Life in Wonderland

Blame It On Blumebox

2012-01-24T22:01:00.000-08:00

I am a huge Blumebox fan - I love everything about their products. But just about this time last year, I truly believe I was blinded by that love. Need proof?

Exhibit A: Here is a picture of a Blumebox. Look carefully at the first part of the product name - it's spelled "BLUME".

Exhibit B: Here is a picture of a Valentine's Day card that I made last year. I was trying to cleverly change the well-known expression by using the word "bloom" in place of "boom". However, as you can clearly see in the picture, the word was completely misspelled - twice! Sheer coincidence that it was spelled like Blumebox? Not a chance...I was blinded by love!

In an effort to redeem myself, I decided to recreate the original play on words concept - this time using the correct spelling of the word! I found this great graphic that I tweaked slightly and combined it with an 8 inch red Blumebox. Here's the result...

Please note the spelling...

Thanks for indulging me - I feel so much better now that I had the opportunity to write a wrong!

I Heart Rice Krispy Treats

2012-01-16T12:38:00.000-08:00

Even though it feels like we just rang in the New Year, a trip to my favorite craft store quickly reminded me that Valentine's Day is almost here! Everyone who follows the blog knows that I don't bake, but I've been perfecting my culinary skills in the art of rice krispy treat making for years. So here is my latest creation in honor of Valentine's Day.

I started by pulling out a couple of heart-shaped cookie cutters - a big one and a little one.

I made the rice krispy treats using this basic recipe (sorry no pics, I got lazy). I then divided the mix in half and added red food coloring to one half. Once the treats had cooled, I cut out a heart using the big cutter. I then used the little cutter to cut out another heart in the middle of the big heart. Finally I switched the little hearts out - here's the result...

I know I've said it before, but this might be the easiest thing I've ever made!

More Valentine's Day crafts on the way soon...

2011 Year End Top Ten

2011-12-30T07:50:00.000-08:00

I noticed a lot of folks posting a year end review around Blogland and thought I'd join in the fun. So here is a list of the top 10 Life in Wonderland posts from 2011 - enjoy!

#10 - Easter Bunny Lantern

#9 - Tale of Two Birthday Party Invitations

#8 - DIY Valentine's Day Cards

#7 - Turkey Lantern

#6 - Burlap Easter Basket

#5 - Superbowl XLV Decor

#4 - Bandanna Wreath

#3 - Fruity Valentines

#2 - I Heart Kisses

#1 - DIY Baby Shower Favor

Hope you have a fantastic New Years - looking forward to a ton of amazing crafting in 2012!

Linking up to:

Mrs. Claus Card

2011-11-25T10:26:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to make a card in honor of a woman who is routinely overlooked this time of year...Mrs. Claus!

Because I'm about out of fresh card ideas, I used the same technique as I did to make this card and this card. The one difference is that I gave Mrs. Claus an updated, blinged-out look by using red glitter foam paper.

I think Santa would approve!

Lollipop Turkey

2011-11-23T04:55:00.000-08:00

There are going to be a number of young kids who will be feasting with us tomorrow, so I came up with a little craft to keep them occupied for a while...a lollipop turkey.

Almost too cute to eat! This is a super easy craft - here's what you'll need:
Lollipop
Googly eyes
Foam or construction paper (I used the following colors - brown, black, yellow, red, tan and gold)
Glue
Ribbon

Pre-cut the shapes and then allow the kids to glue them on.

I cut all of the shapes freehand - no need to be exact, just have fun with it!

Here are the basic shapes I went by:
The body of the turkey = Figure 8
The nose = Triangle
The wattle = Teardrop
The hat = Clay Flower Pot
The buckle = Square

To all of the US readers - hope you have a great Thanksgiving holiday!

DIY Turkey Placecard

2011-11-18T14:03:00.001-08:00

I have a strange fascination with cookie cutters. Why "strange" you ask? Because I don't bake! But for some reason I still continue to purchase cookie cutters (that take up a fair amount of kitchen cabinet space I might add). I have figured out other ways to use them outside of baking - remember this, this and this? So, continuing in that tradition, I decided to make Thanksgiving placecards using cookie cutters.

I found this adorable turkey-shaped cookie cutter at my go to craft store (Hobby Lobby). It's a really great copper color which forced me to buy it.

I then found a copper colored piece of scrapbook paper and printed the names on it. After that I cut the paper into strips like this one...

Finally, I cut a small triangle at the end of each strip, gently folded it backwards and then attached it to the cookie cutter using glue dots.

Here's the placecard all dressed up with a place setting...

These are super easy to assemble and you can give the cookie cutters to your guests as favors - 2 for the price of 1!

Thanksgiving Turkey Lantern

2011-11-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

I'm still in denial that Thanksgiving Day will be here in a couple of weeks! There are a ton of crafts that I was planning to make prior to the big feast, but it's not looking good. So, I decided to tackle the crafts that take no time at all to construct. First up: a turkey lantern...

You might remember the first time I made this kind of craft was for Easter - see it here. All you need to make this is a paper lantern, foam paper and hot glue. I used the cute little turkey below as a template, cut out the shapes and glued them directly onto the lantern. That's it!

Now on to the next craft!

My Halloween Drama

2011-10-31T13:23:00.001-07:00

Halloween is a huge event at my house to the point where costumes are typically purchased a month in advance. However, for reasons I'm still not quite sure of, I didn't start shopping for costumes until last week - insert "eek" here.

My oldest son decided that he wanted to be a combat soldier - easy. And, after much thought, my youngest son decided that he wanted to be the Blue Power Ranger - even easier, or so I thought. The last time I heard about Power Rangers was the late 90's, so who knew that every store in greater Atlanta would be sold out of Power Ranger costumes this year! I looked and looked and finally located one at Party City. I couldn't believe my luck, until the guy handed me the package and then I knew exactly why the costume had not been purchased...

No mask? Really? I frantically called my husband for advice and he assured me that I had enough crafting mojo to make a mask. So, with new found confidence, I purchased the mask-less costume. Here's my best attempt at making my kid a Power Ranger...

Can you tell what the mask really is? It's Iron Man!

I first spray painted the entire mask blue...

Then I cut the shape on the mask out of foam paper and hot glued it on - much easier than I thought it would be!

My son is completely happy with his costume - crisis averted! Hope you all have a Happy Halloween!!

DIY Biz Card

2011-10-23T18:30:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend my very first blogger conference and it was a-mazing! I'm gonna devote a whole separate post about that event later this week because it deserves a serious shout out.

One of the things I learned prior to going to the conference was that I needed to be armed with a ton of business cards to share with all of the fabulous bloggers that I'd meet. Unfortunately the cards I owned only listed my website that is in desperate need of a makeover. So, the day before the conference, I decided to make my own business cards that listed my blog and Etsy store info. I knew this was a little risky given the fact that I'd never done it before, but I'm still in a "nothing ventured nothing gained" kind of mindset. So here's what I made...

I'd love to take full credit for this design, but it was actually inspired by this gorgeous card that I saw on Flickr.

I had to get feedback from my toughest critic (my 5 year old son), who quickly bashed the entire design. Here's how his critique went:
"Um Mom, why is the bunny on the front? Shouldn't it be the hat instead? If you keep it like that people will think your company is called 'Hare & Hatter'. I think you're confused."

Ouch! I tried to sell the design to my kid another way by pointing out how artistic it is to see the hat within the outline of the hare once you open the card. His response: "Yep, you're confused".

I'm not embarrassed to tell you that I actually spent an hour redesigning the card based on the input of a 5 year old. Seriously. However, at a certain point I realized that I didn't have that kind of time and went back to the original (some would say 'confusing') design.

I spent the rest of the night cutting out the silhouette of the hare by hand, but it was so worth it!

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained...

2011-10-10T20:43:00.001-07:00

Two months after creating an Etsy shop, I finally had a chance to actually put items in said shop...and there was much rejoicing! So I invite you to pop over to my new digs and check out the merchandise here - more items on the way soon!

My plan is to start off selling party decorations - centerpieces, banners and wall signs. But I have a ton of ideas for coordinating items that I hope to offer as well. The first items listed in the store are all Halloween-themed, but here is a sneak peek of another product line that I'm working on...cowgirls rock!

Along Came a Spider Place Cards

2011-09-22T13:01:00.001-07:00

I started pulling out Halloween decorations this week and stumbled upon a bag of spider rings that I bought on sale last year. I'm going to see how many crafts I can incorporate the rings into this Halloween. First up, place cards of course!

These are simple do-it-yourself place cards that can be made at the last minute. I started off by printing the name on a piece of cardstock.

Then I trimmed down the cardstock, folded it in half and cut a small slit next to the name. This slit will be used to hold the spider ring.

Simply slide the ring into the slit and the place card is done!

A Pile of Pumpkins

2011-09-14T12:38:00.001-07:00

I live in Georgia and it's still 90 degrees outside, so I'm having a hard time grasping the fact that Fall is just around the corner. My son tried to sneak a pumpkin into our cart at the grocery store yesterday, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy one this soon. I felt so bad about not letting him have it that I came up with another way to give him a "pumpkin".

I first dug up this pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter...

Then I cut pumpkin shapes out of different types of fruit...wait, this picture makes it look like I only used cantaloupe right?

However this angle reveals that I actually used cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon. I thinly cut the fruit and stacked them into a pile...

A pile of pumpkins - my son loved them!

DIY School Envelope System

2011-09-01T20:08:00.000-07:00

It has taken most of my adult life for me to figure out that the key to stress-free living is organization! I now realize that everything should have a place to live - car keys, cell phone chargers, whatever. When there is a place for things to return to every time, then my life becomes way easier to manage.

Case in point, every time I had to send money into school with my sons it was always a major production because none of the things I needed (envelopes, pen, paper clips, etc) were ever right where they should be. Here's one example of a super simple system I now use when sending notes/money to school with my guys.

I'm sure you are all well aware of my hoarding issue by now. However, unlike the hoarders on TV, I actually use my hoarded items. I have an old calendar holder that I kept long after the calendar had expired. Here's how I converted the leftover board into a school envelope system.

In addition to the calendar holder, I also reused an old folder to hold the envelopes.

I simply cut out the shape of the flaps...

And then hot glued them onto the board.

I also cut an additional piece of the folder and attached it to the board to hold paper clips and binder clips.

Here's the finished product...

And here's the envelope that I made for school...

My guys have been in school for three weeks now and the envelope system is working like a charm...no stress!

Linking up to:

No Vase? No Problem!

2011-08-29T14:16:00.001-07:00

My husband has the green thumb that I've always dreamed of having. However very rarely does he bring anything from his garden inside to adorn the house. So I was completely shocked a couple of days ago when he not only cut a small bouquet of flowers for me, he also arranged them perfectly in a martini glass no less! Here's a pic of his handiwork...

The use of the martini glass was so creative, I figured he must have been inspired by Southern Living or one of my other decorating magazines. So I had to ask. In reality he didn't know where I kept the vases and the martini glasses were sitting right in front of him on top of the bar. At least he's honest!

My husband's lovely gesture gave me the creative urge to see what other types of drinkware I could use to jazz up simple floral arrangements in the absence of vases. Here's a couple of attempts that I made with what we had laying around the house:

Grandma's Teacup - I just placed a few sprigs of flowers in the base of the cup and this was the result...

Husband's Pilsner Glass - I cut one long Zinnia stem, removed the leaves and covered the flower with water for this simple look...

I'm off to tell my husband that he's been featured on my little blog - no doubt this will be the highlight of his day!

