Dashboard confessional...

Lately I have been so on-the-run that I haven't had time to properly photograph my cards before getting them to the people I made them for, but when I downloaded the pics from my iPhone I noticed a new pattern emerging -- pictures of cards that I took at the last second in my car before the event I was going to.  The pictures aren't that great, but the cards are so dang cute I still wanted to share them. :)

This first one is a "Congratulations on your retirement" card I made for my great-aunt LaWana.  This one was so last-minute that it was a good thing it was a two-hour drive to the family reunion so that pearl drops had a chance to dry!

For this one I created the rosette with the Tim Holtz rosette die, then added a punched butterfly and flowers (EK Success) and a stamped sentiment (SU) over a strip of scallop border punch (SU).  The pearl drops are from a Viva Pearl Decor pen.  I also embossed the butterfly with my Cuttlebug.

The second is a "Welcome Home" card for my Uncle Terry and Aunt Gae, who just returned from an 18-month LDS mission to New Zealand.  I took this one in the driveway of their house before heading into the welcome home party.  Then I forgot to ever give it to them.  Now that I think of it, it might still be on the passenger seat of my hubby's car.  Oops... I better get on that.

 For this one I cut a window card by setting it up with a shape from Gyspy Wanderings on my Gypsy.  Then I cut lots of blue and green scallops (Plantin Schoolbook) to create the sky and grass.  The cute little house is from Zooballoo and HOME is from Country Life.

Hope life is going to slow down just a touch after next week and I'll be back with a new project.  I have one in the works right now that I am SO excited about!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Cute Halloween Treats

Watch out, these are "poooooky," as my 3-year-old described them!  I'm no food blogger, but I just had to share the cute treats we enjoyed at the very fun Halloween party my sister-in-law Esther threw last weekend.

1. Esther asked me to make these Monster Fingers from Family Fun.  The instructions made them seem complicated and time-consuming, but they really weren't too bad.  And look how dang cool they are!

2. My kids' favorite was Esther's Witches' Brooms -- just a pretzel rod wrapped in a fringed-up fruit roll-up.  This was the treat my 5-year-old could NOT stop talking about.

3. Chad, my brother-in-law, made these spooky apple mouths with snaggly almond teeth.  Just cut a wedge of apple, cut a "mouth" out of the skin side, and poke slivered almonds in.

4. For the main course, Mummy Dogs!  Hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll dough with mustard eyes.

5. My favorite part was the Monster Eyeballs I made with my boys!  I got the idea from Pinterest. (I think the original post was on eighteen25, but it's one of those orphan repins that doesn't link to anywhere. Make sure you are pinning from the actual post, so you and others can find it again! Update: I found it here.) It's just Oreo cookies dipped in almond bark (that white candy coating), and then you add a gummy Lifesaver and a chocolate chip to the middle.  I put them in the freezer to set up, and when they were all done I took a little food coloring pen to make the squiggly lines. They were adorable to look at and surprisingly delicious!

There you have it -- my contribution to Halloween this year. :)

80th Birthday Celebration

My dear Grandpa Tarbet just turned 80, and we (his wife, kids, and grandkids) decided to throw him a fantastic huge party to celebrate!  My grandma and I coordinated everything, my awesome uncle served up some excellent food, and pretty much everyone pitched in to help.  It turned out wonderfully -- family traveled from all over the country to be there, and people from every part of my grandpa's life came to honor him.  He was so happy.


And now I'm so happy to share all the fun details of the party with you!


As I started to plan the decor for this party, I knew that I wanted it to be great to look at but also truly meaningful.  My grandpa was a technical writer, and writing and words have been important to him throughout his life.  But without doubt, the very most important thing to him is his family (he has over 100 descendants so far!), and I wanted to incorporate that as well, and I thought that pictures of Grandpa and the people he loves throughout his life would be a really meaningful way to do that.  "Words+Pictures" became my theme.


I started setting the mood with this invitation, which I designed using Echo Park's "For the Record" digital kit and had printed at Costco as described here.  

The basis for the "Words" part was book paper.  I found a nice thick textbook from the 60s at DI (our local thrift store) -- it was perfect because the paper was aged nicely and it was pretty much solid text, and I also didn't feel like I was destroying a great literary work.  For the pictures, I gathered pictures from my Grandpa himself and from several family members (whoever I could beg or coerce into digging through their mounds of old pictures).  My Grandma and I spent hours scanning in all the photos my Grandpa has saved throughout the years, and we ended up with hundreds of great photos to use.  I had them printed and used them in many different ways through the party decor.  I also used that same Echo Park "For the Record" collection (this time the real paper version) to create continuity throughout.  Let me take you through the party the way we had the guests go through!



