confetti by lexi

pastel pretties

hello! i have a rare saturday post today. the moxie fab world tuesday trigger caught my eye and i had a little time to play, so i decided to see where it took me. obviously, i was very inspired by the pretty pastel colors...

first up, a pastel pretty flower to welcome baby. i went a little old school and stamped the memento dew drop pads right on the card stock! i've always loved the flower you can create with them. i was also inspired by the full frame of candies, and decided to trim the edges of my flower to get a similar look. the smooth white button in the center of the flower is a little nod to the white almond in the middle of the picture. the sentiment is from baby face. clean, simple, and sweet!

next, how about some jordan almond ice cream using comfort food? i scream, u scream, we all scream sweet! this was what i actually sat down to stamp, but when testing the colors on my scratch pad, the flower above came to life first. that's one of my favorite things about stamping - following the cards that just start to happen on their own! but i also like to bring the cards in my head to life too, so i couldn't stop with just the one...

this second version was probably more like what i was picturing. although both are my go-to clean and simple style, i like the less centered look of the one layer card with the punched corner, but i worried that it was too plain. when it came down to it, i didn't know which one i really liked best, so i thought i'd show them both! either way, a great thing about this design is that it can be used for any sweet occasion - welcome baby, congratulations, happy birthday, etc. simply stamp it on the inside and go! who wouldn't love a serving of pastel pretty ice cream, right?! i hope i can make time to do these more often - i always have so much fun...

happy easter!
:) lexi

flashback friday :: bunny twins

it's been a while since i posted a flashback friday, but i came across these cakes from last year in my photo files - perfect timing! they're actually take two of a pair of bunny cakes from a few years ago, both times for the same twins. every few years their birthday falls on or very close to easter and twin bunnies works well! i think i cut the ears a little differently the second time around, but they're pretty much the same bunnies otherwise - two small round layers for the face, shaped ears from a 9 x 13 cake cut in half, candy & pretzel features. easy and cute if you find yourself needing a cake for easter...

hippity, hoppity!!
:) lexi

original post: april 12, 2009

starlight movie night

after sharing last weekend's backyard party yesterday, i realized that i never posted the one from last year. our eleventh hour brainstorm then was to rent an inflatable movie screen and have a movie party under the stars. for the invitation i designed a drive in movie style logo on a big screen, complete with retro frame details, stars, and concessions characters - "let's all go to concessions! let's all go to concessions!" i couldn't resist! i even included a few vertical static lines. remember those?!

the invitation design also lent itself well to creating some fun signage. in addition to the welcome sign above, i created others for concessions, the game room, the restroom, enter this way, and thank you for coming. like the banners yesterday, it was an easy element that helped set the scene and personalize the party. ferris bueller's day off was our special feature that night - the kids would stop and watch parts of it here and there, but it really ended up being background noise to the seventh graders more than anything else. although the two fifth graders watched it from start to finish despite the noise and flying objects - boys will throw anything!

you can't have a movie party without popcorn and candy, right? the movie screen company also had popcorn machines available to rent, so it was fresh and hot. as always the candy was a hit. gotta love the bulk choices at sam's - the display boxes they came in were perfect for the movie theater feel. other concessions included quesidillas made to order at the grill - yum!

and last, but not least, i created a popcorn cake. this is a remake of one i've made a couple of times before. it was silly to try to come up with something new. it's such a fun design - and easy, too! i love the added touch of using real popcorn with melted marshmallow to "fill" the container and have a couple of spilled pieces. so there you have it - another take on the back yard bash! and i'm finally sharing things from the very high "to post" pile...

goodnight!
:) lexi

surprise crawfish boil

sunday was my older daughter's 14th birthday, and like almost every year, it was a soccer tournament weekend and we had to wait for her game schedule to be released before making any birthday decisions. it didn't turn out to be a very good schedule, which left her unsure about what she wanted to do, if anything. so, while she was busy being disappointed and indecisive, i secretly took it out of her control and set about planning a last minute surprise back yard bash for saturday night after her game. i knew she'd be hungry and she loves crawfish, so a crawfish boil became my theme. i created the invites as a pic to be texted and sent it off to one of her friends to circulate. then i printed a few variations of it for decorations...

