Noelle turned 2 on Thanksgiving, so the letter was N and the number was 2 for the girl who loves Elmo!! Thanks Courtney for trusting me with "whatever", lol. Thanks also for attending our first "Event", It was fun chatting and catching up!!
Please check out the Boutique Events page on my site for details about our 2nd Open House! I know Laura and I had butterflies all morning before the 1st event, but we think our hard work paid off because it was a success! Approximately 50 ladies stopped in to shop, snack, drink, and socialize. We hope to exceed that number on December 12th for the Elmhust Event. We hope to see you there!
 Thanls to Jen for the order for these cool Safari-themed sugar cookies. Her little guy LOVES Diego, but it was hard to find anything "Diego" anymore. We came up with something that compliments the theme. My first animal print cookies! (Girls, these would be awesome in whites, pinks, and black!) In addition to these cookies, I was also asked to make a special birthday treat for Sharon's grand daughter's birthday. Well, the cake pops were made and delivered. The problem, however, is I totally forgot to snap a picture before delivery! My first dopey move for the month. They were purple, pink, and white with sprinkles, drizzle, hearts, and everything fun for a little girl. :) Sorry Sharon! I hope she loved them, but I am sure not as much as having you there to celebrate with her! Last reminder for our first BOUTIQUE EVENT! RSVP asap so we have enough food and drink! We would love to see you there next Sunday from 3-7, drop in anytime. Details on the Boutique Event page. We would like to have a close idea by Monday of guests attending. We are all so excited!!! Here is the page with info: Boutique Event
Thanks to Amy and Kelsey for allowing me to create center-pieces for Robyn's surprise 60th birthday party. I am certain the party was a great time, and I hope Robyn liked everything! Here they are:
2 weeks from today is our 1st Pre-Holiday Boutique Open House. I have created an entire page on my site with dates, vendors, pictures, and RSVP information. We are all SO excited, and really hope you can make one of the dates. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, or to RSVP. [email protected] or call/text 84
We have both dates for our Pre-Holiday Open Houses!! WooHoo!! I am teaming up with 3 friends to have some fun and fabulous Open Houses for the Holiday Season. I will be showcasing mostly "non-goodie" gifts for under $25, and will have a "clearance area" as well. The pictures in this post are of "Glitter Ornaments" and about 1/2 of the colors and styles of Hair Bows I will bring. The dates are: November 18 in Elgin, and December 12 in Elmhurst. Please email or call me if you are interested in attending and I can send you a flyer with all of the details!! Lola Sophia turns 4 this week, and for her birthday, she requested Minnie Mouse cake pops with "bright pink bows". Love the sas and spunk this one has!! Here are the birthday pops for the most beautiful little girl!
Thanks Kelly for another fun order! I was thrilled to make an arrangement of Hello Kitty Pops for Kelsey's 3rd birthday! Lisa also wanted a girlie-themed centerpiece for Sophia's birthday party today. These Princess-ballerina pops were perfect! I have been working hard trying to create some great gift ideas for the Holidays! If you see something you love, please contact me for ordering information. 847-732-7098 or email [email protected]. There will be some Open Houses in the future as well, so contact me if you are interested. Here are just a few items from this week's sneak peek:
Decorative bottles
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OPI gift sets
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Olive Oil soap gift sets
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My son actually took interest in what I was making when Spidey made an appearance in the kitchen. The Spiderman centerpiece was for Parker's birthday last weekend. I almost didn't get these delivered, as someone in this house is dressing up as Spiderman for Halloween. :) Heather's oldest (Connor) had Homecoming for the Bartlett Raiders last weekend, so the football pops in team colors were shared with the team. What a cool mom, and awesome day for both events. Thank you for contacting me Heather, the Spideys were awesome to make and footballs were fun. :)
Jayne threw her daughter a lovely shower last weekend, and I was lucky enough to create the centerpieces. The color scheme and onesie idea came in when my friend Kelly showed me the invite she made for the shower (very cute). Thanks so much Jayne, and congrats on your new arrival in the near future! :)
This weekend I will post a few sneak peek pictures of a few holiday crafts.... Stay tuned, I am very excited!
