Paper Mobile/ Chandelier with Butterflies and Origami Flowers

A friend of mine hired me to make her some paper mobiles for her daughters' rooms. She didn't give me any guidelines really, she just requested butterflies and flowers and supplied me the pillow shams to their new bedding sets so I could match the paper to them.  Here's what I came up with.

They ended up really long, like 3 feet or more, but once we got them hung above the girls' beds we just snipped pieces off the ones that were too long.

I found a tutorial on how to make these cute origami flowers (here) and really wanted to use them for something... So I put them around the border of the metal hoop. And a few hanging down on a strand from the center of the hoop.

Some of the Butterflies are 3D and have different colors on each side. The string is fishing line and I just hot-glued the paper together with the line sandwiched between. It holds really well. I even tried pulling a piece off really hard... and ended up hurting my hand with the fishing line, oops... Guess this can be kinda dangerous since fishing line is NOT very forgiving. KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN!  :-)

I used some fabric to wrap the edges of the hoop and then pulled it towards the center to give it a tent-like canopy look. The yellow sheer is prettier than the purple silk/satin because it allows more light to flow through and looks brighter and more cheerful.

Each Mobile has 19 strands hanging down. 6 strands of glitter-paper circles around the inner hoop, 12 strands along the outer hoop with butterflies and flowers, and the center strand with 4-5 origami flowers hanging facing downward.

Even though the purple fabric is darker, I really like the way the pleated lines look in the center... so perfect!

And this is the ugly view of the top... Just in case you were wondering how all that wrapping made the rest of it look.

Thanks for looking, I have put these up for sell in my ETSY shop. Not these exact ones, but something customized Just For You!!




Linking Up Here:

http://www.creativejewishmom.com/2010/11/welcome.html
http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/2010/11/diy-project-parade-and-how-to-shrink.html

Coffin Box Invitations

I volunteered to make some invitations for a Halloween party my friend is throwing and really wanted to make these coffin boxes for it. People keep asking me how I expect to make any money if I just keep giving everything away... Oh well, I really wanted to do it! I actually had this idea about 2 years ago when I was going to help a friend throw a party, but that didn't work out so I never got around to making them.  Then of course, Martha Stewart comes out with some similar kits to buy...  and Oriental Trading has some too...   Well  I think mine are cuter than theirs!!  :-)

 

These are the invitation inserts that went in each coffin.

I used the Happy Hauntings Cricut Cartridge to cut out the boxes and lids.

I printed out the Invitations from my computer. I used 'A Charming Font Super Expanded' for the back of the invite and the front is a stamp.

I originally wanted to just line the coffins with white satin (and batting to make it puffy) but once I ran out of green candy melts I started using white almond bark and that wouldn't show up on white satin, so I ended up putting some black lace over it. I actually like it better that way!

To make the Skeletons I melted and poured the almond bark into candy molds I bought at Michaels. The green Skeletons are made with candy melts. I don't think they taste very good so I prefer to use the almond bark, which I think tastes pretty good.

These are for a Halloween Party so I made 17 of them. Why the odd number? That's all the paper I could manage to find in my stash.

I think they look so cute with the lids up!! It's like a graveyard! Or a funeral or something...

I tied them up with strips of black lace and tied on little tags that say "Rest in Pieces".

Sorry for sooooo many pictures!! I have a hard time settling on just a few, so I post them ALL!!

What a cute little helper!!

Alaskan Wildlife Baby Shower

My most recent party was another baby shower but with a very different theme... Alaska! It was for my friend Ashleen.  Her and her husband named their baby boy "North". They are very much into hunting and all things outdoorsy.

First the Invitation:

Envelope Front and Back

Invite Front and Back

Close up of the cool font I used for his name, the Welcome sign, and the Guest Book.  I think it's called Pinewood.

Okay- So I'll walk you through the house so you can see all the cool aspects of this party.

