A Girly Girl Birthday Card and Matching Gift Bag

My friend Linda's birthday was coming up the beginning of August and I knew I had to get busy and make her a card and gift bag suited to her personality. Because she's a real "girly-girl" I wanted to design a card that was femine and sweet, had a touch of bling and something to do with clothes or shoes.  I remembered seeing a ballerina card on Tammy Q. Howell's blog Tarheel Stamper so I went through my "samples I love file" and had a look at her design.  She used a clever combination of the Round Tab (119864 pg. 209)) and Blossom Petals Builder (121808 pg. 213) punches to make a ballerina dress.  You can check out her post here to see what she came up with.  I really liked the Round Tab for the top of the dress but decided to change mine up a bit with a smaller skirt cut from the Two Tags (115954 pg. 222) Bigz Die.  Here's what U came up with:

I'm in love with the new Wisteria Wonder (122926) cardstock and decided to use that along with some Concord Crush DSP from the 2010-2012 Paterrns Designer Series Paper Stack (117158) and one of  the small floral designer papers from the Cheerful Treat Designer Series [(DSP) #122381 - Hostess Idea Book and Catalogue (IB&C) pg. 11] and layer it on Whisper White cardstock that had been texturized with the Elegant Lines (119277) Embossing folder.  I used the Eyelet Border punch to create a ruffled edge along the Wisteria Wonder layer. 

For the inside of the card I decided to stamp the little girl silhouette from the Easter Blossoms stamp set  and the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Perfect Punches set, in Wisteria Wonder Classic ink.

I needed a little gift bag to go along with the card so decided to use the same designer papers and cardstocks and the part of the Two tags that was left over from the dress.  Here's a close up:

I repeated the sentiment on the tag to compliment the inside of the card and tied some melon mambo, green and purple (non SU) ribbons on the handle. 

Linda loved her birthday gift - some beautiful white chandelier earings that suit her oh so much!  She also loved the birthday card and matching gift bag.   I'd love to hear your comments too!

Wonderful Presents from Wonderful Friends

What a great week this has been for surprises!  On Friday when I picked up my mail I was so excited to see a parcel from my friend and fellow stamper, Kathryn Mangelsdorf who lives in Woodside, South Austrialia. She'd already given me a heads up that something was coming, but not what or why, so the excitement was building as I rushed home to open the package. Here's a peak:

Love that fold over withthe butterfly and button.............too cute!

Just to give a little background before I show you what I received, I met  Kathryn on UStamp With Dawn and Friends during the first session that I signed up for.  Kathryn's become one of the shining lights in terms of her fantastic tutorials and designs and I so look forward to chatting with her on the open chat line.  During our chat's we've gotten to know each other a little more personally and Kathryn shared that she had tragically lost members of her family to breast cancer.  Since Kathryn is not one to sit back and do nothing, she decided to sponsor a Breast Cancer fund raiser called "Kathryn's Girls Afternoon", and it's become a great annual event.

As you'll know from my earlier posts I am a big supporter of Breast Cancer and have been involved in the Walk for Life events here in Abbotsford, so when I heard she was doing it again this year I wanted to jump in and help out too.  I spent a few hours going through my stack of Stampin' Up! card swap fronts to find ones that would make "good sellers" and made them into full cards, packaging them in cello wrappers and sending them off with some breast cancer stickers and other goodies.  Kathryn was delighted to receive the package from me and sent me this wonderful appreciation gift, along with the fantastic news that the Kathryn's Girls Afternoon had raised $969.00+ for the Cancer Council as a result of their card sales and donations.  Isn't that fantastic???  

Congratulations Kathryn...........you go girl!  And thank's for the appreciation gift, which I'm now going to share.  Fabulous card, and love the chocolate bar wrapper so much!!!!

This is a Lindt Dark Chocolate Bar...........mmmmmmmmmmm yum!  hidden beneath this clever little cover.  I'm tempted to eat it cause I love dark chocolate, but I don't want to take it out of the wrapper!  Talk about diet control!

Isn't this card fabulous.  I think I'm going to case it for one of my Christmas designs. 

We ate the chocolate bar before I had time to take a photo
and it was delish.........................YUMMY!!!!

Okay my second surprise of the week came from our lovely neighbors Linda and Barry who arrived for my Wednesday night dinner party with a surprise hostess gift.  How thoughtful and how exciting!  They filled the bag with goodies that my mom, who was visiting, and I would enjoy during this snowy weather spell..........hot chocolate, winter tea, some great napkins and a to die for Milean's Demerara Butter Crunch White European Chocolate Bar (local choclatier). Yum, Yum!!!  What lovely gifts!



Now I have to tell you I would have been totally happy to have received just this gift bag........ and that's the truth.  I just found it totally awesome and couldn't take my eyes off it.  Isn't it amazing?


Here's a closeup of that deer.  He's so stunning..............covered in glitter (Dazzling Diamonds or Irridescent Ice Comes to mind) and I love the Baroque Motif styled swirls in the background in the gold and white.  Just beautiful.  Here's a closer view.

I also loved this little Tea Box with it's Jolly old snowman!  Isn't this a cute idea. 

Well now I have to go and spend some time in my studio seeing if I can use these ideas........................  see you!  Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

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