Simple Butterfly & Flower Garland Tutorial

Good Morning, Blog Friends!  I hope that you all had a spectacular weekend!  As you read this, I'm still having the time of my life in Las Vegas, and will be back to the real world late this evening.  I'm extremely behind in everything blog-related, so if I haven't responded to your comment or e-mail, or if I haven't visited your lovely blog in a little while, I promise I'll be back in touch with you later this week!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a quick and easy tutorial for the garland I made for Lily's Bug Birthday Party last week.  You could use any shape and color combinations to make your own version of this garland to fit your party theme - and it's easy enough to do that the kiddos can help too!

I'll be back "live and in person" sometime tomorrow -- looking forward to "seeing" you all then!

Lily's Bug Birthday Party - Part 2

Here are the rest of the photos from the Bug Birthday Party!  Missed the rest of the bug party posts?  Click on the Bug Birthday Party link to your right...   ---------------->

After much baking the day before the party, and lots of frosting and decorating that morning, Heather and I filled three cupcake trees with chocolate, lime and orange spice cupcakes...

The dessert table was full of delicious-ness!

We strung more garland on all of the food tables... and I found these super cute butterfly  straws at Pier One for the drinks...

I made little dirt cups... just 2oz each... the perfect size for wee ones...

And Heather made these AMAZING jello jigglers using a silicone mold (thanks, Mum!) from Avon of all places...

Some of Lily's gift-opening highlights included her own little chair...

My Mum made Lily this beautiful dress with matching bolero jacket!  She is so talented!

Lily was the most patient 2 year old ever - meticulously opening every card and gift.  One of the gifts Travis and I got her was a musical tea set...

Which prompted a little tea party - led by Lily's big sister Mariah.  The kids really got into it!

And Lily was even able to blow out her candle all by herself!  She just didn't want anything to do with the cupcake afterwards!  : )

Thanks for checking out my pictures from the Bug Birthday Party!  It was so much fun to do!  Can't wait to start dreaming up themes for NEXT year's party!

Lily's Bug Birthday Party - Part 1

On Saturday we celebrated my niece Lily's second birthday!

(just try telling me she's not the cutest thing in the entire world!)

You'll remember that I made some fabric goody bags to match the bug theme of the party?  Each child got a goody bag, a bug catcher, and a butterfly net...

Here are the contents of the big kids' goody bags... stickers, bug capsules that grow in water, bug candy, bug stickers, squishy toy bugs, fuse bead bugs, mini pencils with bugs on them...

And for the little ones... more candy and stickers, a board book (would you believe that Lily's book was titled "Lily Ladybug"?!, butterfly bubbles and sunglasses, and even a bug cool pack for boo-boo's.  I thought the parents would appreciate, those!

I had NO IDEA how big of a hit the sunglasses would be!

Overall I was surprised by how big of a hit the goody bags were with the little ones, actually.  Kept them occupied for a good little while, and they loved being able to take everything out and then put it back in the bags!

Heather and I made garland that we strung both inside and outside, but it looked particularly good strung on the fences in the backyard.  Unfortunately it was cold and rainy, so no one really got to enjoy it... (I'll be sharing a tutorial for this garland next week sometime...)

Except for the husband's.  They were all manly and stuff, toughing it out outdoors in the rain to ensure that everyone had plenty to eat (or maybe just because THEY were hungry?!)  : )

Come back tomorrow for more bug birthday photos... including some festive cupcakes and an impromptu tea party!

A little of this, a little of that... (part three!)

TGIF!  Here's a few more bits and pieces of things I have going on right now... 

Bug Birthday Party Update

Lily's Bug Birthday Party is a little over a week away, and I'm busy putting all kinds of bug things together!  Here's a look at the goody bags I made for the kids.  They are fabric drawstring bags and measure approx. 12x12 inches.  I made eight of them!

 

Sooner or later I'll share with you the treats and goodies that are going to go inside the bags!

You can find me...
Today my May Day Basket and tutorial is being featured over on HGTV's Design Blog!  I am obviously thrilled about this!  Please pop over and check it out!  I'm not sure what time, specifically, it will be going live, so keep checking back!

