The Party!

Man!  This party took a lot out of me!  The house still hasn't recovered. 
I think things went well.  Tucker seemed pretty happy with it.  The kids were excited for all the sugar (and then they ran around the house like a wackos they are).
Here are a few pics...

The table!  Stars are paper ball things were from Oriental Trading.  Mickey balloons were from BrithdayExpress.com.  Mickey stuff was from party stores around here.

He didn't smile in the first picture, so I showed it to him and told him to smile.  This is what I got (because he's a goofball).

Didn't want to buy a Micky pan and have to do all those stars, so I did this.  The shape was fine, but the color didn't work.  I've used the color spray before and got a deep blue with the blue can, so  I thought I could get black with the black spray.  Not so much.  Oh well.  I knew that if I colored all the frosting black all the way through no one would eat it so this was my idea.

Treats and bubba teeth.  It's a fancy combo :)

Candy!  Mini swirl pops are Oriental Trading and almost everything else is from the candy store.  Pinwheels were three for a dollar at the dollar store (and I need to get more because the kids stole them).

Happy guy during the birthday song.

Any questions about something specific?  Just let me know!

Birthday decor/treats

Cute, right?  I saw this idea on a blog a while back and thought that it would be perfect for Tucker's party (or any party that I throw for that matter, because I get all OCD about the colors I use at a party matching).  They were so quick and easy to make!



I bought the pre-colored candy melts at the store and just melted them and dipped the Oreos in them.  I do have a dipping tool, and that does help.  I used it for the brownies I dipped at Christmastime too.  I also used color-coordinated sprinkles (shocking, I know). 

I'll be sure to let you know if they're a hit :)

Birthday Treats

Tucker's 4th birthday was on Tuesday and because I'm not having his party until Saturday night I have all week to get ready.  The first bunch of goodies I made were the treat boxes for him to take to school and give to his friends.  Now, I had a crazy weekend and was short on time so they aren't nearly as cute as I had hoped (not to mention that I couldn't find boxes that held individual cupcakes so I had to work with these ones).  The kids liked them and the moms did too.  Cupcakes to take home that are wrapped up in a box?  Not too shabby for moms used to food all over the car :)

The boxes were with the cake decorating stuff at Michael's and the papers were on clearance.  I've actually had this ribbon for a long time and I got it at Costco.  If I'd had more time I probably would have drawn Mickey ears on all the dots (because I'm crazy like that).  I cut the tags by hand from white card stock and hand wrote on them.  The Mickey is a punch that I got.

This is what was inside.  Tucker picked strawberry banana cupcakes and I made my butter cream icing.  The toys are all from the party store.  I sent the extra dozen cupcakes in so they could have one in class without having to open all the boxes. 
Anyway, I'll post more treats tomorrow!

Another quick Valentine's Day craft!

I've had this Bare Essentials heart for a while and I knew that it would be perfect for a little Valentine's Day decor.
I covered it in some BoBunny paper that I ran through my Xyron Creatopia and added the few embellishments from my stash.  I punched a hole in that little old Queen and Co. heart and tied it to the wire and done! 

It's nice to have more than three things out to decorate with this year :)

School Treats for the Twins

I decided to make the boys' Valentines this year and when I saw the bags of candy watches and bracelets at CVS I knew they'd be perfect!
I bought some paper at the scrapbook store and measured the candies.  They fit inside a matchbox made of a 3x6" piece of paper.  I was able to get eight matchboxes out of each piece of paper and I made a total of 60 of these little guys.  The twins got the ones that have the punched strip of reddish paper across the front, but I made two others so you could see other ways that they could be embellished. 

The bags of candy were something like $2 each and I bought four.  Not as cheap as paper valentines or anything, but cute and affordable.  The boys really like it when I make things for them to share with their friends.

Treats for my little guys

I never do anything special for the kids for Valentine's Day. I mean, I make treats for them to exchange with their friends, but never anything special just for them. This year I saw these cute little buckets at Joann's and picked up one for each of the twins and Tucker. I kept the altering pretty simple, but I think they're going to be pretty excited on Monday morning.

