Beth's Baby Shower Invite

I have this cricut cartridge called In My Garden and I love it.  It is so cute and happy with all these butterflies, ladybugs, daisies (my fav!!), and other flowers.  So when my sister-in-law, Beth, chose daisy bedding from Pottery Barn Kids for her daughter's nursery, I was thrilled to bust out my Cricut and get cutting!

The background is a textured yellow cardstock (yellow is Beth's favorite color).  I used patterned pink paper to mat the copy, which is normal printer paper.  Each flower bloom and center are different papers.  The stems and the 'grass' are from the same textured cardstock.  I just used different size settings on my cricut so that the stems didn't match exactly.  Because everything was so delicate, I had to use glue stick to adhere all the flowers.  Then I placed the 'grass' along the bottom to hide the bottoms of the stems.  I used my pinking shears to make it look like grass, but left it smooth along the bottom - flush with the edge of the yellow cardstock.

Helicopter Birthday Invitation

I'm not kidding, this one was a lot of work.

However.

When Charlie turned one, we were moving out of our first house.  Like that day.  So his first 'invitation' was actually an evite begging our friends to come and help us load the moving truck in exchange for some pizza and a spot on the floor to sit down.  So let the record show that this one counts for two.

Anyways, my son loves helicopters, so I tracked down a Cricut cartridge called Boys Will Be Boys that contains a zillion boy related things.  You'll be seeing another one - the firetruck - this summer for his 4th bday. I used that to cut out the helicopter and the windshield.  The 3 is from a different cartridge, as well as the c-h-a-r-l-i-e letters.  Those are from Doodletype.  (I pretty much always use Doodletype, since I don't have many font cartridges.)   Each triangle was cut by hand absolutely random.  That was a fun project afterwards trying to  hunt for triangles long or wide enough to fit each letter.  (sorry h)

I used a glue stick to adhere the letters to each triangle and an itty bitty hole punch for the two holes across the top.  I used blue floss to thread through the triangles to make the banner.  (I need a shoulder rub just thinking about it.) Then I just put two brads and wrapped the floss around them to secure it.   I didn't glue it down in any way, it just flops around and dangles naturally.  I thought that was fun, but if you are worried about it getting spastic in the mail, you could tack down a few to keep it secure.

The copy is - you guessed it - from my printer, and I secured it with smaller nickel brads to the plaid background cardstock.  I used little 3d foam stickers to pop out the helicopter, so it wasn't flat on the grey background.

Owen's 1st Birthday Invitation

I have to give my sister in law, Stephanie, some credit here.  Without her, the cutest picture EVER would not have been taken.  The battery in her camera died, so she picked up mine and started taking pictures of a random january day playing in my inlaws backyard.  When I sat down to download pictures, I came across this  amazing shot of Owen!!  I love it so much that I have it framed in my living room.

And because it is so darn cute, this invitation became the first to include a picture.  It seems weird now that I never thought to use a photo, but I'm just telling you what happened!

As you will see often, I used my Cricut to cut out the letters - once for the letter and then again with the shadow feature to get the white outline.  So they are two pieces of paper each.  The copy is normal printer paper on a dark red cardstock mat and then there is an orange polkadot grosgrain ribbon running the length of the background.  I used my inkjet printer to print out the picture.  I'm curious how this will age vs a "kodak lab" aka walgreens print, but I guess only time will tell!

Lizzie's 6th Birthday - Hello Kitty

With each invitation, I try to incorporate the age into the details of the design.  For example, this is for Lizzie's 6th birthday, and there are 6 Hello Kitty's along the ribbon at the bottom.  This might get somewhat cumbersome as she gets older, but I'll keep doing it as long as I can.

This invitation has a black cardstock mat, with hot pink cardstock background.  Then I used my Cricut to cut out the hearts and the 6.  I used my Doodletype cartridge, I think.  The copy is printed on white cardstock from my inkjet printer and then I used pinking shears to trim the edges.  I used black chalk/ink to edge the small white heart and some glitter glue to line the purple one.

My Invitations

I don't scrapbook.  I have no scrapbooks for my children, although there are countless photographs and moments just waiting to be chronicled and placed within a beautiful arrangement of coordinated papers and embellishments.

But I haven't done it.  And God only knows when I ever will!

So my compromise to myself is that I hand-make each invitation for the milestones of my children.  So far that consists of birthdays and baby dedications.   But I also make quite a few invitations for friends and family, and I'd like to share them here.

There are several along the way that have been misplaced - Brandon's man shower, to name one.  That one was so fun to make!  But I didn't keep one and I never photographed it.  So the ones I do have, I will share and hopefully inspire others to create their own.

Valentine's Day Mantel

This is my Valentine's Day garland I made from inspiration found on Pinterest.  I was hosting a Panty Exchange at my house, and needed something quick and easy.  I raided my scrapbook papers, and Ta-Da!!  I'm really happy with it and plan to re-use it year after year!

Panty Exchange 2012

So I have this friend, Misty.  She is amazing, and had this great idea to have a panty exchange in preparation for Valentine's Day.  That way, ladies could naughty-up their panty stash right before the biggest panty-related holiday of the year!

We invited loads of women, who all said yes, and then divided everybody up into groups.  Each group had five women, and each woman in the group was assigned a unique category.  They were:  Soft & Simple, Naughty Newlywed, Elegant Evening, Sporty Sexy, and Feelin' Frisky.  Before the party, I emailed each lady and told them their category and the sizes they needed to buy for the ladies that would be in their group.  Then they could go shopping and pick out undies in their given category.

On the night of the party, each lady brought 4 pairs of undies.  And then we all exchanged!  So each lady went home with a pair of panties from each category - 4 new pairs!  (or 5, if you buy yourself a pair in your category - I know I did!!)

I realize most of you are confused, but it's like bunco.  Once you've played it, you realize how simple it is.

To add another layer of mind-blowing confusion - when I was sending emails getting everyone's size info, we also asked each lady to tell us the name of their favorite love song.  Then Misty made a CD with all those songs for everyone to take home as a party favor.  And it made the perfect party soundtrack!

We had the best night - good friends, wine, and fancy snacks.   Mark played xbox upstairs - and my kids all slept through the madness going on downstairs.  It was so much fun, and hopefully, will become an annual tradition.