I have posted about making invitations before, but this is about as simple as you get. You just make a full page invitation on the computer and then duplicate the page three times, so that you have a total of 4 copies of the invitation. You then print it in colour on card stock and choose the printing option that allows you to print 4 pages on one page. Each invitation then ends up being 1/4 of a page in size, similar to that of a postcard. I originally tried making the invitation with a plain white background and then printing it onto black card stock, but the ink didn’t show up well. I ended up inserting a black rectangle and then “sending it to the background”, so that all of the text and lasers sat in front of the black rectangle. Of course, this meant that it used more ink to print the invitations, but when you are able to fit 4 per page, it really isn’t too bad.
Here is an example of the invitation and thank-you note page I made for Shay’s party.
I’ve always thought those “chocolate bar cards” are kind of cool, but have never made one before. We had the best coaches and management for Shay’s hockey team this year and I thought it would be fun to make one for them.
How to Create a “Candygram”:
It was a bit tricky to know how to start, so I began by searching the web for samples. The samples provided me with ideas for how I would word my “candygram” and also gave me some ideas for what candy to buy. (Keep in mind that many of the images will be American and you may not be able to get the same candy/bars in Canada.)
I made a list of candy and chocolate bars that I thought might work in my card.
I then began to play with words and write my message. You really need to write your message before you go shopping otherwise you have no idea what to buy. There were a few phrases that I wrote two different ways as I wasn’t sure if I could find the candy I needed.
Go shopping. The message can take up a lot of space, so keep that in mind. I ended up using two full sheets of bristol board. I did run into a few snags and had to change and delete a few phrases because I couldn’t find the candy I was looking for.
I taped my bristol board together (similar to the spine of a book). I then used a ruler to measure out the spacing for my printing. I did all of the printing with pencil and placed the candy in the proper place in the “cloze”.
I went over the penciled message in marker and used a combination of double-sided tape and staples to mount the candy on.
I had planned to embellish it with some “hockey” themed paper/images, but quite frankly, I just ran out of time.
I sometimes find males hard to buy for and yet want the coaches to know how much they were appreciated. This ended up being perfect because it was a nice addition to the “team” gift that was given. Obviously, this is more about the fun and the thought, than the actual quality of the gift.
My friend Michelle told me about this idea and the timing couldn’t have been better. As mentioned in an earlier post, my dad’s 78th birthday was on Easter weekend. I had planned on making him a card and then just giving him a gift card or some cash to go and buy himself some clothes. (He loves clothes and enjoys shopping, so I thought this would be good, but not very personal.) Michelle’s birthday jar idea was a perfect addition to the card and cash.
Birthday Jar:
Materials:
mason jar
adhesive (tape and/or glue)
coordinating scrapbooking paper
letters (I used my Cricut, but you could buy stickers)
ribbon
Using the metal circle from the lid as a tracer, I cut and insert a paper circle under the ring on the lid. Using a long piece (about 3″ X 12″) of scrapbook paper, I wrapped the jar and secured the paper in place. I then made a label and added a few embellishments and a ribbon. It was super easy to make.
For the inside, I cut strips of coordinating paper (about 1/2″ X 12″). Each member of our family wrote down as many things as they could think of to describe why/how my dad was important to them. We started each strip with “YOU…..”. I had everyone leave a space and then begin a new phrase on the same strip. When they were done. We cut the strips, so that there was only one phrase per strip. I then used a pencil to curl the strips and put them in the jar.
I made the card so that it matched the jar. My dad absolutely loved the gift and I could tell he was very touched by the words as he read each strip out loud. I know that he will cherish this as I could see the joy that it brought him. Thanks for the awesome idea Michelle!
Here are some of the strips we added to the jar.
Curled strips.
This is the perfect gift for someone who has everything. Everyone loves to hear how they have touched the lives of others!
This turned out to be the easiest party ever! The bowling alley provided the food and drinks. I just had to bring the cupcakes and loot. Instead of a loot bag, I made all the guests a personalized glow in the dark birthday bowling t-shirt and handed out silly bands and glow sticks that they could wear around their wrists and necks as they bowled. This was simple and the kids loved their shirts and had a blast. The best part was it was over and done within a few hours and my house was not trashed in the process! It isn’t gender specific, so we have done similar parties for both kids.
Bowling Invitations:
For the invitation, I made circles on my word processing program (PAGES on my Mac) and filled them with black. I then typed the information inside one circle and the “announcement” in another using white font. I was able to fit four circles on each page (two invitations). I printed them out on white card stock and then cut-out the black circles with my circle cutting set from Creative Memories.
