pennant art

It's been a while since I've done any crafting, it was definitely time! 

Over the weekend, I whipped up some pennant art.  



It felt pretty good to do something crafty!


I pulled out some of my favorite patterned papers, tapes, bakers twine and a frame- cut and played around with it until I had something I liked.


I hand cut the pennants our of paper and tape.


I found this little tag and glittery S sticker in my stash.


I think it's pretty fun and happy!


I especially like it sitting next to the flowers on my mantel.  (Anyone know what these flowers are called? I love love love them!!)


Supplies used:  

frame- Goodwill
patterned papers- American Crafts, My Minds Eye, Echo Park
tape- Target, K & Co
tag- My Minds Eye
bakers twine- Paper Source

Glitter pumpkin

(This post was first published in October 2011)


How about a fun and easy project to start this Halloween season? 


A Glitter Pumpkin!


I used a dollar store pumpkin, mod podge and orange glitter.


It's pretty self explanatory.  I just painted the mod podge onto a section of the pumpkin then poured glitter over the top.  When one section was dry I moved onto another one.  There were some holes where the glitter didn't stick or I didn't put it on thick enough, so I went back over the holes with more mod podge and glitter.


After it was dry I sprayed it with hairspray, thinking it would hold the glitter on.  I'm not sure if it was necessary, but the glitter seams to be staying on pretty well.


Then I put it on top of a tall candle stick and there it is -an inexpensive and easy Halloween/Fall decoration!  You can view all of the pumpkins in the picture here.

linking up to:  Be different Act Normal

Luau 10th birthday party

Hi everyone!  I missed you!  I'm back and hopefully I can keep up with life now -no promises though!

As I said in this post, my daughter celebrated her 10th birthday.  She has lots of friends that are boys as well as girls so we wanted a party theme that would support inviting both.  


We decided on a Luau!



I made a quick invite on my computer, printed it out and stamped some flowers on.


My favorite part of throwing a party is the decorating!  I love having this shelf in our dining area that is the perfect place to set the theme of any party!


Some close ups of the details.


I didn't get a good photo of the food table (it's hard to be the hostess, activity director and the photographer).  

Our menu consisted of:

-tortilla roll ups
-pb & j and pb & honey cut out in flower shapes


-individual cups of rainbow jello


-water, capri sun and lemonade
-chips
-grapes served in a sand pail


I couldn't figure out what to do for a centerpiece and then finally came up with using fresh fruit.  Can't get much more luau-y than that!!  I also used tissue paper puff balls and ribbon hanging from the chandelier to add color.


I made red velvet cupcakes, per my daughter's request, in pink and blue polka dot cupcake papers.  Then I put paper umbrella's in each one.



For the week leading up to the party, the weather at our house was sunny and in the 90's.  On this day it was rainy with a high of 75*.  The kids were freezing as they played water games in our back yard.  Their teeth were chattering but they had big smiles on their faces!  And my daughter was super happy and kept thanking me!


Speaking of thank you's, these are the thank you cards I made.  I used the same clip art (from etsy) that I used in the decorations and whipped up a fill in the blank card for my daughter to fill out.  She has them mostly down now so I need to get busy and get them mailed out.

blog break

Between carting my kids to and from school, all of their activities, church  and 2 of my kids' birthdays I'm having a hard time keeping up with everything.  You should see my house- it's a wreck, my laundry is overflowing.  And I can't remember the last time I actually cooked something respectable for dinner.  Plus I'm leaving next week for a little trip to visit family (my husband hates when I advertise that I won't be here, but he will be home to hold the fort down).  So I'm going to take a wee blogging break.  

When I come back I'll have a bunch of crafty stuff to blog about.  After all, the best craftin' months are coming upon us!

Take care and see ya soon!!


easy felt banner

I'm gearing up for my daughter's birthday this weekend.  I've got the guests invited, menu planned, activities thought out and now I'm working on the decorations.


The first project I did is this felt banner. 
(inspired by one I purchased from this seller on Etsy.)


I first cut the 8x11 inch felt sheets (from Hobby Lobby) into 3 inch strips.  Then I hand cut a triangle out of some paper, and used it as a template for the felt triangles.  I used my rotary cutter so my hand didn't die from cutting each individual triangle out.


I threaded the triangles onto floss using a big needle.


It was super simple.


And here it is- the first of many decorations to do for my daughter's party.   In my opinion, a party worth throwing, is a party worth stressing about and going over board for, much to my husband's dismay!  So I'm sure I'll have many late nights this week as I work on everything.  It will be worth it- it always is.