Sign-in Table
I had a vision for this in my mind of how so often when you go to the home of an older person, they have a huge collections of family photos from throughout the years collected in a huge hodge-podge.  I collected frames from DI, yard sales, and my own house.  I left most of them as I found them because I wanted an eclectic, collected-over-the-years feel, but I did spray paint some black that were weird colors.  I printed everything a 4x6, so thephotos in the 5x7 frames were matted with the Echo Park paper.  (I also grabbed some accessories from my house to make it homier and also to give me more levels for the frames, as in the little suitcase on the left).


I also used the "For the Record" paper to create pages for a sign-in album.  I wanted to keep this simple, so I made all the pages the same (just varying the pp used).  I cut 2" strips of patterned paper, backed it with a strip of black scalloped paper, and then added a stamped "Birthday Wishes" sentiment in the center.  (Scallop punch and stamp -- Stampin' Up, label shape -- Cricut "Once Upon a Princess" cartridge)




Once people had signed in, they came into the living room, where my grandpa and grandma were holding court, as it were. :)  They had lots of opportunity to visit with people without having to move around too much, since my grandpa doesn't like to be on his feet too long.

From the living they went through the dining room, which we turned into a spot for a photo shoot with a backdrop we rented for $10 from a local camera store.  My brother Dan (a really awesome photographer) was stationed there, taking pictures of all the guests as they came through.  We wanted to make sure that Grandpa had pictures of all his guests and that we didn't miss anyone.  The pictures turned out awesome!

Just one of hundreds of photos showin' the love. This one is my brother and two of my cousins with my Aunt Penny.  Yes, weirdness does run in our family.  Weirdness and love. :)

Once the guests had their pictures taken they moved into the kitchen/family room area, where we were serving dinner.  

Centerpieces:
I wanted the centerpieces to be real conversation starters, so I really tried to combine the "words+pictures" theme here.  I started by mod-podging book paper onto glass jars (empty Adams peanut butter jars that I had been hoarding forever), then potting a small mum in each one.  I cut chalkboard labels (2 for each jar) and planned to write interesting facts about Grandpa's life but quickly realized that regular chalk or my chalk marker wouldn't write nearly small enough to fit more than a few words on.  But guess what!  I used my white Gelly-Roll pen and it worked like a charm -- it even erased with damp cloth, just like a chalk marker.  Cool.

For the picture part, I bought these 99 cent 2-sided frames from IKEA.  They only come in white, so I spray painted them all black.  I also added a small tag label for each picture hung on twine.  The picture and vase went onto a little tray from the dollar store along with some little candles, just to make it cosy.  

I also punched lots of additional circles from my leftover "For the Record" paper to sprinkle like big confetti on the tables.  The pictures on the tables were leftovers from our other photo projects that we still wanted to let people enjoy.

Photo wall:
This was the toughest part of the decor for me, because it didn't turn out at all like I envisioned.  I started by cutting hundreds of circles of book paper and then sewing them into long strands of garland.  Those did turn out just perfect -- the way they turned and twisted added a ton of dimension to the display.  What I didn't take into consideration was that the pictures would twist and turn the same way.  But the basic idea was this:  I sprayed little silver binder clips with Oil Rubbed Broze spray paint, which made them look all vintage-y and cool, and we clipped up the pictures in long strands.  This created the other aggravation -- those pictures would NOT stay straight clipped up that way.  I think it would have worked better if we had maybe hung wider strips of ribbon and glued the pictures to it so they wouldn't have twisted so easily.  Or maybe glued the pictures back to back so you could still see a picture either way it turned.  As it was, we didn't have time to try either solution.  I nearly threw in the towel on this display, but my aunts kept putting it all up and I'm glad they did -- it may not have matched my vision, but people still really enjoyed it and spent a lot of time looking at all the pictures.

The best part was that my Grandpa really loved all the pictures.  He spent quite a bit of time walking around all the tables and the wall, looking at everything.  He kept exclaiming "I haven't seen this picture in years!" or "I've NEVER seen this picture!"  It made my heart happy.

