Birthday Bash – Day One (IHPBB1)

Welcome to the first of this week’s i {heart} papers Birthday Bash (IHPBB) challenges! We’re looking forward to seeing all of your creations, and we’re very happy to have you celebrating with us!

Here are the hosts for each day. Be sure to check their blogs on their scheduled day to find out that day’s challenge. You can also check the main IHP Birthday Bash page at the store. It will be updated daily.

The hosts for the week are:

TODAY Day 1 (10/19): Kate (owner), Sarah Anderson, and Dee Jackson
Day 2 (10/20): Deb/Latisha Yoast
Day 3 (10/21): Gretchen/Lesa Smaligo and Lynn/Asela Hopkins
Day 4 (10/22): Cathleen/Kerri Michaud and Carolyn/Maria Fiscella
Day 5 (10/23): Megan/Chris Veneruso and Kendra/Debbie Fisher
Day 6 (10/24): Tracy/Heidi Van Laar and Amber/Kerry Davis
Day 7 (10/25): Sunday, day of rest (finish up your challenges!)
Day 8 (10/26): PARTY! GRAND PRIZE (winners are announced)

What’s the first thing you do when you’re planning a Birthday Bash? Before you can choose invitations, decorations, etc., you must decide upon a color scheme, so our first IHPBB challenge has to do with color.

Our challenge for you today is to make a card (scrapbook page, 3-D item, etc.) using the colors of our IHP logo: celery, light blue, rose and black (colors in any brand). Remember, everything this week has to do with birthday celebrations...so be sure your creation is birthday related!

Here is my card. It is a 4-1/4” square card and I used Nesties Labels One to make the white and the four “squares.” I cut out the little party hats from Make A Wish and popped them up. I stamped the greeting from Chelsea Sentiments in Palette Noir and then make little sparkly dots with my Baby Blue Stickles. That’s it! Clean and simple! Do you like it? Do you want to play along?? I sure hope you do!

Before you begin, PLEASE take a few minutes to review the challenge guidelines! You’ll want to follow these rules to maximize your points and qualify for the opportunity to WIN the prize for today’s challenge and the Grand Prize, all announced on the last day of our festivities!

To qualify for the prize of the day, all you have to do is upload your challenge card/project to Splitcoast Stampers (SCS) and/or Paper Craft Planet (PCP) with the appropriate tag so we can find it. Today’s challenge tag is IHPBB1. The daily challenge winners will be randomly selected at the end of the week.

Today's prize package includes:

1 yard of 1-1/2" Silk Celery, atyou Spica Glitter pens in black, pink and baby blue, 1 yard of ¼” Glimmer Ribbon Black and a 12x12 Urban Prairie Collection pack!

To qualify for the Grand Prize of being IHP Guest Designer for the month of November, here’s how it will work: Every challenge card/project you enter will earn you points (see below), and one with the most accumulated for the week the Grand Prize winner. So the more challenges you enter, more points you earn — and the better your chances of winning the Grand Prize (and the bigger the value of your Guest Designer box will be)!

You will have until October 25^th to post your work, and you can enter as many challenges as you like, but you CANNOT combine challenges in one project. All winners, including the Grand Prize winner, will be announced at the Birthday Bash on October 26^th.

Birthday Bash Points

For each project:

• 5 points for each challenge card/project you make, upload and tag to SCS
• 5 points for each challenge card/project you make, upload and tag to PCP
• 2 points for uploading to your blog and linking at least one IHP item used to the IHP website

One time points:

• 2 points for signing up to receive our newsletter*
• 2 points for joining our PCP group*
• 2 points for becoming our fan on Facebook*
• 10 points if you participate in all 6 IHP Birthday Bash challenges

*When you sign up, or if you are already signed up, a comment on the IHP blog Birthday Bash week so your points can be credited.

I can’t wait to see what you all come up with!

Sleigh Ride with Sleigh Ride!

