Tag: Decorations

Comfort In a Jar

Hello Fall. Hello Soup Season.

I won’t even say what else comes with this season. Let’s just say that as a mom of three young children, I’m fully aware of what the change of season means. And this past week, that came and knocked the energy out of me. Shoot I didn’t know I had any more energy to be knocked out! I thought my kiddos drained it from me to fuel their never ending supply of energy.

And yet, I was so grateful to have this soup already canned up and ready to go in my pantry. The chicken stock I make, I add antiviral herbs to it. Let me just say that Lemon Balm is my new favorite antiviral herb to cook with! (In a few weeks I’ll share more with you everything I put into my Chicken Stock. You’re going to love it!)

I want to share with you this recipe for Chicken Soup that is perfect for those days where you need healing chicken soup but don’t have the time or energy to make it from scratch. You will absolutely love this because it takes only 5 minutes to warm up–the same amount of time it takes to make condensed soup from the grocery store. BUT it has less ingredients and more immune boosting goodness. And even if your sick days are few and far between, this soup is quicker to heat up than going through a fast food drive through. Plus as the added bonus of being that IT item to use up some leftovers you have sitting in your fridge on the day you crack open this jar of soup.

Yields: 7 Quarts of canned soup

  1. Clean your jars and lids.
  2. Prep your ingredients.
  3. Cold pack your chicken, split evenly between all 7 jars.
  4. For each of your ingredients, split evenly between all 7 jars. Start with the larger cut ingredients and end with the smaller peas and lentils.

(It’s easier to shake the smaller ingredients down into the cracks of larger ingredients than to shove the larger ones in on the smaller.)

  • Fill each of the Quart size jars with about 2 cups of chicken stock.
  • If you have Kosher or Sea Salt, you can season your soup now. Otherwise, do not put in your table salt or iodized salt. You will season your soup when you open you jar before serving.
  • Clean the rims of your jars with vinegar and then place lids and rings, finger tight.
  • Prepare your pressure canner.

Follow your canner’s directions for the correct process of canning with your canner.

For example, I am Sea Level – 1,000 foot elevation so I can the Chicken Soup with 10 lbs of pressure for 90 minutes in my weighted canner.

  • Once time is complete, turn off the heat and let your canner naturally release pressure.
  • When you can remove your lid, let the cans sit for an additional 10 minutes before removing them from the canner.
  • Allow your jars to sit 12-24 hours to seal. Then remove the rings and clean your jars before storing.

With new lids preserving your canned goods for up to 18 months, you have plenty of shelf life for this soup.

There are many options you have for this Chicken Soup.

  • You can season it and eat as is.
  • If you have left over rice or noodles in your fridge you can add those ingredients and still have rice and chicken or chicken noodle soup that is ready to eat with a 5 minute warm up on your stove.
  • With adding a thickening agent (slurry or corn starch) you can turn this into chicken and dumplings or a pot pie filling.
  • Maybe you have other small amounts of leftover meat, like Italian Sausage. You can use this meat to bulk up the soup, add some kale and parmesan and have a Tuscan style soup.
  • Or maybe you’re looking for something Latin in flavor. Grab some tortilla strips, grated jack cheese and add in Latin American seasonings and you can have Tortilla soup.

These ideas are a far cry from being authentic cultural cuisines. However I want to give you a few ideas on how you can turn one of your canned soups into a blank slate for some variety.

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I know a lot of us really do not have time to prep meals for our families. In fact “meal prep” might have a double four letter word effect in your ears. And that’s okay. For roughly the same time it would take me to cook a soup from scratch for my family, I can make 7 meals that I can crack open and serve dinner in less time than it is for me to go through a drive through. And it’s healthier for us.

To heat up this dinner in 5 minutes, this is all I do:

  1. Grab my jar from the pantry.
  2. Grab my soup pot. And turn my burner on high.
  3. Open the jar and pour the soup into the pot.
  4. Fill the jar with Water and pour into the pot.
  5. Put the jar in the dishwasher and set the table.
  6. Taste the soup to make sure it’s seasoned the way I want it. (Add salt, because I usually only have table salt readily available, so it got canned without salt.)
  7. And it’s dinner time.

If you have a college student who’s coming up on Mid Terms or Finals, this is perfect for them! Often times they’re up late and find themselves hungry after the cafeteria is already closed. This is something they can cook from their dorm room with a microwave or hot plate and have the brain food that they need. Or maybe they’ve caught a cold and need a little mama’s love in the form of soup. This is super convenient and perfect for a care package.

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Looking for a gift idea for this Holiday Season?

This is soup is perfect for the new mother getting use to having baby at home, an elderly family member who retired their pots and pans, someone who is an avid camper or loves cooking by camp fire, or anyone else who can benefit from a quick home cooked meal without all the fuss.

Maybe you’re the type of person who loves gifting food to a neighbor, friend, or family when they become ill. Here is a quick way of gifting all that healthy goodness without your schedule batting an eye.

I highly recommend this recipe for everyone!

Do you need another gift idea?

This one is personal and doesn’t require you to have a master’s degree in art to make!

Here are some supplies that you will need:

  • Canvas
  • Paint
  • Paintbrush
  • Clear Acrylic Spray
  • Chalk pen/crayon, Paint pen, Pastel, or like craft item you can write with
  • (Optional) Sponge, Paper towel, Napkin, or Tissue
  • (Optional) Embellishments such as pre-cut vinyl design

Paint a design on your canvas. You can do whatever design you would like. Here are some examples of canvases that I already have on hand. There are the canvases that my boys made 3 years ago.

And these are the ones that I have in the prepped stage for various projects that I have in the works. You can use coordinating colors, monochromatic colors, are shades for an abstract scene.

Let your canvas dry.