to set a crawfish table, all you really need is newspaper, which was the basis of my invite design. a few full legal copies of it were the perfect addition to our crawfish table for a fun personal touch!

half page print outs cut into flags, alternating with blue cardstock flags, made for a cute banner - and another perfect personal touch. a few uncut ones taped around in different places let the birthday girl see the complete invite she'd missed. don't you love that blue and red washi tape?

a party like this definitely needed a photo booth with fun props. i added another flag banner to my set up and used elements of the invite along with the same fonts and colors to create a logo style caption for the pics. i highly recommend sparkbooth for party photo booths. i love the personalization possibilities and how easy it is to set up and use. kids (and many adults) always have fun when i bring this out!

and last, but definitely not least, i even figured out how to perform surgery on swedish fish to make candy crawfish to embellish the cake (!!), with yet another little piece of the invite, in flag form, flying above. over all, the decorations, mainly created from the invite, really pulled everything together. plus, they were easy to hide and quick to assemble, so the birthday girl was very surprised even though i did it all right under her nose - yay!!

:) lexi

comfort food additions in review

so i made it back. just not until after midnight! it's been a busy day. teaching, creating proofs, dealing with a dead printer, manis & pedis for a 6th grade dance, etc. but i found a few minutes here and there to take a look at the design team projects. as usual, they blew me away...

ashley - warm winter wishes. love the cut out heart, the bowl, the colors!

betsy - wow!! total corny love!!! awesome animated comfort food, let's get together! i also found myself singing "let's all go to concessions..."

cristina - from our house to yours. comfort food additions + houses from spring hills and winter hills. clean and simple and perfect!!

danielle - ice cream party - love the brightly colored bowls full of brightly colored ice cream!!

dawn - let's celebrate birthday card - love how she used the sunrise impressions 1 plate!!

erin - i scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream - total rainbow ice cream love!! and the banners are perfect, too!

heather - i scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream - and a ticket to the country fair!

jessica - congratulations from our house to yours - love her take on the iconic pyrex bowl!!

maile - we all scream for this stack of ice cream pints - love this clean and simple design!

melissa - hooray! let's celebrate! with all those perfect melissa touches!!

and we can't forget nichole's chalkboard card earlier this week!!

it's so much fun to see my stamps in action. especially this time around, with a new take on my personal favorite set. they definitely took comfort food out of the comfort zone and into the party!! now it's your turn the join the fun. the shelves at papertreyink.com have been stocked. comfort food additions mini stamp set, along with the rest of the march line up, is ready and waiting to be added to your cart. i'm surprised at how many cards i created up there - do you have a favorite? you can also see them together with all of the design team projects in one spot on my pinterest board which i add to whenever i create something new. i hope we've inspired you to create lots, too!

happy stamping...
:) lexi

bonus bokeh

the countdown is complete! today is release day and that means that comfort food additions will be available for purchase from papertrey ink at 10:00 pm est along with the rest of the march release line up. but first, i have one more card to share - and there's not a pint of ice cream in sight! like a couple of the rainbow cards on tuesday, i combined two new sentiments as my focal point to create a more sophisticated card. the yellow chevron washi tape "arrow" points right to the sentiment and "bokeh dots" in yellow, teal, and gray add color and interest. i think i might have to use this design for a few graduation cards this year - i can even match school colors!

thanks for stopping by today and for the comments throughout the countdown! of course, the fun's not over yet. the release day party is underway on nichole's blog - full product previews, links to the design team's release day posts, and a contest! and then shopping later tonight...

have fun & good luck!
:) lexi

i scream, you scream...

we all scream for ice cream! so ice cream it is for day five of the papertrey ink march countdown. i have two cards today, both created with the same color scheme - my go-to ice cream colors of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, plus the added pop of teal. a lot of times, i sit down to stamp and start playing with things to see where i'll end up. other times, i know exactly what i want to make. these two cards had been slowly coming together in my brain as i worked on the other designs, so i was particulary excited to make them a reality...

the more i stamped the sentiments on other projects, the more i kept thinking of this card or something like it. it features 6 of the 12 stamps in the mini set! after testing out a couple of layouts, i settled on creating a banner. i used all of the colors on the ice cream carton, and then repeated them with the other elements for a balanced, colorful look. the card fits in a standard 6-3/4 envelope. it doesn't work for every design, but i really like the narrower proportions of this size. and the banner fit perfectly! sweet! hooray! i did it! let's celebrate!

