{Parties} Office Christmas Party

I whipped up a quick Christmas party for my officemates. We scored the Cityscape bar a few hours before it opened to the public, ordered some pizzzas, and hung out and enjoyed the company and the the views.

I was decorating this out-of-pocket, so I tried to do it on the somewhat cheap with tissue paper flowers, personal decorations, and cute Christmas crackers and cupcake flags from Mara-Mi.

 The cupcakes were from Sugar Bliss, of course. Their "hot chocolate" cupcake is like pure crack to me. Or at least what I think crack would be like.

The views are so amazing.

{Paper, Parties} Oh, By Gosh, By Golly, It's Time for Mistletoe and Holly

We celebrated our family's December birthdays at our place...with a houseful of people! Twelve adults and four kids was our (then) record for guests.

I had been hemming and hawing and brainstorming for an affordable idea for this table for over a month and ended up putting it together with things that I had around the house an hour before guests arrived. Andy and I found these antique candlesticks at an antique store in Wisconsin over the summer. I was so excited to see that they hold the electric "candles" that I bought a few years ago and never got to use. The flowers were a holiday bouquet from the grocery store. Andy was so proud of himself for picking them out.

I learned the hard way at Halloween that no one pays attention to photo or numbered wine charms. I used my Silhouette to cut personalized "wine charms" for everyone. They were brilliant.

But the place cards...they're definitely in my top 5 of all time. I loved them!

Each guest had a unique-ish design. I had 14 in total.

Even the kids got place cards - although, not a single one of them cared.

{Paper, Parties} Global Warming-Inappropriate** Birthday Party Photo Place Cards

Christmas has been in full swing up in here -- even a 2.5 week battle with bronchitis* and sinusitis couldn't even bring us down this season. The real fun begins this week.

The first of seven parties that we attended this month was a celebration of my mother-in-law, who turned a number that shall not be named. We celebrated at Chicago Cut, as is our sorta-milestone-tradition, with our other sorta-traditions, photo place cards and cake.

The cake was from Sugar Bliss. I *totally* recommend them! I scored the parrot tulips at the deli in the East Bank Club. How lucky was that? I was way too sick to walk to a real florist.

I made the cake topper by layering die-cut snowflakes with 3D foam squares and attaching them to wooden skewers. Not ideal, but it worked in a 2 a.m.-the-night-before pinch.

For the place cards, I used my Silhouette to cut 5.5 circles with the guest's name and a hole for the photo. Then, I inserted the photo and some shiny white paper behind the name. I attached the entire piece to an ornament card and embellished it with an off-white ribbon and more shiny white die-cut snowflakes. The napkins are cheapos from Home Goods. They're OK. They shrunk to cocktail napkins in the wash.

*I am pretty sure that I broke or pulled something major when coughing. 

**When Andy and I selected this not-to-Christmas Christmas snowflake theme back in October, we weren't expecting it to be 60 degrees in December. 

{Gifts, Paper} Gocco Note Cards

I've been dying to get my hands dirty on something other than a mouse, so I busted out the 'ole gocco printer to whip up a fast, personalized present for a friend's birthday party. I had a more elaborate design planned, but the screen didn't burn correctly. I couldn't bare to waste precious gocco supplies like that, so I cropped out the design for a minimalist set of personalized stationary.

I paired the cards with envelopes in an array of preppy colors.



I also included a white gel pen for writing on the dark envelopes and these cute postage stamps that will look great with all of the envelope colors.

In case you're curious, this was my failed design. Andy said he liked the final result better than the intended design.

I considered playing aroud with some washi tape, but decided to quit while I was somewhat ahead.

Not working with the gocco for a few years seems to have voided my memory of what a pain in the ass it can be. I thought this would take me 30 minutes or, you know, an hour and a half. GOCCO! Click here if you'd like to see my Gocco of Years Past.

RSVP

This is the best RSVP that I've seen in a while.

{wit & delight via Brooklyn Bride}

I'd get married every year if I could.

New Business Cards

I'm attending a free seminar on social learning next week and needed some business cards, as my work cards have an old name and company logo from three mergers ago. Since I primarily interact with internal employees, I really didn't think that people still used business cards. Then I attended an American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) conference in 2010 and spent three days writing my contact information on scraps of paper to enter contests and share with new friends.

I wanted something affordable with more substantial printing than my little Canon PIXMA printer. My name didn't fit in the adorable, but pricey, designs on Paper Source and Minted, so I checked moo.com during my commute home. Oh man! What a deal! The hardest part was reigning in my options. I finally went with these retro-ish asterisks that were stylish *and* somewhat applicable to communications and learning.