Spray your canvas with Clear Acrylic Spray and let dry. This step is important, because accidents happen and sometimes you want to “erase” a mistake. I’m a phonetic speller and sometimes I just get a word wrong. No worries. By having the acrylic spray dried before you start writing with your crafting pen of choice, you have the option of wiping away the mistake with a wet cloth. The only writing medium that gets to be a bit tricky is acrylic pens. That one you may not find having an “erasing” quality. Chalk pens and most pastels will generally work for excessive editing.

With your writing medium of choice write your message, series of quotes, words of encouragement, or whatever you’re inspired to say. When I made these gifts for nieces and nephews, it took about 7 quotes that I pulled from online to fill the 8×10 canvas with medium small print from top to bottom. You can write as large or small as you would like. Just be aware that the writing medium you choose to use will help you decide how small you are able to write. I used a chalk crayon that had a relatively large nib, so I wrote as small as I could and the words were as tall as the width of my pinky.

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Decide if you would like to leave your writing clear and readable or if you would like to smudge the words to make an added texture on top of the painted design that you made. This choice is perfect for the people who believe that their handwriting isn’t pretty. By smudging your writing, you remove the uneven, shaky, or other characteristics of your handwriting that you may be self conscious of. If you choose to smudge, I recommend printing out a copy of your message that you can give with your gift, so the recipient has the opportunity to read the love that you wrote for them. For direction of smudging, that is completely up to your eye. I personally like smudging my work from left to right because I love using horizontal strokes when I paint. I do have some pieces that the strokes are vertical and so my esthetic is to smudge vertical with those, so the “text” doesn’t compete with the flow. But you could choose to smudge diagonally, circular, zigzag… each direction you go will give a different feel to your piece.

Once you are done writing and/or smudging spray your canvas with the Clear Acrylic Spray again. This is going to be a critical step for you. If you chose to smudge your “text”, the spray will prevent further smudging. If you want to add vinyl or HTV on top of your art, this spray is going to anchor your vinyl down. I’ve tried applying vinyl and HTV straight on a painted canvas and both have peeled off, taking paint with it. But every time that I’ve used the Acrylic Spray, vinyl and HTV both stay on the canvas perfectly.

Embellish your gift. Your options are endless at this point. You can choose to make something and personal with just adding your recipient’s name. You can add scrapbooking embellishments with hot glue to add some glam or character. You could pray a frame with a metallic paint and make a modern framed art. Or perhaps you want to do four panels and keep them frameless. And then there’s always the option making a 3D piece using other crafting techniques, such as this.

If you find that you are on a budget this Holiday season, this is a perfect gift option for you. We are in a time in history where people need to hear how much they are loved and valued. So when you can poor into another person and share with them a hope of a future with them, it can hold profound meaning in their life right now. I have never before seen so many people facing suicide and thoughts of hopelessness like I’ve seen in the last few years. Sharing with someone how much they mean to you is something that you will never regret. And you never know that it might be the one thing that offers them hope in a time where it seems like everything is so wrong.

What is inspiring you right now? Do you have ideas sparking in your mind?

Right now I’m inspired with many of the changes that come with fall. This is the season that always has inspired me. In fact, my boys found a whole acorn that I so want to use as a piece of 3D art. I’m hoping I can find some more and have more than a single nut to work with!

Please comment below with what you want to make and even send me some pictures. I would love to see what creativity jumps to life in you!

Files used today

Spring Triple Panel comes with all you see here. Or you can select individual elements.

Jelly Fish element from my Jelly Fish Collection

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“Someone ate Pac Man!”

We all have our favorite places to source decoration items for parties. And it becomes a challenge when we need to find things that just can’t be on the shelves anywhere.

Last week I shared some ideas on decoration ideas for retro 8-bit arcade games.

This week I want to share with you, keeping with the same theme, my hacks for ordering a cake and a fresh idea for dressing up a snack can.

How to order a cake from a bakery that doesn’t decorate with licensed characters.

We decided that we were going to get the cake from Costco this time. (I’ve used this same ordering technique with my local grocery store bakery department.)

Before going in person or ordering online, you want to sit down and think of how you want to decorate your cake. Previously one kiddo wanted a train birthday and so I had to come up with a steam train engine cake. This time, how was I going to make a Pac Man cake?

First I made my Pac Man. He was cut out of yellow cardstock and laminated so that I wouldn’t have to worry with paper dye bleeding into the frosting.

The Cardstock Train sits ontop of the cake with a cluster of white balloons behind the smoke stack.

The time that I made my train, I attached wooden dowels. This kept everything directionally proportional with the 3D focal point.

This time I needed to get Pac Man to stand up. So dowels were not going to work for me. This time I hot glued a plastic fork on the back. The fork thongs give the ability to stand Pac Man fully upright or reclined back at a 45 degree angle. I needed this flexibility because I had absolutely no idea how the bakery was going to follow my directions or what their placement was going to look like.

The reverse side of Pac-Man has a clear plastic fork attached in the middle. The bowl of the fork and tines are below the body of Pac-Man.

The one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty is that bakery staff looks forward to doing something different as long as it’s not making more work for them. So if you leave your note with your best manners and let them know what you’re going to do, they get excited about being part of something different.

For the train I had asked them to cluster the balloons together, with no strings, to make a cloud cluster for a train that I would place on the cake. I kid you not, I went to pick up this cake and heard all the bakery employees complain about this insane request that they got from someone. Instead of quickly decorating a cake, they were going to spend additional time and drag their day out.

Of course I thought they were complaining about my simple request and so I was bracing myself for some attitude. Instead, I got the complete opposite. One of the employees came to the counter to help me, went back for the cake, and all the employees came to the counter grinning ear to ear because they wanted to see the train.

The success to the train was that I didn’t ask for more “balloons” then they would normally give. I didn’t tell them specifically where I wanted them or how to position them. I didn’t demand a certain color. I left it simply with no strings, white cluster. My request saved them maybe a few seconds from what they normally would do. But that was a few seconds in their favor.

