Lauren's mermaid party and a free mermaid for you!

I'm so excited to share with you the party that I helped put on for my niece, along with huge help from Marlyn (Montreal Confections.) All of the goodies on the sweet table were made by Marlyn and were completely stunning.

Are you ready? It's gonna be a long post, full of yummy and crafty pictures...

This is my niece, Lauren. She just turned 4 and is currently obsessed with all things mermaid. Ariel, to be specific. The wig is killing me.

It's not exactly Ariel, but we created our own version.  I used Lawn Fawn's critters in the sea and the frame from sweater weather for the paper decorations. The mermaid? She's my own creation.  I illustrated her, and I think she fits right in with the critters! I love her to bits. If you love her too, you'll want to keep reading...



Here's what the entire party looked like, at a glance. I love the linen tablecloth that we used for the main table - we kept it wrinkly because I thought it looked like textured sand. Yes? ha.



The party table was bright and airy, and a little dreamy. It turned out exactly how I hoped it would! My sister bought the watery-colored hanging balls from Michaels, and I added a honeycomb garland (that I made from scratch, thank you very much). We kept it simple and fresh.

My favorite thing on the dessert table was this cake. I mean, that's my artwork.in cake form. It was all piped and airbrushed to perfection.



Marlyn has a tutorial video on youtube today. Even if you would never recreate these desserts, please go and watch the video! It's amazing to watch an artist at work - I love seeing behind the scenes stuff! CLICK!



I know my card-making friends will appreciate this: look! sugar enamel dots!

If one cake wasn't enough, Marlyn made a second cake. She knows how much I love her buttercream. hee.



The shells and little pearls were the perfect simple touches.



I created labels for the water bottles, and a few food markers using a mix of stamps and digital artwork.

Everything was kept light and white, with pops of color.



These cupcakes were labeled mermaid sightings and were so cute!



I love the sugar tails sticking out!



Of course, Marlyn made cookies. Like this one, just for Lauren, and the number 4 on top of the ruffled cake.



And the school of dolphins. hee. They make me smile! Marlyn hand-cut these to match the lawn fawn stamp!



My sister added some special touches of her own, like these starfish sandwiches,



and these pearly oyster cookies. so cute!

I made the take-home favor bag, and my sister stuffed them with goodies.



All in all, I'd say the birthday girl was pretty happy with what we created for her!

I hope you like it too! I have a special gift for you to take home too. If you like the mermaid that I illustrated to match the lawn fawn stamps, then download her and print her out for yourself!

I'm offering her to you in JPEG and PNG formats. Click on the link that suits you, and save to your computer. If you will use her with the lawn fawn critters, you'll need to shrink her down a bit!

Thanks for stopping by!

♥.

peace and joy wreath {lawn fawn october inspiration week}

Hi there! and welcome back to another day of lawn fawn inspiration. Today, we're showing off new alphabets! Finley's ABCs and Violet's ABCs.

Here's what I created:

I put the Violet's letters into the frame from Sweater Weather. They fit perfectly! And I love the fancy "and" included in this alphabet set. So pretty.



I stamped an entire wreath using Deck the Hall branches onto the card base. Then, I stamped out half a wreath onto a separate piece of cardstock and cut it out using the partial die-cut technique. That way, I got all of the nice die-cut edges without the bulk of layering individual branches.

I hope you like it!

♥.

monster party! {created for lawn fawn}

I seem to have a thing for linking monsters and babies together. I created a new baby card using lawn fawn's new monster mash set (click!) and now I'm showing off a first birthday party with a preppy monster theme:

This party was so fun to create. I imagine a little boy with unruly curls wearing an argyle bowtie to match the decorations. Sidebar: I don't usually create parties that have absolutely nothing to do with my kids, so this one had them entirely confused. Who's turning one? Is this for someone's birthday? Do we still get to eat the cupcakes?

First off, the invite. It's for a wee little one, so why shouldn't the invite be tiny as well? It's only 3x5 inches and perfectly whimsical. I chose to handwrite all of the labels, but you could always design and print something on your computer.  All of the decorations feature the same focal design: the frame from sweater weather (where I hand-cut the inside oval, since the dies hadn't arrived at the time!) and the 3-eyed monster from monster mash, decked out in a party hat and bow-tie.

