Gift Card College Survival Kit Grad Gift

Hello Everyone!  Happy May!  I am back today with a very belated blog post.  Last year my brother graduated from high school and I made him a fun gift that I wanted to share on the blog. For some reason the photos of this project disappeared from my iPhoto so I was unable to.  About a month ago when I opened my iPhoto it had a message that it needed to reconfigure itself and after it was done these photos had magically reappeared!  So now I get to share it with you almost a year later than planned but it is perfect timing for anyone who needs some grad gift ideas for this year.

I wanted to come up with a unique idea for my brother's graduation gift and when I saw a gift card book and then another idea about a college survival kit with gift cards on Pinterest I decided to combine the two.  My brother is attending the University of Kansas so I purchased gift cards that he could use in Lawrence.

Then I cut some paper I had on hand to make the book part.  I purchased scrapbooking paper in black and gold colors for the decorations in the book.  I used my Silhouette Portrait and printable gold foil for all the sentiments in the book.

I got him a Starbucks gift card to help him stay awake while studying.

I got him an iTunes gift card to keep him pumped while studying and a Wendy's gift card to help with the hunger during an all night study session.

I got him a movie gift card for when he needed to take a break from studying (which he used to see the latest Star Wars movie, good choice!) and a Walgreens gift card for stuff when he was feeling a little under the weather.

I got him a Target gift card for any other essentials he needed and a KU book store gift card for school spirit items.  I made all of the gift card pockets with black card stock and my Silhouette Portrait.  I loved the way it turned out!  What do you think?

Baby It's Cold Outside Baby Shower

A little over a week ago I co-hosted a baby shower for one of my best friends, Krista, who is expecting a baby boy at the end of March.  Since it was going to be a winter baby shower, I thought that "baby it's cold outside" would be a cute theme.  So one of my co-hosts, Katie, whipped up an adorable invite and we were off and running with the planning phase.  

We chose white and baby blue for the colors, decided to do one game and a craft, and came up with a menu.  Katie was in charge of the guest book and most of the decorations.  I loved what she chose!

It was such a fun idea to use a book as a guest book!

Don't you love the cute sock tree and "baby it's cold outside" sign!

For food we decided to serve soups and tea sandwiches.  My other co-host, Emily, cut all of the bread for the chicken salad sandwiches into snowflake shapes!

Click here to get the recipe for the southwestern chicken salad.  I didn't have much mayo on hand to I used greek yogurt instead and I never use packaged taco seasoning because of the sodium content to I just added cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper.

Katie made some delicious cucumber sandwiches and a pasta salad.  Katie and Emily made 3 soups: wild rice, minestrone, and chicken tortilla and they were all yummy.

In lieu of a cake we decided to serve cake pops.

I made the cake pops using a babycakes cake pop maker that my mom bought for me.  I used the white cake recipe from 175 Best Babycakes Cake Pop Maker Recipes.  The book is nice because it includes lots of tips and tricks for baking and decorating your cake pops.  I made 60 cake pops and was able to put the sticks in and then freeze them a few weeks in advance.  A few days before the shower I took them out of the freezer and decorated them.  Dipping the cake pops after they have been in the freezer actually makes the process easier.  I used blue and white candy melts and then sprinkled large sugar crystals over them to get an icy wintry effect.  The cake pop stand was purchased a Michaels.  I was going to make my own stand but the cost of the materials ended up being the same as the pre-made stand so I opted to go with the easiest route for a busy mom.  I cut out some snowflakes from white card stock with my Silhouette Portrait and then attached them to some wooden skewers which I taped to the top of the cake pop stand.  The bunting was made with washi tape and baker's twine. I used a washi tape bunting on the hot air balloon mobile for Lyla's room.

Krista's mother-in-law, Barb, also provided us with many delicious goodies for the shower.  She is an excellent cook and baker.  I am kind of bummed because I didn't actually try any of them since I was so busy running around making sure everything was going smoothly.  Barb also made some delicious blue punch and Katie filled a drink dispenser with water and put lemon and orange slices in the dispenser to make "spa" water.

So adorable!