A Pirate's Life For Me

2011-08-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

A while back I was asked whether or not I had posted about the pirate party that I threw for my guys a few years ago. Unfortunately at the time of that party I had a really old camera that took pictures that were incredibly sub par. It turns out that the person inquiring about the party (her name is Traci) was throwing a pirate bash of her own for her little one. I had intended to recreate and post some of the things I used at my party prior to Traci's event, but I missed out...the party was last weekend. Please check out pics from her amazing party here on her new blog.

So here are some of the things we had at our pirate party...

I typically make my own invitations, but an acquaintance of mine graciously offered to do them and I could not resist because they were so darn cute!

Since my guys are still playing with Christmas gifts by the time their birthday rolls around, I have always asked people to not bring presents. Here is the adorable insert (complete with glitter) that went inside the invitation.

I really wanted to have a pirate flag hanging outside, but I was too cheap to buy the nice ones I found. So instead I made one out of foam paper. This was super easy to make - just find a picture online, print it, cut out the shapes and trace it onto the foam.

I also made "pirate ship" platters for all of the food we served. The base of the boat is actually a plastic football container I found at the dollar store. I then attached two wooden dowels and foam paper sails to complete the look.

Now looking back on this party I guess I made a lot of the items...what was I thinking? Here are pieces that I cut out of cardboard to make pirate swords...

To assemble the sword, spray paint the two parts of the handle black and then hot glue the toilet paper roll onto the disk. Either spray paint the blade silver or attach silver paper onto the cardboard (that's what I did). Finally cut a slit on top of the disk and slide the blade into it.

I decorated the chairs by tying a sash around them and gluing a pirate-themed image over the knot. So easy!

I combined two of my sons' favorite foods to make "floating pirate ships": Jell-O and pecan swirls...

I was shopping at Target last week and stumbled upon these adorable sandwich bags in the $1 section. I'm not sure why I continue to buy themed-items for a party that has already occurred, but wouldn't these just be perfect for a pirate party?

Here is a centerpiece that was inspired by the pirate party. I'm in the process of creating an updated version of this item that will be available in my Etsy store soon!

Big thanks to Traci for inspiring me to post about my pirate party - better late than never!

Christmas in July Bows

2011-07-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a decidedly different approach towards Christmas this year by starting my crafting early. A few months ago I stumbled across a great tutorial on gift bow making and I knew it would come in handy for the holidays. My first big task is to make a ton of handmade bows for this year's Christmas presents.

I've used the bow tutorial before with regular paper, but I found some decorative duct tape that I thought would make really cool bows as well...

and here's the result...

Once I saw that I could make bows using duct tape, I wanted to try making more using other unexpected material. So I gathered up a few things from around my house and started making bows.

Out of denim...

a gift bag...

burlap...

grosgrain ribbon...

and decorative tissue paper...

In order to use denim and burlap for the bows, I first dabbed fabric stiffener on the material and let it dry. This was one of the easiest crafts I've done thanks to the tutorial - you should try it!

Super Mario and Friends

2011-07-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had the pleasure of creating birthday party centerpieces for a little Super Mario fan who was turning 5. This is an embarrassing admission given the fact that I have two young sons, but I knew absolutely nothing about Super Mario. However, after consulting with my guys and researching the Internet, I was able to come up with a few designs for the centerpieces.

Of course I had to make Mario...

Along with his twin brother Luigi...

And just for fun I threw in their archenemy, Donkey Kong...

I am currently in the process of designing a line of centerpieces that I'll be selling on Etsy. I'm beyond excited and more than a little scared to start this new venture, but I've decided to adopt a "seize the day" attitude about it. Stay tuned for more information regarding my Etsy shop (I like the sound of that) coming soon!

DIY Favor: Personalized Stationery Box

2011-07-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

The other day I stumbled across a great font that automatically creates monograms. It only takes a minute to make a really nice design and it's free to download. Here's a link to the font and the monogram I made...

I decided to make a super easy favor using the monogram - personalized stationery.
I found some adorable little boxes at my go-to-store Target in the dollar section. There were three different styles (each priced at $1) - I went with the preppy green and pink design.

I dug up some leftover ribbon from this project and wrapped it around the box...

Then I simply attached the monogrammed oval onto the box (I printed the monogram on adhesive-backed paper). Too easy!

Finally, I created a design using the monogram in a Word document and printed out/cut several sheets for the box...

This favor cost a little over $1 and took about 10 minutes to complete.
Easy + Cost Effective = Happiness.

Craft Mashup [Silly Band Gift Wrapping]

2011-07-05T20:39:00.001-07:00

The first time I ever heard about the concept of a mashup was with the release of The Grey Album. A music mashup is a song that is created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs seamlessly. The Grey Album blended songs from Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatles' White Album - genius!

I thought it would be fun to apply the same concept to crafting since I don't make music. Like many of you, I am constantly coming across amazing crafts that inspire me. So I'm going to take some of those amazing ideas and try to blend them seamlessly to make a craft mashup. First up I'm taking crafts from two of my favorite bloggers and making the following mashup: silly band gift wrapping.

A couple of months ago Kristy (aka The Purple Pug) threw a crazy cool Super Mario-themed party for her little guy. One thing that stuck out to me was her creative use of unwanted silly bands...

Photo Source

One of my other faves, Kendra over at My Insanity, created adorable gift wrapping using (of all things) balloons!

Photo Source

So, I took Kristy's idea of repurposing silly bands and combined it with Kendra's creative gift wrapping idea to get this...

This is really easy to make - all you need is a bunch of silly bands. We have a ton of formerly-couldn't-live-without silly bands laying around our house doing absolutely nothing...

Just loop one end of a silly band through another one to form a "chain link". Once you have a long chain, wrap it around the gift (I used one color for each chain). To make the bow, simply tie the silly bands together into a ball shape and then tie it onto the gift.

Thanks (again) to Kristy and Kendra for being constant sources of inspiration! Look out for more craft mashups coming soon!!

DIY 4th of July Place Cards

2011-06-29T19:20:00.000-07:00

Okay I'm going to let you all in on a little secret about me and blogging: whenever I can't think of anything interesting to blog about I make place cards. There I said it.

But, with that being said, I did come up with a last minute do-it-yourself place card for the 4th of July holiday that's kind of cute and super easy to make. Patriotic rockets...

Here's what you'll need:
Patriotic-themed scrapbook paper
Adhesive (I used hot glue, but tape will do)
Shoelaces
Scissors

Step 1: Cut out a circle in the scrapbook paper (I used a roll of duct tape as a template).

Step 2: Cut a slit halfway up the circle.

Step 3: Twist the paper into a cone shape and glue the ends together.

Step 4: Cut out a rectangle in the scrapbook paper (I used a different pattern for contrast).

Step 5: Roll the paper into a cylinder shape and glue the edge.

Steps 6,7,8: Glue the cone on top of the cylinder, then cut and glue a small piece of the shoelace inside the bottom of the cylinder. Finally, add the name on front. Sorry no pics for the multiple steps, I got lazy.

Hope all you US readers have a great 4th of July holiday!

Family Ties

2011-06-16T18:37:00.001-07:00

I think my craftiness is starting to rub off on my kids because they insisted on making something for their Dad this Father's Day. Normally I'd be cool with this suggestion, but we're on vacation and away from all of my goodies - no hot glue, no cutting board, no nothing. So I decided the best thing to do was to make something edible. I'm no baker, but I make a mean tray of rice krispie treats. So after a brief meeting with my guys we decided on this design...any guesses?

Shocker - it's a necktie! We just used the basic rice krispie treat recipe, added food color and topped it with icing.

As nice as the tie came out, I really wanted to make something else to complete the presentation. So I gave into temptation, found a craft store and bought a couple of supplies to make matching "ties" for my little guys...

Hope you all have a fantastic Father's Day!

Linking up to:

DIY Painted Vases

2011-05-30T07:00:00.001-07:00

A couple of days ago I saw a bunch of painted flowers at the market that I couldn't take my eyes off of because the colors were so vibrant. I instantly knew that I wanted to make something that would showcase the colors, so I decided to paint bud vases in coordinating colors. Let me start off by saying that I am no painter, but I stumbled upon a technique that seriously anybody can do.

First, here are the flowers that inspired this craft...cool, right?

I then selected acrylic paint in matching colors.

At my son's request I picked up these square-shaped bud vases because they reminded him of inkwells. I wanted to ask him how that related to this particular craft, but I decided not to go there.

So all you have to do is pour the paint into the vase, shake it so that paint covers the entire inside, and then turn the vase upside down to dry (this allows excess paint to drip out as well). That's it!

I painted one vase for each flower color in the bunch (please bear with me - there are 4 colors)...first up, purple:

blue:

pink:

orange:

The hardest part of this craft was waiting for the paint to dry, which took about 24 hours. I've also seen another technique for achieving this look by using spray paint - I think I'll try that next!

A Patriotic Centerpiece That Rocks!

2011-05-18T13:12:00.001-07:00

A few years ago I signed up to receive daily organizing tips from Martha Stewart via email - I had to do something to keep motivated! So Tuesday's tip was all about lining your flower beds with river rocks to prevent mud from splashing when it rains...genius! For some reason the idea of using river rocks with flowers inspired me to craft. So, using Martha's useful tip, I decided to make a patriotic centerpiece.

First I rounded up a short glass vase and a glass votive...

I then placed the votive inside the vase and filled the votive with water.

Next I spray painted some river rocks in patriotic colors...

and then placed them inside the vase around the votive in layers.

Finally, I snipped a few flowers from my garden and the centerpiece was complete - too easy!

I hope this inspires you to create something using river rocks - please send me a pic if it does!

Junior Mint Julep Shake

2011-05-06T08:45:00.001-07:00

In addition to Mother's Day, the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby will also take place this weekend. Last year I came up with some ideas for kids at a Derby party - you can check them out here. I decided to do a variation on the "Junior Mint Julep" by making it into an ice cream shake (recipe courtesy of 1000easyrecipes.com).

Ingredients
Vanilla Ice Cream
Milk or Half & Half
2 boxes of Junior Mints

Directions
Fill a blender half full of ice cream. Add enough milk to just cover the ice cream. Pour in the Junior Mints. Blend all together until smooth.

Top off the shake with extra candy, a bunch of fresh mint leaves and enjoy! If you want to make the shake into an adult beverage, just add a little rum!

Patriotic Bandanna Wreath

2011-04-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

This week I walked into my favorite craft store and was overwhelmed by the insane amount of red, white and blue merchandise that had replaced the pastel Easter items so quickly. Very rarely do I plan early for anything, but I was really inspired to create something for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday. Being fresh out of ideas, I popped over to check out what the CSI ladies were up to this week and learned it was a wreath challenge - cool.

A while ago I came across an adorable wreath made out of men's ties - you can see the picture here. So I decided to combine a project I did last year with the tie wreath to create a bandanna wreath...

I don't sew, so I used hot glue to make the pennant flags. Once they were made, I simply glued them onto a 13" wooden wreath that I purchased from the dollar store.

Here's a close-up of the bow I made using a bandanna. Yes, I am theme-obsessed!

This was super easy to make thanks to hot glue. Maybe one day I'll finally learn how to sew!

Linking up to:

Easter Eggs Fit For a Teen

2011-04-14T16:05:00.001-07:00

This year I will be spending Easter with a close friend who has teenagers. I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a cool gift for these teens who long ago figured out that thing about the Easter Bunny. So I decided to make them "fashion-inspired" Easter eggs to accompany a traditional chocolate bunny.

I started off with paper mache eggs that I got from the craft store...

First I painted the eggs with a base coat and then used coordinating colored tissue paper to decoupage the eggs.

Egg Inspiration #1 - Tiffany and Co.

Egg Inspiration #2 - Western Chic

Egg Inspiration #3 - Lilly Pulitzer

I hope the girls like the eggs as much as I do!

