I love making party favors!

Here are some fun party favors I came up with for a recent dinner party. I filled them with mini cookies from Paradise Bakery, but you could really fill them with any little treat. I added the flower to the favors for my lady friends and kept the simple look on gray polka dots for my male friends. See below for more detail on materials.

I used this gorgeous paper from the Amy Butler "Faded China" stack to create a cone. It's basically a smaller version of a party hat template. I used the universally awesome 3-in-1 glue to secure.

Now the fun part....embellishing! I found these super cool double stick letters from the Martha Stewart collection (I <3 Martha!) and attached them to some cream card stock. I used some gorgeous black glitter from Martha's line as well to make glittery initials for each guest. I punched out the scalloped circles with the Martha Stewart punch and attached it to the cone with a foam pop up. The fabric flowers are Prima Fabric Fancies in Black Diamond and the rhinestones in the center are from Recollections. 

The ribbon is also from the Martha Stewart collection. I thought the silver and hint of blue underneath made it a perfect compliment to the color scheme. I finished it off with some big shiny brads.

These were so simple and fun to make, I will definitely use the pattern again for favors.

Calla Lily Wedding Reception

I had the pleasure of planning a wedding reception this past weekend. The lovely couple married on a Mexican beach in July and had a large reception in their backyard for all their friends and family.

This was the gift table upon entering.

The card box was custom-made. I used 2 hat boxes, sprayed with Buttercream spray paint, attached satin & grosgrain ribbon, 2 mini calla lilies and small ribbon to line the opening. The top tier was glued on and opened up to the bottom layer. The bottom layer's lid came off so the couple could retrieve their cards (tip: prime the boxes! I learned the hard way and used 2 cans of spray paint)

These were the party favors. Tins are from Paper Mart and are filled with hand ground Mexican spices created by my chef husband, Adam Dagna (chefdagna@gmail.com). I created the circles on top that simply said, "Thank You: and tied a yellow ribbon around each one. I cut circles out of yellow card stock to make a more steady base to the levels. It doubled as a pop of color. I finished it off with a yellow bow at the top.

 

This little basket was filled with handmade cards that listed the ingredients in the spice tins and some ideas on how to use it.

This is a view to the backyard. I handmade all the paper poms...33 of them! They hung from 3 strands of bistro lights.

The tables each had a bowl of chips and homemade salsa in addition to a votive candle and centerpiece.

For the wedding in Mexico, the bride had large calla lily arrangements done for her centerpieces but wanted something a little more simplistic for this party. I filled the bottom of the vase with a couple inches of sand as a symbolism to getting married on the beach and added 2 mini calla lilies intertwined within the cylinder vase.

There were over 20 kids, so the couple really wanted there to be a lot of fun options for the kids. I rented the big screen TV and the bounce combo from AZ Bounce Pro. The kids had a blast!

My husband Adam, who graduated from the California Culinary Academy and has a lot of experience in fine dining, catered this party by himself. The menu was cheese and chicken enchiladas with a homemade red sauce, a taco bar with slow cooked shredded  beef, rice and beans from scratch and this little appetizer bite. These were called "Deconstructed Tamale Bites" and had layers of creamy masa, tender shredded beef, jicama-radish salsa and a peanut mole sauce. Delish!

There were about 60 luminaries surrounding the rainbow roundabout driveway to greet the guests as they arrived.

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Breast Cancer Survivor Card

My friend Patt is amazing! She has beat breast cancer 3 times and is one of the most upbeat, friendly, positive people I know. Just a beautiful person, inside and out. I was going to do the Race For the Cure with her last weekend, however, she had to have gall bladder surgery so I ended up proudly doing it for her instead. Gold Canyon candles link was selling a gorgeous pink sugar cookie candle and I immediately thought of her. What better to go with a candle then a card, right?? So, a pink card it was! 

Cream card stock, pink swirl paper, pink card stock square, metal sentiment plate, 2 stitched on buttons using In Stitchz, 3 adhesive flowers, 2 strips of adhesive pearls. sheer pink ribbon

I won! I won!

I entered a contest through Paper Craft magazine's Facebook page link and won an awesome prize! I was expecting it to be a few weeks, but a few days later, I received a box in the mail. Paper Craft magazine sent me their Holiday Cards & more Vol. 5 and Emma's Paperie link sent me $30 worth of goodies including big glitter stickers, light blue foam letters, 2 packs of glitter sentiment rub-ons, flower rub-ons, spiral clear stamps, gorgeous floral embellishments, very cute green felt album and a pink apron! wow! And believe it or not, I'm still expecting some goodies from Glue Arts! Getting packages in the mail is the best, especially when it's paper crafting loot!

Baby Shower card

Another card I had to whip up with little time. I got the new Martha Stewart circle cutter so it was nice to get a perfect circle without dragging my whole Cricut out. I think this card took me 20 min to make. Still turned out nice, though, don't ya think? ;o)

Sock Monkey party pack

This past Saturday I got to be a vendor at an event for the first time. It was the World Breastfeeding Challenge in Phoenix, AZ . Link As a vendor, I had to provide something to raffle off to help raise money for LLL. I created a birthday pack that was fairly gender neutral. I found some sock monkey paper and absolutely fell in love with it. I made a gift bag, Happy Birthday banner, 8 invitations, 8 party hats (one special for the birthday boy/girl), and 2 signs to be used for decoration.  I also included 8 paper goody bags I found that were the perfect color. I had so much fun designing this pack and the mother that won it for her son was thrilled, which only made me thrilled! :o) I had so many ideas of things I could do for this party, but alas, it was only a party pack, and more importantly, I had 1 day to make everything!

3 Simple Birthday Cards

A friend of mine asked me to make some birthday cards for her and since I was running low on time, I used some basic shapes and simple embellishments to create 3 cute cards. Proof that you don't always have to do elaborate work to get a nice final project!

