The wedding is done!

It feels like it has been forever since I've had time to myself to just **create**  That's right; it has!!  My sister's wedding is finally done!  Last stop on that train--Thank you cards.

She had an amazing wedding; it was a beautiful day, with great weather.  And let's not forget about the bride!  She was gorgeous!  And, I'm not just saying that because she is my sister.  I have never. ever. seen her look the way she did that night.  She was glowing with happiness, had an amazingly beautiful dress, and she was just outright stunning.

Anyways, back to the card!  As a part of her bridal shower gift, I made her thank-you cards for the shower.  Everything about her wedding was red and yellow (gold).  Her wedding flowers were red, the bridesmaid flowers were yellow, the wedding decor was primarily red, and her bridal shower was primarily red as well.  Such pretty colors for an end-of-the-summer event.

So, I took those colors into consideration when working on her thank-you cards, and this is what I came up with:

It was really quite simple to make!  It's your basic size of 3.5 x 5

I used a white card for the base, and attached a shimmer charcoal color to the top.  I then trimmed my gold paper to be just slightly smaller than the charcoal.  Using red embossing powder, I stamped two hearts to symbolize their two hearts joining, and then used a simple thank-you stamp at the bottom.  Before attaching the gold to the charcoal, I adhered some ribbon to give it that extra character.  Once fully assembled, you get that!!

Just for fun, I'm going to make a few more of these exact cards, but using different colors!  Hopefully they all turn out just a nicely as these did!!

These cards can also be found on my Etsy shop at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/105251117/thank-you-card

Cute & Sassy...Just How A Bachelorette Party Should Be!

Phew, I got through my daughter's 2nd birthday party!  It turned out to be so cute!  The weather was perfect, the kids had fun, what else could we have asked for!

So, now that that's done, time to move on to my next project...My baby sister's wedding!  Being the Maid of Honor and sister, I get the pleasure of planning the bachelorette party!  Nothing says "bachelorette party" better than bright, bold, sexy colors!  So, that's just what I did.

Originally I had planned on incorporating her wedding colors into the bachelorette party; red and gold.  But, the more I got thinking, the more I realized that we needed something that made a bolder statement.  Red and gold are definitely cute for her August wedding.  But, they just didn't yell "bachelorette on the loose" for me!

So, that is when I changed the colors--Black & hot pink--Perfect!

As always, first thing's first with a party~The invitation.

I couldn't decide which I liked better, so I'm just going to make both of them!

This was the first gatefold style card I've ever made, so I thought it was going to be a bit of a challenge, but it really wasn't.  It is a standard sized card, measuring at 5.5" x 4" when folded.  I used a black 8.5" x 11" piece of card stock for the card, which gave me 2 cards per page.  I trimmed it down to be a size of 5.5" x 8" and scored the card, length wise, at 2" and 6".  The cutouts were made using the "Tie The Knot" cricut cartridge.  I attached the corset only to the left side of the card, so that it can open up to the invitation wording on the inside of the card.

I had a lot of fun making these cards, mostly because of the fact that I am finally working on my sister's wedding stuff....A moment I've been waiting for for so long!  She is the last of my siblings to get married, and she is my only sister, so this is a BIG deal for me!!  I just hope she loves it as much as I do!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/100972029/black-hot-pink-bachelorette-card

http://www.etsy.com/listing/100970346/blackpinkwhite-bachelorette-card?ref=v1_other_2

A Little DIY Home Decor...

For those of you who don't know, I live up in Illinois.  Yep, the great state where the weather can be completely unpredictable :)  We had 80 degree temps back in March, and now that spring is here, we are impatiently waiting for the spring temps to return.  With this last week being gloomy, rainy, and cold, I couldn't help but to notice the lack of decor in my home.

You see, we just moved here about two months ago.  With 3 kids, it can be quite difficult to actually get unpacked and settled within a reasonable amount of time.  Well, we are finally unpacked and situated!

Since the weather has been AWFUL, I have been stuck inside day in and day out.  With that, I couldn't help but notice how little decorating we have done here.  I am big on home decor, whether it be family pictures, candles, sconces, whatever.  But, I have been on this crafting and DIY kick lately, so I decided to combine the two and do some decorating on my own!

I love my new family room!  It has beautiful gray walls; walls that seem to never end with our extremely high ceilings.  But, what can you do to liven up a room with gray walls??  At first I thought it needed color, but nothing seemed to look right.  Then I thought, why not add more of the same tones to a room which is already all gray??  Same tones, being black & white.  I really thought it would be quite a challenge to come up with something fun, but lively.

But, then I came up with this...

I had so much fun making these panels.  And the best part...they were so easy!!

I purchased 9 12x12 canvas panels, then went to my local hobby store and searched until I was able to find 9 different patterns, all of which had to be black/white contrasting prints.  I threw them on each of the canvas panels, attached the fabric, and there we have it!!

Simple.  Fun.  Decorative.

What more can I ask for!?!

Hello Kitty Party

Wow!!  It has been quite some time since I've made any blogs :(  Well, I'm back!!  My goal is to post a weekly blog, along with the project I will have made.

The last time I posted, I was working on my daughter's first birthday party; an adorable butterfly theme.  Well, guess what?  I am now creating her second birthday party!  This time around, it is definitely my favorite DIY project so far.  I am creating a Hello Kitty party.  Who doesn't love Hello Kitty!?!  Well, Peyton absolutely LOVES Hello Kitty, so why not giver her a party that I just know she will love.  The first thing I did was invest in a new Cricut cartridge: Hello Kitty Greetings.  I can't believe how much I can do with just that one cartridge!  First thing's first with a birthday party...The invitation.

I loved making this invitation!  It is cute, girly, and best of all, fairly simple to make!  I did it all with 4 simple steps: cutting paper to necessary sizes, print out actual invitation, cut out all Cricut pieces, assemble all pieces.

For this invitation, I went with a base size of 5x7.  I debated between this and a 4x6, but with this size the details showed much better.

With the rest of my party accessories and decorations, I am going with the same Hello Kitty image.  I have decided to have pink and green be the primary colors for her party--They are a good representation of the Hello Kitty projects, and let's face it, I just love those colors together!

Stay posted for more items for this adorable birthday party!!

You can find this item here on my Etsy shop...

http://www.etsy.com/listing/96113857/hello-kitty-invitation