I totally can't believe another two weeks have gone by since last I've blogged.  So what's UP with that, anyway? 

It's certainly not that I haven't had anything to show; afterall, I've had plenty of events to prepare projects for in the last couple of months.  But I think it's a combination of things.  My old computer was just getting too choked up to work with without banging my head against the wall – so every computer-related task had become a dreaded chore, and my new computer wasn't fully set up and ready to go yet, either.  AND then there's been the Photoshop Elements hurdle.  Gag.  Seem it works totally different on my new Windows 7 computer than it did on my old Vista system, so getting my photos ready to post has been a nightmare. 

WHY in the world would that be, you ask?  I haven't the faintest idea!  But the program looks and behaves entirely different – with some options located in completely different places, or under different tabs, while other features (a couple of my most frequently-used, of course) I haven't located yet at all!  So who knows?!?  But suffice it to say that considering how long it took me to learn Photoshop Elements the FIRST time around, I haven't been very keen on starting up another long learning curve, I guess.

But with all this snow on the ground here on Whidbey Island I'm obviously not going anywhere any time soon, nor doing any stampin' events in the immediate future, so I figured I'd make an effort last night to figure out *something* with PhotoShop Elements so I could post at least this one project.  I never did find some of the features I was most accustomed to using, so the picture's a little more washed out than I'd like, but hopefully you can use your imagination to think BRIGHT and COLORFUL here…….

 
This is a package wrap that came about while I was looking for something a bit unique a few weeks ago.  I was looking for a wrapping paper/card combo….. and for various reasons that probably no one but myself will ever know (or care) about, it was important to me to use red, white and blue.  And I surely wanted it to say "fun", 'cuz this was for a rather special young man for his first birthday!

Well, a number of hours later, here were the results.  I'd gone through all my Real Red, Pacific Point and Bashful Blue cardstocks and Designer papers – whether current or not….. and punched or die cut a big pile of assorted size circles – some of which I'd added texture to with an embossing folder and the Big Shot. 

I was rather surprised that the most time-consuming part (and yes, I'm talking "hours" here) was attaching the circles.  Not so much the physical adhering, but getting the layout just right.  I fussed over sizes……. I fussed over colors…… and patterns……. and textures…… so that in reality that "random" pattern that appears in the picture was anything BUT random, lol!

But ultimately I was smiling, and so happy with the results I had a hard time packing it all up to send away!

As for the card, first of all it's oversized.  Not quite a full 5-1/5 x 8-1/2, but something close to that.  I knew from the beginning that it would include Stampin' Up!'s "Simple Birthday Thanks" which I stamped onto the different colors of cardstock and then paper-pieced together, and I had this idea to die cut a "1" (from the "Simple Numbers" die), and turn it into a candle.  (The flame, btw, is from the 2-step Bird Punch.).

The letters for the word "ONE" were cut with the "Billboard" Decorative Strip die (again, a Big Shot die), and I punched out the red "sprinkles" from Red Glimmer Paper with the Crop-a-Dile.

Now, that took care of the front of the card, but I also wanted to preserve the appearance of the circles design from the wrapping paper since I figured that would be torn apart and trashed in short order, and I'd just spent so many hours creating it!  

So I made "pages" inside the card, and the first page echoed the wrapping paper collage, while the blue words inside were cut from striped DSP with the "Basic Birthday" Decorative Strip Die.  The red letters were also die cut – using  "Timeless Type Junior Alphabet Medium Sizzlet" dies. (BTW, I find that particular set of numbers and letters particularly useful.  At roughly an inch square, they're just the right size for lots of projects without being too big or too small.)

So in spite of how unexpectedly looooong this project took me to design and assemble, it was sure a lot of fun to make! 

But thank goodness for my Big Shot and punches!  This project absolutely couldn't have happened without 'em!