Sofia's first Birthday

 Here is what the Hello Kitty Medallions looked like at Sofia's birthday party.  I got the idea from my friend Debi Boring who did these medallions for her niece's baby shower.  I thought they'd look perfect for my niece's first birthday party.  So with the Hello Kitty theme, I made the medallions for the decorations.

 I used the Cricut Storybook cartridge to cut the letters, and it was a Zebra/pink theme.  And I found this great basket at Target on sale to put them in.  Also, Walmart had the cute Hello Kitty bank and lamp. (Of course I kept those cause they're just so dang cute!!

 Close up of the Sofia medallions.

 We had the party out at the ranch in the grass arena area, it worked out really well cause they also had a jumpy house and played volleyball which was really fun.  :)

I also used the cricut pretty pennants projects cartridge to cut out the pennants.  It just went with the theme of the party.  Also used the Martha Stewart Circle Edge Punch to make the large doilies.  Have I said how much I loved the Circle Edge Punch??  That thing is so cool!

Hello Kitty Medallions

 Soon it is going to be Miss Sofia's First Birthday.  And we're having a Hello Kitty party for her!  Can you tell I'm excited.  I LOVE Hello Kitty.  I mean LOVE Hello Kitty.  I've been in love with Miss Kitty since I was a little girl and we went to our first Sanrio Store in Union Square where I bought my first teeny tiny set of colored pencils because OMG, how can you not love Hello Kitty and anything miniature.  LOL

 So when Heather decided to have Hello Kitty as the theme of Sofia's party, can you imagine me jumping up and down for joy.  So I got out my Hello Kitty Cricut cartridge, and started cutting little Hello Kitty heads.   So pictured are some of the decorations we'll be using for the party.  I am in love with making Medallions, and using the Martha Stewart Circle cutter, circle edge cutter, and just punches in general.  I have a circle cutter, can't remember the brand, but it doesn't hold a candle to Martha's cutter.  There is still an issue of the cutter slipping a bit when you use it, but the handle for the cutter is better, love that you can store the tips in the handle, and using it with a glass mat is WAY better than a self-healing mat.

 I also used those sticky jewels to put on the medallions cause they have to be shiny!  :)

 Just having too much fun playing with the different circle combinations, it's fun to make different pieces and to see how it all gets put together.

 I think I'll be cutting banners tomorrow.  This is too much fun, making party decorations for a little girl.  I'm not one to be all poofy and fluffy, but I love making poofy and fluffy for her.  :)

Sofia's Scrapbook

Miss Sofia will be one soon, so I thought I'd start her scrapbook of her first year.  Here is the first page of the book.  I guess I should put her name on it?  LOL I started scrapping again a couple of months ago for my step-son Philip's wedding scrapbook, so I thought I'd continue with my niece, Sofia.  I have been collecting different things for her pages, and am using some of the stuff that we used for my step-daughter's wedding too.  I had a lot of leftover flowers too.

I really like how it turned out.  I wasn't sure at first.  But I really like it.

Handy Dandy tip...

 

 The other night I was trying to open one of those clamshell packages, you know, the one they heat seal together and that you have a hard time cutting apart.  Well, I was trying to figure out how to open it without getting up and getting a pair of those special scissors that they sell at those, As seen on TV stores, when I spotted a used paper trimmer blade.  My thought was, "Hmmm, it might not be great for paper anymore, but I wonder if it is sharp enough to cut the package?"

So I picked it up, and scored it around the edge of the package.  And it worked!  I just pushed the package and it opened!  What a great solution, and it's a bit of recycling too!  

Martha Stewart's Circle Edge Punch

So now that I've started scrapbooking again, I've been introduced to a whole world of new scrapping tools that I haven't seen before.  I mean the last time I actually scrapbooked a page must have been 7 years ago at least?  So the whole scrapbook world has moved forward while I have discovered other crafting.

So while making decorations for my daughter's wedding bbq, I found Martha Stewart's Circle Edge punch. And if I had known then what I know now, we would have had a bunch of decorations made with this. 

I was intimidated at first with the instructions and such, and it was, I thought, too much for me to figure out in the limited amount of time we had to throw the bbq, so I just put it aside. And since I was home sick with the stomach flu today, I was bored and thought I'd try it out. 

OMG, have I told you how smart Martha Stewart's people are to have invented something like this?? 

