lovebirds by lauren bergold

does anyone else ever plan a whole project around a dollar store find?! because i often do, and i'm just wondering if that's odd or not? case in point: i found this sweet little 5x4" wire birdcage at michael's and although i didn't know what on earth i'd do with it, i HAD TO have it!

i bet this thing sat on my bookshelf, unused, for six months! and then when the january pixie dust kit, MY FUNKY VALENTINE arrived, suddenly i thought, "lovebirds!" there's a sweet little bird diecut in the kit that i knew would work perfectly, but it's quite small so i copied it at 150% and again at 175% so i'd wind up with birds that were similarly sized, but not exactly the same. i cut two of each size from coordinating papers in the kit held back-to-back.

i inked the edges, placed a bit of fiberfill stuffing between the two halves, and then glued them together. then i verrrrrrrrrry carefully hand-cranked my sewing machine around the edges of each bird.

next i added wings and feathers: the former consisting of hearts, and the latter of flourishes, cut from paper scraps. stick-on pearls and pink rhinestones from my stash made perfect eyes.

to dress up the cage a bit i hung nested hearts that i diecut from more papers in the kit. i used the pretty dear lizzy flower trim to line it, and some of the pixie dust signature seam binding to decorate the top.

and finally the lovebirds were ready for valentine's day...or perhaps for a very special anniversary?

either way, i'm pretty sure they'd like to be alone right now, so i will sign off and give them a bit of privacy! ♥♥♥

Kirsty's Note -

Isn't that the cutest pair???? Perfect for Valentine's Day, thanks Lauren!!!


Tomorrow will be our last project for Pixie January Kit "My Funky Valentine", I wish we could go on and on with this kit as I love it so much, thanks once again to Pixie Lauren, who put this fabulous kit together, thanks for so much fun!!!
On the other hand, I am so excited with Pixie February Kit, which we will preview on January 31st, and  we also have some exciting news to share, so stay tuned!!!


Pixie GIVEAWAY
We are giving away this

and this

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Pixie January Sketch Challenge

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my type of birthday card by lauren bergold

if i had to pick just *one* favorite from the sheet of october afternoon "thrift shop" stickers in the january pixie dust paperie kit MY FUNKY VALENTINE, i thiiiiiiiiink it'd be the vintage royal typewriter. it's gorgeous. it's pink. it's positively resplendent, don't you agree??!

luckily, neither you nor i need consider making such a difficult choice, since of course the entire sheet is included in the kit, and after you've used the typewriter... (perhaps by festooning it with small butterflies on a fabulously funky birthday card??!)

...you can dive back in for the trio of 1960's ladies...or the cool black bakelite telephone...or that divine strip of carnival tickets!


and now if you'll excuse me, i think i feel a few more cards coming on!!! :)

Kirsty's Note -

Absolutely gorgeous Lauren, thanks!

Pixie GIVEAWAY

we have 2 prizes for round 3

prize # 1

prize #2

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Pixie January Sketch Challenge

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"RILEY" wall hanging by lauren bergold

the best thing to ever happen on valentine's day...in my own very subjective opinion...was the birth of my eldest niece, riley! so i like to celebrate by making something particularly fancy and heart-strewn for that young lady. at some point she will probably grow tired of valentine-themed birthday parties and presents, but so far she still likes them, so i'm going to sneak in one more year, at least!

this started as an oversized card, but at some point i realized it was large enough (the largest heart is nearly 9x9") and heavy enough that i should just attach a bit of ribbon and call it a "wall hanging"!

i've used four patterned papers from the MY FUNKY VALENTINE kit, as well as vintage sheet music, pink cardstock and a bit of the beautiful american crafts lace paper. i've got some of the fun vintage diecuts on there, one of the memory lock and key sets, some of the maya road chipboard alphas (inked & glittered) and of course my favorite dear lizzy rose ribbon trim.

as you can plainly see: my heart--and my valentine--are both overflowing with love and goodness for the special birthday girl! ♥♥♥

Kirsty's note -

That is another pretty project for the special birthday girl, thanks Lauren!

