Keep Calm and.....Be Fabulous!

Each year it's a challenge to come up with creative ideas for my daughter's birthday that DON'T involve Christmas.

Right smack dab in the middle of December, my beautiful baby girl was born. That single, wonderful event sent me on an endless hunt for party decorations that do not include the colors red and green!

I would purchase them earlier in the year, but when your child changes her mind about the kind of birthday theme she wants 5 times between September and December 1st, that's really a no go.
This year, I kind of forced the issue by finding some cool plates and napkins in the clearance rack at my local red spot store. They were funky pink plates that said "Keep Calm and Birthday On" with a little cake symbol at the top. Super cute and SO Emma. She's all into the British stuff these days (her favorite shoes are these Bobs that have the British Flag on them.
It was only natural that I would use our current Hostess stamp set Carry On to create her birthday card:

My color combo was Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Basic Gray and Pink Pirouette and Whisper White with Silver Embossing Powder.
I stamped the Distressed Dots background on the white cardstock in Pink Pirouette ink. The keep calm phrase was stamped in Basic Gray over that.

The little crown image was stamped in Versamark ink, then embossed with Silver and punched out with the 3/4" Circle Punch then popped up on a Stampin' Dimensional.
I got the "be" by using my Basic Gray marker on the first two letters of the Believe stamp image from the Snowflake Soiree stamp set. It's stamped on a scrap then punched out with my 1 1/4" Circle punch. I added some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter with my 2 Way Glue pen and a few Basic Rhinestones then it to was popped up on some dimensionals.

Some of you may not recognize the banner phrase. It's from a retired stamp set called Fabulous Flowers. Most people remember the stamp set because of the big ol' pouffy flower that was in it, but it also had a stamp that says "Dare to be Fabulous" - and that is why I will never part with it. We should all dare to be fabulous in our own way!
Anyway, I used my Melon Mambo marker on just the word fabulous then hand cut the banner with my Paper Snips. A little more glitter, another rhinestone then it was adhered to the card front with Glue Dots.
Fabulous!

Emma loved her card and she loved her birthday party - it's a big deal turning 15 and we wanted to make it special for her.
Sadly, Emma's birthday will now forever fall on a day that America will never forget for while we were celebrating another year of life for my child, 27 other families were grieving the loss of their children. I was finally able to write about this awful tragedy on my other blog - A Courageous Heart - last night. Here is the link to my thoughts if you'd like to read them: http://acourageousheart.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-i-am-thinking-about.html

As Emma and I were sitting here just now, she was reading my blog post while eating her breakfast. She said to me "Mom, from now on on my birthday, I want to make cupcakes for all the kids who got killed that day and hand them out. They won't ever get to celebrate another birthday and I want to do it for them."
Dear God, I love my child.

Blessings,
~~Robin