Wednesday, June 30, 2010

{DIY Finds} Pinwheels - Perfect for 4th of July!


I LOVE pinwheels. Remember, I used them all over in Jeffrey's Pool Party?!?

Now you can make them yourself! I think these would make a dashing touch as centerpieces, table decorations or just for the kids to play with. It doesn't have to be for 4th of July, but these sure would look stunning with our 4th of July Printable Design Collection! Spruce up your 4th of July!

Here are the steps:

Supplies

  • Scrapbook paper (preferably with double-sided pattern)
  • Wooden dowels
  • Hot glue gun and hot glue
  • Double-sided tape
  • Scissors
  • Star stickers
  • Spray adhesive (if necessary)

Instructions

  1. To create dual-sided pinwheels, gather double-sided scrapbooking papers in patriotic hues, or if you can't find pages in palette, create your own. Find pages in contrasting patterns, and use the spray adhesive to adhere them together.
  2. Cut paper into square shapes — we made 8-inch and 6-inch squares to create pinwheels of varying sizes.
  3. Fold squares in half diagonally to create a triangle. Crease.
  4. Open the triangle and fold diagonally the opposite way. Crease.
  5. Open up the triangle and flatten out the square.
  6. Cut along each diagonal fold three-quarters of the way to the center.
  7. Pull the tip of every other corner toward the center. Use double-sided tape or white craft glue to adhere the first tip to the center, then each folded-in tip on top of each other. When you finish, you'll have the pinwheel shape.
  8. If you want your pinwheel to spin, skip to step 10. If not, simply hot glue the pinwheel to your wooden dowel. Skip cutting down wooden dowels from the hardware or craft store and use inexpensive flag dowels (removing the flags, of course).
  9. Finish your pinwheel with a decorative star sticker in the center.
  10. If you want your pinwheel to spin, you'll need to push a pin through the center (a straight pin works), then a bead beneath the pinwheel. You'll drive the pin into your dowel with a hammer. If needed, fold over (or cut and then fold over) any part of the pin that sticks through to the back to prevent injuries.
Thanks, Good Housekeeping!

Monday, June 28, 2010

{DIY} Colorful Mobiles!

If you know me (Maureen), I am Miss Impatient (or Miss Proactive... that is a creative spin on that term - it is a GOOD thing!). If I have an idea, I have to share it right away.... if I buy a gift, I have to give (and/or TELL)... so in this case, it works to your benefit!

I saw these awhile back and added them to my inspiration favorites. I just came across them again and even though I wanted to actually make them before sharing.... here they are!

Modern Colourful Mobiles!

modern-colourful-mobiles.jpg



I think these would be wonderful for SO many uses.... party (or wedding!) table centerpieces hung from the ceiling, kids playrooms and bedrooms! (Probably shorter so they can't pull them down), hanging from trees outside, hung from the porch if you are having an outdoor party, etc! Heck, I might even make these for over my desk in my studio!

I hope you make them... and I hope that you share photos with us if you do!

Here is the tutorial!
Happy crafting!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

{Featured Client} Take me out to the ball game...


A super sweet client of ours, Leslie, shared photos with us from her son's baseball themed birthday party. Leslie hired us to create a whole collection of baseball graphic designs to use throughout her party. She shared photos of some of the party with us, and we are excited to post them!

Here is the style invitation Leslie sent out to set the tone for the party for her guests... (her son is not shown here, even though our boys sorta look similar! ;-))

Leslie used one of the party logos from the sports collection to create a super cute door hanger:

Check out the creative way Leslie displayed her cupcakes. Adorable. Lots of cupcake toppers decorated the tops of those sweet confections!

Not only did Leslie serve cupcakes, but she also had an ice cream sundae station where kids could pile on toppings into their baseball helmet shaped bowl! So creative!


A very "USA" feeling party porch. I love all the decor!


Tents that fit the color scheme, of course!

Her tables were very festive! Home plate placemats! Theme fitting picture frames on each table and a bat full of gum! How sweet it is...

Super cute baseball pinata! Brings back good memories from the sports party I held for my sonwhen he was just 3!




