Look Who's Turning 1!

Hi friends!  Remember the 100 baby shower invitations I made last year?  Well Gracie is turning 1 on Wednesday, so they had her birthday party yesterday.  It's amazing how fast time passes by!  I wanted to make a special card for her, so I started off by using the Taylored Expressions sketch as my base:

I went through all of my cardstock to see what kind of color combo to go with... I didn't want to do pink, because that's so in-your-face-girlie, and she's not a baby anymore, anyway, she's a mature 1, thank you very much! lol  I've always liked yellow and purple together, and when I saw the deep aqua green, I thought that would be a nice contrasting color, along with the lighter aqua green.  The yellow polka dot paper is Creative Memories, but I'm not sure who made all the cardstocks, as my friend picked up a huge stack of it for me at a yard sale (she's a GOOD friend! hehe).   I wanted to use my never-before-inked Crafty Secrets clear stamp set, and I really went to town with it.  I'm not usually one for making my own patterned paper, but when I got the pieces cut down, it seemed like the light aqua paper needed a little jazzing up, so I thought I'd do some subtle tone-on-tone stamping with ColorBox chalk ink.  I think it looks festive, but not too distracting. ;)   The girl and the balloon are two separate stamps, and when I realized they wouldn't both fit inside the circle, I thought it looked better anyway, and decided to paper piecing the balloon.  I think this girl is adorable, by the way!  I've been trying to focus more on my coloring lately, but I know I still have a long way to go.  I tried to make her look like Gracie with the dark hair. :)  For the finishing touches, I layered some circles to make the "1" stand out, and added a bit of yellow Offray ribbon to repeat my color combo.  I realize my final card doesn't match the TE sketch exactly, but I'm really pleased with how the card turned out.  When Jenn and Gracie opened her presents, Jenn yelled over to  me "I have one guess who made the card!!!" so I'm sure she appreciated my handmade efforts. ;)  We had fun at the party- lots of little ones running around, kind of makes me want to be a mom, but not juuuuust yet.  :) :) :)  Hope you're all having a great weekend- the weather here is turning cooler, can't WAIT for fall to get here!! :D


-Suzanne :O )