Click HERE to purchase "My Funky Valentine"

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valentine princess crown by lauren bergold

my eldest niece, riley elizabeth, was born on valentine's day. of course i have no proof that this is what made her an especially sweet and loving young lady, but it couldn't have hurt, surely?! that's one of the reasons i was so excited when pixie-in-chief kirsty vittetoe invited me to put together the january pixie dust paperie kit: i knew immediately that i'd call it MY FUNKY VALENTINE and that i'd fill it fun and fancy products suitable for young princesses' birthdays! obviously the best gift ever would be a glamorous princess crown, so that's what i made first:


i've always wanted to make a crown, but i wasn't quite sure how to get started. a few months ago, i saw this one that heidi swapp made, and suddenly i thought "aha!" in the end, my project looks *nothing* like heidi's...but it was just the kick i needed to get going!


i xyroned several pieces of sturdy 12x18" white cardstock together to form a super-strong base, and covered the front with one of my favorite items from the kit--the gorgeous vintage sheet music. i used a clipart fleur-de-lis and some chipboard flourishes as trace-around templates to design the swirly pediments. when i had an appropriately fancy profile pencilled onto my cardstock i carefully cut it out using scissors and a craft knife.

then it was time for the FUN PART: i stamped and overstamped all around the edges of the crown before starting in on the embellishments. the diecut doilies in the kit made the perfect medallions on which to place distressed multi-layered patterned paper flowers surmounted with those beautiful dear lizzy rose brads.

i used a few border punches to dress up strips of the kit's patterned papers...and even a bit of plain white copier paper! i layered the strips together, and then added a fancy glimmer-misted crepe paper ruffle. for maximum dramatic effect, at the very bottom edge, i used my sewing machine to carefully attach the gorgeous dear lizzy rose ribbon trim.

up until this point, i'd been working fairly flat: my decorated and fancily cut "crown" was still basically one long strip ...but now it was time to go 3-D! i gently and gradually bent the crown into shape a bit at a time. when i had achieved the appropriate roundness, all that remained was to secure it. i punched holes with my crop-o-dile and reinforced them with one of the very few things i used that wasn't in the kit...some elderly metal eyelets. i laced the pixie dust paperie signature seam binding through the holes as you would on a shoe...a very fancy pink shoe, belonging to a glamorous princess, obviously!

it was at this point i realized that the *BACK* of the crown... (up until now plain white cardstock) ...was 100% visible from every angle; so i flattened it back out and added some pretty pink stamped flourishes and a couple of diecut hearts to disguise functional things like foam tape and the backs of brads!

once i'd thought of hearts, of course, i realized that a valentine birthday princess's crown cannot be called complete without them, so i put a few more on the front. as for the butterfly garland...well, there's no logic to that at all...i just really really like butterfly garlands! :)

finally my crown was complete, but for the absence of a princess to wear it...do you think riley will mind if i give it to her a bit early? i'm not sure i can wait until FEBRUARY!!! ♥♥♥

Kirsty's Note -

This is definitely the prettiest princess crown ever..... 

Thanks Lauren!

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"isabel" name banner by lauren bergold

one of my favorite things in the whole world to make is a name banner, and i am especially pleased with this one for my young friend isabel!


having made a few banners in the past, i must say that the only bit i didn't used to like (besides photographing them--ALWAYS a challenge!!!) is how long it took to choose all the "bits". it turns out that a kit makes all the difference in the world...particularly, if it's a pixie dust paperie kit! ;)

*EVERYTHING* is already coordinated for you! all the papers match all the other papers! the plentiful selection of embellishments work perfectly in terms of color, style, and theme! so this time, instead of spending ages rounding up and deliberating between which products to use, i was able to open the kit, and start making the banner immediately! how cool is that?! i am *ALWAYS* doing it this way from now on!!!


i made a triangular template so that all the pennants of my banner would be the same size, and cut the bases out of the sturdy kraft chipboard with which pixie-in-chief kirsty vittetoe packs all of the kits!

