celebration sneak peek

quick gifts

Credits
patterned paper: All My Memories; yellow ribbon, cardstock: Stampin' Up!; chipboard circle: Maya Road; metal letter: Making Memories; other: red and brown ribbon

Credits
cardstock, ribbon, string, ink: Stampin' Up!; dotted circle stamp: Close to My Heart; chipboard circle: Maya Road; metal letter: Making Memories

teacher gifts

For teacher gifts this year, I used a combination of ideas from eighteen25 and Lisa Storms.



This cute cup idea came from Lisa Storms' blog. I ended up creating my own flag, but Lisa generously offers her flags for you to download.

Here's mine:

I filled the cup with treats, a lemonade packet, and this fun iTunes gift card (sorry the photo is not very clear... I took it in less than ideal light late at night).



The cute record printable came from the eighteen25 blog... I changed the words slightly to better fit the personality of my kids.

Here's a short tutorial on how to put together a quick gift card holder like this one.


1. Seal a small gift enclosure envelope (if you don't have an envelope that size, I have a couple of templates in my shop here and here). Cut enough off the end to make the envelope approximately 3 inches in length.

2. Use a circle punch to punch a half circle notch from the top.

3. Adhere a cute label to the back side of the envelope. Insert gift card. Easy peasy!

artist party

My daughter turned 5 in March, and she decided she wanted an art party. We had so much fun planning this party. She loves rainbow colors, so we went with bright, fun colors for everything. She and all her cute, little friends had a blast. Here are some of the highlights. (I took A LOT of pictures, so this is a pretty image-heavy post.)

The invitations using my Box of Crayons Printable Card.

The traditional birthday wall (banner created with my Pennant Banner Template).

Colorful buntings hung over our "art studio" (aka our kitchen table) where the girls painted.
Bunting created with my Bunting Template v.2.

We turned our home into an art gallery before the party with our own paintings.

Party sacks, water bottles, plates, and watercolors to add to their sacks to take home.

Aprons for the girls to wear while they paint and take home when they're through.
(Less than $1 each from Oriental Trading here.)

Water bottle labels with a spot to write names.

Paintbrushes, paints, and jars (for water) all ready to go!

The birthday girl.

Some of the creations of our budding artists.

Pin the nose on the clown. (No party is complete without Pin the ____ on the ____... right?)

Rainbow cupcakes. (Recipe found on Our Best Bites here.)

Brand new set of watercolors for the girls to take home with their aprons (total party favor cost for both the watercolors and apron was less than $2 each!).

Edited to add: Artist Party Printables are now available in my store at ScrapMatters.

cd/dvd envelope template - 50% off

You can grab my cd/dvd envelope template for only $2... but get it quick because it's only on sale today!

easter baskets

I know Easter was a month ago, but I thought I would share these baskets I made anyway. I had the thought last year that a fabric Easter basket would be much more practical storage-wise than the traditional woven baskets. I made one for my youngest last year and then finished the other three this year. I found this tutorial from Michael Miller Fabrics but modified it so my baskets had one handle going across instead of the two smaller handles. They were fun to make and don't take up a lot of valuable storage space. Win, win!

new stuff + insd + blog train freebie

Happy iNSD! I have a couple of new hybrid templates out this weekend, and now's the perfect time to grab them since ScrapMatters is having a huge storewide sale. This is one of the best sales we have, so it's a great time to shop!

First, I have this fun bunting template:



I also released a BIG version of my shopping bag template:



The design team at ScrapMatters put together a great collaboration kit, Timeless, that is free with any $20 purchase through May 12. I used this kit to create two ready-to-print cards that are yours FREE as part of our iNSD blog train. You can click on the image below to take you to 4shared where you can download them.



Here's a look at the cards up close:





Thanks for stopping by. To continue on the blog train, your next stop is the ever-talented Erica Zane. Click here to take you to her blog.



If you get lost or miss any stops on the train, you can go to ScrapMatters blog for a complete list.