Kaitlyn Turns Six!

My oldest "baby" is turning 6 this week... SIX!!! crazy! We celebrated this past weekend with an art and painting party!

Dont get me wrong, I love to make things for my etsy clients but... i LOVE  LOVE LOVE to make things for my kids :)  This year, with all the hoopla of my sister's upcoming wedding, i wasnt able to go as crazy as i normally do, but i was able to create a few things to the decor ;)

first: invites...

i found the amazing graphic at webdesignhot.com and tweaked it for my needs. 

Using a few different fun fonts,  i created this single layer invite:

At the party....

First party task?  PAINTING!!! each guest found their seat complete with an apron, 2 different paint brushes, some q-tips, a small glass of water, paint tray, and a 8x10 canvas!
 i put out a bunch of vinyl stickers that the kids attached to their canvases.  Each party-goer choose 6 paint colors and went to town ;)  after the girls were done painting, we peeled off the stickers and revealed a fun filled canvas!

while the canvases were drying, we played a game!  I printed a bunch of frames on cardstock and attached them to the wall- each kid got a pen ( i would suggest pencils, markers, etc  instead since the kids didnt hold the pen upright!) and we played a version of musical chairs.... when the music stopped, the girls had to stop drawing and find another frame to add their mark too ;)

for a pretty photo background, i created a paper chain rainbow!  of course, i didnt get a good picture of it :/

 

Favor bag toppers:

and the guest's also left with their paintings and aprons :)

and finally, the matching thank you cards to be sent out (hopefully!) this week!

Kaitlyn had a great time at her party! thanks to everyone that was able to attend!

Christine and Tony Wedding Programs, place cards, and table numbers

Coordinate with the wedding invites, Christine and Tony  brought the same "feel" to their wedding ceremony and reception with a couple more items!

(invites here:http://scrappinginnovations.blogspot.com/2014/04/christine-and-tonys-wedding-invitation.html)

Wedding programs for their ceremony... Place cards and table numbers for the evening reception!

Christine and Tony's wedding programs are our Offset folded programs. Using champagne paper, we used  black, ruby, and grey printing to coordinate with their invite sets. 

The front of the program includes their names and ceremony locations on top of their new monogram "watermark". Their wedding date, printed on the bottom of the program, is actually printed on the inside of the program, but due to the way it's folded, it can be viewed from the front as well :)

The inside of the program includes the order of the ceremony as well as the names and relations of the wedding party to the couple. 

the back of the program has a memorial section as well as a thank you note to their guests.

Now...Onto the reception....

The same flower graphic was carried from the invite to the reception items. The double layer "tent style" Place cards were made of a ruby metallic paper backing and a champagne top layer.  Each card included the guest(s) names and table number. 

 

Double sided flat cards were used as table numbers- again, with ruby cardstock as the back layer and champagne as the top layers.

A very happy "congrats" to the bride and groom! such as shame we couldnt make it work out to be there in person, but she promised me "Lots and lots of pictures" when she gets back from their honeymoon! i cant wait!!! Best of luck to both of you on this new adventure! :)

Christine and Tony's Wedding Invitation Suite

you may remember the start of the love story of my best friend in high school and her Groom to be... ( if not, here ya go! http://scrappinginnovations.blogspot.com/2014/02/christines-shower-invitations.html)... WELL>>>> They are now OFFICIALLY Mr. and Mrs!  how exciting!!!!

before they got to this step, they had to invite people to celebrate with them over the weekend!
And that's where i came in!
 As requested, i waited to post pictures of the invite until after the ceremony...

The main invitation card was created with a Ruby purple back layer and a champagne metallic top layer. the graphic and their names are printed in Ruby, where the rest of the wording is black. a 5/8" thick silver ribbon is attached between the invitation layers.

The Reception card is made of a Ruby back layer and a champagne top layer. All wording is printed  in black ink and the graphic is printed in ruby.  

The single layer Response card is made of champagne metallic papers. Again, ruby and black are used in the printing of the card. A matte "natural" (aka 'off-white') color envelope was printed with the bride's name and address for the for guests to return back to the couple.  

The couple provided a map for printing on the single layer accommodations/map card.

All the cards fit wonderfully into the natural colored inner/outer envelopes.  Each envelope included printing: The outer envelopes had the guest's name(s) and address on the front and the bride's return address on the back flap. The inner envelopes included the casual name(s) of their guests for a more-personal touch.

more coordinating wedding day-of stuff on the next blog post!!!!

Dee's Memorial Lanterns

Every time I receive a photo of an order, I am in awe of the talent and creativity of my clients.  Dee is of no exception.
She ordered memory lanterns to honor her father and her husband for the anniversaries of their passings.  She shipped lanterns to various family members across the country, and, this past weekend, they celebrated the life of her father by lighting the candles together. 

Before the lighting of the candles, each family member decorated their candles....and here are some pictures: 

"They were such a 'hit' (such an odd word to use) because each member of the family put their own interpretation on them and it became almost a challenge to out-do the other person (we are a very competitive family)...As you can see from the pictures I sent you, the candles were a great moment of joy in what would have been a sad weekend."- Dee

 Words cannot describe how touched i am to have a small part of such a heartfelt 'ceremony' across the US.  I hope the memories of these men help her find peace. My thoughts are with her and her family as they continue healing.

