Birthday Party Details

Hello all! To make up for my absence here, I will post lots of pictures today! I am recapping my son's first birthday party. Some of it is paper crafty and some of it is just plain old crafty. I have been waiting for the day to plan his first birthday and put to use some of those "pins" on my pinterest board! But first things first, I cannot believe a year has gone by. He is quite the little dare devil these days but he is just oh so cute! Here is a shot of Mommy and the birthday boy at his party. (He just woke up from his nap so he wasn't all together just yet, haha!) And unfortunately that was the only picture I got of us from his party.

The birthday boy's shirt has one of the monsters (click on the picture for a better view) from his invitation on it. I printed out a monster onto iron on transfer paper and ironed it on his shirt. On the back I added a 1 (you can't see that in the picture).

So let's get started on the details.

First up: The invitation.

I designed the invitation in My Digital Studio, printed it out and then used dimensionals to add it to colored cardstock. I did an invite with Lucky Limeade chevron striped and then one with Tempting Turquoise chevron stripes. {Note, all of the elements on the invitation are from Stampin' Up! with the exception of the monster clip art (which is from Etsy) and various fonts from dafont.com}.

Next up: Happy Birthday banner.

I used the Perfect Pennants die to cut out Lucky Limeade, Tempting Turquoise and Pumpkin Pie cardstock. I printed the letters from Word and then punched them out with the 1 3/4 inch scallop punch. The monsters were punched with the 2 3/8 inch scallop punch. I then used mini clothes pins to attach them to Soft Suede polka dot ribbon.

Goodie bag tags.

I designed these in MDS and then cut them out using one of the Chalk Talk framelits dies. Again, I used mini clothes pins to attach them to the bags.

Monthly photo board.

Every month I took a picture of J on a different fabric background and I would add the month in MDS. I had planned on doing something crafty with the fabric from each month, but I had too many crafty things to do and in the end that project got cut! But I knew that I wanted to display all of the photos from the first year. And the green and black board was the perfect spot for them. This was actually a door to a piece of old furniture in our basement that I spray painted green and then with chalkboard paint in the middle. I had planned on using this as a chalkboard in our kitchen but never got around to hanging it so it became the perfect backdrop for all of his photos. Again, I just hung them up with mini clothes pins on some Soft Suede polka dot ribbon.

Balloon Wreath

I think this was one of my favorite projects. I had seen this on Pinterest and knew that I HAD to do this. Most of the tutorials I saw used the variety pack of balloon colors but I knew that wouldn't go with my "color theme". So I went to Party City and got green, turquoise and orange balloons that went better with my theme. Of course that makes it a little difficult to reuse every year but oh well. I plan on putting it out every year for birthdays! I love how it came out. I also added a cut out of the monster and a number 1. Those are just pinned into the wreath so they can be removed. This project was a little costly but I had so much fun making it.

Final Pictures of the table.

This is certainly my longest post to date! Sorry for the not so great photo quality but I had limited time to get these pictures taken before the party started!! But I hope you enjoyed all the crafty details from my son's party!!

Bridal Shower invites - Part 2

Hello! I am finally sharing the other 2 bridal shower samples I made. Again, these were done with MDS, printed out and added to colored cardstock. I used the Cheers to You and By the Tide sets in MDS. I've been having a lot of fun making these samples. I still have the birthday party invites to share. And I got my goodies from the new catalog so I hope to try to at least make one card with the stuff I bought. Although now we are in party planning mode for my son's first birthday and I have about a thousand craft ideas that I would like to complete before July 6th, haha! Plus the actual cleaning and yardwork that needs to be done. To me, I think the crafts and decorations are more important, haha! Of course, I will post pictures of the things that I get done. So stay tuned for a birthday party post in July.

Stamps: By the Tide, Cheers to You
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Pool Party
Accessories: MDS, glitter

Oh, Hello Anniversary Card

Hello!! Have you all checked out the new catalog yet! Of course I love everything in it as always. I especially love the new In Colors this year! Swoon!! I think Coastal Cabana will be my new favorite. I should be getting my new items in the next couple of days so I hope that I can play a little over the weekend. I would like to start my classes up again so hopefully I can work on some cards for that. I have some ideas floating around in my head. Today's card uses new colors and the Oh, Hello set from the mini which is now in the new catalog. The background is the new Smokey Slate (love this as well). I stamped the large flower from Betsy's Blossoms in Smokey Slate. I stamped the chevron image from Oh Hello in Coastal Cabana onto white cardstock cut with the Labels Framelits dies. The flowers were stamped in Strawberry Slush and Crisp Cantaloupe (the stems are Lucky Limeade). I added 2 flowers from the flower trim and colored them with Crisp Cantaloupe. However they came out way more orange-y than I would have liked. But overall, I like how the rest of the card came out. I gave this card to my brother and sister-in-law for their first wedding anniversary on June 1st. It did feel good to kind of get into the swing of things and make a card. Lately, I've been making a lot of invitations with no time for cards. I will post the other 2 bridal shower invites I did soon and then I have the invitations to show for my son's first birthday party. They came out so cute! I can't wait to share them.
Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Oh, Hello, Betsy's Blossoms, Friendly Phrases
Paper: Coastal Cabana, Smokey Slate
Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe, Smokey Slate, Strawberry Slush, Lucky Limeade
Accessories: Labels Framelits dies, Flower Trim, Rhinestones, Bakers Twine