As you can see with my Costco order form, I asked for something simple. I don’t remember if these are their standard balloon colors or sizes. But they were great in giving me large balloons, the exact number I needed, and their colors!

I don’t know what this bakery’s response was, because my husband picked the cake up.

But I do have a story for this one, on the day that I placed the order.

My son was so excited to have a Pac Man cake that as we were leaving the bakery section, after filling the order form, he flagged down the nearest employee and blurted in a loud excited voice that he was getting a Pac Man cake. You should have seen the employees face when he had to tell my son that they don’t do licensed characters. My son cut him off and told him, “No! I’m getting a Pac Man cake!” I had to step in here and explain to the employee that I requested that the balloon strings be left off so I could turn them into ghosts and I would add a Pac Man at the party. The employee chatted for a few more minutes and kept repeating himself that this was a brilliant idea.

If a non-bakery employee was excited about my idea, you can just imagine how the bakery employees reacted when they saw the order form. If nothing else, it turned a typical boring day into something to talk about. Again, this wasn’t a request that added to their work time. It may have saved them seconds. But I’m assuming it was something fun that broke up the monotony.

While on the subject of cakes…..

I don’t know about your family, but I kid you not growing up and even with my own kids, we have at least one cake story that will live as a memory for a lifetime!

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What is your cake of a lifetime story???

When we were kids, my mom locked my sister’s birthday cake in the car, at the lake, with the keys in the car.

I tried my hand at making a sculpted cake for my son’s birthday. He wanted a bubble birthday. So I attempted to make a bubble container cake. That cake makes me cry in the fetal position to this day, because the sponge was so dry that the dang cake kept crumbling and falling apart. It didn’t matter how many dowels I added to maintain the structure, that I used fondant for a little holding power, or that the cake was frozen… it was a nightmare!

And that photo I keep buried away in a digital file folder where I can cry as my son laughs as an adult and I have to recount that story. Because even though I hate it, I have to admit that it’s a story that deserves to live on.

So Yes! This Pac Man cake will live on for the ages. Not for the same reason as the Bubble Birthday Cake. But for this reason….

Pac-Man cake has Pac-Man in the upper left corner. Five ghosts are in the center of the cake. The peremeter of the cake is lined with yellow M&Ms like the arcade game's power pellets. All but five of the M&Ms are missing. The M&M eyes of the far right ghost are missing. That ghost's frosting is smudged.

After I finished assembling the cake, I left the party room to go talk with the other moms while the kiddos played. After a time, my birthday boy walks up to me with his hands on his cheeks, devastated face, and trying hard not to cry as he exclaimed, “Someone ate Pac Man!”

I had zero idea what he was talking about, but seeing his reaction was enough that I got up and walked back to the party room to investigate.

Here my son is about to cry. As soon as I saw the cake I busted out laughing almost to the point of cry laughing, because that is absolutely hilarious!!!! This was no typical finger swipe of the frosting. Someone ate as many of the M&Ms as they could reach and took out a ghost in the process. And no, my laughter didn’t help my son. I looked down at him and told him it was going to be okay. I had already taken pictures of the cake. And then I asked him if he wanted to see what his cake looked like before this happened.

We went back to where everyone was at. As I picked up my phone to pull up the pictures I let the moms know that someone had ate the candy decorations off of the cake. They all were mortified, as any mother would be. I showed my son the picture. I fawned over it with him and once he was happy to at least to have seen his finished pre-eaten cake, he went back off to play. Then I showed the moms the picture and filled them in on what happened.

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I don’t think they knew how to respond with how I was responding. As a mom, we’re all use to the finger swipes. But to see the cake pillaged! LOL Honestly, my whole thinking was that it could have been a whole lot worse. Someone could have taken a fist full of cake out of the cake. Being angry or interrogating the kids to find out who did it would not have restored the cake. It would have made the party uncomfortable for everyone.

What surprised me was that because I was okay with not knowing who did it, the moms began one by one asking their kids if they took the candy off the cake. None of the kids did. And it became a great mystery. It wasn’t until I mentioned this story in my newsletter that I realized that I never asked any of my three kids. Obviously birthday boy didn’t. His feelings were genuinely hurt in that moment. I assumed my oldest wouldn’t do it. Even though he’s a first grader, it’s just not his style. Now my youngest! That boy has the sweet tooth that the other two have never had. And he’s also in the food swiping stage. I did ask him the other day and he told me that he didn’t. But I also know that he’s at the stage of not telling the truth to see if he can get away with things.

To this very day, I’m going to error on the side that it was my youngest that plundered the cake, but I have absolutely no proof that he did. So officially the case is closed as a cold case. But secretly I still think it’s him.

A New Take on Snack Wrappers

I know I’ve seen the crafty labels that people put on Hershey bars or bags of chips. The one thing that I haven’t seen is a label for Pringles. And snack chips were one of my party purchases from Costco.

When trying to make a theme happen from scratch I really did one more item to pull it all together and finish it off. And what’s better than something you can put jokes on, for kids at an age who adore any joke you throw at them!

A stack of flat snack can wrappers are splayed on the desk. In the center of each label is a Pac-Man with power pellets on either side of him. On the left portion of the labels are hand written jokes. On the right are chip flavor indicators; cheese bonus, original bonus, sour cream bonus.

My first thought was to create a PDF that I could print off from my printer. However my color ink cartridge was empty and it was just easier to keep material cohesion by using black cardstock and vinyl. Plus I have acrylic pens and have hardly touched my white pen. So I cut from vinyl all that I could. And I wrote out the jokes.