Linking up to:

Burlap Easter Basket

2011-04-07T09:16:00.001-07:00

This week's challenge over at the CSI Project is to make something using a material I have never worked with before: burlap. My first thought was to take a pass on this one, but I just love a good challenge! So, in keeping with the Easter theme, here is my best first attempt at making a burlap Easter basket.

The first thing I did was soak a large piece of burlap in fabric stiffener and then cut it into strips.

Next, I glued some of the strips onto the bottom of a plastic plate that served as the base of the basket (lots of improvising went on during this process).

Once the strips were on, I flipped the plate over to start the weaving process. I know it looks kind of crazy at this point, still improvising...

I then started to weave the other burlap strips through the ones that were glued to the plate using the "over-under" approach.

I only needed to weave in 4 horizontal rows because the strips were pretty wide. Finally, I decided to make a little burlap bunny to embellish the basket.

And here is the final result...

The fabric stiffener was definitely the key to making this basket happen. I just love it when a great improvised plan comes together!

Linking up to:

Easter Bunny Lantern

2011-03-23T18:00:00.001-07:00

A few months ago I stumbled upon a terrific blog that inspires people to create and share handmade projects each week in the form of a challenge. The creative ladies over at The CSI Project come up with specific themes each week that must be incorporated into every project submitted to the challenge. Some examples of upcoming challenge themes are 'Burlap', 'Easter' and 'Wreaths'. This week's theme is a $5 Challenge and I just had to join in the fun! So the challenge is to make something - anything - for $5 or less. With Easter in the air, I decided to go for a bunny.

Paper Lantern - $1
I found some adorable paper lanterns at the dollar store that became the inspiration for this craft. The lantern will be the body of the bunny.

Craft Foam Paper - .79 cents each
Then I embellished the paper lantern by adding the face and the feet of the bunny using various colors of foam paper.

And here is the result! I simply cut out the head and feet and hot glued them onto the lantern - that's it...

I had so much fun with this challenge I'm going to try (emphasis on the word 'try') to make something for the rest of the challenges this month - stay tuned!

DIY St. Patrick's Day Place Card

2011-03-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

Last Thanksgiving I came across a tutorial for making a pilgrim hat using a clay flower pot - check it out here. I never had the time to make it, but saw an opportunity to use the same technique for a different holiday...St. Patrick's Day!

So I gathered up the necessary items to make a leprechaun's hat: the clay pot, green paint, black ribbon and a gold buckle...

First paint the flower pot (I couldn't get the spray paint to play nice with the clay, so I used green acrylic paint instead), then wrap the ribbon through the buckle and around the pot - that's it!

I decided to make the little hat into a place card because my obsession with place cards is still in full effect...

A Tale of Two Birthdays - The Invitations

2011-03-09T14:38:00.001-08:00

I have two wonderful little boys who were both born on St. Patrick's Day - two years apart. For the past few years they have been thrilled with having a joint birthday party, but that all changed about a month ago (*sigh*). I knew this was coming, I just didn't think it would happen so soon! So I've spent the last three weeks planning two separate parties for my newly emancipated birthday boys.

My oldest son is turning 7 and decided on a baseball-themed party since he is obsessed with the sport. I immediately knew that I wanted the invitations to have the same look as this invitation I made for a baby shower earlier this year. Here is the baseball jersey version...

Ironically I put myself in the exact same situation as I did with the baby shower invite by underestimating the amount of time needed to complete them - I guess I'll learn on the next go around. So, I again modified the original design for the sake of time. Here's the result...

My youngest son is turning 5 and chose a dinosaur theme for his party. He has never had the chance to experience his very own birthday party, so I'm going all out for this one. I came across a fantastic dinosaur party that was thrown by invitation designer Jill Smith. She created an amazing invitation that I attempted to recreate for my son's bash. Here's my version...

Both parties are happening next weekend, so look for more pics coming soon!

Fruit Shamrocks

2011-03-02T23:46:00.000-08:00

I might have mentioned a few times that I tend to hold onto things forever. I like to call it collecting, others might call it hoarding - either way, it works for me. So I was super excited to see the latest post over on the Cute Food For Kids blog where Tiffany shared her collection of cookie cutters. The reason I was so excited was because I too have amassed a large collection of cookies cutters, even though I can't stand to bake - I know, my husband doesn't get it either. You can check out Tiffany's collection here ...this is what mine looks like...

It was kind of fun going through all of the cookie cutters - I had forgotten I had so many cool shapes. Since St. Patrick's Day is only a few weeks away, I was really happy to see that I had a miniature shamrock-shaped cutter in the pile.

Since the fruit kebabs were a big hit at my son's Valentine's Day party, I thought I'd go for two and make more fruit for his St. Patrick's Day party at school...this time using kiwi fruit.

Too cute, right? And no baking required!

Art-Inspired Gift Wrapping

2011-02-19T17:42:00.001-08:00

After enduring weeks and weeks of sub-par weather in Georgia, we finally had some awesome sunny days that reminded me why I moved here in the first place! One of my kids' favorite outdoor activities is chalk drawing, so they devoted an entire afternoon to honing their artistic skills in the driveway. I decided to capture some of their creations and use them in a unique way.

I first started off by taking pictures of my favorite pieces. This drawing was done by my oldest son...

and this one was made by my youngest son...

I'm currently in the process of planning both of my sons' birthday parties, so I've got birthday on the brain right now. That's probably the reason why I thought it would be cool to make gift wrap using their artwork.

To do this, I simply copied the pictures multiple times and created a .pdf file. I then had the file printed onto large sheets of paper at a print shop and my wrapping paper was ready!

I found a terrific tutorial that shows how to make gift bows from magazine pages - check out the tutorial here. I used the same steps to make a bow using the artwork wrapping paper...

When you stumble upon an amazing blog, do you spend hours looking back through the older posts? Maybe it's just me! Well right after I found the gift bow tutorial on the How About Orange blog, I discovered a tutorial for creating gift bags - here's the link. So I used my youngest son's masterpiece for this project...

So at this point I was in full gift wrapping mode. I found some takeout boxes that I use to hold favors and thought it would be fun to cover one in the artwork wrapping paper. This was really easy to do. First open the takeout box and lay it flat on the paper. Then trace the outline of the box, cut it out and glue the wrapping paper onto the box.

Thank goodness I ran out of paper - I can only imagine what I would wrap up next!

Angry (Love) Birds

2011-02-13T23:13:00.001-08:00

My husband's new love, along with the rest of the country apparently, is a game called Angry Birds. I've never been a gamer, but I do appreciate the creativity that goes into some of these video games. Case in point - in Angry Birds players use a slingshot to launch wingless birds at evil green pigs who stole their eggs...hence the reason they're angry. I recently heard that the pigs were chosen as the enemy because the Swine Flu was in full effect when the game was being developed - very cool!

Since he loves this game so much, I decided to make my husband an Angry Birds-themed card for Valentine's Day. I took the same approach to making this card as I did for his Father's Day card (that was when he was in love with the Wii - see it here).

For the front of the card, I first found a picture of an iphone and then cut/pasted an Angry Birds Valentine's Day card that the video game developers created for Facebook users.

In addition to the Facebook card, the developers also released a new Valentine's Day version of the game this month. For the inside of the card, I took images from that game and added a caption.

Here's the real card...

To complete the gift, I also downloaded the Valentine's version of the game onto my husband's phone (for only .99 cents) - I know, how romantic!

I hope you have a fantastic Valentine's Day!

DIY Candy Valentine's Day Cards

2011-02-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

I finally decided to start constructing Valentine's Day cards for the annual card exchange extravaganza at my son's school. But halfway through the construction process I had to stop and remind myself why I didn't make my life easier by just purchasing cards. And the answer is simple: I'm a crafter - this is what I do.

After a brief consultation with my client, it became pretty clear that he could care less what the card looked like as long as it wasn't too "girly" and there was candy on it. So I decided to let the candy be my inspiration for this card - Butterfinger Hearts.

Okay I'm going to admit that I did not put much thought into this design because, let's face it, the candy is going to trump even the most elaborate card out there. Both of my boys love dinosaurs, so I thought that would be a safe bet. The heart-shaped candy was what led me to make it a Stegosaurus. This card was super easy to make - just cut out a dinosaur shape, add googly eyes, a mouth and then attach the chocolate candy using adhesive dots. I saw a blog post where they attached candy onto a card using a low-temperature glue gun, so that's an option as well.

I started thinking about other ways to use the candy for Valentine's Day cards and just had to try them out. Here is an idea for a butterfly card...

And an idea for a flower card...

Here's a close-up of the flower...just arrange the chocolate hearts in a circular shape and attach a small piece of scrapbook paper in the middle...

I'm working on one more idea for a do-it-yourself Valentine's Day card that I hope to finish before the big day...stay tuned!

Are You Ready for Super Bowl XLV?

2011-02-02T15:02:00.000-08:00

Being a native of the great state of Wisconsin, I would be remiss if I did not dedicate a post to the beloved Green Bay Packers! This Sunday my home team will take the field in the hopes of winning yet another trophy in Super Bowl XLV. For everyone outside of the US, the Super Bowl is an annual sporting event in which two American football teams compete for the top honor. This Sunday it's the Packers versus the Pittsburgh Steelers - I can't wait!

A few months ago I created a post about hosting a football-themed party...you can check it out here. So I thought I would create some new ideas just in time for the Super Bowl.

Football Vase
Okay I know it's a guy's game, but there's no reason why the party space can't look pretty! I turned a chocolate brown Blumebox into a "football" by attaching textured scrapbook paper, white ribbon and shoelaces to it.

Cheeseheads
Wisconsin is primarily known for its cheese. When I moved to Georgia, I first caught flack for being a Yankee and then I was labeled a "cheesehead" - both of which I am very proud to be! On game day it is not uncommon to see Packer fans wearing cheeseheads like this...

So I thought it would be fun to give the beverages a similar look this Sunday...

But upon seeing the cheesehead-ed beer, my husband pointed out a glaring error: Yuengling is brewed in Pennsylvania, home of the Steelers. Oops! It was the only beer we had laying around the house - it will definitely be replaced by PBR on Sunday!

Brats in a Blanket
Tailgating at Lambeau Field would not be complete without two things - beer and bratwursts. So I'm planning to serve a variation on the traditional bun version of the bratwurst by making them bite-size. You can find a great recipe for brats in a blanket here. I also made flags to dress up the brat platter by printing out Packers logos and gluing them onto toothpicks.

Less is More Decor
Given the fact that most of the people coming to the party will really be there to watch the game, I want to have subtle decorations that won't be too distracting - I admit that the green and yellow color combo can be a bit much. I came across a really cool tutorial for making a graphic design that would be perfect for the understated look I want. Here's my first attempt at it...

And here is one way I plan to incorporate the look into the party...

If you are one of the thousands of people throwing a party this Sunday, I hope you have a fantastic event!

GO PACK GO!

My Fruity Valentine

2011-01-28T16:49:00.001-08:00

At the beginning of the school year (during a moment of weakness), I voluntarily agreed to be the room mom for my son's class. One of the responsibilities of being a room mom is organizing classroom parties. My son's teacher recently approached me with a request for the upcoming Valentine's Day party - please provide fruit, lots of fruit. So here are some hopefully cool ways to serve fruit to a bunch of first graders on Valentine's Day.

Idea #1: Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, simply cut out the shape in a slice of watermelon...

You can also cut out a heart in a different type of fruit (in this case cantaloupe) and place it inside the watermelon cutout. My little guy thought this looked, and I quote, "awesome"!

Idea #2: You can psych the kids out by giving each of them heart-shaped candy boxes filled with grapes...

Idea #3: What child doesn't like things that come on a stick? Again using the heart-shaped cutter, you can make fruit kebabs.