Happy Birthday stamp, dragonfly die cut, green pearls, foam pop ups

Birthday Girl & chandelier mat were cut out using Storybook Cricut Cartridge, vellum, pink rhinestones, sticky back glitter ribbon

Butterfly & Circles were cut out using Storybook Cricut Cartridge, flowers, fuzzy ribbon, Happy Birthday stamp

Nursery Rhyme 1st Birthday

With my daughter was turning one, I wanted to have a party for her with an original theme. I saw the Cricut Nursery Rhyme cartridge and was instantly inspired! I went with a vintage feel in pink and green.  With 24 kids invited, and paper crafting nearly everything, I had my work cut out for me. :o)

The invitation was done using card stock and ivory tulle. The cow jumping over the moon die cut was done using the Nursery Rhyme Cricut cartridge, the background of the smallest square is a nursery rhyme print and the edges are hand stitched for a vintage feel.

A close up of the invitation

The decorations included pink tissue paper pom poms, green tulle, ivory balloons, and some imaginative uses for stuffed animals. A friend of mine and I combined our childrens' toys and found ones that related to nursery rhymes.

Neither one of us had stuffed pigs, so I improvised with balloon pigs and added their housing materials in little piles....straw, sticks and stones.  Source

Little Bo Peep was made using one of my daughter's dolls, her last year's Easter Dress and the shepards hook was made by bending a witches broom into a cane shape and wrapping in florests tape.

Jack Be Nimble was tricky, since I don't have many boy toys.  I used a warrior man who was not dressed appropriately so I cut an adult sock for his night shirt and a baby sock for his night cap.

Old King Cole was transformed from a wizard to a king by adding a foam crown, felt pipe and felt robe.

Here is one of the displays.

The mouse as he's running up the clock

Three Little Bears and Goldilocks

The Three Little Kittens and one of their lost mittens

The lost mittens

I wanted to make a piece that had pictures of my daughter from birth to present time. I cut out coordinating card stock mats using the Cricut Storybook cartridge and adhered back and white photos to them. I attached the photos to bent floral wire and poked them into floral foam. I filled in the rest of the vase with moss. I added the flowers and crystal beaded garland for a whimsical touch.

A close up of the arrangement

The banner was done using the Storybook Cricut Cartridge

A close up of the banner. I accented with Diamond Stickles.

Here is the favor table upon walking in. The party favors included a pail, custom-made coloring book, box of crayons & a homeade lollipop with felt lamb cover.

This is the backside of the table.

The coloring books were covered in cream cardstock, stapled, then bound with a folded piece of cardstock (pink for girls, green for the boys) I used the Storybook Cricut cartridge to cut out each child's initial for their coloring book.

The coloring book had 8 pages of nursery rhyme pictures. The crayons were wrapped in coordinating paper and tied with twine. Source

A close-up of the wrapped crayons

This is one of the lollipops with the cover on. It was done by attaching two felt circles together until the half-way point, one big half-oval for the face, 2 little half-ovals for the ears and a circle for the poof. Googly eyes finished it off. We hid the lambs around the house and the kids had to find Little Bo Peep's lost sheep.

This is how it slid on. The lollipops were ordered from Etsy. The seller did an amazing job! There were 12 pink and 12 green done in perfect shade for the party. The green ones were lime and the pink were cherry. I would definitely order custom lollipops from AmySweetDream again!

This was the set up for the Jack and Jill relay game. On one side of the yard, there were 4 buckets full of water and the other side there were 4 empty buckets.  The kids were divided up and all took their little buckets to fill them with water and run them over to the empty ones to try to be the first team to fill up their respective empty ones first. Also learned the lesson that a balloon arch and a windy day don't mix! It was still festive though. :o)

The kids had so much fun playing the game, we played it four times.

For the Humpty Dumpty game, my mom painted a gorgeous Humpty Dumpty scene on four pieces of foam core with water colors. Then, it was cut up into pieces. We put the pieces on the floor and the kids all worked together to "put Humpty together again"

The menu had all Nursery Rhyme inspired foods. Roast Beef sandwiches (This Little Piggy), Chicken Salad sandwiches (My Black Hen),  Watermelon Stars (Twinkle Twinkle), Veggies (Mary Mary Quite Contrary), Pumpkin Muffins (Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater), Marshmallow Roses (Ring Around the Rosies), Deviled Eggs (Humpty Dumpty), Cheese cubes (Three Little Mice), Potato Salad (One Potato, Two Potato), Cole Slaw (Old King "Cole"), Pigs in a Blanket (Three Little Pigs), Lemonade Cupcakes (Pat-a-cake)

I got this recipe for Lemonade Cupcakes from a friend. After the cupcakes come out of the oven, you make a little slit in each one and pour a little bit of powdered sugar/lemonade concentrate inside. They are so moist and lemony! I cut the wrappers out of green and pink cardstock with the Cupcake Wrapper Cricut Cartridge. The toppers were cut with the Storybook Cartridge and attached to toothpicks.

This is the marshmallow "roses" which are marshmallows dipped in Wilton Candy Melts and rolled in sugar pearls. The kids are cut out using the Nursery Rhyme Cricut Cartridge.

The veggies were arranged in (new) flower pots and gardening tools were put around it to go with the Mary Mary Quite Contrary them of that dish.

My 2 year old modeling a birthday hat

The birthday girl enjoying her cupcake

These were her birthday bloomers. I ordered them from Etsy here. The seller makes custom bloomers, but she had these ones posted and they were ideal for her party.

Here's the birthday girl all dolled up. I found this nursery rhyme dress on Etsy and was astounded at my luck. Perfect print, perfect size and amazingly affordable. I received a surprise matching headband too.