Tissue Paper Poufs
March 4th, 2010 § 1 Comment
It’s the new, cheap Japanese lantern! And much more eco-friendly as you can recycle these when you’re finished or simply disassemble them for gift wrapping or packing. I would love to re-use this idea using newspaper, maybe for a black and white party, a New York party or a 20′s era party.
I hung about a dozen of these from the ceiling at my Disney Princess Party to create the feeling of puffy clouds. You will need eight sheets of tissue paper in the color of your choice and string or floral wire. Idea inspired by Martha Stewart’s Tissue Paper Pom-Poms.
- stack all eight sheets on top of one another
- fold lengthwise back and forth accordion-style until you have one small long stack
- tie around the middle with the string or wire
- turn the stack on its side and begin pulling the sheets apart and to the center until you have one giant sphere of paper
- tie around the middle and hang from the ceiling
Princess Party Invitation
March 3rd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Invitations to my Disney Princess Party. I started with a tiffany-blue blank card. Using white card stock and pinking shears, I cut out a white square, gluing half to the backside of the card and folding the other half over to make a flap. I then glued a fabric rosette to the front tip of the flap.
Inside the card, I first measured the inside of the card and then used Photoshop to create the insert with the invitation details to glue to the inside. I loved the Old English font to give the invitation a medieval look.
To make the pop-up crown: first cut out your crown and fold the bottom backwards. cut out a small strip of paper and fold the top forward and the bottom back to make a “z”. With the invitation opened to your desired angle, glue one end to the middle of the back of the crown, the other end to the invitation, and the folded bottom of the crown to the bottom of the invitation.
For the insert: I used an Apple Craft Punch to cut out apple shapes from red iridescent craft paper and used a glue pen and red glitter to outline the apples. I then glued to the cards after printing them on card stock.
Lesson learned: when dealing with pop-up cards and other cards involving heavy paper, bring them to the post office for mailing instead of trying to guess how many stamps you’ll need. You will have less invites mailed back to you asking for more stamps!
I spent hours surfing the web for the right inspiration. This was one of my favorites from a UK site- Thyme Graphics
Tissue Paper Roses
March 3rd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
You can’t have a Disney Princess Party without roses (if you remember, that was the enchanted flower that starred in Beauty and the Beast.) You will need about three to six sheets of tissue paper for each rose.
- First, stack two sheets together and fold into sixths.
- Cut a large heart shape out of the tissue paper, you should now have twelve large hearts.
- With the third sheet, fold into sixths and cut a teardrop shape out to make six teardrops.
- Start making the middle of the rose by curling one of the teardrops on itself, holding the pointy end in your fingers.
- Keep adding teardrops, layering on one another until you run out, fanning the rounded top part outward.
- Begin adding the hearts with the curved end out, laying more and and pulling the tops outward and back.
- Twist the bottom and secure with a piece of tape.
DIY $2 Thrift Store Cake Stand
March 2nd, 2010 § 1 Comment
You heard that right- $2.00. Can you tell? So simple. The base is a 99-cent candleholder glued to a 99-cent clear glass plate (make sure you wash the plate first.) I used hot glue because I wanted to be able to pull off the plate and paint the base different colors whenever I feel like it to match my party/mood. If you want a more stable piece I would suggest super glue. 
This is a great piece for food displays but you can also use it as a home decor piece by topping with pillar candles, decorative ornaments, or fruit.
Glittery Apple Decorations
March 1st, 2010 § 2 Comments
Believe it or not these are real apples glammed up for my Disney Princess Party to go along with my Snow White-themed bathroom. All you need is red tempera paint, a paint brush and Martha Steward glitter in Garnet. Simply apply a few coats of paint to the apple- drying for one to two hours in between coats. On the final coat, cover the apple with the glitter immediately after coating while the paint is still wet. After it dries, shake off excess glitter in the sink and decorate at will!
One of my guests at the party is planning a Twilight-themed bachelorette party and was so excited about the apples for her party. Definitely will have to make new ones!
Glitter Birthday Candles!
January 10th, 2010 § 1 Comment
Give your next birthday cake a little more sparkle- I took some ordinary birthday candles and gave them a makeover.
You’ll need candles, spray paint, loose glitter, spray adhesive, and newspaper. I used the cheap-o glitter but will definitely use the Martha Stewart glitter next time since the glitter is finer and more sparkly.
Cover your work area with newspaper- preferably do this outside so you don’t accidentally spray your walls or bathtub (case in point.) Lay out the candles and spray with the spray paint. Allow to dry for about an hour. Turn the candles over and repeat. After the paint is dry, spray the candles with spray adhesive and immediately cover with loose glitter. One nice little surprise I got with these candles is when they were lit, the multicolored wax dripped down the gold to make a fun unexpected effect that surprised the guests. 
