Dad's Surprise Birthday Party Invite

For my Dad's Surprise 70th Birthday Party I made the invitiations.  I used in asian motif being that we were going to a Japanese Buffet and we are Japanese. :) 

I had recently found the Cricut Pagoda Cartrige.  And used the whole think to make my the invite.  

I purchased a package of Blank Cards from Michaels.   Then cut out rectangles using my handy dandy Cricut machine.   Then I used Vellum paper that I had pre-printed and embossed with disco black powder (please embosses as far away from the paper as you can because Vellum will burn/get distorted) with the Party information, to create a "rice paper" screen in the window I had cut out. 

I then cut a 4" pagoda & a 3 1/2" bonsai to put behind the window.   I then cut the "Celebrate" Kanji characters in 1-1/2" with shadow and a 2" dragon to accent.   I then embossed the Kanji character with clear embossing powder (to give it a shiny look) and then added dimensional glue and red ruby glitter to accent the dragon. 

Health Invite

7" Rectangle from Plantin Cartridge in Dark blue cardstock.  Then 5" Kanji word (on shift) for Health Card in light blue cardstock.  I then printed out the invite message on card.   I did try to emboss the invite but the ink dried too quickly to emboss.  I then used double sided tape behind the health word and sprinkled with bright blue extra fine glitter.   Then I adhered the the health card on top of the dark cardstock using 1st rubber cement (please ensure that the rubber cement has dried completely before proceeding.  Don't forget to remove the double sided tape on the backing. 

Then i cut a 2" bonsai to accent the top of the card.  To add a little shine you can either glitter your bonsai or use pearlized paint. 

My Family

This is a family photo from a few years ago from our Trip to Rochester, NY .  Jakob had just turned 1.  A few days ago he turned 4 so i will have to add some more current photos.  This just happens to be one of my favorites.   Its a Mano- Panipinto Sandwich!

Bren Mano

Turtle Birthday Card

My dear friends just celebrated their first born son's 1 year birthday.  I was overjoyed to be a part of such a momentous occasion.  In honor of such a blessed event, I decided to surprise them with a crafty handmade card.     To create this cute little card I used the following: I used Inkadinkado stamp # 60-00059 Turtle wheels, Stamper's Studio glue tape in the dot pattern, embossing powder clear, irish sparkle Sparkle & soft,  pearlized paint, gold glitter, Ranger distressed ink, archival ink pad and happy birthday cling stamp.  

First I used cut a a few rectangles with my cricut (Sample cartridge) in 3 different sizes and paper colors, each one a 1/4 inch smaller than the 1st.  The blue plaid I laid on top of a pre-bought blank card from michaels.  I used a darker blue cardstock on top of the plaid and the last white rectangle on top of the dark blue cardstock. I rounded the corners to give it a nice framed in look.   Then i stamped my Turtle wheels stamp using black achival ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I then used pearlized paint to color in turtle.  It gave it a nice shimmery color.  For the darker green spots i used Irish Sparkle "Sparkle & soft" that i glued down with dimensional glue.   This is a great glitter and flocking in one that I purchased from Sparkle & Sprinkle (they are great!) that i thought would be great for a one year old to touch and feel. 

I let the glue dry and then used a cling stamp and stamped  as simple happy birthday in black again using clear embossing powder.  I then used some green, black, blue and yellow distressed ink to ink the edges.   I then used the glue tape to create a path behind turtle and then covered with glitter.   I saw that once i did the glitter path it looked to plain and decided to use more distressed ink throughout white.