Getting ready for Crafts for a Cause

Hello my fellow Craftmates,

How is everyone today? I am busy, busy, busy preparing for a craftshow I'm doing tomorrow that benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. A very dear sister in our church has fought the good fight with the disease all her life and God has helped her through many battles. The most incredible blessing happened several months back when God blessed her and husband with the most precious beautiful little girl.

The craft show on Sunday is helping to benefit the Tower of America's Stair Climb for CFF.  She has a team for the climb and prayerfully from what I sell a portion well help offset the sign up cost.  Below are pics of just a few of the items, I will be posting as I get the projects finished. Please enjoy and let me know whatcha think @>--%----

 

These next pics are of a notecard set that contains 7  lil' blank 3x3 notecards. The box is handmade on the MS scoreboard and is embellished with coordinating papers and details. They are perfect to give a loved on or friend a lil' pick me up for the day :)



Each card is stamped with one simple encouraging word.

Well that's all for now but stayed tuned throughout the day :) As always thanks for droppin' in and sharing a moment of your time with me :)

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Snow Day Craftliciousness

Ok it's official now I have seen everything...we had snow here in San Antonio. The sun has melted it all away by now but it was beautiful. I think it's pretty awesome that we received it today because one of my dear friends is celebrating her birthday today. Imagine receiving the original embellishments of nature from God on your day, He is awesome and so is she.

1. A CRAFTMATE'S CHALLENGE

Today's post begins with  a challenge I received from a fellow craftmate, she wanted me to make an all turquoise valentine. Well I failed, (I'm sorry Kris but I have a very hard time being monochromatic). So the above pic is what I came up with. Wednesday I majorly scored at one of my fav store Big Lots. I found the best paper, a 24 sheet DS pack by g.c.d. named CANNA for $5. The color combos are funky and different and perfect for Kris' challenge. She is into crochet and unique art so it was a given to use sparkly fun fur.

I like to embellish the inside of my creations. It just doesn't feel right to add a personal sentiment on a blank space. Plus it adds that lil' somethin' somethin', you know what I mean.

2. INSPIRATION from DOLLARCRAFT

I was recently advised to join Twitter to get the word out as well as inspiration about my passion for paper and crafting.  What on Earth took me soooooooooo long to do this? It is AWESOME :) These next pics are a nod of thanks to a fellow twitter friend dollarcraft (look her up and follow her). She has awesome ideas using everyday stuff from all of our fav and only true dollar store, Dollar Tree. So during my wednesday shopping trip , I wandered into Dollar Tree and stumbled upon 10" paper lace dollies. My brain thru a breaker with the ideas that started flooding in. So what can you make with a paper dollie, some decorative paper, a stamped sentiment, ribbon, and a brad or two....

this lil' Valentine gift for a good friend. I simply folded the dollie, secured the flaps with doublesided tape in the right places, added the embellishments on the outside (paper from the g.c.d. 24 sheet DS pack Chianti Collection, Big Lots $5) and then....

stuffed the inside with a dark chocolate square and a mini 31/2" x 4" blank notecard (valentine). The great thing about using the dollie for this is it creates two pockets on the inside for the items and serves as the envelope for the whole gift. I will be making several of these for the craftshow I'm participating in Sunday that benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation :)

3. FRIENDSHIP TISSUE FLOWERS

My youngest daughter wanted to make something to pass out to her friends and teachers for Valentine's Day. We came up with tissue flowers with a Hershey's Kiss or Reese's Candy Heart in the center. Below are two pics of what they look like so far. We will be embellishing them a lil' more next week. I think I'll make a couple of dozen or so for the craftshow...

Thanks for droppin' by :) Hope my creations inspire you to get creative this holiday.

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I DO Weddings Part III

Good Morning everyone :) Hopefully you are warm on your sofa with your favorite blanket, book, and cup of coffee, tea or chocolate...it is waaaaaaayyyyyyyyy to chilly to be outside. Here in SA right now it is 24 degrees, us south texans are not used to this!!  I am grateful for a warm home and a family with warm loving hugs and hearts to enjoy everyday but especially on days like this:)

On with today's posting this wedding is the Uresti and Flores wedding. I've known the bride and her sister for quite sometime. The event was outdoor and took place at an incredible venue in Helotes, Tx. It literally was a real live fairytale:) I did not make the invites for this one but the favors and centerpieces instead.

These favors were an acknowledgement towards the groom. He has a ranching background so in honor of that I made lasso bells. I am very grateful for the help of the bride, groom, and the groom's sister for their help in making this teadious project. We shaped 10-12 inch pieces of wire into circles. Next we hooked the wire through the jingle and tied the twine in a knot and started wrapping, and wrapping, and wrapping. When the end reached the bell again, we left the ends kinda long and added extra detail by fraying the ends. The final touch was a piece of eggplant organza ribbon single knotted under the bell. The intention for these was for the lil' ones to run around with them.

This is a pic of the first of two centerpieces. The event was outdoors and we needed some addition soft light.  So the best way to accomplish that was with candles in glass so they would'nt blow out easy. The bride's colors were rich fall with the main accent being eggplant.  What is not clear in the photo is the green pears in the arrangement.  The bride wanted them to accentuate what a perfect pair they are for each other. I tried to compliment the already amazing beautiful scenery of the location.

