Create for MORE birthdays...

March is a busy month at the Starsky house.  Three birthdays, including mine.  Unique Laser Designs is a new company, and they sought out some help from the Scrap It Girl Design Team to get the word out about their new web site and plethora (I like that word) of laser cut shapes.  They sent us all some free samples to play with and we are having a fabulously creative time!

When I saw these wood shapes, I was eager to make a birthday banner that we can leave up all through the spring as we celebrate even more family birthdays.

Here are the shapes all naked.  They smelled fantastic!

I added some black Ranger acrylic paint and Tim Holtz Picket Fence Distress Stain and then splattered some apple green paint on top and lastly edged with some turquoise.  These were covered in just a couple of thin coats of paint/stain because I wanted the grain of the wood to show through.

For the 3-piece wood cupcake from Unique Laser Designs, I painted the base and frosting with an orange paint marker.  I used a Tim Holtz Sizzix rosette strip die (but didn't make a rosette) to look like the cupcake liner.  To the frosting shape, I spread some glue on top and then sprinkled white Flower Soft and seed beads. The cherry on top...a layer of ruby glitter glue.

I added some strips of birthday patterned paper and used the Tim Holtz Sizzix rosette strip die (to really make rosettes this time) as a base for each letter in BIRTHDAY (those letters are from Unique Laser Designs too).  I punched some circles and folded them over the metallic yarn I used to string all of the shapes to make this long (very long) banner seen below.

Unique Laser Designs keeps adding more and more shapes to their collection.  I have a cart started, and every time I think I am ready to complete my order she (Shilo, the owner) starts teasing us on Facebook with more shapes that are coming.  Not only are these shapes a great addition to home decor (and VERY reasonably priced), but they are really thin and perfect for scrapbook pages and cards without adding a lot of bulk to the project.  I like my scrapbook pages flat, but I wouldn't hesitate to add one of the small shapes to a page and still feel like it would slide into a page protector without difficulty. 

I have a lot more goodies to play with and I am thinking "spring"...even though it certainly doesn't feel like it here in Wisconsin.  More snow this morning...ugh!

~Kelly