But, Of Course, Evie Gets a Ballerina too!

Evie celebrated her first birthday in November, 2020.  Not to be outdone by her cousins, Evie did not receive a birthday card in 2020 for her first birthday from Grandma either.  Mama and Evie were busy moving into their new home, and Grandma was busy helping Mama move storage unit boxes, babysit, and unpack many boxes as well.  Grandma also masked up, brought hand sanitizer, clorox wipes, etc. and timidly ventured out with Mama and Evie, while eyeballing my six-foot minimum distancing as we bought furniture, carpeting, closet doors, window coverings, paint, lumber, and hardware for all of Mama's myriad of projects she wanted to complete before officially moving in.  With everything freshly painted, renewed or replaced, Mama and Evie moved into their new home with three weeks to spare!  Grandma's house became very quiet...we surely missed Mama and Evie, but not to fret...it was only a 12-minute drive to their new doorstep!

Evie's Zoom Unicorn Birthday Party day arrived after many hours spent decorating with streamers, a birthday banner, balloons, and unicorn tidbits everywhere.  Unicorn cupcakes were made and party favors delivered to each party participant's porch the night before, and Mama made and decorating a beautiful unicorn cake with whip cream frosting and a beautiful pink, turquoise, and purple mane.  Grandma had her gift all wrap with a note that said, "Evie's birthday card is 'under creative construction.'  Hopefully, it will arrived completed soon!"

I am happy to say Evie's birthday card and my third ballerina card is complete!  I have to say, I thoroughly enjoy making these gems for my lovely girls!  Evie gets a turquoise ballerina with a dab of pink.  She has light brown hair to match Evie's very short locks, but the little ballerina doesn't show off the reddish glints in the sunlight that we see sparkling off little Miss Evie's head!  Take a peek at Evie's card below:

If you are interested in the Ballerina construction check out this link: A Ballerina Birthday for Callie!

Ingredients:   SU cardstock: Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Whisper White.  ColorBok Glitter Paper: Glacier Springs/ White.  Patterned Paper: Raspberry Road Design by Susan Darter--Mini Roses/ Stripes.  Recollections: Turquoise Foil.  Cote'dinations Sparkle cardstock: Fashionista.  Bubbley White Shimmer Paper.  Spellbinders dies: Floral Ovals, Petite Ovals Large.  Lawn Fawn die: Party Balloons.  MemoryBox die: Varsity Numbers.  Autone dies (Amazon): Balloon Message Strings (happy birthday cutout/ sentiment).  Turquoise Glitter tulle (stash).  Wink of Stella/ Clear.  Offray ribbon: Turquoise Organdy.  SU: Pearl minis.  Size: 4-3/4" x 6-1/4".

Christmas Dove Brings An Olive Branch!

This is another Christmas card for my 2021 stash!  I do love this Stampin' Up dove stamp and die set that I used, which I'm surprised wasn't carried over into the annual catalog.  

I wanted to use vellum for the dove, which I underlaid with Tempting Turquoise and added silvery wreath. I thought a night sky would be pretty, and I found a pretty piece of dsp with deep to mid-range blue tones.  To complete the look of my night sky, I embossed the dsp with the SU Winter Snow embossing folder and then sprinkle/ splattered it with white acrylic paint.  It was just the look I wanted.  

I used a silver heat-embossed sentiment on vellum with the Tempting Turquoise as an underlay mat as I did with the dove.  I modified this die-cut mat, cutting it down narrower to fit the width I wanted.  Take a look below at the finished card:

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Night of Navy, Tempting Turquoise (ret.), Silver Foil, Translucent Vellum.  Stamps/ Dies--Dove of Hope/ Detailed Dove dies; Wreath Builder dies, Ornate Frames dies (sentiment underlay/ modified).  Ink:  Shaded Spruce (sponged Shimmer cardstock).  Embossing Powder--Silver.  Embossing Folder--Winter Snow (SU-2020 Holiday).  Other:   Paper--Recollections Bold Brushstrokes 12x12 paper pad; DCWV Shimmer cardstock--white.  Folk Art--White acrylic paint.  Size--4-3/4 x 6-inches. 

