Flame Free Party

I promise I haven't forgotten my promise to show you those re-purposed popcorn boxes! Life just gets away from me sometimes! But before I do, I would like you to take a minute to go this blog, Flame Free Party at the Paper Midwife and make a donation. My friend Kymberlee's two daughters and grandchildren lost everything in a horrible fire (which you can read all about here) and so she is having a raffle for a Cricut Imagine! With every $5 donation you get a chance to win the Imagine - and the more you donate the more chances you get! So you get the chance to help some really deserving people out and perhaps be rewarded yourself in the process! I promise this is a legitimate cause - Kymberlee is a generous, giving person herself and I would love to see her raise lots of money for them. Please re-post this on your own blog or Facebook if you can - and I promise to not to hold out on those popcorn boxes much longer!

One of a Kind Card

Hello everyone! Today is my day on The Bug Bytes - I have a simple card to share with you today and for once I am not embarrassed by one of my cards.  I made this for a dear friend and I can't wait for her to get it in the mail!

The details: 

I have been dying for Preserves forever and I finally indulged myself in one of the last cricutmachine.com sales. I don't know why I wanted it so badly - this card must have been in my head wanting to get out! Then when I got the K and Company Citrus Bliss paper stack at Joann's I decided it was card destiny! That's a real thing right??

I cut out the grapes with all layers at 4 inches and used papers from my scrap paper stash. I wanted to add some more dimension to all the flat papers so I inked all of the layers before assembling. I was very pleased with how the leaves turned out. A closeup of the bunch:

 For my "one of a kind" grape I cut a circle at 0.70 inches from George and Basic Shapes. I used the layers feature on my Gypsy to figure out what would be the right size. Then I stamped with a Peachy Keen face stamp, added a touch of glossy accents to the eyes and pop-dotted it on the front. The card base from DCWV while the purple background paper as well as the sentiment stickers are from the K & Company Citrus stack.

On the inside I think I am going to add "...is the kind of friend you are!" and pop it in the mail with a little treat.  I haven't forgotten my promise to show you the recycled popcorn boxes - that will be next!

Candle Table Decorations

Now we are on to the table decorations - I wanted them to be elegant but still fit in with our casual party setting. I also love putting pictures on candles and I couldn't wait for everyone to see my parent's wedding photo.

The details:

For the candles, I created a simple "40" using shrinky dinks and then colored itt with a red stamp pad. The trick is to mold the shrinky dink to a glass right when you take it out of the oven so it holds to the candle better. Then I simply attached it with mini glue dots. 

 

For the candle holder I found these wonderful heart shaped glass bowls at the Dollar Tree - with some vinyl and some red gems they turned out fantastic.

I used the Elegant Cakes font as well as the "anniversary" phrase  - which I think is so lovely with all the scrolls - and much easier to cut out in vinyl than in paper. I laid out the phrases as I wanted them on the Gypsy, grouped them, and then re-sized them to be under two inches to fit on the side of the glass bowl.

I think finally you are ready to see how everything looked at the party!

I hope these have inspired you for your next anniversary occasion, and remember next week I will show you how I took the leftover popcorn boxes and re-purposed them for another baseball picnic!

Simple "40" Favors

Well of course I couldn't let there be just one type of favor at the party, could I?? So if you take another look at yesterday's picture, there were a few sweet treats in there for the guests with a sweet tooth. I had to keep them simple as well - since I was running out of time!

The details:
I found some red cherry gummy slices at the grocery store - so to make this favor, I put two in a bag, cut out a blackout shape at 4 inches from Elegant Edges and added my welded "40" from Elegant Cakes. I believe I didn't mention in my last post that I used red vinyl for all the "40"s on my favors. It cuts beautifully and I don't have to worry about adhesive  - it works as your own quick sticker!

I also filled these clear plastic tubes with red and white M and Ms. I have been obsessed with them ever since I saw them on the Circle blog , and I was fortunate enough to find them at CKC Buffalo (although I have seen them at ACMoore too!). These were a huge hit with the kids.

I simply added a white vinyl belly band and added a "40" in the center. I did change it up a little and I used the zero from Wall Decor and More because I wanted to have the scrolly tail on the end. They were so easy to throw together and I am dying to find more of these at a great price! If you come across a super deal - we could be new BFFs!

Up next will be the table decorations, more red and more vinyl , but that probably doesn't surprise you by now!



Fortieth Anniversary Extravaganza

I have a few posts for you this week - it was my parents' 40th wedding anniversary this year - and so I had a lot of fun creating table decorations and favors. Forty years is the Ruby Anniversary - which means a lot of red and white ahead! They are season ticket holders of the local minor league baseball so we had it at the ballpark under the party tent - they really enjoyed themselves and it was the perfect laid back party!

The details:
The focus of today's post is going to be the popcorn boxes, which are cut from Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More.

These were cut at a 6.50 inches which I rotated by 80 degrees on the Gypsy. By doing this I could fit one box on one piece of 8 1/2 by 11 paper. Then by trimming the paper 1/2 inch I was able to put 3 sheets on one 12x24 mat and cut them out 3 at a time. Since I was making 30 of them, this was an important detail.

The popcorn box has no layers, and when I cut it out in plain red they really didn't do anything for me. I really wanted to add the white border and it was not going to be productive to cut out each box twice just for that. Instead I put the popcorn box on one layer and then designed a border layer using circles and rectangles from George.

By repeating this pattern I made a pattern for a liner that ultimately resulted in a white border at the top of the box.

The "40" is cut from Elegant Cakes at 1.50 inches while the scallop is from Mini Monograms at 2.50 inches. I filled them with bags of peanuts and homemade cinnamon sugar popcorn. They were a great success and the peanuts went much faster than I expected. Don't worry though - I took care of all that extra popcorn.

In the end, I had made way more boxes than I ended needing, but don't worry - I found a great way to re-purpose them - and you should look for a post next week to see how they turned out in their second life. Stay tuned for more red and white!

Dr. Seuss meets Graduation Cards

I am super excited to share these cards with you today. I have done a few Dr. Seuss-related plays and when those students graduated this year I decided to add a Dr. Seuss twist to their grad cards. You can see my other graduation cards here; I followed the same recipe for an easel card and just changed the front of the card.

The details:

I began with a circle using George sized at 2.82 inches. The font I used is Cutting Up, which is very Seuss friendly and just the right style. I arranged the "Thing 1" on the circle and then cut it out with white paper. The letters ended up being .68 inches while the numbers were 1.20 inches. I cut a larger circle in black  at 3.20 inches which gave me the black letters and outside border.

I cut the grad hat from Locker Talk in turquoise at 1.50 inches with a white tassel and added a gem brad. For the year I used the Elegant Cakes font with the shadow layer at 1 inch. The inside of the card was done with a Studio G stamp and a Martha Stewart punch for the corners.

I was so pleased with the way that these came out. As soon as I can find red shirts in a toddler size, I want to make "Thing" matching shirts for a friend who has twins. And while I keep my fingers crossed for that Dr. Seuss Cartridge I will continue to make do with what I have!