Birthday Pal

Miss Amelia will be four years old tomorrow. It’s so hard to believe, because it seems like only yesterday we were heading to the hospital to meet her for the first time. She is so much fun, and she comes out with the funniest things sometimes. Mike is taking a class out of town, and as we were talking about her birthday, she found out Mike would be gone for her party.  Of course, she had to know why. She laughed when she heard he would be in school. “Mike, you’re not a kid. You can’t go to school!”

Because she loves animals so much, I decided to use the adorable Postcard Pals Stamp Set from the 2018-19 Stampin’ Up!® Annual Catalog for her card.

I love this set. It’s so much fun to play with. First I stamped in Versamark Ink on Watercolor Paper and embossed with Black Stampin’ Emboss Powder. That’s my preferred method for watercoloring. The embossing powder acts as a little fence for the ink, and it doesn’t bleed or run.

The 2018-20 Stampin’ Up!® In Colors are perfect for kids’ cards. I used Blueberry Bushel, Call Me CLover, Lovely Lipstick, and Pineapple Punch, as well as a little Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, and Balmy Blue. Because I wanted the colors a little bolder, I colored directly on the watercolor paper with Stampin’ Write Markers, then used an Aqua Painter to blend out the ink a bit.

I embossed the Pineapple Punch panel with the Polka Dot Basics Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (TIEF), because it reminded me of balloons. Then I embossed the front of the Blueberry Bushel card base with the new Subtle Dynamic TIEF. I meant to add something sparkly, but forgot. I still ahve time. Amelia is my glitter girl!

Another one of the funny things she does is to say, “So tell me about your day.” It’s extra funny when she asks me in the car after I pick her up in the morning. Me: Well, I woke up, drank coffee, and came here. Kind of boring.

What wasn’t boring was our Saturday adventure. Several times a year, there’s a book fair about an hour away from us. Saturday was Ag Day at the book fair, with a farmer, farm animals kids could pet, a tractor they could play on (with supervision), face painting, a free book, and more. (This was a great marketing move for the Book Fair, because since we took Amelia, we spent a lot more money on books than we normally do.)

First she wanted to pet the animals. She was amazing. Some of the other kids – even older ones – were poking and squeezing the poor little animals. But Amelia gently petted them and spoke calmly to them.

Next she and I stood in the very long line for face painting. She chose a rainbow and it was adorable. You can’t see in the picture, but there are sparkles in the clouds! After that, she wanted to climb the tree behind the barn. It was perfect for little kids, because the lowest limb was only about 18″ off the ground.

We all had so much fun. There was no real schedule to keep or agenda to follow. Whatever she wanted to do, we did. And she made some awesome book purchases.

After the Book Fair, we went to lunch. Well, actually, first we got ice cream, because the parking lot at the restaurant was full. Then we went to lunch. And that’s actually perfect, because it was a pre-birthday event, and one of our traditions is to eat dessert first on birthdays. It was such a fun day; I’m really enjoying this grandma gig!

Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy – and listening to me gush about my granddaughter. Have a lovely day!

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