Birthday Card 0002

Most of the components of this card are from design company My Mind's Eye.  I have been collecting (hoarding) 6x6 paper pads.  I enjoy using them for creating cards because I'm not so overwhelmed with a huge 12x12 sheet.  

Congratulations Card 0001

Pebbles, Inc. by American Crafts has quickly became one of my favorite paper crafts design companies.  The polaroid card is from their "From Me to You" collection.  

A 12 x 12 sheet contained 12 cards.  I cut them all out and used them for cardmaking.  They could have easily fit any pocket scrapbooking album. 

Mail Tag #2

I started to compile a list of questions to ask my penpals.  I created some themes to keep me organized to come up with new questions.  I came up with the following structure:

1.  Future
2.  History
3.  Food
4.  Current
5.  Favorites / Least Favorite

Wedding Card 0002

I created this simple card based on the wedding cake sticker that I found in my stash.  I used the circle to highlight the bits of teal in the wedding cake.  

MATERIALS:

• circle punch
• wedding cake sticker 

Travel Albums

I wanted to put together an album for all of the travels that my husband and I have experienced together.  We have been together for 7+ years.  To complete this task I'd have to backtrack 7+ years of photos and memories.  I was up to the challenge!  

I wanted the album to have some scrapbooking essence. Traditional scrapbooking has always overwhelmed me and I had several unfinished albums to show for it.  I had created some small (7" x 9") upcycled journals.  Each album had 25 sheets.  I was going to incorporate 2 year's worth of travels into each album.  I kept seeing Project Life in my Instagram feeds and loved the idea of journaling cards.  I created a more simplified version without the pocket sleeves.  

Mail Tag #1

I am new to penpalling and wanted to put in good effort in the correspondence that I send. I have seen different variations on Mail Tag.  I decided that I wanted to create my own series of Mail Tags that I will send to each of my penpals.  

I generally prefer simple and bold designs.  For the sake of efficiency, I did not want to create a new Mail Tag design every time I sent a letter out.  I am also curious to see how my penpals respond to the same questions.  

I do not plan to post all incoming and outgoing mail here on my blog.  Those photos can be found on my Instagram @linhcreates.  I hope my Mail Tags give you ideas  for your penpal correspondence! 

         

Penpal Information Journaling Cards

I created an Instagram account dedicated just to crafty things @linhcreates.  I befriended some awesome ladies through my account.  I became inspired by their creations and started picking up some penpals.  

One of my penpals was creating an album for her many penpals. I have the need to organize things and decided that I also needed to create an album to contain information on my lovely penpals. I wanted to start some sort of system before things got out of hand.  

I chose a Basic Grey 6"x9" album with pocket inserts that can accommodate typical 3"x"4 and 4"x6" journaling cards. I designed these cards for my penpals to provide basic information.  

Event: Butterfly 1st Birthday Party

This past summer was super busy for me!  So I'm just now getting to this post.  This setup was for my goddaughter's first birthday.  Teaching summer school and two week long vacations only allowed time for a simple snack bar setup.  

I used my BossKut Gazelle to create the banner.  Each letter has two color layers on top of a scalloped circle.  I also cut butterflies with single and double layers.  I hung sheer patterned curtains for the backdrop.  

I used some of the extra die cut butterflies to dress up the paper straws. I used a standard sized hand hole punch to punch two holes to insert the straws.  Some of the remaining butterflies were scattered on the table.  

I bagged some gummy worms and gummy butterflies for the favor bags.  I hand stamped the "thank you" sentiment on hand cut banner tag.  I hand punched the yellow circles and used a simple staple to seal the treat bags.  

  

Event: "April Rain Showers" Baby Shower

I hosted an intimate baby shower for a friend with about 15 guests.  Another girlfriend helped assist me in hosting the party.  I came up with the "April Rain Showers" theme and incorporated rain clouds and umbrellas.  This set up was in the entry way of the clubhouse.  

Favors included candy packaged in paper bags.  I hand stamped the tags with a yellow umbrella and blue "thanks" sentiment and attached it to the bag with a staple.  

To extend the "April Rain Showers" theme, it was easy to incorporate flowers into the theme.  I wanted to use potted flowers instead of cut flowers to be more eco friendly. The potted flowers were used as centerpieces for the dining tables and to decorate other tables.  

I used wrapping paper that was cut into large squares to cover each of the dining tables.  I also used it to cover the long table with the food spread to add some color to it. 

We played, "Pin the Sperm on the Egg."  The girls really enjoyed this game!  

We also played the following games:

-Diaper Cake Guess: Guests had to guess how many diapers it took to make the diaper cake.
-Fertilized Egg:  One Easter egg had a "Positive" note in it and the rest of the eggs had "Negative" notes.  Each egg had a candy treat in it and were hidden throughout the clubhouse.  
-Flower Word Scramble: Guests had to unscramble 20 flowers.  To maximize the paper usage, I included a word search of the flowers just for fun.  

FREE Printables:
Word Scramble PDF
Word Search PDF

Condiment Labels

I wanted to share a quick post from my husband's graduation party.  I was planning an easy burger bar for the party with different condiments.  

I handstamped each popsicle stick and stuck them into large baby food jars.  I finally found a way to use the tiny alphabet set that has been collecting dust in my craft room!  

Thanks to Pinterest, I can give the proper credit of inspiration very easily.  The site is in French, but the pictures are great!

-  http://petitsplusdejoe.blogspot.fr/2011/05/burger-party.html