Party Time!

     On Saturday, I had the privilege of providing the entertainment for fourteen ten-year-old girls. It was a blast! Everyone had so much fun (at least that's how it seemed) and did such a great job at covering a notebook with a matching pen and bookmark!

     The idea was that the girls would stamp onto the First Edition Specialty DSP (Designer Series Paper) and then stamp the Medallion with Versamark over the top, emboss in clear, and rub ink over that to create an emboss-resist effect.

     I didn't get to take any pictures at the party, as I was far too busy helping the girls to be messing with a camera! I have no pictures of the pens or bookmarks, but here is a photo of the notebook I did as an example. DEFINITELY not my best work, I am merely showing the photo to give you an idea of using the Medallion for the emboss-resist effect.

     Just a helpful hint: If you're thinking about stamping words onto this DSP, make sure the words you are using are quite large or you may want to reconsider. Small words on top of other small words just doesn't look very good, and trying to cover them up may ruin your project entirely!! (Depending on your definition of "ruin," of course.)

     I was so impressed with some of the things the girls came up with. Some of them rubbed Rich Razzleberry or Marina Mist ink over the top instead of Early Espresso like I have done, and the result was stunning! It was so interesting to see how creative they could be with the stamps and inks in front of them.

     For the pens, I searched all over and FINALLY found one (by Uni-ball) with a clear barrel and easily removable ends (i.e. not involving pliers or broken nails) so we could put a piece of stamped paper on the inside to personalise them. I was very pleased to have found the pen, but soon discovered that most DSP wouldn't work because it was too thick. The First Edition Specialty DSP is a little thinner, so just BARELY fit into the pens! It was really tricky, one wrinkle and you had to start all over with a new piece of paper! I found a trick to it, though, if I ever want to use that idea again. Roll the paper into a cylinder,  put it in halfway up the barrel starting from the bottom (the end where the tip usually goes), carefully insert the ink tube in the centre of your paper cylinder and as you do so, feed both the paper and the ink tube into the barrel all at once. Then simply replace the tip cover and you're done!

     The bookmarks were just flowers punched out using the Fancy Flower and 5-Petal Flower punches, with another little flower from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, secured to the top of a large paperclip. To secure them, I punched out strips of paper using the Word Window punch and applied Sticky Strip to them, so that the girls could just peel off the plastic of the Sticky Strip and stick it right onto their paperclip and flowers. Doing it this way made the bookmark assembly very easy and straight-forward for the girls, especially as I had pre-punched and distributed all the shapes and pieces into little kits for the girls to have at their seats. Definitely the easiest project of the afternoon!

     Part of my services for birthday parties is that I provide a little Thank You gift or card for each girl to take home, as well as the handmade invitations for the party, at no extra charge. Included with the card or favour is my business card because the girls have so much fun, I hear a lot of "I want to do this at my birthday party!" By doing this, they all have a way of contacting me if they need to.

This is an example of a birthday party invitation that I made for a birthday in April.

     It was created by rubbing the ink pad (Bashful Blue, same colour as the cardstock I used) onto the flatter side of the embossing folder before putting the cardstock through the Big Shot, thereby inking the background of the card whilst allowing the embossed images to "pop." This was a tip I learned from a fellow domonstrator, Martin Stone. I have been using this technique every chance I've got ever since!

     The other supplies I used to make this invitation are: Outlined Occasions stamp set (from the last Sale-a-Bration, no longer available), Melon Mambo embossing powder, Melon Mambo marker, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, Patterns DSP, Whisper White cardstock, Beautiful Wings Embosslits die, Elegant Bouquet embossing folder, and Rhinestone jewels.

As all the girls went home, they each got to take with them one of the favours I made.

     These were so much fun to make! I used: Candy Wrapper Bigz L die, Cupcakes stamping wheel, Thank You Kindly stamp set, Cupcake Builder Punch (retired), 1-3/4" Circle punch, Cheerful Treat DSP, Whisper White cardstock, Wisteria Wonder cardstock, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, and Simply Scored.

     I cut out the candy wrappers with the die, and rolled down each panel with the Cupcakes wheel in Concord Crush ink. For the effect on the cupcake bottom, I used Simply Scored to score every 1/8" and then flipped them over and scored every 1/8" again, in the spaces that hadn't been scored the first time. This made it really look like a cupcake's paper bottom. I used a Sponge Dauber to lightly colour the edges and the raised lines with the Concord Crush ink. I sponged the shimmer paint onto the cupcake tops, embossed the circles behind the cupcakes with the embossing folder, and stamped the sentiments in Concord Crush onto Whisper White cardstock and cut them out by hand.

     I don't know about you, but I am really chuffed with them! I know you can only see one, but trust me they all looked great!

     Well that's all for today, folks! But stay tuned, there will be some really neat things coming up in the next few days!

Thanks for reading, and Happy Crafting!