Favors for the girls...

Here are some detailed pics of the favors for the girls. You saw the flip flops in a previous post. An old friend from ISU made the Hawaiian flower tags that say, "Aloha, thanks for coming!" and I made an initial tag that matched the birthday banner w/ my Cricut.

Birthday stuff..

i finished the birthday banner for bee...now that i have the bigger cricut, i can do so much more with it. next weekend we'll be having a big luau!

Flip Flops for the girls :)

These are 3 pairs of flip flops I have made so far for the girls for Brynn's bday party. It's a Hawaiian theme, so of course, flip flops are a great little party favor and really inexpensive to make. I bought these flip flops for under $2 each. :) I would love to make more pairs to match more of Brynn's outfits or even to match a birthday gift for some of Brynn's friends near and far. :)

I just wish I could think of something cool to make for the boys but so far, no ideas are crossing my mind. Poor boys!

Hawaiian Invites

This is one version of the Hawaiian bday party invites I've been making for Brynn's 4th bday. I have another version that looks similar, except the middle of the flower has a rhinestone instead of a brad. I think both look cute, and they were cheaper than a set of 8 at the party store. This is the first time I've made invites myself. The first year, I didn't send any out. The second year, I ordered them from apple.com. The third year, we bought Hello Kitty ones from the store, and this year, I did purchase some cute flip flop ones from the party store, but after searching online for awhile, I finally found one I could make and had all of the materials (w/ the exception of the Hawaiian paper) on hand. Luckily, at JoAnn's this week, paper was 5 for $1. SCORE! While I have enjoyed putting them together, I am sure I could figure out a way to make them even cuter, but I keep telling myself that people throw them away. Thus, this will be fine. Brynn has been looking at them and her eyes just light up. She is so excited for her party in about a month. it's hard to believe this little girl is almost 4.

Craftin' Away

I have been busy putting together a large # of bows because I am going to be a part of my very first craft show in December. I am SO excited but also nervous. How do I set up shop? The table will be provided and I'll borrow Dj's table cloth he takes w/ him to computer shows. I think I will only accept cash for this first show. I have also ordered a bunch of those white plastic backings to attach my bows onto so they all look the same. I think I need to get a stamp and stamp the backs of all of them or a sticker or something w/ my business name and etsy site.

some new scrapbooking pages

More John Deere Party Stuff...

Pin the Wheel on the Tractor Game--I traced this on an overhead transparency and then blew it up on the wall using an overhead projector at school. Then I laminated it. I also traced 4 of the small tractor wheels and laminated those. I then attached velcro to the backs of the extra wheels and velcro to the small wheel on the big laminated tractor. I used craft paint to paint the image.


When Dj went to the nearest John Deere store, which is like 20 miles or so away, he asked for extra bags to use as gift bags. :)


John Deere Hat Cupcake Toppers



Candy Tractors--DJ's cousin emailed me and told me about these and so I tried them and voila! :) Cute Candy Tractors I used a glue gun to glue everything together. In hindsight, i would have purchased the bigger bag of York Patties b/c they are wrapped ROUND vs. the small pack where they are wrapped square. I had to tape down the square ones and b/c of that, the hot glue would not stick well at all. It took me several attempts. I really wanted to use the 25 cent Wrigely's Spearmint gum but couldn't find it ANYWHERE....do the even sell it anymore? Probably at Casey's they do. Damn!


Pink Suckers for Miss Bee and also I made a batch for Baylen to take to his daycare buddies. I know we're not supposed to bring homemade goodies, but I didn't really "make these" as all I did was melt the candy that was store bought.

Tractor Lollipops

After two attempts to make hard candy lollipops, which were a major FAIL, I decided to opt for the easier version of the melted candy kind. I bought some goods and got started. After several atempts and messing with a variety of color combos, learned what not to color black as far as wheels vs. not wheels, I think they are turning out nicely. No kid is going to notice which part of the wheel or wheel cover shouldn't be black, so I'm not going to worry about it too much, although it does bother me. I don't want to waste a good sucker, however. :)

While I was making the 2nd batch of suckers, Bay decided to pull down the entire plate full of suckers and the black food coloring and it landed all over the kitchen floor. OMG I was livid! I thought he ruined the floor. I was working on them and he was mad at me for telling him he couldn't have a third snack before dinner. That kid is ruthless when it comes to wanting to eat! Sheesh! Luckily, DJ helped me clean it all up after I freaked out a bit and all is well, except for B. spilled over half of the black food coloring.

