Monster Wow!

Another envelope board happy mail project. 

I stamped, fussy cut and mounted the "wow!" On dimensionals to make it pop. The background paper and base are outlined in matching marker.

STUFF
Card size - A2
Cardstock - Recollections: Robots and Monsters; Georgia Pacific
Stamps - Recollections: 
Ink - Memento: Tangelo;
Accessories - dimensionals

Envelope Board practice. ..

This is actually my 3rd attempt using the envelope board. The first was with the measurements on the board for A2. The second was with measurements off Splitcoaststampers measurements which scores at 3 1/2 inches instead of 3 5/8 and makes the envelope less loose. Both are good measurements for A2 cards depending on how embellished a card is.

So I made a quick card to match my envelope and to test out card stock usage for my Christmas cards.

I decided the card was cute but just needed a pop of fun.  I would be happy with both versions.

This one is already on its way as Happy Mail!

Stuff I used-
Cardstock - Georgia Pacific, Recollections
Stamps - Recollections:Robots
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Color - copics
Accessories - American Craft ribbon; Spellbinders Nestabilites Circle

Knitted Santa hats

Lindsay, the Frugal Crafter, has created a demon. I ended up buying 4 circle looms and a cart load of yarn. I intend to loom loads of Christmas presents. 

However I digress, we had some senior members of our dojo come back for a visit with their family so I had to make their little ones santa hats. The 3 yr old loved it and the 7 wk old didn't comment. LOL I'll take that! Oh and I had a request from someone who I was already making a hat/scarf set for too! I love it when a plan comes together. 

Son Wreath

So I made this a couple of months ago for my eldest who is away at university. He wanted a compact wreath for his door in his "house" colors at university. And I delivered it when we went to visit him at homecoming.

I hand painted the penguin, his favorite animal, and though it is difficult to tell his hat and scarf are house colors too and I filled the small ornaments with tiny Styrofoam balls so the snow shakes when the door opens and closes. 

The wreath is 21 in mesh on a smallish form as this was for indoor on a busy residence hall floor and not allowed to be too bulky.

Stuff I used-
Deco mesh
Wire wreath form
Pipecleaners
Hot glue
Ornaments- wooden penguin, plastic balls, wooden and plastic snowflakes.

Hey Turkey!

A relatively quick card I sent my eldest who wasn't able to join us for Thanksgiving this year.  I'm thinking now I should have either split the sentiment to make a "ground" or stamped it in the leaves corner. 

I'll update my supplies list later when I'm atat my craft table. 

Thanks Lindsay!

So the background to this is that whilst re organizing my mother's garage I came across s 3 pairs of knitting needles that had been forgotten.  One had a practice set of stiches cast on but I really don't know whose work it is. So I was able to use the video to cast off that piece (in case it was something sentimental) and to start learning how to knit.  I have an aunt, mother-in-law and auntie-in-law who all know how to knit and have made some beautiful pieces. So I was thrilled to have a go The Frugal Crafter 

This is what I managed to do with the leftover yarn.

I started another bit to actually make something but I've pulled it apart as I didn't like how loose some of the stiches were compared to others.

So thank you Lindsay! I'm now able to add yarn to my craft supplies hoarding!!!!!

I'm planning on trying to make a scarf or two for my lot. We shall see how it goes. FWIW my DH is thrilled, which I find shocking, but I think it is because it is something his mum does.

Inspired T.A.R.D.I.S. earrings

Completely inspired by Lindsay's post at the Frugal Crafter I have attempted my own T.A.R.D.I.S. earrings for the 50th anniversary show tonight.

The funny thing is if the T.A.R.D.I.S. were real you would see this in plenty of time to make your own.  

Ingredients

Materials - Shrink Plastic

Stamps- VivaLasVegastamps: Police Box

Ink - Stazon

Color - Prismacolor pencils

Accessories - findings

A card of firsts..

