valentine's matchbooks 2012

With all the candy Ella received, I feel like Valentine's has become the new Halloween! So did I send the girls off to their love day parties with Valentine's goodies too? Well, of course I did! :)

I used my matchbook template again (why mess with a good thing, right?), and some darling digital papers and clip art from Cocoa Mint I found on Etsy. This year I also added photos of the girls. They loved them. And I love that it makes them feel special.

I let Ella choose which clip art to use and turned the Valentine girl's hair to red for hers. We used small packages of conversation hearts as the filler.

Hope your Valentine's Day was love-ly too. :)

RS birthday celebration invitation

Happy Birthday Relief Society! March 17th marks the 170th birthday of the largest women's organization in the world. All women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints belong to the Relief Society. It's purpose:

"The Relief Society prepares women for the blessings of eternal life by helping them increase their faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and homes, and help those in need."

The Relief Society has been a great blessing in my life.

This is the invitation I sent out for our birthday dinner/celebration. I love this little couple! (Found the photo on Pinterest.) The tape strips and fabric flag are free downloads from Pugly Pixel. (Love her digi stuff and inspiration. And she's got great tutorials.)

Our theme for our March meeting is "A Return to Simpler Times", all vintage-y. We're focusing on simplifying our lives. I'm loving it. And I've asked some amazing women to help out. I'm super excited and can't wait to share the details after the event.

Have a happy day. :)

wedding word art

My son, Patrick, and his fiancee, Ashlee, asked me to create a large framed custom word art to display at their reception. (Only ten more days!) Ashlee had a tear sheet in her "wedding ideas" notebook of a similar one. She's been so organized through the entire process. This is what I came up with.

They gave me a list of words to include. It has phrases, memories, places and words that have special meaning them. The print size will be 16x20. I'm going to frame it in a simple black frame because they want to hang it in their home after the reception.

All my "assignments" for the wedding have been in the works for awhile, I just need to finish them up. Wish me luck!

huge 75+ family yard sale, boutique, bake sale and farmers market

For those of you in Utah, come on by!

digital elements: Crystal Wilkerson  fonts: Century Gothic and Lobster Two

spring quarterly Relief Society meeting

Our quarterly RS meeting was delightful! We ALL had a great time, including the board. We kept it super simple--love it!--and were able to visit and join in too. Marina told a funny story and oh my goodness, I laughed so hard I pulled a muscle in my neck. :) Good times.

This was our invitation:

flower designs: Crystal Wilkerson

I'll create more invites using this format--super simple and I love it.

For the tables, Jen grew wheat grass in these plastic trays that go under plants (not sure of the real name :P). She purchased them at the dollar store.

Lisa B. cut some butterflies on her Cricut machine for us. I made the celebrate circle using Photoshop Elements and punched them out using my 3" scalloped circle punch. We adhered both to skewers to make plant stakes. We added a
2 1/2" strip of patterned paper around the bottom of the grass to hide the not so pretty part. So fresh!

For dinner we had a delish salad bar, an assortment of homemade dressings and homemade rolls.

Our drink was infused water. (Okay, it's lemon water, but infused water sounds so much fancier and more refreshing--*wink*)

Sharlene (our wonderful RS President--she rocks!) gave a simple and sweet message about taking care of each other and visiting teaching. It was perfect.

During dinner we also played a RS trivia game that was so fun. Audrey and Louise came up with ten questions and each table wrote down their answers. My table won--whoo hoo! Okay, we wouldn't have won if Ruth wasn't sitting with us. She's pretty smart.

For dessert, we had this:

digital flower and label design: Crystal Wilkerson

It's the "grown up" version of dirt pudding. It was so yummy and worked great with our gardening theme. There are layers of cake, pudding and a cream cheese filling.

 

I made little cupcake pokies to plant in the "dirt."

JEN'S CHOCOLATE DIRT CAKE

The cake layer is the "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate cake recipe on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa container, but with the addition of one cup of sour cream. This cake is what totally makes the recipe, so don't go with a boxed mix.

The pudding layer is just instant pudding. Jen used 2 large boxes per batch.

The cream cheese layer is:

1 pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

2 c. real whipping cream, whipped

Layer the following: cake pieces, pudding, cream cheese filling, cake pieces, then pudding.

Sprinkle top with crushed Oreos if desired for a "dirt" look.

Each batch made 24 cups.

For our activity, we tied Morgan Winters' quilt. She's our only graduating senior this year. Yeah, Morgan! And we made fabric flower clips. 

They turned out great and were so simple to assemble, except for Tracy B., whose ended up perfect! :) There were six different fabric combinations to choose from.

Next month, Louanne Tillman, our new Homemaking Specialist, will be teaching a class on healthy smoothies and snacks. I can't wait!

family word art collage & phrases download

Here's the word art collage I created for the Design on a Dime: Decorating Your Walls class for our Relief Society meeting.

I'm having a hard time deciding which colors I like best. Download the collage here. Just click and choose your color(s).

Here's the LDS word art phrases I created:

Loving this blue. Download here. Just click and choose your color(s).

