Baby Shower Prep

Tomorrow is my daughter’s baby shower!  I thought I’d share a few snippets/peeks of what I’ve put together so far.  We are trying to keep within a reasonable budget and that means making things and/or coming up with inexpensive alternatives. 

 

The invitation.  We decided to do an Alice in Wonderland/Mad Hatter Tea Party themed baby shower and incorporated an image from Alice in Wonderland onto the invitation.  {I can’t show much of it because of all the personal information; you can get more of an idea from the picture below}. Because my daughter and her fiancee also like monograms, I added the “P” at the top, as well.  We got the invitations on clearance at Michaels ~ a box of 50 invitations with envelopes, rsvp cards/envelopes, and the ribbon that goes through the invitation top.  Originally $29.99, on clearance for $19.99. 

I ordered the round Alice in Wonderland tags from Petite Paperie on Etsy and used the back of those to indicate where they were registered.

I decided to make my own version of Brag Books using those cheap inexpensive plastic photo albums that I got at Target for $1.99 a piece.  I had bought four to do one for me, one for my Mom {the great-grandma} one for the other grandma and the fourth for her mother.  I’m going to give them to the great-grandma’s and the “other grandma” at the shower.

 

These were very simple to do.  I just cut scrapbook papers using the cardboard that came with the album as a template; did outside and inside papers, then used ribbons and buttons as embellishments to pretty them up a bit.  These were inspired by Sherry at Creations from my Heart, and the beautiful albums and journals she makes.

Since it is a tea, we are having, well, tea; a variety of tea sandwiches, punch, iced tea, some lemon cookies I ordered from Sweet Cheeks Bakery on Etsy, cupcakes and a few other goodies.  I decided to do a cupcake tower out of boxes, inspired by Amanda at Imperfectly Beautiful, using supplies I already had on hand.  Here it is all ready for cupcakes.

The favors were inspired by Traci at Beneath My Heart and her wonderful aunt who shared how she made these.   They will be filled with personalized M&M’s inside a piece of round tulle {found in the wedding aisle of Michaels} and tucked inside.  Super, super easy to make ~ you can do this while watching television.

Okay, no time for chit chat.  I’ve got work to do and teacups to pick up!  I’ll have plenty more pictures after the shower!

Linking up with:

Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous

Celebration Giveaway Winner

The winner of my Celebration Giveaway {using random.org} is . . . .

Kristin of My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia!

Congratulations, Kristin!  I will be contacting you for your mailing information and which print you would like.  If you see this post first, please email me at kathyp{at}creativehomeexpressions{dot}com.

Thanks to everyone for entering!

 

Found: Warehouse Fabric Giveaway

The lovely folks over at Warehouse Fabrics are having a giveaway!  A $50.00 shopping spree to Warehouse Fabrics.  Click here to enter! 

The giveaway ends on Wednesday, June 16th.  If you love fabric as much as I do make sure you get over there and enter!

Paint the Sidelights or Not?

As I mentioned in my last post, I have plans to paint my front door black.  Besides the door itself, I have sidelights on either side of the door.  Everything is currently white.  {The lantern lights normally on either side of the door are being spray painted with a fresh coat of black paint}.

In looking around blogland, I’ve noticed that many people who have this set up do not paint their sidelights the color of the door.  They leave them white.  I just assumed I would paint the sidelights black as well.  Here are some pictures of front doors {that I found through Google} with the sidelights painted and some without.

I love the molding around both this red door {above} and the black door {below}.

 

(from Velvet and Linen blog)

Which way do you think it looks better?  If you painted your own front door, but not the sidelights, was there a reason?

 

Randomness

Since I’ve been a little busy lately {client, baby shower, day job, cleaning up outside mess made by hubby when he did the siding}, I haven’t had much time to do any projects.  I do have a big one coming up after the shower.  I’ll be painting my white front door and sidelights black.  Well, it’s a big project to me.

Meanwhile, so it doesn’t look like I fell off the face of the earth, I thought I’d share some random photos {plus I needed to clear them off my camera card}.  I finally found something I liked for the background of my Welcome print.  That’s done and hanging up now.

I bought an Ektorp slipcover for one of our Ektorp chairs {which I’ve had for about 15 years}.  What a great buy for $29.00!  I decided it made the living room look too crowded so it’s back upstairs in our bedroom’s sitting area.

Finally, some pictures of our backyard, which I’ve been trying to pretty up a bit for the baby shower, as well as for us when we are out there.

I was spray painting our front door lanterns that day.

 

That’s all I got for now.  Baby Shower is next Saturday!

My Celebration Giveaway is still running!  Ends June 9th!

Found: Designer Laptop Giveaway

I had this giveaway brought to my attention and thought I’d pass it along.  It is for an HP Vivienne Tam mini-laptop. 

Isn’t she pretty?  You can enter to win and get more information about it here. 

My Celebration Giveaway is still going strong!  Enter for a chance to win one of the new prints I am carrying in my boutique ~ ends June 9, 2010.

Celebration Giveaway!

**This Giveaway Has Ended.  Winner will be announced shortly.**

I think it’s time for a celebration giveaway!  This is a follower giveaway this time around, to thank my 600+ followers, and acknowledge the milestone of 400 blog posts.  I am offering any print from my boutique {Expressive Creations} to the winner.  Here are just a few to choose from:

   

There are a few others not pictured here.  These prints are all suitable for framing or making into signs.  Size information is available on my boutique blog.

The rules:

You must be a follower of my blog.  I rarely do follower-only giveaways.  You do not need to have a blog to enter but must leave me an email address in your comment so I have a way to contact you.

Entry 1:  Visit my boutique and let me know which print you might choose if you win;

Entry 2:  Blog about this giveaway or put a link to it on your sidebar and let me know in a separate comment with a link;

Entry 3:  Tweet about this giveaway, come back and let me know in a separate comment with a link or your @ name.

This giveaway will be open until June 9, 2010, 8:00 p.m. EST, and a winner will be chosen via random.org. Due to mailing costs, this giveaway is open to residents of the U.S.