Tag Archives: Birthdays

Tealightful Tea Party Banner and Video

Tealightful Tea Party Banner with Petaloo Spring Posies

Hello, Friends! Little girls love tea parties! It’s a fact. Our middle “Little” Julia loves them so much that she’s chosen to have an American Girl Tea Party Birthday this year. I spent the weekend creating this pinkalicious, very girly Tealightful tea party banner using Petaloo posies and designer papers from Pebbles.

Banners are fun to make, but tough to capture in a photograph. So, I went ahead and made a very short (under 3 minute) video tour of the banner and cards so you can really get a feel for it. I will include still photos as well, as I know you like to study those.

Tealightful Tea Party Banner Video on YouTube

Tealightful Tea Party Banner Details

The banner is made from three 4.25″ x 5.5″ pennants and 4 ATC sized pennants. Cut a fishtail on each rectangle, then stitch designer paper to the cardstock base. Next, stitch the banners onto ribbon.

Add a belly band, a die cut doily and fussy cut elements. Then add pretty Petaloo posies as a finishing touch. I used White Vintage Velvet Pansies, Pink Mini Darjeeling Butterflies, and Pink Petaloo Darjeeling Petite Blossoms.

Each large pennant is flanked by a tiny ATC sized pennant. Every time I see these cute critters in teacups, I cannot help but smile!

Die cut teacups with Tim Holtz’ Tea Time dies, then fill with pretty posies.

No tea party is complete without a fancy cake!

Back layers and fussy cut images with waste chipboard or foam tape to create extra depth and dimension.

You’re My Cup of Tea Easel Birthday Card

To continue with the tea party theme, I put together this very girly easel card.

Make the stopper for your card by backing an image with chipboard or foam tape. Cluster pretty Vintage Velvet pansies around the image to add more texture. This will help the card stay in the display position. Cut little banner flags from paper scraps to add even more fun to the card.

Easel cards fold shut for presentation, then stand up for display. They are one of my favorite cards to make!

Finish the interior of the card with more pretty papers and stamped birthday greetings.

Tealightful Tea Party Invites and Thank You Notes

I was having such fun playing with these pretty Tealightful papers that I went ahead and made some very simple party invites and thank you notes to go with the ensemble. Although the cards are very, very simple, I dressed them up a little with either a pink butterfly or a vintage velvet pansy.

Now I can’t wait for Julia’s birthday party! As she says to me when we play tea party together, “Pinkies Up!”

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy

Coffee Lover’s Birthday Gift Crate

Good to the Last Drop:

Canvas Corp Brands “Beans and Bags” Coffee Lover’s Birthday Gift Crate

Hello, Friends!

Let’s face it: coffee makes the world go ’round! We drink it morning, noon and night! We stand in line for it, can’t begin our day without it, and that first sip in the morning is the fuel in our tank that gets us through the day. So what could be more fun than turning a mini crate into a container filled to the brim with coffee themed tags, envelopes and recipes for your favorite girlfriend? That’s exactly why I made this Coffee Lover’s Birthday Gift Crate with the fabulous Beans and Bags collection from Canvas Corp Brands. Take a peeky:

This is a birthday party waiting to happen! I have loads of pictures so you can see exactly what was tucked inside, but first, let me share a list of supplies that you’ll need to make this crate for one of your coffee loving friends:

MATERIALS

Black Mini Vintage Crate
Canvas Corp Mix n Match Beans and Bags
White C Flute
Kraft Recipe Cards
Farmhouse Kitchen Bake and Can Recipe cards on Ivory
Little Chocolate Pages on Ivory
Chocolate Stripes
Burlap Fringe
Kraft Mini Bags
Canvas Fringe
Gypsy Moments Market Garland Tags
Gypsy Moments Happy Birthday Tags
Gypsy Moments 12×12 Poses and Reflections Paper
Gypsy Moments 12×12 A Novel Thought Paper
Kraft Cardstock
Tim Holtz Fresh Brewed Die, Tea Time Die
Clear Acrylic Waste packaging
White High Impact Paint
Jade Double Faced Satin Ribbon
From your stash: flowers, coffee beans, alpha letters, vintage silver spoon, stickles

Getting Started:

Pull strings from the burlap fringe to make it even “fringier”. (Is that a word? But you get my drift!) Use Scor-Tape to secure the Burlap fringe to the mini vintage crate. Layer with ribbon, if desired.

Create the coffee cup from Brown and White Ivory Stripe Cardstock:

Use white C-flute for the band, chipboard for the center medallion and clear waste packaging for the domed top.
Fussy cut the Cafe label from the Beans and Bags paper. Ink the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and glue onto the chipboard disc, then glue onto the c-flute band.
Paint the back of the domed top with a light layer of White high impact metallic paint. Use the tip of your finger to swirl it around and then glue onto the top of the coffee cup. When it is dry, lightly smear Diamond Stickles to the back of the dome for a little extra sparkle. Set aside to dry.
Fussy Cut the French Coffee Label from Beans and Bags. Glue onto crate as shown.
Fill the bowl of a vintage silver spoon with hot glue and coffee beans. Top with a bow and glue onto the crate. Add flowers.
Tuck the prepared coffee cup behind the handle of the spoon.

It was exciting to realize that my favorite Gypsy Moments papers pair up with Beans and Bags like, well coffee and cream! I had a blast creating a bunch of whimsical tags to fill my mini crate.

You can see…this little crate holds a whole lot of birthday fun!