Let me just say that I did not think I would find any Pac Man jokes. I was surprised when I did. There are kid friendly ones and there are adult friendly ones. So you kind of have to pick and choose which jokes you use for your party. But here is the site I used for one reference joke page. I didn’t save the sites and can’t find the second one that I pulled from. But it was a simple Google search and you don’t have to go far before you start seeing repeats. So it is a small joke world for this game. All in all I used 8 jokes that I recycled over the 36 mini tins that I dressed.

Before I show you how I attached these labels I want to point out a troubleshooting tip. I had a lot of weeding and transferring to do. And I’m not ashamed to say that I worked quickly because I had a lot of items to go through. I did lose some letter details, as you can see with this B.

Tip: If you lose details, use a white acrylic pen and draw it back in.

That is the one thing that I love about 8-bit fonts, if you lose a letter detail, all you need to know is how to draw a line or rectangle. I had a few cans that I had to correct. But I didn’t even tell my husband or kids and none of them noticed. And my detail orientated boys are quick to point something out to me that’s missing, wrong, or whatever corrections they want me to make because I didn’t do it just so. ….kids!

The assembly on these is super quick. If you’re using copy paper glue dots are all you need. For cardstock I needed hot glue.

The wrap is slightly longer then the circumference of the can because I didn’t want to have to deal with a hairline crack of color because it wasn’t cut precisely to precise measurement. Because there was overlap, I used two small dots of glue to anchor the edge down to the can. After wrapping the label around, I finished it off with a line of hot glue. There was no puckering or edge lifts. I advise against using glue like Elmer’s where you have to hold and wait dry. Hot glue was perfect because it dried by the time I had aligned and pressed everything into place.

Tip: The tab of the container seal is something that you want to pay attention to, so that no one struggles to open the can. A tried folding the tab up and press it back down after the label was attached. This took too long. So I went with option 2.

Tip 2: Slide the label up under the tab. Apply your anchor glue and then finish off the attachment. Having the tab on top of the label helped to align the label quicker. So it was a time saver guide.

Three fully labeled snack cans are lined up side by side, showing different parts of the label. From left to right; Pac-Man, "Original Bonus", jokes.

An additional option that you can add to these cans is to apply a Pac Man sticker/vinyl on top to cover the Pringles man’s face. I chose not to do this because I wanted to not over complicate all that I had to arrange for the party.

Instead I opted to turn these cans into small coin banks for the boys as an after the party trinket. To make this modification, all you need to do is take a box cutter or exacto knife and slice a single cut through the clear lid. The best way of doing this is to cut with the lid on top of an empty can. The snack was not damaged and you have a proper safe way of making cuts without the lid slipping on you.

Tip: One cut is perfect if you want your coins to remain in the can and still allow a child to shake it and use it as an instrument. If you make a wider slot, you will allow the opportunity for coins to fall out.

I hope these cake stories made you laugh as much as I did. And that you enjoyed all the decorations and new ideas from this week and last. They were fun and well worth making.

If you have any cake stories, please share them in the comments below!

Files used Today:

The file for the Snack Can Label is found in this Archade Label set.

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Making Decorations You Can’t Buy


This post contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links, but at no extra cost to you.

Sometimes I love being a mom. And there’s days where I can be found saying, “You want what?!”

Okay, so maybe that’s a bit of an over exaggeration. But only a little bit. Because when I asked my son what he wanted for his birthday theme, he told me he wanted a ghost eating, pellet chomping birthday. To my credit I didn’t flinch or bat an eye. But there was an onslaught on thoughts that ran through my head. Are you kidding me? No one has those decorations! How am I going to pull this one off???

The short story is that I put on my big girl crafty panties and I got to work.

The problems with trademarked images are endless. Anyone who is reputable will not make the trademarked characters for you. And those who can have gone through the trouble of getting the licensing rights to do so, which means you’re paying an arm and a leg for another person to make it for you.

In the area of cakes, the easy go around is to decorate the cake with toys and action figures that you can buy on any store toy aisle. But how do you decorate for a theme where nothing is for sale???

Yes, I actually questioned my rational as a mother for introducing my boys to retro arcade games. But I did conquer the boss round on this problem!

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Buy what you can

Pac Man may not be the decorating be on the shelves, but plenty of ideas were.

Thanks to 8-bit style games like Mine Craft still kind of popular, there are the plates and napkins. Yes, the Game On is the wrong font and style. And the game controller is definitely the wrong millennium. Fortunately for me, this was a five year old’s birthday party. I wasn’t going to be given the fifth degree on accuracy of my decor.

Thank God!

The one score that I was most excited for, and got me in the proper mind set for actually pulling this party off, was the stack of round yellow sticky notes that I found at the dollar store. The moment I saw them in the office supply aisle I had to severely restrain myself from doing my happy dance and squealing like an excited 5 year old!

For as much work as I was going to do in creating my own designs, I wasn’t going to have enough time to make a birthday banner. So you better believe I had zero issues with giving the round yellow sticky notes to my kids and telling them to put them all over the walls, windows, and on top of the black plastic table cloths. For under $10 I had the skeleton that made a Pac Man birthday happen!

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Make What You Need

Fortunately for me, Pac Man was made in an era where things were basic in design and easy to create in my design program. And with this font, I was able to make things that my son was excited for and proud to talk about!

I was very excited when I found the round stick it notes, because this idea came right to me. The yellow M&M’s are perfect power pellets and the other colors are along just for the ride. But with the primary colors being predominant, it fits with the whole theme.

These are super easy to make to! All you have to do is put a scoop of M&M’s in a cellophane bag, fold it over to keep everything in, and staple a label over the top of the bag.

Tip: if you use a permanent pen to color the staples you can make the staples “disappear” and make a clean presentation.

The gift bags I also got from the dollar store, all I needed was a solid colored paper bag. I wanted blue or yellow, but green was all that was in stock. Not a problem, it’s a primary color that was present in the 80’s video games.

I used vinyl here just because it was quicker to make up all the bags this way, not worry about gluing a million pieces, and I could pack the bags right away!

