Everyday Celebrating

Frisbee invitations

School's out... summer is here... invite your guests over for summer fun by attaching your invitation to a frisbee!

And yes, they are mailable.  These mini frisbees from Oriental Trading costs 64 cents to mail.

photo credit:  Graceful Creative  

Get'em while you can!

Some Dollar Tree stores are featuring small aluminum bottles for $1.  Trendy and colorful, these make great giveaways or favors.  Having an outdoor gathering?  These are a perfect gift for guests. Having a Memorial Day BBQ?  Serve your beverages in these! 

Have a Cricut machine?  These are prime items to personalize! Think ahead for gifts you may need in the future.

DIY: Creative candy logos

This is a tale of how creative, fun celebrating can come out of the blue - every day!

A few weeks ago, I was meeting with Nicole, the owner of this amazing cupcake boutique in downtown Franklin, Tennessee - Naticakes.  We were bursting with ideas of parties and cupcakes and themes and charities when in walked a lady named Claudia.

Claudia was looking for a creative way to make a University of Tennessee logo on top of a cheesecake.  This cheesecake was to be a gift for a teacher friend and while she wanted it to be special, she had no idea how to re-create the logo.

Here's the logo - a simple letter T.

The conversation turned to candy and I told her that she could easily create a UT logo out of orange slice candy.  And I'd even draw it out for her to show her how.  Remember that candy?

Orange slice candy was perfect because it has one side that is almost straight and one side with a curve. These two elements are the same ones that primarily make up the UT logo.  AND, it was orange - UT's primary school color. I went back to my computer and drew out how to lay out the candies to create the logo and sent it off to Claudia.

A few days later, I received an email from Claudia along with this picture of her finished cheesecake!

See how she used the sides of the candies?



Claudia was thrilled to have a creative finished cheesecake to give to her friend and I was happy to have been there to meet her and come up with something fun!

Sidenote:  If you're ever in downtown Franklin, Tennessee - right outside of Nashville - pop into Naticakes and tell them Everyday Celebrating sent you.  The cupcakes are amazing!  See?

Curling ribbon wreath

Christy at Embellished Bayou saw an amazing curling ribbon wreath at a boutique, turned around and made her own for next to nothing!   Makes a great entry for any celebration!   So easy to make!  Just staple curling ribbon onto a wreath form!  Visit her blog to see the tutorial and the original boutique wreath.

These can be made in any color combination for any holiday, etc.  Fourth of July, Halloween, Easter, Christmas, in school colors for graduation, etc.

This wreath also would make a great addition to a centerpiece.  Stick a candle or vase of flowers in the middle!

 

Easy cupcake carriers

Real Simple magazine recently showed this easy way to transport cupcakes. 

Use a shirt box, cut one X per cupcake and push the corners down like pictured above. 

This is great for many reasons... don't have a fancy cupcake carrier?  don't want to lug one around?  wonder if you leave it somewhere if you'll get it back?

The box carrier is great to take to a child's party or office potluck or maybe you're donating cupcakes to a good cause or maybe you're bringing them to a tailgate.  It's lovely for the host not to have to worry about cleaning it and getting it back to you.  Just toss it when they are done!

Also, these can be used for cupcake display.  You can even cover the boxes with wrapping paper to match your decor.  Place them on a table for a uniform, modern look.

Stamping napkins

photo credit:  Family Circle

Like the look of imprinted napkins but not the cost?
Create cute personalized napkins to fit in with your decor by simply stamping them!
Get inexpensive white napkins and stamp each one with a theme.  One of the benefits of stamping is that you can have many different kinds of napkins for just the cost of a single stamp instead of custom imprinting costs. 

These make a great hostess gift as well!

Plaid pumpkins

photo credit:  Better Homes and Gardens

Aren't those plaid pumpkins cute?
I'm a sucker for plaid anyway, but those are really striking.

Keep these in mind for your Thanksgiving display.  Create a plaid with the colors of your Thanksgiving tablescape decor.  Create a design with acrylic paint and spray with a sealer coat.

These would also be cute for football tailgating.  Create a plaid out of you team's colors!

More Martha Stewart poms - with stems!

Yet another take on the ever popular Martha Stewart pom!  Stemmed poms!

PomLove creates these stemmed poms that are perfect vase fillers.  They come fully assembled and opened.  Just pull them out of the box, drop them in a vase and you have instant decor!

These would be great for tailgating.  Get the in your team colors and no regrets tossing them at the end for easy clean-up before the game.

Tailgating!

Football season is here and tailgate preparations are in full swing!  Let's look at some fun items to get the wheels turning ...

Just because it's a casual tailgate, doesn't mean you can't have fabulous invitations! 
I love these from Oriental Trading and they are on clearance!  $10 for a dozen!

These really add to the table.  A "turf" tablecloth

or table runner

Plum Party has this great inflatable cooler

For serving beverages, the Etch-It has become popular.  No coin needed!  Just scratch your thoughts on with your finger!  You can get these at quite a few supermarkets.

Lots of fun ways to become the ultimate tailgater!

Personalized banners

I've had a few people write in asking where you can get inexpensive personalized banners.  One of the best places to get banners featuring themes is Oriental Trading.  They have several of the common themes such as Luau and Farm!

Lots of common themes are included such as space, pirate, construction, etc. There are even plain banners and more adult themes like Casino, Classroom, etc.  Most banners are 50 inches X 20 inches and are $12.99!  A great find!