Unicorn Birthday Party Invitations

Unicorn Birthday Party invitations - a shot of all of the color scheme combinations that I made using my Cricut Expression

Here is a close-up view of one of the invitations - this one was made with the Pretty As A Peacock stack

This was my daughter's favorite (her favorite color is purple) - it was made with the Pretty As A Peacock stack

My younger daughter recently turned 5, and she decided she wanted a unicorn theme to her birthday party invitations and decor.  I wanted something lovely that fit her wishes, but wasn't overly cutesy.  So these are the invitations I made using the following tools and equipment; learn more after the jump:

Birthday Party Goody Bags Using Paper Lunchbags

Goody Bags Assembled and Ready for the Party

Princess Birthday Party Invitations

It is birthday party time at our house, and I finally got back to doing something I have not been able to do in a few years now, and that is making the birthday party invitations myself.  Samantha is turning 7 and, although the party itself is not princess-themed, she did specifically request an Aurora birthday cake (her favorite princess).  So I decided to keep that theme for the invitations.

This is the invitation Samantha chose to keep for herself.  It shows her VERY FAVORITE princess, Aurora.  Or Sleeping Beauty.  Or Briar Rose.  Or whatever.  Yeesh, no wonder she fell in love with the first guy she met!  She has absolutely no sense of identity!

I used an assortment of cardstock, decorative paper, and 3-dimensional Disney Princess stickers.  I originally tried to make the Princess sticker part myself as well, using my trusty Cricut Expression and my Disney Princess cartridges; unfortunately, the size that I needed for the princesses was fairly small: just 2-1/2 to 3".  So by the time I cut out one of the princess shapes with all of her layers, the smaller pieces were just way too small to work with.  So I scrapped that idea and bought pre-made stickers.

The card size is 4"x6" on pink cardstock.  I wanted to go with a pastel theme for the background colors, but matted on a dark chocolate brown cardstock to really make the colors pop.  I used my paper trimmer for cutting all of the rectangle shapes, and used my Cricut with the Elegant Edges cartridge for the center shapes.  And last but not least, I assembled the whole thing using my Xyron sticker machine!  I wish I could be more specific about which brands of paper/cardstock I used, but unfortunately I didn't keep track.  I just combed through my supplies until I found enough sheets of paper in the color scheme that I wanted, so really it's just little bits of this 'n that.  Which is actually pretty nice, because it means that the only thing I bought specifically for this project was the princess stickers (the jewels and flower embellishments that you see were included in the sticker packs); everything else is from stuff I already had on hand.  Yay!  The insides of the cards are also simple.  I typed up the invitation details on the computer using a pretty font and dark pink letters.  I printed that out on white cardstock and matted it on the dark brown cardstock, similar to the front of the card.  Simple, but pretty.

All of the invitations are assembled.

Cute Butterfly Box

Wooden Butterfly Box

I finished decorating this wooden butterfly box for my younger daughter today.  I got the idea from the Michael's website several years ago, when I made one for my older daughter.  The first one I made had pink butterfly wings, and this one (obviously) has purple.  I bought one of the unfinished wood boxes, and painted it with DecoArt Americana acrylic paints.  The colors I used are Country Blue, White Wash, Yellow Green, and Lavender (although the first box I made used Peony Pink for the upper parts of the wings).  First I painted the entire box, both outside and inside, with 2 coats of the Country Blue, and painted the handle in White Wash.  I used transfer paper to trace the butterfly designs randomly all over the box.  I painted the butterfly's body White Wash, the upper wings Lavender, the lower wings Yellow Green, and added the white dots and "comma" shape on the wings in White Wash.  After all of that was finished and dry, I painted Crystal Craft Twinkles on the wings and handle.  I randomly painted dots of White Wash all over the box; finally, I traced the outlines, antennae, and eyes of the butterflies with a fine-point black Sharpie.  It's really really cute and both girls have been very happy to have their very own butterfly collection boxes.  They are mostly filled with rocks, but that is totally ok.

Today I Wish...

A couple of years ago for Christmas, my mother-in-law Karen gave me a beautiful crystal bowl with a lid.  Inside, it was filled with small rectangular pieces of white cardstock, each one containing a short phrase meant to be used as a starting point for a journal entry.  She even included a pretty journal and pen to record my thoughts.

As with most things, I was quite diligent about doing my daily journal entries for the first few weeks.  Then, of course, I let life get in the way and it became just a pretty decorative piece on a tray at the foot of my bed.  Now that I have started a blog, I'm feeling the pull to resume my journal entries; this time, on my blog as opposed to my paper journal.

So, today's journal prompt is "Today I wish..."

Geez, is THAT a loaded statement!  I'll start with the more light-hearted wish.  Today I wish that we would get an offer from one of the three families currently considering purchasing our home!  One family is weighing how much they care about having a gas stove in the future (at this point, it would cost $3,500 just to run a gas line to the stove area, not to mention the cost of replacing the stove itself).  The other two families are having to figure out timing issues with the sale/lease-end of their current homes.  Such is life.  On the bright side, this means that there are three families actually INTERESTED in our home!

On a more serious note, I really wish that I did not have erythromelalgia.  And Meniere's Disease.  And severe IBS that causes me to throw up almost daily (not to mention the flares I get every few weeks when I throw up and am put in immense full-body pain for several days on end).  But, I do realize how futile it is to wish for something that it absolutely beyond my control to change.  So instead I will be thankful for the excellent doctors and even more excellent family who care for me.  And I can turn my focus to wish for something that I CAN control: the wisdom and discipline to achieve the balance between accepting the physical limitations these illnesses place on me (and the whole family), and also not allowing these diseases to become a permanent excuse NOT to do things.