And for my boys, no birthday is complete without a birthday shirt.

I think my favorite part is “Toss me a Quarter” because my husband and I recently took my boys to a retro arcade and I lost count of how many times we were asked for more quarters. This design just brings back so many memories. And the best part is that you can remove this central figure (which is not included in the design for copy right reasons) and put any other character in. This is definitely a blank slate for your 8-bit digital art. Fortunately this character is simple enough to do on your own. In your cutting program take a circle and cut a slice of pie out of the circle with a triangle. If you’re cutting program is able to modify a circle, you can use that feature.

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Solve A Problem

Sometimes the ideas that you need to decorate on otherwise obscure theme, is to solve a problem.

One problem that I’m forever facing at birthday parties and other get togethers where lots of people are around is the abandoned beverage can or bottle. I was able to incorporate my character in one more place by laminating my yellow buddy and attaching elastic to make a Can Label.

There are a few benefits of making these for a character party.

One, all you need is a wet erase pen and names stay legible. And after the party you erase names and you’re ready to go to reuse these beverage labels again in the future.

All you have to do is hot glue your hair elastic on (preferably where the seam is, to prevent elastic breakage). With a silicone finger cot, you can flatten your hot glue without burning your fingers.

Two, and possibly the best benefit of all, is if you ever find yourself in a situation where you forgot a hair elastic or yours breaks, this guy is easy to spot in a purse or car floor and your hair needs are over!

This idea will work with any kind of party or event. Bridal shower, cut out a diamond. Baby shower, cut out a bottle.

I know all this information was quick to get through and exciting. I have two more ideas to share with you next week, in addition on tips on how to order a trade mark cake from a bakery who doesn’t make trade mark cakes. So be sure to come back next week for those and a funny story about how this was a birthday party that my boys will NEVER forget!

Can these designs save you time for your next party that you can’t buy decorations for? Get Gift Bag, Level Up, and Arcade Labels here.

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I Love You Means Propagating

Lately I’ve been very interested in the Boho style of event designing. A lot of event designers and coordinators tend to gravitate toward the fantasy of rich and fancy feeling decor. There is nothing wrong with that. I gravitate toward that. There’s just something about pretty sparkly things grabbing our attention.

Even when I worked for a decorating company, there was this huge gravitation toward bringing the Boho brides nearer to the glittery and sparkly end of design. I know why there is that nudging toward that direction. But I’m not going to speak ill of other businesses. I just want to take this moment to see and recognize those brides, and other event organizers and celebrants, who want to stay more toward the end of the spectrum of the simplistic and natural look.

This post is for you!

What I want to focus on today are a couple of floral options that are different than what might be proposed to you when you talk with a florist; succulents and preserved wild or garden flowers.

Succulents

Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

I don’t know if you’ve taken the moment to look at all different colors available in succulents. They are definitely a wide spectrum that diverges from the cactuses and green succulents that your mind naturally gravitates toward.

The best part about succulents, especially if you’re DIY as much as you can for your wedding, is that you can get these in advance and arrange your centerpieces weeks in advance. This is true, even in the middle of winter!

The one thing that you want to pay attention to is the little amount of care that you need to give them. But these are not going to wither or die on you when you look at them funny. They just need to be kept in soil designed for succulents and give them a little water every now and then.

Tip 1: Succulents loved being watered from below. So when watering them, place their dish (with drain holes) in a dish of water and give them a few hours to drink as much as they want. They have enough water when you see that the soil on top has been touched by water, not dry to touch.

Tip 2: If you see the petals start to have a wrinkled appearance, they are underwater. Make sure you soak them in a dish of water. It may take a little time. But once the succulents have gotten enough hydration they will look plump again and not wrinkled.

The only other thing that you have to pay attention to is how much light they get. Here in the Pacific Northwest, succulents are not about to get too much sunlight. They can be burnt by full sun, depending on your region. But in the couple weeks that you have them before your event, this is not likely going to be an issue.

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One issue that you might have is when you’re succulent undergoes what looks like a growth spurt.

This example is definitely an exaggeration of what you will see because I’ve had this succulent for well over a year. It started to bolt like this a couple of months after I received it. What happened here is that the window sill (eastward facing) did not receive enough light. So the plant grew to reach more sunlight.

Your succulents will stay small when they have enough light. So if you see this, or you notice that there is some growth that is starting, then you want to find your succelent(s) a sunnier location.

If you catch the growth quick enough, you can trim off the growth, and return your succulent back to the smaller size.

Take a length of dental floss, wrap it around where you want to trim and pull it tight. You can use scissors, but it will apply pressure from two points to cut. If you use thread or floss, you can apply even pressure around the plant. Also if have a cluster flower of a succulent, you can fit the floss in between the petals and top the succulent without damaging the rest of the plant.

The clipping you can then put in a new container with soil and it will propagate for you.

I put the topped succulent in this cup with water with another topped clipping that I’m waiting on soil for. It’s okay to put into water, but you want to get clippings into soil as soon as possible.

If you are saving money by propagating your own succulents from bought succulents, make sure that you give yourself enough time to let new buds grow. It doesn’t happen overnight. If you don’t have enough time, your succulents will look bald and not so happy.

Here is another What-Not-To-Do

This succulent was originally small like the first picture of succulents I showed you in this section. This one also grew to reach for more light. I should have trimmed this when it first started to grow. Had I done that, it would have remained small and cute. Instead, it changed its shape and spread. But what you can learn from this is what it will look like at the spot where you clip back the top your succulent. There is a small bud that you see on the top right. That grew in about two weeks after trimming. On the bottom left you see another bud grow in where I snapped off some of the larger leaves to practice propagation techniques that I’ve seen on FB reels.