Sleigh Ride times two!  Today’s post uses the new set, Sleigh Ride, from The Petal Press (available only at IHP!) and some of last year’s Wassail paper, Sleigh Ride.   Clever huh?  :) 

I liked the antiquey feel of the paper and colored the sleigh and topper to go with it.  The pinecones have some Crackle Accents on them to give it a bit of a worn feeling.  And, I used my new Pine Needles Stickles for the branches.  I love the look of the branches with those particular Stickles on them.

The venise lace was nice and warm and vintagey and seemed to be the perfect finishing touch.  And, of course, my trusty scalloped oval Nesties.  The sleigh and greeting are stamped in Palette Burnt Umber.

Thanks for stopping by today!  See you again soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO i {heart} papers!

Get ready for the i {heart} papers Birthday Bash! That’s right, IHP is turning 1 year old this month, and a whopper of a party is planned! There's also a special gift planned to help others celebrate more birthdays. You’ll read more about that at the end of this post.

First, let’s talk about the party! There will be prizes galore (free stuff – you like free stuff, don’t you?), and a Grand Prize winner will be chosen at the end to be the IHP Guest Designer for the month of November!

There will be 6 birthday party themed challenges, one posted each day starting on Monday, October 19th. Each challenge will be hosted (and posted) by one of the IHP Design Team members. It will also be posted here on the IHP Blog and on the store page for the Birthday Bash.   Some special invited guests will be posting throughout the week, too so you’ll want to check in with them as well as the regular design team members!

Each daily challenge will have its own prize that will be awarded on the 26th.

Here are the hosts for each day:

Day 1: Kate, Sarah Anderson, and Dee Jackson
Day 2: Deb Felts/Latisha Yoast
Day 3: Gretchen Belknap/Lesa Smaligo and Lynn Mercurio/Asela Hopkins
Day 4: Cathleen Torina/Kerri Michaud and Carolyn Mustopa/Maria Fiscella
Day 5: Megan Lock/Chris Veneruso and Kendra Wiestock/Debbie Fisher
Day 6: Tracy Schultz/Heidi Van Laar and Amber Kroenig/Kerry Davis

To qualify for the prize of the day, all you have to do is post your challenge card/project to Splitcoast Stampers (SCS) and/or Paper Craft Planet (PCP) with the appropriate tag so we can find it. The tag (and the prize) for that day’s challenge will be posted on that day.

You will have the full week (until October 25^th, midnight EST) to post your work, and you can enter as many challenges as you like, but you can’t combine challenges in one project. The daily challenge winners will be selected at random at the end of the week.

To qualify for the Grand Prize of being IHP Guest Designer for the month of November, here’s how it will work: Every challenge card/project you enter will give you points (see the list below), and the one with the most points accumulated for the week will be the Grand Prize winner. So the more challenges you enter, the more points you earn — and the better your chances of winning the Grand Prize (and the bigger the value of your Guest Designer box will be)!

All winners, including the Grand Prize winner, will be announced at the Birthday Bash on October 26^th here, on the IHP blog and on our PCP page.

So get ready to PARTY!!!! You won’t want to miss the fun!

Birthday Bash Points

For each project:

• 5 points for each challenge card/project you make, upload and tag to SCS
• 5 points for each challenge card/project you make, upload and tag to PCP
• 2 points for uploading to your blog and linking at least one IHP item used to the IHP website

One time points:

• 2 points for signing up to receive our newsletter*
• 2 points for joining our PCP group*
• 2 points for becoming our fan on Facebook*

10 points if you participate in all 6 IHP Birthday Bash challenges

*When you sign up, or if you are already signed up, leave us a comment on the IHP blog during Birthday Bash week so your points can be credited.

A Special Gift

Because i {heart} papers loves birthdays so much, we’re donating 10% of sales, beginning on October 19^th and through the end of October, to Hope Lodge New York City. Hope Lodge, run by the American Cancer Society, “The Official Sponsor of Birthdays,” offers free, temporary housing for cancer patients and their families who are undergoing treatment. The nurturing, comfortable environment at Hope Lodge allows patients to focus on what is most important - fighting cancer. What better way to celebrate a birthday than to help those who are helping more birthdays happen!