We also had a hot chocolate bar.  I have done hot chocolate bars for my last two New Year's Eve parties but I decided to take it up a notch with this one by adding matching containers and a bunting sign.  I found the containers at Hobby Lobby and used a chalk marker to label them.

You may recognize the candle holders and vase from my home.  I use them for winter decor every year and I bought them at Target several years ago.  I decided the berries in the vase would add a little pop of the red just like the red bird in the invite.

I purchased the fabric pieces for the bunting at Michaels.  They have tons of colors so your can find some for any event that you are planning!  I cut out the letters and snowflakes from card stock with my Silhouette Portrait and then I attached them to the fabric with glue dots.  I attached the fabric pieces to some baker's twine with hot glue.  I made the mistake of laying my letters out in order and then flipping them over to glue them with the word "HOT" so when I turned it around it said "TOH" haha.  Luckily I used the removable glue dots so I was able to just swap the "T" and the "H" for a quick fix.

For mix-ins for the hot chocolate bar I included crushed peppermint candy, toffee, white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, peanut butter chips, sea salt, marshmallows, pirouette cookies, whipped cream, caramel syrup, and toasted marshmallow syrup.  I used this crock pot hot chocolate recipe which is one of my favorites.  One tip for getting the stubborn cocoa powder to mix in with the rest of the ingredients is to use an immersion blender.  It works like a charm!

After eating, we played one game that Katie planned and then we made alphabet blocks which was my project to plan.

I will have another post on the block craft soon because it is one of my most ambitious Silhouette projects yet.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the craft and the blocks turned out great!  For centerpieces, in addition to the block supplies, I used the jars from Lyla's baptism brunch and made a few more snowflakes from white card stock with my Silhouette Portrait.  I then attached two back-to-back with glue dots and then slipped them over a wooden skewer.  I placed a little bit of floral foam in the bottom of the jar and stuck the skewer in.  I had some fake snow on hand from a Sunday school craft that I did a few years ago so I put some in the bottom of the jars to cover up the floral foam.  The other centerpieces were already on the tables and they fit perfectly with our theme!

And that folks is how we chose to throw a "baby it's cold outside" themed baby shower!  It came together beautifully and was a blast.  I will be back very soon to share how I created the alphabet block craft for the shower.

Hot Chocolate Mug Gift Pouches

Sometimes I am on the ball and churn out several posts within a week of each other.  This would be one of those times.  Today's project was actually one that I came up with last minute.  I realized about a week ago that I should probably give Christmas gifts to the staff at Lyla's daycare.  So (*this will come as a big shocker*) I scoured Pinterest for ideas for simple, inexpensive gift ideas.  I decided that I wanted to do some sort of hot chocolate gift. Then I found this design from the Silhouette Design Store and I instantly had my idea planned in my head.

I liked the Santa design but I quickly discovered that the only red card stock that I had was kind of a pinky red that seemed more magenta than true red.  I did however have some lovely blue card stock, white card stock, and kraft paper so I started to figure out a design.  I decided that I would make the mug pouches blue and use the kraft paper and white card stock for accents.

I started by making some embossed snowflakes on kraft paper and then cutting them out.  This probably would of been a good application for PixScan but I was under a time constraint so I just opted to cut them out by hand.

During my first year of marriage to my husband, I decided to make Christmas cards since I apparently hadn't had enough card making despite the 180 invitations that I had made for our wedding.  I learned about embossing and decided to invest in the supplies to use the technique on our Christmas cards.  You can use any stamp to emboss.  You just need embossing ink, embossing powder, and an embossing drying tool which is similar to a hair dryer.

I love watching the powder change to liquid as the tool heats it up.  It is kind of similar to heating up the sugar on top of creme brulee with a kitchen torch.

I then used a shape that I already had in my library to create a message embellishment for the mugs. The larger background piece was cut out of kraft paper.  I used white card stock and the print and cut feature of the Silhouette to make the top piece.

One I had all of my pieces cut out I put everything together using glue dots (until I ran out of glue dots and had to use scotch tape).

I then placed a packet of Swiss Miss cocoa, a snack sized Ziploc full of mini marshmallows, and a candy cane in each pouch.

This would make a great simple gift for anyone to show your appreciation of them.  It could also make a great favor for a party.  Let me know what you think of my latest project!