Art Party

This year, the girl birthday party was at Arts on Fire, a pottery painting place. Each guest gets to paint a piece of pottery of their choice and keep it. Love that!

These handmade art party invitations were pretty easy to make, but a little time consuming.  I cut out artist palettes on tan cardstock and let the birthday girl paint the splotches on the invitations. (This party is not about me and my perfectionist tendencies after all!) The paintbrushes were cut with a Cricut electronic cutting machine cartridge that was actually an old fashioned ink pen and we just added the brush tip over the pen nib and drew lines for bristles. My little girl actually thought of that one. Printed labels were added on top with party info. Oh and that perfect circle for the artist's thumb? Used a circle punch. These fit in the card envelopes from Office Depot. Love those too!

The birthday girl painted her own cake stand. Again, OCD was not allowed to creep in. Another pretty cool cake by Andi (my mom.) Inside was rainbow and I can't believe it, but I don't think I got pics of the inside. 

Would you believe the purple icing faded from the sun through the windshield on the twenty minute drive to the party locale?? It was MUCH brighter! Wear sunscreen folks. UV rays are harsh!

Art Party goodie bags had colorful gumballs inside. Remember, they also get to take home pottery.

My newly nine year old wrote "Thank You" on the teeny tiny paint sets from Party City that we tied to the bags with cute ribbon. We used Souffle pens from Michael's to write on the plastic. Those pens are pretty cool. They write on almost anything but you have to be patient and let the ink pool. I think I may have to decorate my cell phone cover...

Monster Mash

Disclaimer: None of this was my work, but it is still cute.

Monster cake.  I love how the cake stand looks like little legs. I wonder if they planned that?  Of course, they did. (They being my mom and sisters.)

That colorful tabletop is nothing more than crepe paper streamers run in a crisscross pattern.

Monster cupcakes. Because who could resist red chevron cupcake holders?? And candy eyeballs?

Treat Station. With baby snacks. This party was for a one-year-old, so these are age appropriate snacks, like Trix and animal crackers (which are not crackers but cookies in case you have never had one, in which case you should have more variety in your foods. Or not. They don't taste that great.)

Treat bags. Say "Thank you for coming" with handmade felt monster bags. And handmade tags. With all sorts of monster goodness inside. 

Treats. Like monster band-aids. And a monster cup. That red thing? Obviously it is used to make homemade popsicles. And a handmade reusable zipper bag WHICH was filled up at the treat station with whatever you like. So if you don't like animal not-crackers then don't put any of those in your own personal baggie. But please wash and reuse as often as you like.

not pictured: unicorn suckers which look monsterish somehow

Spring Door Decor

 I made something new for Spring for my door, but I am not too sure...

This is not exactly how I envisioned it in my head, but you

  know. They don't all work out.

 I wanted the paint finish to look like a robin's egg. They made it sound so easy on Pinterest. All I did was make a mess with paint. The blue is too dark. The original ribbon was white on the back and did not look cute. The monogram is much smaller than I thought it would be. But it is done and it is staying. At least for now.

A Banner For a Baby

This banner was much cuter in person, but you can only do so much with a cell phone camera. This actually turned out to be one of my favorite banners ever. I used a Tim Holtz mask on tags to distress the letters of the baby's name. The set of alphabet masks came with different fonts which I like.

Above the table, I hung some grapevine and Chinese lanterns. These are easy to make. I have a tool, but I remember making these in elementary school. If you could look closely at the paper design, there are some crowns on some. Since we did not really have a certain theme, I used my Slice machine (am I the only one that has one of these?) to cut some large crowns in the same paper to put sort of like confetti on the tables. No pictures of those, sorry.

(This is the teacher's lounge at school, not my house. It was decorated nicely by some of the staff, but the ceiling sure is ugly.) 

Blue Cabinet

As soon as I saw this piece of furniture I knew what I wanted to do with it. Even though it had mismatched hinges, I thought they could be easily replaced.

Browsing through Pinterest, I remembered seeing this blue and white rug from Shades of Light and it inspired me.

I knew I had a gallon of blue oops paint that my husband got from Home Depot. (Not sure what he thought I would do with it or the "Blogger Orange" gallon, but it was only $5.) 

This was not an easy paint job, but there is something therapeutic about painting with a brush. Not that I would try it again. I like how it brings in more of the blue from the chandelier to my studio.

And no, it is not easy to find hinges. I am willing to swap out all four, but all I can find are shiny brass or hinges for inside. Where do you find hinges???

The former wet bar is now my stamping station. I guess it was a wet bar. It has real keyholes (you know-to keep rowdy teenagers from drinking all of your Kahlua or Courvoisier or Crown or...OK you get the point) and the top "drawer" actually folds down and is covered in a hideous laminate. The top flips up and there are various sized holes which I can only assume hold liquor. Anyway, it hides my ribbon and extra paper cutters and mats, not my stash of scotch or aforementioned beverages.

Have I mentioned how much I love my new studio/ craft room/ scrap room?? I love having an air conditioned place to refurbish furniture like this piece!

These are the paint brushes I purchased and use. Yes, they are expensive. Yes, they are worth it. I don't get paid to say that. I do get paid a small amount if you click the link and purchase them. Thanks for keeping my blog alive!

More Elf on the Shelf

Even with all of the ideas out there, it is still easy to get stuck in a rut with your Elf.
Here are a couple of ideas that I have not seen on the internet. Sparky found a perfect shelf in the tub to remind my forgetful little one to pick up in the bathroom.

Our sneaky elf got into my nephew's diaper bag and tried to steal some puffs. My daughter got a kick out of this one.

One night, Sparky got the envie (cajun for craving) for some candy. He tried to wheel the Christmas parade stash away in Marie Grace's shopping cart.  Marie Grace is our American Girl doll.  She is good at sharing. But I am not. Gimme back my banana tootsie pop. You don't find those every day.

 

What was your Elf on the Shelf up to last night?

Stationery card

Cross Stitch Joy Holiday Card

Turn your family photos into holiday cards this season.

View the entire collection of cards.

You know I don't normally try to sell you stuff, but Shutterfly offered to pay me (a VEDDY VEDDY small sum) to share my card with you. I actually like and use Shutterfly regularly, so I am okay with sharing.  They are professional, quick to get back to you with problems and I am very satisfied with them. So if you haven't already made your Christmas cards, its super user friendly to use their site.