i adhered each triangle to a bit of plain white copier paper and trimmed around with decorative scissors to give them a pretty scallopped edge. once all six panels were ready to go, i began cutting the inner triangles out of the kit's selection of patterned papers. i tacked everything together lightly with dryline adhesive before running the all the edges through my sewing machine for texture, interest, and EXTRA security!

to make the letters of isabel's name, i sized and formatted them in a word document (the font is called "brando") and printed on plain paper, which i then held together with various bits of patterned paper from the kit, and cut out. each letter is inked and outlined with a very fine-tipped pen to give it just a little more emphasis.

then all that was left was THE FUN PART! i mixed and matched letters with the various background panels until i found just the right combination, before adding in my embellishments.

i punched decorative shapes and edges, and combined those with stickers from the october afternoon "thrift shop" sticker sheet. i hand-cut elements from some of the patterned papers...and the gorgeous lace paper... to act as additional accents. i layered maya road chipboard shapes with vintage diecuts, and painted or inked the sweet maya road chipboard letters. dear lizzy "enchanted" trimmings and rose brads gave a little extra touch of glamour.

i am absolutely thrilled with how quickly and easily this project came together; i hope miss izzy will love having this as much as i loved making it! ♥♥♥

Kirsty's Note -

Absolutely beautiful Lauren, I love the clear instruction on how you put this beautiful banner together too, thanks for sharing your talent, and thanks for picking out those beautiful supplies in this kit "My Funky Valentine" is indeed a lovely, and special Pixie Dust Paperie Kit!

Pixie Giveaway

Want to win this? Click HERE for details!!!

***

Pixie December Challenge
Thanks to all who played along with Pixie Sketch Challenge in December
Here's the winning project!

Congratulations Lynnda!!!!! 
Please send your mailing info to kirsty@pixiedustpaperie.com, so I could get the prize - Pixie Dust Paperie Debut Kit "Fall in Love" out to you


And the winner of Pixie Signature Crinkle Ribbons is
Sylvia Nelson
Sylvia, please send your mailing info to kirsty@pixiedustpaperie.com, with your choice of crinkle ribbons, you can log on to www.shop.pixiedustpaperie.com and pick out 2 colors of your choice.


Winners, you have till Jan 12 to claimed your prize!
Thank you ladies, for playing along with Pixie, please join us again in January 20th!


Note to the final entry: Catherine Khoo, I wasn't able to leave comment at your blog, the word verification part seemed to have problem, I wanna to thank you for making it to the Pixie Sketch Challenge, thanks for sharing a beautiful layout!

Designer Day One ~ "sing" card by lauren bergold

one of the best things about the gorgeous my mind's eye papers in the january pixie dust paperie kit MY FUNKY VALENTINE is that they have little vignettes or focal points in addition to their all-over patterns. for example, the top left-hand corner of this page of lovely vintage-inspired text has a pretty, glittery bird sitting in a window frame. for 12x12 scrappers this means you already have a nice page accent when you add your photos, for cardmakers like myself it means that some judicious trimming has done MOST of the work for me!

i cut away the inner part of the window and backed it with a blue-green floral to give the bird a bit of a view; i mounted the trimmed panel on a section of october afternoon ruled paper to show off that neat scallopped edge; and then i added layers of border-punched strips and a pretty metal key to fancy it up!

the last thing i did was add a banner...because at the moment *EVERYTHING* i make seems to want a banner on it! :) this one's fashioned from little flags of the kit's vintage sheet music, backed with the soft green reverse side of an american crafts paper, adorned with maya road chipboard letters that i've inked and glittered, and finally accented with dear lizzy rose brads. and yes, it does kind of make *ME* want to sing! ♥

Kirsty's Note

This is just beautiful Lauren, and I love your selection of paper for Pixie Dust Kit this month!

Pixie December Sketch Challenge

You have a few more days to enter Pixie December Challenge

Click HERE for detail and to link your entry

Is your opportunity to win Pixie debut kit "Fall in Love