You don't need to cut up the paper in a circle first, or have to know advanced math, they've done it all for you.  I just really love it! You put the piece of paper under the small round magnet knob.  You should mark crosshairs on the page to make sure you have the center of the paper.  Figure out how big you want to have the circle by using the two size indicators, and there you go.  Just punch, turn the knob, and punch again. Crazy easy to use!

Now I want all the punches....curses!

Here's a video on how to use it...

Makes me so angry....

Today one of our installers saw that someone had left a dog, in an expensive dog crate  with a collar and leash, at the end of our street where people dump garbage and actually had put garbage on the cage so that no one would find her.  We all were very upset and so angry because they just left her there to die. 

Who does that??  I mean you take a dog into your home, she looked well fed and well cared for.  I mean we find dogs in our area who are on the verge of dying because they haven't eaten in a long time.  But this one looked like it had been taken care of, and loved.  She was so scared and was looking for her people.  So you know she had been cared for. 

I can understand if you couldn't have your dog because of living expenses or circumstances, but you don't leave them in a crate at a dead end street covered in garbage.  Again, WHO DOES THAT???

So glad that we found her before she got hungry or dehydrated or was attacked by something else or found by one of the random druggie homeless people. 

Ashley and Alex's Wedding Reception

 Saturday we had the "I DO" BBQ for Ashley and Alex.  They were married in May, and we had the reception for them this weekend.  We had it at the Brentwood Oaks Equestrian Center.  (Our nephew's and niece's family ranch).  It's such a beautiful place to have a reception. 

 Ashley made most of the decorations herself.  She found really great antique items and used those to decorate.

 Her husband Alex punched all the advice cards.

 Her grandma made all the mini strawberry jams, and Ashley decorated them with fabric and jute.

 Her wedding guest book was a Jenga game, so they could "Build Memories".

 They made this cool bucket hangy thing so that the  kids could pick out fun things to do.

 She found this great "antique" box for her cards, and I made burlap flowers for her to decorate with.

 She found this really cute cake topper for her bundt cakes. My sister had the idea to dress the cake up with baby's breath.

 These were the flower arrangements for the tables, really simple, and pretty.  She didn't have a ton of things on the table, which made them prettier, I think.

 Of course she had to have a hay couch.  I am SO over hay couches.  They shed everywhere, and are a pain to clean up.  Remember that if anyone ever thinks they want to have a hay couch.

 And I made all these danglies.  I found in the wedding section in Michael's, this really great "crystal" garland.  I took them apart and put bead dangles at the bottom with different jewelry pieces.

This arch is in the backyard with the flowers on it already, so I just hung different dangle crystals.  Diane bought these really great lanterns to put on the ends. 

Everything turned out so beautiful.  And no stress.  Well, not for me anyway.  LOL  It was a really great time!

Wedding favors...

 Finally finished the wedding favors for my friend's sister-in-law's wedding.   I made the first 25 for them for the wedding shower, but they liked them so much that they wanted 100 more for the wedding.  I ended up making 120 more for them.  :) 

I first decided that since I only had 25 to make, I would use the sizzix die that I bought at Michael's for $5, and put a piece of the lace paper on them. Problem was, when I cut the first one, it didn't cut all the way through.  So I used my handy dandy dentist pick, and poked out all the centers.  Yep, Poked out all the centers.  I had little paper dots everywhere!  LOL You know, back when I was stamping cards, they used to have this lace paper at the stores.  Not anymore.  OMG,  so I ended up doing this for all 120.

After gluing both papers on the mints, I tied a bit of hemp twine around the mints and I actually made the tags as well.  Tags are easy.  I usually lay them out like I'm making labels, and cut them with the paper cutter.  And I used the large crop-a-dile to punch the holes in the tags.

I was going to use the paper flowers that I found on clearance at Michael's but they ran out of them.  So, I found really pretty artificial roses that were the right size.  And I'd curl the ends of the twine with a little stick.

 Here is how they turned out:

 Since the wedding was a bit last minute, I just used different color flowers.  Thank goodness they didn't care about color, cause it was hard to find the colors that I needed to find.

 I think they turned out pretty cute.  :)

RIP Cory Monteith

 Most of you who know me know that I LOVE Glee.  And I am so saddened by the loss of such a talented young man with a beautiful soul.