So I was cruising Pinterest and I saw a pin about doller bill origami.  Now I had to find more just to look at and found a fighter plane. Eureka! I thought. I can do that for my cousin's birthday. So I found the instructions in video form and did! Woohoo I love it when a plan comes together don't you? Of course I then had to have a background to mount the plane and this is what I came up with.

I wasn't worried about realism, but it is funny how the plane looks like it is camouflaged.

So being rather proud of myself I show it to my youngest and get told "it's not an F-14, that's his favorite".  Sometimes you just can't win!

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah; US Currency
Stamps - Gina K. Designs: Lots of Letters;
Ink - Versamark
Color - Copics
Accessories- Zing! Embossing Powder white; dimensionals.

Ewe-nique Birthday Wishes

I made this card for my mother's birthday as she grew up on a farm and when she was small they raised sheep.  After I finished I thought it would probably have made a nic3 baby card. 

I am by nature a really slow card maker so I was really pleased with myself for getting this one done in just over an hour. 

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in;
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth; Bazzill;
Stamps - High Hopes Sheep, High Hopes"have a happy birthday"; Gina K Designs Lots of Letters;
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Rose Bud;
Color - Copics;
Accessories - Polka Dots embossing folder; Spellbinders Circle Dies; American Crafts Ribbon; Liquid Applique

Modern Birthday Bloom

I wanted to do something really clean, bold and graphic for this card. I think I succeeded. On a do over I think the bloom needs to be slightly higher on the card.

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth; Recollections Black;

Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps Pretty Petals, 1/2 Pint-Playful Alphabet Buddy

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Bamboo Leaves

Color - Copics

Accessories - Stickles Diamond

Bee happy Birthday!

This is a card for our dear auntie...I know I'm 2 years late for the hexagonals trend but that doesn't mean I did love makong this card! I am pretty certain I had the Clear Dollar Stamp set well before hexagonals were a trend. 

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah classic crest solar white; Recollection Kraft;

Stamps- Clear Dollar Stamps Home Sweet Hive;Viva Las Vegastamps; Kitchen Sink Stamps Whole Family

Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa, Canteloupe, Bamboo Leaves; Versamark

Color - Copics

Accessories - Clear Embossing Powder; Spellbinders Oval dies

Stay Strong!

So I needed to send my eldest some snail mail just because and this is what I came up with.

Hope it conveys to stay strong with such a hard course load.  We always knew this year was going to be tough. Everything we have read about engineering talks about how tough the 2nd and 3rd years are. It is so hard being a a parent sometimes when you just want to make it better.

Ingredients
Card size - 5.5 in x 4.25 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth
Stamps - Hero Arts Formula Fun; Stampendous School for Changito
Ink - Memento tuxedo black, Bahama Blue; 
Color - Copics
Accessories - Dimensional tape

Smell my Feet!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Can't believe I got anything Halloween done. I have sent these with my husband for his colleagues' children.

Normally I use the instructions from Splitcoaststampers. This time however I used the ones on Scor-pal's site. I would say that user error made the sizing not as consistent as I would have liked, but considering these are for kids and will be pulled apart in nanoseconds, I'm ok with that.

Ingredients
Cardstock - Georgia Pacific, Recollections, The Paper Studio: the basics;
Stamps - Recollections: Halloween;
Ink - Memento: tuxedo black; Brilliance: moonlight white;
Color - Copic spica;
Tools - Score-pal; paper trimmer; Spellbinders circle nestabilities; Cuttlebug

Pink Butterfly Birthday

Having computer issues at the moment but isn't that the story of everyones life. So I took a few pictures with my phone and I'm trying to attempt to blog from it as well.

I really wanted a serene overall look with this birthday card for my sister in law. I kept the pop of color to the image. 

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 x 5.5 in
cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth; transluscent paper.