Idea #4: My husband thinks this is cheating because it involves chocolate, but I still think it's a good idea. First cut out 'x' and 'o' shapes in different types of fruit (I used cantaloupe and bananas) and then lightly dip them in melted chocolate - yum!

Good luck to all the other room moms out there - hope this helps!

Love Notes

2011-01-27T06:10:00.001-08:00

I decided to be creative this year and make homemade Valentine's Day gifts for my son's teachers. So I once again turned to the internet for inspiration and found an incredibly simple craft to make - custom notepads.

Here is the original post from Skip To My Lou that explains in detail how to make the notepads. I decided to put a Valentine's Day spin on them by cutting out hearts in the paper. I used a Cricut machine, but there are punches like this one that can achieve the same look.

I alternated cutting hearts at the top and at the bottom of each page so that the paper design would "bleed" through the hearts.

One thing that I changed from the Skip To My Lou tutorial was to extend the length of the cardboard backing so that a little extra was at the top. I then punched holes in the cardboard and added ribbon to dress up the notepad a bit.

Finally, I glued a magnet on the back of the cardboard so that the notepad could be hung on a refrigerator, filing cabinet, etc...

Not only were the notepads super easy to assemble, they cost next to nothing to make. I might have mentioned that I'm kind of a hoarder, so I used leftover scrapbook paper for the pages. By the way, this is the craft that I was working on that became the inspiration for this post. More Valentine's Day crafts on the way - I just can't stop myself!

I Heart Hershey Kisses!

2011-01-24T21:08:00.000-08:00

While creating another do-it-yourself Valentine's Day craft (future post), I was left with a ton of small cut-out hearts. My first thought was to go against my hoarder tendencies and toss them out, but they were too stinking cute to throw away!

I just bought several bags of Hershey kisses to make Valentine's Day cards for my kids (look for a future post on this as well). So I thought it would be fun to try to make the kisses look sweeter than they taste. Here's my best attempt...

This turned out to be one of the easiest things I've ever made. Simply tape the cut-out heart onto the Hershey tag - that's it!

Please check back for more easy Valentine's Day crafts soon!

Home Improvement-inspired Valentine's Day Ideas

2011-01-20T08:47:00.000-08:00

I have spent the past 2 days trying to de-clutter my house...with very little progress I'm sad to say. I don't know if the creative side of my brain was working overtime or if I was just incredibly bored with cleaning, but somehow I kept finding inspiration for Valentine's Day crafts as I came across basic household items. So, I felt compelled to take a small break from cleaning to put together some of these ideas - and I emphasize the word 'small' because each item took very little time to make. Sorry in advance for the sappy titles for the ideas - I get a little caught up around Valentine's Day!

Idea #1: Stuck on You Card
Household Item Used - Duct Tape

I really love simple designs on cards, so I cut out a heart from a piece of red duct tape and attached it to a white card - easy!

Idea #2: Hugs & Kisses You Won't Want to Wipe Off
Household Item Used: Sponges

A while ago I read an article about making custom stamps using sponges, but never tried it until now. I cut out an 'X' and an 'O' from the sponge freehand, but after seeing them I would definitely recommend using a template!

Dip the sponge in paint and apply it onto whatever you want to embellish - in this case I used gift bags.

Idea #3: I Heart You Frame
Household Items Used: Shelf Liner & Spray Paint

I have a stash of pictures (like of the kids sitting on Santa's lap) that I only pull out at Christmas time to decorate rooms. Instead of having to change out pictures each holiday, I thought it would be cool to embellish the glass in the picture frame and change that out instead. First I cut out a heart shape using adhesive shelf liner that I found buried in a cabinet. Attach the heart-shaped liner directly onto the glass.

Then apply spray paint over the entire surface of the glass and let it dry. Once dry, remove the shelf liner heart and place the glass back in its' original frame - that's it!

That was fun, now back to cleaning...

A Baby Shower

2011-01-11T10:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the repost - even after doing this for a year I still have technical blogging issues!
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I recently had the opportunity to help throw a shower for a friend who is expecting a baby girl. I have two little boys who I love and adore, but it was an absolute blast being surrounded by nothing but pink while planning this event! Here are some of the items I made for the shower.

The Invitation
I stumbled across an adorable design for an invitation while surfing the web. This is the version that I made...

You can find the directions to make the invitation pictured above here. Unfortunately, shortly after I made the invitation I realized that they're pretty labor-intensive and that I would never finish all of them on time. So, I decided to tweak the design a little without sacrificing the cuteness. Instead of making the onesie out of cardstock, I cut the shape out using scrapbook paper and attached it to a folded card. Much easier!

The Favor
I once again turned to the web for inspiration for the shower favors and one of my favorite bloggers did not disappoint. Bakerella, who comes up with some of the most amazing baked goods I've ever seen, created a gift of dry cookie mix for a friend - here is her post. I thought this would make a great shower favor, so I simply added a nipple and a ribbon on top of the jar to make it look like a baby bottle...

Bakerella graciously included printable baking instructions in her post - I printed them on clear label paper and attached it on the back of the bottle. Also, per her post, I used smooth Ball canning jars that have a two-piece cover: a flat metal lid, covered by a screw-on ring. To secure the nipple, place it on top of the metal lid and then put the screw-on ring over it - no adhesive required!

The Decor
Due to a limited budget, I decided to make the decorations for the shower. I hung banners made out of various colors of pink scrapbook paper around the room. To make the banner, first cut out a triangle in the scrapbook paper. Then you can either adhere a string to the back of the triangles, or punch 2 holes at the top of each triangle and thread a string through the holes.

I also made tissue paper pom poms that were hung down the center of the room over the dining table. These are super easy to make and inexpensive - here are the directions.

To decorate the walls, I made a baby carriage holding the new arrival (again inspired by the web) out of foam paper. Stay tuned for more information related to this design coming soon!

I also made an enlarged version of the invitation onesie to hang on the wall. Who knew you could buy mega-sized snaps!

I could see each of these designs easily being adapted for a boy shower or a unisex shower, so I hope they help if you're looking for ideas!

Linking up to:

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T17:18:00.001-08:00

Out of all the cool experiences that I've had in 2010, I would have to say that working on the East Coast/West Coast Tablescape Challenge for the Children's Party Network had the biggest impact on me for a couple of reasons. First, being new on the scene, I was incredibly honored to be asked to participate alongside established party people. Second, the challenge forced me to try different crafting techniques (like my new favorite thing - embossing) that are now a part of my repertoire.

My contribution to the challenge (that we won by the way - go Team East!) were the invitations. Since it is New Year's Eve, I thought it would be fun to show you the initial drafts that I created before committing to the final design - enjoy!

Just to refresh your memory, the challenge was to create black & white themed items for a children's New Year's Eve party. However, our team was further challenged to incorporate the Sunday comics into the designs as well - no pressure!

Design #1: Cartoon Callout Clouds

Design #2: Blinged-out Mickey Clock

Design #3: Old School B&W Mickey Mouse Cartoons

Design #4: My homage to a Jordan Ferney design

The Final Design - pictures courtesy of Artistic Soul Photography:

Hope you have a fabulous holiday - I can't wait to see what 2011 brings!

Dollar Tree Christmas Challenge

2010-12-17T16:53:00.000-08:00

Somehow in between holiday shopping, decorating, school parties and planning a baby shower (future post), I found time to enter a holiday craft contest. Dollar Tree is sponsoring a really cool challenge to "create a holiday-themed decoration using materials totaling $20 or less". I stumbled across this contest last week when I was shopping for items for this post. I immediately knew what I wanted to make - see if you can figure it out.

I used these products...

and these too...

Any guesses? It's a gingerbread house!

One of my favorite things is to find creative ways to use items not for their intended purpose. This challenge gave me a lot of chances to do just that. For instance, I used a light brown non-slip shelf liner for the gingerbread walls. I also found some great plastic clothes lines that looked like peppermint sticks - they are used for the trim on the house. But my absolute favorite item on the house is a plastic popcorn container - it's the roof!

The craft that receives the most votes will be declared the winner. The voting period runs from now through Dec 29 (only 1 vote per day is allowed). I would love it if you could swing over to Dollar Tree's site and vote for my little house here (click on the image - a vote button is present in the lower right corner).

Thanks so much for your support!

Holiday Decorating on a Dollar

2010-12-08T21:44:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a cool article that showed how an incredibly crafty lady made a chandelier using Mardi Gras beads from the dollar store - see it for yourself here. So that got me thinking about what kind of fun holiday things I could make using items from the dollar aisles and dollar stores. Here's what I came up with...

Decorative Packing Tape - $1
A while ago I discovered some amazing packing tape in the dollar section at Michael's craft store - here are some of the things I made with that find. I was so happy to see that Michael's is still selling the decorative tape, but this time it's holiday-themed! Here are a few of the styles I picked up:

A super easy use for the tape is to make drinking straw flags. To make these flags, cut a small section of the tape and attach it to a piece of paper. Then cut out a triangle on one end and glue the flag onto the straw.

One other use for the tape is to create place cards (no, I'll never get tired of place cards). I made this card by cutting a section of the tape and attaching it to a piece of cardstock paper. I then cut around the top part of the design and added a label for the name.

Holiday Pipe Cleaners - $1
Whoever came up with the idea of lining the checkout aisle with products was a genius - I fall for it every time! I found these holiday-themed chenille stems while waiting in line at Joann's craft store and just had to have them.

I think it's really cool when words are "written" out using different materials (like twine, ribbon, etc). So I thought I'd spell something using the pipe cleaners...not sure why I chose "MERRY" - it was just the first holiday word that popped into my head. I decided to mount the pipe cleaners onto the side of a box that can be used for a ton of things - in this case holding utensils for a dinner party.

Tabletop Deer - $0.25 (Clearance)
I found this deer in the clearance section at the dollar store. It was so unique (okay, and so inexpensive) that I had to buy it!

This is going to come as a shock and a surprise, but I decided to use this clearance find as a - wait for it - place card. Come on, you gotta love the addition of the little red nose!

Felt Ornaments - $1
Another dollar store find were these felt ornaments. It was the colors that first caught my eye, and then I fell for the intricate designs that are cut in the ornaments.

One super easy way to decorate with the ornament is to mount it onto a charger plate using hot glue. I displayed this one on the mantle along with other holiday decorations...

One other decorating idea for the felt ornament is to make a tabletop tree. One package of ornaments comes with 2 Christmas trees. To create this look, first cut one ornament halfway down the center starting from the top. Then cut the other ornament halfway up the center starting from the bottom. Finally slide the two pieces together to form one tree.

I'm working on another holiday dollar store project right now, so if all goes well I'll share those pics soon.

Decorating with Christmas Lights

2010-12-01T17:26:00.001-08:00

Last year I racked up on tree lights during my annual day after Christmas shopping spree. I bought a ton of those old school C9 lights (see below) for next to nothing. So now I feel compelled to do something creative with them to justify the purchase.

Here are a couple of super easy things you can make using Christmas lights to decorate your house for the holidays.

Idea #1: A Topiary
Over the summer I participated in (and won!) a Christmas in July contest that Kendra at My Insanity was hosting. Now that December is finally here I can pull out the topiary and display it in my hallway! You can find the directions for creating the topiary here.

Idea #2: A Candle Centerpiece
For this idea you'll of course need Christmas lights, a glass vase and a candle. All you need to do is insert the candle in the vase and surround it with the lights. So easy and kind of nice to look at too!

Here's a close-up...

I love the image of Christmas lights "giving off" candlelight, but one other idea is to place a poinsettia plant in the vase instead of a candle.

Happy decorating!

Purple Crush!

2010-11-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I was introduced to an incredibly cool and ridiculously creative lady who inspires me daily...and I really mean every day. Kristy, aka the Purple Pug, is currently conducting what she calls "an experiment in nice" on her blog. For 365 days she is profiling someone she thinks you should know - a "crush" in Pug vernacular. It was my great honor to be selected as crush #40 this week - can life get any better than that? Please check out the amazingly sweet shout out here.

