Did you think we gave up blogging? I can’t believe it is August already and
summer is nearly over. Here’s what has
kept us so busy this summer.
Davis Ranch Craft Show
In mid-June we participated in the Corn Festival at Davis
Ranch in Sloughhouse, CA. It was tons of
fun and I had great help from my friend Virginia.
Un-wedding
Reception
My nephew married his soul mate on June 29, 2012 so we
celebrated their wedding with an Alice in Wonderland themed “Unwedding
Reception” during our family reunion.
Here are some of the decorations we made. It was so much fun putting this together for
them. They are such a sweet couple and
truly are perfectly matched.
Paper
Roses
We made tissue paper roses in various sizes to use for
center pieces on the tables. It was so easy. Just cut 3 different size circles from tissue
paper and stack them placing the smallest circle on top then the middle sized
circles and finally the largest circle.
Punch a small hole in the center and insert a brad to hold the circles
together. Starting with the smallest
circles, pinch each layer up tight to the center then when all the pedals have
been fluffed; wire the flower to a florist pick so you can arrange them. We used oversized tea cups and mugs as well
as stacked regular sized tea cups. These
center pieces were very fun & inexpensive to make.
Framed
Art Work
The drawings from the original Lewis Carroll version of
Alice in Wonderland are now available to download so I made “framed” works of art using small silver serving trays
(say that fast three times) that I got at Dollar Tree. I increased the size of the original pieces
using a copy machine. I centered the
drawings on the back side of the trays and pressed down around the edges to
create a crease which I could follow as I cut off the excess paper. The drawings were attached to the bottom of
the tray with double stick tape and the decorative edge of the tray created the
perfect frame. Cost per piece was
$1.45. We used these as table
decorations along with the tea cup flower arrangements.
White
Rabbit
This large framed picture was made by my friend Nancy who is
so creative. I gave her a copy of the
rabbit which was Felicia’s favorite drawing in the story. She used black and white fabric as a
background and increased the size of the drawing which she mounted on
cardstock. She used a font that was
similar to the Lewis Carroll Font to write the words and added some
embellishments. This now hangs in their
home as a reminder of their special day.
Thank you Nancy!
Mad
Hatter Hat Party Favors
Felicia wanted the party favors to be in the shape of the
Mad Hatter’s hat so I scanned through tons of ideas on Etsy and various party
web sites but I just couldn’t come up with something that was pre-made that was
affordable so I put my thinking cap on.
I purchased the "Tags, Bags, Boxes & More 2" cartridge for my Cricut
because it has tons of different shapes of boxes. I experimented with several boxes and finally
settled on using a trapezoid box which we turned upside down. We added ribbon trim and an oval paper brim
base. They were filled with sugar
cookies that had a white chocolate rabbit on top and a small bottle of
juice. These were labeled with little
tags that said "eat me" or "drink me". We
had a ton of fun putting these together the night before the reception.
Team
USA Popcorn
Since our family reunion began on July 27, 2012 which
happened to be the opening day of the Olympics I made some special popcorn to
show our support for the USA Team members.
It also kept the troops working as they helped prepare the decorations
for the reception which was the next afternoon.
It was so easy and I got lots of requests for the
recipe. Here it is:
1. 6 regular size bags of Pop Secret Microwave popcorn
2. 1 bag each of Red, White, & Blue Candy Melts (Chocolate
melts usually found in the party or wedding section at Wal-mart or JoAnns.) Note that they only have a pastel blue so I
added blue food color to make it darker.
3. Pop two bags of popcorn.
Place in an extra large bowl making sure all the un-popped kernels are
taken out then set it aside.
4. Place a bag of the candy melts in a dish and microwave until
they are melted. Follow package
directions. Stir the candies until they
are smooth. While the candy is still hot
pour it over the popped corn. Stir the
candy and the corn together until all the corn is well coated. The more you stir the more evenly the candy
coats the corn.
5. Spread the coated popcorn onto two large cookie sheets that
are lined with waxed paper to dry. Let
it dry for about 2 hours then break it up and store in an air tight
container. Repeat with the other two
colors. When all the corn is coated and
dried you can mix the colors together. I
also added almonds, pecans, & raisins to the mix.
All in all we had a great time at the unwedding reception
and the family reunion. Now it is back
to reality and crafting.