A Little Pink Ballerina for Sienna!

 I've now finished my second ballerina card, and this one is for my second granddaughter.  They get to be granddaughter #1, #2, and #3, by their age.  Callie, who was just 4, is granddaughter #1.  Sienna, who was just 2, is granddaughter #2, and Evie, who is 16 mos., is granddaughter #3.  I love them all dearly, and I'm sure you know, their number has nothing to do with how much I dearly love them!  All clever, cute, and darling girls for sure!

So, I missed making Sienna's first birthday card, as I was just returning from several trips to California, just in time to attend her birthday party, but not get a card done!  Within 5 days of her birthday party,  Covid arrived in Washington...the first state with a Covid case, then schools closed, gatherings closed, restaurants closed, and life became anything but normal!   It seems everything stopped, even my creative mojo and ability to get myself to my crafting table stopped!  I think we were all in shock, and my husband and I were certainly in the age range where every precaution was needed!  I am happy to say...a year later, both my husband and I have received the vaccine, and we are looking forward to an end of the pandemic!  At least we can now socialize with our family members who are vaccinated...we are almost to 75% of our immediate family at this point.

I am also happy to say that I have finally made little Sienna her card for Birthday #1 to save in her memory box...a homemade card from Grandma in honor of her first birthday!  Sienna dressed in a darling little frilly pink birthday dress, so it was only right that her card should be pink...and with her very blonde hair, her ballerina surely must have yellow hair.  I followed the construction instructions provided on Callie's purple ballerina card, and here is that link:  A Ballerina for Callie! if you are interested in the ballerina's construction.  Take a peak below at Sienna's sweet little pink ballerina:

Ingredients:   SU cardstock: Melon Mambo, Whisper White.  ColorBok Glitter Paper: Glacier Springs/ White.  Little Yellow Bicycle Patterned Paper: Baby Safari Girl--Pink Floral/ Girl Small Squares.  Bazzill: Hot Pink Foil.  Gemstone Shimmer Cardstock: Rose Quartz. Alina dies--Ballerina. Spellbinders dies: Floral Ovals, Petite Ovals Large.  Lawn Fawn die: Party Balloons.  MemoryBox die: Varsity Numbers.  Savvy die:  Happy Birthday cursive.  Rose Glitter tulle (stash).  Offray ribbon: Hot Pink Organdy.  SU: Pearl minis.  Wink of Stella: Clear (hair sheen).  Size: 4-3/4" x 6-1/4".

A Ballerina Birthday for Callie!

March is a time to celebrate two granddaughter's birthdays as their actual birth dates are only two days apart.  Callie is my oldest granddaughter, and it will be her fourth birthday.  I have been so out of mojo for over a year that she did not get a Grandma birthday card for year three! Since a bit of my creative mojo has returned, I wanted to make a very special card for her for birthday #4.  

A friend made me a "Thinking of You" step card during my hand surgery recoveries, and I loved the card so much, I borrowed the die, thinking Callie would love it.  What little girl wouldn't...its a ballerina!  I've since decided I need to make one for each of my other two granddaughter's in different colors and different patterned papers.

The die is from Alina Crafts, and I found some YouTube videos on construction using the die.  It turns out that it's meant to be used with a companion body-parts die, which can be used with a variety of other theme and wardrobe  "people" dies.  The die comes as one main die including the head, hair, neck, upper body, and flowery vine tutu skirt.  It also has dies that cut out the dress bodice, ballerina slippers, and the eyes and cheeks.  I didn't like the way the video put the face and hair parts together...let's just say, to me, it was weird.  So, of course, I had to do my own thing, which I've tried to explain below the card picture.  And,  voilà, here is my finished card!  I think Callie will love it! 

Note:  Inside & outside are identical shades...somehow camera lighting didn't take it that way!

