A Few Little Gifts

Things have been a little busy around here! I'm backtracking a bit to share some of the fun that occured in February... In the midst of preparing for the exciting events at Cupcake Inspirations, I was also busy preparing for some fun at school as well.

Our school system has a partnership with Bunkyo University in Japan and each year, a group of their students studying to become teachers comes to visit to learn about schools in the United States. It's a fun opportunity for us to learn a little about Japanese culture and for them to learn about our education system. This year, I was asked to be our school's liaison, coordinate a schedule, play "tour guide," and present gifts to our two students who would be visiting our school this week.

I planned to give the girls clipboards that sported our school's mascot, the Dolphin. My principal asked me to get some other stationary items, like a notebook and pens, to go with the clipboards. I made a face. Japanese stationary goods are the absolute best and I felt silly trying to buy stationary items for Japanese natives, so my principal gave me the green light to buy whatever I thought would be good. And then I stressed out. Hahaha.

Of course I immediately asked Naki to brainstorm ideas with me. The first thing she said was that I needed to make a card or cute tag. I honestly wasn't planning on that at all. I was just going to get something simple, tie a bow on it, and call it a day. But in the end, Naki's idea won.

I decided to make little favor bags of Swedish Fish as a little "Whalecome" gift to our students and their professors. I combined stamps from Fox and Friends (whale image), Oh, Whale! (sentiment), and Sea Street (fish background and flag banner) with a Taken with Teal, Pool Party, and Real Red color palette. Then I tied some pretty ribbons onto the clipboards for a little extra flair. :)

 

I found these dolphin stuffies at Michaels when I was out buying some adhesive and thought they were a fun little parting gift for our girls. I stamped some tags to hang on their tails using the Sea Street stamp set along with some alphabet stamps that I had purchased from the Target Dollar Spot over the holidays.

Hazuki and Michiko visited during the crazy weeks with snow, but I think think their visit was enjoyable, despite the nasty weather. I had such fun with them and hope they did too!

Paper: Pool Party Cardstock, Subtles Designer Series Paper Stack, Whisper White Cardstock
Stamps: Fox and Friends, letter stamps (Target Dollar Spot), Oh, Whale!, Sea Street
Ink: Basic Gray, Real Red, Pool Party, Taken with Teal
Embellishments: Bermuda Bay Grosgrain Polka Dot Ribbon, Island Indigo Baker's Twine, Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon, Sycamore Street Ribbon, Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon
Tools: Banner Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch

Another Baby Card

I mentioned two expecting mommies in my post on Friday, so I'm back to share my other baby card. This one is for my friend Jen who is expecting her first!

I decided to go with a little lion theme and got baby this cute Taggies toy and made a card to match.

DEEtails:

I wanted to create a baby onesie card for Jen. I added some polka dot DSP in Daffodil Delight and trimmed it with a scalloped edge in Lucky Limeade. I added some silver brads at the bottom for snaps. The center is stamped with the lion image from SU!'s Fox and Friends. Too cute. I love the fact that our school mascot is the Lions and our colors are green and gold, so the present and card match our school. I'm kind of nerdy like that. :)

Thanks for peeking in today!

Congratulations Erin!

Sorry for the terrible picture. It has been dreary here the past few days and I haven't been able to get a good photo. Today is the baby shower of a co-worker of mine, Erin. I was excited to create a cute card for her and baby Emily after I picked up this sweet monkey musical toy from her baby registry.


I used the layout for this week's Mojo Monday challenge for this card.


Here are the DEEtails:

I started with some Crumb Cake card stock and layered on some Chocolate Chip crad stock, edged with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border and some Crumb Cake card stock embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing plate. Then I stamped the sentiment from SU!'s Swirls and Curls Verses in Chocolate Chip ink on Very Vanilla card stock, matted with som Blushing Bride. Then I added some branches punched with the bird punch and stamped the cute monkey from SU!'s Fox and Friends. I hung her upside down and embellished her and the branches with some Itty Bitty punch flowers. I added a Rhinestone Jewel for a little sparkle. Hope you like it!

Monkeying Around

The EtsyInspired Challenge this week is too cute! We were supposed to find an inspiration image from Elie's Happy Hats. Here's mine:


I'm not totally thrilled with this card, but I think it turned out pretty cute. I think it just wasn't what I was envisioning when I saw the cutie pa-tootie in the photo. Here's my DEEsign:


DEEtails:

1. I've been wanting to use my new Fox and Friends set, but just wasn't sure what to do with the cute little critters, but when I saw this adorable hat, I knew just where to start!

2. I'm sorry that the photo is not so great. The colors aren't showing up too well. I wanted to use Barely Banana to match the monkey hat in the photo and it doesn't seem to be picking up the pale yellow color. I stamped the little monkeys and punched them out. (hehe sounds funny!)Then mounted them on scalloped circles punched out from Real Red and a random pink scrap that I had (it's not an SU! color).

3. I gave each of my monkeys a DMC needlepoint floss bow in red and pink to match, of course!

4. I used a Very Vanilla ribbon and embellished it with red and pink buttons from my stash and coordinated needlepoint floss.

5. I mounted the monkeys on Very Vanilla paper, then layered my card stock - pink scrap, Barely Banana, Real Red, and more Barely Banana.