Beelieve

Wedding shower favors with thought

I am pulling some old photos out of my pre-blog archives to share today. I was recently asked about ones that I did a long time ago and thought this would make for a great post. It is the season for weddings and wedding showers.  A wedding is a meaningful occasion and every touch should have equal meaning.  I am about to show you some favors that were well thought out for a honey of a girl, my cousin Amy.  Amy should have a computer and have a blog and show the world how to live life with meaning.  She is a girl with substance, organic from the word go...she even went to New Zealand at one point in her life to work on an organic sheep farm.  She could teach us all a thing or 10,000 but that would be a whole other post.

Thought had to go into these favors and with the help of her mother, my Aunt Vel, we came up with items that gave back.  First was one I was all over, Endangered Species Chocolates.  Lots of great items there and I just discovered perfectly packaged wedding favors ready to go.  They did not have these when I ordered from them.  I just ordered boxes of perfect squares of their delicious chocolates ready to bag up myself.

 

I took 4 squares and wrapped them up in newsprint and then using my computer, I printed out sheets of sweet sheet music and then a sheet of the saying "life is sweet" to add a fancy scroll on top.  My picture is poor but you will get the idea...actually I am happy I saved it!

 

Along with those I added a unique bracelet from Bead for Life. If you are not familiar with them here is their opening statement but I highly suggest checking the site out.

"BeadforLife eradicates extreme poverty by creating bridges of understanding between impoverished Africans and concerned world citizens. Ugandan women turn colorful recycled paper into beautiful bead jewelry, and people who care open their hearts, homes and communities to buy and sell the beads.

The beads become income, food, medicine, school fees and hope. It is a
small miracle that connects and enriches everybody in the Bead Circle."

I do not have a picture of the bracelets but will show you a picture from the website.

 

Hard to see the detail but all the guests loved these and something that will not get stuffed away.  I am still amazed they are made by recycled magazines. (click the picture and you will go to the link)

I had to pack these items up and used those party favor boxes from the dollar store, stuffed a doily inside and decorated the outside with more prints I made on my computer and a vintage button.  Very easy and low cost.

 

I packed them up in a basket and off we went to a wedding shower where the favors were a favorite!

 

I have to show you one last thing.  We bought my cousin and hubby to be some nice linens and towels.  These items are big and bulky.  I wish I had a larger picture nearby but I packed them all up in a wicker laundry basket that I never used and wrapped them with muslin fabric that was clothespinned together with clothespins that spelled out "Amy & John".  I also created an art piece for them to use as a "bow".  The art piece has some very special elements in that have special meaning to our family. 

 

Life is sweet again

 

I am as happy as a bird on top of a giant cupcake basking in the sun!

 

 

This little sweet "tweet" was made to use as a bow on top of my friend's little "Wooga's" birthday present, wrapped in cupcake paper of course.  Mmmm cupcakes, now I am hungry!  Guess I will just have to be happy to go take a very hot shower again for now!

The trio she loves~ a gift for a friend

What to give the gal who has a house full of love, now that is the question I pondered in trying to come up with a birthday idea for my BFF.   I am in CT visiting for a double birthday celebration.  My BFF's birthday was last Sunday and her daughter Lily's (aka "Wooga") birthday is tomorrow.  Wooga is also PJ girl's BFF.

I really wanted to do something special for my friend.  She flatters me with a house full of my artwork and constant orders of custom pieces for gifts.  Something I rarely do these days is draw, with that in mind and "The Big Draw 2008"  experience I decided to give it a go and draw a picture for her.

 

The scan was not the best and hurried due to my lack of spare time before this trip, I will take a better picture of it all framed up here to show when I return. It does not look as faded in person.  My friend had a photographer come to her house for some great family photo's this summer and this happened to be one of my favorites.

 

"The Trio She Loves"

Right now I am trying to type this and keep Oliver ("the Bug" on the left) from bugging Wooga ("the flower" in the middle) and PJ Girl who really need to get more sleep.  (Another present to my friend who is trying to wake up peacefully)

Putting the tea in Creativi"T"y

I have managed to play a bit during my "mission organization".  All work and no play makes Karen...well actually all work and no play would never "make Karen". 