Leslie had activities galore for the kids! An awesome bounce house! Hat decorating! So fun!


Leslie's food for the party was SO perfect for the baseball theme...
Love the napkin wraps! Do you see the detail!? She wrapped them with the suede cord that you see on baseball mitts! So creative!
Leslie asked us to create food labels for all her yummy snacks. She came up with super creative terminology and every food totally fit a "baseball" theme!



Festive punch options! RBI Red punch.... so cute!

I just LOVE the way water bottle wraps look all assembled and together. Such a cheap and easy way to coordinate with your party and add a personal touch!

The birthday boy! Favors behind him - she adorned her favor bags with the favor tag from the collection.


What a beautiful family! I love how Leslie dressed the whole family in the party colors and theme! Go Leslie!!! Awesome job on the party!


If you are having a sports themed party (baseball, basketball, golf, foodball... anything!), let us know! We'd love to create a collection just for you! Collection below available in our shop.


Saturday, June 26, 2010

{Fabulous Finds} Have you been to "How Does She" lately?

Have you been to?

.... well, have you? How Does She is one of my top bookmarked sites because of the uniqueness of their posts! It is a blog run by 3 extraordinary women (and mothers!). They realized they were always asking "How does she do this, or how does she do that?" when it comes to throwing perfect parties, creative ways to keeping up a really healthy lifestyle (with even the pickiest eaters), or implementing new ideas for the family. I love how they have gathered so much talent and knowledge from women all over to create a "go to" resource blog that is FUN to read!

Some of my favorite posts so far have been:

I am TOTALLY going to make that for my next party!

and, oh! This one:

I am DYING to make these for my kids. I just stumbled upon it the other day. I love food trickery!


and because most of my "free time" is spent planning parties, I about died when I saw how CUTE this post was:


I am so looking forward to having a shower sometime soon... this will be top of my list to create!
How stinkin cute!?

If you haven't, you must go find out HOW DOES SHE!?

Friday, June 25, 2010

My Striped Cups...

So, we have been getting a lot of questions about where I found my navy and white striped paper cups that I used in our popular 4th of July Printable Party Collection that was featured on Amy Atlas (I might add!)!

The answer: Ikea!

I also just looked on their website and they have adorable cupcake liners for the 4th! Wish I would have known that!




Bad thing is - they don't ship these items, so you have to go to your local Ikea, if you have one nearby.

No better way to make your 4th fabulous than to use our DIY 4th Printable Design Collection! ;-)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

{Press on Anders Ruff} Featured on AMY ATLAS!




I am so excited to say that our "DIY 4th of JULY PRINTABLE DESIGN PACKAGE" has been featured on the Amy Atlas Blog!

Most of you know of my obsession with party planning and my love for Amy Atlas! Amy is a NYC dessert table GODDESS that has been featured in big time magazines and celebrity events all over!

Check out the feature here!

Thanks, Amy! You made my YEAR! ;-)

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

{Straight From The Studio} DIY Printable 4th of July Party Package - 50% OFF UNTIL JUNE 27TH!


Who doesn't LOVE the 4th of July!? I always get so tired of generic red/white and blue party supplies, so we were inspired to create a Do-it-yourself Printable 4th of July Design Party Package!

The package includes everything you need to coordinate and personalize your 4th of July party, bbq or just a way to spruce up cupcakes or other treats.

This printable party package is such a fun and inexpensive way to spruce up any 4th of July plans you have!

One of my favorite pieces of art that I created was "United". This package was inspired by my signature paint chip artwork that was featured in House Beautiful online - in the cover feature by Ashley Whittaker, the amazing interior designer from NYC!


I put together some samples of the ways you could use all of the fun graphics included in the package. The possibilities are endless! We would love to see what you do with the versatile pack of designs!
I just LOVE Red, White and Blue together, so this was a super fun collection to design.