Stamps - Inkadonkado: Mindscapes; Little Yellow Bicycle: Birthday;
Ink - Stazon; Versamark;
Color - Copics;
Accessories - Zing white embossing powder

Purple & Gold Soccer Birthday

I made this card for my youngest for his birthday smack, dab in the middle of soccer season for his school.

Yeah that's right! Glitter on a guy card. BAM!

Ingredients
Card sizes - 8.5 x 5.5 in;
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth: Recollections;
Stamps - Recollections soccer ball: Cornish Heritage Farms Tiger Stripes Backgrounder;
Ink - Versamark;
Accessories - Zing embossing powder glitter finish gold, metallic finish purple.

One or two in a Minion! how despicable of me.

Bello!  

What's better than one minion?

Dul!

Two minions of course!

Aren't they fun?!  My brain went Bee Do Bee Do Bee Do!

I just couldn't resist making these after I saw some adorable cards on Pinterest.

I saw this card on Pinterest and had to CASE it for my husband and youngest because one minion just looks lonely...  So lots of cutting and die cutting later I had two minion cards ready for their birthdays!!!  I love them and then promptly sent them to my eldest at university to send back to them!   I can't decide which variation I like better.  Do you have a preference?

Ingredients
Card Size 5.5 in x 8.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White (base), Recollections: Yellow, Blue, Black, Kraft; Bazzill: Gray;
Accessories - Black brads; Nestabilities: Circles

Poopaye!

Many thanks to http://fiz-x.com/minions-banana-language-translated/ for the translations!

Top Scorer!

I made this for the top scoring scrabble player in my life!  I like how the scrabble board looks a bit like a quilt.

Ingredients
Card size - 5.5in x 8.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; Recollections: Black, Red, Kraft;
Stamps - VivaLasVegastamps: Scrabble alphabet regular size ; Cornish Heritage Farms: Grid Paper;
Ink - Memento: Tuxedo Black;
Color - Copics
Accessories - dimensionals

All hands on board!

OK I admit it.  This looked better in my head, though I like the concept.  I honestly forget to crop the black so that the white base framed it.  I now wonder if that would have helped...

Ingredients
Card size - 5.5 in x 8.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; Recollections: Black; Red
Stamps - Inkadinkado: friendly advice ; Clear Dollar Stamps: baby hand & footprints;
Ink - Versamark; Juicy Pad;
Accessories - White embossing powder

Simply complex fuzzy Mustache Card

I made this a while ago and forgot to write down what I did.  I'm fairly certain I stamped the mustache in black and then covered it with glitter glue to adhere the flocking.

This card is for a family member that actually gets stopped and asked for autographs because they are convinced he is Tom Selleck.  I decided to keep it simple and think it works.

Ingredients
Card size - 5.5 in x 8.5 in;
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth; Revelations - black;
Stamps - Stampabilities Mustaches Clear Stamp Set;
Ink - Memento: Tuxedo Black;
Accessories - Glue; Fun Flock: Black

I see you're 20!

I made this card for my neice who turned 20.  I wonder if she got the 20/20 pun-tasticness of this card.  Probably not but at least I amused myself.  I clear embossed the lenses and frames.  If I did it again I might use a very, very, very, very pale color to tint the lenses for the slightest contrast.

Ingredients:
Card size - 5.5 in x 8.5 in;
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth; Recollections: black;
Stamps - Stampabilities: Mustaches Clear Stamp Set; 7 Gypsies; Hero Arts: Classic Caps;
Ink - Memento: Tuxedo Black, Rose Bud; Versamark;
Accessories - pink rhinestones; clear embossing powder

Using a prize for a Happy Anniversary!

A little while ago I entered a challenge on CASology for "word" and won on Week 20 for "word".  The prize was a wonderful set of stamps from A-muse.  I always think that the best compliment is to use a gift/prize and that was the inspiration for this ombre card for my Brother-in-law and Sister-in-law's anniversary.  I think the effect is more subtle in person especially on that second heart!  