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Gorgeous Grape, Purple Posie; Punch--Detailed Trio; Pearls-mini; Rhinestones--Copic colored.  Other:  Papers--K&Co. mini floral (from Stash); Paper Adventures--Dazzle Purple-Pink Stripes; Colorbox--White Glitter paper.  Dies:  Alina Crafts--Ballerina; Spellbinders--Floral Ovals, Petite Ovals Large; Lawn Fawn--Party Balloons; MemoryBox--Varsity Numbers.  Balloon strings--Lyon Sparkly Mini Yarn.  Stash--Flower Gems.  Chatterbox Verse.  Size: 4-3/4" x 6-1/4"

Ballerina Construction:

Die-Cutting/ Punching/ Fussy-Cutting:
1) Die-cut the chest/ skirt die (and the ballerina slipper dies) from purple foil, leaving off the head and neck.  2) Using this same die, out of flesh-colored cardstock, die-cut two sets of heads with chest down to the waist...do NOT include the "skirt."  3) Die-cut a third flesh-colored cardstock head/ hair rounding the lower edge of the face without a neck.  This piece will be the "final" face for the ballerina.  4) Die-cut the head/hair only from black cardstock for the hair.  5) Using the eye/cheek die, out of black cardstock, die-cut the "eyes."  6) Using the bodice die, die-cut the dress top out of a sparkly lavender cardstock.  You could use glimmer paper, but I wanted a little less sparkle than that.  7) Again, using the eye/cheek die, you could die-cut the cheeks using pink cardstock, which is what Alina intended to be done.  I decided to use Copic marker coloring/ shading on all flesh colored areas that would show when the ballerina is complete: the face, neck, upper torso, and arms flesh.  I also Copic-coloring rosy cheeks and added a white gel pen dot rather than using pink half-circle die-cuts.  I also added Copic-colored blue eye shadow.

There were no dies for the lower body, legs, arms, or a leotard, so I fashioned my own.   1) Using a retired SU Small Oval punch (3/4" x 15/16") for the arms (with an arms behind the back look), punch one oval from flesh-colored cardstock.  2) Using the same oval punch, punch out the leotard from same sparkly cardstock used for dress bodice.  3) Using a retired SU Large Oval punch (1-3/4" x 7/8"), punch one large oval  from the flesh-colored cardstock for the lower body (hips) and legs.  4) Turn this large punched oval vertically.  Leave one end of the oval as is for the hips.  5) Fussy-cut and shape legs with pointed toes from the other end of the oval.  Now, it was time to put my body parts together!  

Head/ Hair/ Face/ Upper Body & Arms:

1) I adhered the two head/ upper body flesh pieces together to form a stronger upper body unit.  2) I trimmed 1/16" around the head/hair down just to the neck.  3) I trimmed 1/16" along the chest/ upper body along the sides from shoulders to waist.  The head/hair was done so when the third "head/ face" flesh piece was added this double thickness would not show...only the top third layer would show and its round without a neck would form the chin.  The sides of the chest/ upper body edges were trimmed to allow the flesh cardstock Small Oval to form the shoulders and arms, looking like she was putting her arms behind her back.  4) I  Copic-colored/ shaded the face at this step and I did the same to the neck and chest of the two-layer piece.   5) I adhered this third Copic-colored face (hair, which did not need to be Copic colored or shaded) to the double-thick body making sure the head fit nicely on top and formed a "chin".  Now, my head is 3-layers thick!  6) I trimmed off just a bit of the flesh cardstock around the edges of the hair area so that none of the flesh color would show around the edges of the black hair color.  7) I fussy-cut the black hair from the head black cardstock so it would fits nicely over the flesh-colored hair area and adhered it to the flesh-colored hair.  When it was dried, I applied Clear Wink of Stella for a bit of shine to her hair.  8) I applied a tiny bit of glue to the back of her black eye/ lashes and used tweezers for correct placement.  (Be sure you have them turned over for the correct sides of the face when applying the glue).  9) I Copic-colored her rosy cheeks and added a white gel pen dot to their centers.  10) When eye glue dried, I Copic-colored her blue eye shadow.  11) Now, I was ready to add her arms.  I Copic colored/ shaded the flesh-colored Small Oval, but didn't bother to color the center of the oval where the chest/ upper body would be glued.  I positioned the oval horizontally, fitting it behind the back so the shoulders flared out at the base of the neck and adhered it to the back of the torso with glue. 

