Party Decorations

Recently we gave my mom an 80th birthday party so I thought I would share some of the pictures of the decorations here.  Most of the ideas came from scouring Pinterest.  I mainly used burlap, denim from old jeans, lace, and chiffon. And, of course, lots of photographs.

This is the display table.

 

 

The display board was made with scrap wood and chicken wire and hinged to give the z effect.  The chicken wire was stapled on the back side with a heavy duty stapler.  The pictures are held on with miniature clothes pins from the craft section of WalMart.

 

 

The flowers I made by cutting out chiffon and denim using my Sizzix BigKick and sewing burlap ribbon and lace into flower shapes (basically into a circle) then sewing them all together and hot gluing a button, and in some cases a brad to the center.  For the jar I layered strips of burlap ribbon, denim, and lace and hot glued to the jar.  Then hot glued the flower on the jar on top of the seam.

 

 

I used a satin remnant I had from my stash and some lace to make a basket liner for our card basket.  I looked up various ways of making the liner.  Then I came up with my own version.  Since I've only been sewing since October, I think I did a pretty decent job.

This is one of the 12 table decorations.  I didn't think to get a picture of the decorations before everyone arrived so I didn't get a good shot of them but it is a decorated jar filled with silk carnations, a figurine (discontinued Denim Days collection from Home Interior), a small jelly jar filled with pink and clear beads and a flameless candle and little flowers I sewed.

The cake table had a picture cube my husband and I made by painting Dollar Tree frames and gluing them together with Liquid Nails.  A flameless pillar candle was lit in the center.

 

 

I had many compliments on my decorations and I was very pleased how everything turned out.

 

 

My husband originally made the display board for our son's Homeschool group's 8th grade graduation display table.

 

 

 

4th of July and Misc. Cards

I was playing around trying to come up with an invitation to our 4th of July party and Thank You cards for my son's 8th grade graduation and these are what I came up with:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are some random cards I made using the color green and die cut animals:

 

 

I made this wedding card using an embossing diffuser that I purchased by mistake but instead of returning it, I decided to keep it and play around with it:

I made this card and I etched the glasses for a wedding we recently attended.  I put in the blue napkins so the etching would show up in the pictures.  I put the glasses and card in a wicker basket on green dish towels.  I thought I took a picture but apparently, I didn't.

This last card was a Mother's Day card my 11 y.o. dd made for me without any help from me.  I thought she did a great job!

 

These are a few butterfly cards I made while trying to come up with a graduation card.  I think the wine colored one looks more like a wedding card.

 

 

Meadow and Sprigs Cards

Here are my latest cards.

 

I used the Spellbinders Sprigs dies on the first two cards. 

 



 

 

I used the Inkadinkado Meadow Stamps on the next cards.

 

The first three I sponged the background.

 

 

The last two I inked a clear block and spritzed with water before "stamping" onto the paper.  I let it dry, then stamped image.

 

Flower and Butterfly Cards

I recently made the these cards using a technique I learned from the following site:  Wrinkled Flower Coloured with Distressed Ink Tutorial.  I made mine a little differently because I didn't have any distressed ink.  I used what I had on hand, some of my kids' watercolor markers.  I think they still came out very nice.  I also tried this technique with some butterflies.  I didn't have the right colored pink paper for a couple of the cards so I used the same technique to make a couple of sheets of background paper as well.  I think they came out looking like handmade paper and I really like the texture.

 

 

 

 

 

This card was made into a butterfly shaped card by offsetting the die so it wouldn't cut through the top layer.  I sponged the edges.

 

 

 

My Latest Cards Made With My Latest Purchase

I recently purchased a Sizzix Big Kick machine and I LOVE it!  It has really changed my card making!

 

 

I also recently discovered a great way to store my cards until I give them away.  I have a Cropper Hopper picture storage container that I purchased years ago but never got around to using.  It has worked wonderfully to store my delicate cards.  It is one large box with 32 individual 4"X6" containers that I can put at least 2 embellished cards in back to back without fear of them getting squashed.  I thought I had come up with a new idea but soon learned I was not the first to come up with this idea.  ;-)  I did learn that others have even used a similar item to store their wood mounted stamps.  I don't know if the Cropper Hopper brand is still available but there are others out there such as IRIS brand carried by Joann's, Hobby Lobby and Walmart.

 

 

 

 

 

 Now to get to my latest cards.

 

Here are a few masculine cards:

 

My favorite is the cowboy boot.

 

 

 

 

 

I needed a sympathy card recently and these are what I came up with:

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Mother's Day, graduation, and a wedding soon approaching, I made the following:

My daughter thought that it would be fun to make a couple of baby cards, so here they are:

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a thank you card I made for a friend who trimmed our dog for nothing:

 

 

 

Birthday Card:

 

 

 

 

I hope to have time to make more soon.  Although, we need to work on Mother's Day gifts for my mom.  We were thinking about make yoyo sachets and square glass candle holders from the Dollar Tree with my kids' pictures printed on vellum and glued to the outside with a flameless tea light inside.  If these materialize, I'll post pictures.  :-)