The first thing I did was to punch the border.  After that I stamped the hearts and followed that with the sentiment.  To tie it all together I added ribbon under the punched border.  What you can't see is that I used the softest pink to continue the heart theme on the inside of the card and the envelope.

Thought I would share this last picture so you could see the difference between showing this card upright and laying down so that the ribbon would show.

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 inches x 5.5 inches
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Smooth Solar White;
Stamps - Amuse Studio: hearts a'plenty (couldn't find online so may be retired); Kitchen Sink Stamps: 3 Step Roses & Hearts;
Ink - Memento: Angel Pink, RoseBud, Rhubard Stalk;
Accessories - EK Success (don't have exact name); American Craft Ribbon;

Train-mendous!

This is a card for my husband's very punny uncle.  It took quite a while to do because I decided not to use my Copics and instead use my Prismacolor pencils.  So after a bit of stamping, coloring in, fussy and die cutting, and doing that part fussy/part die cut thing for the first time this is what resulted.  Oh and just to prove I could I threw on a bit of ribbon on this masculine card! LOL!

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Smooth Solar White; Recollections Black;
Stamps - Viva LasVegastamps: Train;  Gina K Designs: Ticket Trio;
Ink - Ranger Archival Ink: Black;
Color - Prismacolor Pencils;
Accessories - Ribbon; Brads; Spellbinders Nestabilities: Ovals; Dimensional tape

Superman - Dad of Steel! Exactly as I have planned it.

Oh how I wish I could say I was the most organized crafter ever and that I completely planned to make a superman card for my husband for Father's Day because I knew it would correspond with going to the movie with the family later that day...

The truth is I lost my mojo and remembered I had the stamp and had an "aha" moment and thinking I could do a gatefold card to make the cape and was at a loss for anything else to do.  What? Father's Day was the opening weekend for the movie too? well of course I planned it all!!! *knowing wink* 

The second picture shows the card standing.  Thinking about it now I could have adhered the blue to come over the top instead of inside of sandwiching the gate.  I think I might re-visit this card and try out those changes.

I also stamped the inside but the kids got hold of the card and added their own decorations and sentiments before I could photograph it to share it.  Oh well, you will have to take my word that it is cute as it has Superman flying through "Happy Father's Day".

I keep wondering if the stamp is lost, but I keep thinking if it were larger then I would have had issues with the gate fold... 

Ingredients
Card Size - 8.5 x 5.5 inches
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Smooth Solar White; Recollections: Red, Blue; 
Stamps - Viva LasVegastamps: Logo 1; Inside - Viva LasVegastamps: Superman Flying; Kitchen Sink Stamps: Whole Family;
Ink - Versamark; Memento: Danube Blue, Tuxedo Black;
Accessories - Zing! Gold Glitter Embossing Powder

A truly Golden Anniversary

I raided my stash and embellished it to make this card.  I will be honest with you I really wanted to make a different card by downloading a die and making multiple roses etc.... and I think my subconscious was secretly saying "Girl! You have got to be kidding!" so this is what my "oh I don't really have time to do all that so what am I going to do with what I already have because it would be really silly to go shopping when I could supply one" brain told me to do. 

I will be honest, I'm not certain that the gold glitter embossing on the thick metallic gold paper really worked or added that much compared to how much time it took to run the static pad over it, stamp the image with Versamark and add the embossing powder and heat so I wouldn't mess up the image when I did the next one.

So as I shopped my stash I'm a bit sketchy as to from where some things actually came.  The flowers and thick gold paper date back to my stash collecting when we lived in England! Wowzer! And back home they went to the happy couple, my husband's Auntie and Uncle.  And I just adore the punched border.  I will be honest with you it reminds me of the Double Wedding Ring quilt my parents used to have on their bed when I was growing up that my grandmother had made.  I didn't really set out to use pearls on a golden anniversary card but all my other bling didn't look right.

I really like this last shot of the card for showing the dimension and the reflection of the embossing.

I hope they thought it was a special as they are.