Remember to have your photo processor turn OFF the auto enhance before printing or the colors will change a lot.

These are for your own personal use or to give as gifts. Please don't print them for a profit--I'm not. Thanks.

Enjoy!

sharing the love--valentine's matchbook template

I saw some darling matchbook valentines and decided to make some for Ella and Madi to take to their friends at school and daycare. I searched everywhere and couldn't find a tutorial or template download so I decided I could figure it out on my own.

I used Katie Pertiet's Little Hearts digital kit for the design. I really like the sweet little animal figures.

 

The bunny is the girl's favorite.

 

 

I found these mini packages of Sweethearts candies to tuck inside. They come in packages of 24 at Walmart.

I printed the matchbox covers on glossy cardstock, cut them out, scored on the lines (bottom flap and top fold lines), then folded them up and stapled the candy package inside. Easy, peasy.

I love how they turned out. Madi jumped up and down when I showed them to her. Ella sorted over and over and decided which friend gets which design.

Here's the template I created using Photoshop Elements. You can add your own papers and digital elements. It's fun (and useful) to swap out the candy for sheets of paper and make a mini notebook. It would be the perfect size to keep in a purse or kid's backpack.

Enjoy!

crafts for the big girls

I’ve wanted to throw a craft party for a few years, ever since I saw an invitation in the Paper Source catalog. This year, I finally did it. And I’m so glad I did. It was oh, so fun! It also gave me an opportunity to actually use my craft studio.

I invited my super-creative, talented (and goofy) girlfriends and asked each one to bring a project in kit form for everyone. I love every one of the projects.

Here’s what we did:
Maggie: scalloped paper globe ornament
Marci: wool mittens from thrift story sweaters and a fabric flower Christmas brooch (she couldn’t decide, so she did both. We didn’t mind!)
Jen: wool stitchery
Me: wool flower hair accessory
Marina: fabric Mod Podge ornament

This is Maggie’s scalloped paper globe ornament. I love how simple they are to make and yet so darling. Ella and I are going to make some this size for her tree and I’m going to use my larger scalloped punch for some others. I love the little pearl at the top. There’s a tutorial here.

How cool—or should I say warm—are these? Marci had them all pre-cut and ready to sew. It’s only two seams to stitch them together! She had directions, so I’ll ask her if there’s a tutorial also. I’ll show the brooch when I complete it. Loved the fabrics we’re using!

And here’s a special gift Marci whipped up for Dwight. Merry Christmas, honey! ;) (Just kidding. They’re really little angel wings I used for a prop for some baby photos of Ella. The way they were hanging in my studio made them look like a bra.) Marci is definitely the wild one of the group. We just can’t get her to behave! ;)

Jen’s project was awesome. She even provided the frames! And using a little whip stitch makes it so simple. I’ll show mine when it’s done and give a little tute on the whip stitch now that I’m getting plenty of practice.

This was my project. It would be darling as a little pin like this, but we made them into barrettes. Ella wore hers to church with her new dress and it was perfect. I think everyone said they were going to save theirs as a stocking stuffer. Click here for a tutorial. Note: We hot glued the flower to the base on the last step instead of stitching.

Another note: I purchase an 1/8 yard of wool and got 20 flowers from it by staggering the 3” circle pattern. I felted the wool by soaking it in hot water in the sink for about 20-30 minutes, then dried it in the dryer.

Marina found her project on the Moda Bake Shop blog. It was fun to get messy. We added a little sparkle with fine glitter I had in a salt shaker while the Mod Podge was still wet.

We took a lunch break at about 12:30. I made pork salads and we had homemade Oreos for dessert. Jen also brought some homemade marshmallows dipped in chocolate and crushed candy canes. Yum!

We went back to work and crafted until it was time to pick up kids from school. I went upstairs to clean up from lunch and do the dishes. My amazing husband had already done it! I didn’t have to lift a finger. And he picked up all the toys the girls played with. He rocks my world—every day.

We had so much fun, we’re going to do it again for different holidays. I’ve started looking for ideas already.
I highly recommend taking some time for yourself during the holidays and doing something that’s really fun for just you. It’s always more fun when you include your girlfriends!

stake poster

I was in the middle of editing our vacation photos when Gail called me asking if I could do some posters for the Stake fireside with Doug Brinley. Here's what I came up with after the Stake Presidency asked for a couple of simple changes. I like it.

I'm bummed we won't be able to attend. It's the same night as Ella's dance concert. I can catch a class from him at Education Week though.

rs meeting tonight

9th Ward Sisters, don't forget about our quarterly RS meeting tonight.

We'll be learning to make the most darling ornaments from ribbon for our Festival of Trees tree. Then you can make them at home for your own tree! We'll also be learning to crochet. (Something I've been wanting to do for a long time, so I'm excited.) For refreshments, you can bring your favorite holiday treat and we'll also be serving Frozen Hot Chocolate using the recipe from the Serendipity restaurant in New York. Jen made up a batch and it's pure yummy-ness! See you there.