Rachel is Turning 6!

It is so hard for me to believe that my baby will be turning 6 in a little over a week! She is so excited about the fact she will be 6-years-old and equally excited about her Build-a-Bear party. Yes, that is where she had it last year but she wanted to go again- they are only 6 once! We found some really cute mermaid paper products in the dollar section of Target back in the summer that she really liked, so I decided to make the invitations to match using one of my current favorite A Muse stamps, Mandy's World Mermaid Girl! These little Mandy's World images are all super cute and oh, so versatile. Since they are open, line images you get to use all those fun coloring techniques but they are not so over detailed that they cannot be massed produced for party favors, stationary sets, you name it! The inspiration for the design of this invitation came from a card by Joyce Wheeler. If you don't know Joyce or her completely inspiring 13-year-0ld daughter, Kayla, please stop by her blog for and incredible story (and some awesome eye candy)!

After coloring the little Mermaid Girl image with my Copic markers and punching it out with a circle punch, I mounted it on a scalloped punch piece of vellum. In maintaining the under-the-sea, fairy tale theme, I added a bit of crystal glitter to the scallops for an ethereal effect. The belly band in punched with EK Success Dotted Swiss border bunch- I love the way it gives a bubbly effect. The sentiment is not A Muse (gasp)! but this one from PTI did the job just fine (had to convince myself that I would be the only bothered by the fact that the font on the outside did not exactly match the font on the inside)! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and that you are moving steadily along with your Christmas preparations (don 't forget those hand made cards)! It's ALWAYS a Stampin' Good Time! Take care!