January: If you liked this you wont be able to LEGO of these books! Display

For our first three displays of the new year, I decided to make all "if you liked this, you'll love this" displays. I used three different themes to ultimately get across the same idea. Our Lego display is the first of the three.

When choosing the books for the display I found seven of our most popular books. I then used Pinterest and Google to find 4 similar books for each of the seven popular books. I found an awesome Lego font online and then lego vector images of the alphabet. Using these two items I made signs for each shelf of the display:

Using our Silhouette Cameo machine I drew several "legos" and then cut them out to create a border for the display: here are the pngs to be used to create cut files:

That's it!

Event: Bridal (Wedding) Shower

This past weekend I threw a bridal (wedding) shower for my sister and her fiance. I made several crafts/decor for the shower. Here are pictures and instructions, enjoy!

Signage/frames: For the shower we went with a shabby chic, chalkboard, mason jar, burlap, peach and mint theme. The signage that lead guests to the shower location (it was in a large park and could have been difficult to find without signs) was created by using large wooden "frames" from Michaels (they were on sale for really cheap). The signs were wooden so I painted them peach or mint depending. I then purchased black poster board and cut the rectangle to fit the frame. I tied white ribbon onto the frame and then I hot glued the poster board onto the frame. I had trouble finding white chalk (seriously I looked everywhere) so I wrote the sign using white pastels.

We then created a tree full of picture frame and pictures. I had about 70 pictures printed from Shutterfly (I used pics later in a different decoration as well). I then used 15 smaller frames that I had purchased at Michaels and painted. I tied ribbon to the frame to hang it. I hot glued one photo to the back of the other photo and then hot glued it to the frame (after the ribbon had been tied). This way each frame had two photos. We then hung all the frames to the tree (I also made a large frame without a photo and we hung this low so everyone could take selfies, big hit!)

Wisteria Tree: I created 32 wisteria tissue paper decor and we hung them from one of the trees. Here is the tutorial on how to make the wisteria: Here

Doily Flower garland: There were two trees that you had to walk past before you got to the party and the frame tree. I made doily flower garlands for these trees. One was all mint and one was all peach. In the actual branches we hung extra lanterns from out lantern tree. For a tutorial on how to make the doily flower garland go here

Doily Garland: Above the gift table I created two doily garland on twine. We hung them from two trees. For a tutorial o how to make them go here

Clothespin Picture Garland: Using the extra pictures I had printed from Shutterfly I created a clothespin picture garland. I measured the area between the two trees where the food tables were going to go. I then laid out the twine to the correct length. I purchased fabric in the shower colors and used pinking shears to cut out small squares. I then used clothespins that I had dyed peach and mint (using the same method that I dyed the doilies with) to pin the pictures and fabric onto the twine. I also used extra doilies and pinned them on. We then strung the pictures in two rows from the trees.

Lantern and Parasol Tree: My older sister tied mint and peach ribbon and white lace to 24 lanterns. We then tied fishing line to the lanterns. We also had about 12 white lace parasols that we tied fishing line to the handles. We hung these from one of the trees and the extra lanterns we hung from several other trees.

 

Circle Garland: Using three sizes of circle punches and a variety of craft paper I punched out hundreds of circles. I then sewed the circles together in rows of 22 (assorted sizes). I glued all the rows to twine and hung them from the fence.

Rosebud Garlands:I create several paper roses and made garlands out of them. You can find the tutorial here

Initials: I purchased wooden initials for the bride and groom at Michaels, along with an and sign. I painted them peach and mint and hung them from the tree with white ribbon.

Pinwheel garland: Using craft paper I created pinwheels. I took two pieces of paper the same color and length and folded them up into long skinny rectangles (like how we used to make fans). I then stapled the center of each folded piece. I then unfolded the piece to create a half circle and stapled the two quarter pieces together. Once you have two half circles you then staple them together. I hung twine from the tree and used clothespins to pin the pinwheel onto the twine.