And yeah, I am still squeeing for joy at my successful heat embossing on vellum attempt! Bet you can see my happy dance if you look real close! 

Thanks for looking.  Now to get back to my table and get some more cards done!

Ingredients
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Smooth Solar White, Gold unknown, Gold Iridescent Vellum: The Paper Source;
Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps:3-step Hearts and Roses (Happy Anniversary); Recollections: Big One Double ; Clear Dollar Stamps June Flower of the Month;
Ink - Versamark;
Accessories - Embossing Power: Zing White, Zing Gold Glitter ; Paper Roses: Unknown; Pearls: The Paper Source ; Martha Stewart Border & Corner Punch: Modern Garland; Dimensional tape; Nestabilities: Hearts, Scalloped Hearts;



We're birds of a feather...

I made this card for my darling and long suffering husband.  He loves birds.  I decided I wanted to be very clean and simple and focused.  And yeah, that is ribbon on a guy card - that is how I roll (so 2008! Bwahaha)... ok I think I need less caffeine when I blog because it is getting a bit random in here... so I will just list the supplies as I think it is pretty self explanatory and yeah he liked his card *wink*

And yeah, I have the Memento markers and used them on the image and sentiment and the pad to stamp the texture on the row and the heart to ensure it "matched" the rest of the card.

Ingredients
Card size 8.5 x 5.5 inches
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth, Recollections Red;
Stamps - Gina K Designs: Heartily Yours, You Say Goodbye, and I Say Ello;
Ink - Memento: Tuxedo Black; Lady Bug Red; Cottage Ivy; Angel Pink; Dandelion;
Accessories - Spellbinders: Hearts Nestabilities; Brads; Dimensional tape; Ribbon;

Sparkly Owl of course...

So this card started out as a technique challenge for me.  I saw this card by uber talented Julie Ebersole.  Now I did do the covering the cardstock in glitter part, um and I was rather sparkly for a while.  You have been warned if you use this technique.  I decided that I would risk using a rainbow Big Juicy pad as I wanted to use this owl image for the card.  Nothing ventured nothing gained right?  So I stamped and would have crossed my fingers but was afraid that would affect my stamping.  

Then I wanted to create a panel with these rounded squares from Gina K Designs, Lots of Letters set.  I stamped and embossed them with clear embossing power to add another texture to the card.  Yeah, the stamping isn't perfect, but I kinda like it like that.  It seems mosaic-y (a good ol made up word by me).

I really like color with black and white.  Maybe I should have been a cartoonist.  But it always makes me smile in a grabbing the Sunday "Funnies" out of the paper before handing it to dad sort of way.  Am I the only one that used to do that? 

It was about at this point that it struck me that this would be a good card without the main image and a great masculine card so I should snap a picture when I assemble it.  And yeah, I did contemplate just not using the image, but the whole point of the card is that my mom like's owls... 

So then I got to thinking... this would probably make a great Masculine card.... so I decided to take a couple of pictures of the card assembled without the main image.  So here is the card without the owl image:

And here is the card with the main image as I completed it.  I think it could have worked either way.

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 x 5.5 inches

Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth, Wassau Textured paper black

Stamps - Gina K Designs: Lots of Letters; Kitchen Sink Stamps: Ready 4 any Holiday; Inkadinkado: Birds Galore;

Ink - Big & Juicy rainbow pad

Accessories - clear embossing powder, adhesive sheet, glitter, brads.

The card that sparked a conversation AKA Procrastination, CAS and Masculine cards.

 
So if you follow my blog (or wish to take a quick look) you can see I do a wide variety of cards.  Lately I have been coveting (there really is no other word) white space and CAS.  I was even thinking these are the "Perfect Masculine" cards.  So imagine my surprise when I collected my eldest from university (which is a 3 day event, two of those being travel) and the conversation goes a bit like this...

"Petal, have you been really busy?"

"a bit, why?"

