{Maddy Bear}

One thing my Sister often has me make for her is invitations. We go back and forth bouncing ideas and after making lots of samples, sending lots of emailed pictures, chatting on the phone and adjusting colors, we come up with something she loves. My sweet niece, Madison is turning 3 next month - 3! Wow how time flies. Anyway, my Sister decided to throw Madison a Build-A-Bear (B-A-B) birthday party and I thought, "Yes!" Stampin' Up just came out with a whole B-A-B line and I, having a thing for bears, had to buy nearly the entire collection! So, my sister and I looked online for inspiration and found this card by "the_tamster" on Splitcoast Stampers and my Sister instantly fell in love with the houndstooth outfit. I took that idea and came up with this:


However, as usually is the case, my Sister wanted to see it in green. Aside from being her favorite color, the party was going to be coed, so since the bear was already super girly, my Sister thought a more neutral colored background might make it a bit more gender neutral. She also prefered the ribbon belt that "the_tamster" used. So, I accomodated and came up with this:


Bingo! Except she wanted the polka dot background back. Easy peasy. So I whipped up 15 of these babies (which is no small feat considering all those tiny die cut pieces) and delivered them to her over the weekend (I usually mail them out for her as well but not this time). She was thrilled with them. They were perfect and adorable and just as she imagined. Madison thought they were pretty cute too. I told her this bear was called "Maddy Bear" and it was her! She thought that was pretty cool. I think I'll have to make her some B-A-B paper dolls!

Even though cutting out ALL those tiny pieces was a bit of a pain, I must admit that I was happy with the way these little bears turned out. I will definitely have to do some more projects with these little cuties!