Feb 19, 2009 | family, Simple Birthday Thanks, Stamps |
Not only was it my mom’s birthday but my niece and nephew had birthdays this month too – Noah the week before – he turned 4 and Ally the week after – she will be 2. I saw on another demonstrator’s blog where she was making Cupcake kits for her daughter to take as birthday gifts to her friends parties – she included a cupcake pan, liners, cake mix and frosting. I really like the idea and wanted to adapt it for gifts for Noah and Ally. I also had purchased the Simple Birthday Thanks large cupcake stamp which I thought would be great for making Thank You’s that Noah and Ally could use. So I combined these two ideas to create their Cupcake themed birthday gifts. I found online these Puzzle Cupcake Sets – one creates a train, dump truck or rocket ship – that one is for Noah; the other a bear, fish or turtle – that one is for Ally. I decorated a gift bag and inside I added Cake Mix (the kind with sprinkles of course), Frosting (again with sprinkles), decorator icing (in little tubes), candy sticks, and their matching box with Thank You cards, envelopes and crayons inside. Here are some pictures:
Noah's Birthday
Colors used for Noah’s: Pacific Point, Green Galore, Summer Sun and Riding Hood Red
Ally's Birthday
Colors used for Ally’s: Green Galore, Pixie Pink, Pink Passion and Orchid Opulence
And here the kids are with their bags:
Noah
Ally
And then my boys with both of them…
Have a Happy Day!
Monika
Feb 18, 2009 | Big Shot, family |
The boys and I went this week to visit my parents so we could celebrate my mom’s 70th birthday. It just happened to be the week the boys had winter break from school. So we got to stay up there for two nights and spend the whole day with my mom on her birthday. I made a birthday cake for my mom – a hummingbird cake with creamcheese frosting – this is my favorite cake to bake and I normally make it every year at Easter. This time I also made it for my mom’s birthday and guess what I decorated it with?
Die cut butterflies! I used Stampin’ Up!’s new Beautiful Butterflies BIGZ die for the Big Shot machine. I cut Baja Breeze and Kiwi Kiss card stock and then stamped them with Baroque Motifs swirl in the matching color ink. Super quick and easy! Here is a picture of the cake:
I scattered the extra butterflies around the table. I’ll be posting her birthday gift later – I’ll just tell you that it coordinates with the cake decorations…..
Tomorrow I’ll post the birthday presents I made for my niece and nephew. So I hope you’ll visit me again.
Happy Stamping,
Monika
[email protected]
www.monika.stampinup.net
Feb 14, 2009 | family, Happy Heart Day, Love You Much |
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Here is a Valentine for YOU!
Friend Valentine
This card is made with the Happy Heart Day stamp set. The small butterfly was colored first with a white gel pen and then after it is dry colored again with a marker to give a pink color to the butterfly wings.
I know the day is almost over but I have been busy all day preparing for our family Valentine’s celebration. For many years now we have celebrated Valentine’s Day as a family rather than a “date night”. I look at it as a day for me to spoil my family of boys (and tonight I had one extra – Greg’s brother came). So I plan a nice dinner, dessert and our annual scavenger hunt. Today I baked heart shaped brownies, little Valentine pretzel treats (these are a favorite – pretzels, Hershey’s kisses and M&M’s). We cooked crab legs, lobster, and steak along with shrimp cocktail, our favorites strawberry salad and some fresh blueberries and strawberries too. Let’s just say everyone was STUFFED and had as much as they could want to eat. Kyle made a card (on the computer) for me from all of them – and Ryan created a Powerpoint presentation (he must have spent much of today working on it) that was for Greg and I – called “A look at the past” – he created slides that showed pictures from various events going back to 2002 – that must have been the year we got the digital camera – at the end he had a “Thank you for all you have done for me in the past” message. It was truly a work of art from the heart!
And then it was time for our annual scavenger hunt – this is something we have done for many years and the boys still love it. I right out clues for them to go find treats around the house – last year I made the little mailboxes so that is what we have been using to hold our first clue – each of them has a mailbox at their placesetting for dinner – and they are so excited to open that mailbox and find the first clue. It’s a Valentine Tradition that I know they will always remember. This year one of the treats was the triangle valentine box that I made as a swap for my friends at the leadership conference. I filled it with a little cello bag that had the pretzel treats inside. So here is a picture of the triangle treat:
Triangle Valentine Box
This uses the Love You Much stamp set, Candy Lane Designer Series Paper and the Heart to Heart punch.
I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!
Happy Stamping,
Monika
[email protected]
Feb 8, 2009 | family |
Saturday was a tennis day. Greg played in the morning with his men’s team in the first round of the playoffs. They ended up winning the deciding match so the team moves on to the next round – I believe it is next Saturday. Then in the afternoon Ryan, my 12 year old, played a boys singles match. He is on a mixed (boys and girls) team for the winter. Each Saturday the team plays a double boys, double girls, single boys, single girls and a mixed doubles match. And the team captain set it up so each player had the opportunity to play each type of match. So this weekend was Ryan’s turn to play boys singles. He is doing very well at tennis and seems to really enjoy it. He played on a boys team in the fall for the first time. So this was his second time to play a singles match. Ryan played well and was able to pull out a victory – 8 games to 4 against his opponent. Here is a picture of Ryan at his match on Saturday:
Ryan tennis
Jan 29, 2009 | family |
This is not about Stampin’ Up! but about my oldest son Kyle. I wanted to share that we received a letter in the mail this week that he has been named as a Superintendent’s Key Scholar for Cherokee County. 141 eleventh grade students in the county are receiving this award. There will be a ceremony and reception with the school board and superintendent in February. And he will get a certificate and Letter Jacket Patch. He doesn’t have a letter jacket to put it on (and I don’t think he wants one) but that’s ok. I have my band letter patch from high school and never had a jacket to put mine on either. We are proud of Kyle and his accomplishments!
