Just a Bit of Cut and Paste

It's the beginning of a busy baby and wedding season!
With all these fun events, it's a great chance to get creative!
For this card, I bought some luxe cream foldovers and envelopes. I then went to my local craft store and picked up some fun paper and stickers. What I really like to do is buy a patterned paper and cut it up. For this occasion, I decided to make a card for my friend's new baby girl. The sparkle letters and bright colored flowers made this card really pop. I also invested in an envelope liner kit so that I could make my own liners. This has probably been one of my best, crafty investments. I use them all the time on invitations and cards. It really makes the item special and unique. 

Blooms and Buttercream

for the baby shower, i made chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting. i stuck with the them of yellow and pink . i made regular sized cupcakes with large, frosted flowers. i was watching one of those cake reality shows and  saw someone make a rose and though 'hey i can do that!'. it took me a couple tries to figure out how the frosting tip was supposed to go, how to handle the frosting bag and how to layer all the frosting but i eventually mastered the technique. i made smaller cupcakes with pink and yellow frost in a simple , swirl pattern. i made sure that the large flower cupcakes, were boxed up so they wouldn't move during the drive to the house (see photo below), it also makes them more presentable. 

the cupcakes were displayed on a tiered stand, with light pink and yellow plates. i added a double-faced satin bow to top  to give it some extra 'upf'. i placed three large flowers on each plate, then surrounded them with the smaller cupcakes of the same color. they were a huge hit, easy to eat and tasted delicious!

Showers and Flowers

get out the cello, the ribbon, the pale yellow shreds, the yellow tissue and a whole bunch of white and yellow baby items...and you have your self an awesome basket. when shopping for this baby shower, i found myself picking up all yellow and white things (the baby is a girl)...so i decided to make it the theme of a fun and very useful baby shower gift. i added yellow onesies, yellow baby blanket, yellow and white caps and mittens, yellow baby spoons, yellow baby wash clothes, a teddy bear w/ a yellow ribbon and cute little penguin baby boots. i sat all the gifts on some pale yellow shreds, in a handled basket. then wrestled with some cello and some gorgeous yellow/white faded ribbon and a clip on yellow gerber daisy and VOLIA! baby shower gift complete!

the theme of the baby shower was pink and yellow, with the odd warm weather and some snow, stores started carrying lovely spring flowers. i was able to pick up some blooming daffodils, pink and yellow dutch tulips and some candy pink gerber daisies. we placed the flowers around the house, give the rooms a pop of color. the flowers were all accent with some ribbon of the alternate color to the flowers. in the above picture, we used a white watering can with some floral foam to hold the daisies properly. i then finished the can off with some of the left over ribbon i had from the baby gift. 

Go Big or Go Home

with this gift i used a beautiful chartreuse wrap, knowing that a patterned wrap would take away from the gorgeous
green iridescent ribbon and glitter olive green poinsettia .  i sat the poinsettia right in the middle of the bow, so i made sure to make the loops of my bow larger so they could be seen around the edges of the flower. the theme for this gift was greens, browns and hints of gold. 

i just love this paper. this was my second year using it. the theme to this gift was silver, brown with hints of turquoise.  i used some ribbon i had not worked with year but it turned out to be quite easy to use. i liked making the wrap work with the silver sheer ribbon and very glittery pine cone package topper. 

for this gift, i used the chartreuse gift wrap again, knowing again, that the ribbon would be my center piece of the gift. the theme of this gift was chartreuse, light blue and turquoise. the ribbon was glittery with a filigree pattern and i was able to find a matching blue snowflake as a package topper.

i had to go red and white on this gift...she's a badgers fan...it was pretty much a give in! i found the ribbon first, then had to find the wrap. i went back and forth between a couple different wraps, it was finally my sister who said, 'your nuts, pick the polka dots.' i attached two large, light bulb package toppers. the theme for this gift was red, white with hints of silver and brown. 

Sometimes I just over do it....

it finally happened...my brain was so overloaded with creative ideas...i made something ugly. i had what i thought was a brilliant idea, then when it was putting it together....it looked just awful. it was like having writers block, without having to write a thing. this happens sometimes, i have so many projects that require my creative part of my brain that after a while it just stops. when this happens, i have to walk away. i'm not saying i don't think about because it frustrates me to not be able to keep creating without a break or pause. 
then after trying to forget about it, i walked into a store and wandered around...my mind still was like 'what the hell are you thinking sarah?!' then as i'm leaving the store, i had an enlightening moment and in five minutes figured out what i was going to do. 
the project was a center piece of the dining room. i wanted to emulate the napkins we got that had soft colors and pretty ornaments on them. i wanted to work with ornaments in someway. after many failed attempts, i went with what i knew...a wreath. the colors of the christmas china and such are silver and blues. i had been working with blues and greens in my original idea but i should have stuck with what i knew. so after a mad dash of shopping i knew exactly what i wanted to do.
i found frosted blue, large poinsettias, silver glitter pine picks and pearl colored ornaments...i went to work and this is what i came up with...i even added a candle we already had around the house to add more color. 

it sits on a charger to prevent it from scratching the surface of the dining table

I've started wrapping

this is by far one of the favorites i have wrapped this holiday season. i found wrap, ribbon and a topper that matched
beautifully. i wrapped this for someone who likes owls. i noticed owl things are huge this year. i love the colors
in this gift and it looks great under the tree.

lots of glitter for this one, but it turned out great. i used a mint green kraft wrapping paper. i then came across this cream and gold poinsettia wired ribbon. then by some miracle of my wrapping imagination i found a gold poinsettia to attach to the top of the gift. i did not do a bow on this gift, made four tails coming out from under the poinsettia. the poinsettia being the center piece of the gift rather than a huge glittery bow.

this year i bought a lot of red and white wrap. i used the red and white stripes to turn this into a candy
themed present. i used satin ribbon in a double bow. i like to use satin double bows on some gifts because they are easier to undo and if the gift is for someone who i know i appreciate my wrapping but not the time it takes to just remove a bow, this style works a whole lot better. 

Taking it apart and making it new...

i found another wreath that took me quite a while to figure out what to do with....finally i made the decision, it needed to have everything taken off of it (dull berries and pine cones). my mom wanted to keep the pine cones, but if she wanted a nice wreath, they had to go. spent a good hour removing all the pine cones (the wreath pine needles had a hard coating which beat my hands up a lot). we decided to make the colors match the colors of some of the rooms in the house, gold and cranberry. i had the gold magnolia's from a previous wreath and used some cranberry colored ribbon to add a touch of color. this wreath stays inside because it would probably end up ruined if it was hung outside.