button cherries

Welcome PTI blog hoppers!

Tomorrow's my last day of teaching before a 3-week spring break!  (I must say, I LOVE year-round schedule.)  So, hours after my last class we'll be on the road for an up-the-coast trip, San Diego to Seattle.  I haven't had much time to craft, but inspiration came from the blogs this Sunday morning!

I made a set of thank you's - inspired by Mish's cherry card post (here) and a CPS sketch (here).  I love that this sketch made me think to try new ways of cropping papers, which now I'll try again!  First I made this card:

But I really wanted to use some chartreuse ink so I made this one, stamping the sentiment in hibiscus:

At that point, I had to have a trio, so naturally there would have to be hibiscus - back to scarlet jewel ink for the sentiment:

Inside  is a strip of coordinating paper with a thank you sentiment from Big & Bold Wishes, along with a little cherry stamp.  The card front sentiment is from the Basic Grey gamma series.  I discovered you don't need the die to cut this label - just trim the frame and use a ticket-corner punch.  I also fell in LOVE with the rustic white PTI CS - that is THE best new neutral for me!

Enjoy your night, cherry bombs!

SUPPLIES:

stamps - PTI Everyday Button Bits, Fillable Frames #1, Big & Bold Wishes (not pictured, inside card), Paper Tray (not pictured, back of card); Basic Grey gamma series
paper - PTI kraft, new leaf, aqua mist, hibiscus, rustic white; Basic Grey lemonade series
ink - PTI chartreause, aqua mist, hibiscus, scarlet jewel; linen Distress Ink
accents - PTI vintage scarlet jewel buttons, cream twine

tools - Glue dots, adhesive

party thanks

These cute little teapot thank you cards were the perfect end to our Alice-inspired 'tea' party birthday (see previous post, here).  I just had to bust out the Cricut again.  They coordinate with the teacup invitations (here).  I white embossed the image onto PTI cardstock.  The swirly vellum is Michaels circa 2004 (leftovers from wedding invites.  I wrote on the insides in most of them with white in.  

 I have 3 Cricut cartridges but everything I cut is from A Child's Year - for this party there were red roses with green leaves, purple & green Mad Hatter's hats, and a banner in pink, mint, blue and purple.  

We decorated the back patio with crepe paper, balloons - half of them polka dot with big white spots, and mixy-matchy dinnerware, all in the same fun colors.  We hung a few strands of white star lights and put out some pretty tulips.

The HIT for the four-year old crowd were the cake pops.  Bakerella of course (here).  These were definitely red velvet yummi-ness.  They stand in a foam rectangle covered in a sheer ribbon.  I used sewing pins to push in a few buttons I've had lying around from making an Alice costume years ago.   

(HOW does Bakerella make the pops look so perfect???  I tried two batches - one with melted white choc. chips and another with Wilton candy melts - both times it was very gloppy).  

Here's a little gift set for Caitlyn from us - CASEd from Nichole (here).  I LOOOVE this beauty she made! (Nice how I didn't take the time to iron the recycled ribbon ;)


Alas, for more photos.  Before I knew it, the day was simply,

going...

 going...

GONE! 


CAKE POPS HINT: after you've coated the cake pops for use in the display you'll have 40-something cake pops left in a typical batch. TOO many to coat (at least, for me).  Instead I chilled the cake pops, then melted white chocolate chip, put the chocolate in a baggie, cut off the tip, and drizzled them on the cake balls.  I did the same with dark chocolate chips.  Deeelicious, easy and yummy for the adults too.

xoxo,
cch

caitlyn's tea party

4 years old - wham!  It sneaks up on you.  Suddenly your baby is gone and there's this fun little kid in her place.  We had a tea party - with Alice-y touches here & there.  The favors are one of the new templates at PTI and designed to compliment the invitations (here).

 The polka dots are white filigree embossed and the buttons are tied with 1/4" white silk ribbon.  The handles are cute, cheap-o Michael's ribbons, where I picked up the color-coordinated M&Ms (NOT cheap).  They only had dark green chocolates, which would not do, but I found green gums balls in the wedding area.  Perfect.  Gum is relatively new to most 4 year olds, so it was fun to watch them run around the backyard with their bags of candy *bad Waldorf mom* 

 

I put the Cricut to use with a sign taped to the side of our house (and not the best morning light).  There's also a little peak of the red roses & Mad Hatter hats I cut out in the upper corner of this shot (I meant to stick a little 10/6 tag in the hat but, you know, ran out of time).  Check out that amazing homemade hat gift.

The kids decorated paper bag hats - of course I took no photos.  We had a good playset sesh, a borrowed jumpy-jump, and an easy finger-food buffet.  There were pitchers on the side of Iced Cookie Tea & Peppermint Candy Iced Tea.  Everything went off well :)

More photos are coming - I just can't remember which Mac I downloaded them on to...

xoxo,