Birthday Wishes

Attic Gal Rachelle says:

We have been a bit busy with birthdays around here, and I thought I'd share some of the pretty Birthday packaging and wishes that I've had.

This is my gift to Alysa.  It was actually several gifts, all with a monogram theme, so I had to wrap them in a monogram theme as well.  I simply wrapped the gifts in striped paper, tied it together with a black ribbon, tucked in some black ladies gloves instead of a bow, then for her initials, AHW, I used an A ornament I found for a buck at Michaels, an H embroidered old hankie I found at a garage sale, and a W stocking pin I got on clearance after Christmas.  

I love how it turned out.  I hope she did too.

Here is a great card that my mom made for my husband for his birthday.  It looks like a present tied with a tag.

But instead of opening it like a regular card, you pull up on the lid to reveal the message inside.  Pretty clever!

My birthday was Thursday, and my mom made this absolutely darling card for me using her Cricut machine and bejeweled it with tiny teardrop gems.  I LOVE it!

My dear friend Diana, who also does SU, sent me this pretty card with die cut butterflies and pearls.  It just put a little more "happy" into my "happy birthday"!

(Now that all the birthday madness is over and kids are out of school, I hope to be getting back to this blog a bit more.  Thanks for sticking in there with us.)

AGR+AGA=BFF

LOL!

TTFN

Big Cakes and Butterflies

Attic Gal Rachelle says:

For my hubby's birthday I was so excited to make his card with my new SU Big Shot 3-D pop up cake die.   Look what it does!  This is the front of the card, then when you open it:

TaDa!  A three layer cake pops up!  Doesn't that just take the cake?  

I am so excited about this new die, and my creative juices are really flowing!

*Oh, if you are a local, I am going to be having a stamp party at my house  on Tuesday, June 23 at 7pm.  If you want to make one of these, come by!*

I have a whole passel of kids and that means a LOT of teachers, which means I have to come up with a bunch of affordable teacher gifts.  Wish I could spend more, because they all deserve it, but what I lack in expense I made up for in cute!  Lookie:

I found these darling yellow fluted jars at Tai Pan for only $1.97 each.  I filled them with goodies and decorated them with butterflies die-cut from funky papers.  I made little wire antennas and their bodies are chunky colored staples.  Stuck them on with glue dots (I heart glue dots!)

Aren't they just fun?

Some teachers also got the gift I always give - rubber stamps, of course.  I just wrapped them in wrapping paper and stuck the extra butterflies all over them.  Those package look like they are going to just flutter away!

School's out, summer's here, and the family and I are heading to the hills for a camp-out.  Have a great weekend!

Saleing Finds from the Past Few Weeks. What will it be on Saturday? We can't wait to sale!!!!!

 Attic Gal Rachelle found:
The fabulous old oars with the initials, and the very long blue oar, were just $2 each!  He threw the Cape Cod sign in for free!  My twins' room is nautical, so they will be perfect in there.  Wonder what I can do with them?  Hmmm.

I fell in love with the old red chair for only $5.  I has found a happy home in my kitchen.

I scored this huge rustic basket for just a few dollars.  It now resides in my living room holding large books.

And the old window is really great.  I paid $20.  I have a few old windows now that I want to use for built-in cabinets in a niche in my dining room.  Can't wait to get that done!

I was thrilled to find this journal.  It is a new journal that has been made out of an old book.  This was and old book about Christmas cards, from what I could gather.

The old cover still has the original book plate.  I checked out the website, www.BookJournals.com.  They have a lot of old books made into journals and cookbooks.  They are all $13.  Check it out.  I must say, I think I like mine the best, and it was only $1.

The journal includes some of the pages and illustrations from the original book, plus a ton of blank, acid free pages to journal on.  I thought it was a really unique idea.

Attic Gal Alysa found:

Cute yellow roosters for the kitchen, a darling little blue bench, a Ralph Lauren flag pillow, a fun wood skimboard, and an antique yoke!  Very cool!  But the fun find was the pretty pink Petunia Picklebottom bag (Say that five times fast!).  Alysa has always wanted to find one of those!

Hats Off to the Graduates!

Attic Gal Rachelle Says:

For years I have been making these mortar board accordion books for my friends who are graduating. I had been making accordion books for a while when my sister Natalee, came up with the idea to make it look like a Graduation Cap.

It opens like this...

And folds out flat. It can be used as a photo album, or used to gather signatures from everyone in the graduating class, or to have guests sign at a graduation party.

You will need some illustration board, or heavy cardboard, black fabric, a black button, a tassel, and an ouchless hair elastic to hold the book together.

You need 2 6in squares of illustration board or cardstock. Cut the fabric in 8 inch squares. Glue up the cardboard really good and center it on the fabric, glue side down. Smooth out the fabric, and pull it over the edges and glue down, so that the front is smoothly covered with fabric. The back side with the raw edges will be covered eventually.

You will need 3 pieces of 11 inch square cardstock. Fold one in half, and get a good crease with a bone folder.

Unfold it, then fold it in half the other way.

Unfold the paper. It should look like this with the mountain folds up.