One last stop:
After the guests had visited and gotten their picture taken and been stuffed with delicious barbeque and delighted by the fun program we put together, we sent them on their merry way.  But not without one last treat!  My grandma had the idea to set out some of Grandpa's favorite treats as a kind of little party favor, so I set up this table where people had to pass it to go out the door.  Don't apothecary jars make everything so much prettier?  I also added some of the frames I hadn't been able to fit on the sign-in table.

Whew!  That was such a fun party.  I really love how (almost) everything turned out so beautiful, but even more than that I loved making my Grandpa feel so special.  I loved getting to work so closely with my Grandma on all the planning and execution.  I loved seeing so much of my family and getting to work together and spend time with them.  That is what makes all the hard work for an event like this worth every second!


I'm linking up to these fantastic parties!

Watch this space...

I know I haven't been posting much, and I probably won't be for a bit, but fun things are coming!  My dear Grandpa Tarbet is turning 80 at the end of this month, and we are putting on a great big bash for him.  I'm up to my elbows in centerpieces and guestbook and all sorts of decor and working like crazy, but I won't be able to post it all until after the party!  So check back after the 30th -- I hope you'll dig what I'm coming up with as much as I am!  And just as a little sneak peek, here is the invitation:

I used the digital version of Echo Park's "For the Record" collection to create this, then we had them printed at Costco.  That is a great way to do custom invitations, by the way -- nice big 6" x 7 1/2" cards are only $14.99 for 50, including envelopes!  I create it digitally or traditionally (but just one), then use the blank card  template to upload my own design.  Quick, easy, and very inexpensive for such fancy invitations!

Product Review -- Easy Canvas Prints

I am a total sucker for gallery-wrapped canvas prints -- they just look so professional and highlight pictures so well.  So when Brendan from Easy Canvas Prints asked me if I'd like to review their pictures on canvas, I didn't have to think twice.  I checked out their website and was impressed with the variety of sizes -- you can order one of their "most popular" sizes or pretty much any combination of dimensions you can cream up -- and other options, like color treatments and retouching.  They also have a cool visualizer that shows you what the size of print you're looking at would really look like up on the wall.  Of course, being the cheap-o that I am, price is a major factor in where I shop for anything.  I am happy to say that Easy Canvas Prints pricing is extremely competitive, even with some of the sale prices I've seen on other sites.  Even better -- if you become a fan of Easy Canvas Prints on Facebook, you can get 50% off AND free shipping.  I hate to pay for shipping, so that's a big plus for me.

I have to say, I was impressed by the service team as much as the print itself!  After I uploaded my file to their website, there was some problem with it.  They let me know right away and worked with me to make sure that my canvas looked exactly the way I wanted it -- even though it was over the Labor Day weekend!  I don't think the people I was working with even knew I was reviewing the product; they are just awesome like that.

Shortly thereafter, my canvas arrived, and I am genuinely impressed with it!  The color is what strikes me the most -- some wrapped canvases are a little muted, but the colors in this one are very true to life.  The texture is beautiful as well, and the detail is crisp and clear.  In fact, as many times as I've looked at this photo, I had never noticed that Sam is wearing a wristband until I looked at this canvas print!  So glad THAT made it into our family photos...

Conclusion:  I will definitely be looking to Easy Canvas Prints again when I'm ready to print more pictures on canvas.  Check them out, and let them know I said hello! :)

P.S.  Many thanks to FotoFly in Draper, Utah for taking this adorable photo of my kids.  Seriously, people -- if you need great family photos but don't want to spend a gazillion dollars, that is the place to go!

Peg Doll Family

I'll be the first to admit I have craft ADD -- when I see something new that I love, I have to try it out, even though I'm in the middle of 15 other kinds of projects.  This happened to me recently when I stumbled across GooseGrease on etsy.  I fell in love with their adorable custom peg doll families.  Then I noticed they had a separate shop (GooseGreaseUndone) where you can buy the unfinished dolls, mixing and matching a wide variety of sizes to match your own family.  Yes, please!  I ordered 5 little dolls for my family right away, and I've finally had a chance to finish painting them!  Here is our little family:

I painted them with acrylic craft paint and did a lot of the details with waterproof markers, then finished them with a coat of matte Mod Podge.  I learned a lot doing these and would definitely do some things differently next time (like waiting for the paint or mod podge on the heads to dry completely before picking them up -- I had to redo a few things because I was so impatient).

I let the boys tell me what they wanted on their shirts.  Sam, lover of all things learning and super excited about the approaching start of the school year, requested an A+.  I also gave him "distressed" jeans, because he had just told me he thought those were cool.

Joshy wanted a silly face on his.