Well... I had a great time making these projects over the last week or two! I love trying new things I haven't made before, so the dice and poodles were a fun challenge. Check out my New Projects and Promotions Page for more pictures. Thanks to Nikki for the cute idea for the 80's bunco centerpiece. I hope you girls rocked the night in your neon clothes, big hair, and got your dice on! :) It was fun visiting with you again...muuuahhh! Amanda's daughter, Paetyn, had a pink poodle party for her 1st birthday. The poodle pops were a cute party favor for guests to take home. Thanks for both recent orders, Amanda! I was super-excited to make Invites this week! Actually, the cards, invites, and crafts are the main reason I started a website. The cake pops are the most popular order, but my real love is with the invites and party goods, these were a special treat!!!
I can't believe Lola Sophia will be 4!!! It was literally 4 years ago yesterday that I sat at her baby shower, and now my son's wife is off to Pre-school (Lola says Brady will be her husband, lol). I LOVED making these Minnie invites, they are adorable! Thanks for sending the picture of what you wanted Andria! (Thanks to Kelly for the cartridge too.)
The last invite is for a surprise party, so I can't reveal the details, but they are for a VERY special lady! Thanks for trusting me to make something special for such a wonderful lady! XO
I will be taking limited orders for cake pops and cookies throughout the months of Novemeber and December. Please contact me asap if you know you will need an order, because I will not be able to squeeze in extras like I usually do. I will be focusing on offering special gift ideas for the Holidays, and several of my weekends may be blocked off completely for Goodie orders. The details are just in the planning stages, but I hope to reveal more in the next few weeks! Hopefully it will work out as well as I hope it will. I am very excited about the projects I am working on, and can't wait to show you! Stay tuned for more to come...
Have a great week everyone! As always, thanks for taking a minute to peek at my projects and for your support. Cheers to fall, and GO BEARS tomorrow!
I can't watch the Bears/Pack game anymore, so I will half-listen as I catch up on my website! I had 2 fun projects last week I need to share on my site. The first was for Amanda (who is also ordering some pink poodles next week). Amanda threw a baby shower with the theme of "Mustaches and Bow-ties". It was another 1st for me, which you know is what I love! I was also lucky enough to make an engagement bouquet for Brittany's friend's engagement party. I love simple and elegant... this centerpiece had both, and it was fun to make! Next week I will have the Pink Poodles and a really fun 80's themed Bunco party pictures from one of my favorite gals!
Here are the projects for , thanks for taking a look!!
 Check out the monthly promotions page for embossed flat cards! Customize your cards- 10 for $7.50 this month only!
I have been trying really hard to get in the swing of the 4:30 wake-up for school again! The first weeks back were a little rough, but I am slowly but surely getting everything in order. This week I have a "mustaches and bow-ties" baby shower centerpiece to make, next week is an 80's bunco party, and I also have a pink poodle birthday party in the middle of the month. I can't wait to post pictures! Check out the Metallic balloons, Raiders football, and back to school photos on my New Creations and Monthly Promos page. Thanks to Tina and Kelly for the inspiration for some fun projects!
I am getting very excited about creating some little gift-packs that could be used for the holidays, teacher gifts, co-workers, secretaries, etc.... When I get caught up on all of my teaching responsibilities I will get crafting and post some pictures! I would love to hear from you, so if you have any ideas or feedback please post away! Until the weekend...
Well folks, we had the BEST day yesterday celebrating Brady's 5th birthday! His birthday isn't actually until August 24, but we always celebrate the weekend before his birthday. I love making matchy-matchy "stuff" to make his day special, and since I head back to teaching this week, we find the weekend before his day gives me plenty of time to play! Traditionally for my blog, I talk about the project and some background about the special client I made the project for. Obviously I think my client is a cool little dude with a huge heart and an over-abundance of animal knowledge! :) I love this little guy.
What I thought I would do for this blog entry was share some party tips, tricks, and money-saving ideas in case you feel like gettin' a little crafty for your next event. Of course if you can't find the time, I would love to help with your party too!
