Hello Kitty and Friends Blog Hop

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons and the Hello Kitty and Friends Blog Hop!  I just love Hello Kitty, and I'm so happy to get the chance to use my Hello Kitty cartridge again!

We have lots of FABULOUS projects and prizes for you today, so make sure you stop by each and every blog.  This hop lasts 2 days, so you'll have plenty of time to get through all of the blogs.  If you've arrived here from Ashley's blog, then you're in the right place. If you've just stumbled upon this post and would like to start at the beginning, check out Emily's blog.

I've been in a very Thanksgiving-y mood lately, so I wanted to try to incorporate Thanksgiving into my Hello Kitty project.  The problem is that there are no Thanksgiving images on the Hello Kitty Greetings Cartridge, and I wasn't able to find any HK Thanksgiving SVGs anywhere.  So, I just had to figure out how to make my own!  Here's my project:

This is an A2 sized card.  I got the turkey and pumpkin from Create a Critter, the Hello Kitty base image from Hello Kitty Greetings, and the pilgrim attire from Paper Doll Dress Up.  The sentiment is from Pink By Design's Bountiful Blessings stamp set, and the ribbon is from Pink By Design's Halloween Crinkle Ribbon Set (which happens to work really well for Thanksgiving, too).  

I got the idea for this Hello Kitty character from this image I found trough Google:

Aren't those little pilgrims so adorable?  To get a similar HK pilgrim girl, I used the graduation Hello Kitty from the Hello Kitty Greetings Cart:

Then, I used my Gypsy to size the hat and collar of the pilgrim girl from Paper Doll Dress Up to fit this Hello Kitty Cut.

I cut Hello Kitty's clothes in dark gray to look all pilgrim-like, and I cut the collar and hat from white.  Once the images were all cut out, I had to do some trimming with my craft knife to make the collar look like it belonged on Hello Kitty.  It needed to have that black outline around it, like all of the HK cuts have:

Then, I needed that same black outline around the hat, so I adhered it to black cardstock and trimmed around it with scissors:

I also had to trim the line on the inside with my craft knife so it would show up:

Once I did that, my Hello Kitty Pilgrim girl was all done!  I decided to use a pink Martha Stewart Opaque Marker for her nose and some pink chalk for her cheeks so she didn't look like she came out of an old black and white cartoon.  Here's my card again so you can see what I mean:

Doesn't she look like she has gobbled 'til she wobbled?  :)

Okay, now how about some BLOG CANDY??? YAY!  One lucky follower will get this Pink By Design Honey Pie Stamp set.  You know, anything that says "pie" makes me think of Thanksgiving! Ha! 

 Here's what you need to do for a chance to win:

1.  Be a follower of my blog and leave a comment letting me know.  Make sure you leave your e-mail address for me.

If you'd like EXTRA CHANCES to win, you can do any of the following.  Just make sure you leave me a new comment each time you do something extra so you get extra entries in my "drawing".

2.  Become a follower of my Facebook page and leave a comment letting me know (here AND on my Facebook page...I love comments on my FB page!).  Make sure you leave your e-mail address in your blog comment (not on Facebook).   :)

3.  Grab my blinky from my right sidebar and post it on your blog.  Then, leave me a link to your blog so I can go check it out.  Be sure to leave me your e-mail address, too.

Please, only US and Canadian mailing addresses...sorry. I'll randomly choose a winner on Wednesday, November 9.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Your next stop is the lovely and super-duper talented Jenny.  Here's the rest of the blog hop lineup, just in case you get lost along the way: 

Create Serendipity

The Unknown, Entertaining Mind of Miss Dena Jones

Handmade With Love

The Creative Stamper's Spot

The Purple Muse

Lorby's World

The Glamorous Side of Scrapping

Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons **THAT'S ME!**

Crazy About Cricut **NEXT STOP!**

ScrapGuy's PaperCrafting Adventure

Her Craftiness

Anita & Bugs

The Scrapbooking Queen

Scrappin' 2 Little Princesses

PSA Stamp Camp



Lucky Charm Blog Hop

Hi, there!  Welcome to the Lucky Charm Blog Hop! If you've arrived here after visiting Amy at Amy Designs, then you're in the right place. If you stumbled upon this post on my blog and want to play along with our blog hopping fun, you can start at the beginning at Cross My Heart Paper Crafts. This blog hop is all about creating something for the lucky charm in your life.  Here's what I created for my lucky charm...my hubby.

