Happy Pink Birthday!!

Hello Friends!
And a big Happy Birthday to Beverly of Pink Saturday fame!

And best wishes for many more!

Speaking of birthdays, I participated in Heather's Happy Birthday Matchbox Swap

last month and had lots of fun making paper birthday cake boxes.

I covered the matchbox in pink music paper

and made a band with eyelet paper from Martha Stewart.

I glued a cake box that I made from a template on top,

embellished with lace, pearls, festooning and a couple of coffee filter roses I made.

I love making these little cake boxes,

they're so much fun to decorate and tuck a little giftie inside!

Here is one I made for my friend Brenda:

And finally some pics of my son-in-law's 30th birthday

when I made crowns for everybody.  I started out making one for him,

then one for everyone who had a summer birthday,

and from there the project ballooned out to include everyone!

Sorry for all the pics, I know this isn't Facebook, lol,

but I didn't get a chance to take a pic of just the crowns

before the guests arrived!

The birthday boy:

As he put it, that's my life on a hat!

His 30th birthday and pics of the things he loves: my daughter, San Diego Chargers,

Sacramento Kings, New York City, Macy's (where he works),

dinosaurs and flip flops (for fun).

A pretty bird for Chelsea and a cupcake for Aynsley:

 A travel crown for Bob, leopard skin and feathers for my wild child,
 and Wizard of Oz theme for Wende.

San Francisco Giants for Sean and Paris for Jackie.

Kevin's crown has birds and a nest,

that's me with butterflies. 

A road warrior crown for Mike and a retro crown for Jim who just turned 60.

Sooo much fun!

Everyone was a good sport in sporting their crowns.

Happy Birthday,  

Beverly, I hope you celebrate in grand style!

Here's a little birthday giftie for everyone:

Click to enlarge, right click and save!

Lots of links to lovely pinks at Pink Saturday.

For links to lovely, shabby, chippy whites, stop by White Wednesday!

Have a great weekend!

Paper Soiree, Book Bundles and Tags

Hello Friends!

Our little swap group Paper Soiree is shaping up quite nicely.
We've had two meetings and have met new friends,

sipped champagne,

 and oh yes, swapped and created!

Michelle is the owner of Paper Tales and kindly lets us meet there.

She is also wonderfully talented and a member of the group!

I blogged and posted a pic of my altered journal for the first swap here.

We sipped champagne with lavender simple syrup

and munched on lavender shortbread and lemon bars.

Then we made book bundles for our make-and-take,

here is mine:

Embellished with burlap and muslin roses

and lavender and hydrangea from my garden.

We've met for the second time and swapped lovely cones
filled with artsy goodies, this is the cone I made.
It's not a great pic as I shot it indoors,
and I much prefer natural outdoor lighting.



topped with muslin roses, and embellished with one of my fave images
from the Graphics Fairy:

And further embellished with vintage lace, a vintage beaded earring and festooning.

Our make and take this month was shabby chic French perfume label tags:

Here's a little freebie if you'd like to make one yourself:

Our next swap is based on a little banner I made for Marti,

who had a birthday in June.

We're a little obsessed with all things French,

so this little banner spells OUI!

However, with all the GLITTER on this banner,

it was difficult to photograph,

here are my two attempts:

Again, it was indoors, so not a great shot.

And lastly, some very sad news.  My sweet, sweet little kitty has settled down for her final nap.

(BTW, this picture is of her actually napping.)

I am heartbroken and miss her soooo much.

She was my little baby.

But she lived a good, long life (21 yrs!)

and was so loved by many. 

She chose us to be her family, and she truly was family.

Take care of each other!

For links to lovely, shabby, chippy whites, stop by White Wednesday!

Have a great week!

Pincushions!

Hello Friends!

Hope you are all having a lovely summer.
It's starting to really warm up here, and last night
we had an almost warm summer night.
Something you may not know about Southern California
is that we rarely have warm summer nights.
We have to have the braziers going if we want to stay out after dark.
But right now it is so worth it, because we have just planted a
night-blooming jasmine and its wonderful fragrance just fills the air!

I've been busy making more pincushions for my friends
at the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group.

 I've had so much fun making these, using vintage salt cellars
and mixing in some vintage lace, buttons and handkerchiefs with newer trims.

And I made this "coin envelope" mini-book
for another swap in the MAMA group.

This is the top view.
I bought my envelopes from Paper Source, because I liked the color,
but you could also use the manila ones from the office supply stores.
I then sent them through my Vagabond die cut machine with an embossing plate  for some texture.

 We were also to make 10 tags, one to fit inside each envelope. 
Oh, how I love crinkled seam binding :)
On to this week's freebies, some lovely flowergirls:

  Click to enlarge, right click and save! For all things lovely and vintage, visit Knick of Time!Lovely repurposed vintage finds at Coastal Charm!
And for links to lovely, shabby, chippy whites, stop by White Wednesday! Thanks so much for stopping by...hope you all have a great week!