I got to decorate Thanksgiving lunch event for my daughter’s preschool again. My goal was to spend less money and time than last year. It was still an expensive project, but I received more compliments from parents than last year. And even the kids seemed to enjoy it. =)

Cut tree branches…

Filled disposable cups with pebbles. Put the branch in the center and secure it with Scotch tape.
Wrap the cups with burlap fabric.

Attach Small Clothespin and pom poms on the branch using hot glue.

Took the photos of kids with Fujifilm Instax MINI 25 Instant Film Camera and hung them on the Clothespins.

I love how it turned out. I plan to hang Christmas cards on them.

Kids helped with making these flower pens.

I bought tons of silk flowers.

I cut, and hot glued them to pens. Kids wrap the pens with floral tapes.

For pen stands, I glued pen caps in the 3 oz. disposable cups.

I used Stampin’ Up! Bigz XL Baskets & Blooms Sizzix die (Retired, I think) and a muse studio Woodgrain French Roast cardstock. Trimmed it to make them look like boats.

My intention was to make Mayflower ships, but I don’t think anybody recognized it. Hehe.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My cousin got married recently and I helped her with her table numbers.

She showed me this photo for the style she liked. I think the the photo was from theknot.com.

I wanted to create the similar look with the stamps I already had (a muse studio sampler stamp sets from consultant starter kit)

a muse studio grid paper came in very handy for mass producing stamped images.

Numbers were printed from my computer.

Ink colors: a muse studio amethyst and heather

8.5 x 11 cardstock papers cut in half lengthwise, score and fold that in half. Attach the white stamped cardstock on top.

Sandra! Thanks for your help! =)

My daughter was one of the flower girls. =)

On Monday, my son and I painted basement wall outside my craft/kids play room with magnetic paint.

We didn’t have candies for plastic Easter eggs, so my son decided to draw trains on foam boards, cut and filled the eggs. I wanted to save them after the egg hunt and thought putting magnetics on the back would be fun.

Went to a craft store and bought a magnetic board, but it didn’t look pretty on the wall. So I decided to paint the wall with magnetic primer instead.

I was only going to paint the wall on the right. But, after putting one coat of primer on it, I felt I’ll have enough to paint more area.

Well, I ended up going back to the store to buy another can of paint. $25 for a 30 fl oz can.

It recommended 3 coats of paint, but I put 4-5 coats.

My son was so impressed. He thought this was the coolest thing ever. I love how it looks, too. But, the smell is really bad. Pollen count is high these days and I couldn’t really ventilate the area. Bad timing!

Heavy stuff didn’t stuck well, but overall, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

=)

NOTE: Primer came in black. You can paint (Latex) any color you want on top, but I liked the way it is.

It’s not that I don’t like Stampin’ Up! but when one of my favorite stamp companies, A Muse Art Stamps created a new home party company, A Muse Studio, I had to switch. I like Stampin’ Up!’s punches and dies, but I {heart} A Muse Studio! =)

These adorable table and chairs were created with A Muse Studio papers and embellishments, and Stampin’ Up! punches and die.

Stampin’ Up! Flower Folds Bigz XL die on Big Shot die-cutting machine to cut the largest flower for the table top.

Fold the crease to create the table cloth and put it on top of plastic Easter egg (Glue two egg bottoms together first). Easy peasy.

Now, let’s make some chairs!

Stampin’ Up! Petal Card Extra-Large Double Punch (one on the left) looks cute, but what a useless punch I thought, lol. I’m not sure why I even bought it, hehe. I was trying to figure out what to do with it and thought it would be perfect for the chair top.

Cut two pieces of Petal Card Extra-Large Double Punch, and fold using the crease lines.

For the chair legs, I used 4 cuts from Word Window Large Punch. Score in the middle, and fold. Note: It was easier for me to score a cardstock paper, and punch out the Word Window pieces.

Glue the legs to the chair top (Petal Card Extra-Large Double Punch piece).

Layer the chair top with another Petal Card Extra-Large Double Punch piece. I used some A Muse Studio Clear Blocks to hold the shape while the glue dried.

This chair was faster and easier to make than the other ones I made.

For more secure legs, I cut thin pieces of paper (about .25″ heigh), score and crease every 1″ to make a square shape.

Glue the legs to the square pieces.
Add one Petal Card Extra-Large Double Punch piece on top.

To make the chair back, cut one Petal Card Extra-Large Double Punch piece. And attach it to one of half-circle petal piece on the side of chair top. Easy, right?

You can decorate them to make so many different variation! Here, I colored some A Muse Studio Paper Flowers, wrinkled them up to decorate the chair. Wouldn’t this be so cute on the wedding tables! =)

How about a miniature paper cupcake with a cake stand!

Cake stand was created with Stampin’ Up! Boho Blossoms Extra-Large Punch. I used all three pieces. Curve/fold the edges and glue them together. Really easy.

For the cupcake wrapper, I used Martha Stewart Scoring Board to score every .25″. Cut it to make about 3″ wide and .25″ heigh. Attach the ends to make a loop and glue the inside to make the cupcake base.

Cupcake frosting was created with Stampin’ Up! Itty Bitty Shapes Punch. Using a stylus, push the center of the flower to create a bowl shape.

Cute!!! =) A Muse Polka Dot papers make me so happy!

You can shop A Muse Studio products online! (US customers only)

Thanks!

Bethany, my writer friend volunteers for The Reading Connection, a nonprofit helping at-risk children with reading. About a month ago, I helped her with floral arrangements for their gala & silent auction, Of Wine and Words.

Flower budget was $75 to decorate about 11 small tables. I didn’t think that would be enough, but it worked out. I bought 4 spring flower bunches from Costco for $62.96, twelve votive candles for $5.24, cake doily papers for $3.85. And I used supplies I and Bethany already had.

Since we didn’t have the money for vases, I decided to use food cans, wine botthes and glasses to put flowers. A few parents from my kids school collected wine bottles for me and Bethany gave me childrens book jackets and wine glasses. This set up was my initial idea, but had to make it smaller for the actual event.

I’ve seen felt roses on tree branches on OnePrettyThing.com and decided to make book paper flowers.

Originally wanted to use papers from old books I had. But, it was too crispy (?) and fragile. And, didn’t want to ruin nice books in my collection. So I ended up using Stampin’ Up! Specialty Designer Series Paper First Edition. I used Tim Holtz flower dies on Big Shot die-cutting machine to cut flowers.

Glue the petals togethers.

Bunch it together and distress it a bit.

Attach it to tree branch with hot glue. So easy and cheap to make.

I also made flowers with My Favorite Things Rolled Flower die.

Stick it in the wine bottles. Looks so gorgeous in person. =)

I used childrens book jackets to cover food cans and wine bottles.

Cheap way to make your own vases!

I only had about a week to plan everything and didn’t get a chance to collect enough food cans and wine bottles. So I also used vases that I had for my daughter’s first birthday party.

Cut thin strips of papers. Wrinkle it up to make fillers for wide vases and wine glasses.

Because I could not buy enough fresh flowers, I wanted to decorate the tables with other items like wine bottle corks, childrens mini board books, and toys.

I was not allowed to take photos at the event. Following photos were taken by Scavone Photography.

Alpha blocks to spell, “BID”.

These were for coffee/dessert tables.

For reception tables. Tall white vase is from the dessert table that I set up for my kids school auction.

Center piece.

I think it turned out okay. =)