Tags make a party favor

Of course when the BFF asked me to make invitations for her friend's baby shower, I couldn't just stop there. Especially when I found out there was not a theme, or color scheme, or meal plan - I new I had to do something. So I offered to do what I could from 200 miles away - decorations.

No party, especially a baby shower, is complete without party favors. But not just any party favor, I'm a fan of those you can eat, have true purpose, and look cute at your party. Coasters and koozies have never been high on my list. It was agreed that they would make brownies or cookies, wrap them in cellophane, and I would make the tags. No party favor is complete without a tag.

To go along with the invitations I created tags in the shape of the animals. 

Of course no tag is complete without a sentiment.

 Decorations are not always balloons and streamers. The smallest details make a world of difference.

The Loss of a Fighting Irishman

The loss of someone you love,whether expected or unexpected, is very difficult to bare. Going from one day having that person in your life to the next never seeing him again is more than heartbreaking, it can change your soul. 

Recently, one of my sister-in-laws lost her father. Although she was surrounded by loving family and friends (she lives out of state), we wanted to be there for her, my brother, and my niece and nephews. We all called and tried to put into words what our hearts were feeling but words failed us. We knew nothing we said would bring him back or ease their pain. We simply said we loved them and we were thinking of them.

I am not a fan of sympathy cards but I felt I should send them something. This is what I came up with. I hope it warmed their hearts - if only for a moment. 

Working Mama

Stay at home mothers are never fully appreciated for all that they do. They not only run the house, they are taxi drivers, coaches, tutors, and sometimes medics. They do so much for others that they often forget about themselves and their needs. As if all of this was not enough, there are those mothers that also work - they must be superhuman.

The woman that is recieving this card rejoined the work force after more than 15yrs as a stay at home mom. She was nervous at first. Unsure if she could handle the stress and demand of a job. She wondered what skills she possessed and what she could offer an employer. Turns out she had nothing to worry about. She is hard working, reliable and capable of anything.

Happy Mother's Day Working Mom!!! I always knew you had it in you!

Adoptive Mama

Adoptive parents are wonderful souls. They open their homes and hearts to another human being and become a family. Some people adopt a baby because they can't have one on their own. Others adopt because they want to share their family with someone who lost theirs.

The lovely lady that is receiving this card adopted a beautiful baby girl, not because she couldn't have any of her own (she gave birth to three babies) but because she fell in love with this little girl the moment she saw her. She new this little girl was family from day one.

Love is thicker than blood.
Happy Mother's Day Adoptive Mama!

Salsa Mama

Mothers can make you feel better when you are having a bad day.....or make you feel like you should have worn a cardigan over your v-neck shirt even though you ARE leaving something to the imagination. And then there are those mothers that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside....by feeding you chips and salsa when you go visit.

I will never admit this out loud and I will swear on a stack of bibles that I did not type this on my blog, but there is one lovely lady I know who makes salsa better than my mother. I can (and possibly have), drink this stuff.

She is a mother of three and there is nothing she wouldn't do for them. Her two oldest are grown but always go to her for advice and guidance. Her youngest has the energy of three little boys (and the sweat to prove it). She tries her best to keep up with him and most of the time she is successful. There is however, this rumor going around that she watched and cheered her heart of for her son during a football game....only the little boy on the field was not her son.....nor was she watching the right game......nor was she cheering for the correct jersey number. But you know what they say about rumors - the funny ones are always true.

I made this card for her because after I eat her salsa all I want to do is give her a big hug and kiss....and drink a big cup of water.

Happy Mother's Day Salsa Mama! Your salsa rocks but it is NOT better than my moms ;) Hi mom! I love you mom!

Buffalo Bills Mama

Mother, mom, mama, ma, madre, however you say it, the feelings and memories that follow is almost always the same - love, warmth, cuddly,  soft, judgmental, hugs, kisses, safe, laughter, busy body, cookies, your favorite sandwich with the crust cut off - I could go on. Mothers are superhuman. They know everything, see everything, and can do anything. Being a mother is a full time job they will have for the rest of their life. I am over 30 years old and I still call my mother when I have a bad dream. What?.... she makes me feel better.

This year I have decided to show my appreciation to all the mothers in my life - sisters, sister-in-laws, and friends - by creating and sending them a card for mother's day.  Here is card 1 of 8.