But more importantly, please take some time to learn more about the Purple Pug - leave lots of time though because she has tons of amazing products to peruse. Here is her site...enjoy!

Shopping for a Great Cause...

2010-11-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Black Friday - I hope you all got some fantastic deals like I did at 5am this morning. Yes, I'm one of those people who actually looks forward to running through stores in the wee hours of the morning in search of a sale or two.

Speaking of sales, there is a great 2-for-1 deal going on today over at the Children's Party Network for the East Coast/West Coast Tablescape challenge. It is my great pleasure to be playing for the East, but regardless of which team takes the challenge the real winner will be Project Night Night - you can learn more about the challenge and the charity here.

So, today only, you can purchase 1 ticket and have 2 entries in the raffle. The goal is to sell 100 tickets by December 6th. If you are interested in purchasing a ticket (or lots and lots of tickets), please go here.

Thanksgiving by Candlelight

2010-11-24T17:22:00.001-08:00

Here are some last minute ideas for easy-to-make candles that can dress up your Thanksgiving table. I created 3 different designs using materials that I had laying around the house.

Design #1
A simple candle holder made out of an empty soup can and ribbon.

Just remove the soup label, wrap the ribbon around the can and you're done.

Design #2
Take 3 pears and attach them together using toothpicks in a triangle shape. Then drop a long taper in the middle - that's it.

Design #3
This last design requires the use of a Cricut machine - my new favorite toy. Load 3 separate strips of ribbon into the machine and cut the words "happy" "thanks" "giving" out. Then attach the ribbon around the candles - done.

Happy Thanksgiving - I hope you have a fabulous holiday!

DIY Thanksgiving Centerpiece

2010-11-16T10:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, I have to admit that I'm in denial that Thanksgiving is happening next week. We're still working our way through Halloween candy at my house, so it's hard to move on to the next holiday so quickly!

Speaking of Halloween, the ridiculously talented people over at Martha Stewart created a great bat candy jar craft that serves as the inspiration for this post.

Here's a really simple centerpiece that you can make for Thanksgiving...

Here are the instructions from Martha's tutorial that I followed to construct this centerpiece (the steps I added are indicated with an asterisk):

Tools and Materials
White or cream card stock
*Pilgrim Hat template
Scissors
Xyron Creative Station with permanent adhesive cartridge (*if you don't own a Xyron, try using double-sided adhesive sheets)
Black beans
White beans
*Corn
*Large vase
*Empty plastic container to hold flowers

How-To
1. Print the pilgrim hat template on card stock. Trim card stock to a size to fit the vase, and run through Xyron so the front of the template is covered in adhesive. Here's the template I used:

2. Peel paper to expose adhesive. Cover the black area with black beans,the yellow area with corn and the white area with white beans.

3. When the sheet is fully covered, slide it into the vase. Press against glass.

4. Insert the empty plastic container into the vase behind the sheet. Then fill it with flowers.

5. Finally, fill jar with white beans.

So from this...

...to this.

To quote Martha, it's a good thing!

Craft Wars - The Saga Begins

2010-11-11T16:16:00.000-08:00

I recently hooked up with a fantastic group of party people over at the Children's Party Network. In additional to all of the great party info, the network recently became even more fun with the addition of Craft Wars - a crafting challenge!

The inaugural challenge for Craft Wars is to create a child's party-related item using a cereal box as craft material. My first reaction was to take a pass on this one, but I love a good challenge!

A few years ago I saw an article in Parents magazine about constructing a carousel cake topper using popsicle sticks. So I decided to tweak that idea for this challenge. I used parts of cereal boxes to form the tent and the carousel horses. Here's the result...

And then my son insisted that I include a nice glass of milk to go with the cake...

Thanks to the folks over at CPN for coming up with such a clever contest. I can't wait for the next challenge!

Last Minute Thanksgiving Place Cards

2010-11-07T17:37:00.001-08:00

No matter how much planning goes into Thanksgiving, I always manage to forget something until the very last minute that threatens to derail the entire meal. Last year it was place cards. Okay, maybe I'm being a little dramatic about the derailment part, but the type-A person in me gets really frustrated when a great plan does not come together - especially when it's a party.

I thought it would be fun to recreate the terror I faced last Thanksgiving and try to make a cool place card in 5 minutes or less using limited supplies. Imagine the clock starting now...

The only items I have to construct the place card are black and white cardstock paper, yellow ribbon and a pair of scissors.

The first thing that came to mind was a pilgrim hat. Here are the steps to make the place card:

A. Cut and fold the white cardstock paper in half to make a tent. Then cut 2 parallel slits vertically and 1 long horizontal slit across the bottom.

B. Cut out a small rectangle using the black cardstock paper and slightly bend it into a "U" shape. Insert each end of the "U" into the parallel slits in the white paper.

C. Cut out a circle using the black cardstock paper - the diameter of the circle should match the length of the long slit that was made in the white paper (this does not need to be exact - just eyeball it). Trim one side of the circle and then insert it into the long slit in the white paper. This is the brim of the hat.

D. Cut out a small square from the yellow ribbon. Then cut a smaller square inside that piece to make the "buckle". Set the ribbon against the side of the U-shaped black paper.

E. Cut out a small semi-circle using the black cardstock paper and place it on top of the U-shaped paper. This will be the top of the hat.

Here's the result...

No adhesives required and it took less than 5 minutes to construct. Hope this post helps you avoid place card drama this Thanksgiving!

One Rubber Stamp - Endless Possibilities

2010-10-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

A funny thing happened during a trip to my favorite paper store - I found love. And I'm talking about that crazy, where-have-you-been-all-my-life kind of love. The new love of my life is embossing. I've seen it a bunch of times, but never tried it myself until that day in the store. Now I'm hooked! By the way I don't feel like I cheated on my husband, because I told him all about this encounter when I got home.

If you haven't seen or tried embossing, you should because it's super easy. Basically all you need is a rubber stamp, stamp pad, embossing powder and a heating tool. Here is my first attempt at embossing at home - of course it's all about Halloween.

I thought it would be fun to create Halloween cards using the stamp. Here are some of the designs I made.

A witch's hat...

A pumpkin...

A bat...

And a monster...

I could also see these designs being used for menu cards, invitations, gift bags, banners and more.

I hope this post inspired you to try embossing - don't be surprised if you see a ton of it show up here over the next few weeks...I'm a little obsessed with it.

Happy Halloween!

Not Just Another Halloween Banner

2010-10-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

The other day I came across some cool cellophane favor bags at the craft store that are shaped like pennant flags - they're called cello bags. Maybe because I have Halloween on the brain right now I thought it would be fun to make the bags look like candy corn by filling it with yellow, orange and white wrapped candy. I used the following candy : Butterfingers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and White Chocolate Mini Peanut Butter Cups.

Then I thought it would be cool to make a banner using the favor bags so that they could serve two purposes - take home treats and party decorations.

Here is the favor bag...

And here is the banner...

Super easy to make and kind of nice to look at too! Only 7 days until the big spooky day - I can't wait!!

More Halloween Plates

2010-10-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

Apologies are in order - sorry for the brief hiatus! I recently joined up with an amazing group of party people over at the Children's Party Network...please check it out when you have a chance.

CPN is hosting an East Coast/West Coast Tablescape challenge that I am participating in, and I've spent the last week prepping for it. I'm honored to be representing the East - we're keeping all of the details about our tablescape hush hush so that the West Coast crew won't get too scared! I can't wait to show off some of the items I created, but until that time it's back to Halloween.

A few weeks ago I created some Halloween-themed plates and I've been thinking about other plate designs ever since. So here are some additional picnic plates that you can easily construct for a Halloween party.

Flying Bats

The Monster

A Tombstone

All you need to create these are paper plates, foam paper and hot glue. Hope you try making some of them - drop me a line if you do!

Orange You Glad You're a Pumpkin?

2010-10-08T16:08:00.001-07:00

A few years ago I was asked to provide fruit for a fall harvest party at my son's school. I thought I would have some fun with it by dressing the fruit up in a "costume". See if you can guess the disguise.

I started off with these...

and then added some of these...

to make these...pumpkins!

Here is a how-to guide for creating "Orange Pumpkin Cups". By the way, this is my first attempt at a tutorial, so please bear with me!

Step 1: Cut about 1/4 off the top of the orange.

Step 2: Scoop out all of the flesh from the inside of the orange and the top. Note - this will be super messy, much like cleaning out the seeds from a pumpkin.

Try to get the inside as clean as possible. You might need to use something sharper than a spoon to get all of the little bits out.

Step 3: Cut a small hole in the top of the orange.

Make sure the hole is not too big - it will need to be snug enough to hold a gummy bear. Remove the little stem part and discard.

Step 4: Use a black marker to draw a pumpkin face on the front of the orange. Tuck a green gummy bear through the hole in the top of the orange so that it partially sticks out.

Step 5: Fill the cup with anything you like - I always use mandarin oranges.

That's it - hope this tutorial helped!

Finally...Pics from the Tiffany Sweet 16 Party

2010-10-04T05:55:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from the Tiffany-themed Sweet 16 party that I helped plan. I feel like I've been blogging about this one event forever! You can catch the whole saga from the very beginning here, here and here... enjoy!

Tayler, the birthday girl, graced the front of a custom yard sign that greeted guests at her house on the big day...

What would a Tiffany-themed event be without these? I created an oversized Tiffany's box to hold birthday cards from guests. In lieu of gifts, the birthday girl asked her friends to bring toys that will be donated to a homeless shelter. So I created an oversized Tiffany's shopping bag to hold the toys.

Tayler invited some of her family and friends to share in her day by being members of her Sweet 16 court. The girls took their roles seriously and stayed true to the Tiffany blue theme all the way down to their nails...

Tayler and the female members of her court. Aren't they adorable?

If the shoe fits, wear it! How cool are these blinged-out Chuck Taylor Hi-Tops?

Tayler's family is Caribbean, so it was fitting that a steel pan band entertained guests during the pre-reception.

The overall color scheme for the party was Tiffany blue, white and black. Tayler's mom found and fell in love with the Wanderfuls centerpieces, that also served as favors (each wand was filled with candy).

After mulling over several ideas, I decided to place a vase of white roses on top of the cupcake stand. I couldn't resist adding a little bling to it as well...

Tayler invited 16 people who had made a significant impact on her life to come light a candle for her...there wasn't a dry eye in the room after that.

Water bottles with custom labels were also provided as party favors...

Tayler - thanks again for allowing me to help make your vision for an amazing birthday party a reality. Now let's move onto graduation party planning!

DIY Elmo Party Revisited

2010-09-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

In light of all the news coverage that Elmo has been getting lately, I started thinking about the Elmo-themed party that I threw a couple of years ago - you can read about it here. I thought it would be fun to come up with new ideas that I might use if I had the Elmo party today. So here are those ideas...

Place Cards: A really easy idea for a place card (or food label) is to "doodle" on a piece of cardstock paper and attach crayons to it.

Centerpiece: A few months ago I created some centerpiece ideas that I shared here. I took this basic idea and Elmo-ized it.

Plates: I recently created some Halloween-themed plates. Again, using this same idea, I made Elmo and Dorothy (his favorite pet) plates...

Placemats: Have you ever noticed the adorable pictures that hang on the wall in the Elmo's World episodes? A really easy idea for placemats is to draw those pictures using crayons on a piece of cardstock and laminate them.

Food: I thought it would be fun to create Elmo using food. Here's the result...

