Under the Sea Invite

I had been thinking of ideas for my daughter's Under the Sea birthday party invites.   Well, before I go on, let me just say that it was a good thing I only needed 18 invites or I would have been way over my head! 

Well, this was a case where it took one product to get things in motion!  I found these Martha Stewart Crafts glass microbeads on clearance at Michael's for $2.50 per bottle.  I got the blue and the green.  I decided to do a rectangle card and use my Fiskars wave border punch across the top of the front of the card.  Then, I cut a second sheet but only about 1 1/2" wide and border punched it.  I ran all of those through the sticker maker and then poured a mixture of the glass beads on top.   This turned out pretty good!  Pictures below show those steps.

Then, I cut another 1 1/2" strip and border punched it.   I glued the beaded strip on top of the card front, just under the waves that were punched in the card base.   Then, I glued the next, plain green strip on top of the beaded strip.  My next layer was a piece of Bazzill double dot paper, cut down to about 4x4" and again, border punched across the top.   Once I did that I thought, 'oh how cute real sand on the ocean floor would be' so, I used my ATG and added a small strip of glue to the bottom of each, with a little curve to it.  I had some real sand that my little sis (Crazy Cricut Lady) gave to me and she also had the idea of adding gold glitter to give it a little sparkle.   So, there I went.

This is the final layer with the sand added.  But, I couldn't stop there when it came to added some visual texture!  I had this decorative cord that I got on clearance a couple of years ago, after Christmas.   It's feathery and I usually use it for wrapping BUT, when I cut the 'feathery' pieces back, it looked just like seaweed when it was attached to the card!!!   Woohoo!

So, then my Cricut cuts.   Using Life's A Beach, I cut the mermaid at 3" in a light yellow paper, her tail from Coordinations paper, her hair from kraft paper and then her top and flower using a solid pink.   I added aqua colored Stickles to the scales that cut on her tail and then I inked it so that you wouldn't see the yellow of her body.   I added a green pearl to her flower and inked in her facial features.   I pop dotted her on but, used a little glue to glue down her hands (so her arms wouldn't get ripped off). 

I cut the coral from the LAB cartridge as well but, I found that it was easier on my machine (AND ME) to cut it at 4" and then cut them apart to make them smaller and use them on several cards instead of just one.  I added yellow and orange stickles to some and then red pearl paint to the third, one for each card.   The inside says "Mermaids and fishes under the sea are singing Happy 4th Birthday to Avarie!!!   You are O-fish-ally invited to:"

Under the Sea Cutlery Caddy

A couple more posts left to go for my week of Under the Sea.   Today, I have the cutlery caddy that I bought for a party last year.   I re-did it this year with the theme.   I covered it with blue paper and then a strip of green all the way around, border punched with the Fiskar's wave punch.

I can honestly say that I don't recall the measurements that these were cut at but the dolphines, shells, coral, mermaid, and seahorse were cut from Life's a Beach.   I did add the eyelash ribbon for seaweed, some glitter stickles to the coral and liquid pearls to some of the shells.   I also embossed the seahorse with the 'reptile' embossing folder from the Cuttlebug animal set.   The mermaid had some stickles added and I used pen to add her face in.

On the opposite side, I added the whale from B is for Boy along with the shells, coral, and seaweed.   I used double dot paper for his blue body, added stickles to his spout, and a black gem for his eye.   This was also a big hit with the guests!

Under the Sea Centerpieces

Hello craft friends, hope you are all well today!   If you happened to see my under water creation yesterday on the Decorate to Celebrate challenge blog, you probably wondered why I didn't have the second picture posted on my blog.   Well, that was one of the 8 centerpeices that I made for the tables at my daughter's 4th BD party this past weekend.  

To make these centerpieces, I got 8 different large molded foam pieces from our return center (that I mentioned in yesterday's post) and I covered them with blue tissue paper.   The animals were all cut using my Cricut, two of each animal and then they were glued together with a floral pick taped in the center and google eyes added.  I poked each one down into the foam piece.   Once I had that done, I surrounded the foam with some blue cello and sea shells then I sprinkled brown sugar and swedish fish around to make it look like an ocean scene.   The little animals around each one are bean bags that I picked up for 3/$1 at a local discount store (from Target though).

In an effort to not make this post a massive one, I am going to list the different animals that I cut, the sizes and the cartridges and then a picture after.  Note that most of these cuts had to be moved around on Design Studio to make them at these sizes, sometimes hiding cuts.

This whale was cut from the B is for Boy cartridge at 14 1/2", I didn't cut his spout because I wanted him as big as I could get him.

