50th Birthday Party

A more appropriate title for this post might be, In Which I Pretend to Be a Party Planner. A good friend of my family celebrated her 50th birthday this weekend. I offered to help with the party, thinking I might make the invitations...maybe bring a plate of food...and ended up at the helm. This was a fun adventure for me. I've never hosted a party for 70. I admit I'm a total novice, but I sure had a good time pretending to know what I was doing.


The birthday girl wanted a medieval/royal/jewel-toned event. A crown with jewels became the decor element of the evening. If you click on the first photo above, you'll see that she penned a creative invitation to fit her theme.


Aside from the theme, the only other major request from the birthday girl was that she have a dessert buffet. One of the walls in the party room was covered in red velvet. I thought the dessert table would be placed in front of that wall - the red velvet making a nice backdrop - but no, the dessert table was set towards the back of the room. So please ignore the stacked chairs and tables in the background. Also, no need to watermark these photos, eh? No one's going to steal them. The lighting was terrible. This is the only somewhat decent picture I have without people in the background (who might not want their pictures posted).


Even with my bad photography, you can see how amazing these chocolate tortes are. The pastry chef who made these was also a guest at the party, so I wanted to give her credit for her talented work. Yes, these bundles of chocolaty goodness tasted as good - if not better - than they looked.


Colorful fruit tartlets.


I'm lovin' the candy-filled apothecary jar trend right now. Aren't they cute?


The birthday girl loves all things chocolate. So we dressed up a few chocolate staples from See's Candies: chocolate lollipops and...


three flavors of chocolate candy bars. I saw more than a few ladies tuck a bar into their purse. I'm with you ladies - a little now, a little later.


The place cards. Yes, I adhered every rhinestone on every crown by hand. For days and days, while my son did his homework, I sat at the table beside him, gluing my little heart out. Between invitations, placecards, and food labels, I used over 700 rhinestones, all glued one at a time...by hand...with tweezers.


The menu tickets. Guests were offered a choice of three entrees. Each person took a tag to indicate his or her preference. I overheated my new Silhouette making these. *sniff, sniff* Fortunately my friend Heather came to my rescue and let me finish cutting on her machine. And for what it's worth - I give the customer service department at Silhouette America a big thumbs up. Response time was speedy and they didn't give me any trouble about returning my machine.


Finally, here I am beside the dessert table. The sweater disguises my prego belly well, but if you look closely, you can see all five months' worth of the sweet little girl growing inside of me.

Cards with Gray

Whew, it's been a long time since I posted cards. In honor of Moxie Fab World's Gray is the New Black Challenge, here are a few oldies that never made it to the blog-o. All feature the color gray, of course. Enjoy your day!





Supplies: You Make Me Wild Card
Stamp: You Make Me Happy.
Paper: (Basic Grey, Basic Black, River Rock) Stampin' Up!, pattern paper by HOTP.
Ink: black StazOn.
Accessories: ribbon, Thickers by American Crafts.

Supplies: Celebrate in Style Card
Sentiment printed with computer.
Paper: (Basic Gray, Going Gray, Very Vanilla) Stampin' Up!, Amy Butler Lotus mat pad.
Accessories: gray ribbon, Kiwi ribbon, Amy Butler Lotus Faded China Purse, rhinestone brads.

Supplies: Fly Fishing Card
Based off a template from kaboose.com: http://crafts.kaboose.com/fish-card.html.
All supplies Stampin' Up!
Notes: The fishing line is a paper clip that I reshaped. If you look closely, you'll see that I stitched it onto the card at the top of the "water line" and at the top fold of the card. I made the water waves by wrapping strips of paper around a pencil.

Homemade Christmas

The Christmas trimmings have been packed away for weeks, but I'm finally making time to post all the sweet, handmade gifts we received this year. Up first, the snowman family my mom crocheted. The middle snowball represents the new baby due to join our family in May. It's wrapped up in a Christmas sock/blanket.


