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!

Monogrammed Note Card Sets

I've been teaching a monthly paper crafting class with a friend and my mom at our church as part of our Women's Ministry these past few months.  Last month we decided to "teach" these Monogrammed Note Card Sets scrap-lifted from http://shesasassylady.blogspot.com/2011/12/monogrammed-note-cards-make-great.html 

I brought my E along and we monogrammed them for the ladies using the font from the Nursery Rhyme cartridge.  For time's sake, we used punches for the circles and scallop circles.  We also used some Fiskars and Martha Stewart border punches as well.  The blue one pictured was a gift from my friend this past Christmas, I believe she used Ashlyn's Alphabet (monogram) and Elegant Edges (medallion).   I have plans to monogram these others for my chicas' teachers at Christmas time.

Altered Comp Books

Here's two composition books that have been kicking around for a while.  I finally added a little medallion to the front cover and made a corner bookmark to match.  Each of my "chicas" will get one of these.  I have to add their initial to the front cover before I give them to them.  I used Elegant edges for the border along the side in the front and also the medallion.  Gotta love that you can get the exact length you need!  I only had scraps to make the bookmarks, so they came out a little smaller than I wanted, but they'll still be useful.