Eliza got a cute pink princess-y dress in front...

And a super-hero cape in the back, because that how she rolls...

I mod-podge book paper on for my dress, then painted on the yellow cardigan and turquoise flower.

Dan has recently developed an affinity for plaid shirts, so that's what he got.

So there you have it!  This was such a fun little project.  Now the dolls live on the cabinet in our entryway, cheerily greeting everyone who comes over.

I'm not the only one who loves them, either.  Eliza plays with them pretty much every day -- I'm always finding them in different configurations, as though they are in the middle of a conversation or on some adventure together.

How to paint a tree mural...

Okay, that title may be a little misleading.  I think this post isn't so much as a "how-to" as you "you can do this!"  I want to tell you about the process of painting this life-size tree in Eliza's room, from "yeah, I think I can do that" to "oh my gosh this is a disaster" to "YES! I'M THE COOLEST EVER!!!"

Let me just start by saying: You can do this.  Believe me, if I can do it, you can do it.  I've been a paper-crafter for a long time and I consider myself to be pretty darn crafty, but only lately have I begun to discover that I can be artistic as well.  The key is giving yourself permission to not be 100% perfect, but to enjoy the process and believe in yourself.  I recently stumbled across this quote and I LOVE it:

Too often we talk ourselves out of trying something new because we don't believe we can do it right!  Why?!  Are we afraid the craft/art/life police are going to come and take us away?!

So, with that big and overdramatic introduction, I'm going to give you instructions if you want to paint a tree exactly the way I did:

1.  Paint the room with your base color.  Make sure you have a little leftover for "editing" later.

2.  Start sketching out tree shapes.  If you're like me, most of them will look pretty fugly.  Go to Pinterest and start looking for trees and tree art to get an idea of the shape you want to create. (Man, who knew there were so many cool tree tattoos out there?)  Eventually, after a bunch of tries, you'll figure out the shape you want, and you'll begin to feel like an artistic genius.  I really wish I had kept the bazillion sticky notes I sketched trees on so I could show you.  Most of them looked more like scary Halloween trees than a pretty girly whimsical tree.


A few of my inspiration photos, found via Pinterest. Seriously, it's awesome.

3.  Take a pencil and sketch the basic shape of the tree on your wall.

4.  Using an art brush (my fave was a rectangular brush about 1" wide), paint in the outline of the tree.  Add branches.  Fill in all the outlines.  Let dry.  (Hey, look, you can see my sticky note with my tree sketches on the wall!)

5.  Start painting on your leaves.  I recommend going from left to right so you don't drag your hand through wet paint.  Also, I decided before I started that I was going to do tear-drop shaped leaves in groups of three at the end of each branch and twig.  That worked for me because it that consistent element kept the tree from being too wild and crazy.

 

6.  Half-way through, step back and think "This does not look like my sketch.  This tree looks really barren."

7.  Take a picture with your phone, upload it to the computer, and do a little virtual editing to see what changes you need to make.  I went into PhotoShop elements and painted on a few more branches and more leaves and already felt happier.  I also doodled the little birdies I wanted to cut out of vinyl and put on.

8.  Start making changes.  Step back and think "Oh my gosh, this is a disaster.  This is an ugly tree!  If this tree were growing in my yard I would chop it down!"  Freak out.

9.  Take a deep breath.  Maybe it just needs to be pruned instead of chopped down.

10.  Repeat step 7.  This time in PhotoShop, I made the trunk skinnier and the tree taller so that it had a more rounded shape (instead of looking like some weird step pyramid).  I also decided to do the bird and cage instead of the thing I doodled before.

11.  Keep tweaking until you step back and think: "YES!  I'M THE COOLEST EVER!!!"

The point is, don't give up, and don't freak out.  Your process won't be the same as mine -- but that's probably for the best.  If you were really cool and found a tree shape that you loved, you could use a projector to put it up on your wall, trace the projection, and paint in those lines.  And that would be awesome!  But I don't have a project and I didn't find a tree shape that I loved, so I just winged it.  And I did think I was going to hate it forever there in the middle, but by the end I was able to come up with something that I really loved.

It's not really about the tree -- it's about taking chances in the things you love to do!  Go out on a limb, branch out, leaf your fears behind! (Okay, no more puns...)

Create an awesome life!

P.S.  I cut the bird and bird cage out of vinyl, from artwork I designed myself.  I do sell those shapes as cut files in my etsy shop if you're interested.  I am not currently taking any actual vinyl orders -- too much life going on right now!