Love the little charm on my scarf. :)


The boys upgraded their snowmen from decorations to playthings.


We had a few weeks of playing Find the Snowman before bedtime every night because I was so afraid that if I went too long without knowing where each snowman was, we'd lose one for good.


My mom also made this game for the boys. It's a two-player game. Each player rolls the dice, then based on what they rolled, puts a star on the board beside the appropriate symbol. The first player to fill up his or her side of the game board wins.


Both boys loved it, especially my three-year-old, who packed the game to take to all his playdates last month. That's my mom on the left side of the picture. Hi Mom!


Next up is this cheery wall hanging quilted by my stepmother. My stepmom actually made this a year ago, but since I didn't post pictures at the time, late is better than never.


Look at the detail in her stitching. Giving the tree trunk and branches texture...


Outlining the berries...and also adding sparkly paint to make the snowflakes extra shimmery.


My friend Jacquie cross-stitched this sweet little ornament for us. When Jacquie came to visit a few months ago, she taught Brighton how to cross stitch. Bless that woman! Brighton may be a quick study, but she has the patience of a saint.


Last but not least, the most quintessential Christmas craft of them all: the gingerbread house.


The boys got good and sugared up decorating these little beauties. My mom bought the supplies when she came to visit and took this as her project with the boys. I was glad for the help. And for the opportunity to snitch all the spearmint gummies while no one was looking.

Neighbor Gift: Spiced Apple Cider

I hate baking. "Hate" is a strong word, I know. But it's true. Last year I got out of baking neighbor gifts by making these. This year I brainstormed all sorts of ideas from bath fizzies to felt ornaments to homemade granola (I don't count that as baking), when my husband suggested we give jars of spiced apricot-apple cider. (Click HERE for the recipe.) Mmmm...I love the way my house smells when I make a batch of cider. Deal!

I found these cute 1 liter bottles at my local Kitchen Kaboodle. I bought out the store's entire inventory - all three. So most of my gifts looked more like this...

quart canning jars.


Top the jar with some patterned paper, add a ribbon and tag, and voila! Still cute.


I designed the tags to pair together and lay well, but they still swing free of each other easily enough to see that the bottom tag has its own note and refrigeration instructions.


The assembly line.


My little helper. :) Since we make gifts for our neighbors and my boys' teachers (school, piano, church), I really like involving my boys in the gift-making process. Plus any time I start a project, my boys want to jump in - like it or not. So it works out well.

Because I poured the cider into the jars while it was hot, the lids sealed tight. After the jars cooled, Brighton added circles of decorative paper to the top and reattached the rings.


Lincoln helped make the cider by pouring ingredients and stirring. But since he's three and needs constant supervision in the kitchen, I didn't dare step away to snap photos.


Keep the box the jars come in so you'll have a way to pack them in your car for delivery day. Here's one case ready to spread Christmas cheer.

Hope you and your family are enjoying the holidays!

Supplies for the tags.
Punches: (apple punch) Martha Stewart, (tag corner punch) Stampin' Up!, Coluzzle circle cutter, (1/8" round hole punch) Fiskars.
Paper: (kraft) Stampin' Up!. I think the red is Bazzill, but it's really close to Stampin' Up!'s Riding Hood Red.
Ribbon: (Riding Hood Red wide striped ribbon, linen thread) Stampin' Up!, tan ribbon bought by the yard at JoAnn.
Font: Honey Script.

Christmas Ribbon Card

I made this many moons ago and thought I'd post it here on the blog-o. I adhered the ribbons with monoadhesive, but if I were to make the card again, I'd stitch a border to keep everything in place more securely.

Supplies
Stamps: (Cute & Curly) Stampin' Up!.
Ink: (Chocolate Chip) Stampin' Up!.
Paper: (Chocolate Chip textured, Naturals Ivory, Always Artichoke) Stampin' Up!.
Punch: (Curly Label Punch) Stampin' Up!.
Accessories: LOTS of ribbon - all from Stampin' Up!, holly from Making Memories.