The items needed for this vegetable tray are:
Head = Grape Tomatoes
Nose = Mini Carrots
Mouth = Black Olives
Eyes = Ranch Dressing

This same look can be achieved using a fruit tray. Here's how:
Head = Strawberries
Nose = Mandarin Oranges
Mouth = Black Grapes
Eyes = Banana Slices

Hope these ideas are helpful if you're planning an Elmo-themed event!

Moonlighting

2010-09-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I had the chance to moonlight as a designer...specifically a bib-wear designer. One of my friends has a set of twin boys who turn one next month. After an exhaustive search for "just the right" birthday bibs, she called me for help. I was so honored and completely up for the challenge!

The theme of the party is Tigger and Pooh - how appropriate for adorable twin boys. There are a ton of coloring page images of these characters on the Internet that can be downloaded for free. Here is the one that I chose to use...

I hate to admit this, but I am no artist - here was my last attempt at art. So I look for any and all shortcuts when it comes to creating artwork. In this case I modified the image in Paint, printed it on iron-on paper and then ironed the image onto a blank bib. My goal was to create an outline that could easily be filled in with paint.

And here is the result...I hope she likes it!

My Big Oprah Moment

2010-09-17T03:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if anybody saw the Oprah show on Monday, but she once again outdid herself by giving 300 of her ultimate fans a trip to Australia. This week, coincidentally, my little blog reached a milestone: 50 followers! Okay I know in blog terms that's small potatoes, but I am flattered beyond belief that anyone would take the time to check out what's happening in my world. So, in true Oprah style, I want to thank you guys by having a small giveaway.

I have secretly entered all 50 of you in a drawing for the following great prize...wait for it...a package of gorgeous fall-colored cardstock paper! But that's not all...

...and an elegant leaf punch, similar to the one I used to make this invitation.

And the winner is...

Congratulations ErinBlank! Please drop me a line so I can send off your prizes. And thanks again to all of you for following my Life in Wonderland and for letting me have my Oprah moment!

Halloween...already?

2010-09-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween. It's a great excuse to dress up the house, the kids, the dog and eat lots of candy. But I was kind of caught off guard as I watched all of the Halloween merchandise going up on the shelves over the past few weeks - was it just me? So, in an effort to get ready for Halloween, I decided to craft something. Over the summer I came across a craft project from Martha Stewart that serves as the inspiration for this post - decorated picnic plates. Check out her adorable beach-themed plates here.

Here is my attempt at Martha-style Halloween-themed party plates. All of the plates are really easy to make. You just need paper plates, foam paper, scissors and hot glue. I'm trying to figure out how to attach a template within a blog post. Once I'm successful, I'll share the templates for these designs.

What would Halloween be without a few bats...

a big, scary one-eyed monster...

or a ghost?

There are a bunch of other Halloween "things" that can be made into plates - like spiders, haunted houses, black cats - but I only had time to make these guys. I feel another post coming on!

This has definitely gotten me excited about Halloween. Please check back at the end of the month for more things that I'll be creating for the big spooky day!

Are You Ready For Some Football?

2010-09-06T18:36:00.000-07:00

I am married to a sports fanatic who would swear that his life couldn't get any better now that football season has begun. I thought it would be fun to come up with some ideas for a football-themed party now that the new season has officially been kicked off.

Football Party Idea #1: Helmet Coasters
I grew up in Wisconsin and have been a Packers fan ever since. However now that I'm in Georgia, I feel compelled to support the home team as well. I created these drink coasters by cutting out a helmet shape in craft foam paper and adding the team logo - super easy to make!

Football Party Idea #2: Football Bottles
Since it is the start of the football season, a lot of stores are carrying football-themed products for a limited time. I found these incredibly cute bottles of soda that are shaped like footballs at Walmart for $1. These adorable bottles are reason enough to host a football party!

Football Party Idea #3: Football Food
Also during my shopping trip to Walmart I stumbled upon football shaped brownies...happiness! Apparently this product is only sold for a few months, so hurry and get some soon. For the stand, I covered a glass vase with chalkboard spray paint and then drew a football play on the "chalkboard".

Football Party Idea #4: Football Placemat
I found this amazing paper at the craft store - it looks and feels like a football. I thought it would be perfect for a placemat at a football party. To achieve the look of a real football, I cut slits in the paper and tied shoestrings down the middle...

Football Party Idea #5: Football Jersey Placecard
I'm a sucker for placecards. A simple idea is to take a football jersey, add the guest's name using iron-on letters and drape it over the back of his/her chair...

Football Party Idea #6: Football Favor
I found this cool drink cup a few years ago at Party City and fell in love with it because it looks kind of crazy. This would be a great favor for a great football party.

Hope these ideas are helpful for your next pigskin party!

A Tiffany Style Sweet 16 Party - Part III

2010-08-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

I just completed the final items for the upcoming Tiffany-themed Sweet 16 party. Both of the items are appropriately related to sweets....cupcakes to be exact. The planning of this party has been going on for months - all of the events leading up to now can be found here and here.

Tayler, the birthday girl, decided to serve jumbo cupcakes for dessert. She wants to have a nice, distinctive wrapper around the base of the cupcakes. I found a ton of gorgeous wrappers that would be perfect, except for the fact that they only fit standard size cupcakes. Out of desperation I turned to the Internet and found a site where they show how to make cupcake wrappers out of doilies. So I gave it a shot ...

I really liked the doily option - easy to make and inexpensive. However, my husband took one look at it and stated that the doily did not fit the theme of the party. It kills me to admit that the unsolicited advice from my non-event planning husband was spot on. So, I put together another wrapper that did get his seal of approval. What do you think?

Finally, I had to figure out a way to jazz up the gigantic cupcake stand that I received looking like this:

I decided to mimic the look of the invitation by painting the stand tiffany blue and wrapping white ribbon around it.

I also added a round buckle on each tier like the buckles on the invitation...

The party is only three weeks away, so I'll post pics from the actual event soon.

You're Invited...

2010-08-25T19:23:00.001-07:00

You are cordially invited to take a trip with me down memory lane. I am in the process of working on a ton of projects that have yet to be completed. So in lieu of sharing those projects with you, I pulled out some old invitations that I made for various past events.

Last year I made this invitation for a birthday party that was being held at a rock climbing facility...how cool is that? Each invitation had the guest's name written on a rock that was attached to the flat card - it's okay to be literal every once in awhile!

A few years ago I planned a 40th birthday party that was held in Las Vegas. Here's the invitation. I'd love to say more, but you know that what happens in Vegas...

This invitation was designed for a little girl's birthday party that had a music theme. My favorite paper store (Paper Source) had just come out with this new fuchsia line and I was totally obsessed with it. Truth be told, I still am!

My sons were born on the same day two years apart. Needless to say we have an outrageous joint birthday party each spring. A few years ago we had a March Madness basketball themed party. Here is the invitation - a few people thought the tickets that were included with the invite were real...oops!

Earlier this year I designed this invitation for a bedtime story themed birthday party. Check out the adorable birthday girl on the cover of the "book" - too cute!

Thanks for joining me on memory lane. Please check back for upcoming posts about my current projects!

A Fall Birthday Party

2010-08-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

One of my dear friends is hosting a fall-themed birthday party for her soon-to-be two-year-old daughter and asked me to design the invitation. Fall is actually my favorite time of the year, but it was hard for me to start thinking about it when it's 90 degrees outside! So I decided to take the easy route and focus on the most obvious image of fall: leaves changing color.

Here is the invitation...the actual invite is printed on a flat card that is inserted into a tree enclosure:

Even though I was only asked to design the invitations, I thought it would be fun to create other fall party accessories. Here is an idea for a cupcake flag...

...and here is an idea for a favor bag. This design was inspired by an adorable Martha Stewart treat bag...

Hope this gets you excited about fall!

Candlelight Place Cards

2010-08-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick idea for place cards that are super easy to assemble and don't cost too much. All you need are candles and letter brads (these are little two-pronged fasteners that are used for scrapbooking). Here are some brads that I found at a craft store:

To assemble the place card, simply insert the brad into the side of the candle to form the guest's name and light it - you're done!

Told you they were easy to make...enjoy!

Back-to-School Bash

2010-08-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the first day of school for my little guy, so I thought it would be fun to throw him a back-to-school lunch party...

I love Blumeboxes! This is my homage to those adorable flower boxes - with a crayon box twist.

For the menu board I took a chalkboard and covered it with foam paper styled after an old schoolhouse...

I used cafeteria trays that I found at the dollar store - the kids loved them! I also used a pencil box to hold the plastic utensils - definitely take advantage of those back-to-school sales!

For lunch I thought it would be appropriate to serve my son's favorite sandwich - PB & J. I tried to jazz up the sandwich stand with alphabet stickers...

I dug out my son's old plastic school bus to hold the chips. Thank goodness I found another use for this - it was going to be hard for me to part with my little guy's first bus!

For dessert I made rice crispie treats shaped like crayons. This was super easy - just add food coloring to a basic rice crispie treat recipe and then cut out the crayon shape. I printed the crayola labels from the net and attached them to cling wrap that went around the treats.

What would a back-to-school lunch party be without milk?

Everyone had a great time at lunch - this might have to become an annual event!

Puzzle Art

2010-08-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

READERS BEWARE: this post has very little to do with party planning, so I hope you will indulge me. I saw the most adorable pictures in the latest Pottery Barn Kids catalog that inspired me to create some artwork. Truth be told, I am an artist-wanna-be. I appreciate art, I collect art, I’m just not that great at creating art. The PB Kids inspiration was a set of pictures in a gorgeous nursery that showed animals made out of newspaper print. Sorry no pic, but just go with me on this one – they were incredibly cute and creative. I thought it would be fun to create some of my own animals using a different part of the newspaper – the crossword puzzle.

So here are the results. Wait, let’s have some fun. Try to guess the animal based on these crossword puzzle-style clues that I spent days coming up with…

Puzzle #1: An amphibian that has permeable skin and no tail.

Puzzle #2: This flying insect is important ecologically because it is an agent of pollination.

Puzzle #3: A diverse group of reptiles that were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for millions of years.

How did you do?

Answer #1:

Answer #2:

Answer #3:

These pictures were super easy to make. Just gather up some crossword puzzles (I bought a big book of them at the dollar store), trace the outline of the animal and then cut it out and glue it onto a picture frame mat.

That’s it – cute, easy art!

Vintage Labels

2010-07-28T18:17:00.001-07:00

I recently came across a blog that provides the most amazing vintage clip art. But the best part is that the images are free! Even if you are not into vintage artwork, you've got to check out The Graphics Fairy blog - the images are so unique.

I decided to use some of the labels that I found to jazz up some glassware. I started off by gathering up a few glass cups, bottles and vases...

Next I printed the labels on a color laser printer and used Mod Podge to decoupage the glass. This was my first attempt at decoupaging and I have to say that it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. You can find easy how-to directions here.

Here are some lemonade glasses that I embellished with a cool vintage french label...

And here is a vase that was embellished with another vintage french label (appropriately surrounded by roses)...

Finally I used a gorgeous blue vintage label to embellish a jar of strawberry preserves...

I'm thinking about using these items as hostess gifts. There are a ton of other free items available on that blog, so definitely go and get some great stuff.

Christmas Light Topiary

2010-07-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

I live in Georgia and it's about 100 degrees outside, so it's been impossible for me to even start thinking about Christmas right now. However, Kendra over at My Insanity is hosting a Christmas in July party and I just had to join in the fun!

I had originally planned to make homemade Christmas cards, but since I didn't start pulling out materials until late last night that didn't happen. Instead I remembered seeing a really cool topiary that was made out of drink umbrellas (crafty people make me smile). Then I remembered seeing some adorable balls made out of Christmas lights and my idea was hatched.

