Everyday Celebrating

Custom maps

As you probably would've guessed, I was one of those brides that made my own wedding invitations. This was back when that wasn't popular and there wasn't a lot of ideas to go by on the internet.  That was back when Crane's still ruled and you went searching over books and books of "eh" invites. 

One of the hardest tasks of my involved invitation was the map.Luckily, I'm pretty good with publishing software, but still, it was a chore.  Just getting it to some kind of scale, etc, was awkward and difficult.

But today, there are plenty of amazingly talented people that you can hire to just design your map!
Like the ones above from Go Against the Grain.

For $35, they'll create a 2 sided design that you can print yourself.  WELL worth the money, let me tell you!

And you can have one designed for any type of occasion.  Not just weddings.  Believe me, your guests will thank you! 

Flip Flop cake

It's August and the summer is beginning to make the decent into fall.  Plan one last fun treat before the kids head back to school with this flip flop and sand cake.

Recipe here.

Bake it Pretty!

 

 

Bake It Pretty makes me happy!
Lots and lots of adorable accessories and confections to add to your baked goods such as these cupcake liners.  And these adorable sugar buttons already made and ready for your desserts.

 

They have edible glitter and super cute straws like these:

 

And one of my favorites, the love toast stamper!

Smilebooks at BlogHer!

 

You may have seen the button on the sidebar there.  This one:

That's one of the largest blogging conferences in the United States and it's sold out.  As always.
I'll be there representing several sponsors and one of them is the fine folks at Smilebooks.com

SmileBooks helps you turn your favorite digital photos into treasured photo books. Within minutes you can download SmileBooks free software and begin creating permanent photo book memories.  When you're done, fill out the order form and within days you'll receive your incomparable quality photo book.  Create memories that last a lifetime, in no time at all with SmileBooks photo books.

They have several sizes to create and also great templates if you're not that creative.  However, if you do want complete control over the design of your pages, you have that capability. 

I found the software to be easy and self explanatory.  The preview was clear and I loved how it would immediately tell if your photos were not going to print at a high quality level.

To show you an example, here is one of the booklets that Smilebooks prints.  What you are seeing here are the custom designed idea books I'll be passing out at the BlogHer conference.  Please leave me a comment if you're going to be at the conference.  I'd love to meet you and load you down with some swag!  :)

If you click on the photo, you can see more detail.  The pages are a beautiful gloss and really are coffee table quality.  They make beautiful hardcover books that are perfect gifts or a great way to celebrate a special occasion such as an anniversary, birthday, graduation or wedding.

Stay tuned!  Smilebooks and Everyday Celebrating is going to be having a fun competition through this blog with lots of fun prizes!

But for now.. Smilebooks wanted to celebrate blogs and the people that read them by giving a 25% discount to readers.  Simply type in the code Blogher25 at checkout to receive your discount! 

So get busy creating a book of memories! You don't need an occasion.. how about making a Summer Fun book or a book with your vacation photos?

Don't forget!  If you're going to the BlogHer conference... leave me a comment!

Enjoy!

Creating fruit slice fillers.

Jennifer wrote in asking about this simple centerpiece I put together for a wedding shower.  Her wedding is in a month and she's finalizing details of her centerpieces and wondered how to put these together.

This centerpiece is created in a short, square vase found at places like Walmart.  You can do one of three things to achieve this:

1.  Place the flowers in FIRST, then slide the lemon slices in and arrange. Plan on using one or more lemons per vase.  You want to fill the space up with slices, eliminating wiggle room. 

2.  Find a smaller vase to sit INSIDE the larger vase.  Put the flower stems in the smaller vase and slide the lemons in between the smaller vase and the larger one to create a boundary.  Be careful in not filling the vase too full or the water will overflow.  Go with less water in the beginning.  You can always add more.

3.  A new technique to achieve this look is using jello as vase filler.  Use a clear jello (white grape).  Let it firm up quite a bit, then slide in the slices.  Jello is a great way to add an additional color to the vase as well.

Hope this helps!  Jennifer, we'd love to see photos of your beautiful wedding!

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Don't forget to enter the Carolina Pad giveaway!  A cute set of Kendall Collection paper products!
Enter now!  Here!

Easy drink labels

An easy way to label your drinks!  Martha Stewart provides lots of free downloads and templates for these types of details.  It's categorized as an escort card template, but.... print it out, cut them up and add them to cardstock to label items for your guests.

Labels seem obvious?  Think about things like sweet versus unsweet tea.  Do you have diabetic guests?
Or that lemonade up there?  Could easily be a limeade.  Who knows?

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Don't forget to enter the Carolina Pad giveaway!  A cute set of Kendall Collection paper products!
Enter now!  Here!

Still time to make: easy July 4th display

Another easy way to add the famous 3 colors to your holiday display!

Layer candy in mini bottles or vases!

Get cheap mini glasses, bottles and vases at Goodwill or the Dollar Store!

credit:  Better Homes and Gardens

Still time to make: Tin Can Luminaries

Only a couple more days until the big celebration weekend!  There's still plenty of time to crank these out for your gathering.

You'll need:

• Empty vegetable or soup cans - clean and without labels
• Water
• Nail
• Hammer
• Scrap paper
• Ruler
• Tape
• Spray paint in red, white, and blue

1.  Begin the tin can luminaries by filling the cans up to the top with water, then place them in the freezer until the water is frozen solid.  This will allow you to hammer a nail into the side of the can without the can denting.

2.  Next, think about some designs you want to punch into the sides of the can. 

3.  Continue making the tin can luminaries by using a nail and hammer to punch out the design.  Start at one end of the pattern and place the nail along the line.  Gently pound the nail in with a hammer.  The nail will go through the can into the ice.  Continue working around the pattern until the design is punched out.

4.  Allow the ice in the can to melt, and dry the can completely.

5.  Next, spray the bottom portion of the cans blue with the blue spray paint.  Protect your work surface with newspapers and use good ventilation

6.  When the cans are completely dry, cut a piece of scrap paper to wrap around the can.  Make it 1/3 the height of the can.  The cans I used were 4.5 inches high, so I made my first strip of paper 1.5 inches.  Wrap the paper around the bottom part of the can, covering the blue painted area, and tape it closed.

7.  Now take the cans outside again and this time give them a good spray of the white spray paint, and allow the cans to dry well.  When they are dry you can remove the paper strip.

8.  Next, make another paper strip 2/3 the height of the can.  Secure around the blue and white portions of the can, leaving only the top portion exposed, and secure with tape. Take the cans outside again and this time spray the top section with the red spray paint, and allow to dry.  Remove the paper strip and you will see the pretty red, white, and blue stripes.

9.  If you want to further decorate the tin can luminaries, this is the time to do it.  If you would like the designs you punched to show up better you can paint them a different color, such as black.  When you are ready to illuminate, add a little sand to weigh down the cans and add a tea light candle.

credit:  crafts-for-all-seasons.com