I stacked the circles and then used a brad to hold them together. The brad also allowed the top circle to slide up to open the invitation and reveal all of the details. For the pins, I oriented my page so that it was landscaped and then printed the word STRIKE vertically down the page. When I figured out the size and font I wanted, I simply copied and pasted it 2 more times, so that I was able to print 3 per page. I printed this on white card stock as well. I made a bowling pin tracer and carefully set it over the word so that it would sit towards the left side of the pin. I then traced and cut-out each of the pins by hand. Finally, I added some narrow red masking tape for stripes and attached the bowling ball. They were cute and easy to make. Here are the PDF’s to give you a better idea of how I did it. (You’ll notice the PDF is for Shay’s birthday and the photos below are from Eden’s….I did used the same idea for both of their parties.) INVITATION PDF PIN PDF
Cupcakes:
I can’t say I’m very proud of these babies, but the good news is that we all get better with practise. These simple cupcakes had poorly made fondant bowling pins. Can you believe the horrible job I did on the red stripe? The bowling balls were Whoppers with 3 “finger” holes punched in each. Nothing special, but the kids didn’t care.
Personalized Birthday Bowling Shirts:
I found free bowling clip art on line and used the images to create personalized shirts for each of the kids. The top right corner on the front of the shirt had a small bowling logo with their name printed below. Shay’s also had “The Birthday Boy!” under his name. If you click on the image to enlarge it, you’ll also see the pop he spilled down his front!
On the back of each t-shirt was a large bowling picture with the date printed below. Of course, the shirts were white and glowed in the dark. The boys were thrilled with their glow sticks and shirts and it made for an easy party. The shirts were made using t-shirt transfer sheets. I bought them at Michael’s using the 40% off coupon. You need to read the directions carefully as some instructions require you to print your document in “mirror” image. On my Mac, you do this once you press print and then select “layout” and “flip horizontally”.
Happy party planning!
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This morning I challenged myself to a 10 minute project that began with no plan or goal. I was pushed for time and had no post planned for the day. I got out my crafting tape and basically started to “play”. In fact, Shay came in and asked what I was doing and I said I didn’t know. He proceeded to ask a few more questions about my project and I told him I really had no idea what I was going to do, but it all began by covering an old puzzle piece with tape. Here is what evolved.
Materials:
card stock (for card base)
crafting knife
scissors
old puzzle piece
crafting tape
dollar store letter stickers
adhesive/tape
Steps:
Cover the puzzle piece in tape. I used 3 different designs of tape and randomly placed strips across the surface.
Flip the puzzle piece over and use the knife to cut all of the excess tape off by using the edge of the puzzle piece as a guide. (Oops! No picture.)
Use the tape to create a border along the bottom of the card. I layered mine to get this look.
Adhere the puzzle piece to the card.
Add lettering to get the message you want. (The “PEACE” Man! is a little lame, but I was in a big rush and wanted to incorporate the puzzle piece into the greeting itself.) Of course, you could use any play on words with the peace/piece idea (Peace be with You, May you find Peace, etc.) or something like “love you to pieces” or “you’ll always have a piece of my heart”, etc.
The concept of this card is much less about the final look of the card and much more so about being able to create a great card without a roomful of scrapbooking tools. This is the epitome of simple, cost effective and the possibilities are endless. The puzzle piece simply adds dimension and a bit of interest. If you skip it, you could get the same effect by incorporating buttons, fabric, washers or other household items. I tend to find that some sort of dimension adds interest and a focal point to a card. It isn’t necessary, but more so my preference.
Next time you’re at the dollar store, pick-up some tape and card stock and begin to play and create. It is amazing what you can come up with simply by combining different patterns and materials. This project took less than 10 minutes and that was without knowing that I was evening going to end up with a card. This project is rated A for “anyone could do it”. Have fun!
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My son is certainly a fan of the Winnipeg Jets, but if truth be told, the Bruins would always be his first choice. He loves Boston! He has made a new friend this year and one of the things they have in common is their love for the Boston Bruins. It is his birthday tomorrow, so Shay wanted to get him a Bruins hat or t-shirt. There isn’t much selection here, so I picked him up a Bruins hat and made a card to go with it. It turned out quite well and hopefully he’ll like it.
Most of this card was really simple to do with lots of straight cuts and minimal measurements. I used a blank white card and added a black mat to the surface, leaving a very small white border around the outer edge. I then cut out strips of yellow, black and white and layered them across the middle of the card. I cut out a yellow circle and a white one that was slightly smaller. I then cut-out out 4 long narrow strips of yellow paper for the “spokes” around the “B”. I inked the edges of the yellow strips and then cut them in half to equal the 8 I needed in total. I placed the first strip horizontally across the white circle and it fit directly beneath the middle part of the B. For the other strips, I glued the ends, but did not put any adhesive under the center of the strip so that I could trim out the middle so that it wouldn’t be seen under the B. This also allowed me to line up the opposite sides of the strip perfectly using one long strip as opposed to two smaller ones. It was easy to mark the strips and then snip the center out. I did this for all of the remaining yellow “spokes” and then finally glued the B in the middle. I have to admit the B was the hardest part. I ended up pretty much making it by hand as I couldn’t figure out any other way to get the squared off style of B. I didn’t have a matching font on my Cricut, so I cut out a B that was similar in style, but much more rounded and then squared it off with scissors. I then cut a black ring with my Cricut and set the open black circle over the ends of the “spokes” and just inside the yellow circle. At first, I wasn’t sure how to make this Boston Bruins’ logo into a birthday card, but eventually decided to go with the term “B” day instead of birthday to tie the two together. I did a combination of stamping and hand printing to make the little tag for the top corner and attached it with a yellow brad.
