Lace Halloween Wreath

I've been excited to see so many cute fall/Halloween wreaths all over blogland, so it was just a matter of time until I created my own.

When I visited my grandmother back east this spring she was trying to get my mom to take her old black lace jacket.

She didn't want to throw it away but she no longer wanted it because sun-damage had caused discoloration in some areas.

My mom didn't want it either so she convinced me to take it for the fabric. It's been sitting in my stash ever since. This week though, I paired it with a 10" green wreath-form and two spools of satin ribbon from the dollar store.

Three dollars later, I had a festive Halloween wreath!

To make it, I wrapped the wreath-form in the orange ribbon, adhering it with a dot of hot glue every few rotations. I cut a circle out of the lace jacket a few inches larger than the wreath and snipped and stretched and maneuvered it to cover the front and sides.

 For the flower, I cut a bunch of 2 1/2 inch strips of ribbon for the petals and hot-glued the corners and tops back on themselves. I put a dot of hot glue in the centers of the ribbons and pinched them into a pleat before overlapping and adhering them onto a piece of felt. I made the center out of ribbon the way I would make a fabric rolled rose.

Halloween's coming a bit early at our house this year!

Max's UNO-themed First Birthday Party

This summer Annalise's little boyfriend turned one. I was so excited to get to help throw a boy's birthday party! The theme was the card game UNO.

I took some photos of him and using Picassa, designed him a birthday invitation to send to all his little friends.

His birthday card was made by scanning the back of one of the game cards.

As Max's birthday gift I freezer-paper stenciled him an UNO shirt to wear to his party. (Idea and tutorial from here.) I've been wanting to try the technique for awhile and it was really fun!

Here he is next to his girlfriend, sporting his shirt. :)

There were color-coodinating balloons,

and Max's mom and I made loads of paper pom poms.

I created an UNO card banner,

and made inexpensive party plates by gluing game cards to dollar store plates.

Little Max's face in a birthday hat made up the cupcake toppers,

and the piece de resistance was the UNO card birthday "cake"! I got the idea to make the centerpiece into a cake out of cards from the idea of diaper cakes at baby showers. The different layers stacked conveniently inside each other for effortless travel to Max's house, where I set it up and then added some shredded-up office paper for "frosting". It turned out great!

                           

This party made me so excited to get started on plans for Annalise's first birthday party!

Strawberry Shortcake Trifle

I used my fancy trifle dish for the first time! (Let's try not to remember how many years I've had it, nor why I spent $50 on it at one of those Southern Living parties to begin with...) Happily it turned out pretty and delicious!

I asked Dave what he wanted for dessert and he suggested a strawberry shortcake trifle. I didn't really know what I was doing but I winged it on the "recipe" and it was a success!

I layered half a package of strawberry Jell-o, cubed angel-food cake, half a package of cook-and-serve vanilla pudding, and fresh-cut strawberries and then repeated the layers. I refrigerated it overnight so it could all gel together and added whipped cream to each plate before serving. Easy and yummy!

Handbags to Headbands

I picked up three cute damask-patterned vinyl-y tote bags at the dollar store, knowing I could refashion them into something fun.

 

 

I decided to start with this one.

While I snipped and glued, a certain little person tried to charm me back into playing with her.

 

A few minutes and some pearls and elastic later, we had this cute new accessory!

And lots of leftover vinyl for the next project!

Damask Word Art

I've been able to carve out some teeny moments of time to be creative lately. Which is truly my favorite passtime ever. Our friend Todd (a dentist) just had a birthday, so I designed him a card with some humor he'd enjoy.

For his gift I created a bit of art for his walls. I played around in Photoshop until I liked the font and word placement of our mutual favorite quote, and then printed it on some lovely damask scrapbook paper. (I can not get enough of damask!!!)

Now I just have to make one for myself!

Damask Mod Podge Frame

My favorite pattern ever is damask so when I saw some gorgeous damask wrapping paper in black and white at Michael's a few months ago, I snapped it up thinking I would use it to spruce up the fronts of the drawers on our ugly old dresser when I paint it. I still plan to do that but as it will take longer than ten minutes (which is the most Annalise ever entertains herself) it has not happened yet. Annalise's little friend Olivia turned one the other day though and I knew just the gift for her. I pulled out the wrapping paper, some black paint, mod podge, and a $1.00 unfinished wood frame from Michael's, as well as some much-loved old pants that I had saved for their fabric. I wore these to all the church dances back in the day. :)

The best part was that I didn't have to buy anything- I already had all of it around the house! This is what I came up with.

For the flower, I cut circles out of the pant leg and held the edges over a candle flame until they melted and curled upwards. Then I attached them with a pearl brad and hot-glued them to the frame.

Perfect for a sweet one-year-old girl!

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