Sweet Stampin' ~ Birthday Week Celebrations

Wow, can you believe how fast this year is flying by! Mid November already!! It's time for a new challenge over on the Sweet Stampin' blog and it's a special one for us this week, as it's our 'Birthday' challenge. Sweet Stampin' is turning 8 this year. Yay us! So our theme is easy peasy this week, we would love you to join in with your birthday themed cards and of course, please use some stamping with either rubber or clear stamps or hand-colour a digital image. I'm sharing a birthday card I made for a lovely pal who recently turned 40. I've used a fabulous Lili of the Valley image, that was beyond perfect for my pal, who had a themed '1950's' birthday party. 

I've paper-pieced her skirt and coloured her with my Promarkers. Added glitter to her shoes and petticoat and fussy cut her to allow the pretty Nitwit's Dress Shoppe Too's paper to show through behind her. I love this paper and didn't want to cover it too much, so came up with a design, that would let it peek through from behind her, whilst still adding a little interest with the pearl white window frame. I've not tried this before and the inspiration to do it hit me when I was looking at a mat I'd originally cut with a larger Go Kreate shape and then changed my mind and cut a circle instead, leaving behind this aperture frame, which worked so well for this card.

I added a '40' in gold glitter cardstock and some Memory Box Precious Hearts for a bit of bling and interest on the card. Her shoes I used a Copic Spica Glitter Pen in pink and the skirt I used Stickles on her petticoat. The butterfly I cut from vellum for a subtle little bit of extra interest and added a couple of pearls to finish it. 

I decorated the inside of the card very simply, with two greetings from a Penny Black stamp set I just love called Sprinkles & Smiles and added a Whimsy Stamps heart cut from pink gingham to finish. Apologies for the poor quality of this, I thought to snap the inside later and not in the best light.

We had such a lovely time celebrating this pals 40th birthday. Starting with a girlies champagne breakfast, we all had our hair and makeup done by a team of retro makeup artists and finished the night at a 1950's style diner in a lovely part of Auckland that's right on the bay of St Heliers. So we had views of sparkly lights from the city playing on the water as we walked to and from our dinner venue. So pretty.

I hope you'll come and join in our birthday fun at Sweet Stampin' this week. 8 years is quite an achievement for a challenge blog. So we're keen to celebrate! We look forward to seeing what you're inspired to do. Just remember to do some stamping. Have a fabulous weekend and I'll be back again soon with another crafty adventure. Hugs, Wends xoxo

Challenge Entries:
Allsorts: #442 ~ Glitter
Crafty Catz: #393 ~ Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments: #193 ~ Anything Goes
Dragonfly Journeys: #105 ~ Glamourous Gold
Colour Crazy Challenge: #46 ~ Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations Challenge: #283 ~ Sparkle
Deep Ocean Challenge: #168 ~ Things With Wings
In The Pink: #127 ~ Spots or Stripes (her scarf has spots and does gingham count for stripes?)

Update: I just spotted I was crowned the Princess Dragonfly over on Dragonfly Journeys! How lovely. Thank you for the wonderful honour!

If you made it all the way to the end of this post, my lovely pal has agreed to let me share a few pics from our fab night out celebrating her 40th birthday. It was such a fun night! When you see the pics, you'll see how perfect the gorgeous LOTV stamp was to celebrate her special day!

We had such fun getting dolled up for this event. Our lovely hostess had booked a fun hair and makeup crew called The Beauty School Dropouts. We had such a blast with a champagne breakfast which became lunch, all getting made up together and having a bit of a giggle.

My handsome hubby even got into the spirit of things and let me take a pic of him hamming it up with his guitar. (He actually IS a very talented musician.)

We went to a really fun retro diner called The Bald Eagle Diner in a really pretty part of Auckland which overlooks Mission Bay. I LOVED the checker board floor of the diner. It so suited the look. I loved even more, the cute shoes my pal wore! Shame I didn't get a better shot.

We had such a fun night, dressed to the nines. There were games, quizzes and even a hearty rendition of 'Summer Lovin' which Greg and I sang together for the birthday girl. We had such a laugh! 

The beautiful birthday girl gave a very heartfelt speech with left most of us with running mascara!! She'd had a very big year and it was really special to share this fabulous day with her. 

It was pouring with rain when we left the diner, so hubby and I ended the night with a drop of Belgian blonde at a local pub. Not as good as my favourite 'Früli' but still a lovely way to end the night.