HERE WE GO!!  The CAKE!! I totally cheated on this one. I make cakes weekly for the cake-pops, so I wanted a bakery cake without paying $100. I ordered a cake from Costco ($17.99) with plain chocolate frosting. I found these cool "rocks" that are just chocolate from Caputos in S. ELgin (bulk section) to decorate the top. Finally, I bought white fondant and used food coloring to get the colors I wanted for the animals. Buying each color of fondant is easier, but more expensive. I used my son's collection of play animals and tried to copy the best I could. If you are saying "that is too hard"... this was my 1st attempt and it's not great, but a 5 year old thought it was cool. It works just like play-dough, so roll it, form it, and start again if it stinks! :) I maybe spent $35-$40? Not too bad for a cake that feeds 48!! The best part was that it took far less time than I anticipated. :)
 GETTING YOUR $ OUT OF COOKIE CUTTERS: Obviously I like to make sugar cookies, and it is kind of a tradition for B's birthday that they are made to match the theme. Instead of using the $2-$5 cookie cutter for a few cookies, I use those bad-boys for anything and everything! I am a big fan of the mini-cutters. If you don't have the time to make and decorate each shaped cookie with details, make a round, square, etc... cookie and cut the themed shape out of fondant to stick on top of the frosting (see below). You look like you did a lot of work, but it is EASY! What kid doesn't like squiggly, jiggly, jello? Knox-blox jello jigglers cut using the same little cookie cutters. EASY CHEESY! Speaking of cheese... instead of cheese squares with crackers, use your mini-cutters! Even if you buy 2 or 3 mini-cutters you will get your money out of them, and your kids will think they are awesome for play-dough if you won't use them for another occasion later.
 REPURPOSING:
These tags were begging for me to make them! I found wedding invitations 90% off at Meijer. A box that was originally $19.99 was clearanced for $1.90. These were awesome! I printed a simple "swamp water" on the invite so the paper was a standard size and then cut them down. I made 25 tags, plus I still have 25 extra envelopes to use for my thank you's or another invite I make later. I always try to look at clearance for deals that are too good to pass up, but only if I can think of a good way to use it in the future. I love the challenge of being creative!
 Spend a little more now, make something special, and save in the future. This was a gift to Brady last year from his Auntie Melissa, and it is SO adorable! I can't take credit, but I will make more for sure. These glass blocks are found at Hobby Lobby ($10-$15 I think). Use your 40% off coupon on this cute idea! The bottom has a cut-out so lights, tinsel, etc... could be put inside if desired. She found a basic "Happy Birthday" sticker in a neutral color and last year she delivered it with Dinosaur stickers on it to match his theme. The polka dot ribbon is adorable, and that too can be changed from year to year. I just took off the dinos and added some swampy creatures for this year. It is a special balloon holder (instead of buying the weights year after year and losing them). He will have this special block year after year that can change with the theme, and looks very clean. LOVE!
 Stamps can really look nice, and kids can help be part of making their goodie bags for their friends. Sometimes decent stamps are on sale or clearanced out because they aren't super popular anymore now that die-cutting machines are huge. We just stamped leaves on the bag (to match a tablecloth my hubby bought) and a simple green "5" on the bag. I had a dragonfly from years ago, so to make it look a little more neutral I just used copper ink to stamp the toppers for the chocolate dipped pretzels. Stamps are also fun for the kids to use in a craft or project, and also to accent the outside of an invitation envelope.
| | Some of the other signs and tags I made were made using some software I bought. I think the software can be used for digital scapbooking, but I use it to make tags and signs rather than hand-crafting every single item. I like the options better than using Word or Powerpoint. | | |  Use what you've got and get creative in what you name the food! We went to costco and caputos found a few things in bulk, then made names for a few items to stay with the theme.
Grapes, gummies. pretzels, veggie straws, fruit by the foot, etc... Simple things kids like.
Ok gang, thanks for letting me share our special celebration and tips/trick I used. I would love nothing more than to hear your best party ideas, money-saving ideas, and ways you have been creative!! Please post your comments, feedback, and share your pictures. I love pinterest, and I would love to post your pix on my site too!
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