For the inside, I made up a little birthday greeting using a bit of a play on words with the Boston Bruins theme. I used a free font called Varsity to get that outline on the letters, similar to the font the Bruins use. Of course, I had to pick-up a yellow gift bag to pull it all together. I didn’t use any fancy ribbon or anything, but I think the yellow and black looks really sharp. I would have preferred to have either black tissue with the yellow bag or yellow tissue with a black bag, but I the dollar store didn’t have exactly what I wanted and I didn’t have time to go elsewhere.
Hopefully, they’ll have lots of fun and he’ll have a great birthday.
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When planning any kind of theme party, I love to try to make a really cool invitation. Eden has had two different sleepover parties that really didn’t have a more specific theme. I thought I would share two completely different ideas for how to make a fun and unique party invitation.
Sleepover Party Invitation #1:
For this invitation, I made a postcard style card. When making this style of a card, I create a full-page document and then duplicate the page four times. When I go to print the invitation I select “print 4 pages per page” so that all four postcards will print on a quarter of a sheet of card stock. To see a full tutorial on how to do this, check-out my Snowflake Birthday Invitation. The computer portion of the invitation just contained the standard information: date, time, location, what to wear, what to bring, etc.
On the back of the postcard, I began by adding a layer of black that was slightly smaller than the white card stock and then followed that by a slightly smaller piece of patterned paper. Because this party theme was really just a “sleepover”, I chose to stick to a specific colour scheme for the party. I decided on pink and orange. Once the printed invitation and base were created, the invitation really began to come together with the embellishments. For this invitation, I googled clip art of both pillows and slippers. From those ideas, I actually drew my own version of both. For the slippers, I made one, then scanned the image and copied it to get multiple copies of the slippers on one page. I printed the image on orange card stock and then used markers to colour it in and add the details. The pillow was a very simple drawing, so I made a tracer and simply traced and cut out enough for each invitation. I inked the edges of the pillow and drew a little “slit” at the end of the pillow case. For the font on the pillow, I used a combination of stamps and Cricut cut-out letters. The P, J and R were made on my Cricut, but the other letters were stamped on the pillow. I adhered the slippers to the bottom corner of the invitation, so that they overlapped the pillow slightly. The final step was to attach the pillow/slippers to the base. I wanted to create a three-dimensional effect, so I only attached the pillow at the ends, so that I could easily slide stretched out cotton balls beneath the pillow to add dimension. I actually found that I didn’t even need to glue or tape the cotton, as the pressure from the pillow seemed to hold it in place. The photo really doesn’t show the 3D aspect of the invitation, but the pillow does have some dimension in real life.
The P in the top corner is actually part of my scrapbook layout from the party, not party of the invitation. I always make an extra invitation that is added to their birthday scrapbook layout.
Sleepover Party Invitation #2:
For her second (9th) sleepover party invitation, I wanted to do something completely different. This invitation consisted of many components and was a bit complex and time-consuming to make, but the finished project was pretty cool.
The back of the invitation contained a timeline of the events we had planned and a checklist of what they should bring. Here is the pdf for the Sleepover Party Brochure.
On the opposite side, I used various printed papers to build a sleeping bag and pillow. The slipping bag was basically made with a layer of polka dot paper and a scalloped edge border for the top of the “bag”. I ran my sewing machine all the way around the outside edge of the invitation using white thread and a large zig zag stitch to hold the paper layers in place. This left both the top and bottom of the sleeping bag open.
I used white cotton fabric scraps to sew and stuff an actual pillow for each invitation. I basically made a rectangle by placing right sides of the fabric together and sewing all the way around. I cut a small slit in the middle of the back of the pillow and turned the little pillow right side out. I then ran my machine down both ends and made a zig zag top-stitch down each side. I used the slit in the back for stuffing the pillow with cotton batting as well. I didn’t even close the slit as I would be gluing the pillow onto the invitation and it wouldn’t be seen.
I made the actual invitation portion of the card on the computer (date, time, location, etc.). I printed it on white card stock and then mounted it on orange. I added a short tab made from ribbon and secured with an orange brad. This slid under the “foot” end of the sleeping bag, with the tab sticking out so it could be seen and pulled out.