Wondering what to serve at a preppy monster party?



Stinky feet sandwiches. Bonus points if you use a foot cookie cutter.  I folded a journaling card die in half for all of the food labels.

Tip: I stamped an entire sheet of white cardstock with the argyle pattern and then die-cut the best parts for all of my decorations. My shaky hands mean that lining up patterns isn't always the easiest thing for me to do!

For dessert, eyeball cupcakes.



I stuck a few blue smarties for eyes on top of the frosting - nothing easier:



A few drops of blue food coloring to jazz up the bottles of water help to add some pops of color to the party table.



The label that goes with the water bottles reads monster slime. The kids loved that one!

For the favors, I slipped blue and yellow gumballs into plastic tubes and tied them together with a monster thanks tag.



My favorite part of this whole party is the banner.  I didn't have the dies yet, so I had to resort to masking to create the look I wanted. (Did I say resort to masking? I think we all know this was my first choice all along, haha.)

I'm on the lawn fawn blog today too, and if you click there you'll find a photo tutorial for how to create the banner panels, with the cute little monster peeking out from behind the frame.

I hope you like this month's party!  Thanks for stopping by!

♥.

sweater weather {lawn fawn's august inspiration week}

Another day of lawn fawn inspiration; this one features the sweater weather stamp set and matching dies.

Even though I especially love the frame (click! to see the lovely frame) I used all of the tiny folliage to make a gift ensemble:



The little chipmunk from "joy to the woods" works so well in a fall setting! I used the leaves and acorn from sweater weather to build a wreath around him in shades of mustard and burnt orange and navy.



Here's a secret: my only navy ink was way too light when I stamped the leaves, so I went over the stamped images with a copic marker to bring it to the richer shade I wanted. It matches the patterned paper much better this way.



I love the goodie bag die. It's a snap to put together and it looks so cute when assembled using double-sided patterned paper! It's like a bag with a snazzy liner.

That's all for me, but there's always way more to see on the lawn fawn blog!

♥.

purr-fect {lawn fawn august inspiration week}

Hi and welcome back to another day of lawn fawn's august inspiration week. Today, it's all about the papers, the flair, the woodgrain notecards, the sequins and wood veneer found in the sweater weather collection!

I tried to show off a few of the new patterns in my paper-pieced goodie bag. Aren't they cute?  I cut and assembled the new goodie bag die in white, but added a fun splash of the bright argyle to the front. That involved several steps: I first die-cut the argyle with a stitched rectangle die, then ran just the tip through the machine to get the same pinked-edge-top as the goodie bag. Finally, I die-cut a circle into the layer, so that I could arrange my scene inside.



The rest was much easier to put together: I die cut a few rolling hills for the kitty to rest on, paper-pieced her (giving her a bow from the new monster mash set) and made an original sentiment from 2 different stamps in the spooktacular set.

A bow in the new orchid twine finishes it all off. I hope you like it!

Check out the lawn fawn blog for more inspiration!

♥.

lawn fawn sneak peek week continues!

Are you as excited over the new lawn fawn release as I am?  I'm still waiting on some sets and dies (it takes forever to cross the border to Canada!) and I'm giddy over every post on the lawn fawn blog this week. hee.

I have two cards to show you today, using new sets that will be available for sale at the end of August.

Love You a Latte is the sweetest set!  I love the mustache face.  I paired the latte images with a cozy argyle background and the frame from Sweater Weather.

I stamped the card base full of mug and tea-cup images from the set.



My next card brings on Christmas in July.

Joy to the Woods is such a fantastic set - I just adore those birch trees!  I did a bit of masking to be able to fill the background with the birch trees, and colored the spaces between the trees with a light blue marker.

I added a glossy cardinal to one of the branches and double-stamped the sentiment to mimic the cardinal's red and black coloring.

I stamped the sentiment first in red ink, and then stamped it again and heat-embossed it with black embossing powder. The red just peeks through.



I hope you like what I've created!  There's more to see on the lawn fawn blog today (click!)

♥.