Free Mother's Day Printable

I needed something for the children's group in my church to do for their mom's on Mother's Day that could be done in 5 minutes and wouldn't break the budget.  I found a cute fill-in-the blank newspaper image on marthastewart.com, but the server was down and I don't know if it's accessible.

So I used the image as inspiration for my own.  Right click on the image to save to your computer for printing.

Halloween Planning

I'm excitedly working on my church's annual Halloween party and thought I'd share some images in case anyone else would like to use them as well.  Right click on the image to save.  Happy haunting!

Vintage Baby Shower Free Printable Invitations

In light of the interest I've had recently in the Vintage Gg Is For Girl Baby Shower, I decided to make up some new printables since the invitation wasn't offered before.  There is a boy and a girl version in 5x7 dimensions in .jpg format.  Again, right click to save to your computer and then you can print as they are, or resize or add your own information in any editing program you like.  I don't really care for the typical "fill in the blank" invitations, so I purposefully left it blank so you can write it up however you like. (Note: these are for personal use only)

See my original post for other printables in the credits.   Also, Dafont is a resource that I love for free fonts, and can be downloaded to your computer as well.  This is a link to the main page where you can get "school" fonts.

Enjoy!

Teacher Appreciation Week Free Printable

I got some chocolates for my son to bring to school for his teacher.  I thought I'd tie the boxes up in red tulle that I have, but I wanted a cute tag to go with it.  So this is what I created.  Right click to save the .jpg to your computer and print however you like.  Happy teacher appreciation week!

Up Next...

Is a shower themed shower.  I'm into everything umbrella, raindrop, blue and green now.  I found a link to a program called Tagxedo where you can create your own subway art and actually save it to your computer, not just print immediately like you can do with Wordle.  I created this and I think I might use it on the gift table.

The shower is inspired by this invitation that I got as a free download (and then tweaked) from Parents.com

Vintage Gg is For Girl Baby Shower

the game

"Gg is for girl" theme for a September shower for a teacher.

Decor:

~ vintage fabrics lining the food and dining tables
~ coordinating homemade fabric pennant swag above the food table
~ "critter cards" using "School Script Dashed" font
~ bowls of red apples
~ mason jars of pencils
~ classic retro books standing and in stacks
~ kitschy daisies in a carafe
~ vintage illustrations marking the gift table, favor table, and front door sign

Menu:

brown bag lunches including-
~ chicken salad and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches packaged in old fashioned wax paper
~ carrot and celery sticks
~ cookies
~ apples
~ water bottles with "Gg is for girl" labels
~ and a special note from mom on a napkin included in each lunch
~ retro milk carton favor boxes filled with Tootsie Rolls to take home

Music:

~ Benny Goodman
~ The Ballad of Davy Crockett
~ Father Knows Best Theme
~ Mickey Mouse Club March
~ Nat King Cole
~ Bing Crosby
~ Andrews Sisters
~ The McGuire Sisters
~ Doris Day
~ Leave it To Beaver Theme
~ Rosemary Clooney
~ I Love Lucy Theme
~ The Donna Reed Show Theme
~ and many more...

credits:
One Charming Party for inspiration, Gg is for girl image- for free printables from Brittany, go to One Charming Party

Retro milk carton favor box- papercrave.com

Vintage books- Phoenix Public Library (love the library!)

Choo Choo Train Party With Free Custom Designed Printables!

to save an image to your computer, right click on the picture. All printables are original resolution and may be resized.

food and water signs: hostess with the mostess
straw can wrapper: marthastewart.com

Back To School Carnival Part 2

Soundtrack:

~ summer songs, such as "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", marching band music, etc.
~ "Tequila"
~ calliope and organ music

Activities:

~ ring toss
~ "Madame Esmerelda's" fortune telling with her crystal ball and palm reading in her very own gypsy tent
~ face painting
~ cupcake walk
~ inflatable castle bounce house

Menu:

~ chilly dill pickles
~ popcorn
~ peanuts
~ animal crackers
~ cotton candy
~ "restorative elixir" bottles (aka water)
~ chocolate fudge cupcakes with semi-sweet cream cheese frosting

water bottle labels from:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29771885@N07/3021065136

chilly dill, peanut, and popcorn bags from HeyYoYo on Etsy

Feather Her Nest Baby Shower

A gray and yellow bird themed baby shower with an emphasis on clean lines, bird silhouettes and eggs.

