Non-Christmas(ish) Party Fun with Glue Dots!

I love birthdays! I love that everyone has that one special day that they get celebrated.
But.

 {are there any Christmas babies out there??}

Yeah. Christmas babies tend to have their birthdays accidentally forgotten in the hustle and bustle of the season, or may get a 'combo gift'...
                "This present is for your birthday and Christmas!"


So this year, I wanted to do something special for my 'Christmas baby' friend. We'll be having a normal, non-Christmas(ish) party for her this year. I was in charge of dessert and favors.   (!!!)

As much as I love birthdays, I love a good sale, too!! In all of the crafty stores, Christmas displays and goodies are speedily being set up and readied for the upcoming Christmas season...with $ales!! I went shopping for favors and was viciously attacked by 50% off Christmas items!!

So with my non-Christmas(ish) party theme, I snatched up an arm-full of clear plastic Christmas ornaments :)

Favors:

These are super easy to make and a lot of fun, too!! I'll walk you through the steps. Ready?
You'll need the following supplies:

• Clear ornament (I chose plastic...from experience!)
• Glue Lines® and an assortment of other Glue Dots®
• Coordinating glitter, ribbon and paper flowers
• Glittered chipboard letters (I used Thickers)
• Wood floor finish (I've used a few different brands that have all worked)
• Small piece of plastic wrap

 
The first step is to pour a bit of the floor finish into the clean ornament, cover the opening with plastic wrap, and make sure the entire inside of the ornament is coated.

Once the inside is coated, pour out the excess liquid and pour in the glitter. Give it a good shake to make sure it gets everywhere! Put the hanger back onto the top.

Cut your ribbon to fit around the ornament and apply your Glue Lines® to the back.

Peel off the plastic from the Glue Lines® and adhere your ribbon around the ornament. Use Ultra Thin Glue Dots® to apply paper flowers and finish off with your chipboard letter!




For the second ornament, I glittered the inside and used varying sizes of Glue Dots® (Mini, Permanent, and Craft) and randomly adhered them to the outside of the ornament. Press the dots into the glitter and wipe off the excess. Decorate with paper flowers and chipboard letter.

Cake:
When it comes to cake, I ran straight to the cupcake shop!! I love making kids cakes, but thought cupcakes would be more appropriate for this party. I wanted to dress them up a bit, so I used the Cindy Loo Cricut cartridge to cut out cute butterfly cupcake wrappers. I cut out some coordinating paper to line the wrappers and used some Micro Glue Dots® to adhere them.

Can you see those micro dots?? They're there!! Get out the magnifying glass!!

Use a 1" Glue Line® on the end where the tabs are (I don't care for using the tabs...they always fall apart!), wrap the liner around the cupcake and glue for a perfect fit.

I love them! I think everything turned out really well and we'll have a great non-Christmas(ish) birthday party.

I wrote this blog post while participating on the Glue Dots® design team.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

It seems like Fall is my busiest thank you card giving time. Just as the leaves begin to {crunch} underfoot, peoples generosity abounds, subsequently increasing my thank you card giving ten fold! While I tend to make cards in bulk for general thanking purposes, there are times when the kindness of the giver requires an extra special card in return. This, my friends, is one such card.

Most of you can understand my joy and excitement when a friend invited a group of us out for dinner and a concert - child free. Working full-time through the week and being on-call most every weekend, it's not very often ((at all)) that I get to go out with other adults and relax (with exponential thanks to my hubby for taking one for the team and staying home with the munchkins!). After such a fabulous evening, an equally fabulous card should be given in return, right??

So, TA-DA! Here's what I came up with:

This card is all about texture, texture, texture!! I started with one of my all-time favorite paper packs: an Amy Butler K&Company pack called Lotus (look familiar? I used it for my mini album, too).

I was drawn to the lace on this print and enhanced that element by adding my own (again, an element I used on my mini album). I bought a 25 cent lace doily at a garage sale a few months ago, promising the seller that it would go to a good home (...or homes -- pieces are ending up here, there and everywhere!).

I used my Micro Glue Dots® roll to adhere the lace. Those teeny tiny dots hid perfectly under the lace, and I know the hold will be strong enough to keep in from going anywhere!

For the other large flourish on this card, I pulled out a few flowers from a randomly assorted pack a friend gave me (yard sale find, I believe!). I used Stampin' Up!'s brads for the centers, and adhered them all with Craft Glue Dots®. The metal 'thank you' sentiment was reused from a thank you card given to me by a friend (waste not, want not...right?!?) and was adhered using 1" Glue Lines® (one line fit behind it perfectly!).
Also, I wrote the inside sentiment of the card on a separate piece of coordinating cardstock and adhered it with Removable Glue Dots®. This way the whole card can be passed on to thank someone else in the future! (I did sign the back of it and jot down by blog address, though!!)


I love how this card came together, and perhaps the best part was the reaction of the person opening it. Sometimes the best compliment is a smile that lights up the room!

Products used for this card:

InLinkz.com

I wrote this blog post while participating on the Glue Dots® design team