What's left? I still need to make my Pin the Wheel on the Tractor game, which I will paint later this week. And, I'm making candy bar tractors as well. Too much for only 3 kids and a baby (3 kids being Baylen, Brynn and Cade) but oh well...it's fun nonetheless. I have to get a balloon blown up, a few things hung, a pinata stuffed, and make some food including, haystacks, hay bails, tractor wheels, and john deere themed cupcakes. :)

flower bouquet

I am really excited about this gift I gave to a friend of mine at school at her baby shower full of a variety of hair bows. I am also excited to donate a similar one to our daycare's auction. In a couple of weeks, I hope to have some up on etsy too as long as I price them in prep for shipping costs...

Originally, I used sucker sticks, but switched to popsicle sticks. I need to paint a bunch of them green before making the next few and work w/ the placement so ALL bows can be seen and noticed.

Bay's birthday invite

there are a couple of "details" such as a yellow line across the tractor that i added after the picture was taken. can't believe he's 2 next saturday!

preview...

of what's to come for Baylen's Birthday...and 2 year picture ideas... :)

more scrapbooking today...

these are not finished yet, as i have some journaling to do on some and i want to add "ice, ice baby" on the ice skating one if i can fit it on somehow. i may have to get creative and see how it works or result to using letter stickers so it fits.

the halloween layouts i used a ton of stuff from a kit i ordered off scrapbooksteals.com and it's awesome. i have ordered 2 kits off of there so far and loved them both.

Also, if you are like me, I love to keep a few things the kids have made from daycare and save them as momentos, such as some of their artwork etc. I have kept a bunch to try and see how I can incorporate into my scrapbook layouts. Brynn's spider she made earlier this year worked out PERFECT for one of the Halloween layouts. I couldn't be happier about how it turned out. Now i just need to figure out how to use like 5500 more of them in my layouts or actually throw some out. haha

Also, in the Halloween layouts, I used a combo of stickers, rub-ons (which I LOVE and just DISCOVERED TODAY!!) and stamps

Working on some gifts...

I have been making these burpcloths as gifts for the last few who have had babies and now have it down as far as size, shape, and sewing it so it looks nice. I am going to start messing with colors a bit more soon like using RIT dyes and such. So excited about that. :)

Anyway, here are a few I've made to send as gifts as soon as the babes arrive. :) I may get brave and put some up for sale on my Etsy site as well...

baby shower...

Here are a few things I've been working on the past month for a friend's baby shower at work. The inside of hte invite I just printed off computer paper and it reads something like, "Let's help celebrate the arrival of her little cupcake!"

I used the Celebrations Cricut cartridge, Martha Stewart glitter glue and loose glitter. Also placed a cute little baby button brad on the top of the cupcake. All of the cupcakes are different colors. It's a bit plain, and if I had more $ and time, I would have added a ribbon color behind the cupcake to give it a bit of a twist. But, these are going to a BUNCH of teachers and I wanted to save myself some time, $, paper, and materials just because the invites didn't need to be over the top.

I also made some little cupcake toppers. After making them all, I realized I should have used my flower die cut tool instead of the Cricut b/c then it wouldn't have a hole at the top of each one. Oh well. I used sucker sticks and cut them in half w/ wire cutters. haha I'll make the cupcakes just from a box, but use my Pampered Chef frosting tips to give them more volume and color the frosting different colors like pink, yellow, and maybe purple.

scrappin' on my day off

Love having days to craft. wish i had more of them like this. bee was home w/ me today but she's so easy to watch and she is sleeping so that meant, lots of quiet time to have some fun catching up on my scrapbooking and journaling.