"I can tell"

"How?" (me racking my brains to wonder how he can tell when he is so far away and I know I have dropped everything at a moment's notice like every supermom is supposed to in order to ensure he would have a relatively uneventful run into finals and no worries about home... oh my... my insecurities are running rampant... how did I fail this time... and yes this is a stream of conscious run on sentence in my brain)...

"well, its your cards"

"what?!"

"they are really plain"

well knock me over with a feather...."oh I thought you would like them really clean"

all is quiet queue tumbleweed..."I like every card from you"

Nice save there kid, cancel the tumbleweed, you know who is still funding your life! *wink*

So what does this have to do with procrastination - it really isn't that obvious except that I didn't want to blog about the card until I knew he received it and then life got in the way etc.  So procrastination meant I wrote a completely different post about this card than I would have written even just a week ago.

So CAS and Masculine - I love both.  I love CAS and Masculine because I do masculine all the time and I adore the white space of CAS.  I think however, I have to find a comfort level so my son doesn't read anything into my one layer stamped card with few embellishments and doesn't take that to mean that that card took me less time to make than one dripping with embellishments.
 

Oh and BTW I was completely inspired by this post Taheerah for the inside image- however unlike her I just colored the flag in on the stamp itself rather than using a kissing technique.  With all the empty space of the phone box it was pretty forgiving to just wing it.

 
Ingredients
Card size - 4.25 x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White;
Stamps - Gina K Designs: You Say Goodbye. and I say Ello;
Ink - Memento: Lady Bug Red, Danube Blue, Bahama Blue, Summer Sky;
Color - Marvy Le Plume Markers

Happy "Derby-Mom-Memorial-Flag-4th-Labor" Wreaths

So Tuesday night before Derby my mother asks for Red Derby wreaths that she can change the decorations on.  I told her that they won't hold up because the decorations really need to be glued.  So our plans evolved as we went shopping on Wednesday and talked...

On the trip our plans evolved into we don't want to change the wreath (nor store them) every couple of weeks and once we saw a mesh wreath made up with this stripe mesh and the stars and foil (those sticky out bits) and another beautiful white wreath with red roses the creative juices started flowing.  The striped wreath had a dense red bow which we both agreed was too "heavy" for the wreath so I got white organza ribbon with silver dots.

We discussed a blue based wreath but felt it would look odd on the door color (yeah that needs to be considered).

I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out considering my first and second attempts at these wreaths.  My Easter wreaths, which were ok but not great, really taught me that deco mesh needs to be "regimented messy" color needs to appear regularly but not in such a way that it creates a life of its own. 

Ingredients

• Wire frame
• Chenille wires
• 21 inch red, white, blue metallic striped Deco Mesh
• 6 inch red deco mesh
• 6 inch white with silver dots organza
• foil and stars table decoration
• Red silk roses.
• Floral tape.
• Hot Glue gun.

Ever had one of those weeks?

To be honest I am having one of those one step forward a bazillion steps backwards weeks.  I know we all do.  So imagine my shock when I logged into my blog and found this for my last card.

 

 

 

Good thing I was sat down! 

 

Seriously - it really was.  I still think you could knock me over with a feather.

 

Thank you so much for the selection it is great to play along at CASology

 

BTW my eldest loved the card!

"Hello"

I'm doing a two for one today which considering I have trouble doing a one for one challenge I'm somewhat pleased with myself.  So I am doing the CASology cue card - Word AND the OLW A-OK

I will be totally honest, I stamped this card and then saw both of these challenges.  Shhhh that's just between you and me right?   I'm just glad to be cranking out some cards again and posting them.

Second confession - I changed this card after I took this picture.  To be honest I was quite happy with the plain black on white but I just kept niggling that I wanted another step to it... some color. So I got out a modern square border and inked it up and UGH!  It pretty much obliterated the sign language!  I will be honest, I sent it anyway as I had already written the note on the inside and my son won't care it is a note from home.  Of course I *cough* accidentally *cough, cough* forgot to take that picture!!

