Thursday, July 23, 2009

But I'm not OLD enough to have a 15 year old. . .

Or at least that's what my head is telling me! The rest of me, well, it's out there telling the world that I'm "18, with 31 years of experience," so yeah, I guess I AM old enough to have a 15 year old. Yikes! Why does it feel like she was just born last week? (Well, at least sometimes!)

So anyway, Tuesday was Melissa's big day, and as with most teens, their wishlists always seem to challenge the budget. She wanted some cool furniture and decor items for her room, and since they'd arrived weeks ago, there weren't going to be many ribbons or scraps of paper from birthday gifts flying around.

Because of this, I wanted to make her a memorable card to mark the occasion. I figured my newly-acquired Big Shot pop-up cake die would help me do that, and so I spent part of an afternoon creating. Of course, with this type of card, the outside always seems to be pretty ho-hum, because naturally, most of the efforts get concentrated on the cool pop-up stuff inside.

This is what the front of the card looked like. . .
I used the new Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Paper, new In Color inks, the scallop edge punch, and a couple other Big Shot dies on the front. You can also see a couple of little jewelry boxes that I adorned with more Designer Paper and those awesome In Color Polka-Dot grosgrain ribbons (because even if a girl has already gotten what she wanted for her birthday, there still needs to be a little somethin' to open on THE day, right?)

And when Melissa opened the card, this is what she saw. . .

I added a Bermuda Bay "plate" to the card before building the cake, used strips of the Razzleberry Lemonade for the sides of the cake, and of course, added 15 glittered candles all around the cake. (I love how the die cuts those!)

Then it came time to decide what the cake topper would be. As I stood in front of the shelves that store my stamps, almost as if it were divine intervention, the logo stamp that demonstrators received 5+ years ago to commemorate SU's 15th anniversary jumped out at me from the very back of the closet! How perfect!! And when will I have the chance to use it again??? I quickly stamped two of the images in Bermuda Bay, trimmed off the part at the top that said "Stampin' Up!" and I was set! Needless to say, I was thrilled, because usually those are the things that I think of doing 3 days after the occasion.

I "smuggled" the card and 2 little boxes into the restaurant Melissa had chosen for her birthday dinner and gave them to her after we had placed our order. I heard "appropriate" ooohs and aaahs from the whole table when she opened the card, and I saw a look on Melissa's face as if to say, "Oh, I'm KEEPING this card." For the record, I was given special permission to photograph her card so I could show you--and if I play my cards right, she may even let me display it at Open House tomorrow. Maybe. . .

Speaking of Open House, gotta run and go work on some treats to serve tomorrow. Goodies just make a stamping get-together all the more festive! Enjoy your day!

No comments:

Blog Widget by LinkWithin