In the package includes:
- 2" Circle Party Logos - 5 designs including "Happy 4th of July", Spangled Stars and Fireworks
- 2" Square Party Logos - 5 designs
- 8" Circle Signs - 3 designs
- 2 Decorative Wrap Designs (2"x8.5")
- Rectangular Party Labels - 3 designs (Stars, stripes and polka dot)
- Party Banner (Pennant Style) - "Happy 4th of July" ****note;
Banner sample not shown in photos above - digital file included and shown on listing*****

50% off!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

{Press on Anders Ruff} & {Giveaway} "A Few of My Favorite Things"!


We are so excited about the new post about our shop, Anders Ruff Custom Designs, on "A Few of My Favorite Things" blog! I love following Danielle's blog and you should, too!

The excitement is 2-fold.

1st - She posted about Luau parties, and featured one of our new luau invitations that we designed.


2nd, she is hosting a giveaway from our shop! She posted such a nice feature on some of our work, we really appreciate it! Visit her blog, read the post and enter for the giveaway!

I hope one of our readers wins the giveaway! (Free personalized invitation or announcement design! from our shop)

Thanks, Danielle and AFOMFT!

{Coming Soon} Printable 4th of July Party Package!

Stay tuned... we are going to be adding a printable 4th of July Party Package to our shop!

Lots of items to help make your 4th of July celebration more festive!

We'll keep you posted. It should be listed by tomorrow afternoon (June 23rd)

Monday, June 21, 2010

{Featured Clients} Summer Wedding Reception - Lemons and Limes

Jen, a wonderful (and very frequent!) client of ours, asked us to help tie in lemons and limes for her wedding reception. We excitingly accepted. Jen has such an eye for detail and LOVES paper as much as we do! I am so excited to unfold her event.

We were so inspired and in love with the lemons and limes theme, that we created an invitation in our shop to fit:

Now.... to unfold her special event! All of her fabulous photography was done by Shannon Wilfong.
It starts with the entrance - what a creative way to greet their guests...
A fabric covered custom sign (in appropriate colors!)
Jen really tied in yellows and lime colors.... everywhere! She held her event in the backyard of our sweet and dear friend, Amy. Their backyard was the perfect venue for a summer celebration.
Adorable yellow paper lantern lights were strung on the double porch overlooking the table setup.
I was so excited that Jen and Liz decided to create yellow and green poms for the event. (I love making them after Jeffrey's 5th party!)
Beautiful tables filled the backyard.
Her tables were adorned with beautiful vases of lemons and limes. Perfectly fitting for a summer event.
The chairs had the gift bags for each guest, as well as an (oh so creative) green textured cardstock cone of popcorn hung by yellow ribbon.
Framed quotes were placed on each of the tables. We designed the quote cards with scattered lemons and limes that looked like an engraved/letterpress design.

Here a sample of one of the 8 quotes cards that we designed for the tables.
I love how she wrapped her forks/knives for the outdoor celebration. She layered a clear plate with a green plate and then wrapped the fork/knife in the adorable layered napkins and tied with natural raffia (that ties in so well w/ the natural chairs!)

The gift bags were stuffed with personalized gifts. A custom gift tag that we designed hung from the outside:
Inside the gift bags were cookies (for a late night snack after the big day!), a water bottle (with a custom wrap we designed), and a CD of handpicked songs that was wrapped in a petal envelope with a logo we designed to coordinate.
This is the fun water bottle wrap and logo for the CD that we designed....
Now do you see what I mean about Jen paying attention to details? Well, if not, the following will prove it! She had it all covered!


Food! They had tables full of delicious dishes from Ranuccis Big Butt BBQ. We created food tents to label the various items. It is making me hungry just thinking of their wonderful food!


I love these lollis! Jen stuck them into a wrapping paper wrapped box - so beautiful!

And look at the yummy cupcakes from SAS (gorgeous- can you see the sanding sugar that they sprinkled on the tops!?)
Thirsty?

Beautiful job, Jen and Liz! Congrats!

Thanks for sharing, Jen!

Credits:
Photography - Shannon Wilfong
Graphic Designs - Anders Ruff (us!)
Welcome Sign - Megan Cavanaugh Designs
Cupcakes - SAS