Decor:

~ white backdrop for the buffet table with yellow matted, black and white pictures of the mommy-to-be
~ buffet table was flanked with silver lamps, and I used a custom made yellow overlay over the white tablecloth that matched the three yellow table runners I made for the long rectangular table where the guests sat
~ the food labels were printed on white cardstock and anchored with home grown eggs that I blew out the white and yolks, and then painted the coordinating yellow
~ I used a silver cupcake stand for the dessert, and instead of using the top tier for an angel food cupcake, I placed an oversized cardboard egg, also painted the coordinating yellow as a "cake topper"
~ at the drink station, I used a glass punch decanter for the lemonade, and yellow acrylic pitcher for the ice water
~ each table runner was laid across the table horizontally and a centerpiece of a #10 size silver can held branches that I spray painted gray and clipped on a small yellow bird which were anchored in lemons (which repeated the color scheme and evoked an egg shape)
~ egg and feather front door sign that read "be 'tweet' and enter through the side gate"
~ white lights criss-crossing above the entry path for when it got dark (this was a dinner that started when it was light, but ended at dark)
~ shepherd's hooks lined the pathway from the gray and yellow sign in book (from Michael's) and gift table to the buffet. I stretched silver organza between the hooks, and each one held alternating yellow and white rice paper lanterns
~ I used yellow plates, and clear forks that were displayed in a silver mint julep type cup, and clear plastic tumblers

The soundtrack:

An assortment of modern jazz with female singers including:
~ Yael Naim
~ Madeleine Peyroux
~ Adele
~ Colbie Caillat
~ Zooey Deschanel

The menu:

The dinner was a light open house buffet style meal with
~ grilled chicken caesar salad
~ onion and plain bread sticks
~ lemon curd tarts in cream cheese dough shells
~ individual angel food cakes served with sweet cream on the side
~ sparkling lemonade and ice water with lemon slices

Activities:

~ first, dinner and socializing
~ as the guests were finishing up their desserts, I introduced the game where they had to guess how the mommy-to-be would answer these words/phrases
~ the winner who had the most matches received a jar of the homemade lemon curd that was served in the tarts covered with the yellow fabric used for the table linens and recipe attached with yellow ribbon

~ then the gift opening and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over all the cute baby things

It was a good night.

Graduation

My son just graduated from our homeschool preschool. For our ceremony, I made preschool diplomas, and caps with tassles that matched our red, blue, yellow, with hints of black color scheme. It was a pot luck with some yummy desserts, and for the food table backdrop, I used a shower curtain, and projected the "class of 2010" image I designed and traced with Sharpie, and filled in with paint. I got the food and beverage signs from Hostess with the Mostess (http://www.hostesswiththemostess.com/themes/color_your_summer/color_your_summer) which has awesome printables.


The kids walked down the red carpet, and got to share their favorite memories of preschool through the microphone, and after the Pomp and Circumstance, we played the Rocky theme and they threw up their graduation caps and released balloons. Afterward, everyone got to mingle while listening to songs like The Climb by Miley Cyrus (one of the preschool girls was a big Miley fan), Here's to the Night by Eve 6, and I Will Remember You by Sarah McLachlan. My baby's growing up- soon it'll be college!

Here's the recipe for the sparkling lemonade we had at the drink counter:

~ 2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice
~ 2 cups sugar
~ 12 cups water
~ 1 2-liter lemon lime soda
~ lots of ice and sliced lemons

Congratulations all you other class of 2010 graduates and enjoy!