You can find the tutu table skirt at Baileyhadaparty on Etsy

Table Decor: We purchased peach table cloths and lace table runners for the dining tables. On each table we had mason jar center pieces with burlap and lace ribbon and a flower decor on each. In the mason jar we put peach carnations. We then put paper plates (in pistachio) and napkins with a fork and knife in each and a matching napkin ring in either peach, mint or burlap fabric with a twine bow.

For the bride and groom's chairs we made custom signs using chalkboards and burlap flowers:

For the food tables we created a farmer's market feel. We used tons of bushel baskets, mason jars, metal tubs and berry baskets.

 Each table had a custom made table skirt in either peach or mint fabric. I just strung twine from two chairs at home and cut 2" by 22" strips and knotted them onto the twine.
I then cut out small 2" by 2" squares from Burlap fabric and made garlands to hang on each table saying what the table was for.

For the chips we made cones from brown paper and glued small 6" doilies inside each. We then tied a piece of mint ribbon around the cone.

For the pink lemonade we emptied out small water bottles and created cute labels that said "pink lemonade." We purchased peach straws from Etsy and then added custom peach ribbons with the bride and groom's name and wedding date.

For the veggie cups we used small plastic cups and added labels that said with Veggies and Dip or Veggies without Dip. Inside each was ranch dressing with assorted vegetables.

For the dessert table I made rose sugar cookies in mint and peach and created a sign to place on the tiered display. I also made a sign for the brownies and some small chalkboard signs for the sour apple straws and favors.

The favors were made by cutting out long rectangles from craft paper. We then folded them so one side was slightly longer and sewed the three sides together. We filled them with jelly beans (the bride's favorite). The top was then folded over and hot glued and then we placed a label thanking everyone for coming.

I created the invitation using Illustrator and Photoshop. Here is what it looked like:

Here is a blank one if you want to use it for your party:

Crafts: Snowball Garland

Last weekend my niece had a Frozen, winter themed birthday party. My sister saw some snowball garlands on Pinterest, but it was difficult for us to find DIY instructions on how to create the snowball garland. We did find tutorials on garlands made with felt, but that seemed too complicated. It turns out the snowball garlands were very simple to make and I will share how we did it. (These would be great to use on a winter themed library display!).

Supplies:
1. You will needs several different sizes of white pompoms. We used three sizes, small, medium and then some really large ones. You can purchase these at your local craft store such as HobbyLobby, Joann's or Michael's.
2. Fishing line or some clear string
3. a large needle
4. hot glue and a glue gun

I began by opening all the bags of pompoms and sorting them into the three sizes. This made it easier to choose the size I wanted quickly.

I then tied the fishing line to the needle (I did not thread the needle as if I was going to be sewing, I just threaded the fishing line through the needle and made a knot around the eye of the needle. (You will be untying the fishing line from the needle once you are done). We were going to use the snowball garland to hang from the ceiling so we measured out 6' of fishing line. I then tied a knot at the bottom of the fishing line.

I then starting stringing pompoms onto the fishing line. The needle was difficult to push through the center of the pompom so I just went a little to one side and it was pretty easy to get the needle through. I varied sizes as I went and for a 6' length I think I did around 10-13 pompoms.

We were hoping the pompoms would just stay where we spaced them on the fishing line, and the small and medium size ones did. But unfortunately the large ones fell straight to the bottom and pulled everything in their way down as well. So we decided to add a bit of hot glue.We laid the garland on the floor and spread out all the pompoms to the location we wanted them to stay. Then we put a drop of hot glue under each pompom on the fishing line.

To achieve the look we created with the hanging, we first hung a few garlands close to the wall and spaced a couple feet from each other. We then hung the next round between each existing garland but three inches away from the wall. The staggered look made the snowballs stand out better.

The snowball garlands along with the winter touches made for perfect party decor! You could use these garlands in many ways. We hung them straight down from the wall, but you could hang them across the room and add a bit of swag to make a cool effect.

The tutu table skirt is available at BaileyHadaParty. The cupcake and water bottle wrappers are available at StripedGiraffes.