like the banner card, this design kept calling out to me, too. as soon as i settled on the color scheme for that one, i knew it had to be the same here! the ice cream carton was perfect as is, so i just copied what i did first, and then using trajan monogram, i stamped the letters of "surprise" with the same colors. notice that i swapped out a lighter brown for the p, which helped soften the pattern and makes it look a little more spontaneous - it was too short a word to be completely random. while the first card uses many sentiments, this one uses only one. a partial one at that! i selectively inked it to leave off the "for." when i designed the set, i was torn about whether to have it separate or not. finally i decided that it's more trouble to line up the smaller words perfecly, than it is to selectively ink the shorter phrase on the edge of your stamp pad, which is exactly what i did here. doesn't the spoon make a great exclamation point? and the sequins definitely add just the right bit of a festive flair, the perfect finishing touch! i scream, you scream, we all scream surprise!

well, we made it. tomorrow's the day! comfort food additions mini set will be available for purchase at papertreyink.com - for $5 you get 12 new sentiments that coordinate with and give new meaning to my previously released comfort food. i believe i've shared all but two of them! while waiting, be sure to visit nichole's blog for another group post day and lots o' links - melissa is sharing with her new sets, too! i might be back with another card in the morning (we'll see how it goes!), but i'll definitely be back with my usual round up at some point later in the day...

get your lists ready!
:) lexi

wednesday, zooop!

today is wednesday! do you know that song? with a focus on soup on this specific day of the week, i just couldn't resist! so, welcome back for day four as we count down to the papertrey ink march release, and a new pieces of confetti stamp set, comfort food additions. i've been serving up a lot of ice cream so far this week, and now it's time for a little soup. as winter tries to hang on and the temperature changes back and forth, you might find yourself needing a get well card. while most of the sentiments in the additions set focus on the ice cream carton and celebrating, i've also included a few with the soup in mind. this old milk phrase kept popping in my head when i was creating with the soup can in november and i think it's a perfect match. when you're sick and you can't eat much else, what do you eat? soup - it does a body good! i wanted to create a fun get well card, one with more springtime colors to carry us into the new season, so i turned to andy warhol's pop art for inspiration. the first one (above) started with a single warhol inspired soup can, then i added more color and patterns similar to his aesthetic to pull it all together. i even created a cute tissue box out of a scrap of cardstock, stamped all over with the mini daisy from baby face, with a little piece of real tissue sticking out of it!

of course i had to recreate a small grid of soup can art while i was at it. while i liked the look of stamping directly on colored cardstock for the first card, i wanted a softer, more translucent look. so for these, i stamped the wrong side of the stamp in four light colors first for a shadow or halo of color. then i stamped the can image right over those, all in vivid quirky color pairs to resemble warhol's work. not only would this be great for a get well card as planned, but the sentiment can easily be changed to happy birthday or hello, or anything really. i think i need to make several of these to have on hand!

and last but not least, how about a bouquet of flowers to brighten your day? i stamped yet another warhol inspired can and filled it up with a bouquet of flowers from green thumb, sticking with a bright and cheerful color scheme. the complete sentiment is warm winter wishes - since there are more spring days than winter here lately, i thought i'd selectively ink warm wishes (separately) and leave winter behind for now. isn't it great? when you're finished eating the soup, repurpose the can!

these were so much fun to create - i hope you've enjoyed them! as usual, i'll be back tomorrow with another serving of yummy cards. until then, don't forget to visit nichole's blog to see what's in the spotlight - it's group sharing day so there are lots of links to follow. and melissa is sharing more with her sets too!

see ya' tomorrow...
:) lexi

what's your flavor?

welcome back to day three of the papertrey ink march countdown and another peek at my soon to be released mini set, comfort food additions. today i decided to add a little flavor - ice cream flavors, that is! first up we have neapolitan. i stamped three carton diecuts with the colors shown, cut them up together so they matched and pieced the pieces i wanted back together - voila! a pint of neapolitan ice cream. a few elements from grunge me layered in matching colors behind the focal element provided just the right touch of cool, and really tied it all together. i scream, you scream, we all scream happy birthday!

