Party Planning

I've planned plenty of parties...all with some kind of little girl theme.  So when my mother-in-law was turning 60, I thought, I can help out with invitations and decorations.  Thankfully, my own mother is great friends with my mother-in-law and offered to help me with all those crafty decorations.  My poor Cricut had quite a workout! The balloon and "shhh" was cut from Smiley Cards and the bow was from Everyday Paper Dolls!

Here's the invitation...a gate-fold card!

This is a "one sheet bag" with some Hershey kisses as a favor.

We stamped and paper pieced the balloon on the favor bags, over 70 of them!  The curly ribbon on the favor bag was cut from Ribbon and Rosettes and the lid for the explosion box and blue mat were cut with Elegant Edges.  It was so great to find that that those two cartridges coordinated exactly with each other...of course we had to add glitter to those loops!

Our centerpieces were explosion boxes.

Each box contained pictures of my MIL throughout her life.

My mother-in-law got to keep all 70 plus pictures from her explosion boxes to put into the matching memory book I made for her (sorry no pic).  We had everyone at the party write her a note with either a "remember when" or birthday wish, which she was able to add to her book.  I used "remember" from Gypsy Wanderings for the front of the book I made her.  I also tried to take a picture of everyone there and sent her those pictures digitally, so she could print those out to, if she wished.  The "60" actually lifts right out of the explosion boxes, so folks could "re-gift" them by adding their own pictures or even gift cards for their recipient.  Hiding under the flaps are a birthday cake cut from Disney Princess Dreams Come True and the same balloon as the invite from Smiley Cards.

This banner was made using my Cricut!  It reach all the way across the room!

Other than the rosettes, I used Birthday Bash for the banner.  The banner was a lot of work. Each rosette had multiple sections glued together.  The pennants were almost 12 inches long...that was a lot of loading mats into the Cricut!  However, you could see it from across the room.  It was beautiful, even if I do say so myself! 

 

I even made little food placard signs...it was a brunch, so we had several different quiches and other yummy food to let folks know about so they could decide what to dig into.  I used Wall Decor and More for those.  Overall, it was a lot of work, but my MIL was surprised and seemed to have a good time, so it was worth it!

Sympathy Card

I don't imagine that anyone wants to make sympathy cards, but when you know for sure that the deceased is "home with the Lord", somehow it makes the task lighter.  This is a card I made last year.  The paper is DCWV Linen Stack.

Valentine's "Pun"

This is not a normal "crafty" post, but still fun stuff in my life!  My hubby loves nuts...I mean LOVES nuts, all kinds as well as a good beef jerky...well, what else would you buy your hubby for Valentine's day other than stuff that he loves.  My chicas and I decided to make some very small, very simple, but very "punny" Valentine's Day cards to go with his pistachios, peanuts and beef jerky.  Here's what we came up with!

Prayer Journal

One of the first projects we did with our monthly craft group at church was an altered composition book.  Most of the women made theirs into a Prayer Journal.  The one pictured is the one I made, but alas, I ended up giving it away, but I thought it came out so pretty.  We used some Martha Stewart punches for the edges, Spellbinders dies to cut the label (can't remember which now) and my mom found some sweet small gel pens that were perfect in our paper "pen holder".  We added ribbon for a book marker and also to tie the book closed.  I added a pocket on the inside cover to hold prayer sheets, or church bulletins/announcements and stamped a scripture sentiment from one of the Scripture Collections from Our Daily Bread Designs

Telescoping Image Cards

Here are a few cards I made to give to some special people. I used colored pencils and gamsol, lots of Glossy Accents, and the rectangle spellbinders die and this telescoping image tutorial 

Kusudama Ball

Here is a picture of one of the projects we completed over the course of two months.  It's a Kusudama Ball.  The ladies brought their own paper and ribbon and we showed them how to fold and assemble the flowers.  The next month, those who hadn't done so, brought back their assembled flowers and we helped them to assemble them into the ball and insert their ribbon.  It was up to them to "embellish" them at home.  Every single one came out beautifully!!  Mine is a little beat up now that it has traveled back and forth as a sample several times now!  But when it's hanging up, no one notices.  The snowflakes are from the Tie the Knot Cricut Cartridge and a simple circle punch with a little glitter finished it off!  Here's a great tutorial so you can make your own: kusudama tutorial

Fall Themed cards

Still playing "catch up" with my posts about projects I've done for my monthly class.  This was for a fall themed class.  We taught the "black magic" technique.  I love this technique...the colors really pop!

We try to teach at least one technique each month.  Besides the "black magic" technique, we also  taught how to iris fold.  I found a great site with lots of free templates Here .  The sentiment was stamped on a card frame from Stretch Your Imagination Cricut Cartridge.  Love the glittery paper in the center!

Catching Up!

I've been missing in action all right, but I have been busy homeschooling and crafting and well, living life!  I coordinate a monthly women's craft night at my church, so I thought I'd post some of the projects we've done since I last "blogged".

This is a gift card holder...you put the gift card in the pocket.  This is a direct copy of one found here!

This is a CTMH stamp set and is based off the sketch below!

 I wanted to teach how to work off of a sketch, so we used this sketch for the card. Sketch 148

I also had them create this scrapbook page, also from a sketch. Here

I pre-cut, stamped and glittered the leaves using the CTMH Art Philsophy cartridge.  The acorns also were from Art Philsophy with a little inking/Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing.  "Autumn" came from Gypsy Wanderings and "blessings" from Wall Decor & More.