LDS Baptism Invitation (free download!)

This is the super cute invitation I "made" for my friend whose son is about to be baptized: 

I was REAL happy to find this adorable downloadable invitation that could be personalized:

Loving Life Designs was kind enough to make this available for FREE for anyone to download and it even comes in two other colors. All you need is Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and it's extremely easy to figure out, even if you don't really know what you're doing... like me!

Oh by the way, you might have noticed that I used a different font than she did. Instead of downloading the one suggested, I just used a font I already had called "Rosewood" but if you do want to download it, you can do so for free.

It's that easy folks.

Free Digital Scrapbook Software! My Memories GIVEAWAY!

[This Giveaway is now closed, congrats Heather Ashton!]

Paper Flower Bouquet

What do you do when you need to cheer someone up with flowers and you want to do it on the cheap? Get out some paper and a glue gun to make a paper flower bouquet using Jones Design Company's tutorial here! 

I tweaked it by using scrapbook scissors and skewers. In hindsight I wish I'd put the pointy end of the skewer inside the flower. Use ribbon to tie a bow and you're done!

Princess Party

Here are a few cute ideas for a princess party using Make The Cut software and a Cricut machine:

I found crown templates online (girl's and boy's) that I re-sized to be a bit smaller and then merged them into one piece instead of two. I had the kids glue the shapes on the crowns then stapled the band to the back.

The applique on her shirt was also cut using my Cricut but if I did it over I'd just do fabric by hand because I think it dulls the blade.

This picture is hard to see but I found a simple dress image and put each letter on each dress cutting them both (dress and letter) out. The letters that had pieces inside (like R or D) that needed to stay attached were just taped together and it wasn't too noticeable.  

Another hard to see picture has the stars hanging in the windows. They were made from the same posterboard as the crowns. Hang with fishing line or invisible thread and add some pretty lights for a very girly/princess-y look!

"MOM" Photo Blocks

How sweet are these photos of me and my mom from way back? I just got a bunch of old photos scanned to a disk at ScanMyPhotos. Normally it's pretty expensive... I'm talking $100 for a thousand photos... but I got a really sweet deal through Groupon - a thousand photos for $29!!!. Love Groupon.

SO I printed these ones on my black and white printer on regular printer paper, mod podged them to some 3.5"x3.5" wood blocks that I painted black, and added the letters cut from paper using my Cricut.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Faux Vinyl Tile

Looking for a cute home decor item you can make with items you probably have on hand?

Check out The Hybrid Chick's great tutorial here to make your own tile

A few tips:

Home Depot will cut your tile for free even if you don't buy it there

If you don't have Photoshop just use funky fonts in Paint or Word

Don't be stingy with the Mod Podge when adhering the paper to the tile

Birthday Party Ideas

Note that parts of this are Spiderman themed and others are not... it wasn't intended to be themed but it came together that way more and more as we prepared it all.

First project made with my new $59 Cricut!! Thank you Black Friday! I even laminated them :)

The hubs gets credit for this awesome web made out of streamers:

How cool is this thing?!

I made him re-create it for the party that weekend - look in the back corner at the big one. Awesome!

Here's the little "practice cake" we gave him on his actual birthday:

Here's the big cake for his party. I ordered a plain white cake from Costco and decorated it myself.


I originally made these cool recycled envelope bags using this tutorial from What About Orange. Then I put a sticky hand in each once and the oil from it made it look like a greasy fast food bag :(

So when I saw these on It Is What It Is, I knew what I had to do. I used my circle cutter to cut out the "D" and I cut out a blue background with my scrapbook scissors. I glued them onto paper bags and tied with a cute ribbon. Ta-da.

Now that my gift bags were 10 times bigger they looked empty so I made these simple party favors. I used this Pinwheel tutorial from City Cradle Design for the paper part but I didn't have any dowels and every other tutorial said to use a push pin and a pencil. I wanted them more toddler-friendly so I used a bendy straw with a pom-pom hot-glued to the front. After playing with it post-party, I found they work better when you flatten the paper. Oh well.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Birthday Banner

Hi! Remember me?!

It's been a while I know.

So here is another goodie from a while ago since I don't have anything new to share! Thanks to Darling Darleen for sharing this easy, free, personalized happy birthday banner that I've used twice already (btw you must check out her friggin sweet monster truck costumes she made for the party out of cardboard boxes). I had the first banner saved on my computer so the second time around I simply changed the font color, child's name and added "1st". I also tied on some leftover tulle that you can barely see in the pic. Here is my original document in case you don't want to bother choosing fonts and colors. Enjoy!

Tutorial: How To Make A Cupcake Stand (CHEAP!)

I should change my blog name to "Cheap and Easy" LOL

Mini Badge Album

How cute is this mini photo album!? I used the tutorial and FREE layout from Paige and Brooke and luckily my friends were nice enough to let me come over (twice) and use their Photoshop since I am a loser and don't have it on my computer. Thanks Adam & Jenn! This is a great Mother's Day gift and it's also great for kids (my 2 year old loves to look at pictures) because it's inexpensive and easy to make in case they ruin it and easy to clean off in case they get food and gunk on it :) LOVE IT. Oh and make sure you use a lighter on the edges of your ribbon so they don't fray.

~Star

Baby Shower Scratch Cards - Free PDF

These are scratch off lottery type cards you can use for a baby shower game and whoever gets 3 matching items wins a prize. I drew up this little stick baby in Paint that you are welcome to use or you can just make a picture of your own. If you want mine (it has enough for 20 cards) just click here to print it.

I looked up how to make the scratch off part because using a crayon wasn't that cute and I found this helpful idea from ArtMind. I didn't have contact paper but I had iron on vinyl so I used that instead and I used a wide paint brush to put one stroke of the dishsoap/paint mixture across the items all at once. I had to put 2-3 coats on each.

For a baby girl, tie a knot in some ribbon, use a lighter on the edges, hot glue it just under the baby's hair and glue it to some cute pink cardstock and you're all set! Don't forget to bring pennies for the guests to use to scratch it off.
My dear sweet friend was nice enough to help me put these together because I of course did them at the last minute and needed extra hands big time - thank you so much Debs! They turned out great!

~Star