The lovely mother that is receiving this card has a very giving heart. She always makes you feel right at home when you go over to visit. She'll make your favorite food, play your favorite card game, she'll even let you watch whatever you like on TV. But come football season look out - she is a wonderful hostess up until the Buffalo Bills lose. Then she is in a bad mood for the rest of the day and it is best to stay out of her way. Unfortunately for her family, that's almost every Sunday from August to January :)

She has one child - a teenage boy. He is polite, giving, smart, and will undoubtedly become a wonderful young man. But for now he is a teenager which means he can be a butt-head. I love how she reminds him that no matter how cool he thinks he is, she can still tell him to put his underwear away...loud enough so his girlfriend can hear in the other room. Cracks me up. She is awesome.

Happy mother's day to my Buffalo Bills mama.

My Little Monster

One of my nephews is turning 11 tomorrow. As is typical with this generation they are glued to their TV playing whatever is popular nowadays - PS3, Xbox, Wii... Gone are the days of playing outside, riding your bike, and getting mud on your pants. Now when I was growing I happened to do none of those things either but at least I wasn't playing Atari 12 hours a day. Mostly because it would overheat and quit working but still. Give me a good book and I would lock myself in my room until I was done. Granted I didn't have a lock on my door and I shared a room with my older sister until I was about 15 so the room was more hers than mine but you get the point.

I come from a big family. And my big family reproduced in big numbers as well. There are 16 or 17 nieces and nephews (it's hard to keep up) so needless to say a girl can go broke buying gifts for every single one of them. Especially when a PS3 game is $50 a pop (which is the only thing on their wish list) The only reason this little rug-rat is getting anything from me is because he is also my godson. My brother (his godfather) called me to coordinate this year's birthday gift. He found out that my sister (my nephews' mother) was getting him an itouch. My brother's idea was to get him some kind of accessory to go with the itouch. I couldn't believe this. I don't have an itouch. Why should I contribute to further itouch happiness for a little kid who doesn't work. NO. NO I said. I had to draw a line. A line had to be drawn. (I feel that when you repeat yourself you further make your point) I was determined to come up with a gift that had substance. One that I could be morally proud of.

I came up with a brilliant idea. This kid is going to summer camp!!!! He needs to do something other than playing a video game or watching a movie or listening to his ipod. He needs to interact with other kids and have conversations that don't revolve around level 343 and saving the princess from a giant talking squid. No I never went to camp. I had no idea they existed when I was his age and it's a good thing I didn't know about them. Do you know that they have camps where you can dissect and learn about animal organs? There is another camp where you can learn to be an animal vet or be a zookeeper and learn to clean, feed, and train zoo animals.  There is even a camp where you can pretend you are CSI agent and you learn how to take fingerprints and cast shoe prints. How cool is that? After reading all the choices I went back to make sure the age limit was 13 and not 31. I wanted to go. (Ok, ok -  I'm not 31 either). So after I gave him a list of camps (from a list of camps I had already pre-picked. Some camps are not made of substance - Learn How Slushies  Are Made - no thank you, I am on a substance mission.) he selected the Forensic Scientist camp. My heart was over joyed. Finally a gift of substances. I gift I could be proud of. Perhaps because of this camp he will grow up and become a forensic scientist and solve important cases, discover who steals my coke from the community fridge at work, although my name is clearly written on it, or finds out who really killed JFK - what? It could happen.

Turns out substance is just like healthy food - all the good stuff for you is expensive. Instead of spending $25 on an itouch caring case, I am going to spend over $100 on a 5 day camp. That is only one third of the cost. My brother and sister are going to pay the rest. Substance camps are not cheap.

Here is the card I made him for his birthday. I really liked how it turned out. It's one of my favorites

The sentiments and stamped monster images are from the Hero Arts Monster stamp set. The tree trunk was from a different Hero Arts stamp set - Whoo Loves You. The stars above the monster's head are outlined in white stickles. I used patterned paper on the left hand side and wrapped embroider thread around the center. I didn't like how the bow turned out so I placed a yellow brad to secure the ends. The sentiments were stamped using charcoal chalk ink and mounted with pop dots. I colored in the characters with copic markers. Since the card base was kraft card stock, the copic marker colors came out a little different than intended but overall I really like the card.  The corners were rounded using the corner chomper.

Do you have kids? What are they doing for the summer? I won't judge if they will be playing video games all summer :)