Down to the wire!

Do you need some last minute ideas for what to serve to your guests at your Halloween Party?  This article is from 2010, but I LOVE the recipe ideas:

10 Last-Minute Halloween Party Ideas

 

Also, some tent cards labeling the treats is always a fun and attractive addition to your buffet.  You don't want your guests to miss out on some of the clever titles on Halloween recipes!  I have some printable tent cards in my Etsy shop right now which are customizeable to whatever item names you want, up to 12 items!  Please order ASAP so that I can email them out to you in time for your party!

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/113110349/custom-printable-menu-tent-cards-diy

Wonderland Tea Party Invitation

A friend of mine attended a Wonderland tea party themed bridal shower a few weeks ago. They served tea in china tea cups and the guests kept the cups as parting gifts. What a great idea! It sounded like so much fun, I was inspired to make my own Wonderland tea party themed invite. And here it is!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/101803204/custom-printable-party-invitation-print

 I also made some matching custom cupcake toppers to go with it:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/101813857/custom-cupcake-toppers-print-your-own

And non-custom cupcake toppers

https://www.etsy.com/listing/101812428/tea-party-cupcake-toppers-print-your-own

Not into cupcakes?  Well, apparently, "Mad Hatter cakes", also called topsy-turvy cakes, are very popular right now, and would be a great addition to your Wonderland tea party.

These whimsical, gravity defying cakes are not only delicious, but also bring creativity and fun to your party!  They're perfect for weddings and bridal showers, but also for birthdays and other celebrations.

And this one would go great with our Hippie Chick themed party invitations!

All this talk about cake and cupcakes makes me want some cake!  I better stop typing and go work on something else.  Happy Sunday everyone!

Free 4th of July Cupcake Toppers

Wow, time sure flies!  I don't want to scare anybody, but do you realize that it's already HALFWAY TO CHRISTMAS???


OK, enough of that, right?  We have another holiday right around the corner.  Are you planning a 4th of July picnic or BBQ? As my way of apologizing for not blogging enough (will try to do better in the future), I'd like to offer you some free 4th of July cupcake toppers you can use for your 4th of July party!

Download the jpg here: https://www.box.com/s/a1079c179efa1cca8acc

Or the pdf here: https://www.box.com/s/9d0bf3a3d3df23235189

(To open a PDF file, you will need Adobe Reader, which is a FREE download at http://www.adobe.com/)

ITEMS YOU WILL NEED TO CREATE THE CUPCAKE TOPPERS:

Paper or cardstock for printing
Scissors or a 2” round or scalloped paper punch (for perfect round circles).
Food picks or lollipop sticks
Glue (hot glue or craft glue, not school glue)


Here is a tutorial for making cupcake toppers: http://cakejournal.com/tutorials/how-to-make-cupcake-paper-toppers/

Or make tags!  For tags, you will need:

Hole punch
Ribbon, twine or raffia to attach the tag to the gift

Handy but not necessary:  decorative craft scissors.

Optional: embellishments such as rhinestones, glitter, etc. Foam pop dots for scrapboooking, lollipop sticks or food picks for cupcake toppers.

You get to choose what to use and how you want to embellish! Use your imagination and have fun!

Feel free to check out my Etsy shop for more 4th of July items, like invitations, party packs, cupcake toppers and wrappers.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pixelsandposies

Feel free to leave me some comments below.

Welcome to Candy Cane Lane!

So, my boss challenged us this year to come up with some new holiday decor for the office.  The kicker was that we had NO budget.  So we decided on a theme - initially it was "Candyland", but then we settled on "Candy Cane Lane".  We gave all the corridors created in the cube farm candy themed street names, and decided on some directional arrows that we wanted to do.  Then I created them at home.  I have them printed out and we will be decorating on Monday.  I'll take some pics!

In the meantime, I created a listing on Etsy so that you can decorate your office, home or event with these signs too!  I think they're super cute, if I do say so myself.  Additionally, if you want different street names, directional arrows or welcome sign, I can customize it!  Just convo me on Etsy (or email me at pixelsandposies@gmail.com) and I'll create a special listing for you!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/87750686/candy-cane-lane-diy-printable-pdf

PS: the "Elf Workshop" arrow will be pointing in our direction!