A friend had requested a custom piece for a gift for her mother in law.  She lives in Devon, has some art talent as well I am told.  Primarily painting but not sure what kind.  A traditional English lady with an eclectic taste.  I am also told she loves her tea!   Coincidently her name begins with the letter "T".

So adding that all up and a need to experiment with some ideas I came up with this:

It began life with this background.  A map, a cut up painting, etc.  The colors are bright and not part of my soft background tone plan...but I had a plan...would it work? 

The next step is a scary one because I am relying on my theory of the final step to make it all happen.  I covered the collage with a vintage handkerchief to "mute" it a bit.  A bit more opaque than I wanted...BUT...if that final step pulls through for me it will have the look I want.  Here is a tiny peak.

 

Next for the art!  I started with an old metal "T" stencil...now what.  When all else fails add a bird.  Hmmm, English, proper, tea...yes..."Sir Tweet-tea" who will need a hat!  Stain it up with ink, add a piece of watch band for a brim and Sir Tweet-tea is ready to set down his paint brush for tea....

 

Be careful Sir Tweet-tea...your paintbrush is flying away.

What would tea be with out a teaspoon? "Incomplete, like this art piece if I did not distress and bend one to add a handle" is my answer!

Just in case Sir Tweet-tea is a bit "foggy" from all the paint fumes there is a simple recipe for tea on the side of the art piece, along with other fun scraps.

Now the moment we are all waiting for... the step to make it have the look I want....will it work....warming up the bees wax.  Keeping more to the golden side vs the bleached I like to use.  deep breath..........it worked!  The bees wax made the hankie layer more translucent to have just enough hint of the background......phew!

 

Call it the chemist in me but I lean toward the artist side when I experiment.  Just look at the before and after side by side: (you may want to click to enlarge)

 

There are a lot of "one word" goals for the new year in the land of blog.  I have not really got around to thinking about one but maybe I will adopt "EXPERIMENT" for now.

Take it from me, when you are stuck for an idea just put on your creativiTy hat,

 

let your tool of the day fly,

 

and if you "stir constantly"

 

You will always be on top of your experiment.

(Happy Birthday "T")

Handmade gifts~the last but not least

The contents of yesterday's gifts!

A birdy cat-bowl for mom's and my sister's cats to eat from.  The CafePress items featuring my sweet little bird came out adorable and I am really impressed with the quality of all the CafePressitems I ordered.  The notecards and journals were better than I expected.  I ordered several different packs of the cards then mixed them together to give as gifts and have on hand for last minute gifts.

(the blue tape on the bowl was holding the bubble wrap)

 

This "Invite Peace" journal is fabulous as well. When I ordered the journals I did not even realize you have a choice of what type of pages you want...lined, blank, dots, planner.  Very fun!

Remember this from yesterday?

Pajama girl and I filled it with love...

 

and it became this tree for grandma.  Grandma is a quilter and a button collector and the button garland was all pajama girl's idea.

 

The rest is some jewelry for my sister...I don't think I posted pictures of the earring wrap and currently am still visiting with no access to my photos.  In any case I took the furry fleece left over from this and wrapped them with it.   Tied up with the yarn below and they looked like snowballs!

 

 

 

 

Ok, it really is a wrap for now and yes I would love to wrap everyone's presents for them!

Will chat with you all soon when I return to "Mowrey Mansion"...I crack myself up!

Handmade presents~part 3

I have been having so much fun catching up in blogland, I almost forgot to post something myself!

This fun necklace was a product of experiments.  I started playing with some silver wire and beads and sort of "doodled" a little nest.  So I named it the "doodle nest" necklace.  Keeping with the doodle theme, I ripped a doodle page out of my mini sketch book to adhere to the cover of a cd tin (thanks Laurel).  That idea stemmed from a need to package the necklace in such a way so the fine neck-wire would not get any kinks...a circle.  So I recycled one of those free-bee cd's and doodled all over it.  Drilled two little holes in the cd and used my favorite candy cane string to tie it up to the birdie branch.  Oh, I love to package things!!!

 

(the back of the cd)

 

very blurry shot of the tin but I loved this wintry doodle I did one day while waiting to pick up pj girl at school.  It does have a coat of "sparkle glaze" on it to make it shimmer like snow!