I was up last night scrapping wedding photos of my step-son when the news came across the wire.  And I just couldn't believe that it was true.  Cory?  Really?? It can't be.

Sad but true, Cory died yesterday.  It hit me a lot harder than most celebrity deaths because we actually were lucky enough to actually meet him.  A friend of mine knows his roommate's mom, so she asked him to get us tickets for the last Glee concert in San Jose.

 He got us tickets to the show, and we also met him backstage.  It was funny cause we couldn't find where we were supposed to be when we got there, and he actually came out looking for us!  What a guy, to be worried enough to come out to find us.  LOL

 And while backstage we got some photos, but one of my favorite photos is of him taking the time to talk to his young fans.  That is what I really loved about him, he would stop what he was doing to talk to his fans, and to thank them.  There was also a young man in a wheelchair who didn't have backstage passes, but wanted to meet Cory.  The security guard asked him if it would be ok, and of course Cory said yes.  That really told me what kind of guy he was, just your everyday guy who appreciated where he was and the people who helped him to get there.

Thank you Cory for all the great memories, and great performances.  You will be missed so very much.

Wedding favors...

 And the weddings continue.  I've been working on wedding items for months now.  My step-daughter Ashley is having a reception BBQ in a couple of weeks, so we're gearing up for that, plus one of my co-workers' sister-in-law is getting married in a couple of weeks, so his wife asked me to help her out with the favors.  She found these really cute favors online, and asked me to help her to figure out how to make them.

Here is my version:
You get a roll of mints and cover them with Burlap printed paper.  And you can get the mints at Smart & Final in packages of 24.

I then put a strip of lace paper that I die cut with the Sizzix die cut machine.

Found the cute orange and yellow paper flowers at Michael's and printed the tags myself and cut them myself.  Put them all together with twine and you have this:

 Easy Peasy!  I even curled the twine using a small rod.

 I've also been making burlap flowers for my step-daughter to decorate for her reception:

 And making these paper flowers using Martha Stewart's Hydrangea flower punch and pearl centers from Michael's.

 These are 3 different flowers colored with different methods.  The first one I rubbed the burlap with a Tim Holtz distress stamp pad before putting together,  The second one I sprayed with pink spritz after I made the flower, the third one I sprayed with pink spritz after making the flower.  I like how they came out.

 And I'm now getting into the medallions that my friends have been doing for years.  I used the Tim Holtz die for these:

Am making pins with a couple of these.  Will post those later.

Wedding reception crafts...

 So, my step-daughter and son-in-law (step son in law?) decided to have a bbq to celebrate their marriage.  And of course, we're making many of the items we're going to be using at the reception.  She's going for an outdoor chic style since her brother had used the outdoors theme.  So, we went on pinterest, found some really cool things to make, and now are implementing the ideas that we liked.

First up, cake plates made from plates and candle holders.  We've found some really great plates and candle holders at the $1 store and Target/Walmart/Home Goods.  I loved the pale blue plates, and used the candlesticks that were going to be for my son's weddding.  I think they turned out really pretty.  I found the wood candlestick on clearance at Cost Plus, and the very large plate at the Goodwill store.

 I just love the look of the plates, they are so vintage looking!

 Then Ashley saw some burlap flowers that she liked on etsy, but knew that I could make them for her, so there's my try at Burlap flowers.

 I used the flowers on this really cool box that she found, and used a big piece of lace that I just fell in love with!

This should be such a really pretty reception.  I can't wait to see how we put this all together.

Weddings!

 Last week was the week of weddings for me.  Both my step-daughter and step-son were married!

My step-daughter married her longtime boyfriend, Alex in a civil ceremony.  He's been a big part of our lives for such a long time, it was such a happy day for us when he became part of our family.  

Here is a photo of all of us at the ceremony.  It was a surprise for all of us, they just decided at the last minute to get married.  A very nice surprise.  It was a simple ceremony, and then we all decided to go to dinner at the Cheesecake factory.  A very special day for us all.

 

 My step-son's marriage ceremony was a planned event on our niece's family's ranch.  It was a very nice ceremony, and we had a great party later.

My step-daughter was one of the bridesmaids, and they dressed in Indian clothes.  She looked so very pretty! 

 

 Here are the cousins.  Al, Diane, Ashley, Heather, Sofia, and Alex.

Phil with the newlyweds.

So happy for both kids that they have found happiness!