I wanted to make a fun St. Paddy's Day card for my hubby.  We usually don't do cards or anything for the day, so I thought it would be a nice surprise for him.  He'll like the irony of putting a black cat on a "lucky" card.  :o)  This card will fit in an A2 sized envelope.  I got the card base/rainbow from Hello Kitty Greetings.  The cat came from Happy Hauntings, the hat and cauldron from Simply Charmed, and the bow from Once Upon a Princess.  I added lots of ink and some stitching lines, and this little card was all done!

Okay...now how about some Blog Candy???  I'm giving away a little collection of green crafting goodies:  a green and silver chipboard alphabet, a green embellishment pack, and some pretty green ribbons.  If you'd like the chance to win these goodies, here's what you need to do:

1.  Become a follower and leave a comment letting me know. Or, let me know you're already a follower.  You must be a  follower to win.  Please don't forget to include your e-mail address.

2.  For an extra entry, post this giveaway on your blog and leave another comment with a link back to the post.  Also, don't forget your e-mail address.

3.  For another extra entry, LIKE my Facebook page and leave another comment telling me you did so. You can click LIKE on my left sidebar or follow the link.  Don't forget to leave your e-mail address in your comment.

That's it.  Please...only US mailing addresses.  I'll randomly choose a winner on Tuesday, March 22.    

I hope you liked my little card. Thanks so much for stopping by today! Your next stop is Sue at Scrappin' Suzy. Here's a list of all of the blog stops just in case you get a little lost:

Giselle - http://crossmyheartpapercrafts.blogspot.com/
Nadia - http://nadiasbeautifulmess.blogspot.com/
Jennifer - http://creativearmywife.blogspot.com/
Alina - http://neverstopscrapping.blogspot.com/
Kim - http://rickettscricuts.blogspot.com/
Yolonda - http://www.craftyscentiments.blogspot.com/
Donna - http://donnasdreamworks.blogspot.com/
Carol - http://caroleesscrappinspot.blogspot.com/
Rebecca - http://www.creationswithbecka.blogspot.com/
Linda - http://www.fancyframework.com/
Amy - http://amydesigns.blogspot.com/
Lisa - http://prettypaperprettyribbons.blogspot.com/ *THAT'S ME!!!*
Sue- http://ScrappinSuzy.blogspot.com/ *YOUR NEXT STOP!!!*
Carrie - http://paperglitterstamps.blogspot.com/
Patricia - http://creativediva98.blogspot.com/
Wendy - http://wendyscreativecraftingcorner.blogspot.com/
Kimi & Pamela - http://lovebugcreations3.blogspot.com/
Darcy - http://dlmbscrapping-time2create.blogspot.com/
Julie - http://tidbitsnscraps.blogspot.com/
Shawnte - http://shawnteparks.blogspot.com/
Amber - http://www.pixiperfectcreations.blogspot.com/
Melissa - http://www.adventuresinheels.com/

Birthday Party Day

Well, my daughter's birthday party came together without a hitch.  Her party was at an indoor pool, so I was worried some of the paper decorations would curl, but they all held up very nicely.  We were only allowed table decorations...no hanging anything on the walls, so I was limited in what I could do.  I think everything turned out really nicely, though.  Here are some pictures of the decorations in place at the party:

The cupcake table

 I found out yesterday that my little cupcake wrappers don't fit very well on the cupcake pyramid I bought, so I had to alter it a bit.  Not such a pretty pyramid anymore, but I still think they are cute.  :o)

 The Hello Kitty centerpiece in place on the table.

 This little Hello Kitty is guarding the presents!  :o)

And here is my little birthday girl.  She had such a great time and was so thankful for all of her decorations.  :o)

I thought I'd enter these decorations in Paper Playtime's Anything Party Challenge.  If you missed my posts about making these decorations click here, here, and here.  

