Crystal and Akiko

Happy Belated Halloween

Handing out candy to all the cutie-pah-tooties didn't help my excitement for Halloween 2011, when it'll be our sweet potato's first Halloween...<squeal>  In the meantime, we still dress up our furry babies in the same costume every year...lol

Presenting, for the 4th year in a row, Spidey & Miss. Lady Boogie.....

   

 
Lemme just say, it was definately appropriate weather for cute doggy eskimo kisses....brrrr....I melted when they started doing this.

My El Cheapo $6 centerpiece...haha  Wrapped some vases I had in gauze and plopped in some flowerie stuff from the dollar store.

 

My favourite decor in the house, where the goodies are!!!  Well...whatevers left of them that is ;)

 

Surprised a friend in the hospital with some home baked Halloween goodness.

 

 
RECIPE:
Paper (SU!):  Cajun Craze, Basic Black, Old Olive and Wicked Fun Designer Paper
Stamps (SU!):  Wicked Cool
Inks (SU!):  Cajun Craze and Basic Black
Punches (SU!):  Large Oval and Scallop Oval

My mom is a Silpada Rep (LOVE THEIR JEWELLERY) so she saves all her boxes for me so I can use them for gifts.  By the way, I just held a Silpada Party and received $900 in FREE jewellery....WHAAAT!!!  Get my mom to represent your next party.

Oh ya...went to see Paranormal Activity 2 with my brother, Akiko and the hubbies.  Wow!!  So maybe I tinkled a few times....what?????  I'm pregnant okay?!  hahaha

Ben & Corey's Game Night

It was our hubbies birthdays this past week.  Being 2 days apart and pretty much having all the same friends, it's always a combined party.  Seems like we have parties coming out of our ying yangs lately...hehe

I went with a game night theme and it worked out perfectly!  We had different stations set up for yahtzee, black jack, uno spin, wii, rockband and cranium.  It was so hilarious to watch people play, what a great time.  I made up signs for each station and plopped them in some frames I already had.  Here are the signs I printed.

  

Akiko and my mom are laughing histerically at the yahtzee station and here's the tidy cranium station before it was destroyed with 15 players....haha....sooo much fun!!!!

  

Now lets talk Decor!

I made playing card flowers and plopped them around the house.  Love how they turned out and sooooo quick and easy.

 

While Judge Judy and I caught up on some lost time, I wrapped some square vases and tealight holders I have in red & white tissue paper then added some black punched out circles to create dice.

 
We hung up some streamers and a banner I put together in about 5 minutes.  So easy.  I printed and cut monopoly money and bingo cards and picked up a pack of playing cards from the dollarstore.  Ran all of them through my sewing machine and voila....a custom banner that cost me $1 =)  Okay...maybe the cutting took me   h o u r s   u p o n   h o u r s.....

 

Now for another banner.  Using the Accent Essentials & Zoobaloo cricut cartridge I put together this banner for the boys and again ran it through my sewing machine.  Badda Bing Badda Boom!  Kinda went a little wonky since I didn't tie it tight enough =( 

 
Akiko and I decorated my house with all our board games and Akiko's awesome red stones.....loooove them.  Here's me and my little girlie furball.

 
More cute pics of my furry children...

And the best part....The Food Table!!!!!  I covered the table with twister, decorated it with more games, dice vases & tealights and my card flowers.  This area was me and my little sweet potato's favourite hangout....tee hee  Btw, Akiko is the best at decorating platters with scrumptiousness =)

 

  

 

CAKE and the birthday boys.

  

And PARTY FAVOURS....wohooo.  Everyone went home with a drink, a little treat and a game.  And here are the custom labels I made for the drinks.  Label making makes me happy....haha

 

 

 

  
lifted the label layout from HERE  To see the label bigger, click on the picture.

We are so lucky to have the friends and family that we do.  Everyone had so much fun that the last of our party-ers left at 4:00AM.....now THAT'S a party!!!!!

Did I forget to mention that in total it cost me $20 to decorate????  That's what I'm talking 'bout...whaaaat!!!

Bree's Little Black Dress Bachelorette!!

