Mickey Mouse Cake Smash

Recently I had a lovely customer contact me in hopes I'd be able to help her with her son's upcoming 1st birthday party. The party theme was Mickey Mouse and she had seen some of my previous Mickey Mouse punch art and loved how it looked (you can read about it here). I was of course happy to help her out and off to work we went on planning and co-ordinating everything she needed. The main item she was after was a Mickey "Happy Birthday" wall bunting set so that she could use it for the cake smash photo shoot as well as the party. And here it is in action! 

Isn't Oliver the cutest little guy? His massively talented mum Kelly, of Ollie & Me made the cake smash set. And the beautiful shot taken by the super clever Kate Wiggins Photography. 

It was a fun order to make and I can't wait to show you the photos of the rest of the items I  made for the birthday party! 

Sketch Layout Challenge #13

Our sketch this fortnight was designed by Tristan of Tinstar Designs. She is loving banners right now so naturally wanted to make sure her sketch featured them. Enjoy everyone's creations and don't forget you can easily Pin the images if they take your fancy by hovering over the image and then the "P" button will appear! :) 

First up is Tristan's design (Tinstar Designs). She has 65 Christmas cards to make each year as she likes to send cards to all her family and friends all over the world and thought this month was a good time to get started. 1 down, 64 to go!

My sister made these cards! My favourite of the two is the top one because of the gorgeous vintage floral stamped banner, but they are both beautiful aren't they?

These two were made by a friend of mine. She is generally a scrapbooker and has recently joined our card challenges. I looove her designer paper choices. I have a sneaking suspicion that her DSP stash is better than mine!

My favourite card of the challenge, made by Stacey from Rustic Squirrel Handmade. The Bermuda banners along side the white and the Natural Composition DSP... to die for!! Stacey has blogged about her card here and you can read about what she used and how she made it.

This lovely design was made by Eliza Childs. Instead of using large banners she opted to do smaller and using a floral ribbon, which is was a lovely idea.

These two stunning cards were made by Mary Shapley who is a downline of my downline! I am really loving her black flower in the top card! 

Michaela has joined our challenge group and this is her first creation. It is pretty awesome isn't it? I love the new chunky baker's twine that she's used. And of course the green!

Now for my cards. I was feeling a little lazy for my first card design. It was late at night and I was getting tired, but I really wanted to try to make at least one card for the challenge before I went to bed. I remembered I had a baggie full of unused gift tags and embossed cardstocks from projects that I didn't finish in the past. And this is where I found a set of 3 matching gift tags that I made for a display for my catalogue launch last year! They work perfectly as a slightly different interpretation of the sketch! 

Then my second card design. I was feeling indecisive. So I turned to my colour coach and randomly chose a colour. The colour I chose was Basic Gray. I turned over to the back of the card for some colour combination ideas. 

I chose the top colour combo! It was a combo I had never seen before so thought I'd give it a whirl and this is what I came up with. 

I think it is actually quite an awesome combo. I especially love the green and grey together and am hoping to try and use it again soon on another project. 

And that wraps up yet another Sketch Layout Challenge. If you're a card maker yourself and you'd like to take part in our challenges in the future just pop over and join our group here. We'd love to have you.

Sketch Layout Challenge #12

This past fortnight we had a nice and simple layout which I designed. We had lots of participants and so I have lots of fun and varied ideas to show you. As always, anyone is welcome to join us for challenges in the future. All you need to do is join this group!

I wanted to start off this challenge with my FAVOURITE design this time round. This Frozen inspired card was created by my talented downline Stacey from Rustic Squirrel Handmade. If you live in SA Stacey runs monthly workshops and she is so super talented. Check out her page for event details.

This fun and bright card was designed by Tristan from Tinstar Designs. 

These two cards were made by the talented Julia Quinn of Handmade by Julia Quinn. 

I love how fresh and bright and cheerful these cards are made by Kymberly from grubbee. She also does sews beautiful clothes and toys, check out her page!

These two cards were created by the clever Mary Shapley. She is new to Stampin' Up! products and is making some really pretty things!