LAST DAY!
Today is the FINAL day to place an order items from the Two Step into Spring promotion (20% off sets and sneak peak Awash with Flowers set) AND the Occasions Mini Catalog (most products retiring).  This is your final opportunity to take advantage of the 20% off promotion and to order some products that will be going away.  Place your orders at my online Stampin' Up! store TODAY!

Happy Friday!

Invitations

At the end of last week I sat down to design the invitations for Lily's Bug Birthday Party.  Here's what I came up with...

I used Stampin' Up!'s "Bugs & Kisses" stamp set for the cards, and folded the envelopes out of scrapbook paper in the same design as the fabric swatches I showed you before.

Over the weekend, Heather (Lily's mom) and I assembled twenty matching invitations and envelopes.

Heather is new to stamping, and was a little intimidated - but she did PERFECTLY!  In fact, she ended up doing all the stamping (every single one of those colored bugs!) while I did the cutting and assembling.  I think the insides of the invites look really cute, too!

We had a lot of fun chatting, stamping, and assembling, and I think it made both of us even more excited for the party!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:  Stamp sets:  Bugs & Kisses, Introducing.  Inks:  Real Red, Only Orange, YoYo Yellow, Orchid Opulence, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise.  Cardstock:  YoYo Yellow, Whisper White, Green Galore, Real Red.  Accessories:  Stazon Black Ink, Real Red 1/4 Grosgrain Ribbon, Big Shot Machine, Texture plates for the Big Shot.  Want to order any of these supplies or other Stampin' Up! products?  Head to my SU website and click on "Shop Now"

Back on the BUG band wagon!

Knowing that I have five weeks to recover and recuperate from a very grueling semester of school is a weird and wonderful thing.  I don't have much of a schedule right now - I don't have anything pressing work or volunteer wise so everything is in my own time.  One thing that's motivating me is all the special events that are coming up in the next couple months... Spring always brings gatherings of family and friends for us and this year is no exception.  We're actually heading on mini-vacations in each April, May, and June as well... so we have a lot to look forward to!

With my new found free time, one of the hot items on my agenda is Lily's Bug Party!  You remember me talking about it in this post, right?  (thanks for all the ideas by the way, you guys are the BEST!)  Well it's coming up quickly (May!) so I'm ready to get crafting!  Here are the inspiration pages I've been keeping over the past couple months as I've come across things in stores and on the web...

Oriental Trading has all kinds of fun bug-themed things that will be perfect goody bag stuffers.  Lily really loves bubbles (bottom right) and her older siblings love to color their own sun catchers (above the bubbles).  I also decided that "Bug Juice" is a MUST for the party!  How fun is that?  I'm not sure where I'll find it, but I'm sure I can make up my own juice with fun labels on it if I need to!

On the bottom here you can see some fabric scraps.  I found these fabrics at Hobby Lobby and plan to sew runners for the tables and make the goody bags from them.  So fun!  The cardstock colors on the right will be used for the invitations and throughout the decor - they are from Stampin' Up's current "Bold Brights" collection, and several of these colors will be retiring this summer, so it's a great chance for me to use them up and enjoy them!

I also plan on taking the kids on a bug hunt during the party, so I'm on the lookout for bug magnifiers and nets, and am thinking perhaps we'll make our own bug catchers AT the party?  What do you think?

I've begun collecting treasures as I've been out and about.  I've got a cardboard box full of trinkets for the goody bags (thank you, Target dollar spot!) but was really excited to find these lovelies from Pier One.  It's hard to tell from the glare, but on the right there are green straws with butterflies attached (perfect to go in the Bug Juice!), there's butterfly table confetti in the middle, and on the left is a package of beautiful butterfly picks.  I'll be honest in saying I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with the picks yet, but they were so perfect I couldn't pass them up!

This weekend Heather and I will be settling into the craft studio to stamp and put together the invitations.  I've been working on some samples, so Stampin' Up's "Bugs & Kisses" stamp set has been out on my worktable for the past couple of days.  Don't you love the cute little bugs?!

This is the first weekend in awhile where we haven't had to drive across the state, attend a work or family function, or keep to any real schedule.  We're looking forward to taking it easy and enjoying some time with friends!  I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend as well, whatever you get up to!  Happy Friday!