Their birthdays are three weeks apart, one near the end of February and one on St. Patrick’s Day, and normally they would each have their own party. The two of them live and breathe anything Harry Potter – my son reads the books, they listen to the books, watch some of the movies, have most of the Lego and of course they both have wands. My daughter even does a great impression of Hermione complete with British accent. So this year they decided they wanted to have a joint Harry Potter themed birthday party. Plan one party instead of two, I can do that.

I am also a huge Harry Potter fan, so I am having a great time planning this party and have scoured the Internet for inspiring ideas. In fact, the other night I was so overwhelmed with all that I want to accomplish for this party, that I actually sat down and typed everything out on a spreadsheet! I just don’t want to over look anything.

The party is slated for March 10th, so over the next few weeks, I am going to share the planning and ideas with you. First up will be the invitations.

But for now let me leave you with one of the banners I created for their shared bedroom, which is slowly being turned into the Gryffindor Common Room.  This will give you a hint as to what I am doing with the invites.

Thanks for taking a look.

For this week’s challenge, we were invited to create a project, not necessarily a card, using the following photo as inspiration.

Love is definitely in the air this month and I have been creating some Valentine Cards to send to those special people in my life. As luck would have it, one of the cards I had already created, works perfectly with this weeks challenge. Hearts, hearts and more hearts, with a little bling thrown in.

My card:

I really gave my Big Shot a work out with this one and I really don’t know what I did without it!

Here are the details:

Card Stock: Whisper White, Love Patterns DSP, Real Red, Pretty in Pink

Stamp Set: Candy Conversations

Ink: Real Red, Pretty in Pink

Tools: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Top Note Bigz Die, Fashionable Hearts Embosslits Die.

Embellishments: Basic Rhinestones, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Thanks for taking a look.

This time I am attempting the sketch at Freshly Made.

The challenge:

This one was truly a challenge for me.  I have never attempted a long card before and I spent a good part of my time trying to figure out what combination of card stock and DSP would work. Once I decided on the Everyday Enchantment DSP, I had a hard time deciding which coordinating colours would work best and I think I tried just about every combo!  When I finally did decide and was starting to put the card together, I went and dropped an ink pad right on top of everything and had to start again!!  Yes, this was definitely a challenge.

This was what I had at the end of the day yesterday:

But when I woke up this morning and took a look at the card, I knew it was missing something, because to me it just looked plain and boring. So I took to my new Facebook Page Sugar and Paper Creations and asked my followers for some advice. Hayley from Stampin’ UP! with Hayley Kew (please drop by her blog and take a look at how creative she is!) came to my rescue and thought it needed some ribbon embellishment.

This is what it looks like with Hayley’s suggestions. Much better, don’t you think. Now if only I could do something about my photography skills!

When I originally was putting together the card, I had left the Lucky Limeade band at the bottom blank but thought it looked very boring.  Since I love embellishing blank paper with the same colour ink, I decided to do the same to the band. I really like how it looks and often use this technique when I am making boxes for gift sets of cards.

Here are the details: (all Stampin’ UP! products)

Paper: Lucky Limeade, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Everyday Enchantment DSP

Ink: Pool Party, Lucky Limeade

Stamp Sets: Fresh Vintage, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Tools: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Designer Frames Embossing Folder, Modern Label Punch, Scallop Edge Border Punch

Embellishments: Lucky Limeade Organza Ribbon, Basic Pearls, Large Pearl Basic Jewel

Thanks for looking.

This weeks challenge:

I chose to go with the square sketch, since I usually don’t make square cards.  I am so in love with all the new products that are available in the new Sale-a-Bration promotion, that I knew I had to choose one of my favourites for this card, the Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Paper. I kept things really simple, partly because that’s the style of card I like and partly because that’s what I felt this sketch called for.  Hope you like it.

My Card:

Here’s what I used (all Stampin’ UP! products):

Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede Textured, Everyday Enchantment DSP

Stamp Set: Fresh Vintage, Elementary Elegance (both only available during Sale-a-Bration)

Ink: Calypso Coral, Pool Party

Embellishments: Everyday Enchantment Brad, Calypso Coral Ruffled Ribbon, Basic Pearl, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Sale-a-Bration is on now through March 31, 2012. The Designer Series Paper I used in my card, is not available for purchase, but can be yours free with a $60 purchase of Stampin’ UP! products. Contact me for details.

Thanks for taking a look!

This weeks challenge was to make a card using the sketch, or using a new product we hadn’t used before, or making a project combining both.

My Card:

I decided to use the sketch and something new I hadn’t used before. I recently purchased some Designer Paper from the new Stampin’ UP! Occasions Mini Catalogue, called Sweet Shop and hadn’t had a chance to use it yet. So when this challenge called for something new, I not only used this paper but one of the new coordinating brads as well. I just love how everything coordinates.

Here are the details:

Card Stock: Soft Suede, Pool Party, Sweet Shop DSP, whisper white

Stamp Set: Create a Cupcake

Ink: Soft Suede, Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder

Tools & Fun Stuff: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Modern Label Punch, Sweet Shop Jelly Bean Brads, Calypso Coral Ruffled Ribbon

Now to decide who the lucky recipient will be!

