Happy Birthday at the Beary Scrap!

Visit the Beary Scrap Design Team Blog to view all our Birthday ideas this week and check out my own post below.



Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday -- oh no! I don't have anything to wrap your present in. . . .

Don't you hate it when you are in a hurry to get to some birthday event and you rush to your supply of gift bags and wrap to find that you only have a bag for a New Baby or a purple bag when you are headed to celebrate a birthday for a boy? I don't know about you, but this happens to me quite often. Lately I have taken to just stocking up on plain colored bags and then making a card specifically for that person that matches the bag-- I am a little OCD about things matching! But take the time to whip up a couple of these sets of matching tags, bags and cards and you will be set for anyone's birthday-- male, female, child or adult.

My project this week is a matching bag, tag and card made using Bazzill In Stich'z Surprise Party stitching templates (which are on sale!) and floss. I have never really handstitched much, either on cloth or paper, so this was a totally new experience for me. It was so fun! I used a paper piercer and the template to punch holes in my Bazzill cardstock-- I used a light brown and was really pleased with the results, it matched my Kraft colored bag nicely (remember how I like that matching stuff!) Then I sat and stitched while watching Dancing with the Stars on Monday night (one of my favs-- who do you think is going to win Season 10? I don't know quite who I am rooting for yet!) and just had a great time. It was so easy! Pretty soon, I was mixing the designs together (ie the balloons are empty in the middle on the template, but I added some more squiggles over the top) and even free-stitched a little of my own such as the stripes on the candle. The next day even my kids were like "Wow, Mom, you did that?" Pretty impressive, I know. :) These templates are great-- I have already got my eye on the 8x8 flower template I want to get next!
Then I just mounted my stitched accents by machine stitching them to some Bo Bunny Popsicle papers, (Banana Split, Fruit Punch and Juicy Orange) then onto white which is distressed with Tim Holtz Broken China ink. The orange patterned paper on the bag was punched with a border punch and I used random ribbons from my stash for the handle of the bag. I used the Popsicle Combo Cardstock stickers to add "Birthday" to my stitching to give it some variety and then some Bo Bunny Buttons & Bling Popsicle buttons to finish it off.
I really love these Bo Bunny Popsicle papers-- the colors are so bright and fun they could be used for a great variety of projects-- birthday, sports, boys or girls, family gatherings, summer days, parties, carnivals, etc. Here is a Summer layout I made earlier with these cute papers-- I cut around the waves and added Stickles to the edge for glimmer.