If you are interested in looking to propagate succulents for your event, make sure you give yourself enough time to do so. You will want a couple of months to do this DIY. Talk with some local greenhouses with growers who have experience with succulents. Also there are FB groups dedicated to succulents. Join a group or two and learn from those who are succulent whisperers. There is a wealth of good viable information there.

I readily admit that I am not an expert. And there is a world of information available. Just do not take your advice from clips and reels on FB, Tick Tock, or anywhere else. I tried propagating leaves in a plastic bag, through a slit in paper to suspend over water, and directly in water. None of these have worked for me and I am most certainly a novice at propagating succulents. If you’re a novice, I suspect that these reel methods are not going to lead you to success either. (With the leaves, I tried about a dozen and not a single one grew. This is reason why I have little reason to believe these techniques work. Not working the numbers paid off. If I get a success rate of 1 out of 10 attempts, I call it a viable option.)

One other walking away point I want to draw your attention to, is take notice of the terra cotta pot decorations on my pots. These were painted on with acrylic paint and have stayed on the pots over a year later. So it will not flake off anything else. And this is an excellent way of incorporating your event colors. You can create endless possibilities with your design. Whether you go with feather like swirls, dots to simulate lace, stripes, or even using a stencil from any store’s craft department. You can certainly dress up your terra cotta to fit the look you are going for.

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Wild and Garden Flowers

Photo by solod_sha on Pexels.com

I’ve lost count of how many events that I decorated for where I would take home flowers after an event because there was no second life for the floral arrangements after a wedding.

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVED those events because I had pretty flowers to take home and enjoy for a week or two. That is definitely an occupation perk that I’ve enjoyed.

However, at the same time, it has always saddened me a little because I have always wanted people to have more bang for their buck when they are spending good money on a wedding or other event.

So here is where we join two very important passions of mine!

I breathe creativity and decorating. But I also love working in my garden and learning all the old skills of creating home supplements, natural cleaners, and especially new ways of putting food on my table.

The very day that I learned about making a Chive Blossom Vinaigretteis the very same day that I made it.

This is Day One of my Vinaigrette:

My Four year old and I did this together for the very first time and as soon as I saw how this jar looked I immediately thought, “How Beautiful!”

And this was the first, on many ideas that I had:

You can go with sentiments or go all the way with the couple’s monogram, name and wedding date, or even line art that goes with your over all Boho decor.

What I absolutely LOVE about this inspiration is that it’s simple but has so much LIFE after the wedding or event.

For example, this Chive Blossom Vinaigrette will become a salad dressing, meat marinade, or other meal flavor provider in as little as 3 weeks. The total cost for this is just your jar, the chive blossoms, and food vinegar. When you’re looking for cost saving centerpieces, you seriously can’t beat this for bang for your buck!

To do this idea, you will definitely have this be your day of preparation, so have a few hands on deck. You will want to clip your edible flowers, rinse them, and place them in the jars before adding the vinegar.

The reason why I say do this on the day of is because of the process needed to properly turn this into a proper dressing or marinade. It is shelf stable during the whole process, but it needs to be kept in a dark cool place for the 3 weeks of processing. You could also use the jars at the end of the three weeks, when the vinegar takes on a fuchsia/purple appearance. But you want to try to limit the heat and light exposure no matter if you do it at the beginning or end of processing.

Tip 1: This needs to be shaken once a day for the entirety of the three weeks. So you will have a cleaner look at the beginning of the process. At the end of the process, you will have some floating pieces from the flowers. That just naturally happens with daily agitation.

Tip 2: At the end of the 3 weeks, you will need to filter this vinaigrette through a cheese cloth to remove all debris (and rebottle) before you use this as a dressing/marinade.

Maybe puple is not the color that goes well with your Boho design. Here is a list of some other edible flowers that can be used in making your own version of a different vinaigrette. Or you can just put the blossoms of these flowers or others into a jar filled with water.

  • Nasturtiums
  • Pansies
  • Violets
  • Hostas
  • Borage
  • Calendula
  • French Marigolds
  • Chrysanthemums
  • Carnations
  • Hollyhocks
  • Sunflowers
  • Cornflowers
  • Gladioli
  • Honeysuckle
  • Dianthus
  • Antirrhinum
  • Tulips
  • Roses
  • Lavender
  • Pea Flowers
  • Broad Bean Flowers
  • Onion/Chive Flowers
  • Brassica Flower Heads
  • Pak Choi Flowers
  • Squash Flowers
  • Dandelions
  • Daisies
  • Chamomile Flowers
  • Red & White Clover Flowers
  • Chickweed Flowers

WARNING: Make sure that you only use flowers that have NOT had pesticides or herbicides used on them. Whatever has been applied to flowers will enter your body if you eat them or any extract that you make from them.

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Flowers as herbs and seasoning have different flavors that they impart. Some have a peppery note to them. The chives that I grow are a garlic chive, so it imparts a garlic flavor without having to fuss with cloves of garlic. I’ve also started working with Lemon Balm (a member of the mint family) which imparts a lemon flavor. So I could have added tiny Lemon Balm leaves in with the chive blossoms. Which now that I think about it, I’m definitely going to add that to my vinaigrette as soon as I post this!

Another thing to keep in mind is that for thousands of years edible flowers and plant leaves have been used for natural medicine. For example, Lemon Balm is great for combating the viruses behind the common cold. So you can give your body the things it needs to keep healthy while adding flavor to your food.

If making a vinaigrette is not something you will use after the wedding (or other event), consider looking into making your own chemical free cleaner. For example, you can still use this mason jar idea and make a kitchen cleaner with lemon or orange slices and peels.

If you’re not looking for a natural cleaner, than even using berries and mint, basil or other leaves in water, is a great of washing your produce before you eat it while borrowing it for a few hours for your event.

