Cheap and Easy Abstract Art

Over a year ago, I decided to try my hand at some mid-century inspired art for my fireplace.

{Photos from Casa Sugar}

It seemed simple enough and I excitedly picked up a canvas back in the fall. And then it sat there for six months. As I always do in the spring, I got a bug up my butt to get my apartment in order and decided to finally give it a try. I followed the advice I read on Oh Happy Day! and practiced on a small canvas. It looked like total crap. Then I remembered a decoupage canvas that I spotted in HGTV Magazine while on a flight:

 

{Source: HGTV Magazine}

I may not be able to control a paintbrush, but I could tear up paper, right? The next day, I ran to Paper Source and bought every color of tissue that they sell. Then I went to town with some Modge Podge.

The big orange piece reminded of that giant fat cat photo,
so I tried layering some big pieces on it. Ha! He's still there.

And here's the finished product:

As cheese as it is, I totally love it! It brings some much, much needed color to that dreary, light-less corner. Even Andy was surprised by how it turned out. He admitted to some doubt when he arrived home from the gym and saw me standing in a pile of shredded tissue paper.

You can see some of the inspiration that I pinned here.

Happy Easter Birthday to You

We celebrated three birthdays on Easter...

 

...with Easter bunnies and party hats!

40th Birthday Tea for LP

My bestie planned an afternoon tea for herself in honor of her birthday back in January. I snuck in a little early and did it up right with party hat menus and flowers in her favorite colors. And, of course, plenty of cute and embarrassing photos, courtesy of her mom and my old snapfish account. They showed off her perm and puka shell necklace, cheerleading days, and mall portraits of years gone by. But this one was my favorite:

 

These menus were a m*&%#$)! @%*' labor of love. They started out as party hats and several late nights and tearful fits later, I ended up with these square cards.

For her gift, my friend and I pitched to give her a few things to help in her persuit of her favorite things:

• Sunshine: a monogrammed beach bag and beach towel,
• Inner Peace: a gift certificate to bloom yoga studio, a line-a-day journal and a 7-year pen, and 
• Good Food: a gift certificate to her favorite veggie diner.

 

Also, because I'm insane. I whipped some personalized stationery for her 10 minutes AFTER I was supposed to be getting in the shower. (I am probably being dramatic on that.)

Gondola Place Cards

We celebrated Gnocchi Night this past Saturday. I watched the Rick Steves episode on Venice the weekend before, so I was in a gondola mood when I made these place cards.

These went through SEVERAL variations before I settled on the final product. I tried using shredded crepe paper for the seats, which led to this conversation:

Tina: "Does this look like an opulent gondola or a submarine on fire?"

Andy: "It looks like a Viking ship that is in serious trouble."

Tina: "Damn. What do I do to make them opulent?"

Andy: "I don't know. But not that. Put these on. They'll help." <hands me my glasses>

I finally gave in and cut some boring seats, but wanted to do something special for the birthday guests. I was trying to tie some paper balloons to them (Harder then it sounds. Believe me.) when it hit me. A  FULL OF BALLOONS! Now *that* is a world that I want to live in. I just need to learn Italian to make it happen. And take someone to Venice for their birthday.

Gnocchi Nights Past: 2011, 2012

Homemade Stationery Gift Set

I drew my sister-in-law's name in the family grab bag this Christmas. She asked for a personalized stamp, which I scored on sale. Since I had some extra change, I decided to gocco print some stationery for her. BUT, I didn't know which name to use - her first name, which she uses at work and with friends, her middle name, which she uses with family, or her formal name, which she uses with her students. So I decided to do all three! I checked with a friend for reassurance that it wasn't tacky to gift someone with inkjet printed note cards, and then hopped on it. I L-O-V-E how everything turned out. This was one of my two fave gifts we gave this season.

I assembled everything in a storage box from Paper Source.

 

I used mini file folders to organize the designs.

 

I think that receiving such a cute card from your child's teacher might soften the blow of hearing that he/she is an asshole, no? Ha!

Bachelorette Party Invites

These bachelorette party invitations are from my friend's party in the fall. I had the idea, but a while later went on pinterest and saw that many other people did as well. Like everything.

The bride is an artist and we were taking a painting class, so I wanted to do some watercolor invites. BUT, my not being an artist threw a loop in that plan. I took a watercolor painting I had from a friend's 4-year old daughter and photocopied onto fine white paper for the cover. Then, I printed the details on plain green paper, cut both pieces on the Silhouette SD, and glued them together. Pretty cute!

I also made some "wine charms" to match.

Our class was at Bottle & Bottega. It was nice, but I felt too rushed to really do anything. And I think that you need the right crowd, as the process stresses out people who don't consider themselves creative.

 

My painted went through three variations before I lost interest. I still need to work on it.

Happy 2013!

Happy 2013, Everyone! I hope you enjoyed a happy, safe holiday season. Andy and I toasted the season's end in what has become our NYE tradition -- surf and turf and some good wine. Andy upped the celebration this year by deeming "yoga pants" and "make-up free faces" acceptable dinner attire. (I didn't even ask! Love him!) I may not have dressed myself, but I did dress the table!

The color-scheme was inspired by my new vase from Crate & Barrel, which was my present in the family grab bag. The theme was cheap, easy, and low-effort.

Five minutes before dinner, I decided we needed place cards. Not bad for last minute!

Andy said this was his favorite table of the season. Hooray!

{Paper, Parties} Wreath Place Cards

Remember when I said that we had set a record for the number of guests in our place at the December Birthdays Party? Well, we blew it out of the water the following Saturday when we had 22 people here, including 15 adults and 17 kids.

This was my first foray into "letting go" and using Chinette and plastic silverware instead of dropping change on extra dishes and silverware. As ridiculous as it is, I am totally proud of myself for that. But I did hide the silverware UNDER the towels so that I wouldn't die every time I walked by it.

This party's theme was "wreaths. Very simple wreaths, as putting "berries" on them was averaging 10 minutes/piece, so I stopped after 1.5 wreathes.

I also made wreath wine "charms" and little menus for each seat. Since we live in a postage stamp, we decided to plate the food. Each guest marked their food selections and handed them off to us like a pair of short order cooks. 

Does this look familiar? I had an idea involving felt wreaths and pillar candles, but going to Michael's on weekends frightens me.

{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.