Lower Body/ Leotard/ Legs/ Ballerina Slippers: 

My ballerine needed a lower body, leotard and legs!  1) Take the leotard...the Small Oval cut from the sparkly bodice cardstock; turn the oval vertically, and trim 1/16" off the end of the oval curve using a straight cut.  2) Fit this straight edge up to the flesh waist bottom and glued it to the lower edge of the arm oval (which you will see extending below the waist) and snug it up to the waist flesh.  3)  Turn over the ballerina and glue her "hip/legs fashioned larger oval" behind the sparkly leotard so her hips are behind the leotard and legs extend below.  4)  Adhere the ballerina slippers over her pointy toes with the wider part of the slipper down covering the "pointy toes."  Set aside your girl to thoroughly dry while you form her skirt/ dress.

  

Skirt/ Bodice Top/ Hair Bow: 
1) With the purple foil skirt/ chest die-cut, narrow the chest area, all around three sides, down to approximately 1/4" wide and 1/8" high just to waist where skirt flares out; set aside.  2) Cut 5 or 6 pieces of tulle (sparkly best) 2" long by 3" wide.  Overlay the pieces one layer over the other.  2) Using the metal die as a guide only, fussy-cut the tulle to the same shape as the die skirt and upper body.  3) Adhere the layers together with bitty glue does and larger if needed, keep the edge-shaping even along the skirt sides and upper body to form a unit.  4) Take the purple foil skirt/ chest and attached to the tulle unit to the backside of the chest (make sure no tulle shows along the "chest" part of the skirt).  5) Lift the skirt vines and streak with glue, pressing them on the tulle to attach and dry.  6)  When skirt/ tulle is dry, attach the lavender leotard and legs behind the tulle at the torso back with glue/ glue dots as needed.  7) Glue sparkly lavender bodice onto ballerina chest top and foil skirting.  8) Add 4 string pearls along waist.  9) Take a 4" to 5" piece of 1/4" sparkly ribbon and tie a bitty bow, cutting and angling its tails.  (Tip: my sheer ribbon was too wide, so I trimmed it to 1/4" width.)  10) If desired, you can add 2 bitty pearls to the bow knot area as well.

No Cake for David?

My oldest of four will be celebrating his birthday in the first week of March.  He is on the KETO diet, so he wants to say, "NO," to cake...can you imagine?!  I found it is now possible to purchase KETO ice cream, so we will be making an ice cream cake for his birthday.  He won't have to say NO to cake and he can have candles!  Now, I just had to get busy on a birthday card.

When I was last visiting my Mom, pre-COVID, I saw a card she made at her Stampin' Up demonstrator workshop.  I remember its sentiment from the stamp set, Amazing Life, and thought it would be perfect for my dieting son's card.  It also used the very masculine papers, In Good Taste, which I have, and thought one of the patterns might work nicely as well.  I decided to add a little black and a some recycle coppery foil (saved from an envelope insert...just too pretty to throw away!), plus a cupcake all work together.  Take a peek below at how my project evolved into David's finished card inside and out:

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Papers--Basic Black cs, Very Vanilla cs, In Good Taste dsp.  Copper Foil (saved from an envelope insert).  Stamps--Amazing Life (sentiment); Dies--Call Me Cupcake (framelits), Stitched Rectangles; Inks (sponging)--Bermuda Bay, Call Me Clover, Cherry Cobbler, Melon Mango; Clear Embossing Powder; 3/8" Black Shimmer ribbon; Metallic Brads.  Other:  Copic Markers.  Inside--Chatterbox verse.  EK Victorian Corner punch.  Size: 4-3/4" x 6."