New Festive Parties!

I know, it's been forever since I've posted anything.  Sorry!  Since my last post, I have made three Halloween parties and a Fall/Thanksgiving invitation & tent cards.  Here's the first Halloween party that I created:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80141605/printable-party-package-halloween-party

For that one, I used a lot of vintage images, mostly from The Graphics Fairy Blogspot.

For the invitation, I used a Victorian House from The Graphics Fairy:

Took it into Photoshop, isolated it, darkened it, and added some glowing windows:

Then I took some trees and put them behind the house.

I also took a Halloween type design (also from Graphics Fairy) 

and redrew it as a repeating pattern in Adobe Illustrator to create a border for the invitation.

And voila!  Here is the invitation:

I also used some other patterns from Graphics Fairy

And redrew them in Illustrator to create some backgrounds and borders for the papers, tent cards, cupcake toppers, etc.

(I added the spiders :o)

I hope you like them!

I'll be posting about how I created my other parties in the next few days, so check back!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80141605/printable-party-package-halloween-party

Shop is Back, New Listing

I’ve been extremely busy for the past 5 or so days, so I haven’t been able to properly blog, but as you can see from my previous post, the Pixels and Posies Etsy shop is back on line!  My son fixed in about 10 minutes what I had been trying to fix for several days.  Humbling, but oh well, at least it’s fixed!

I have a new item in the Etsy shop, a birth announcement.  This one was actually designed by my friend Deb.  I think it looks great and is very cute! 

I will continue posting Deb’s designs in my Etsy shop, as well as my own.

I am going to be pretty busy for a while getting my files back on my computer and organizing, but I have lots and lots of ideas, so hopefully I’ll be able to post some new party packages soon.  Stay tuned!

Pixels and Posies Etsy site is back!

My shop is up and running again, thanks to my son who fixed my computer and helped me with a few glitches!

More Delays

Unfortunately, I still have my Etsy site on hold because my computer is still not working.  Well, it's working, but I can't get on the internet.  I was on the phone with tech support for two hours and I still can't get on the internet.  I kind of felt like I knew more about computers than the tech support guy, and that is not a good feeling.  They are supposed to be sending me the updated drivers for my network adapter and that's supposed to fix it, but I have my doubts.  I just hope that they send me the right drivers.  I told the guy several times that I already loaded the drivers and I will need updated drivers if it's a driver issue.  So, we'll see.  In any case, until I get on the internet, I can't download a service pack that I need for my OS, and until I download the service pack, I can't load my Adobe programs.  I don't want to open the shop back up until I can edit my work, just in case there is a problem.  I want to be able to guarantee my work.  So, I wait.

In the meantime, my daughter went to town this weekend and baked cupcakes, made some other stuff (including green eggs and ham!), set up some of the parties I have already designed and I took some pictures.  The pictures could be better (I have only just now discovered that I am not a very good photographer - who knew?), but now that I have done a couple of "photo shoots", I can probably get some better shots for the next ones we do.  My daughter has been so much help with this you would not believe!  Anyway, here are some of the pictures that we took of the Paris party and the Seuss party: 

  

The green eggs and ham that my daughter made was delicious BTW.  Maybe I will include the recipe with the party pack!  We discovered after we took the pictures that the ham and eggs are best eaten together.  So if we take pics again, we'll put the ham with the toothpicks on top of the eggs.  It looks really cute that way too!

And here is a picture of my cat, Kibbles, who decided that it would be a good idea to crawl into one of the craft boxes to sleep.  My daughter took one of the crowns we used in the Paris party and put it on Kibble's head.  Isn't she cute! (she is also sporting a collar that my daughter knitted for her):

In other news, it's still very hot here in AZ, with the added humidity from the monsoon season.  The saying "Yeah, but it's a dry heat" does not apply during the monsoon season.  I was at the light rail station this morning at 7 am and I don't know what the temperature was, but it was warm enough that I was sweating.  It's a little after 9 am now and almost 100 degrees, so it was probably close to 90.  It keeps threatening to rain, but then it just doesn't.

I am so over summer.

A Big Haboob and Some Computer Troubles

Yesterday, a big haboob blew through town.