Next is the Octopus from B is for Boy, cut at 11 3/4"

Then we have the Turtles from Life's a Beach, cut at 12 1/2" and two of them at 6 1/2" and some layers added

Next we have the dolphin from Life's a Beach cut at 12" and the Seahorse from Create a Critter cut at 14"

We also have two smaller dolphins cut at 6 1/4" and the jellyfish from Create a Critter cut at 13".   On the jellyfish, I cut the tenticles off and added some ribbon for the new tenticles.

And, we have the Lobster & Crab from the From my Kitchen cartridge, cut at 13" (this was one that you had to hide one animal to cut the other at that size. 

We also have this little whale from Create a Critter as well, cut at 11 1/2"

And last, we have the Octopus from Birthday Bash, cut at 11 1/2"

I have to admit that I was thrilled with the way these came out.   I think I spent $8 on the roll of cello, $3 on the tissue paper, $5 on the floral picks (and I have over half the package left over) and then $6 in bean bag animals.   I used the brown sugar and swedish fish for other parts of the party and got them both at Sam's so, I think total that was $10.  So, it was very cost effective and then I threw it all away afterwards except my animals and sea shells!

Under the Sea Birthday Party!!!

A couple of weeks ago I was asked by the very talented Rhonda & Amy, over at Decorate to Celebrate! to be a guest designer for this week's challenge...A Child's Birthday.  I was so honored to have been asked and then I realized, I needed to step up my game!  :) 

For this challenge, I created an under the sea oasis!  It really was quite inexpensive to pull this off because most of the materials were recycled packaging!!   The company I work for has a return center close to our headquarters so, I went over and collected the brown kraft paper that was already wrinkled up, some bright colored bubble wrap, and a couple other things that you might see in some later posts from me the rest of this week (wink wink).

I taped all of the sheets of kraft paper to the deck  and brought it up onto the rail as well.   Then, I took two plastic table skirts that I purchased for $.50 each at a local discount store and attached them to the top of the rail to look like the water.   I took some lightweight nets that I purchased for $1 each at Michael's and draped them across the back of the rail. 

The centerpiece of this creation was a large vinyl seashell (sewn by my crafty mom) and a banner that said Happy 4th Birthday Avarie!  I made the banner using my Cricut.   I cut the seashell from the Create A Critter cartridge at 5 1/4" in blue and then a second layer of them at 4 3/4" in green.   I cut the letters at 4 1/2" using Life's a Beach and then attached each piece to the next with brads and added some American Crafts wave ribbon for hanging.

Around the shell and banner, I stapled piles of tulle and the bright colored bubble wrap.   I added some seashells that I was able to collect, some $1 inflatables that I also found at Michael's, and some balloons.  And, the crepe paper you see in the first picture is a 'tp' job, of sorts.  The rolls were thrown up into the tree and then cut in different lengths   When the wind was blowing, it looked like peaceful ocean waves.  Pretty darn good for recycled packaging I think!!

Thank you Rhonda & Amy for inviting me to be a Guest Designer this week!  I am so thrilled and I hope you all enjoy my creation.   Check back throughout the week to see my invite, favors, food containers, centerpieces and even my 'Mussels in a Melon' and, if you like what you see, become a follower!!  Don't forget to join the challenge at Decorate to Celebrate and become a follower there too!  Have a great day!!

Bon Voyage

Today's card is one I made for a coworker who is retiring. She is going on a Hawaiian cruise so, what better than a card made with Life's a Beach! I started with the textured light blue card stock base and then added some waves. The waves were made with Core'dinations Color Core paper from the Aqua Blues collection that got at Pat Catan's. I cut the first color in a 1" strip an then the second color in a 1 1/2" strip then I used the Fiskar's waves border punch on them and then embossed them with the Sizzex swirls folder. I glued the larger one to the base and then pop dotted the smaller one for some wave dimension. The cruise ship I cut at 2 1/2" and decided not to use the smoke cut that goes along with it.

I cut the Bon Voyage out using the cruise ship key but, the Title Words creative key function but I cut the small cruise ship off. I cut the seagulls out using the Lighthouse key, shift, at 1" and then the sun, I cut using DS and removing the face. I cut it at 1 1/2" and then trimmed the sides so that I didn't use the entire sun but rather, part of it peaking from the corner. On the inside, I just added another trip of 'waves'.

MPS Challenge #6 - a card for a kid

Not sure which kid yet but, here's my gecko creation!

MPS Challenge #2 - Using scraps

So, the 'card' sheet wasn't scraps but, the rest was. =)