Holiday Gift Tags

This Christmas, I created holiday gift tags and gifted them to friends and family!

I cut the tag shape from card stock with my handy paper cutter, and stamped/embossed them with decorative stamps.  Stickles glitter glue added a little pizzazz to the design.

Happy Holidays!!!

Stocking Christmas Cards

After some encouragement from the team at the River North Paper Source, I decided to enter their store's holiday greeting card contest.  I adapted my String of Hearts Valentine's Day card design to the holidays with a string of stockings and snowflakes.  Paper Source's Modern Snowflakes gift wrap helped me inject a good dose of PS flavor to the design.

I lined red A7 envelopes with liners cut from the Modern Snowflakes gift wrap.  I drew a template for the stockings and then traced and cut these from the gift wrap and red card stock.  Decorative tape lines the edge and metallic silver brads connect the two pieces.  Snowflakes stamped and embossed in silver and silver Stickles glitter glue embellish the "string."

I punched holes in the foot of the stockings and used silver twist-ties to attach the bells (forgive me -- the only non-PS item on the card ;-).  I couldn't resist adding a coordinating label to address the envelope.

I used PS' shimmer silver card stock for the front page, and moss card stock for the back page.   The message "Merry Christmas," stamped and embossed in silver, completes the card.

I love card-making, and really enjoyed having this card contest as motivation to make my holiday cards extra-special!  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for many reasons . . . quality time with family and friends, extra-long weekend, the start to the next month of holiday festivities.  It is also a special time to reflect on the long list of blessings we have in our lives.  Let's make more time to give thanks for those blessings (little or small) every day of the year!

I created these correspondence cards for this Thanksgiving holiday.  I sent a few in the mail to friends with a note about how thankful I am for their friendship, and also sent a batch to my extended family's celebration (I celebrated with Mr. B's family this year).  Everyone wrote their blessing and my cousin read them aloud before Thanksgiving dinner.  So sweet!

I printed card stock with the message "I am thankful for . . . ", stamped a turkey rubber stamp from Paper Source, and decorated with my new obsession, Stickles glitter glue!

Among many other blessings in my life, I am thankful when I find time to craft and express my creativity!

  

Bridal Shower Favor Tags

Mary's mom commissioned me to design tags to adorn the party favors she distributed at a bridal shower for her friend.  When I learned the bride's wedding colors were royal blue and gold, I instantly thought of a favorite gold paper from Paper Source, Lokta Golden Baroque.  I layered royal blue card stock, this beautiful gold paper, and a message I printed on ivory (off-white) card stock.  A heart stamped and embossed in gold and an off-white eyelet finished the job!

Congratulations to the bride, and thank you to Mary and her family for giving me excuses to craft and create! (and reasons to make blog posts :-)

Halloween Bash

This Saturday, Mr. B and I hosted our second annual Halloween bash at a new bar in our neighborhood.  I love having an excuse to dress in costume!  

Last year, we hosted the party at our condo, which allowed me to have fun getting crafty with decorations and other party elements (sadly, these details went undocumented).  On a happy note, the 2010 was such a success that we had to expand beyond our 850-square-foot love nest and move the party elsewhere!  

Since we didn't have a dedicated room for this year's party, I didn't go all-out with decorations.  However, I did create these simple prize bags for the winners of our informal contest.  I used Apple's Chalkduster font in all caps and a few stamps I picked up from a $1 bin at Michael's last year.  The fill-in ballot for "most likely to . . . " forced guests to use their creativity!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Honky Tonk Party Favors

Check out these totally silly party favors I made for my friend's hubby Hap's 29th birthday.  She gave me very loose guidelines:  a sweet treat to match the theme of his BBQ birthday dinner.

During a stroll down Walgreens' candy aisle, I found Boston Baked Beans on mega sale.  Baked beans go with BBQ, right?! (right?!)  After trips to four Walgreens stores, I had enough boxes for the favors.  (note:  Before this project, I had never actually tasted BBB.  Only after I finished the favors did I break into an extra box and realize how gross they taste.  Interesting that all four Walgreens checkout employees got VERY excited when they learned they were only 19 cents/box.  Thankfully some people like these little creatures!)  I digress . . . 

Doctoring up these boxes was simple.  I made a label to change "Boston" to "Potter's" with a tagline of "A Texas Original Since 1982" (Hap is from Texas and was born in '82) and affixed it with double stick tape.  I printed a "happy birthday" message on Paper Source's paper bag card stock and used a 3-inch circle punch to create a tag.  After finishing the tag with an eyelet, I attached it to the box with twine.

Happy Birthday, Hap!  Last birthday before fatherhood!  :-)

Marathon Party Favors

I love marathon Sunday in Chicago.  The energy in the city is unlike any other day of the year.  This year, Mr. B and I met Jen, Tiffany and Andy at the halfway point and ran the second 13.1 with our friends.  These warriors already had 13.1 miles on their legs, so we tried to be as motivating and supportive as possible.  After the race, my dear friend Mary hosted a post-party to honor Jessica's completion of her first marathon.  Mary asked me to bring a party favor, so I created mini running bibs and medals to celebrate Jessica's accomplishment.