Finally, I made paper dolls for each of the girls. I honestly can’t exactly remember how I did this, but I think I found one (or maybe a few different ones on-line??) and printed them onto card stock. I then used watercolour pencil crayons to colour their skin, hair and features. Finally, I made each one a “nighty” out of patterned paper. I stamped a little white fringe at the bottom of the nighty and added a few button brads on the front. The nighties were secured in traditional paper doll style by folding the tabs over the back of the dolls. The paper dolls slid inside the top of the sleeping bag.
The brochure indicated they should bring their dolls to the party. One of the activities the girls did at the party was design and make clothes for their dolls. I had some templates, writing/colouring tools, scissors, patterned paper and other embellishments for them to use.
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What homemade gift is complete without a homemade card to go with it. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought the idea would work perfectly for this coffee themed gift basket I was making for my children’s teacher. I downloaded to free fonts for the greeting: KG Skinny Latte and SF Espresso Shack.
Coffee Cup Card
This card was super easy to make and I kept it very simple because I wanted it to look like a coffee cup. I made it postcard style, so the greeting is on the back.
I cut out embossed white paper that I had on hand in a mostly rectangular shape, with the slightest angle extending from the top of the cup/card to the bottom so that there was a bit of tapering towards the bottom.
I then used brown ink to darken the edges.
I used a woven textured white paper for the lid of the cup. I basically cut out a long rectangle to fit on the top and extend slightly over the sides. I then carefully cut the sides of the top to create a lid like look. I inked the edges of the lid as well. The card is quite plain, so the ink just helped to give it a bit dimension.
I took a piece of brown card stock and ran it through my crimping tool. I made it long enough that I could wrap it around the cup and slide it under the “greeting” on the back of the card.
I cut-out a circle charm on my Cricut (has slits in it) and slid some brown ribbon that I had on hand through the slits. This ribbon actually had an adhesive backing, so it was as simple as peeling and sticking it to the corrugated card stock. I then used some Weld Bond glue (my favourite crafting glue) to stick the little button heart on the top corner.
For the greeting, I wanted something to fit with the coffee theme. I am a total sucker for word plays, so I wrote a cheesy little “coffee greeting”. I downloaded two free fonts for the greeting: KG Skinny Latte and SF Espresso Shack.
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Here are a few samples of some of the homemade Valentine Cards we have made in the past.
I made a template using clip art and printed them out on card stock. I then mounted the printed portion of the card on navy card stock and then added red tape and a chocolate heart.
The kids gave their teachers an apple and some chocolates with this tag.
Eden made simple friendship bracelets for all of her classmates to go along with these homemade cards.
When creating a class set, you really need to look at feasibility. You want to plan a card that can be somewhat mass-produced without too much detail work. The friendship bracelet and card was found on dandee. I used her idea and made my own version of it. This was a really cute idea, but without Eden’s commitment to making the bracelets, it would have been a bit much. Eden made all 24 bracelets for her classmates and I made the cards. There are so many cute ideas on the internet and I love giving something handmade. In many cases, you don’t even need to have scrapbooking tools, just create the card/tag on the computer, print them off and cut them into individual cards. I can often get 6 to 8 cards on one page, so you are only printing about 3 pages for an entire class set. I am a sucker for little treats with a tag that has a “play on words” ~ I love those cheesy little sayings! Borrow someone else’s idea or get creative and make your own.
Here are the Valentines I made for Eden and Shay last year ~ very quirky, but oh how fun!
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Well, my little girl is now 12 and has officially reached babysitting age….I can hardly believe it! The birthday celebrations are behind us, but I thought I would share some photos to show you how the theme all came together for the party. Click on the links below to visit the original post for each of the theme elements:
and pulling until all the layers are pulled apart and you have a nice full pom pom.
These oversized paper flowers were made out of white tissue to create a snowflake…ish look.
We added a few white balloons to our fig tree to look like snowballs.
Completed 3D snowflake.
3D snowflakes
I picked up this twig snowflake garland in the after Christmas clearance. I got it for $6 regular $60 and it became the inspiration for the whole theme.
The snowflakes on the banner were printed with old paper towel tubes.
Finished snowflakes with a few clear sugar sprinkles and a silver candy ball in the center of each.
Snowflake Cupcakes
Finished cake pops. I used white chocolate and white sprinkles.
I tried to wrap her gifts in paper that tied into our colour theme.
Decide on your focal point. In this case, I wanted the message to be the highlight of the card.
Homemade loot bags.
Hot chocolate, mini marshmallows, Lindor chocolates and little cellophane bags. These were included in the loot bags.
I did end up making cake pops and I have to say I was quite surprised how easy they were to make. I have heard lots of people say how much work they are. To be honest, I found them much easier than many of the cakes, cupcakes and cookies I have decorated. Watch for the upcoming post on how to make Cake Pops.
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