Now, fold the paper in half diagonally like this.

Unfold and push the center up. It should look like this.

Now do the same with the other 2 squares of cardstock.

It may take a little experimenting to figure out the folds. Be patient.

Lay out you three papers in a row. They should be alternating so that the first one has the center pointing down, the second one has the center pointing up, and the third has the center pointing down again.
Overlap an uncreased square from the first and second pages and glue them together. Do the same with the second and third pages.

It should look like this. Notice how the creases alternate up and down? Then carefully fold the whole book together and glue the front and back covers on.

If you were making something besides a grad cap, you could cover it in decorative paper and would glue a long ribbon between the back cover and the pages when you glue the cover on that you could use to wrap around the book and tie it together.

I didn't want a ribbon for the Grad Cap, though, so my sister came up with the idea of a black ouchless hair elastic to just hold it together. Simple.

See how it works. The front and back covers are not connected to each other so the book can open fully.

Then glue on the button and tassel.

You can customize the cap and tassel colors for the school colors if you like.

I wrapped it simply. Fun Huh?

Congratulations Graduates!

An Evening in Tuscany

My hubby is turning forty, so I threw him a big party in our backyard Friday night.  We both love Italy, and since we have done our backyard in the Tuscan style, I decided to have a Tuscan themed party.

For the invitation, I used a picture of my honey "holding up" the leaning tower of Pisa that we took a few years back on our trip to Italy.  I added the caption, "Look whose beginning to LEAN a little?"  On the inside was the invitation to help us celebrate before he becomes an ancient ruin.  People got a kick out of the invitation.

About a year ago I found all these pretty blue paper goods at Target on 75% off clearance.  I snatched it up, and have been looking for a reason to use them ever since.  I thought it looked like beautiful Italian pottery.  The colors in it - blue, yellow, and red - I used for inspiration for the decorations.  I also found a pretty bouquet of sunflowers and such in just the right colors at Trader Joe's.
I wanted to do something bright and bold, and inexpensive, without going the crepe paper and balloons route.  It was an adult party, and I wanted it to be a bit more sophisticated.  I found these great paper lanterns online at Luna Bazaar, and later I found the big yellow ones at our local Cost Plus on clearance for only $1.99 each!  The lanterns weren't Italian but they were bold and bright, and perfect for what I wanted to do. 

 I just love the way they look all lit up at night, bobbing around in the breeze!  But they didn't really fit the string of lights I had.   They kept falling off and I was getting frustrated.  Then I used some packing tape to stick them on really good.  It did the trick.  Not one fell of during the whole party.

I also used some of the faux tomato plants I found at TaiPan.  You can't do Italian without tomatoes, and I love the colors!

 My happy find was the tall grape plants, on stakes, already bearing fruit, at Home Depot of only $19.95 each.  Nothing says Tuscany like grape vines.   We will plant them in the yard now that the party is over.  Can't wait for those to get ripe!  Behind the bar, our raised vegetable garden was all planted with tomatoes, basil, peppers and eggplant, and it made a lovely back drop. 

I HAD to make one of my famous fabric banners for the party.  I couldn't help myself!  I just love putting the different fabric patterns together to get just the right look.  This time it was blue, yellow and red.  It said "Ciao!"  which is a greeting of hello and good-bye in Italian.  You know, "good-bye thirties, hello forties, good-bye eyesight, hello reading glasses, good-bye hair..."  You get the idea.  Actually, I was only thinking "Hello guests, good-by guests" when I made it.

For food I had a panini bar.  I love, love, love panini, and I piled the table with all my favorite breads, cheeses, meats, and other favorite panini fillings.  We had three panini grills going and it blew a fuse!  Ooops!  Luckily one of our guests was an electrician, so we weren't in the dark too long.
There was a ton of food.  Pretty spears of roasted asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, my favorite Caprese salad with tomatoes, basil leaves and fresh mozzarella.  My mom brought some yummy gnocchi.  If you haven't ever tried gnocchi, do.  You are in for a treat!

I also served crab salad in endive spears, fresh melon and grapes, and tiny polenta bites and tomato pie, and lots more besides.  For all the food, I found recipes that were really, really easy, but also really tasty.  And I had a lot of help in the kitchen as guests arrived and offered to assist.  They are all so good!

While the guests feasted,  I had to sneak into the house to finish preparing dessert.

Yes, I said dessert.  Haven't you ever had spaghetti and meatballs for dessert?

Well, when the spaghetti is on top of cupcakes you would try it, especially if the noodles are made of frosting, the marinara sauce is made of strawberry jam, Parmesan cheese is white chocolate, and the meatballs are made of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.  They looked exactly like meatballs!  I found the idea in Hello, Cupcake!, a totally fun cupcake book I just discovered.  I think the cupcakes were my favorite part of the whole party - and no cake decorating skills required! 

It was a terrific Tuscan party for my terrific man.   He was worth every bit of effort!

Boy, do I love to entertain!  (But now I am ready to take a long break!  Maybe for his 50th.  Maybe sooner.)

Ciao!