Circus Birthday Party Theme & Digital Freebie

Curtsey Boutique Vintage Circus Balloon Lady Party Package

Remember the cowboy party I throw for my son's first birthday? Making the hobby horses, invites, wanted posters and all the other crafty Wild West projects was half the fun of the party itself. I like the idea of having a big shin dig at the end of the Summer every year as an excuse to get all the families in our life together.

This year I am thinking about doing a Vintage Circus theme. Can't you just see tulle tutus, a juggling center and all sorts of neat tight rope walking activities. I might even do some faux animal cages and old timey advertising posters for the photo booth.

That fun is still months away though, and its difficult to wait (enter child like pouting here). So yestereday when  I found these neat vintage inspired Circus products I had to snatch them up.

They go great with the cupcake rosette toppers and cupcake bow ties in the shop and they can all be found in the Curtsey Boutique for purchase individually or as a package here.

I'd love to hear any circus themed party ideas you might have, I'm going to keep track in a notebook and refine my party concept as we get closer.

I made up this vintage inspired Happy Birthday Digital tag using public doman images from old Barnum and Bailey Circus posters. It is free for you to play around with.

Free Circus Happy Birthday Tag Digital Download

Hope all is well in your big top,

CarrieAnne

Mom Sleeping Sign - An antidote to doorbell torture

Mom Sleeping Sign

My son is a fantastic sharer - he hates sleeping and feels a strong desire to deny me its rejuvenating benefits as well. He is currently on a schedule in which he sleeps from about 5am to 8:30am and then if he is feeling generous he'll take an hour or so nap around dinner time. I've taken him to the pediatrician just to make sure he's not a vampire, or some kind of bizarre nocturnal mutation and all she did was chuckle and shake her head in that "stinks to be you, and there's nothing I can do to help" type of way. Why is it we have to pay a co-pay again if they don't actually provide a solution to your problem? You'd never go in and order food at a restaurant, pay and not actually eat something.

But I digress...

I'm not quite sure how my 12 month old is functioning, I feel like a garbage compacter that mated with a tornado - devastated and not to good looking or smelling. (How do you shower when your now mobile infant never hits the pause button?) I have become obsessed with snatching a few moments of sleep whenever and wherever I can. Did you know a microwave situated above your stove doubles as a vertical pillow?

So woe be it to any kindly delivery man or neighbor should they lovingly ring the door bell when my son accidentally nods off for a nano second. I'm fairly certain my local flower delivery man checked to see if I was on the FBI's most wanted list after the not so happy reception he got when he attempted to play Chop Sticks on my door bell last week. To make it worse he didn't even have the right door! I think he should have given me the two dozen roses as an apology, but perhaps he was to scared to offer them to me.

So to spare delivery men, government employees and poor college kids trying to sell magazine subscriptions from future harm, I made this sign to hang over our door bell.

I know they normally say "baby sleeping," but I pride myself on honesty and accuracy.

A sleep deprived pseudo human,

CarrieAnne

Recipe:

Cricut Cartridge: Sweethearts, Sugar and Spice
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug: Textile Textures
Ribbon & Lace: May Arts
Cardstock: Couture Cardstock
Chipboard: Maya Road
Alphastickers: Jillibean Soup, October Afternoon, American Crafts
Patterned Paper: Crate Paper, October Afternoon, Jillibean Soup
Ink: VersaMark
Twine: The Twinery
Adhesive: Beacon Adhesives Zip Dry, Glue Dots, Stampin' UP! Dimensionals


Cuts:
Sleeping Mom
"1stKiss" cut from the Sweethearts cartridge at 6 inches from fleshtone cardstock.
"1stKiss" with Layers function selected  cut from the Sweethearts cartridge at 6 inches from brown and vanilla cardstock, and green polkadot patterned paper.