A mini kraft bag was turned into a gift card holder. Just add a Beans and Bags label (spritzed with Turquoise Glimmer Mist) and tuck some sweet surprises inside.

Why not tuck an individually wrapped chocolate, and a Gypsy Moments Birthday tag into a mini kraft bag? Nothing goes better with coffee than chocolate, and you can write your own birthday greetings on the tag…and even toss in a Starbuck’s gift card!

How about a recipe for my favorite Sour Cream Coffee cake? Better yet, bake one and include it as part of the gift! It will be received with enthusiasm, I promise you! These Kraft Recipe cards look great with the Beans and Bags papers, too!

I altered this Gyspy Moments Poses and Reflections panel by crossing out the word “passion” and adding alpha letters to spell COFFEE. The ivory teacup has been transformed into a coffee cup filled with flower petals. And the vintage coffee can image is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!

This book cover is from Gypsy Moments “A Novel Thought” 12×12 papers. I love the fact that it works seamlessly with Beans and Bags, and super love that it looks like old leather! I turned this into a little accordion book with room inside to add photos or wishes for the birthday girl.

The kraft and black Beans and Bags paper is a fussy cutter’s playground! Love these images!

I used Gypsy Moments Poses and Reflections to make this insert. I really love the way these two collections complement one another!

There’s not a gal out there who hasn’t felt this way at the end of a long day! I cut a Gypsy Moments Market Garland in half and used it as a tab on this great image.

The Chocolate Brown Little Papers are a perfect match for this collection as well. Here, I’ve used one as a base for another great panel from Gypsy Moments Poses and Reflections. And adding coffee beans to the pages makes the crate smell amazing!

The Farmhouse Bake and Can Recipe Cards on Ivory were the perfect place to write down my mom’s recipe for the best iced coffee ever! The secret? Evaporated milk! This can was fussy cut from Beans and Bags Coffee and Tea Labels.

When you put it all together, this is one sweet little gift package! And it only took me a couple of hours to put together from start to finish! The papers did all the heavy lifting. This project could be easily adapted for a guy, for Christmas, a hostess gift for the holidays or even a get well or welcome to the neighborhood gift. Anyway you choose to make it, the recipient of this unique gift will be delighted!

Thanks for stopping by! And remember, with enough caffeine….you can rule the world!

Cheerio,

kathy

Birthday Party Favors

A Birthday Party for Sue

Hello, Ribbon Lovers!

I was born into a household with 3 older brothers. And I loved them. A lot. But as soon as I was old enough to ask, I started requesting that my mom and dad add a baby sister to our family so that I would not be the lone girl. And my mother’s response was always the same: “if someone leaves a baby girl on the doorstep, we’ll keep her. How’s that?” Finally, when I was 5 years old, my baby sister Sue was born. And I adored her. I spent countless hours playing with her, reading to her, and comforting her when she was upset. So her birthday has always been a special event for me. This year my daughter and I schemed together and organized a little birthday party for her. We invited 2 of her best friends, and booked a gourmet olive oil/balsamic vinegar tasting party and luncheon at a local boutique. If you’re not familiar with these, they are kind of like a wine tasting for foodies. You can look at a link HERE. Anyway, I wanted to make a little birthday party favor for each guest to take home and decided to put together a little file folder notebook so we could write down our favorite pairings, recipe suggestions and the like.

The base folder is made with heavy weight red cardstock. I printed out the cute file folder design on the front from my Crafty Secrets Retro Kitchen Kit, sizing it so that I could fit a junior legal pad on the inside. Then I loaded them up with ribbon to make them really cute!

To keep with the kitschy color scheme of the project, I layered a double row of 5/8″ wide black plaid ribbon, using Scor-Tape to hold it in place. I wrapped it around the sides of the file folder before I glued the front onto the base so that the edges would be nice and neat. I added a layer of Red Canvas Color Band Ribbon in between the two rows of black plaid ribbon. This was a quick and easy way to create a border on each folder.

The aprons were fussy cut from Domestic Goddess Creative Scraps and popped up on foam adhesive dots. A pretty double bow made from 3/8″ Red Plaid Ribbon was topped with a loopy bow made with red and black burlap string. I used my Zutter Bow-it-All to tie all my bows. And of course, I topped it off with a cherry button!

Inside, I created a slash pocket on the left. I topped my junior legal pad with Midnight Waves Striped Grograin Ribbon. Again, I ran my Scor-Tape around to the back of the pad and wrapped the ribbon ends behind so that they look nice and neat and will not fray.

To create the base folder, I just trimmed my red cardstock to measure 8″ wide x 10 3/4″ I scored it on the long side at 5″ and again at 5 1/4″, then folded to form the booklet. Easy peasy!

The ribbons and trims made this quick and easy project “party ready.” Oh, and the party was soooo much fun! Here a few pictures for you to enjoy!

This is me, with my sweet baby sis!

And a happy birthday kiss.

Getting the food table ready. I created a salad bar, and we had beautiful breads from La Farm Bakery to dip into homemade pesto or vinegar and oil.

Everyone loved having a little notebook to keep track of their favorite oil/vinegar combinations. And the wine was tasty, too!

Here we are, all together. My older daughter, Liz is on the left, then Sue’s best friend Laura, Susie and me. Sadly, one of the guests was stuck at the airport and had to miss this fun event. These grown up birthday party favors were a hit, and I hope you’ll have a chance to use the idea at an event of your own soon.