I have a ton of Christmas lights that I bought on sale last year and I have been dying to use them. So I decided to make a topiary out of Christmas lights. Please note that this requires a ton of lights...

All you need is a styrofoam topiary form, Christmas lights and a hot glue gun to make this - here are the detailed instructions from the BHG article:

Step #1 - Use the foam brush to coat the plastic-foam ball with acrylic paint. Let dry.

Step #2 - Insert the screw end of a lightbulb into the foam ball until the glass touches the ball.

Step #3 - Remove the bulb and apply a drop of hot glue to the end of the bulb. Immediately reinsert the bulb into the hole. Working outward from the first bulb, continue attaching bulbs in the same manner until the ball is covered with bulbs.

Here is the final result...

Thanks Kendra for making me get excited about Christmas! I'm going for a swim now...

DIY Monogrammed Balloons

2010-07-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

I love monograms. And they're everywhere - on cutting boards, hair bows, even on trailer hitch covers! So for this post I thought it would be fun to create something party-related that is monogrammed. One of my little guys casually suggested that balloons would be cool - I beamed with pride that such an innovative idea would come from him. Then it hit me that my little genius has figured out that once the blog pics are snapped, he gets to play with the items - hence the balloon suggestion!

So, despite being duped by a 4-year-old, I decided to use balloons. This is a super easy do-it-yourself project that will definitely elicit a few oohs and aahs. Don't believe me, see for yourself...

Did I hear an 'ooh'? Okay, how about an 'aah' with this one...

Here's how to create this look in two easy steps:

Step #1: Pick a font (this is Curlz MT) and print one or more letters on a full sheet of clear label paper.

Step #2: Cut out the letter, place it on the balloon and enjoy!

Too cute! For best results, apply the letters onto the balloons right before your event.

By the way, I'm working on a project right now that I hope will be finished in time for a cool linky party being held this weekend over at My Insanity (see button below). Come join in the fun if you have time!

Decorating with Felt Pads...

2010-07-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

...yes, I'm referring to those little pads that you put on the bottom of furniture to protect the floor from scratches.

Not only do they come in various shapes, colors and sizes, the felt pads also have self adhesive backing - all of the things that make a great craft supply! So here are a couple of ways to embellish a vase using felt circles.

Idea #1: For this look I wrapped the circles around the vase to make a band.

Idea #2: For this look I simply copied the exact pattern from the original packaging.

I wish I had more time to play with these - there are endless design possibilities with the pads!

Birthday Party Centerpiece Ideas

2010-07-12T19:47:00.000-07:00

Last week I saw the most adorable post from the Purple Pug - a farm party. The centerpieces are amazing! I've had centerpieces on the brain for the past week now. I cannot draw to save my life, but I do know how to cut and paste. So here are a few ideas for themed-birthday party centerpieces that were inspired by the farm party.

My homage to the initial inspiration for this post...a farm yard pig.

My kids, who love to give unsolicited advice, liked the pig and suggested that I create something for them too. Last year I threw a pirate party for their birthday, so here is a matey centerpiece just for them...

Then I got to thinking about their Halloween costumes from last year (they were old-school aviators). I just had to create a centerpiece based on that theme too...

Of course I can't overlook the ladies - here is a centerpiece for all of the little princesses out there...

The designs are made out of foam paper and hot glue. Be sure to get the 3mm foam - it stands up on its own. Since I can't draw, I tried to simplify the centerpiece designs by using basic shapes - like a big circle for the head, a thin semi-circle for the mouth, etc. Foam paper is pretty forgiving, so just have fun with it.

Thanks again Purple Pug for the inspiration!

Decorative Packing Tape

2010-07-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have to be honest - this post was not supposed to be about decorative packing tape. But a funny thing happened as I was innocently strolling through the aisles at Michael's...I came face-to-face with these ridiculously cute rolls of tape that were only $1. Come on, what choice did I have at that point? So now that I had 10 rolls (yes 10, but they're really cute), I felt compelled to use them. Hence this post...

Here are a few of the styles - I still can't get over the fact that this is packing tape!

Since I seem to be on a place card kick (remember last week's post), I decided to make yet another one that incorporated the packing tape. I simply put the tape on some cardstock and attached the name on top - super easy!

Even simpler still...take a vase and wrap the packing tape around the outside. Honestly it took longer to remove the wrapping from the tape than to create this look.

I have very limited talents when it comes to gift wrapping, so look how the packing tape can jazz up a present...

And for those of us who prefer gift bags to wrapping, the tape can spruce those up as well...

Finally, I used the packing tape to punch up a basic picture frame. I attached the tape to the black mat and reassembled the frame - that's it.

I finally had to force myself to put the tape down because I was having way too much fun with it. Don't say I didn't warn you about the clearance section in craft stores!

A Tiffany Style Sweet 16 Party - Part II

2010-07-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

I just finished the invitations for the Sweet 16 party that I am planning for one of my best friends - here is where it all began.

I actually started assembling the invitations a few weeks ago, but abandoned them when more pressing things came up. So I was less than pleased with myself when I pulled out the partially-completed mess that I had made. See for yourself...

The basic design of the invitation is a "Tiffany" blue pocketfold card with a flat card attached inside. I searched and searched for reasonably priced paper since a ton of people are being invited - I found the best deal here.

The birthday girl is all about the bling, so I really wanted to incorporate jewels on the invitation. Rhinestone buckles are so popular right now, but those little things can cost a fortune. Out of desperation I searched on eBay and found the greatest deal on them - only $1 each and no shipping costs!

In addition to the flat card, an rsvp card was also included in the invitation. My friend opted to use a postcard to save on postage. I had never created a postcard before, so here are a couple of things that I learned during the process:
1) according to the post office, a postcard is defined as being a minimum of 3-1/2 inches high by 5 inches long and does not exceed 6 inches in length by 4-1/4 inches high
2) a postcard that does not meet those dimensions can still be mailed if you put a first class letter stamp on it.

Here is the outside of the invitation - I was trying to capture the classic look of the Tiffany blue box...

...and here is the inside of the invitation. I hope the birthday girl likes it as much as I do.

I have a few more projects to complete for this shindig - next up, a cupcake tower. So watch for future posts on this topic coming soon!

Fourth of July Place Card Holders

2010-07-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

I love place cards, but the only time I seem to use them are on formal occasions. So I decided to change things up and create some place cards that can be used at a casual 4th of July celebration. And given the fact that the 4th is only days away, each of these ideas is super easy to make - I promise.

Idea #1: Pinwheel Holders - Not only were these place card holders easy to make, the materials cost next to nothing! I found these adorable miniature pinwheels at one of the dollar stores - yes, all three pinwheels for just $1. I then created the name templates on the computer and attached them to the pinwheels using hot glue...easy!

Idea #2: Fruit Market Style Holders - I stumbled across these miniature colanders at a discount store and thought they would make adorable place card holders. Who knew that pint-sized colanders even existed? And in patriotic colors no less! Just create a small sign with the guest's name and add fruit - they're done.

Idea #3: Sand Art Holder - Last week my kids brought home the coolest sand art projects and I knew I had to try it. For this place card holder I simply filled a glass container with red, white and blue sand. And you won't believe how easy it was to create the "etched" name on the glass. Here's how - place sticker letters directly on to the glass and then lightly apply clear spray paint over it. Once it's dry, remove the stickers. That's it - my new favorite technique!

Hope you have a fantastic 4th of July holiday!

Fourth of July Decorating with Bandanas

2010-06-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

Last week I was catching up on some of my favorite blogs and came across a gorgeous patriotic tablecloth that was made entirely out of bandanas by Kendra at My Insanity - please check out the pics on her blog. For two days straight I literally could not get the idea of using those red, white and blue bandanas out of my head. So on day three I finally decided to try making some other 4th of July decorations inspired by the tablecloth.

I thought it would be fun to make a placemat using the bandanas, so I cut them up and put them back together to look like...a flag, of course!

I'm a huge fan of banners - I think they're a fun and easy way to decorate a party space. So here is my attempt at a 4th of July party banner using the bandanas...

The banner was really easy to make - here are the steps I used:
(1) cut up the bandana into four squares, (2) fold each square into a triangle and iron to get nice creases, (3) attach the triangles to a ribbon and hang.

Kendra - thanks again for inspiring me to create these projects!

Kids at Weddings

2010-06-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

I know that the mere mention of having children at weddings makes some people break out in cold sweats. But if you are a bride that says "I Do" to allowing kids to attend your big day, then here are some ideas that they might enjoy.

What better way to make the kids feel welcome than by sending wedding invitations just for them! The invitations can be as elaborate (like coordinating with your formal invitations), or as simple as you want them to be. Here is an example of custom invitations for kids that Donna Lipscomb at Confetti made for me...too cute.

Working under the assumption that "idle hands are the devil's playthings", it's a good idea to keep the kids busy during the wedding to avoid drama. Coloring books tend to do the trick with my kids. I created a simple cover using scrapbook paper and stickers, then bound it together with ribbon. I love personalizing things, so I put each child's name on the book to make it more special for them...

There are a ton of wedding-themed coloring pages that you can download from the web. Here is one of the pages I used in the coloring book - also included was the ring, the ceremony, the cake, etc.

Okay this idea is risky given the fact that it involves sugar, but what child doesn't appreciate candy? Here is a bouquet just for them - a candy bouquet. This is really easy to make - just take some artificial flowers and glue candy inside the petals (I used Smarties, but any candy would do). I then wrapped a satin ribbon around the bottom to resemble a bride's bouquet...

The really little kids might appreciate this more than the older ones - wedding rubber duckies! These are just the cutest things ever...I can't get over the ringbearer ducky. On second thought, the adults might appreciate these more than the kids! You can purchase these little guys here.

You can package all of these goodies in wedding-themed gift bags for the kids. I made a Groom bag for the boys...

...and a Bride bag for the girls...

Here are a couple of ideas that you can prepare for older kids (ages 10+) who might be attending the wedding:

Idea #1: The Love Game - Prior to the wedding have each child guess how many times the word "love" will be said during the ceremony...the closest guess wins.

Idea #2: Photo Scavenger Hunt - Hand out cameras to the kids along with a list of items (like the unity candle, the minister, the couple kissing) and have them snap pictures of those things...the most pictures wins.

Congrats and happy wedding planning!

A Science Party

2010-06-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

The theme for this year's blowout birthday party for my boys was science. I don't quite understand the allure of dissecting small animals and mixing up chemicals, but they seem to dig it. So I did my best to play along and tried to create a great event for my budding scientists.

As each guest arrived, they were transformed into "real" scientists. This of course meant donning safety goggles - you can purchase these for a little more than a dollar here...

...and white lab coats, along with personalized name badges, that you can purchase at the lowest prices I could find here...

The invitation was a little involved. I first created a basic invitation on vellum paper with a background image that was printed on regular printer paper. By the way, the background image is an Erlenmeyer flask - interesting fact #1 that I learned while planning this party.

I then rolled up the invitation and put it inside a giant test tube that I found here. Interesting fact #2: these plastic tubes are actually used to create two liter soda bottles - who knew? The really cool "caution" labels were created by Amy Locurto - you should check out her blog when you get a chance.

The last part of the invitation was a direction card - the party was held in a kind of obscure location, so I played the role of GPS. I might have mentioned that I get a little obsessed with themes, so when I started typing up the directions this happened - another white lab coat!

Here are some pics from the actual event - if the smiles were any indication of their satisfaction, I think the kids had a great time.

I wanted to have a little fun with the food, so I drew inspiration from the movie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids". The basic premise of the movie is that a crazy scientist invents a machine that miniaturizes things, including his kids. For the party I altered the original movie poster and served all miniature food - sliders, mini tater tots, bagel bites (which looked like mini pizza),baby carrots, etc...too fun!