 

 

 

 

 

{Source, All Images: moo.com}

{Paper + Parties} Nursery-Inspired Gift Wrap

When celebrating friends, I like to wrap their packages in their favorite colors or try match the event's theme. (Remember these Crate & Barrel boxes from my friend's weddings in 2010 and 2011?)

For my friend Tara's baby shower this past weekend, I was inspired by her recent nursery blog post when selecting the packaging for her gifts:

{"Nursery Ideas" from In This Instance}

What a happy, sunshiny place for a little babe! To mimic the feeling for our group gift, I selected some beautiful handmade paper, a Snow & Graham favorite picked up at a cute neighborhood shop, hangar 18, and shiny satin ribbons.

{Photo by Ami of Elizabeth Anne Designs and Entouriste)

Running around the city looking for the perfect gift wrap may be ridiculous, but what fun it is!

{Paper} Washi Tape Place Cards

This month's brunch club gathering was a baby shower for our friend on Team Green, Tara. It was such a nice celebration as everyone contributed something. Colleen tirelessly hosted and made the most spectacular ham and cheese sandwiches I've had since France, Natalie baked incredible muffins, Ami took photos with her fancy camera, and devon made witty favors inspired by the super cute invitations received from Colleen. I don't want to share any photos in case Tara is planning on blogging about it, but here are some place cards that I designed using washi tape and my Silhouette SD.

{Photo by Ami of Elizabeth Anne Designs and Entouriste)

I downloaded the shapes from the Silhouette store and re-sized to fit my cards.

Next, I applied the tape to some regular text-weight printer paper. (This was a time-consuming task, so be sure to build some time in for it.)

Then, I ran that through the Silhouette machine using the largest blade tip. (Pink on my model.) It worked like a dream! I was short on time, so the back layer of the houses was simply cut out of plain gravel paper from Paper Source.

I ran all of the pieces through my Xyron 900 and assembled them on 4-bar note cards printed with each guest's name.

{Paper} Recipe Shower Invitations

I have a total party fail that turned out to be pretty cute nonetheless. My friend, The Wick, asked me to make some invitations for bridal shower she's hosting for a co-worker. She couldn't think of a theme, so I suggested a recipe shower inspired by the Taste Test Recipe book I've been eyeing at Anthropologie for the last year:

{Source, Book Images: Anthropologie}

I've been wanting to plan a party around this book ever since I saw it. I had envisioned stitched invitations with matching recipe cards and cute homemade linens. Unfortunately, none of that worked out. Here's an incriminating photo to prove it:

So yeah, I bagged that. Then I sat on the project for three weeks feeling uninspired and not knowing what to do...until I purchased the "Mishka" and "Mishka Ornaments" fonts from My Fonts. I love them! They really made the design fall into place.

Envelopes

Return Address  Label

Envelope Liner

I designed an envelope liner using a Mishka Ornaments character.

Invitations

I scanned the cover of the book and cut the spoon out as a template. I then traced it onto the thick cardboard tops from carryout containers purchased at the Dollar Tree. I tried roasting pans for a shinier look, but they were too flimsy.

The inside of the invite included a recipe card in the party colors and a giant ribbon from Mishka Ornaments.

Miscellany

I also made some miscellaneous signage, streamers, and paper elements with directions for the guests.

There were two styles of food cards in the party colors. The book pages are bright red, green, and orange, which is fun, as the bride and all of her guests are elementary school teachers.

I originally planned to hand cut some spoons and stitch them to the cards with rainbow thread, but decided to use my Silhouette and some silver paper for a cleaner look (and less work).

In lieu of a guest book, the guests will leave messages on the inside covers of the recipe book. Wouldn't you love to have that in your kitchen? It would make me so happy.

"Book Plate" for the Recipe Book

{Holidays + Paper} Last Minute Easter Treats

I had to make an unplanned grocery store run on Easter morning, so I impulsively picked up my family members' favorite snacks for impromptu Easter treats. And by impromptu, I mean, I rushed home, downloaded some bunny shapes from the Silhouette Store, had the machine cut them while I was in the shower, tossed some names on them, and assembled them in the car ride out to the suburbs. Still pretty cute though, no? If there was life before the Silhouette SD, I don't remember it.

Since I was on a roll, I decided to add some rabbit labels to our niece and nephew's baskets as well.

Incidentally, Andy was "upset" that he didn't get a special bunny treat...even though he got his own, ugly - but delicious - pound cake with special white frosting.