 "What we have once enjoyed, we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes part of us." -Helen Keller

Deanna and Phil's Wedding Shower Details!

My Sister is getting married to a wonderful man. Yesterday was their wedding shower, and i was able to create a bunch of the accents for their event:

Here are the invites: http://scrappinginnovations.blogspot.com/2014/03/deanna-and-phils-wedding-shower-invites.html
Their shower's theme was "red thread/heart strings", based on their favorite ancient chinese proverb:

 an invisible red thread connects two hearts who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread  may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.

When the guests first walked into the hall, there was a table set up of place cards. White single fold tent cards included the guest's name and table number, as well as a printed red "thread" heart to go along with their theme: 

and, of course, i had to make one for the future Mr. and Mrs!
They had their cartoon made up just before their engagement-- and it's dead-on ;)
(this cartoon was also used on their recipe cards included in the invites!)

Once the guests found their table....
coordinating table numbers, made of the same red and white cardstock layers of their invitation. Each table number included the red "thread" heart, and are double sided.


The beautifully set table....


Each place setting included 3 raffle tickets for the gift baskets (more on those below)


Also at each place setting: the favors for the guests included a lovely package of cherry blossom glass coasters (keeping with the Japenese-ish theme), and a candle.
A gift tag was made of a single layer of white cardstock with a printed red border- this gives the appearance of a multi-layer tag, without the extra materials. Of course, we added the "thread" heart under the short sentiment, names and date :)

Multiple scent/color candles were used across the tables, so to create uniformity, we made a sticker to place over the original label. The new stickers are only approx 1/8" larger than the original label on all sides, so it's barely noticeable from the back of the glass candle that Deanna and Phil's logo are new :)

In the invite, we also sent out "stock the pantry" and recipe cards.  We had a table set up for both items.
Guests placed their pantry items in the basket, with a gift tag to the bride and groom from "all of us".

Next to the basket, was a book for the recipes:

On the far side of the hall were 13 AMAZING gift baskets and a gorgeous wreath ( yes, i am bummed i wasn't allowed to enter!!).  The baskets included themes such as "Pasta Night" which had 'Garofalo' brand pasta- which is their new last name!, bath and body works (with "Japanese cherry blossom" scent), and "Deanna's favorite's" which included a bunch of Hello Kitty stuff, Mario fruit snacks, tea, and her favorite movie, Mamma Mia. 

In front of each gift basket was a small red tub for the raffle tickets and a sign describing the contents of each basket.

All in all it was a beautiful day! 

Looking at Deanna and Phil's faces, it's obvious the couple is very happy and excited to be with each other, and THAT is the real reason to celebrate a marriage.  :)

Now.... off to finish the wedding invites and details for the big event in May! 

Maybe our mom will let me post stuff prior to the wedding??? probably not ;) but maybe i'll post a couple of teasers ;)

Deanna and Phil's wedding shower Invites- Red Thread

I am so excited for this post!

My baby sister is getting married!!!!!! Phil is an amazing guy that we have known forever, so we are very excited to welcome into our family "officially"!
Well, since i have been making invites and accessories for just shy of 6 years for Scrapping Innovations, she really didn't have a choice on her invite supplier ;)

Deanna and Phil have a common love for Japanese/Korean/Chinese culture, so it only made sense that one of her favorite quotes to describe their 15 year friendship-turned-into-romance relationship is based off an ancient Chinese proverb:

 an invisible red thread connects two hearts who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread  may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.

 They wanted "red thread" as the theme of the shower- and since i love a creative challenge, this is what we came up with: 

The invitation wording was printed on a red metallic paper and attached to the black metallic cardstock base layer. The white cardstock layer included the bride and groom-to-be's favorite quote to showcase the theme of the invite/shower.  Above the quote- a hand stitched heart with red thread. 

(Have y'all seen Frozen?  well, let's just say that if i ever get hit in the heart with ice, then THIS is my act of love.... Each heart took anywhere from 12 to 30 minutes to stitch.)

We also included some inserts into the invitation:

Since two Italian families are merging, FOOD is a given ;)  So we came up with a recipe card, using a cartoon graphic the couple had made-- and yes, it looks so close to them it's scary.
We also included a "stock the pantry" card. One of my girlfriends had this idea for her shower and i thought it was genius- it's amazing how expensive that first grocery trip is for the new couple, but if everyone brought one small item, it could really make a difference!
...And yes, i created that poem- you can ask my husband... i was sitting next to him on the couch asking what rhymed with "supermarket". his response? "doopermarket". needless to say i didn't use that combination.:)

I'm so excited for this next step in their lives :) congrats to the bride and groom to be!

Basic Sketch #3 submission

Hi again!

it's back to being cold again in Michigan, soooo... i decided to get scrappy ;)

here is my submission for the Basic Sketch #3 by Kiwi Lane
http://kiwilane.com/2014/03/basic-sketch-3-plus-a-flash-sale/#.UyZJjvldWNM