confetti by lexi

girl on fire

colleen is obsesssed! she started reading the first book when the movie craze began and happily finished in time to see the movie. and now, she wants a hunger games birthday party. nothing says party like a fight to the death, right? so i spent some time researching ideas, drawing images, and replicating logos to create the invite and set the scene. i was a "girl on fire" and just couldn't wait to share! but it's only a small peek. i'll have a complete look at everything when it's all said and done. may the odds be ever in your favor and...

happy hunger games!
:) lexi

dior baby

as promised, here's another challenge-inspired baby. no geeky girl here though - she's pure fashionista! a pretty floral medallion look from christian dior fall 2012 is the current inspiration piece on the runway inspired challenge blog. after creating little mr. big bang baby, i guess i had baby face on the brain, so this pretty little beauty was born and it's nothing but the best for her! the flower in the set was the perfect starting point for the floral medallion. i stamped it in the center of the blanket flap, which gave me plenty of room to doodle around it and color in the key points. i didn't have the exact colors in the picture, but i got pretty close and i think it looks very similar to the inspiration, which is exactly what i was going for. i'm loving these challenges - can't wait to see what's next!!

thanks for stopping by...
:) lexi

big bang baby

i've had this design floating around in my head for a few days now, and i finally made time to put the stamps to paper! it's in response to the spectacular spectacles challenge over at moxie fab world. i thought it would be fun and different to add specs & a tie to my sweet little baby face! google nerd baby or geek baby and you'll see some cuties in big glasses and a variety of smart onesies, all of which inspired this design. i drew the glasses to "fit" the face, and made the tie out of (you guessed it!) washi tape. and how about the bottle tucked into the blanket, pocket protector style! i wanted a few extra nerdy details, so i created a custom background with some of the small baby images and phrases, along with a few bigger science motifs - an oval frame was a happy find and do you know how 1+1=3? this card would be perfect with an educational baby gift, especially for new babies with big bang type parents...

nerd is the word!
:) lexi

p.s. be sure to come back later for a new challenge-inspired girl baby, too!

hip, hip, hooray!

happy birthday! it's cas-ual fridays' first birthday, so this week's challenge is all about birthdays. i'm on a roll, creating something just under the deadline for the last few weeks, so of course i had to get my party on and play along. i didn't even try to stay away from the washi tape this time! once i settled on the tapes, i layered them on a scrap of card stock and cut out my hat, adding some strips of pink for the pom detal and trimming along the bottom with scallop scissors. then for the party blower, i put a couple of the left over pieces of the pink and yellow together and cut out the middle section, adding a piece of orange folded in on itself for the mouth piece. my favorite part is the tongue - a length of purple tape, folded in half lengthwise and rolled up. washi tape is both sticky and repositionable, which makes projects like this really easy to assemble. actually, other than trying to decide which color tapes to use, the hardest part of this card was figuring out exactly where i wanted the words and how to fit it all together. i can get a little obsessive about placement. the paper pad i use as a stamping mat definitely got a workout on this one.

happy birthday, cas-ual fridays!
:) lexi

nothing but net

and cake! this one is from a few weeks ago, and it's a redo. but i like to share those too. when i create a ball cake (golf, basketball, bowling), i bake the two halves of the ball in an aluminum bowl to get the shape. there are cake pans made specifically for balls now, but this has worked for me for years, and it's a little bigger than the ball mold i've seen, so i keep using it. the bottom half is yellow cake, the top, chocolate, just for the birthday boy. with two flavors, there's a little something for everyone. score!

:) lexi

chugga chugga choo choo

an animal train is coming through! this is one of several things that kept me busy over the weekend. the request: to create a train cake for a birthday boy who loves animals. i loosely copied the engine from the invitation, added other cars in the bright colors that they were using for the favor bags, and made room for animals to take a to ride. most of the details are fondant - it's hard to beat it when you need crisp lines or molded shapes. but i also threw in a few grasshopper cookies and pretzels for the wheels, and smooshed marshmallows for puffs of smoke. i was a little nervous putting it all together, especially shaping the animals, but the result was exactly what they wanted. yay!

:) lexi

flashback friday :: fiesta time!

tomorrow is cinco de mayo, so i thought it was a good day for a mexican fiesta invite, which is a great party theme any time of year. actually this is a combined from the stack/flashback post, with a take two at a fiesta invite from a few years ago. that one was for a ten year old birthday. this one for a one year old, with a few changes, like the "1" on the cactus and the green border on a one-layer card rather than the pinked edge of a second layer.

the first time around i also created a cake to match, with a flag, and stickers for the favor bags. posey's party was not local, so no cake, but i did create matching thank you notes. these are the three options i presented. any of which would make cute personalized stationery even if you're not throwing a fiesta.

happy cinco de mayo!
:) lexi

original post: november 24, 2008

feeling lucky?

roll the dice! these cakes were for the cast party of our eighth grade production of guys & dolls. the parent in charge asked for something simple to go with the gambling theme of the play, including something fun on the board. dice and poker chips came to mind immediately and were also easy to create. one yellow, one chocolate, too. gotta love that!

:) lexi

showers, flowers, and rainbows

april showers bring may flowers! that's the current theme of the cas-ual fridays challenge that ends tonight. rain also brings rainbows, so i combined the two ideas and this is what happened. a clean and simple rainbow of flowers, happy and bright. i was absolutely not going to use washi tape again, but somehow it ended up on the card anyway. and it's exactly how it should be! the brown woven pattern acts as a grounding element, and the color patterns add just the right amount of interest on the matching card stock squares. as the card came together it reminded me of a few old favorites - same sentiment, ipods rock, candyland, and even the more recent bottle lineup. it's the perfect blend of elements from each of those designs - tone on tone pattern, squares, color popped on white, and of course a rainbow. obviously, i love a good rainbow card!

thanks for stopping by...
:) lexi

it's still game time...

after posting the claw machine arcade party ensemble yesterday, i remembered this one from last year that had yet to be posted. it was for a rolling video truck party for the birthday boy, combined with a crawfish boil for the grown ups. a truck filled with video game systems rolls up to your location for an instant gaming party - pretty cool! the challenge was to create something equally as cool to set the stage. i love when customers ask me to go all out. i started off simply playing with a game style logo, which eventually led to the full blown game case.

a cardstock "cd" was the perfect spot for all of the party info - there's no need to use real ones, since it's really just for effect. the clips on the side were just right for the special parent offer, just like the real thing!

we even created a vip access lanyard for guests to gain access to the game truck. repeating the "game" logo and using the same colors are all it takes to pull together a perfectly coordinated ensemble. of course, some of my favorite details are the little things - "rated 8 is great" for miles' age, "merlin made" instead of nintendo, and the spine of the box. small realistic touches like that really make a spoof more interesting.

the last piece of the ensemble was the party favor, a fun tshirt. again, repeating the logo and other details really help pull it all together. i especially love the quote the client asked me to use! so there you have it, another take on the arcade party and another set of fun party papers to go with it.

game over!
:) lexi