So the last interesting fact that I learned from planning this party is that science is pretty cool - I'm off to pick up my own lab coat right now!

Father's Day

2010-06-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

In addition to being an amazing dad, my husband is also a Wii-fanatic. And I'm not using that word loosely - you would think he was on the PGA pro tour the way he talks about his Wii golf scores! So I thought it would be fun and slightly humorous to create a Father's Day card that honored my husband's current passion.

I found an awesome website that gives you the ability to create Mii characters on the computer. For non-Wii aficionados, Mii characters are digital avatars that can be created and customized to look like the person who is playing the game. So I went to this site and created a Mii for both of my sons and my dog. I then found an image of the exact flat screen TV that is sitting in my basement and cut/pasted the Mii characters onto it. Here is the result - it's going on the outside of the card...

I wish I could take credit for figuring out how to make the dog Mii, but a really creative person who obviously had a lot of time on his/her hands was kind enough to put the directions on the web...thanks!

Of course I wanted to get in on the fun too, so here is the image that is going on the inside of the card...

Here is the finished card - I mounted the images on a piece of shiny black cardstock paper...

And because I am slightly theme-obsessed, I created this image to go on the outside of the envelope - the "A" is made out of Wii controllers. Obsessions are never a good thing, but this is kind of cute...right?

Happy Father's Day - I hope you enjoy it as much as "Wii" will!

A Polka-Dot Party

2010-06-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

The other day I was surfing the web and discovered a site that is devoted to polka-dot birthday parties...who knew? The website is appropriately entitled: Polka Dot Birthday. I'm a sucker for cute concepts like this, so I was instantly inspired to create other ideas for a polka-dot themed party - in this case a Sweet 16 Party. I searched through the hundreds of scrapbook sheets that I've acquired over the years and found a cool polka-dot pattern that I tried to incorporate into each idea.

Idea #1: Favors - a quick and easy party favor that is sure to please are lollipops. I created the candy label on the computer and glued it to the lollipop. I then put the polka-dot scrapbook paper inside an acrylic box, along with a styrofoam block, and inserted the lollipop sticks into the block.

Idea #2: Invitation - for the invitation I combined a piece of colorful cardstock with the polka-dot scrapbook paper and embellished it with chip board numbers...that's it!

Idea #3: Table Layout - the placemat is actually another scrapbook sheet with circles that were cut out with a round punch. I then cut strips from the polka-dot paper and wrapped them around the napkin and soda bottle...

Here is a close-up of the "polka-dot" placecard...just cut out circles using round punches (these were made from 3/4in and 1in punches), glue them together and attach lollipop sticks on the ends.

Hope these ideas inspire you to go out and polka...dot!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

2010-06-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

My son just completed an amazing season playing for the Dodgers. Okay, who am I trying to fool...the little league Dodgers! This was his second season playing and we are now convinced that in addition to having great teams, this league also hosts the best ceremonies. Let's talk about Opening Day - they shut down major roads for a mile-long parade procession of teams. Did I mention this was little league? And Closing Day was just as big. So with all of this celebrating going on, I came up with a few ideas that could be used at an end-of-the-season bash for a little league team.

In most little leagues there is no guarantee that kids will ever play on the same team again, so why not send them home with a party favor that's also a cool keepsake... team baseball cards. The key to this favor are pictures, so make sure that you take a bunch of every player throughout the season so that you have a lot to choose from. You can create a custom template fairly easily using editing software like Photoshop Elements. This particular software also allows you to upload pictures directly into the template. My husband (who would readily admit that he is the least creative person in our house) created these, so it's pretty easy to do...

Here is an idea for centerpieces that is easy to construct and costs nothing! Stack two or more baseball gloves on top of each other and connect them with the velcro straps. Then top the gloves off with a baseball...that's it.

To the make the centerpieces more meaningful ask each player to bring his/her game ball - trust me, they still won't figure out that everyone on the team gets a treasured game ball.

I adore cupcake flags - I think they make the cupcake taste better because they're just so darn cute. At the last major league baseball game that I attended my sons were transfixed by the oversized foam fingers that were being sold for a fortune. I thought it would be cool to create a foam finger cupcake flag for this type of party. To make the flag, cut out a picture of a foam finger (just google 'foam finger') and cut out the identical shape on foam paper. Glue the pieces together and then attach a lollipop stick on back.

Hope these ideas are useful...now go play ball!

A Tiffany Style Sweet 16 - Part I

2010-05-28T21:49:00.000-07:00

One of my best friend's daughter is turning 16 and I have been asked to help plan her party. This might come as a shock and a surprise, but in all my years of party planning I have never had the opportunity to do a Sweet 16. It's been a few years since I was a teenager, so I thought I'd study up on the latest trends. My research started (and quickly finished) with reruns of MTV's My Super Sweet 16. Even though it was painful to watch, I did realize that teens have strong opinions and that it would be in my best interest to include the birthday girl in the decision-making process.

The very first thing that I needed her to decide on was a theme, which took no time at all...Tiffany's. I love the color, I love the store, so this worked for me too. My friend is inviting a large number of out-of-town guests and wanted to send Save-the-Date cards asap. I happened upon a picture of the iconic Tiffany little blue box that I thought would be great for the cards. The birthday girl's name is Tayler, so I figured I could personalize the card in some way. Here is the original image...

And here is the image that I created using, of all things, Windows Paint tool...

I know there are a ton of really powerful tools out there that are specifically designed to manipulate images, but who knew that little old Paint could do all this? I had to keep the etched look of the font, so I kept playing around until I figured out which letter and symbols could be used to make the ones I needed for Tayler's name. Can you tell? Of course the T, A and Y came directly from the Tiffany name. The L was made by flipping the F and erasing the little middle part. The E was made by adding the bottom part to the F. And finally the R was made by taking a little piece from the & symbol and combining it with the F. Okay, it sounds a lot more complicated than it was...seriously. All this to say that you don't have to invest a lot of money in software to make cool stuff happen.

For the Save-the-Date card I put the 'Tayler & Co.' picture on the outside of Tiffany blue folded note cards.

Here is a look at the inside of the card...

One of the coolest aspects of this party is that Tayler will have a Sweet 16 court to celebrate alongside her. The court will be made up of close friends and family members. I wanted to come up with a fun way for Tayler to extend this invitation to her friends when I stumbled upon a large silver fortune cookie - that was all the inspiration I needed. The actual invitation was written on the fortune that was placed inside the cookie. It read..."It would be Tayler's great fortune if you were a member of her Sweet 16 Court!"

The fortune cookies were then placed in...wait for it... Tiffany blue takeout boxes. I tied a white bow around the box to resemble the original little blue box - I just love it when a great plan comes together!

I am currently in the process of designing the invitations and ironing out a billion other details, so stay tuned for future posts about this shindig.

School's Almost Out For Summer

2010-05-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

I'm not quite sure how the end of the school year snuck up on me so quickly, but here it is. For the past 9 months my kids have been developing friendships with their classmates - relationships that I would hate to see end just because summer has arrived. So I set out to create a fun way for the kids to keep in touch. I would love to say that my idea is as slick as any of the social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook, but the truth is that I decided to go old school by simply handing out our phone number and asking the kids to give us a call this summer.

Here is the final result of my efforts - I took miniature beach balls that I had purchased a hundred years ago from Oriental Trading and personalized each one with sticky foam letters...

I then attached what I'm referring to as a "playdate business card" to the beach balls. The Internet is such a wonderful thing - who knew there were beach ball-themed business cards out there? You can pick this style up at Zazzle.com.

Hope you have a ball this summer!

DIY Elmo Party

2010-05-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I hosted an Elmo-themed birthday party for my kids. Even though there were unlimited supplies of packaged Elmo party kits, I thought it would be more fun to do it myself. But I have to admit that while it was great to flex my creative muscle, by the end I had become a little obsessed with that little red monster!

What would an Elmo party be without Elmo there? My goal was to decorate the party space with a ton of Elmo dolls. The only problem was that kids love Elmo, a fact that is not lost on retailers who charge ridiculous amounts for those dolls. However, one day I ended up at a consignment sale and came face-to-face with a bunch of inexpensive, barely-used Elmo dolls. So, definitely check out consignment sales and thrift stores if you are looking for these guys.

For the invitation I used red enclosure folders from one of my favorite paper stores - the Paper Source, and embellished them with a big picture of Elmo (the addition of the googly eyes was my son's idea and the kids loved it). I then inserted a flat card that contained all of the party info inside the folder.

Instead of using traditional birthday party hats, each guest received Elmo visors. These were so easy to make - you can purchase foam visors at any craft store and then just cut out the eyes and nose using white, black and orange foam paper. And two years later, my kids are still wearing them...

As a parting gift I just bought red pails, put a red ribbon on them and filled them with Elmo-themed stuff...simple.

Of course no child's birthday party would be complete without food or games. Here are some of the things I did for this one:

Serve Elmo-inspired food, like pizza (Elmo's favorite food), bananas (Elmo's favorite fruit) and goldfish crackers (in honor of Dorothy, Elmo's beloved pet).

Play Elmo-inspired games, like pin-the-nose on Elmo, guess the number of goldfish in the fishbowl and Elmo trivia.

Hope this helps anyone who might be planning a similar party...I'll be posting more do-it-yourself party ideas soon!

My Mother's Day

2010-05-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

For the last six years it has been my great pleasure to be called "Mom" by two amazing little people. Mother's Day has always been a really fun celebration at our house, but this year the week leading up to Sunday was something just short of torture for them. Both of my little ones were convinced that they had outdone one another in the gift department and were dying to find out which one I liked best. But they knew (or kept being reminded by Dad) that they had to keep the gifts a secret until Mother's Day. And it was the waiting that almost killed my children.

The funny thing is that I also had a secret gift that I was keeping from them. Even though Mother's Day is designed to celebrate moms, I have always wanted to give something to my kids on this day...like a thank you to them for making me a mom. My kids love books, so I decided to give them a Cliff's Notes version about me - do they still make these, or should I refer to it as the Wikipedia version of me?

I included a bunch of different pages in the book like: mom's favorite things, mom's family, mom's other jobs, oh the places mom's gone, etc...

In addition to the book, I also surprised the kids with a planting project that we all did together (thank you weather for your cooperation). While planting my favorite flowers, I was bombarded with a ton of follow-up questions about stuff that was included in the book. Be careful what you wish for!

All in all it was a really great day...I hope yours was as well!

Fiesta Anyone?

2010-05-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Three things come to mind when I think about this celebration: good food, amazing drinks and lots of vibrant colors. I usually like to go out to my favorite Mexican restaurant to join in the festivities, but this year I'm doing take-out and celebrating at mi casa instead.

I thought it would be fun to give my house the feel of a Mexican restaurant. I dug out a tortilla warmer that I bought about 5 years ago and have used exactly once. I figured if I used the warmer at least one more time no one could accuse me of being a hoarder - right? Instead of using the warmer for its intended purpose, I decided to use it as a centerpiece...here is the result:

Since I am not doing any cooking, I figured there was no sense in having to clean either. I pulled out some colorful paper plates, napkins and plastic utensils to complete the table. Okay, I'll even admit the fact that I have all of these paper and plastic products stored in large containers at my house screams of hoarding...

In elementary school I remember making flowers out of tissue paper for our Cinco de Mayo parties. I thought it would be fun and nostalgic to decorate the table with these, so I surrounded myself with paper and started crafting. I would love to say that my results were on par with Martha Stewart's flowers, but in reality it just looked like a bunch of crumpled up tissue paper...oh well.

Not one for giving up, I came up with another idea of creating flowers out of colorful peppers. I gathered up a good mix of sweet peppers and got to work.

And here's the result...

Not bad, but some time in the near future I will be devoting an entire post to creating the perfect tissue paper flower!