Sabrina, my older sister, is getting married in December in JAMAICA (Yes - two weddings in one year! And I wonder why my life feels so insane right now!!) and we just had her bachelorette party on saturday. WOW - was it ever F-U-N!!!! Her MOH (Shanna) and I worked together to make an unforgettable event!

The theme was little black dresses, and what matches better to that than sex and the city! It was a sex and the city - little black dress party, complete with cosmopolitians!

Of course I cant show you pictures of the evening - but I will share with you some of the decorations and the things I made for her special day:

 

 

 

 

 

MMMM.... who doesn't love girly cupcakes? A word to the wise.... If you are a cupcake beginner like me, Don't make black icing. It is Waaaaay to hard!!! Mine turned out purpley-grey and apparently were tingly to eat because of all the icing coloring!! Ooops :) I guess we have to learn the hard way sometimes!

 
 

I also painted these martini glasses in all different styles, with matching theme colors: Zebra, black polka dots on pink background, pink polka dots on black background, and white polka dots on pink background (I didnt get a pic of those ones) Each girl got one. We drank our cosmos in them!!!
 
I also made water bottle labels, but I forgot to take a picture of them :( But everyone had such a good time, especially the bride to be!!! (Maybe a bit too much fun ;))

Hailey's Twilight Birthday

Team Jacob or Team Edward?

It was Hailey's 11th birthday party on Saturday, and when she told me she wanted a Twilight birthday I drooled in delight - what could be more fun than planning a party around vampires and wolves?? With red, white and black as the color scheme, I quickly jumped into action and planned a twi-hard party in just 2 days. phew! But what fun it was!!!

I have to give huge props to blogger http://www.hostessblog.com - she gave me TONS of ideas in the short little time that I had!

Here is what I did:

I used crystals from my wedding and scattered them on the table tops

I got the red globes from the dollar store!

 

I went a little crazy wtih the streamers...but they looked so cool!

MMM....treats!

I just put drops of red food coloring on the "blood cakes" with twilight tags on them. There seemed to be a lot of Team Edward cupcakes left over...... I guess it was a Team Jacob group!!

These awesome drink labels I got from the blog I posted above, she includes a downloadable pdf version of these labels. Thanks!! They were a hit!

I incorporated each book. Bloody feathers for new moon....

....apples for twilight.....

...and a ripped ribbon for Eclipse!

The girls had a great time, with Twilight theme bingo, Kiss Taylor Lautner (THAT WAS HILARIOUS!) and Twilight Scene it! Game. They also had facials and manis/pedis while watching Twilight (well, attempting to, but after so much cake/cupcakes/licorice/popcorn they were off the walls!!! Oy....)

There's Hailey trying to Kiss Taylor blindfolded....I think she is a bit off!

And there they are with their masks on! Hailey is in the front with the chocolate mask, or as she called it, the "Poo mask" HAHAHA!

Sand Ceremony Tags

So for my wedding I decided to do a sand ceremony instead of a unity candle, because we are having our ceremony outdoors, and if its windy the candle would never light.....which would not be a good omen! (although, the sand could potentially blow everywhere too! At least some of the sand will get in the vase, LOL)

I wanted to have a seperate vase for everyone, so in order to make it more personalized I created tags for each vase.

I just designed it on my computer, then printed it and punched it out with my curly label punch from Stampin Up. I punched out an extra whisper white piece for the backing, and put the ribbon in between. And voila!

 
 

Wishing Tree Tags.....OMG 9 WEEKS TILL MY WEDDING!!!

Say Whah???  9 Weeks???

I know.... I can't believe how fast it is creeping up! Luckily, I am feeling pretty good about my progress in terms of my to-do list....although once I clear it, it just fills right back up again!

Last week was a crazy week for me, sorry for the no-posts :( But I was working on my wishing tree tags which I just have to share with you!

What's a wishing tree?

A wishing tree is often used in replacement of a guest book - it is very common in Asian weddings. There is a big tree, often adorned with crystals and shparkly things, and each guest writes their wishes for the  happy couple on a tag, and then hangs it from the tree.

I fell in love with this before I got engaged, and I knew I wanted it at my wedding.