This week’s sketch:

My card:

When I first saw this week’s sketch I thought it would be easy to come up with a design. But looks can be deceiving – what looks simple can sometimes be very tricky.  I had a hard time coming up with something that wasn’t too simple (or boring) or too fussy (not my style!). It took a while but I have to say that I am pretty happy with what I ended up with.

Here are the details:

Card Stock: Pretty in Pink, Real Red, Whisper White, Love Patterns DSP, Red Glimmer Paper

Ink: Real Red

Tools: Big Shot, Fashionable Hearts Embosslits Die, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, dimensionals, Corner Punch, Large Oval Punch and Scallop Oval Punch

Thanks for looking and if you want to know how you can enter the world of Stampin’ Up, leave me a comment and I would be happy to help.

So when we had children, I was determined to pass my love of reading on to them. I even read to them while they were in the womb (TMI?). When they were little, we read to them constantly and starting taking them to the public library.

Now that they are both in school, they visit the school library once a week and are always excited to show me the books they bring home. And they love going to our local library to pick out even more books.

We also read together as a family. My kids would much rather sit at the kitchen table and listen to an audiobook while colouring, than sit in front of the tv. It’s an activity we all enjoy. In fact, our son likes to read so much, he has read the entire Harry Potter series and he’s only 8!

January 27th is Family Literacy Day and Jessica Roy, the librarian at the Main Branch, asked me to share this with all of you:

Families are invited to celebrate Family Literacy Day at the Ottawa Public Library, Main branch at 120 Metcalfe this Sunday, January 22nd from 2-3pm. Children’s entertainer, Suzanne Pinel will help present literacy awards followed by a fun and highly interactive performance by children’s musician, Doug Barr. The event is free and no registration is required.

You can find more information on our website here:

http://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/main/program?eid=36455

So if you are looking for things to do this weekend or a place to warm up after a skate on the canal, drop by the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library. Sounds like a lot of fun and great way to further a love of reading in your own children.

Anyway, this year he decided he wanted Lego Ninjago to be the theme of his party. Now if you know my sister at all, you know that she loves to buy paper goods, particularly those found in a party store. So just imagine how she felt when she discovered you could not buy Lego Ninjago themed party goods. The horror!

What do you do when you can’t buy what you want? You make it. We scoured the Internet for ideas, although there weren’t many and managed to come up with some ideas that made the birthday boy very happy.

It was my job to create the birthday banner and cake. First I found a good template of a Ninjago Mini figure and used the head for the banner. This is what I came up with:

For the cake we decided to do a cake / cupcake tower combo.  T’s favourite Ninjago character is Kai, so I based the cake portion on him and my husband created a Japanese Torii to go on top.  The cupcakes were simple with the faces of Kai, Jay and Cole. I was very happy with the way the icing colours turned out, especially the black!

My sister also got crafty and created some Ninjago balloons using yellow balloons, tissue paper and photocopies of their eyes. Awesome aren’t they!

Last but not least, she also created some themed cups and loot bags.

The kids had a great time, the birthday boy was extremely happy and maybe, just maybe I may have cured my sister’s addiction to party good stores. Well a girl can dream can’t she.

Each week there is a different sketch introduced on, you guessed it, Monday and the challenge is to come up with a card using that sketch.

This week’s sketch:

My card:

I was inspired by the new pack of paper I received last week, called Everyday Enchantment. It’s absolutely beautiful and will be available during Stampin’ Ups Sale-a-Bration, starting January 24th (contact me for details).

I’m pretty happy with my first attempt at Mojo Monday. Here is what I used:

Stamp set: Happiest Birthday Wishes
Paper: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral, Soft Suede and Everyday Enchantment DSP
Ink: Calypso Coral
Tools: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, 1 3/4″ Scallop Circle Punch
Embellishment:  Basic Pearls

Thanks for taking a look.

We absolutely adore each of the kids teachers and assistants and since they have 6 between the two of them, buying gift cards would have been a bit pricey!! So I got busy crafting with paper and I (and they) loved the results.

First I created six different sets of 5 3X3 note cards and envelopes, individually created with the personality of the teacher in mind.

Masculine Note Cards

Multi-colour Flower Note Cards

Elements of Style Note Cards

Triple Treat Flower Note Cards

Mocha Morning Note Cards

Next I created matching post-it note holders for each set of cards.

Post-It Note Holders

This is what a complete set looked like

Triple Treat Flower Matching Set

And I wasn’t done yet. I had watched a tutorial on YouTube on how to create these adorable gift boxes out of paper and knew they would be the perfect size. So this is what I came up with.

Christmas Gift Boxes

Then I threw in some chocolate,

Total Package

And tied it all up with a pretty bow and beautiful gift tag.

Christmas Gift Box

Christmas Gift Boxes

These were so fun to create and I am thrilled with how well they were received. I have been told I should be selling these note card sets, so look for an upcoming post on that. Everything I used was from Stampin’ Up and I would be happy to share which I products I used, if anyone is interested, just leave me a question in the comments.

Thanks for taking a look.