Hello Kitty Party Favors

Well, I finally finished making the last of the Hello Kitty stuff for my daughter's birthday party...the favor bags.  Here they are:

The bag toppers are just 4" squares of card stock folded in half, stapled to cellophane bags.  I printed the thanks on another layer of card stock, glued it on to hide the staples, added the Hello Kitty face, and I was all done.  Now, the only thing I have to worry about is baking and decorating cupcakes on Friday.  I've had lots of fun making all of these decorations, but I'm glad the party's almost here.  After Saturday, maybe I'll be able to focus on some scrapbook pages.  :o)

If you'd like to see my other Hello Kitty party stuff, click here and here.

Birthday Party Table Decorations

Christina over at Card Creations and More is having a challenge to make "anything but a card".  Well, today I finally got a chance to finish up the table decorations for my daughter's Hello Kitty birthday party that's coming up this Saturday, so I thought I'd enter them into her challenge. Here they are:

This one, I think, will be on the cupcake table.

I think this one will be with her presents.

This one is a centerpiece, so it is actually double sided.

I designed these all on my Gypsy with the Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge, so I can't really tell you how big they are.  I just sized them as large as I could to fit on a 12 x 12 piece of paper.  I attached the cutouts to barbeque skewers and stuck them in some leftover Styrofoam packaging, then I put that inside these cute plastic cups and added some pink grass I had leftover from last Easter.  I added curly ribbon and some flowers to cover the glue dots, and viola!  All done!  My daughter hasn't seen these yet, and I can't wait until she does.  She's going to be so excited!  The best part about these is that we can put them in her bedroom as decorations when the party is over. 

I'm so glad these are done!  Now, I just need to make some treat bag toppers this week, shop for treat bag goodies, fill them up, bake and decorate cupcakes, and wrap presents!  Whew!  I really need to get going, I think!  Anyway, I hope you like these!  :o)

By the way, if you'd like to see the cupcake decorations I made for the party, click here.

Flaunt It Friday Challenge: Hello Kitty Plane

So, I was hopping along on the Flaunt It Fridays Hello Kitty blog hop, when my youngest daughter decided to join me.  As soon as she saw the little Hello Kitty Plane projects, she said, "Ooooo!  Mommy, can you make me one of those?"  So, since she has a Hello Kitty birthday party coming up, I thought, "Well, now I know what to put on her card!"  She really loves bright colors, so I found the brightest colors I had.  I tried to tone the colors down a bit with the background, but I think it is plenty colorful for my little munchkin.  Here's her card:

The sentiment is from My Pink Stamper's Even More Punny-licious stamp set. On the inside I wrote: You are so precious to us!  Happy Birthday! 

Now, I just need to find a good hiding place and keep my daughter away from my blog when I'm updating it.  :o)  Hope you like my Flaunt it Friday submission! 

Birthday Party Decorations

Whew!  I've been working on decorations for my daughter's 7th birthday party for DAYS!  I still need to make some table decorations, but I finally finished the cupcake decorations.  Here are some pics from the process:

My daughter wanted a Hello Kitty party.  I couldn't find any Hello Kitty stuff around here...there were none on base or in any of the German stores I vistited, so I decided to make some of my own.  I ordered plates and things online, but I'm not even sure if they'll be here on time!  I need to learn to plan farther ahead while we're living over here.  Anyway, I used the Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge for all of the cupcake decorations.  I'm so grateful for the Autofill and Quantity buttons on my expression!  :o)

I was seeing little Hello Kitty bow pieces in my dreams!

There are 20 cupcake picks, and I decided to make them double sided (WHY???? I asked myself later), so I made 40 of these larger Hello Kitties.  That's 120 little bow pieces, by the way!  ;o)  Whew!

Then, I made cupcake wrappers.  I cut some smaller Hello Kitties (20 more...that's 60 more bow pieces, people!)  I also used Make-the-Cut and a SVG from Heather M's blog to make the cupcake wrappers.  I had a scalloped circle SVG that I found online (sorry...I don't know where), and I drew a circle using MTC. 

Here they are...all put together!  Aren't they cute?  The best part is that, despite all of my bow gluing woes, my daughter LOVES them and can't stop thanking me.  That makes it all worth it!  :o)

I also couldn't find any invitations around here, so I found an image online and made postcard-type invites using Photoshop Elements.  I think they turned out great!

Well, I'll be busy making table decorations for a while, I think.  I have about 2 more weeks to finish it all...I think I'll make it.  :o)