I know it is a lot of information but I hope you’ll play along with us, starting on MONDAY!   See you tomorrow!!!

RELEASE DAY and Five Minute Friday: Warm Winter Wishes

Today is the big release day here at IHP! Today is the day you can get two new Chicken Girl Design sets, It’s A Snow Day and Just Skating By, as well as a new set from The Petal Press, Sleigh Ride. So exciting!

I also have a Five Minute Friday card for you today, using It’s A Snow Day. Isn’t it cute? I stamped him in Palette Burnt Umber, colored with my Prismacolor pencils and the greeting is in Palette Prussian Blue.

The tag is made with my circle Nesties and is layered over a piece of vellum that is embossed with the A2 Snowflake Quickutz folder. If you’ve never used them, they are just like Cuttlebug folders, only better, because they are a full A2 size. The background paper is from the MME Colorful Christmas collection and is wrapped with White Metallic String. I adore this paper collection and string. The string is SO sparkly – just perfect for wintery projects!

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to check in next week for some more HUGE news! You won't want to miss it!

Sleigh Ride: Ivy Plate

This goes into my file of “difficult things to photograph.”  I altered a clear, glass plate that I’ve had in my stash for about 6 or 7 years.  I stamped the holly filler from the new set from The Petal Press, Sleigh Ride (available for $10 tomorrow!) in Palette Noir on some gorgeous glass paper that I picked up at a local frame shop.  Seriously, you can’t tell from the  image, but the paper has glass woven in it so it is SO sparkly.  I colored with my Prisma pencils and touched all the berries with some Stardust Stickles for some extra sparkle.  Then, once those were dry I used some Royal Coat to modge-podge it to the BACK of plate.  I forgot how messy that is.  Heh.

Anyway, this is a handwash only item and I would only use it for things like serving cookies or other dry items but it is pretty, right?

I love how versatile Sleigh Ride is – that you can use the pieces alone or with the sleigh.  I can’t wait to show you the whole thing tomorrow so be sure to check back then!

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas tree

Here is a peek at the new Chicken Girl Design set, Just Skating By (available on Friday!).  I stamped the tree and presents in Palette Noir, cut out the gifts and popped them up on dimensionals.  Everything is colored with Prisma pencils.  I went over the garland on the tree with some Pink Stickles and topped the star with Yellow Stickles.

The greeting is stamped in Palette Claret, which is a perfect match for the magenta glimmer ribbon and has some little gems to accent the greeting.  Very CAS.  Check back again tomorrow for one last peek before the release on Friday!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sleigh Ride: Altered Candle

Today’s peek is an oldie but goodie.  I think learning to make stamped candles was one of the very first things I learned when I seriously started stamping.  I haven’t done it in years but thought that this set would work well.  This image is from the new set, Sleigh Ride, available exclusively at IHP from The Petal Press.  It will be available, along with two new Chicken Girl sets, on the 16th.  Just like Happy Harvest it is a building/layering set.  There is the sleigh and then various toppers/fillers that you build to make your sleigh.  There are also some beautiful phrases, including this one that I used today.  It reads, “One kind word can warm three winter months. – Japanese proverb”

The image (and greeting) are stamped in Palette Noir on tissue paper, colored with my Prismacolor pencils and then applied to the candle.  After it cools a minute or two, I used some Pine Distress Stickles and Frosted Lace Stickles on the pine and ornaments for some dimension.  That’s it!

Don’t forget to check all week long for peeks from the other girls:

Ashley Cannon Newell
Carly Robertson
Cathleen Torina
Gretchen Belknap
Jenyfur Pohl
Julie Lacey
Tiffany Johnson
Tracy Schultz – designer

Thanks for stopping by today!  See you again tomorrow!