Archive for the ‘Invitations’ Category

Save The Date ~ Annual Cookie Exchange

Posted on December 4th, 2010 by Brenda  |  Comments Off

For the past few years, I have hosted a Christmas Cookie Exchange for my friends and family. Even though the party is always on the 2nd Sunday of December, I still like to send out Save the Date invitations in late October.

The holidays can get so jam-packed with parties, decorating and shopping that I always look forward to a laid back afternoon with cookies and my girlfriends!

This year the Save the Date was a recipe card with a mini Christmas cookie cutter attached. I purchased the Wilton cookie cutters on clearance after Christmas last year 6 for 80¢. A magnet strip on the back makes it perfect to hang on the fridge. The recipe card reads:

Recipe for: Save the Date for a Cookie Exchange
From the Kitchen of: Brenda

Ingredients:
1 Calendar and pen
1 Refrigerator
3 tsp Holiday Excitement
5 cups Christmas Cheer
20 Great Friends
Lots of Cookie Recipes

Recipe Instructions:
1. Take pen and mark calendar for the 3rd annual Holiday Cookie Exchange on Sunday. December 12th at 2pm
2. Place this recipe card on your refrigerator as a reminder.
3. Stir together Christmas Cheer and Great Friends until Holiday Excitement bubbles to the top.
4. Search for the perfect cookie recipe and creative packaging.
5. Check email November 30th for Evite with party details.

Pink & Brown Baby Shower

Posted on March 21st, 2010 by Brenda  |  Comments Off

Recently I had the pleasure of co-hosting a baby shower for my friend Tamara. Since the baby is a girl, we chose a pink and brown color scheme.

The invitation:
The day of the shower brought lovely weather and we were able to have the party on one of the host's lanai. Since the buffet was so pretty and the outdoors were all around, we kept decorations to a minimum.

One the wall of the lanai we strung a pink clothesline held by 2 sequined butterflies. On the clothesline we used pink clothespins to hang an assortment of baby outfits, which were later given to the mother-to-be as a gift (forgot to take picture).

The buffet table was divided into savory foods, beverages & the candy and dessert buffet.
The savory menu included cheese & crackers, vegetables and dip, fruit and dip and chips & salsa.
In keeping with the color scheme, all of the candy and desserts were picked in pink or brown.
Here is pink cotton candy in customized cups. I pleated and glued pink crepe streamers to Wilton nut cups. Around the middle I glued a strip of scrapbook paper. The tags are brown cardstock circles with Martha Stewart "It's A Girl" transfers.
Hershey Bars wrapped in scrapbook paper:
An assortment of yummy candy:
These little favor boxes were used for guests to hold candy. They were purchased plain 12/$1 at Dollar Tree. They are decorated with ribbons and plastic baby carriages charms.
The water bottles were decorated with scrapbook paper, ribbon and plastic pacifier charms.
One of my favorite drinks is Sonic's Diet Cherry Limeade. I tried to recreate this with Sprite Zero, maraschino cherry flavoring (found in ice cream topping aisle of the grocery store), lime juice and lime slices for color. We also had a yummy punch made with Sprite, pineapple juice and pink sherbet.
Chinet cups were rimmed with lime juice and pink sanding sugar.
We played 3 games at the shower. One was the traditional "How Big is Mother's Belly." A second game played was "The Price Is Right."
Guests had to guess the price of 8 baby items. The guest with the most correct won a prize and all of the baby items were given to the Mother-To-Be.
The third game was "Bun In The Oven." I made felt dresses with a small slit cut into the back which allowed a cotton ball to be inserted into the dress (looks like a baby bump!). Guests were asked to take one dress. When everyone had a dress, they pulled out the cotton ball looking for the "bun" (made from my daughter's playdough and painted with white icing and glitter). The person who found the bun won a prize.

These favors were these little paper Mary Janes (find pattern here) filled with Dove chocolate eggs. The extra shoes were filled with raffia grass and flowers and used as decorations on the buffet table.
Here is the Mother-To-Be opening her gifts:

It was a wonderful shower spent with good friends!

Movie Party ~ Invitations

Posted on February 21st, 2010 by Brenda  |  Comments Off

For Nathan's 10th birthday we decided to have a movie party with just a few friends. Since he is turning 10, it was a fine line between cool and too childish. I think these invitations fit the bill of a tween party!

The little black take-out boxes were purchased at Michaels. The outside was embellished with some scrapbook ribbon and a gold personalized star cut with my Cricut (George and Basic Shapes cartridge). My son hand-delivered all of the invitations.
Inside the mini box was a few little goodies:
I found the plastic clapboard picture frame key chains on clearance at Michael's for 33¢ each and used these for the information part of the invitation.
The front reads,
Admit One
Double Digit / Double Feature
Nathan is turning 10!
The back reads,
Date: Friday, February 19th
Showtime: 6 -9 pm
Theater: our address
RSVP: our phone number
*Complimentary concession stand will be
open for pizza & snacks
Included was a show schedule with the 1st Showing of 1974 TV's Land of the Lost followed by the Feature Presentation of the movie Land of the Lost starring Will Ferrell. Also included was some bubble gum and a little plastic dinosaur (representing Land of the Lost!).

My son was thrilled with the invitations - he thought they were "really awesome" and "not at all babyish"!

Fairy Party ~ Invitations

Posted on January 10th, 2010 by Brenda  |  Comments Off

I really wanted the invitations to Emma's Fairy Party to be fun and whimsical. When I saw Whimsy Love's Tiny Party envelopes, I was completely inspired!

Since the smallest envelope would determine the size of the invitation, as well as the sizes of the larger envelopes, my first step was to find tiny envelopes. I lucked out in the Martha Stewart craft aisle at Michaels.
The smallest envelopes measure approximately 2 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches and are just too cute! To get the size just right, I made the rest of envelopes using clearanced scrapbook paper from Michaels and the Cricut Plantin School Book cartridge. I alternated plain & patterned cardstock and increased each envelope size by 1 inch.

From there, I created a tiny invitation in Word by printing in the smallest font size possible (font is A770-Roman) and printed directly on my cardstock.

I cut out the invitations & stamped a flower background using white pearlized ink. The purple scallop is cut using the Cricut A Child's Year cartridge and the Tink silhouette was punched from white glitter paper (punch purchased at Walt Disney World). The corners of the invitations were punched with a corner rounder & lightly inked in purple.
Since everyone knows just how tiny fairies write, I included plastic magnifying glasses tied with ribbon in each invitation. The magnifying glasses were found in the party section of Dollar Tree.
The invitation reads:
Please join us in Pixie Hollow
For a Fairy Celebration
In honor of Emma's 6th Birthday!
Saturday, October 17th
2 o'clock in the afternoon
(address)
Tinkerbell awaits your reply: (phone number)
Wear your fairy best, a leotard will do.
Your fairy wings & tutus will be given to you!

Each invitation was sealed with a Tinkerbell sticker and hand-delivered. I had so many mothers tell me how much the girls giggled as they opened one envelope only to find a smaller envelope inside - just the reaction I hoped for!
 

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