There is one more option for Fall and Winter Events when most of the edible flowers are not in season. You can make Pine Syrup or Spruce Tip Syrup. I found this type of syrup interesting because I have spruce widely available around where I live and real Maple Syrup is a luxury on my family’s budget. This can be a pretty centerpiece as well because you use the new growth tips on a spruce tree or pine cones for the Pine Syrup. I’m sure that you can imagine the possibilities for all your holiday parties with this one!

Decorating the Mason Jars

The simplicity of these jars is beautiful all on their own. But maybe you want to dress them up a touch. What can you do to add a little panache?

  • Paint the jar ring (White, Gold, or other event color)
  • Apply glitter to the jar ring (after finished spray with a clear coat of paint to keep from leaving a glitter trail)
  • Use squares of pattern, texture, or fancy cloth on top (held in place by screwing the ring down onto the jar over the fabric)
  • Decorate the jar itself
  • Use the jar as a base for a taper candle (with candle holder) to raise the level of the candle above other centerpiece elements
  • Put your table number on top of the jar

I hope you’re just as excited about these ideas as I am. These are definitely something fresh for existing wedding and party themes. Be free to experiment with using some of your food preparation and preserving techniques the next time you are decorating for your next event!

Files Used In This Project

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Add A Little Tassel

There are times in life where you always ask yourself, “What can I get them?” We’ve all been there, especially if you’re the primary gift giver in your family. There are always a few different ideas that come to mind. But then the question becomes, “Will they like it? Or do I just like it?”

When I graduated High School, the one gift that I didn’t appreciate at the time was from my maternal grandfather. Granted it was probably the first time that he gifted a gift alone without my grandma’s thoughts. And I can actually smile at the memory now, because I understand his thinking. But it wasn’t the best graduation gift. I was gifted a set of pink towels.

Yes, you read that right.

I can smile now because from the perspective of a well over retirement age widowed man, I’m sure that towels were a practical gift that he thought he nailed. Everyone needs towels. It’s a necessity. And with college coming up, a graduate is going to need towels. And now that I think about it, maybe my grandma would have approved of the gift.This set of grandparents was very practical at gift giving. There had been a childhood Christmas where I was gifted underclothes. That was definitely NOT what a child expects or wants to open up on Christmas, but it was definitely practical and a necessity at that Christmas.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not mentioning these gifts to say that they were horrible. Neither am I saying, if anyone is thinking of gifting a graduate towels, that you should reconsider. I am mentioning this because what may seem logical, well thought out, and well meaning in your intentions and thoughts, it might just be seen in a different light by the recipient.

It’s this kind of disappointment, written all over the face of the recipient, that prompted and bolstered sales of gift cards for somewhere around two decades now. Also, there’s the fact that some people are just difficult to buy for. Thus the thought of, it’s just better to give a gift card or cash (or some generations prefer gifting checks). You express your desire to love on someone and they get to pick out exactly what is going to make them happy.

Or let’s be honest. There are also times that life happens and you didn’t make it out to the store or missed buying with enough shipping times (or as we’re seeing unusual delays in shipments). What do you do now?

How do you gift cards or cash???

That is the number one reason why I drag my feet so much in gifting by cash or gift card. I love giving meaningful gifts. I love finding a gift that represents a small part of me, but screams that other person’s name. What am I going to do with cash or gift card, slap it in a card and call it day? That’s just not me.

So, here are two ideas that I’ve used.

Explosion Box

This one is actually my favorite right now. Growing up I was always taking pictures. I still have those pictures. I have inherited pictures. And I bless the day that digital cameras were created, because I could take pictures to my heart’s content, see the shots without having to wait for film to be developed and printed, and capture moments that I can relive forever.

If you are like me, love pictures, or you are a memorabilia collector this option is absolutely perfect for you!

There are many options to choose from. You can have many box arms that unfurl for you. You can have a single layer or many layers of box within boxes. There are many “accessories” you can find that comes with different boxes.

By accessories, I mean what is included in the base design of the box. This year, my graduation boxes feature Polaroid picture frames. Last year my graduation boxes were on the life stages of butterflies. (The first layer was designed with caterpillar shapes. The second layer was all about the chrysalises. The third layer was designed after the butterfly.) Also, this year I’ve focused on the school monogram, school colors, and mascot. You can have just picture frames in the boxes. Or you can have holders that you can store ticket stubs, gift cards, and folded notes. Think memory box and different organizational devices to keep these memories organized.

That is an explosion Box. It is completely customizable. And even when boxes are cut from the same file, the variety of materials available makes them all unique. Even if a few people bought the same explosion box for a person, it’s not like you bought them the same card. The uniqueness of the box is what you put in it. Your shared memories with the recipient are going to be different than the shared memories of the recipient with a different gifter of the same gift. And then the fun begins, because you can compare all the different things that you’ve shared with the same person!

Money Card

This item is the newest fad in giving of cash. I’ve only recently become introduced with them, but I’m sure that they’ve been made for a year or two.

At least, this is the newest rendition of this form of giving money. I’ve seen enough chatter in the crafting groups that money cards are not readily available in certain global regions. And in those areas, which do not have designs reflecting their cultures, they will use a beautified envelope.

There are two different versions of the Money Card that I see right now. One is using a plastic shell inside a card stock holder. Imagine the plastic shell used on your favorite tube of of Chap Stick that’s sealed in between two thin pieces of card board. That is one version of the Money Card. This one is great, because if you want to secure the cash, so it doesn’t slip out in your purse when you pull the cash card out, this is what you’re looking for.

Another version of the Money Card is where there are two tabs with circles. You roll up the cash that you are given and you slide it through the holes in the tabs of the Cash Card. This version is great, and my preferred one, because once the cash is given, the card can then be used again. For example, the Money card can have the tabs flattened and then be used as a book mark.

I love books, so yes I went for second use as a book mark.

