Happy 50th Birthday Colleen!

Warning! This is a long post with lots of pictures!

Hi Friends and Fellow Crafters! I can hardly believe a month has gone by. It was an exceptionally busy 4 weeks for me. We had a terrible upper respiratory infection running through our home, then I received a call on February 4th from my BFF's hubby asking for ideas for a 50th Birthday party for her. Men sometimes don't get it, he wanted to have the party on March 3rd. WHAT?!!!! That is not much time for me. I am the slowest crafter on the East Coast! LOL! I went to work on the invites. I knew it had to be simple, so I used DCWV pre-made cards and envelopes for the base of the card. I used the Cricut Craft Room to design the card. Here is the invitation.

Here is a close up.

And the inside

I used my Cricut Circle Cartridge, Sophie to cut the main design. It is the Lable4 cut. The Butterfly is also from Sophie. It is the butterfly1 cut. Finally, the "You're Invited" is from Teresa Collins' Sophisticated Cartridge. I used my computer and printed the party information on Vellum. Then I used vellum tape to attach it on the inside. The papers I used are from one of my 1st stacks that I bought when I started paper crafting. It is the Die Cut With A View Luxury Stack. They looked simple, yet elegant once they were finished. I was pleased that I was able to get them to my BFF's hubby within a week. That gave me the next week to work on my son's Valentines and it was back to party planning. Next were the favors. My BFF, Colleen loves to shop. I wanted something fun for her, so I went with little bags. Here's how they turned out.

These are from Tags Bags Boxes and More. I cut them at fit to page. The tags are also from TBBM cut at 2 inches, I think. I used my Gypsy to make these, but I can't find the tag file. I printed out the sentiment, cut them to size for the tag, glued and inked them. The flowers and buttons are all from my stash. I am almost embarrassed to admit that even using all those flowers, I didn't even make a small dent in my Prima stash. All the papers are from my stash, mostly K&Company and My Mind's Eye Home collection. There are a few that I cut and printed using my Imagine. I used Mystical Garden on them. The last picture above shows a Maroon bag that is from Mystical Garden. Once they were all assembled, I added Hershey Kisses in tissue paper to them. These aren't the best pictures, but they give you an idea on how they looked stuffed. I ended up making 30 of them. They were a big hit, especially with the younger girls at the party.

My original plan for centerpieces fell apart because week three of trying to get the party together was spent with my Mom in the hospital. I didn't get a darn thing done. I was so exhausted from running back and forth to the hospital, that all I could do was eat dinner, get my son's things together for school and pass out. The final week was spent getting my Mom home, settling in to visits from the Visiting Nurses and trying to get a banner design together. I was thrilled when my new Cricut Circle Cartridge, Letter Envy arrived, It has a Crest Layer that is prefect for banners! Anyone who knows me, also knows that I love banners. They are tied with Topiaries as being my favorite home decor design projects to create using my Cricut machines. There was no way I was going to let an opportunity to make a banner for Colleen's birthday pass me by. LOL! I knew I had to keep going with the simple is better manner that I had used on the invites and favors. I broke out the Gypsy, updated it, and linked up the new Cartridge. I used the banner I'm sorry, I meant crest feature, lol, from the letter J on the cartridge. I didn't get too deeply involved with all the layer features on the letters for her name, but they are from this cartridge. They sort of remind me of the Hello Kitty font, that I really love. I used some flowers and other embellishments that I had in my stash, but most of the extras on the banner are from the  Imagine Yummy Art Cartridge. I layered most of them and embellished them with stickles, Martha Stewart Chunky Glitter and 3-D Crystal Lacquer. The patterned papers are all from My Minds Eye Home collection. The solid paper was in my stash, but I think it was from AC Moore's store brand. All the letters and the swirly banner layer are glittered with Martha Stewart Glitter. I wanted to note that I cut the letters and swirls in black paper. I was surprised at how it changed the hue of the glitter. I was originally using white letters and the glitter, but I loved the deeper tone I got with the black paper. The shadow on the letters is also from the Home collection. I had that stack for the longest time and had only used a couple of pieces of it, until now. Here are some pictures.

It was a pretty big banner, so I broke the pictures up. Here are some of my favorite pennants.

Here it is on the door at the restaurant.

Check out this cake, it is awesome! A Coach Purse cake! Love It!!!!!

I have been very blessed in my life that while I have no biological sisters, I have 4 wonderful friends that are more than sisters to me. We are all turning 50 this year with the exception of my one BFF that still has a year to go. I hope to have more time for our next party and really co-ordinate everything. Colleen was totally surprised and we all had a great time at her party.

Happy 50th Birthday to my Best Friend! My dear Sister, Colleen!