It's Another Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop!

It's time for another Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop, and this month we are having fun with a little April Fools trickery.  Each post along the hop will include an item that isn't what it appears to be...how fun is that?
As always, our hop is a circle--hop on anywhere along the way and click on the "next" or "previous" buttons at the bottom to hop over to the next blog.  If you have joined me from Gail's blog (aren't her projects the bestest?) I thank you for the visit.  I hope you enjoy my post and have fun hopping!

First up, my April Fool magic:

Looks like a regular baby card, right?  Wrong!  Look again:

It opens to reveal a gift card holder:

This fun-fold card always gets a "wow!" and finding a gift card inside makes it even more special!  The card uses Island Indigo, Pool Party and Whisper White cardstock, Maritime Designer Series Paper, and the Something for Baby stamps with coordinating Baby's First Framelits, along with the Gift Card Envelope Thinlits.  I'll post directions on how this fun fold works in a few days; please come back!

Now, in keeping with the baby theme, I created a fun party favor for a baby shower (or child's birthday party):

Imagine having a whole alphabet-full of these little treat boxes, dressed up to look like childrens blocks.  Wouldn't that be fun?

The Tiny Treat boxes come 25 to a package, just one short of a whole alphabet!  Each one is dressed up in little squares of designer series paper (I used Birthday Bash, Lullabye and Sweet Taffy).  A coordinating circle was punched for the top, and the letter was stamped using my favorite Epic Alphabet set.  And in a nod to April Fools--the little symbol stamps on the front of the blocks are no longer available!  Ha ha!  I bought these when I first started as a Stampin' UP! demo, and have saved them to create an alphabet book for my grandkids...someday...<sigh>

But I couldn't resist decorating these cute boxes with them; I'll be making more for my grandson's second birthday, coming up!

Now let's switch gears for my final project and think about the next month and Mother's Day!:

I bought the beautiful Stippled Blossoms set when the catalog went live last summer, and have only used it once (an April Fools joke on me!).  So I decided to pull it out and create a pretty card for the next celebration.

I chose the watercolored-look paper from Painted Blooms Designer Series Paper; I cut an oval using the Oval Framelits, and added a slightly smaller one of Tangerine Tango underneath.   I stamped the leaves from Kinda Eclectic (using Daffodil Delight ink, stamped off once).  Using a Stamp-a-Ma-Jig, I carefully lined up the Pear Pizzazz leaves on the Whisper White inside to match up with the Daffodil Delight ones.

My blossoms are stamped in Daffodil Delight, with the second layer in Calypso Coral.  So pretty!  Each blossom was fussy-cut with my Paper Snips; leaves were added and the flowers were popped up with Dimensionals.  I used some 2-Way Glue to add Dazzling Diamonds, and painted some Pearls Basic Jewels to add to the center.

A pretty double bow and a few Tangerine Tango butterflies finish my card. 

So it's time to hop on...click below and head on over to see the surprises that Anna has for you.  Thanks for visiting; I hope you'll come back again soon!

Another Thank You!

Here's another Thank You card that I made for one of my secretaries at work:

Kristina always does a "bang up" job for me, coordinating meetings, creating report templates, and ensuring I have everything I need.  So when we celebrated Administrative Professionals Day a few weeks ago, I created a special card to say, "thanks!".

I started with a piece of Watercolor Wonder Designer Series Paper, on which I stamped and embossed the BIG "Thank You" from Another Thank You (photopolymer set that will be released in the NEW 2014-15 Catalog).  It was stamped in Versamark, and embossed in Tangerine Tango (soon to be retired!).  This layer was adhered to a piece of Tangerine Tango, and I punched some holes through which to tie the Daffodil Delight Seam Binding Ribbon into a bow.

Next I stamped the blossoms from Stippled Blossoms (what a beautiful set!), using Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango inks (2-step stamping).  These were "fussy cut", and I repeated with the leaves in Pear Pizzazz and Gumball Green (also on the retiring list!).

I layered the flowers on the card using Stampin' Dimensionals, and some Pearls Basic Jewels were added to the center.

A pretty way to to say "thanks" to a special person.

All supplies can be purchased here.

Let's get creating!