday was my nephew Ryan's first birthday, and the whole family got together to throw him a party. My mother made the yummy cake (shown above) for the party, along with a cute little "smash" cake for the birthday boy.

As you can see, he didn't really do much "smashing" (despite lots and lots of encouragement from his daddy), but he certainly seemed to enjoy the icing!

For Ryan's birthday card, I used this adorable freebie from Mo's Digital Pencil. Ryan has a little pool just like this one at Grandma's house. He had a lot of fun in it over the summer, so I knew this would be the perfect image for his card the moment I saw it.

The image was colored with copic markers, and then the water was gone over with a clear Spica pen for some sparkle. Once the card was together, I added Alleene's Paper Glaze to the water for a wet look. Sorry it doesn't show up better in the photo. The little ducky is one of the add-on's that comes with the image. I printed it twice and attached it with glue dots for a bit more dimension.

Blog Hopping with InStyle Stamps

It's the last Friday of the month, and you know what that means - it's time to go blog hopping with InStyle Stamps! This month, the design team has been challenged to show you some Treats! And as usual, we will have some great prizes to give away, so make sure to read all the way down to the bottom of the post to see how you can get entered into a drawing for some great goodies!

For my project, I decided to use the adorable new Anime image, Patches. Isn't he a cutie?


My little nephew, Ryan, dressed up as a pumpkin for his first Halloween last year, so every time I see Patches, it makes me think of him (he's a cutie, too!).

I love using the Staples brand gel pens for work, and they come in clear plastic boxes that are just too nice to toss once the pens are gone. I re-purposed one into a treat container by making a new insert for it and tying a little ribbon around the outside. (Please excuse the slight waviness at the bottom of the box. The clear plastic kept picking up all kinds of reflections.)



Patches was colored with copic markers, and then layered using Rectangle & Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilities. The pretty orange polka-dotted background paper is from an ancient DCWV paper stack that I've had for 4+ years. Have I mentioned that I hoard paper? LOL!


For the back of the box, I downloaded Meltdown, a Halloween-appropriate font from dafont.com and printed off my sentiment. The center of each letter was colored in with a YR14 copic marker.

On to the Blog Hop details...

We will be giving away a Grand Prize to one lucky Blog Hop participant and also have a prize for one lucky design team member. To enter, hop through the design team’s blogs, (leaving a comment at each stop, of course!) and then go to the InStyle Stamps blog and vote for the designer who's project inspired you the most. (You're going to vote for me, right? LOL!) Then, in order to be entered into the drawing to win the grand prize, leave us a comment on that post answering the following question:

"What is your favorite fall treat?"

My favorite fall treat is fresh apple cider from The Cider Mill in Endicott, NY. Mmmm. If you are ever in the area, make sure to stop by to get a gallon of it. It is freshly squeezed, and is so much better than that stuff you can get at the grocery store.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Now what are you waiting for? Get hopping!

Jennifer http://www.kiyomikrafts.com/
Jodi-Ann http://inkedinspirations.blogspot.com/
Joy http://daiseyfreak.blogspot.com/
Kim http://www.craftsbykim.blogspot.com/
Lysa http://lysaq.blogspot.com/
Mary http://mycardz.wordpress.com/
Maylee http://mayleescreativecorner.blogspot.com/
Piali http://touchofcreation.blogspot.com/
Raquel http://raqode7.blogspot.com/

It's a 3-D Birthday!

Tomorrow we are celebrating a co-worker's birthday, and my supervisor asked me to make him something special since we are a few days late. After racking my brain for something guy-appropriate, I decided to make a fun 3-D card.

These look really impressive, but they are so simple to make. Simply cut four 1.5 inch square pieces of card stock, fold them in half, and then glue the edges together. Then glue the top and bottom edge to your base layer of card stock and decorate as you see fit.

I kept my layout fairly simple so as not to detract from the 3-D element. Think he'll like it?

CD Sleeve tutorial, and a chance to win...

I thought you might like a peek at one of the 3 cd cases you can win as part of the InStyle Stamps Over the Hump candy I mentioned earlier today. Be sure to pop over to the InStyle Stamps blog to see the two other cute designs that are up for grabs, and of course, to enter to win.

Now on to the instructions...

Easy Peasy CD Sleeve

*See template for visuals.*

-Cut a piece of 10x6 card stock.
-Score down the middle of the 10 inch side.
-Rotate the paper, and score in 1/2 an inch on each end of the 6 inch side of the paper.
-Cut out the 1/2 inch tabs on one side of the paper as shown, and dispose of them.
-Fold the paper in half on the 5 inch score line and punch out the half oval with a circle punch. This is optional, but it makes it easier to get your cd out of the finished project.
-Fold in your 1/2 inch tabs on each side and glue in place.
-Decorate as desired.

Told you it was easy!

Over the Hump Day Candy with InStyle Stamps

Hello all! Sorry for the lack of posts recently. We are doing a little basement remodeling and it has been eating up all my crafting time.

Are you ready for Over the Hump Day? We're half way through the week AND half way through the month, so InStyle Stamps is celebrating with a little candy.

This month we are giving away 3 custom cd cases that contain 5 Journal Cynthia images printed on Neenah paper for you to color and a CD filled with InStyle Stamps Non-Anime Images. That's over 80 images, absolutely free...just for creating a project!!! How great is that!?! Be sure to pop on over to the InStyle Stamps blog for all the details on how you can be entered to win.

Now on to the project:

My sister has the most fabulous spa tub in the master bath of her new house. When I was visiting a few months ago, she let me indulge in a nice long soak. Aah. It was dreamy! But one thing was missing - nice relaxing music. (Val, don't scroll any farther if you are reading this - it'll spoil your stocking stuffer!) I'm trying to get a head start on my Christmas gifts, so, since I have a hubby with a gigantic music collection, I decided to make her a custom mix to listen to as she unwinds from a stressful day with the kiddos.


I printed Asia from Club Anime on Neenah cardstock, and colored her in with copic markers. I have to share that this was my first time using Neenah. I normally use Georgia Pacific, and let me tell you, coloring on the Neenah blows the GP out of the water! My ink went on so easily, the colors blended without having to go over and over everything like I do with the GP, and best of all, the markers didn't bleed at all! I'm hooked!

Club Anime Sketch Challenge

Today is the first ever Club Anime sketch challenge. If you're not currently a member of Club Anime, click here for all the details!

For my project, I decided to make a cute little gift holder using Jules and the delish Bo Bunny papers from the Club Anime September kit. Isn't she adorable?

Make sure to check out the Club Anime blog for more photos, project instructions, and to find out what's inside the package! You'll be glad you did!