Mother’s Day Brunch

So you might be looking at this picture and thinking that I’m slightly behind the times seeing as how it was Father’s Day yesterday and Mother’s Day was about a month ago; or you might be thinking that I like to plan really far ahead!  Either way read on because, although this is what I did to celebrate Mother’s Day this year, my Ideas, Tutorials, and Recipes can be used for any party, and any time of the year. 


So I knew I wanted a theme that was really bright and happy.  Something a little bit modern and definitely fun.  Off to Pinterest I went in search of inspiration.  I came across the picture above.  It’s from Amanda's Parties To Go.  She has a great site and freebies to print.  Her freebies also inspired me to make my own from scratch.  I made them using Photoshop.   

I made these signs to stick in with my flowers in vases and to pin to crepe streamers which I tied around the chairs. 




I also made little circle tags to attach to my napkin rings and narrow tags to wrap around the stems of glasses.
















I really like how my napkin rings turned out.  They were so very easy to do.  Here’s How I made them… (click 'read more' to keep reading)

Cards Galore!

So there have been a few events in my life in the past couple of months that all warranted a hand-made greeting card.  I thought you might like to see what I’ve been up too…


This was a birthday card for my brother-in-law.  I have a hard time with making male cards but I love how this turned out.  I printed out the ship and frame separately from Photoshop so I could have the 3D effect.  The tag I also designed in Photoshop but was inspired from Stamping Up.  You can see more of my “male” cards here.


This was a super easy Thank You card for a family friend.  I love purple and orange together.  Check out some other Thank You Cards.


I made this card for a baby shower.  I really enjoy hand coloring images, especially ones with kids or Precious Moments characters.  Download some free Precious Moments Boy images here.


Another Precious Moments card.  This one I had made for a special anniversary.  I love layering papers, it helps give a card more depth.

 
This card is one of my new favorites.  I had a different version of this card that I had made last year for a friends wedding but my new 2-1 border punch from EK Success really makes this version pop!  The image is a royalty free stock photo that I found and the tag is made by me through Photoshop.  You can’t tell in the photo but both are raised up to be 3D.


More Precious Moments…I think I have a slight obsession!  I made this card using a template from Wendy Bird Designs.  It was great fun to cut up the different papers and arrange them on the different sections of card. 


This was my card to my mother for Mother’s Day this year.  The card is stamped with Stampin’ Up’s “Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel Stamp”.  Love that stamp.  It provides such a great, aged look.  I cut the chick out and made her 3D with pop dot stickers;  embossed the “Oh My God” with my Versarmark Marker and Bronze embossing powder.  If you don’t own a Versamark Marker then get one—it has become my favorite embossing tool!  The half flower on the right side of the card is made like my Accordion Flowers post. 


And my last card for this post.  This was the card from my little guy to his Mamaie (that’s Grandma in Romanian).  Isn’t he sooo talented at just 2 & 1/2?!  LOL.  The image of the little fellow I printed out in Photoshop along with the surrounding frame.  The pretty punch is a 2-1 border and chain punch from eksuccess.  Watch for my next post to see how I used that punch for party décor…

So glad you stopped by to see what I’ve been up too…
Hope we can visit again soon and if you have any questions about how I made any of my cards leave me a comment and I’ll be sure to get back to you.

Happy Cardmaking!

A Birthday Party

Ever since I was a little girl I dreamed of being a event planner.  I’ve always wanted to have big, glamorous dinner parties that would we be written about in flashy magazines.  Now that I’ve reached adult maturity (at least somewhat…), I realized that life’s dreams are not always attainable and that sometimes we need to scale them back a bit, but, our new dreams are still fabulous in their own way.  For example I’m not a ever-so-popular event planner but I am a crafter, blogger and learning DIY-er who still gets to share her creations with others.  And the big, glamorous dinner party turns into something I can make, even with a tiny budget, if I just use my creative skills and some imagination. 

Which is exactly what I did for my hubby’s party this year.  I used Photoshop, the dollar store and my own ideas to make his party this year.  Now would be when I show you my fabulous party with pictures that make you drool, except that being that I had some 25+ people over and I was trying to finish setting up before hubby came home (it was a surprise party) that I forgot to take pictures of everything finished…yes I did cry a little when I realized that…but I will share with you the photos I do have and some free printables at the end of this post…

I have a lack of tables in my home.  I would love to have a buffet table that I could set up and decorate but until that day comes I grab what ever little tables I can find and hide and decorate them.  For this party I covered that tables with a white with green polk-a-dot fabric that I had from my own baby shower from 3 years ago.