Eliza made this card and it was her first challenge in our group. I think she did a marvellous job.

One of my friends Dianne has also just joined our challenge group and these two cards are her first challenge cards. I really miss that floral DSP! 

Angie from Angie's Craft Fusion made this really sweet sympathy card.

And then my cards! My first card I followed the sketch layout pretty closely. I really love using green as you know so found this DSP in my stash and had to use it. 

And my second design I had a  little more fun with. I used 4 different washi tapes. The coastal cabana (aqua) pattern in the background is actually washi tape! Looks pretty awesome huh!?!? 

If you'd like to join in next time please pop over to our group and ask to join. We'd love to have you. Thanks for another great challenge ladies! 

Sketch Layout Challenge #11

Legs eleven!! We had a fun geometric challenge this time. I love using my Triangle punch so thought I'd incorporate it into a challenge! We didn't have as many ladies participate this time round due to busy schedules but I still have some beautiful designs to show you! If you'd like to join in next time, join up to this group. We'd love to have you! And here we go....

First up we have this gorgeous red design by Angie from Angie's Craft Fusion.  Angie used 3 new Stampin' Up! stamp sets and Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities. These are all brand new products which will be released in the new Stampin' Up! catalogue in July!

Kymberly from grubbee came up with this fun bright birthday card for a little one. I really like the triangles!! I guess Kymberly has one of those triangle punches too! :)

Tristan from Tinstar Designs made this delicate girly butterfly creation. I love the colours and the banner framelits are one of my favourite new Stampin' Up! products! 

Here is my first design! I enjoyed this layout so much that I decided to make up two cards. This first card I kept to the brief fairly spot on. I had some fun using some DSP and ribbon that is retiring at the end of this month (check out the retirement list here). The fans on my FB page LOVED it. Do you love it too? 

For my second card I had fun using the same colours as they were already out on my desk but I played around with the design and shapes a little more. I used my Hexagon Hives framelit die for this one. I'm loving it!

If you'd like to join in next time please pop over and join our group here. 

Sketch Layout Challenge #10

I can't believe we have already complete 10 challenges. I am really grateful to have an increasing group of talented ladies who are enthusiastically creating beautiful pieces for each challenge. This time round our sketch was designed by Stacey from Rustic Squirrel Handmade (thanks Stacey!). So here we go again! 

Sally made this really stunning sympathy card using lots of layering and bling! 

Next up is this stunning crisp cantaloupe creation by Adele from Adelisa Designs. Adele has just started dabbling in card making again after the birth of her 5th child. She's kind of amazing!

This card was made by a friend who joins our challenge group for the first time. Beverley is a hobbyist and I'm so glad she's joined in because she makes beautiful things!

Kymberly from grubbee made this sweet new baby card. I love the little fox! Kymberly has just released some new baby products so pop over and check them out. 

Stacey from Rustic Squirrel Handmade always comes up with fresh and fun ideas for these challenges. She is a stellar Stampin' Up! demonstrator and if you live in SA and need a demo, then look no further. She runs workshops ALL the time and is always sharing fun ideas and techniques on her blog. 

Julia from Handmade by Julia Quinn made this beautiful postcard birthday card. I particularly love the colour combination she has used. 

Angie from Angie's Craft Fusion has made this sweet poppy card in grey white and mustard. It's such a popular colour combination and always looks so good. 

Jan joined our group just recently and did this challenge with a twist using slightly different supplies for her design. It is absolutely full of delightful pieces! 

Tristan from Tinstar Designs was one of the first to complete this challenge. She used a fabulous denim pocket stamp in her design which I have never seen before and adore!

And last but not least is my design! I really love Stampin' Up's This & That DSP and with it retiring in a month's time want to use as much of it as I can before my time runs out! I actually had lots of hurdles with my design, ensuring it was balanced, not too busy, and figuring out the right way to embellish. But I got there in the end and all the frustration is long forgotten and I'm left with this fabulous card! 

And that wraps up another challenge. If you'd like to join in on our next challenge just pop over to this group and join up. We'd love to have you.