Here's the awesome wreath I put on their front door. My mom actually made this several years ago, but it fit the theme perfectly so I borrowed it. :-)

The Entryway when you walk in the door had a table set up with a camo table runner and a Welcome sign. We have this cool Elk candle holder so I used that and put shotgun shells in it.

I made a Guest Book for people to sign as they walked in.

Here's the Party Favors for people to take as they leave. Trail Mix in a bag with a Thank You bear on the front and a ribbon handle.

Then the banner was hung on the wall going up the stairs. In retrospect I probably wouldn't put it there again... It hardly got looked at because it was so long and in such an up-close space and people skipped right by it on their way up the stairs to the party.

I made the banners with my Cricut and used the Going Places Cartridge and a few images from the Camp Out Cartridge and I used the Moose from the Animal Kingdom Cartridge.

I made some decorative candles covered with paper to look like shotgun shells. I ran a bit of gold cording along the bottom to look like the lip on the shotgun shell and stamped stuff on the sides where they would have the brand and size of shell on them.

Here they are displayed on the mantle with the baby's name banner. The parents absolutely LOVED these! They even bought them from me after it was over because I hadn't planned on including them in the stuff I was gonna just give them.  I bought these LED pillar candles from Sam's Club to use in my party business and planned on recovering them to use for several different parties, but they gave me cash so I just went and bought some new ones.

 

I made some box lanterns with the Cricut and placed 6 of them along the hearth. There are LED tea lights in them shining through the vellum.

Those bags are the game prizes, Beef Jerky and Candy Bars. :-)  The other Lanterns were hung on a garland with shotgun shells in between. My husband actually helped me make it!

I love that you can see them glowing!!

So what do you think about the Moose Stork? I cut it out of Vinyl on the Cricut and had to piece it together to get it that big but it turned out great. They absolutely LOVED it!! It was so perfect for them, of course their baby was delivered by a moose instead of a stork!  :-)

Whew! This post is shaping up to be a LONG one!!! I'm not even done yet.... Lol!

I brought my Yukon Scentsy Warmer and we had that going during the party.

Along with the vinyl moose I also made a bunch of black bears out of vinyl and we stuck a large mama bear and cub on their sliding glass door and small bears on their dining room light fixture.

Now here's where I kick it up a notch...  :-)

Although I wasn't in charge of doing the food I did volunteer to bring cookies and cakes. But that just didn't feel like enough for me. I am such a control freak sometimes that it was hard for me not to be in charge of every aspect of the party, especially food since I like to coordinate everything to the theme of the party. So to compensate for my lack of control I figured I could at least spring for the plates and cups.

I bought a really nice clear set of plates from Sams's Club. But Clear? Seriously? That just won't do.

So I cut out Vinyl and decorated the plates and cups!!  We only got pictures of the bear plate, but I had at least 6 different designs on the plates. Bear, Moose, Compass, Pine Trees, Wolf, and something else but I can't remember it. All the cups were just bears.

I made Alaska cookies with the Big Dipper and North Star on them, Baby's name is North and they decorated his Nursery wall with some Vinyl stars in the shape of the Big Dipper and North Star, so I thought it would coordinate well.

This was the first time I got to use the new cake stand I got for my birthday and so I planned a design that would incorporate all three tiers. Again, with the Big Dipper on the bottom tier, the North Star on the middle right tier and Alaska on the upper left tier. I enlisted some help from my friend Melissa with the cake so I didn't actually do them, but I think she did a great job!

Although it's hard to see, I decorated the edges of my serving platters with Camouflage paper. I guess the camo did it's job, because it blends right in with the table! LOL! :-) I did this with the platters at Melissa's baby shower too but we didn't get any pictures of those ones. I like doing this because it just adds a little something extra, and I love that everything matches!

Lastly, a couple pictures of me and Ashleen. She looks like she liked her party, don't you think?

Um, try to ignore the huge cheesy grin I have, I don't know what I was doing! OH! Did you notice my shirt?? I bought it so I would match the party too!! That's gonna be one of my signature things, wearing something to match my parties!!