Handmade presents~part 2 "Kiki-tac-toe"

 

A quick post since I over slept and have to be in the cage in less than an hour.  This is a fun little tic-tac-toe game I made for a friend's kids featuring my "Kiki" bird.  The game board is a little bag to store the pieces in when not in use.

Handmade presents~part 1

Some of the many handmade gifts I have been working on in Santa's hive are received and I can finally post them.  Today I chose one of my favorites.  My time was limited this year so I bought a doorway puppet theater for two little friends of ours but what is a puppet theater without puppets???  Without further ado I am happy to introduce to you:  "Lily the Flower" (complete with her seed of happiness")and "Oliver the bug" (and his bug stuff)   These two characters are from the land of "Handmagination",are made with "up-cycled" sweaters and named after the recipients.

Her is "Lily" and her story: 

 

Now meet her menacing antagonist..."Oliver, the bug":

 

 

The "Seed of Happiness" and "Bug Stuff" are finger puppets which tuck neatly in each puppet's front pocket.

 

 

More gifts to show over the next few days...in between the 33 hours in three days I will be working in the cage.  Christmas is over for me for now.  This is one of the most intensely horrible, busiest times ever to be a pharmacist so please take that into consideration if you have any pharmacy needs from now until after the first of the year.

Pajama Girl has posted a slide show of some Christmas pictures.  Just a small sample of one of the best Christmas's ever!  Hope you all had a fabulous day as well!

Make a Gift~Inspire Me Thursday for 12/4/8

I was excited when I saw the topic on IMT this week, I miss doing the challenges.  Then I was a bit bummed because I can't show a gift that has not been given yet.  Well I found one I can show because they are a custom order for a friend for her kids teachers...so the "giftees" have no clue about me or their gift. 

These are custom purse mirrors.  The only request was to stick with a "teach/learn" theme.  I wanted to go with something fun this time around.

 

 

 

and the cute boxes in bad lighting

 

And below are some scans from a few of the ones I made last year

 

(some business card cases as well)

 

If you are as frustrated as I am trying to find a perfect gift in a retail store...well go to IMT now there are some great links to making handmade gifts this year.

Tame that little girl's...

...hair clip clutter!

A friend had waved the white flag of hair clip calamity.  The little box was just not working out any more and she made a request for a hair clip control system that will serve a purpose and be aesthetically pleasing.  I immediately worked up some ideas but one in particular came to mind.  This one from our gal Martha featured in a little "Organizing Good Things" magazine I had from 2004.

I started with a frame I had and added various spools as did Martha. Went over it all again with watered down gesso with a hint of pale peach to "de-white" it a bit.  Sanded it to distress it a bit  Then I tried attaching the ribbon with a staple gun but it seemed to cause more stress to the frame so I opted for a super strong glue in a hotter glue gun. (note this is a bit stronger than an average craft glue gun).

A secret to the ribbon hanging frame is not to actually hang the frame with the ribbon.  There is a picture hanger on the frame and my friend may use a decorative nail or hook to loop the ribbon over once the frame is in place.  Should she not want the ribbon hanger it is attached with basic thumb tacks on the back for easy removal.  I see it as an extra place to clip hair clips to. 

(Since this is photographed in PJ girl's room, I have used her stuff, available nails and just a tad of masking tape to keep the ribbon up out of the way)

Speaking of extra hair clips I made up some "extenders" in case more room is needed.  Made with ribbon glued around a hair tie and some "rejects" from some of my hair clip experiments on the end to assure clips do not slip off.  My friend's daughter "Wooga" may want to use the one with the dolphins for "school clips" and maybe another for holidays or special clips.  If they are seasonal she may want to store them in a drawer...easy peasy!

 

Since I started with so many hair-clips, Pajama Girl has a few...ok...lie!  She has so many and when we designed her "big girl" room a few years back there was a butterfly theme here and there so I made this one with the "butterfly" nets and attached it right to a small closet door. 

A note on this...I need to weed some well loved ones out but as I was looking at them I have noticed some have faded because this is next to a window.  You may want to think about where to hang these.

One last tip.  Keeping control of ponytail holders is a whole other story but we prefer plastic shower rings and tucked away in a drawer!