Housewarming Party Invitation

Well it’s been over a month since I last wrote about it (here), and this invitation was definitely a trial. I had a hard time getting the idea in my head on paper.  First the lanterns wouldn’t come out right and then it seemed like too much was going on.  On a whim I added in the fireflies (the little yellow dots, not sure you can see them or not) and those took time to perfect as well.  As you can see from the finished product it took quite the turn from its original conception but I like it.  I think the finished product looks more like a party for adults, and less like a child's birthday party (not that there’s anything wrong with a birthday party!)

See the magic below!

First I wanted to stick with my text theme from before, but it wasn't working out the way I wanted to

Then I thought i might print it on a creme or beige background

Next I thought I might add some fireflies and make give it more of an evening feel

Finally, I decided that less is more, kept the fireflies, ditched the background color and called it a day

Here is the finished product.  I really love the lanterns, they turned out better than I thought they would.  You can purchase them here on my Etsy Shop (and, if you like any of the early versions, I can clean them up and make those too!)

Etsy Craft Night - Magnets

Inspirational Quote:

When someone says "you've changed." It simply means you've stopped live life their way
-not sure who its by

Etsy Craft Night - Magnets

Sometimes, my life is really busy and sometimes it’s not, but all of a sudden it’s September and I’m like, woah! When did that get here!?  Well on September 1 there was an Etsy craft night and usually I see it on my calendar a few days ahead of time but because it was on THE NEXT PAGE I didn’t see it until the day of.  Luckily, I hadn’t made plans for that evening and was able to go. 

The craft was making your own magnets using a kit they provided and cut outs from magazines.  Turns out, the same guy from the last craft night was leading this craft night.  Apparently he has a lot of awesome crafts in his Big Ass Book of Crafts (no really, that’s what it’s called).  I met some fun new people, one of which moved here from Boston, and I also managed to burn my fingers several times using the hot glue gun (no pain no gain right!?....sure…). The stuff on display at the museum was the same but I did take a quick jaunt through the museum store and found some really awesome mugs.  Check them out below!

Here are my magnets.  As you can see (upper right) there were some technical difficulties, they kept pulling themselves apart! My favorite one is the one that looks a little orange and has a moon (its the one that is closest to the camera in the lower left image).

MUG SHOT:

I thought that these mugs were very cute and creative.  Great for kids...or adults who act like kids (which is all of us, don't judge!).  These mug are only for sale in their brick and mortar store but you can find out more info about it here.

The Engagement Party Finale

Well the engagement party has come and gone.  There was definitely a sugar hangover the next day what with seven different types of desserts and six different champagne beverages. We were able to get four of the desserts from Starbucks and then two from Costco and finally we dipped our own chocolate covered strawberries (with the help of Wes’ family).  Our champagne beverages were mimicked from a local restaurant in Chico and were fun and fruity!  I think that everyone who came had a really spectacular time.

The Bride and Groom to Be

As promised, here are the thank you cards I made for this party.  You can see the full process here and here.  I stuck with the champagne theme but to add a splash of fun I used multiple colors.  Also I used the Loopi font that I liked from the beginning.  The bride and I decided that she didn’t want to use their married name on the card because they’re not married yet so we stayed with ‘Thank You’ and called it a day.

These thank you cards are available for purchase here, in my Etsy shop.

Thank You the Pink Series

Going to make this post short and sweet and to the point! As you may have noticed I’ve posted a line of Thank You cards on Etsy over the last month or so. Displayed below is the series in its entirety. The cards were all printed using a 'Strawberry' color but you can get them in pretty much any color you'd like.  I hope you like them!

You can purchase them from my Etsy shop here

The Engagement Party is Tomorrow!!

The food has been ordered, the chairs and glasses have been rented, and a new dress has been purchased.  My friend’s pre wedding/engagement party is tomorrow and I’m totally excited!  Everything is falling into place quite nicely and despite the heat, it looks like tomorrow night is going to be a blast!  The thing I love to do when I’m all the way up in the far reaches of northern California in Chico, especially in the summer, is to wake up while it’s still cool out (summers like to be over 100 degrees here) and drink a cup of hot coffee.  Hopefully, the pot was brewed by Wes (I don’t know how he does it but every pot he makes is just perfect!).  I also like to drink in the sweet silence of a morning that hasn’t quite started to wake up yet. Everything is peaceful, everyone is quite, the birds have already caught their worms and are enjoying the post binge food coma, and it’s just so perfect I never want to leave.  Then I run out of coffee, or the neighbor’s dog starts barking, or the sun starts to shine directly on the spot that I was sitting just trying to give me cancer.  Not this time Sun, you can’t get me!

Okay, so memory lane aside, I’m supposed to have been making Thank You cards for this lovely couple (you can see my post from last week here).  Well with all the party preparation going on, and two other invitations in the mix, I might not have had time to get to these.  Well you’re wrong!  I actually finished and printed them on Monday (how’s that for proactive!).  However, I have my hard fast rule that you, my readers, can’t see them until after they are in the hands of the owners and that doesn’t happen until tomorrow, sorry.

Luckily I can show you some ideas I was toying with while making them.  I already showed you the font I wanted to use in the last post.  This time I want to show you this cute little champagne glass idea I have, you know, since it was a champagne party after all.

I chose a variety of colors and let Melissa pick the one that she liked the most.

For a little bit we were considering using their soon-to-be married name on the Thank Yous, who doesn’t love personalized stationary!?

Hopefully next week I’ll be able to show you the finished product until then…stay classy.

A Celebration of the 3rd Decade

What is it about turning 30 that is such a big deal?  Is it that you’re no longer ‘in your twenties’ because I don’t remember 20 being that big of a deal, it was just the final step before 21, hello legal drinking age!  Or is it just the fact that you managed to not die for 3 decades that makes it special?  Most likely it’s just a great excuse to have a big party! 

Well I’m not turning 30 (at least not for a few more years) but my friend Gina is throwing a party for her friend who IS turning 30 (congrats!).  The event is a Safari in the Bay Area where there will be a) a safari (duh) b) a dinner and c) wine!  We’re calling it Rhinos and Winos (that might be the actual name of the tour but I’ll pretend to take credit for it…along with Gina of course), and I designed the invitation several months ago.  However, the actual revealing of the invitation won’t occur until after the birthday girl gets to see them so you’ll just have to wait!

I have already made the save the dates...and I thought that I had put them on Etsy but I just went to find them and surprise! They're not there.  So here is what they look like (eventually they'll make their way on to my Etsy Shop):

Now the thing I want to share with you (which happens to be my favorite thing about the whole invite/save the date) is the little "stamp" I made (note the theme above).

Isn’t that awesome!? 

The invitation goes out in September so stay tuned for the finished product, did I mention there is an extra cool thing we’re doing with this one?  I didn’t?  Oh well you’ll just have to come back and find out!

Weekend in Photos

Today's Quote:

"Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you."  - Marsha Norman

Weekend in Photos:

Figured I'd make this one as simple as possible.  This is my weekend in photos!

The iPhone didn't do too bad did it!?

Mug Shot: Postcup(TM)

Love this postcard style cup.

You can buy it here