Fancy Guest

Just wanted to share another personalized towel I made for my Mom awhile back.  White towels really set off initials and monograms beautifully!

It's been a great summer, but I'm so ready for the hot weather to be closing out.  Here's to Fall and all the fun it brings!

ps - my fellow "Friends" fans will appreciate the post title.  It's from one of my (many) favorite episodes!

Birthdays & Brainstorms

Apologies for the recent lack of posts.  The blog may be silent, but my creative brain is quite the opposite! I've been reading, researching and brainstorming my home embroidery business ideas.  Inspiration has hit and I'm in the zone.  ha ha  My self-diagnosed OCD has me wanting to start this venture out just right so that I avoid as many obstacles as possible.  I may finally be ready to do this thang - woo hoo!!

And now a few details about that present above.  Remember my Paper Flowers?  Well here's more proof of my "green" addiction - a birthday gift, for my Mom, wrapped in tissue and raffia all recycled from beautiful gifts given to our household.  I even printed the card (free template found here!) on cardstock in my stash that was passed on to me by a friend.  Beautiful frugal is a drug I just can't get enough of!

Here's to birthday wishes and making things happen!

Bag Tags

With all of the back-to-school preparations buzzing, I thought I'd share the bag tags I made as favors for my son's 2nd birthday party.  Bag tags are a GREAT favor because they are easy to make, inexpensive, can match any theme, and are totally functional. 

I got this sweet idea from a fellow crafty mommie friend who made super cute tags a month prior for her son's birthday party favors.  (keep reading for more about this creative chica and her adorable biz + freebie!) When I unexpectedly received matching blank calling cards alongside my order of party invitations, I knew just what I had to do!

Tag Construction:

I just so happened to have the green gingham scrapbook paper in my scrappin' stash. Then I found the adorable King Cool font at dafont.com.  I liked that it was child-like and loosey-goosey similar to the train tracks!  I printed out the kids' names and mommie phone numbers onto the gingham paper, then cut rectangles for the names on front, and circles for the mommie info on back.  After gluing the personalized info onto the train calling cards, I laminated them at an office store.  Once back home I cut them out and punched a hole in the side to add the ties.  Done!

This post isn't complete without a BIG shout out to my crafty pal Maureen!  We met years ago in a smocking class (the youngest 2 there - hee!), and have been fast friends ever since. Thanks Maureen for your constant inspiration, help and creativity! For super cute free bag tag printables, check out her terrific blog. And don't forget to cruise her Etsy store too:  AndersRuff.  Viva personalization!

Paper Flowers

This "green" mommie really enjoys using recycled materials. For example, I keep almost all of our household's gift packaging, including bags, tissue paper, ribbons,... all for re-use.  With August comes another year of school, so I thought I'd share a fun recycling project I made last school year for my son's preschool teachers.  Would you have guessed that the beauties above were made from Victoria's Secret tissue paper?!

To make your own,
gather the following supplies:

recycled tissue paper

crepe paper or felt

pipe cleaners

hot glue gun

template* 

*this is an existing template from MarthaStewart.com*

  

1. Cut out the petal shapes (top box of template) from your tissue paper.  I folded my tissue in an accordion fashion to cut down on the number of cuts.  
2. Cut out the single, smaller heart-shaped template from the crepe paper or felt.  I cut 2 for each stem, and used green crepe paper.  I had it on-hand and found it easy to work with since it stretches around curves easily.  
3. Bend one end of a pipe cleaner making a soft small center tip on which to build you flower.
4. Squeeze a small ring of hot glue slightly below the center tip and begin building the petals, single petals first, adding glue, and then the heart petals as you go.
5. Affix the base leaves.
6. Fluff petals and shape stems as desired.  Voila!

I bundled these in pairs with rick rack, and added a personalized note.  My son was excited to hand these over to his teachers.  It's never to early to learn that recycling can be beautiful!