Part of the inspiration for this is that my eldest attends Rochester Institute of Technology which is also the National Technical Institute for the Deaf with 10% of the student body being deaf, so he has learnt his alphabet so far and a few choice words that I'm probably not going to share in polite company.  It really does add an extra, unique dynamic to an already great school.  So that is my "A" = American Sign Language for the OLW challenge.

ETA - and yes it does say "hello"

Ingredients
Card Size - 4.25 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Smooth Solar White
Stamps - Viva LasVegastamps: Sign Language Alphabet
Ink - Archival Ink: Black

I need you to plan a surprise party in two weeks....

That was pretty much the request I got toward the end of February from my uncle.

Umm...Yeah...I can do that....I sat down and wrote out a plan of action and planned big and then pared it down.I really wanted to hide the walls.  You see we had the party in "our" karate school.  In the end I settled for covering the windows with long sheets of plastic table covering.  *sigh*  I just didn't have the manpower or time to do it.So realizing that wasn't going to happen I set about to hide the "ugly" spots.  Now don't get me wrong I love our karate school but it has awkward angles and things like punching bags hanging down and a makiwara board jutting up, older televisions sticking out.... yeah... I needed to optically hide things.

The plan -

• cover the windows to keep the surprise as long as possible.  One whole wall is windows.Clear the "school clutter" such as punch bag etc out of sight/access
• Make balloon towers to cover the awkward angles in the school visually and create an entrance which means making stands too.
• Hang decorative elements from the wall of mirrors (oh I didn't mention that we had a wall of mirrors too) and ceiling.
• Use table cloths and skirts in my supplies and hurricanes and candles (another of her favorites) with hurricane holders.  
• and 50 pink roses
• and DON'T PANIC!

I realized pretty quickly I need to be able to decorate in a way that I could set up in less than 6 hours which ended up being 3 1/2 with just two helpers - we did call a friend and I roped in my mother so I ended up with 4 helpers and we were still decorating when people were arriving early!! for the surprise party.  OK they weren't early but they were. I told people 6 pm to surprise at 6:30 - somehow that got turned into 5:30 to surprise at 6?!?!?!?!?!

What!?!?!?!

And that is why I don't haven't "pretty" here it is all set up and nobody here pictures.  I was still assembling the last balloon tower when everyone came pouring in.

And lets not even talk about the food.  I did most of it but not the desert table (isn't that beautiful *points to the left of the page)- a beautiful cake all those handmade flowers at the bottom of the table were off the cake, chocolate dipped strawberries, and chocolate 50s and cupcakes!

So honestly I don't know if we made it or not.  I do know I am not a caterer.  Oh that was nearly a disaster!

My pulled pork was tough so we had to BBQ it up. ACK!  The chicken tenders we got from the local restaurant were a bit meh!  The mac and cheese solidified!  The Mashed Potatoes had to be redone.  I will say my meatballs were wonderful and I could just about kick my mother who talked me out of country ham  (I wouldn't have stressed so much about the pork then!!!).  And green beans went down well.

And all this had to be transported out of town... hmm I wonder why I didn't get a card made for a few weeks... 

Oh and you can't tell but that 50 on the wreath is sparkly Krylon glitter paint on it!  And there were 5 mesh ball puffs hanging from the ceiling.

I made two more wreaths the traditional looping mesh way but TBH they weren't that special but we put them up anyway.

Well I hope you like what you see.  Next time I'm letting someone else cater.

I purchased my wreath and puffs supplies from Mardi Gras Outlet after seeing their tutorial for wreaths and puffs http://blog.mardigrasoutlet.com/2012/07/curly-deco-mesh-wreath-tutorial.html  and http://blog.mardigrasoutlet.com/2012/07/diy-party-puffs-topiary-with-deco-mesh.html 

and this is the video I used to learn how to make the balloon towers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL5lJegmHc