how about a little mint chocolate chip? one of my personal favorite flavors! i created the bowl the same way i did when comfort food was released, using 2 bowl diecuts. i trimmed along the front rim of one, inked the back rim of the other, and stuck them together, sliding the ice cream circles and spoon in between the layers. the speckle stamp (still sitting on my desk from the first card!) was perfect for adding the chocolate chips, and a trio of leaves from beautiful blooms was a nice stand in for a sprig of mint. i scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream - congratulations!

and last, one of my daughter's old favorites, cotton candy! i thought it would be fun to create an ice cream cone for a change, so with a circle punch, snips, and the little dotted grid stamp from grunge me, i did just that. the speckle stamp came in handy again once again to create a mixed up pink & blue similar to the real thing. the end result is soft and sweet, great for a little one's birthday! i scream, you scream, we all scream hooray! happy birthday!

so what's your favorite flavor? while you're thinking it over, be sure to check out nichole's blog to see what's in the spotlight today - including the most fabulous comfort food + additions chalkboard card! melissa, danielle, dawn, heather, maile and melissa all have posts to share, too. thanks for stopping by and don't forget to c'mon back tomorrow...

:) lexi

we all scream hooray!

welcome back for day two of the countdown to the papertrey ink march release, and another look at my up and coming mini set, comfort food additions. i have an affinity for rainbow cards and have created many over the years. they're bright and cheery and always make me smile, so i thought it would be the perfect color scheme to scream "hooray!"

first up, i started with a rainbow of ice cream cartons from comfort food. i scream, you scream, we all scream hooray! i drew the speech bubble by hand to fit the new sentiment perfectly. i liked the extra bit of flair it gave over stamping it in line with the rest of sentiment, which had been my original plan. this card is larger than usual, sized to fit a #10 envelope, and would be perfect for the whole family or office to sign. hooray it's your birthday! hooray graduate! hooray on your promotion! one card, many occasions.

next, it's time to celebrate with a rainbow of hoorays! clear stamps make a design like this so easy to stamp. but a little tip is to lightly draw a line in pencil where you want the hoorays to line up, and erase it after stamping. to get consistent spacing between them, i simply lined up the top edge of the stamp in the same place in relation to the stamped image above it as i went along. i also had the let's celebrate! piece ready for proper spacing, but didn't stick it down until last so i could center the dotted line from faux ribbon in the opening after stamping the hoorays. the end result is bright and cheerful, clean and simple!

and last, but not least, a birthday card. more black and white with a splash of rainbow, this time in the form of buttons. i dug through my button jar for a variety of tiny buttons and discovered that they were just the right size to space out on the diagonal striped washi. the sentiment is adhered with foam tape to better match the height of the buttons, while the red mat adds an extra pop of color. hooray! hooray! happy birthday!

i hope you've enjoyed my trip over the rainbow. i feel like i should be eating skittles or have a pot of gold hidden here somewhere! don't forget to visit nichole's blog for more eye candy as usual - heather, ashley, dawn, maile, and melissa are all sharing too. have fun and i'll see you tomorrow...

:) lexi

more ice cream!

the countdown to the papertrey ink march release is officially underway and i'm excited to have a little something new to add to the pieces of confetti line up. when i designed comfort food, the original inspiration and purpose was for get well and hang in there type cards. but as i started to create with it, i wanted to use the images for other reasons, too. first and foremost, i had to finish the saying on the ice cream carton - i scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! so for my first look at the new sentiments, i thought i'd focus on just that. and we're screaming for chocolate ice cream specifically! stamp one of the included phrases, like happy birthday or you did it!, on the inside and this card would be great for a birthday or congratulations card - two happy occasions that easily call for ice cream. yum! if you haven't already, be sure to stop by nichole's blog to see what else is coming - betsy, erin, dawn, heather, maile, and melissa all have posts as well. and don't forget to come back tomorrow for take two...

enjoy!
:) lexi

sneak peekin'

it's time for another pieces of confetti stamp set - a mini set of new sentiments for my previously released comfort food! here's the little peek nichole posted today. and i'll be back for the countdown starting tomorrow...

hooray!
:) lexi