Some of the pictures and videos are pretty cool, but being inside of a haboob is really not so cool.  It was windy and the dust was so dense that you could not see too far in front of you.  I was home when it hit, but I did go outside to check it out, and was rewarded with a coating of dust.  My daughter was at a friend's house and her cell phone had died, so I freaked out for a little while, wondering if she was driving in the storm, which can be pretty dangerous.  But I'm just a worry wart and she was fine.  My son was at work at the time the storm was at it's worst, but had to walk home from work at the tail end of it (he lives within walking distance of his office).

Anyway, that was exciting, and now the pool looks like crud again.  I'll be breaking out the pool vacuum tonight.

I had intended on posting a blog post and working on some printable parties last night, but not only did we have the excitement of the haboob and me needlessly freaking out about my kids in the haboob, but my computer was also acting up.  It's been acting hinky for a while, but now I really can't work with it at all.  If I can't get the problem worked out tonight, I'm probably going to have to put my Esty shop on vacation mode for a little while until I get it worked out because I really can't do anything with it right now.

So here's to hoping I can figure out what's going on and fix it.  *crosses fingers*

Second Post!

OK, I probably can't keep titling my posts like that.  I'll try to think up a better one next time.

It's still the Fourth of July, but I wanted to share my Seuss party that I finally finished today.  You can see it on my Etsy site: Seuss Printable Party

But here's a quick preview:

Also, my daughter made some cupcakes to celebrate the 4th.  She had a little trouble with the frosting because it's like 111 degrees out.  I like this one the best:

But this one's really cute!

Here's a pic of a bunch of them:

My pool filter has not been working, so I had to take it apart, get some parts and put it back together again.  It's working great now!  My green pool is finally a sparkling blue.  So, I think I'm going to take a break and go swimming now.

Happy 4th (again)!

First Post!

Happy Fourth of July everyone!  I hope you all are having a very nice holiday! 

I suppose in my first post I ought to tell you a little bit about myself.  I live in Mesa, AZ (yes, it's HOT) with my daughter, a few cats and a dog.  My son lives a few miles away and works in IT customer support.  My daughter is currently in college studying psychology.

I won't say where I work; suffice it to say that it's an office job.  In my spare time, I enjoy working on arts and crafts. Currently, I am working on some printable parties that I have for sale on Etsy.  You can view them here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pixelsandposies

What are printable parties?  Well, let me tell you a little about them.  I create party decor designs in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, create PDFs of them and assemble them into a complete printable package.  Once a person buys a package on Esty, I email them the PDF.  They can then print the package out on a home printer or they can have them printed anywhere that can print PDFs (such as Office Max).  The package includes invitations, thank you cards, tent cards, banners, cupcake toppers and wrappers, party hats, patterned paper and treat boxes.  One printed, they are then cut out and assembled into a themed party.

Why would you want a printable party?  Well, for one, they are truly unique (and awesome, if I do say so myself! :o).  Anyone can buy a themed party package at Party City, but they all look the same.  My party packages are different and distinctive.  Not only that, but you can also personalize them and make them extraordinary with embellishments, such as rhinestones, sequins, glitter, etc.  Also, the patterned paper that is included can be used for anything you like.  You can make confetti, wraps for water bottles or juice boxes, more cupcake toppers or favor tags, whatever you can think of.  

Another reason: personalization.  Any party can be customized, so the banners can say whatever you want.  The generic parties include banners that say "Happy Birthday", but yours can include a name or even say something completely different if the party you are preparing for is not a birthday party.  Photos can also be included and invitations can be worded to say whatever you want.

A third reason that printable parties are a good purchase is that they are cost effective.  If you print them on your home printer, all you pay for is the PDF, which can be printed as often as you like and for as many guests as you like.

I also have some à la carte items, like invitations and cupcake toppers and wrappers if you don't wish to commit to an entire party.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy looking at the printable parties that I currently have for sale.  I have several different themes at the moment and am currently working on a Dr Seuss-like party, which I hope to publish this afternoon.  I have lots and lots of other ideas for other parties, so check back often!

Have a great holiday!

PS: check out my Facebook page here

And if you go to The Graphics Fairy Blogspot (one of my favorite blogs), you can vote on my printable party (towards the bottom of the page, number 21).