Bridal Shower Invites - MDS

Well as always it's been a long time since I've been here. I can't seem to get into a stamping groove lately. I have so much fun stuff to play with but I can't find the time. Although I have been working with MDS quite a bit doing some invitations. I have 2 bridal shower samples to share with you today. I will share 2 others sometime this week. I also have a housewarming party invite that I just did and I am currently working on my son's first birthday invites. Ahhhh where did that time go that he will be one in July!!!
Back to the invites. These were done designed in MDS and then printed in Word. I saved the MDS file into a jpeg and then opened up a Word file in the size I wanted and then printed out the invite. For me I find it easier to do it this way instead of printing in MDS. I just haven't mastered how to print 4.25 by 5.5 sizes in there. Once I print them out, I like to add them to colored cardstock. For the first invite, I embossed some doilies onto the Melon Mambo cardstock. For the second invite, I added it to the embossed Pink Pirouette cardstock (embossing folder is from Sale-a-Bration and I can't think of the name of it). Anyway, thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

Stamps: Delicate Doilies
Paper: Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: My Digital Studio, Top Note die, Labels Framelits dies, clear embossing powder, Vines? embossing folder (Sale-a-bration)

Easter Flowers

Good morning! I have an Easter card to share today. I don't really have too many easter sets, if any, so I like to use flower sets for the couple of easter cards I make. Today's card is bright and cheery, perfect for Easter and perfect to get you in spring mode. I am so ready for spring/summer. I have had enough of winter and cold weather. For today's card I knew I wanted to use the mason jar from Perfectly Preserved as a vase for flowers. I decided to use the flowers from Fabulous Florets. I stamped everything (flowers and mason jar) onto watercolor paper. I like the not completely filled in look that it gave the flowers because then I was able to go back in with my markers and add a little bit of shading for dimension. Then I pulled out the hardly used Natural Compositions DSP for the background. I bought this paper on my first order from the new catalog and hardly used it. I have no idea why because I love this embossed flower paper that comes in it. I also stamped the "Happy Easter" on this paper as well. For the bottom half I embossed some Lucky Limeade with the Vine Street embossing folder from SAB. I then added some Daffodil Delight seam binding and some pearls to finish the card. Thanks for looking!



Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Perfectly Preserved
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party, Watercolor, Natural Compositions DSP
Ink: Melon Mambo, Calypso Coral, Primrose Petals, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party
Accessories: Vine Street embossing folder, Cannery Set Framelits Dies, Modern Label punch, Pearls, Markers, Daffodil Delight seam binding

Whale Shower and an update

Hello everyone! I have a little update on the blog. I changed my blog name to Sootywing Studios. I've been wanting to change the name of this for a while and I've been going through several different names. I ended up with this one, Sootywing, because it's kind of a play on my married last name. My last name is Sootkoos and as I was searching for names, I came across a type of butterfly that is called a Sootywing. So I kind of liked it and thought that it was a different name. Also, since I've been doing more invitations for clients, I would like to have some kind of name to go by. Hopefully soon I will get a website going with all of the invitation designs I offer. In the meantime, I will just post them to my blog and facebook page.

So today's card is a card that I made for a baby shower that I went to over the weekend. I wanted to use the cute whale from Oh Whale! I made my own chevron background using one of the images from Border Banter, which I stamped in Daffodil Delight. I also used the chevron embossing folder on the gray cardstock. Can't get enough of those chevrons! I stamped the whale in Perfect Plum and cut it out with the Happy Whale die. Then I added the Perfect Plum ribbon, the sentiment and some rhinestones. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Oh Whale!, Border Banter, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Perfect Plum, Basic Gray
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Perfect Plum, Basic Gray
Accessories: Chevron embossing folder, Happy Whale Clearlits die, Labels Collection die, Perfect Plum taffeta ribbon, Rhinestones, Modern Label punch

Bordering on Romance - wedding invites

Well I didn't expect it to be this long since I posted again. I had another card to share but I just haven't gotten around to posting it. I wanted to post it before Valentine's day since it was a Valentine's card but things just got really busy and I wasn't too excited how the card came out anyway. I still may try to post it soon. What was keeping me super busy (besides my 7 month old) was these wedding invitations I was working on for one of our friend's sister's wedding. Somehow I went crazy and said yes to making 125 of these pocketfold invites with coloring...ahhhh! It was a ton of work but I am very happy with how they came out. I was actually able to get them done in a months period of time which I didn't think was too bad either while taking care of a baby and working a full time job. But I am super glad that I'm finished and don't have to think about which part I'm going to tackle each night. These invites were a mix of MDS and stamping. The actual invite was designed in MDS, then I printed it and colored it in with pastels. All of the enclosures were done in Word and then I stamped the flower image from Bordering on Romance and colored those flowers in as well. Now that these are off my plate I hope to get back to stamping here and there so hopefully I'll have some more things to share with you in the future. Thanks for stopping by.




Stamps: Bordering on Romance
Paper: Marina Mist, Vanilla, Lemon Tart (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Marina Mist
Accessories: Decorative Label Punch, MDS, Pastels