Bed -
"Naptime" cut from the Sugar and Spice Cartridge cut at 4.5 inches from ecru cardstock
"NapTme-s" cut from the Sugar and Spice Cartridge cut at 4.5 inches from blue and ecru striped patterned paper
"NapTme-s" cut twice with the layers function selected from the Sugar and Spice Cartridge cut at 4.5 inches from red cardstock
"Naptime" cut twice with the layers function selected  from the Sugar and Spice Cartridge cut at 4.5 inches from floral print patterned paper

Circle Background -
With Real Dial Size selected use the "Hugs-s" cut set at 8 inches from the Sugar and Spice Cartridge

Graduation Cap (Mortarboard) Gift Box

Graduation Cap Gift Box with Happy Hauntings Cartridge

  You probably looked at the heading to this post and wondered whether I was aware that we are full into Fall and not Spring's graduation season. Well, while working on a Halloween project I will be sharing with you later, I came across the 3d cemetery box in the Happy Hauntings cartridge and the shape of it spoke to me.

It said "Don't I look just like a graduation cap box if you remove the tombstones, creepy hand, tree, etc."

And my crafty self replied, "Why yes, yes you do."

I was afraid if I didn't try the idea out right away I would forget about it. This was sooo easy to do and I can't wait till Spring when I can make lots of them. Never one to miss an opportunity to do something different, I choose vintage Crate and October Afternoon papers to add a little personality to this traditional blah piece of celebratory apparel. The mortarboard top is attached to a flap on the box and lifts up to open. I secured it with a glue dot to keep it closed. This would be fun for a gift card or any small gift.

Recipe:

Mortarboard Gift Box Top view

Cricut Cartridge: Happy Hauntings
Brad: Imaginisce I-Top Tool
Patterned Paper: Crate Paper, October Afternoon
Trim: The Girls Paperie
Pearls: Recollections
Floss: DMC (black)
Adhesive: Beacon Adhesives Zip Dry, Glue Dots
Stickers: Karen Foster
Chipboard: Misc.

Cuts:
Box Base
"3DBox" cut from the Happy Hauntings cartridge cut at 11.5 inches from black toile patterned paper.

Thanks for stopping by,

CarrieAnne

My Pink Stamper March Design Team Project

I am a bit hooked on Paper Quilting this month and our monthly My Pink Stamper challenge was to do a layout, so I thought I would combine the two! The piecing and hand sewing on this layout did take quite awhile, but I loved how it turned out. The hearts were cut from the "Create a Critter" Cartridge. The Heidi Swapp distressing tool was then used to rough up the edges.

Robyn's clear stamps are amazing for their versatility. I used two stamp sets on this layout; Sweetest Cupcake for the "Sugar and Spice" sentiment with which I created the border around the heart and "Sweet Baby" for the "Sweet Girls" title.

I used a watercolor marker to color in the Sugar "&" and Spice separately and then stamped them individually to create the border. Key to this technique is THOROUGHLY cleaning your stamp between each impression so no over stamping or blurring occurs.

To check out the entire My Pink Stamper Team's projects be sure to visit http://www.mypinkstamper.com. If you don't have every single one of Robyn's amazing clear stamps be sure to do some window shopping here where all of her stamps are pictured and her retailers listed.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Tickling the Ivories ...

This is a picture of our youngest daughter Maddie (about 15 months in this shot) at our local children's museum. What is neat about this photo is that she heard the music coming from the piano first and was obviously trying to follow it. When the child who had been "playing" the music stopped Maddie was visibly confused and began trying other things to replicate the sound. She actually ran into the piano accidentally and this "bumping" created the noise she was looking for. It was practically impossible to get her to stop pounding this little piano to death afterward.

This is a simple and quick layout I made from an older sketch at The Scrappiest's blog. I have found in my newborn induced sleep deprived state that sketch's sure do help jump start the creativity. The paper is a mix of Stampin' UP! and Crate. The tile embellishments are Chatterbox. I added a paper pierced border around the circles and the baubles and buttons are miscellaneous items from my stash. For some reason I normally find layouts with circles a bit intimidating so I was glad to try something a bit out of my comfort zone.

Thanks for looking!

CarrieAnne