Birthday: Ice Skating Party

January brings cold weather and my niece's birthday. My sister planned the party at the local ice skating rink, which provided invitations (what?!?!) But she didn't have enough, so I whipped up a few designs. My niece ultimately selected one that wasn't my best work, but it was her party...but here's one I just fell in love with.

Some other ideas from the party include:
Party Favors: Mittens, packets of hot chocolate and marshmallows
Cake: Sheet cake with ice skater in silhouette or round cake with snowflake and sprinkles

Announcement: baby Caroline

My sister's, sister-in-law, had a beautiful baby girl in December. I had the honor of doing her announcement. She picked one I had posted on the website, with some small alterations.

During the process of getting her the perfect announcement, I also played around with color on this and really liked the alternative versions too.

This one I call vintage. It's the first I did, in what I hope to be a series -- Vintage. It takes a scrapbooking look or theme to a photo announcement. So you get the look of scrapping, without having to cut all that paper!

What's the Buzz.

I've been drawing inspiration from a variety of places. My main focus the last month was Christmas and many orders for diaper cakes, but now I'll be working on a new website (hopefully a better look) as well as doing more announcements and party invites.

Lately, my inspiration has been coming from vintage textures and patterns and the mix and match you get from things like quilts. I love that mesh of fabric patterns next to one another. One of the latest announcement cards I've done has that feelings (shown here).

I'm hoping to do much more this year -- so pass my name along. The new year I hope will bring a new series of cards, fun colors that aren't your typical "baby" announcements.