Apparantly Amzon sells these Colorflame candles that burn multicolored flames. Love it!
Lingerie Themed Bachelorette Party Invite
January 3rd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
This is an invitation for your sassy bride-to-be’s bachelorette party- take it one step further by asking all of the guests to bring a lingerie-themed present for the bride.
You must open the bra to see what’s inside!
It is so easy to make!
You’ll need paper in baby pink, black and white; envelopes in black or white, white paint, a paintbrush, glue, scissors, ribbon, and craft scissors.
To make the center-open invitation just measure the paper twice the width of the envelope and cut out
Next, paint white stripes on the paper to give it a French boutique look
While the paint dries, cut the bra out by folding the black paper in half, drawing half of the bra, and cutting out. When the paper dries, turn in over, measure out the center of the paper and mark- fold each end into the center. Next, glue the bra on the front of the invitation and cut along the center. Cut out a lace trim with your craft scissors and the white paper and glue on the top of the bra. Cut the ribbon in half and glue each half to the center of the bra, wrong side down. Next, either write your own details on the inside, or print it out, cut to ft the inside, and glue. Tie into a bow and you’re all done!
Make a Gaga-licious Party Crown to Ring in the New Year with Style
December 30th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Ever since I first saw Lady Gaga’s crazy crown in her Bad Romance music video I have wanted an excuse to make one and wear it- what better excuse than New Years Eve?
It was so easy- to add a little more glamour I covered the inside of the crown with glitter. Here’s what you need:
- Shiny black card stock or posterboard
- Loose glitter (I love Martha Stewart’s because it is oh so fine)
- Glue
- Scissors
First I cut out the wacky squiggles, next smeared the backside with glue and covered with glitter. After the glue dried completely (a couple hours at least) I stapled the ends together. Staples are a little cheezy but hey its a party hat and the material is pretty stiff.
I taped a piece of leftover paper to the inside- this will be used to bobby pin the crown.
Ta-daaaa! Or maybe I should say “Ga-ga Oh LaLa!” Happy New Year everyone.
Nightmare Before Christmas themed Christmas card featuring Zero
November 13th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
If you liked the Nightmare Before Christmas here’s a card featuring Jack Skelington’s little ghost-dog Zero flying through the night sky. So cute!
It’s really simple to make- you just need blank cards, sparkly black paper, white paper, toilet paper or Kleenex, a red rhinestone, red puffy paint, a marker, scissors and glue.
First cut out the head and drew in eyes and the mouth
Then cut the sparkly paper and glue on the front of the card
Glue the tissue to the card first, then glue on the head
Finish by gluing on the rhinestone, making the candy cane with the paper scraps and paint, and paint a collar
I’ll be honest I couldn’t come up with anything clever to put inside so go crazy!
“Join Me For Some Boo’s!” Cute Halloween Invitation with Instructions
October 4th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
I got this inspiration from my new cousin’s wedding invitations- instead of the traditional folded invite, stack two papers and bind together with a strip of decorative paper (“belly band” in marketing talk.) Stay tuned and I’ll post a download to the “boo!”s and the inside with the vintage papery background.
I even lined the envelope for extra- fanciness
Here are all of the pieces laid out.
What you need (everything but the “boo!”s and inside parts) are from Michael’s:
- sparkly black paper
- matte black paper
- textured orange paper
- Spook Alley paper book
- elmer’s glue
- black envelopes
- foam mounting tape
- silver glitter
- scissors
Instructions
- trace the square side of one of the envelopes onto scrap paper to make a template for the invite, leave 1/4 inch because the invite will be bulky
- cut out the orange and the matte black paper to the template, and chop off the bottom inch for the accent paper
- cut the sparkly black paper to 2″xwidth of the invite, glue to the back of the black matte paper
- cut purple paper (from the Spook Alley book) to 2″xwidth of the invite, glue to the back of the orange paper
- on the black paper, draw a spider web with the elmer’s glue and sprinkle with silver glitter
- with one sheet of ghost paper, cut out ghosts of varying sizes and tape with foam mounting tape to the black paper
- print out boo’s and the inside of the invite (download coming soon!), cut out and glue
- tape a ghost to the orange piece
- cut out a strip of ghost paper to 1″ wide, and cut length so it can wrap around the 2 pieces stacked and easily slide off. glue ends together
- with another piece of purple paper, trace the envelope with the flap open, and trim small strips away until it easily slides inside with the glue on the top showing.
- glue the purple piece into the envelope
- finito! happy haunting.
