Arrr! Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from a very cute pirate! ;)
May your tricks be successful and your treats, bountiful!

A Curious George Party (Charlotte's 2nd Birthday)

 

Despite Hurricane Sandy threatening to ruin the festivities, we were able to successfully throw Charlotte's second birthday party on Sunday. Not as many guest showed up (due to the crummy weather) but we still had plenty of fun. In the above photo you can see a few of the decorations that were hanging on the wall. Tissue Paper flowers, a pennant banner, and those beautiful accordion flowers you all saw in the sneak peek.

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A few pinwheels I made (using papers from Crate Paper and Echo Park) rest in the little bucket that held the dining ware.

You may have noticed a framed poster behind the pinwheels in that last photo. It says "Keep calm and be a good little monkey." I made this little poster in photoshop, bought a frame from the dollar store, and used it as part of decor. It is now hanging in my daughter's room. Two perfect purposes! Feel free to download it for your own use. Just remember to click on the picture to enlarge it to it's original size!

A Curious George party just wouldn't be a party without the monkey himself!

Treat bags for the kiddos filled with Curious George gummies and a few little plastic toys. I made the little tags and printed them out as 2x3 photos. They came out adorable! 

  

Feel free to download and use them for your Curious George party! 

Banana Nut Bread cupcakes. Very tasty!

My best friend and godmother to my daughter made this adorable Curious George cake!

Another bit of the party that I forgot to take a picture of was this little book. We had it set up on a stand and guest signed it as they came in. It will be nice for Charlotte to look back on when she gets older.

And last but not least - Curious George napkins and a few of the plates. We had Curious George dessert plates but they went quick once the cake was cut into!

Most importantly of all - Charlotte enjoyed her birthday party. She loved the company, the decorations, and of course all the presents! I can't believe she is two years old. She is growing up way to fast but I am enjoying every moment of it!

Curious George Party - SNEAK PEEK!

My daughter will be turning two on October 28th and we're celebrating Curious George style! The list of decorations I need to make for this party seems never ending but I'm having fun with it. Here is a little sneak peek of whats to come! These are the Accordion Flowers I've made so far. I love their appeal! Accordion Flowers have always been my favorite of party decorations.

They are very easy to make! All you need is:

• Sheets of 12x12 designer paper or card stock. (Three 12x12 sheets make one large flower.)
• Doilies.
• Center piece. (I chose to make a smaller flower for one, printed out a picture of curious george for another, and used a Happy Birthday sign that I bought from Wal-Mart for the other).
• Stapler.
• Hot Glue Gun.

Once you have all your supplies - get to work and have fun! The system for making these beautiful flowers is very simple and you can find plenty of tutorials by a simple google search.

There are so many ways to go about making party invitations. Between my husband and I - we have such a large family that it would be far to costly to have them professionally made/printed. It would also be far to time consuming for me to make them by hand. I always take the alternative route and make them in Photoshop and print them out myself. I am far from being an expert on Photoshop but I think the invitations I make tend to turn out cute enough and they get the job done.

 

These are the invitations that we just sent out the other day. (I removed our phone numbers and the party's location just in case there are creepers out there).

I hope you enjoyed this little sneak peek into the party planning of Curious Charlotte's 2nd birthday!

(Heart and Soul) Color Me Scrappy - The Last Challenge of this Term + Changes Coming to CMS!

There are a lot of changes coming to Color Me Scrappy for the new term (which starts November 1st).  A few design team members are leaving while most are staying and we are also saying a big hello to a few new designers.

Our first change is to go to weekly challenges with a twist. They will be revealed each and every Thursday and will look like this:

• color challenge + sketch
• color challenge + "word"
• color challenge + technique
• color challenge + white, black or kraft BG
• color challenge (for those months with 5 Thursdays)

Our prizes will still be awarded monthly. We will have a "Top 3" each and every month. This is voted on by our DT and the winners of this have the opportunity to come back as Guest Designers the following month.

We're all excited about the changes coming to CMS and we hope you are too!

Now it's time for Color Me Scrappy's 14th challenge, the last challenge of this term before all the new changes take place. Let's check out the colors!

 

Love it! So bright and happy.

 And here is the layout I created for this challenge.The papers are from Studio Calico's "HeyDay" collection, American Crafts Dear Lizzy "Neapolitan" collection, and Pebbles' "Sunnyside" collection. The potty people are both Hero Arts stamps. I actually built up enough nerve to stamp on a layout and really love the outcome! Maybe this means I'll put my stamps to more use now. The heart stickers are from My Little Shoebox's "Happy Go Lucky" collection. The tag pulls out to reveal journaling (which is just a little private note to my hubby).

 The large heart was cut out using my Silhouette Cameo and the title is spelled out using DIY Fabric Thickers.
 

Want to win a mystery bag full of awesome scrappy goodies? Come play along with us at CMS!

Color Me Scrappy - Challenge #13

It's the first of the month (and a wonderful month at that - I just adore October) which means it's time for another Color Me Scrappy challenge. This is the last month of our first term. A lot of our DT members are returning, but a few are saying good-bye, so be sure to give them all some love and come play along with us at Color Me Scrappy!

 

These are the lovely colors we  have to work with! Despite their lack orange and red - I can't help but get the fall vibe from them. I loved working with these colors! Shades of yellow and blue are my absolute favorite color combo.

...And this is the layout I created! The photo is a picture of the moon I took using my telescope. It's quite funny because I went a completely different route with this layout than I had originally planned. It was suppose to be a very minimal layout. That didn't last long! The yellow wood grain paper is from Jillibean Soup's "Chicken Dumpling" collection. The brown wood grain and starry papers are from Echo Park's "The Ground Outdoors" collection. The brown chevron paper is from Bella Blvd's "Baby Girl" collection. The dictionary paper is from My Little Shoebox's "Happy Go Lucky" collection. The Blue polka dot paper is from Pebbles' "Sunnyside" collection. The paper with the strip of stars is from Webster's Pages' "Yacht Club" collection.

The little circle of stars came from an idea I've seen on several layouts before. You simply use a pen and trace something circular several times to get this effect. Afterwards - just add a few bits and bobs to give it that little something extra. In this case I've added stars I cut out my from Silhouette Cameo. I love how it gives that atmospheric feeling! The wooden buttons are from American Crafts and the swirly paper clip is simply something I picked up at the grocery store. The little banner sticker underneath the top button is from Echo Park's Sweet Day collection. The flags down at the button were made using patter paper and tooth picks. I've really become quite obsessed with flags! Such a great 'extra touch' embellishment. The title is a mixture of Bella Blvd's High Five alpha stickers and Amy Tangerine Thickers.

The prize this month is another mystery bag! We had lots of excitement over the last mystery bag, so we thought we would put together another exciting bag of goodies. The deadline for Challenge #13 is

October 14, 2012 at 11:59 PM EST. What are you waiting for? Come play along with us! We can't wait to see what you create!