The next pic above is of the second centerpiece. This one was very unique and the couple loved it. For this one I'll let you try and figure out what I used.  Do you recognize what's holding the candles in the center? Please let me know by leaving a comment of your thoughts, and I'll let you know if you are right.

It is time for me to depart and drink the cup of warm hot chocolate that is beckoning my name. May you be warmed by the love of your family and friends today:) It warms my heart just to know you took the tim to stop by. Thanks for droppin' by and checking out today's post. If you like what you see please sign-in on my guestbook, and follow me :)

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I DO Weddings Part II

Hello my fellow Crafties,

As promised I'm posting Wedding #2 the Valdez & Mendiola, this wedding was very special to me. My husband and I know the groom from waaaaaayyyyy back, and the bride did not take long to get to know :) The concept was Enchanted Elegance. The couple chose the awesome setting of the Old San Francisco Steakhouse in the Crystal Room. The room is very similiar to Tavern on the Green in NYC. If you have an upcoming event, I highly recommend this location. The staff and atmosphere are superb.

Every event begins with an invite. What else could this invite be but the ultimate symbol of Fiesta? To me it is the most important make or break decision for the invited guest on whether to attend or not. It has been my experience that the more creative the invite, the more guests you will have. Thankfully I had alot of help from the women in my family group at church to make ALOT of them. :)

We will begin with their shower. It was a couple's Fiesta theme, very colorful and very fun!! This is a pic of their sign in table. In lieu of gifts the couple asked for love offerings to help begin their life with. In the bowl are brightly colored envelopes for the guest to place their donation in. When finished the guests placed them in the Pinata that the bride and groom would be breaking open towards the end of the party.

The pic on the left is where the guests filled out colored index cards of advice and placed them in an album for the couple to treasure. The pic on the right is some of the decor used courtesy of an awesome sister. I love to make tissue flowers which made for an inexpensive impact of color throughout the party.

This garland was a blast to do.  Basically it consists of streamer that runs between two tissue flowers. I will definitely be making these again because here in SA they can be very versatile for a number of events.

 Last but definitely not least, what is event without a cake? Their cake was provided by a VERY talented sister who did an outstanding job :) I love the mini mariachi's serenading the couple on the top. It was MUY DELICIOSO!!!

The difference between the couples wedding shower and the wedding ceremony itself  were at two different ends of the spectrum.  As mentioned earlier the ceremony was to be a night of enchanted elegance and it was.  The simple but classic invite reflected that with layered embossing in an ivory metallic on a crisp white background.  I printed the info on a milky piece of vellum.

The above pic is of their wedding program. I kept the same format as the invite for cohesiveness.  The couple's image was cut using the Wedding solutions cartridge and my cricut create. I am VERY thankful for the loving hands of my sisters yet again who helped to assemble these beautifully.

For the conclusion of todays' post, the above pics are of the couple's wedding favors.  These are an original idea that I came up with to fit the couple's needs.  I can't give away all my secrets, but the elegance of this event required an inexpensive favor that gave an expensive impression. The orchids in the center were to honor the memory of the bride's sister.  These are definitely one of my all time favorite favor ideas :)

Thanks for droppin' in once again :) Hope that these wedding posts will help start your creative juices flowing :)

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I DO Weddings

Hello everybody :) How is your Sunday going? Mine did not start out so good. I will have to be visitng a dentist this week :( While I'm waiting for the pain med to kick in I thought I would do some more "catch up posting".

You know during this holiday time of LOVE it got me to thinking about the weddings I have been blessed to be a part of.  Each one made an impact in it's own way.  The biggest reward has been the friendships that were formed by serving one another. So sit back and enjoy and please feel free to use some of the ideas:)

Weddings are events I end up going all out on, sometimes too much.  But in the end it's all worth it. My post today,and the next couple of days will contain pics of the favors and invites for weddings I have done for my dear friends.

We will start off with the O'brien & Aguilar Wedding. The above pic is of their Save the Date Money Tree invite. On the majority of their favors I used the luxury stack by DCWV.  This invite has magnet on the back (all my save the date invites have magnet).

This is a Moneylope used for their Money tree shower. The guests placed their gifts inside and then signed the outside with who it was from.  The couple requested that detail to send the proper thank you notes.

This lil' invite holder was for the Bride's intimate shower.  We needed to be discreet because we had to pass them out at church :)

The book mark is the first of the favors.  It was really special because of the personalization contributed by the groom.  He included on one side the poem he wrote his beloved when they started dating and on the other side was a poem from when he proposed.

These pics are of the cover and inside of the story when they met. On one side is the bride's version of the story and on the other is the groom's.  It is a very beautiful story with similiar details that God himself could have only added :)

 And last but not least they made a CD of their favorite songs as the final favor. I used the Luxury Stack... folded one 12x12 page and trimmed the corner on one side to create the slot for the CD. The inside cover contains their thank you's to the guests and those who helped make their day posssible.

 Thanks for droppin' in, until next posting... God blesses each of us with talent, what's yours and how do you use it? Let me know by leaving a comment and on your way out please sign my guestbook :)

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