These favors were extremely easy to make!  First, I covered the labels of mini Gatorade bottles with computer paper.  I then printed running "bibs" on card stock and affixed them to mini Gatorade bottles with double-stick tape.  I left the edges loose and poked mini safety pins through all four corners, just like an actual running bib.  Finally, I used ribbon, chocolate coins and a glue gun to create the medals.  I am pleased with the end product!    

A BIG congratulations to Jessica, Jen, Tiffany, Andy and all of our other friends who conquered the 2011 Chicago Marathon!  You guys rock!!!

Two-Year Anniversary Tribute - Wedding Invitations

Happy Second Wedding Anniversary to Mr. B!  After two years, I am just now starting to love the navy and pink color combination once again! (after complete navy and pink wedding-color overload :-)  On a serious note, the past two years have been so unbelievably happy.  Being married to my best friend is the best!

A look back at our wedding invitations, my first (and biggest!) crafting endeavor.

front view of insert cards:  RSVP & Map

back view of insert cards:  RSVP details & Directions

I still love the "wouldn't miss it for the world!" and "will be there in spirit" response choices!  

About to Pop! Invitations

Invitations for Mary's "About to Pop!" baby shower kept in the grey/purple/turquoise theme.  I used Paper Source's gravel card stock and diagonal folder enclosure in luxe white, which has a bit of texture.  I designed the circle border design in my very unsophisticated design software -- Apple's Pages.  

Registry information was noted on the diagonal space (see above) with a sticker made with circle and scallop circle punches and a Xyron sticker maker.

In lieu of a greeting card, guests were encouraged to bring a book with a message to Baby P on the inside cover.  I conveyed this message with a poem and included a book plate (aka sticker) for guests to use inside their book.  To make the book plate, I printed "From the Potters' Library" on Avery labels and embellished them with an owl stamp.

Check out the great books/greeting cards Mary received!

About to Pop! Baby Shower

I used the "Baby is about to pop!" theme for a baby shower I co-hosted for my dear friend Mary.  Grey (Mary's favorite) anchored the color scheme, while pastel purple and turquoise accent hues created a twist to the gender-neutral baby shower.  

"POP the bubbly!"

Cocktails (and mocktails!) were served in mason jars.  Guests were encouraged to "pop" their names on tags attached to the jars.

Grey and white-striped straws found on Etsy were decorated with tags expressing how much "We love Mary!" and "We love Baby P!"

Thanks to the girls for finding a perfect place to hang these Chinese lanterns purchased online at Pearl River.

The original inspiration for the shower . . . popcorn favors with the slogan "Thanks for POPing by!"  I used a recipe found here with lavender and turquoise M&Ms purchased at Party City.

Flowers and greens from Whole Foods arranged in mason jars served as centerpieces.

More pops of purple and turquoise!

A BIG thank you to all of the girls who prepared the delicious food spread!

Some shower games are cheesy, but the "right" games can be super fun!  We played the crowd pleaser "match the celebrity with their (bizarro) baby's name" and a second game, created by Kate, called "Baby, is that for real?!" where we guessed whether baby items were real or fake.  While all the items sounded fake to me, they were actually all real products.  A great game for a group that is non-mom dominant like us!  Download a template here.  

Check out my next post to see the invitations for this shower.

UPDATE:  Since I am back-filling this post, I am happy to report that Mary gave birth to healthy baby boy William on November 25th!

Summer Wedding

I felt extremely honored when my (future) sister-in-law asked me to help with some of the creative elements for her summer wedding.  While the bride's favorite color orange set the wedding's theme, she also wished to pay tribute to her native country Brazil by incorporating the colors of Brazilian flag (blue, green and yellow) in the wedding design.  

I made two prototypes for the place cards.

The bride decided to use them both!  The left version would be the place card for the female guests and the right for the male guests.  See below for the final product at the wedding and pictures of other creative elements from the day.  Note pops of the Brazilian flag's blue, green and yellow colors throughout!

Card box on the gift table:

Table numbers:

An extra favor:

"Altar" decoration:

HUGE congratulations to the bride and groom!  XO

Summer Bridal Shower

Mr. B's brother is getting married in August, so my mother-in-law and I were excited to host a bridal shower to honor my future sister-in-law, Marcilia!  

The decorations and party elements were inspired by this PS wrapping paper that you see in the center of the tables.

These flower pots from Whole Foods matched the daisy pattern and served as our centerpieces.  

Menu cards were tucked inside PS half moon invitation enclosures in chartreuse and stamped/embossed  with this daisy rubber stamp.  

Menu card (inside):

Placecards in persimmon:

Banner:

Seating arrangement and favor boxes:

(each box was filled with two heart cookies, similar to these)

Water bottles (for our post-lunch boat tour):

I am very excited to have a new sister!  

Look for another post about the wedding in August!

OWL Always Love Birthday Parties!

Shout out to my friend Nicole and the adorable owl-themed birthday party she threw her 2-year-old darling, Ella!  Nicole is extremely talented, and you can see her creativity and stylish eye for party details in this picture showcase!

Water bottles dressed up for the owl theme.

We drank from mason jars that Nicole decorated with adorable paper owls.  

Flags decorating the striped paper straws read, "what a hoot!"

The dessert spread of "owl treats" was unbelievable!

Mason jars filled with delicious homemade granola were our party favors.  

"We hope you had a hoot!"  So cute!

Check out Nicole's blog here!