Happily Hoppin' for Aletha's Birthday

I received an email a week or so ago asking if I wanted to be part of a surprise blog hop for Aletha Williams' birthday, Sept. 9.  Well heck yeah!  Aletha is the immensely talented lady who's not only asked me to be on one of her design teams but now two.  Heck yeah!

Before I get into this, here's the Lady of Honor as well as the blogs on the hop.  You should have arrived here from Susan's fab space.  If you didn't, you may want to start back at Kristy's, the organizer of this whole celebration.

Aletha’s Birthday blog roll:

KristyLee
Christine
Sugar
Anita 
Patti 
Susan Salyer 
Jen
Sandy
Melissa 
Ike 
Julia 
Rhonda
Tracey
Suzi
Aletha

So.  A birthday card for Aletha.  I felt like a traitor for this one- one of the teams I'm on is Aletha's ippity DT.  I didn't really use ippity.  I have the Mixed Bunch Stampin' Up set I've been looking for an excuse to ink.  I even have the matching punch that I've been wanting to try out.  So Aletha, while I didn't use MUCH ippity (the leaves!  I didn't totally disgrace myself- I used ippity leaves!), I broke out brand new supplies just for you!  :)  I wanted to make a fairly clean card with a purple flower on it, maybe a bit of ribbon. 

But WAIT!  Based on a short conversation we had last week, I deduced (just call me Sherlock!) that Aletha likes to read... BOOKS.  Actual paper books!  Wouldn't a bookmark be nice?!  So.  You'll notice that the flower looks like it bulges a bit strangely off the page and, well, it does.  That's because a polite little pull (well, maybe a firm twist and tug) should release the glue dot from the ribbon, allowing the ribbon and flower to come off the card and be used as a bookmark.  I tied a ribbon slide to the end to keep the ribbon from fraying and to add a bit of weight to the far end.  That's about the end of my grand ideas for the week!  LOL.

Aletha, I hope you have a WONDERFUL birthday and have some time to enjoy family, friends, crafting and maybe even a bit of reading.  Your card/bookmark should be arriving on Monday.  :)

Before you move onto Sandy's, we have a gift for all of our hoppers!  Tracey Malnofski, a fabulous Unity artista and owner/designer at The Stamping Boutique, has given us this digi to share with you for free because it's one of Aletha's favorite TSB images and is appropriately names "Fairy Aletha."

9/15/12: SORRY.  The free image was removed after the hop.  Please see TSB if you'd like to purchase the image.
   

Thanks for joining us on the hop and don't forget to stop by Aletha's, the last stop, and wish her a very happy birthday!


Ingredients:
Stamps: (Mixed Bunch, Sincere Salutations, Antique Background): Stampin' Up, (Now & Always): ippity
Ink: (Pale Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Eggplant Envy, Basic Black, Green Galore, Certainly Celery, Garden Green): Stampin' Up, (VersaMark): Tsukineko
Paper: (Whisper White, Eggplant Envy): Stampin' Up
Misc: (Ribbon slide): Stampin' Up, (Clear EP): JoAnn's

Challenges: (I feel a bit odd entering this in challenges but I'm SO happy with how it turned out!)
Unique Crafters' Challenge: Anything Goes
Stampendous: Embossing (Unfortunately, it doesn't show up well but the flowers were all stamped with the purple inks, and then VersaMark, then embossed with clear EP to give the bookmark a bit of texture and shine.)
Craft Your Passion: Floral images
DYSU #88: Birthdays