Not only did my first child get home from her mission (she was in Hong Kong and Macau, representing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for almost 19 months away from me) and returned home on Good Friday, April 18, 2014, but like many returned Mormon missionaries, she went and found herself a husband and got married! Ha ha. We are very happy for them, and as you can imagine, my life has been sort of hectic with parties and celebrations, and life. So, I just want to check into my little blog and say hi and that I'm alive! Phew! Another blessing.
She got married in December after finishing a semester back at college at Brigham Young University, and went on a winter honeymoon, then we had a wedding reception for the newlyweds in Texas that was all about lemon yellow and cobalt blue. Every time I see something in these colors to this day, I can't NOT think about the wedding. (That's a double negative, which means a positive! I'll never look at those colors the same. I was reading a Berenstain Bears book to my son today, and noticed the pa and little bear wore yellow and blue. See what I mean?)
We had a buffet dinner with heavy hors d'oeurves and I made desserts, which was fun for me, since I'm a baking enthusiast and always enjoy sharing treats with my friends and family. This past year, I have been on a monster cookie roll, normally putting six M&M's on each one, in coordinated colors. For the reception, I made these baby monster cookies, half the size of the usual, and so cute and yummy. I also made mini pecan pie tarts, and of course we had wedding cake, made by a pro.
The night before the reception, I made a record breaking (for me) amount of heart shaped sugar cookies, just under 200 in about two hours. I was seriously in the zone! I rolled, cut, baked, timed, removed from the oven, every eight minutes, with both ovens, and used up every baking sheet I owned. It was intense! I wanted them to be fresh, and they certainly were. I frosted the cookies with yellow royal icing and they turned out pretty well.
Their wedding announcements were from Wedding Paper Divas and were absolutely beautiful, a very thick, heavy paper, in a tri-fold design, with print on both sides, which came in handy for all the details for the various locations of the actual wedding and two receptions.
So, as you can see, they lived happily ever after. Well, at least a month or so into their ever-after! I have indeed made various cards since my one and only post of 2014, but have not blogged the excitement. Maybe sometime this year? Who knows. Stay tuned. I still am wild about my little hobby, even though it may not seem like it. Until then, thank you for reading!
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Backtracking a bit, I want to show you these Bingo cards I made when I went home for the holidays. I made sets of cards for various family members and hope that they'll enjoy their Bingo cards every year on Christmas Eve in the future, as it has been a tradition in my husband's family for years.
By adding the sewing machine stitching around each border, it not only permanently adhered all the layers together, it now eliminates worry about anything coming apart the way paper crafts sometimes tend to do, plus this dainty threaded accent also creates a tailored keepsake edge. I really like the colorful cheer of all the pieces together too.
I almost forgot about making the game pieces, but they were easy to whip up. I used Stamin' Up's Bingo Background stamp along with the Jolly Bingo Bits set. White cardstock was the best choice for stamping the Bingo image, as I had less of a clean, bold look when using confetti white or confetti cream. Very vanilla would be my second best preference.
In case you haven't noticed, this is my first post in months! We moved to Taiwan in August from Texas, for a year. I didn't know how much space I would have, so I didn't pack my stamping supplies and I missed everything desperately!
When I went back to the States over the Christmas break, I loaded up my luggage with rubber stamps, punches, cardstock, inks, pens, scissors, adhesives, you name it. My cousin helped me unload my junk from her trunk when she dropped me off at the airport in San Francisco and I was embarrassed at how heavy all my bags were! I maxed out on the luggage weight limit and carried back as much as I could. I snatched up this darling lantern rubber stamp in Taiwan, which was made in China. I found a fun way to make your own paper lantern card on this blog.
Now I can create once again! Thank you, Eva Airways!
I made these wonderful Chinese New Year cards and hope to post more fun cards over the next several months while I'm living on this tropical Asian island. Enjoy!
I've always wanted to order custom M&Ms and this was just the reason (or excuse) I was looking for.
The little tins were darling in and of themselves, but slightly boring for my preferences, so I had to add a bit of ribbon, a couple of coordinating cardstock colors, cut with two just-right punches.
All those extra details just seem to make something good, even better.
We chose a line from "Wicked," to accent the party favors, "Because I knew you, I have been changed for the better."
I've also always wanted to try making one of these lovely banners and give complete credit to Kelly for her excellent tutorial. I'm a huge fan of her card making style and overall creativity--she is my muse! It was in the middle of the night when I spotted the step by step instructions on her blog, and all I had was Halloween cardstock in my daughter's school colors, and I was bound and determined to make a banner right then and there, so I went with it. Now I have a jazzy new banner to hang up in October as well.
Here's a closer shot of my banner. I seriously need either a new camera or photography lessons, or both, but you get the idea.
I'm extremely proud of my girl and will miss her when she heads out of state to attend college at BYU-Idaho in the fall.