Aside from all of the cake orders I have received over the past couple of weeks (awesome stuff!!), I am also in the throes of party planning for my own two kids.

Their birthdays are three weeks apart, one near the end of February and one on St. Patrick’s Day, and normally they would each have their own party. The two of them live and breathe anything Harry Potter – my son reads the books, they listen to the books, watch some of the movies, have most of the Lego and of course they both have wands. My daughter even does a great impression of Hermione complete with British accent. So this year they decided they wanted to have a joint Harry Potter themed birthday party. Plan one party instead of two, I can do that.

I am also a huge Harry Potter fan, so I am having a great time planning this party and have scoured the Internet for inspiring ideas. In fact, the other night I was so overwhelmed with all that I want to accomplish for this party, that I actually sat down and typed everything out on a spreadsheet! I just don’t want to over look anything.

The party is slated for March 10th, so over the next few weeks, I am going to share the planning and ideas with you. First up will be the invitations.

But for now let me leave you with one of the banners I created for their shared bedroom, which is slowly being turned into the Gryffindor Common Room.  This will give you a hint as to what I am doing with the invites.

Thanks for taking a look.

I am excited to play with this weeks Friday Mashup, since my friend Hayley, from Stampin’ UP! with Hayley Kew, is one of the guest designers this week.

For this week’s challenge, we were invited to create a project, not necessarily a card, using the following photo as inspiration.

Love is definitely in the air this month and I have been creating some Valentine Cards to send to those special people in my life. As luck would have it, one of the cards I had already created, works perfectly with this weeks challenge. Hearts, hearts and more hearts, with a little bling thrown in.

My card:

I really gave my Big Shot a work out with this one and I really don’t know what I did without it!

Here are the details:

Card Stock: Whisper White, Love Patterns DSP, Real Red, Pretty in Pink

Stamp Set: Candy Conversations

Ink: Real Red, Pretty in Pink

Tools: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Top Note Bigz Die, Fashionable Hearts Embosslits Die.

Embellishments: Basic Rhinestones, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Thanks for taking a look.

I went and did it. I found yet another cardmaking/stamping challenge to attempt. I am having so much fun doing these. And it’s also very inspiring to see what other people come up with using the same sketch.  It is truly amazing how different they all are.

This time I am attempting the sketch at Freshly Made.

The challenge:

This one was truly a challenge for me.  I have never attempted a long card before and I spent a good part of my time trying to figure out what combination of card stock and DSP would work. Once I decided on the Everyday Enchantment DSP, I had a hard time deciding which coordinating colours would work best and I think I tried just about every combo!  When I finally did decide and was starting to put the card together, I went and dropped an ink pad right on top of everything and had to start again!!  Yes, this was definitely a challenge.

This was what I had at the end of the day yesterday:

But when I woke up this morning and took a look at the card, I knew it was missing something, because to me it just looked plain and boring. So I took to my new Facebook Page Sugar and Paper Creations and asked my followers for some advice. Hayley from Stampin’ UP! with Hayley Kew (please drop by her blog and take a look at how creative she is!) came to my rescue and thought it needed some ribbon embellishment.

This is what it looks like with Hayley’s suggestions. Much better, don’t you think. Now if only I could do something about my photography skills!

When I originally was putting together the card, I had left the Lucky Limeade band at the bottom blank but thought it looked very boring.  Since I love embellishing blank paper with the same colour ink, I decided to do the same to the band. I really like how it looks and often use this technique when I am making boxes for gift sets of cards.

Here are the details: (all Stampin’ UP! products)

Paper: Lucky Limeade, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Everyday Enchantment DSP

Ink: Pool Party, Lucky Limeade

Stamp Sets: Fresh Vintage, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Tools: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Designer Frames Embossing Folder, Modern Label Punch, Scallop Edge Border Punch

Embellishments: Lucky Limeade Organza Ribbon, Basic Pearls, Large Pearl Basic Jewel

Thanks for looking.