I cut the fabric up and gave it a swag which I held in place with pinned tissue paper flowers.  I made them like my Napkin Flowers which you can find here. 




I made a birthday subway art and put it into a $3.00 frame that I found at Wal-Mart and set it on the table with my bright green plates and cutlery.

I wrapped my cutlery in a napkin and put the napkin in a napkin ring.  I made the napkin rings by wrapping paper towel holder cardboard tubes in white contact paper.  I then splotched them with green sparkly acrylic paint and glued on a tag that I made in Photoshop and finally added a little jeweled flower.

 As some accents on the tables I had yellow flowers in stemless wine goblets, which also had a tissue paper flower attached to a toothpick all floating in green water.  For another accent I had little flowers inside a small glass jar.  It doesn't seem like much, but it added a bit of color and dimension to my tables.

One my juice table I had put my mini champagne glasses which had more little labels that I had made in Photoshop.  As you can tell I really like to use Photoshop!  I didn’t get a finished picture with my punch bowl and the glasses filled up but hopefully you can imagine what it looked like from this picture…


A combination of the tags on the right were on the stems of the glasses on the left.  Sorry it’s so hard to see.




Above the juice table I had my Happy Birthday Banner which I had also done up in Photoshop.  I added a paper flower I made too.  It’s a 12”x12” sheet of cardstock cut into 1” wide strips with the ends folded into the center and pinned together with a brad.


Above the other tables I had more decorations that I had made from cardstock.





This was such a fun and easy party to create. It was a great basis for more parties. Check out my Facebook Page for some FREE Printables!  Look under my Exclusive Content tab!

Happy Partying!

Journal For Sale

I’ve got a new item in my Etsy shop, this pretty journal! 
This journal is the perfect place to write down all that you dream about, hope for, and believe in.

Read more about it by going to my shop here  or by  clicking my “shop” tab at the top of my page. 
And As Always,
Happy Crafting!

Dominic’s Erasable Drawing Board

So this post goes along with my last one…"To-Do, To-Do";  actually it’s what inspired this project for my little guy.  My son Dominic loves to draw and scribble and I considered getting him one of those kiddie drawing easels but are they ever expensive so what’s a crafty mom to do?  Make a dry erase board herself! 

So let me show you what I did.  This isn’t going to be a complete Tutorial, for that you can go over to my last post to see what I did.  The steps here are basically the same.
First I headed to the dollar store for my supplies…

• a large piece of Hardboard (it’s kind of like very hard cardboard that’s covered in smooth poster board…that’s the best way I can describe it) $1.00
• Roll of White Board Paper $1.00
• Jumbo Puzzle $1.00
• Dry Erase Markers $0.75

Cut a piece from your roll of paper to match the length of your board;  don’t worry about the width matching up, you’ll cover that with your puzzle

Peel back the backing from the paper and carefully and slowly adhere to your board.  After that glue the puzzle pieces on the sides of the board.  I used Tacky Glue and Modge Podge to stick the puzzle pieces on.  A Tip:  Arrange your puzzle pieces first without gluing to see what arrangement you like.
Now if you want you can make a marker holder to attach to the board too.
Grab a toilet paper roll (or a paper towel roll), and cut it in half lengthwise. 

Tape the two pieces of roll together. 

Then staple a piece of cardstock to the roll that is the same length as the roll. You need the piece of cardstock so you have a flat surface to attach to the drawing board.

Staple on the edge of a length of the roll.

Now cut a piece of fabric or some patterned paper and cover up the roll including the stapled cardstock.

Use Modge Podge to glue the flat part of the roll (the cardstock we stapled earlier) to the drawing board.  Now you have the perfect place for markers.

You can attach it to the wall with a picture hooks or whatever you like.  I used just the removable strips from 3M, the ones that come with the hooks.
 
I just used the strip straight on the back of the board without the hook.  Works great and won’t cause damage to my walls.
Look at my little guy enjoying his new place to scribble!

I hope you and your kiddies will enjoyed this project!
Until next time, Happy Crafting!