This second version is not destroyed to remove the plastic shell holding the money. So it also makes it have the added bonus of being saved as a memory. It’s not that often that people receive notes or letters from loved ones. So here’s one option where a grandparent, aunt or uncle can leave a hand written note for their graduate. And having lost several noteworthy people in my life I can finally tell you from experience that having a hand written letter telling you that your loved one is proud of you and that they love you is something that will NEVER go out of style. It’s something that you pull out and relive the love of that person.

So please don’t underestimate the power of a cash gift that carries your handwriting and love with congratulations. You may think that you will be around forever. But there really is a day that someone will miss you. And with the increase of stories of students dying to suicide or from accidents caused by other, maybe your note of love is something they can tangibly hold. Maybe a note from you keeps your loved one from escaping to drugs or running away and living on the street. Never ever ever underestimate the moments in life where you can lift someone up and tell them just how proud you are of them.

I wish you could see me right now, while I’m typing. If you are crying you’re in good company. I can’t keep the tears out of my eyes. I know my graduates are in secure families, but my heart is breaking in this moment for those graduates that are going through a rough moment that no one knows about. Yes, I have a mama’s heart and I wish I could give those graduates a great big hug, look them in the eyes, and tell them that they matter. They have purpose. The world needs them. And they can make it past this moment.

Please forgive that rabbit trail. I try not to pass up moments that matter. And I never know who reads this blog. But if you needed that last paragraph, know that it was meant just for you.

Money Leis

This was a thing that started back when I graduated High School, at least in my area. I first noticed it was with the year that graduated with me. And I’ll be honest, I so wanted one of those. So thank you Pacific Islander families who introduced this graduation gift to me all those years ago.

This is not my image. Nor do I own the rights to it. This is an image from Pinterest.ca that was found in a google search that was free to share and use. If you own this picture, please reach out to me and I will give you proper credit here.

I’m sorry that I’m not able to instruct you how to make this item. But there are plenty of videos on YouTube that can walk you through those steps. And know that one of these days, I will learn how to make them myself. In fact, I’ll go ahead and put it on my to-learn list for this year. That way I can come back for 2023 Graduation season and have some input on tips and what steps to avoid.

Money Arrangements

Very similar to the Money Lei is the Money Arrangements. I’ve seen many crafters fold money, like the Money Lei, to make flowers and topiaries. I’ve also seen people roll up bills. These rolled bills are then arranged into different shapes. You could use the rolls to make a graduation cap, graduation cake, or just about anything you have the imagination for.

If you’re interested in making making money topiaries, I did find a pictorial tutorial that looks very user friendly for those who might describe themselves as craft challenged. Here is a link to Sugar Bee Crafts. As of the writing of this post, I have not had contact with this craft blogger. Nor do I receive any compensation for this mention. I bring this to you, to be of service and help you come up with new ideas for your gift giving.

Now that I’ve given you some ideas on meaningful ways of gifting cash to your graduate, here is a little tutorial on how to make a quick tassel to dress up any graduation craft.

How To Make A Tassel

My collection of Embroidery Floss was not locatable when I was making my nephew’s graduation box. So I did the next best thing. I used my sewing thread that was in his school colors. And this was absolutely perfect, because I needed a small tassel and sewing thread gave a more sleek appearance that was proportional to the final product.

What I used:

  • Two different colored spools of thread
  • (1) 2 inch wooden ring
  • (4) crafting clamps
  • Scissors
  • Hot glue gun and glue for application
  1. Place the clamps on your ring so that you can keep your thread centrally located.
  2. Take the ends of your two threads, leave a tail at the top of the ring, and start wrapping your thread around the ring.
  3. Once you’ve reached your desired thickness, cut your finishing tail on the same side of the ring.
  4. (Left Top) Remove the clamps, slide the thread off the ring, and hold one side of the loop. Make sure to keep the other side open.
  5. (Left Middle) Wrap your tails around the open end of the loop and carefully tie your tails in a knot. If you pull too tight, you will distort the lengths of the thread. When this happens, keep calm and finish the knot. We can fix this when we trim the bottom of the tassel.
  6. (Left Lower) Place your scissors in the center of the loop and pull them to the opposite side, away from the knotted end.
  7. (Right) Take both tails and wrap them around the tassel head, to desired band thickness.
  8. (Bottom Left) Tie the tails with a couple of the tassel strands. This will become the back of your tassel that you will glue to your project.
  9. The tassel strands that you tied to the tails (and the tails) will all be pulled up to the top of the tassel to form the cord. You can choose to braid these. I opted to coil the threads by twisting them. (I knotted the end to just maintain order, especially for gluing.)
  10. Trim the bottom of the tassel to make all ends even.
  11. (Bottom Right) Glue your tassel to your project.

Further description of how I applied the tassel on my project:

On my nephew’s explosion box, I marked with a pen where I wanted to add my thread tassel. I started by hot gluing the tassel body in position. With the body in position I twisted the tails/cord, applied a thin row of glue on the pen line and laid the cord. Once the glue cooled, I trimmed off the knot and too long bits of thread. These ends I then hid under a colored foam ball that I stole from a silk flower arrangement.

Tip: The thinner you can keep your glue, the more it will hide. So try to be stingy on the glue. There will be more than enough glue to hold the tassel in place.

Tip 2: If you have a small crochet or tatting hook, you can make a seamless tassel by pulling the tails down into the center of the tassel and trimming off any length longer than the rest of the tassel.

I hope that you enjoyed these ideas and you find that you have a couple more options for gift giving this graduation season!

Files that were used for this post

My 2022 Graduation Collection has options for a general Explosion Box and Money Card. These include the monograms where you can custom make your graduation items with the same letters that I use.

I also have options for premade school boxes and cards for my local schools.

If you would like a specialized design for your school and mascot, feel free to email me to receive a time estimate of when that file goes live. You can reach me at info@pacificnorthwesteventdesign.com

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner to receive weekly emails containing promotions, digital file releases, and future blog notifications.

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