The actual bucket sides are clear so I just cut paper to fit inside and slipped it into the buckets.  Valentine's paper is pretty much all pink, but I'm okay with that.  I don't think anyone will be complaining when they see all the candy I stuff in these things.

Look at all that loot!  I probably could have fit more in there, but they're set for dessert for a while with this crap.

I also found these.  Tucker is crazy for Mickey Mouse, so that was a no-brainer, and the "You Rock" suckers were pretty cute for the twins.

More Valentine's Day goodies tomorrow!

Lovey Dovey Frame

I picked this up last month at Michael's.  The frame was about a buck and I think the little wooden heart was about half that.  Pretty affordable when you throw in paper from BoBunny that I got from Xyron last year and embellishments that I already had or made from things I already had.  I think this is my favorite project of the things I made today.

 I added a little extra bling to the details on the paper with some Stickles.  The flowers are more that I made out of those old, little bitty Primas I still have a bunch of jars of :)

Like that picture?  I think it captures our marriage pretty well.

Valentine's/Birthday Treats!

My littlest guy, Tucker, turns four on February 15th.  He doesn't have school that day, so I'm sending treats on Monday.  They've got a Valentine's theme, but they're extra cute and have more stuff in them that I would normally send for Valentine's Day. 

I already had these little tins from back in the day when I used to teach scrappy classes more often.  There are only eleven kids in his class so I have no problem doing something that's a little more involved and expensive for him.  Now, I don't mean to act like I went out and spent a bunch of money on all the stuff that wasn't already in my scrap room.  I bought the paper and die cuts at Target in the dollar spot.  The ribbon, stamps, ink and punches I already had.  I ran the paper and die cut wraps through the Xyron Creatopia to attach them to the tins.

The goodies I put inside were just inexpensive little things from the Target Valentine section.  Tucker is pretty excited to share, and even though I still have more work to do (I have to bake treats!), I'm excited for his first birthday that he'll get to celebrate with his new school friends.

First Valentine's project of the month!

I had so much fun designing and making this that I wanted to be sure to share it with you all.  I love my Wishblade for projects, but I am no expert.  The more I play, the more comfortable I am and the better my projects are.  I really do a lot of things with text when I'm using this cutter, and having all those free fonts available on the internet really helped me out!



 I went into the Create and Cut software that comes with the Wishblade and started typing out the word "Love" over and over in just about every font.  Then I started arranging them in a shape that would fit inside my mat.  I resized some of the words as I went along and turned them in different directions.  I cut it out of vinyl (which is pretty easy to find at just about any craft store these days).  I'll explain why in a minute.

 This is the close up of it after  I've peeled the letters out.  Some of those are pretty delicate cuts and because I used the vinyl I just had to pop the letters out instead of worrying about how I was going to get the paper peeled off the cutting mat, know what I mean?  Pretty sure that I would have had some tearing that way.

 I just put it in a cheapo frame and mat that I bought.  Got the mat a while back at Michael's for about $3 and the frame was $7.50 at  JoAnne's.  Not too shabby if you ask me :)

I made the fuller flowers out of some old Primas and hot glued the thicker embellishments right onto the glass.  The little sequins go right through my Xyron 150. 

I hope you like this one because it's one of my favorite projects right now.  I have very little stuff to use for Valentine's decor and this looks pretty cute in my front hallway.

CHA Photos!

I am back!  I was so lucky to get to go to CHA.  I knew that I'd be busy, but I had no idea just how busy I'd be the whole time!  I thought I'd get a chance to walk the show for a little bit every day, and that just didn't happen.  I did manage to get 91 pictures, but I'm not sure how :)  Most of them were taken in the morning before most of the companies had even gotten to their booths and some were taken as I walked to our booth.  I apologize for not getting more pictures to share!  The show was a lot of fun and it was nice on the last day that I got to walk around a little bit and talk to some of the people in the different booths.  The girls at the Adornit booth were so nice!  I even chatted to Melissa Frances (without realizing it at first.  Because I'm a dork like that).  Anyway, here is a link to my Flikr pictures!  Have fun looking!