Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Passport for LOVE

A combined effort between
 http://stores.ebay.com/Makaty-Designs?_rdc=1
and myself.

They are getting married on a cruise stop and have family and friends attending.
Something unique...and all about the destination.

We really had a lot of fun doing these....


and learned a lot along the way....


...it was almost too hard to part with them.















Bon Voyage and Best Wishes!




Friday, August 17, 2012

Mickey's #1 Man

For his first Birthday he was surrounded by the man in black.  NO ~ not Johnny Cash...MICKEY MOUSE!!  This birthday was all about a little man and his mouse!


First, we wanted an invitation that "spoke" to even the youngest guest.
What's better than looking into Mickey's eyes while he asks you to "be his guest?"




The inside reads:

Meeska, Mooksa,
Mickey Mouse!
Magician, Food,
and Bouncy House!
We're having a party that's sure to be FUN,
Marcus Dane is turning ONE!


Then...........we had to decorate!!

We decided we wanted a banner (of course...)


...and it was his 1st.


Pretty darn cute if I say so myself!  


But then she wanted a banner of his monthly photos.  So we started with his first day photo!






And added a spot for each month.







So I bet you're wondering how we strung them up?  We hot glued spring clothes pins to the backs!
We actually doubled them with opposing openings for the numbers.  That way we clipped the photo to the number and the number to the twine.  Then they could be moved and rearranged for space more easily.




More treat boxes (below) with little goodies.




Then "popcorn" boxes for more treats during the party.




Gross grain ribbon for the handles...


Mickey EARS!!


Instead of the Mickey face on the "Clubhouse" hat..."Thanks for joining the fun! Toodles, Marc"
.

We wrapped plastic ware in napkins and made napkin rings with Mickey icons on the front.  Hands/gloves were added to the buckets....CUTE.






Centerpieces!!
Styrofoam balls pushed onto popsicle sticks then pushed onto a larger styrofoam ball and a half (a little hot glue to make them stay in place) then spray painted black.




I used pipe cleaners and twisted them around a few balloons and stuck those in and around the base.  I did use just some craft glue to secure those ends in the base.







And how can any guy NOT dress up for his own party? 







Then after all the fun and games was over we had to have a "Thank You" everyone would remember.  Each child had their photo taken at the party of course.  What better way to remember and reflect for years to come?








A Stone's Throw....



The florist for my step-daughter's wedding, Connie Clark,  https://www.facebook.com/connie.clark.585 made a suggestion that instead of table numbers we made table names that reflected romance.  Her suggestion was to use little paper pieces that were distressed.  We thought the idea was great....but we had to put our own spin on it.  We went to the creek behind our house and went "wading for rocks." 



Of course they didn't look like this when we fished them out but a little detergent and scrub brush and VIOLA' - a palette for an idea.




I used vinyl on my Cricut to make a stencil, similar to if you were going to etch.  Put it on the rock as smooth as possible (it was almost IMpossible) and I used a silver Deco-Color calligraphy pen and swooped and swirled and slowly filled in the stencil.


All of these designs came from Cricut cartridges.




Following our "garden of eden" theme we used punched tags and hung skeleton keys
....Love is the Key to Happiness....
onto a cork board frame and everyone found their name then searched for their table.




And this is how they found them.








Even two weeks later.....the centerpieces are forever a beautiful reminder of a wonderful day.







"Believe in the Magic"



Proud Papa and my beautiful step-daughter.


49 and HOLDING!!

Next year my husband and I will both turn 50!  Yes....the BIG 5-0hhhhhhh!  That being said we have been steadily attending 50th Birthday Bashes over the last three years.  We're pretty lucky I'd guess to have them to attend.  I love a party..can't get enough of them but a traditional 50th would just not do for my intuitively suspicious husband.  So 49 and HOLDING was born!
These were the invitations, thanks to my wonderful friend of .http://stores.ebay.com/makatydesigns




v In Bill’s honor: if you have a tie dye shirt break it out and wear it for this event.  If you don’t, I understand – we won’t throw you out.  Not everyone has been channeling their inner hippie like he has the last few years.

Then I asked everyone.... As everyone waited for him to arrive we had these that I made from full label sticker sheets and adhered to poster board, cut, stuck, and glued paint sticks to the backs.  What a site to come into....SURPRISE



  A few of his favorite things are family, working on cars, NASCAR (Jeff Gordon,) and the Pittsburgh Steelers.  So I snuck a few photos (notice they are all motor related) and had posters made through Wal-Mart.  They did an amazing job.

 His pap started it...


...Santa kept it coming...



...Bill and his wife when they were dating in college...


...their daughter Sarah...



I went to eBay and found a few collectible inflatable #24 cars that had been used in various store displays and for special events.
I ordered Steelers banner I was sure he would enjoy to hang between the Steelers cornhole boards that my talented brother and sister in law made.




When we were growing up there was a dairy farm the next town over.  It belonged to the Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.  It produced all of their milk products used at the academy.  Every year they had a Community Day where we could visit and get samples of their milk, cheese, and ice cream.  I thought that would be a great staple and blast from the past for centerpieces. Here is what an original looked like.



THIS is what we created....




 
Then added our own twist......











I filled them with "our generation" candies.

I have another amazing friend who makes custom cakes and cupcakes.  I asked if she could bake a tie dye cake....

...and we needed a cake top.





IT's A BOBBLEHEAD!!  "
Got a li'l Capt'n in ya?"


Everyone had a great time!  This is my husband, his daughter, and my son!



P.S. Yes, I ordered his shirt (football numbers 63 on the back) and the cups say "Raise it up! 49 and Holding! Happy Birthday Bill!"