I'm So Crafty, I Make People

I saw this, did a "What the...?" then died laughing. You see...


yes, the focus of my energy has definitely been elsewhere lately.

I've checked out a stack of quilting books from my local library, bookmarked dozens of blog posts (just in case I have a girl this time - I'm gathering ideas for my perfect nursery), and spent a ridiculous amount of time snuggled in bed, mustering up the energy to grow my little miracle while taking care of the two children already running around outside of me.

This precious baby is due in May. Until then, happy new baby day!

TUTORIAL: Mario & Luigi

This is the final post in my Super Mario Brothers costume tutorial series - wahoo! Between making the costumes and putting together tutorials, I feel like I climbed Mt. Everest. Today I focus on the two most beloved characters - Mario and Luigi.


I'll start with instructions on how to embellish the hats, since the rest of the costumes are more assembled than made.

Supplies for Hats

• Red or green hat. I bought these newsboy caps from Amazon.com.
• White felt.
• Red or green felt to match hats.
• White embroidery floss.
• Red or green embroidery floss.
• Template (see below).
• scissors, hand sewing needle, pins

1. Cut letters and circles from felt.

Click on this template to enlarge it, then print the template.


Use template to cut felt letters and circles.

2. Stitch letters onto white circles.

Using two strands of embroidery floss, hand sew letters onto the white circles. TIP: Be sure to sew the letter onto the circle before you sew the circle onto the hat so you don't have to sew through multiple layers of fabric.

3. Stitch white circles to hats.

Pin the circles in place, then hand sew using two strands of white embroidery floss.


Ta-da! Admire your work.



Now for pulling the look together. I'll start with Luigi. From the top down:

I bought this green newsboy cap on Amazon.com. There's plenty of elastic in the back so that the hat could be worn by a child or an adult. Amazon also carries the hat in red, both alone and as part of a deluxe Mario kit, which I'll show you farther down in the post.


This moustache was easy to shape, though my husband said it hurt like the dickens on his nostrils.


I'm sure any other time of year, I could have found green long-sleeve t-shirts at every discount retail chain. But this Halloween I had to buy one off of Amazon.com. What did our mothers do before the days of internet retail?


I searched several thrift stores for overalls, but my fruitless efforts brought me to buying these Carhartt dungarees. I have to say - I'm impressed with Carhartt. These are the most sturdy denim garment I've ever seen.


I used glue dots to adhere these big yellow buttons to the overall clasps.


These white gloves are also from Amazon.com. Size large were a bit snug for my husband, but they stretched enough that I'd still say they fit.


Last but not least is this Instant Mario Deluxe kit. I bought this to accessorize my mother-in-law's Mario costume. NOTE: before posting, I double-checked that this is the exact kit I ordered - it is. The hat I received is the one pictured. It's exactly like the green hat my husband wore for Luigi, only red. The gloves and mustache I received are also the same as the ones I had to buy individually for the Luigi kit, NOT the ones pictured. Looking at what's pictured, I'm glad I received the mustache and gloves that I did. The gloves in the kit were a size medium - too small for my husband but maybe a good fit for a child. My mother-in-law found her own poofy Mickey Mouse-type gloves at a thrift shop, so she wore those instead.

For her overalls, my mother-in-law found a set of bright blue medical scrubs at a thrift shop. She cut away the sleeves and neck to make the shape of bib overalls. Pretty ingenious, if you ask me.


Here we are as one big, happy Mario Brothers family. We even found a turtle costume at Target for our dog so he could join in as a Koopa. If you'd like to see my other tutorials, please click the links for Princess Peach, a Goomba, and Toad.

If you make anything using my template or tutorials, I'd love to see! Please leave a comment and let me know. Take care and belated happy Halloween!