Afterwards, you take the tags down and put them together with a ring to make a wish book. Very cute!

Here are the tags that I made:

 
 

Stampin Up! How To Video: Inspirational Felt Magnet

Felt Embellishments & Inspirational Magnets

This project took me quite some time to post on the blog. It is something that I have been wanting to do for a very long time, but I had to do my research. I am very excited to tell you all about felt die-cutting! That's right, you can die-cut felt! And I am going to show you how....along with a really, really cool project ;)

This project contains several techniques: felt die-cutting, sewing, stamping, eyelet setting, and more! Its a a lot of fun to do, and would make a really great gift. I originally wanted to use my sewing machine, but I can't figure out what is wrong with my bobbin :( So I hand sewed everything instead. It didnt take too much time, but if anyone tries these techniques on a machine PLEASE fill me in on the deets!

Enjoy ;)

PS - I apologize for the poor video quality, I am in the process of switching programs to create more clear and better vids....stay tuned!

 
 
 
Please try it out yourself and let me know how you like it by posting a comment!

Masqueraaaaaade!!! IT WAS A MASKY MAKING Daaaaaaay!!!

Mask Making Fun!

On Sunday, I finally had my bridal party over for a full day of mask making FUN! It was amazing. I am so amazed at the creative talent of these lovely ladies!

The masks that were created were absolutely stunning.....Of course there are too many to post them all, but I will show you some of the fun that we had on Sunday:

Here is the set up the night before:

Sabrina gettin' crafty! We ended up adding another table to the end...oh boy

 

Mask making fun!

Tiffy's mask sensations!
  

Moma's creative sass!

 

We only got half way through, so there will be a "Mask making extravaganza part 2!!" ....to be continued...

Mommy Love

There's nothing better than sending your mom a little love on mother's day.  Akiko and I couldn't resist our Mother's Day theme at our class last weekend, we love making girly girl things. 

This card I made includes the fabric flower rosette how-to video I did.  Been receiving a lot of requests to do this for our class so bingo-bango, I made it happen..lol

SUPPLIES:
Paper (Stampin Up!):  Whisper White, Regal Rose, So Saffron and Sweet Pea Designer Series Pack
Stamps (Stampin Up!):  Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks (Stampin Up!):  Basic Black
Punches (Stampin Up!):  Corner Rounder, Scallop Edge and Extra Large Fancy Flower
Other:  Fabric from Walmart and Pearls from Dollarstore

My Benny Baby came home with the most DELICIOUS cookies filled with pure healthy goodness.  I know!  Healthy cookies exist?   Can't remember off hand the brand but will share them with you when I do.  Soooo, the cookies inspired this pillow box since I needed something girly to give SOME of them away...hehe  Did I mention 3 of them ended up in my belly while I was making this?? not surprised

 

SUPPLIES:
Paper (Stampin Up!):  Sweet Pea Designer Series Pack, Old Olive, Whisper White and So Saffron
Stamps (Stampin Up!):  Teeny Tiny Wishes and Paradise
Inks (Stampin Up!):  Chocolate Chip
Punches (Stampin Up!):  Scallop Circle and Modern Label
Other:  Wedding Cricut Cartridge, Pearls from Dollarstore and delicious cookies!

My babies were groomed and just wanted to share their cuteness with you (apologies for the terrible photos)

Mother's Day Craft Class!

Sorry for the no post this weekend....It was a craft-a-licious filled Saturday AND Sunday! Crystal and I had our craft class on Saturday morning, and we did a mothers day theme.

On Sunday ALL DAY we finally had the Masquerade Masky Making Day!!! Be sure to check back on Thursday to see the AMAZING talent of my bridal party - whew! I was blown away at the stuff they were pumpin out! You wont want to miss those pics!

Here are the projects we did for Saturday's class:

Me and Crystal with our creations :)

The ladies hard at work! Or, hardly working?...

Teresa's creations!

Paola's Creations! Can you tell she's a dancer?
  
Mary's finished projects :)

And Daughter Mary-Anne in tow with her paper creations!

Ellie's fantabulous craftiness!