Happy Un-Birthday to Me!

Look at all the fun goodies that I received in a package this week! Dawn Mercedes decided to celebrate her birthday by sending me Happy Un-Birthday surprises in the mail! LOL, how fun is that?! And surprise me she did! I never suspected she was up something, haha. I was trying to be all quiet and secretive about my own birthday package to her and we laughed over how we had everything planned for each other, mailed on the same day and received packages on the same day, etc.

And you should have seen me trying to get everything squished together to fit into a photo. {grin} I love how Dawn can take a theme and coordinate everything so it all fits together and is matchy-matchy. She used stars for my un-birthday. She found this perfect sparkly iron-on with my initials and stars around it to personalize that blue t-shirt for me. That decorated little tin was filled with, what else, starbursts! She found that gorgeous ornament with a pointy star-shape - it's going to hang year-round in my craft room. {wink} And I just love the accessories she picked. The ribbon is so bright and cheery, the sticker stars are so sparkly and the cuttlebug embossing folders are so cute! Then she laminated a dozen pages for my ever-growing unmounted stamp collection! And missing from this pic is a tube of glow-sticks that my boys claimed as their own. {grin}

And here are my very, very favorite parts of the un-birthday package - Dawn's art! I have always admired her watercoloring and her use of shapes and sparkly accents in her designs. This card features Moody for Rock from Paper Makeup Stamps. I just love the angles she used with the background papers and the different sized and colored stars. And look at that little ribbon tab peeking out and all the bling scattered across the card. And then that moody girl is colored so perfectly! I love how the watercoloring varies in shade and all the splashes of stickles on the drops around her.

Now the best for last - Melody! She's my very favorite Paper Makeup fairy - the one I got to design last year when I won a PMS contest. I just love how Dawn cut her out and popped her up on the card. And look how sparkly those wings are! {sigh} I think Melody looks great in red too. Even better, she's decorating a wall-mount that I can hang in my craft room and enjoy seeing her every day.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to me gush over my fun surprise from my fun friend. I hope it inspires you to do something nice and unexpected to surprise someone in your life too.

Blessings,

The Funnest Person I Have Never Met

Dawn Mercedes is simply the funnest person I have never met! Not in person anyhow. I was blessed to be assigned as her Big Sis in Splitcoast's Divine Secret Sister program 4 years ago. She's so friendly and creative that I had a great time "stalking" her gallery and posts on Splitcoast and emailing her on the side while trying to maintain my secret identity. That's how I first learned about challenges. There was this entire section of Splitcoast that I never knew existed, but how fun Dawn made it look! That encouraged me to start doing challenges and uploading cards to my gallery. And I've continued to follow her on-line and email these last four years, long after our Secret Sister round ended. With my funnest DSS reveal ever on my birthday, btw. {grin}

I now hang streamers and decorate my children's doorways for their birthdays - a new tradition that they just LOVE and I got the idea from Dawn. In turn, they've begun decorating mom or dad's chair at the table when we have a birthday. It's so fun to see them enjoy receiving and then want to give too. We also take turns creating different kinds of fairies to send things to each other and our children. There are a couple Pokemon fairies out there, a gum ball fairy, a rubber stamp fairy, and more! There are some rumors of a Star Wars fairy too, haha. {wink} And, my oh my, she started doing some design team work a year ago and her creations are just amazing! So clever and detailed. I have many new "favorite" stamping sites that I've discovered through her design work.

Another fabulously fun thing about Dawn is she celebrates half birthdays. February 3rd was her half birthday and I just couldn't resist putting together this fun little package for her. I used some pretty papers from Paper Temptress (cocoa crepe ruche, blanc sparkle and vermillion sparkle). I just love how the sparkle papers shimmer and how rich and textured the ruche is - such a yummy combination! Perfect for wrapping that big Hershey bar and scallop heart nesties to go with her BIG heart that freely gives and shares her talent and thoughts on-line. For the card I lined the nestie up beside the fold so that it would only cut across the top and right side of the heart, allowing it to open up on the left side for a message. The saying is from Paper Makeup Stamps new Birthday Cheer set and I added the '1/2' with a red marker.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll visit Dawn's blog and gallery too. :) Have a blessed day!

Paper: Paper Temtress Cocoa Crepe Ruche, Blanc Sparkle, Vermillion Sparkle
Stamps: Paper Makeup Stamps Birthday Cheer
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Real Red
Accessories: Scallop Heart Nesties, Heart Nesties, Gem stickers, Gingham ribbon, tissue paper, Hershey bar (haha), marker