Steve's birthday bash

Everyone who knows me knows that birthdays are important to me. I believe that everyone deserves a big deal to be made about them on their birthday (even if you have to make the big deal yourself!). August is a big birthday month for me because not only does my birthday fall in the middle of the month, many of my friends and family are August babies as well. This year my friend Sharon wanted to celebrate all the August birthdays in her life by having a party. The secret was that it was really for her husband, Steve, even though he thought it was for everyone. We thought the best way to make the focus about him was to create favors and a cake that set the mood, and since I'm rarely one to turn down a project, especially one that involves cake, of course I volunteered to make them.

I chose a bright summery color palette of blue, green, and yellow, and created a graphic that said "Steve's birthday bash" to use on favors and the cake. Since it was a pool party and it has been such a hot summer, the first thing I made were fans that looked like popsicles with a bite taken out of them. This was actually pretty simple. I printed two each on an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet, and cut it lengthwise down the middle, so that each sheet would make 2 popsicles. Then I folded each one over and glued a popsicle stick inside. I made myself a guide for the rounded corners, cut each one, then used a scallop shear on one side to make it look like a bite had been taken out.





For the cake, I enlarged the 'Steve's birthday bash' graphic and printed it, then I cut it out with an x-acto knife to make a stencil. (This would have been a great thing to do with a silhouette machine. Hmmm... maybe I'll get one for my next birthday!) I made a 3-layer yellow cake with chocolate fudge frosting between each layer, and I used the chocolate fudge frosting as a crumb coat. After it chilled, I frosted the entire thing with white buttercream frosting. I laid the stencil on top of the cake and sprinkled over the letters in a gradient pattern of blue, green, and yellow sanding sugar, to match the favors.



As a parting gift, I created little favor bags for the guests to take home with them using M&Ms in matching colors. I put them inside little clear bags and stapled them with a tent tag to make a perfect little package.



All it takes is a little creativity to make someone feel extra special on their birthday. I hope these inspire you to create favors for your own parties!

I believe the children are our future

Congratulations to this very talented 7-year-old artist!

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/mind-soul/doing-good/kindness/post/2011/05/googles-young-doodle-competition-winner-dreams-of-becoming-an-astronaut/171239/1?csp=ylf

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

When I can, I like to make something for my mother on Mother's Day. It reminds me of simpler days of being a child, when a little painting of flowers, or a macaroni necklace, were the best presents my mom could imagine receiving from me. This year I was inspired by a shell I found on the Long Branch beach recently when my mother was in town for a visit. The shell had a perfect little hole in the top of it, and looked to me like it was just waiting for someone to come along and find it and help it fulfill its next life as a necklace. So I did.

At first I wasn't sure what kind of beads would work with it, but when I found some flourite at a local bead shop I thought it was perfect. The sea-blue and purple colors reminded me of my mother, and I thought they would also complement the shell nicely.

Here is a photo of the necklace. I hope you like it too.

baby Grace

I just completed another baby announcement for some friends. We met when we were both in the hospital giving birth to our babies, almost 2 years ago. My daughter and Danielle's son are birthday twins, and Danielle and her husband Brian became good friends. Aside from my daughter, our friendship was the best thing to come out of that hospital stay! Danielle and Brian are two of the nicest people I know.

Danielle just had another baby, and I was thrilled when she asked me to design the announcements, shown above. She had a few requests but was also open to my suggestions (yay!). She wanted to keep the design relatively simple, she wanted to somehow highlight the 'g' of Grace's name, and she wanted either pink and yellow or just pink. I created 3 different concepts for her to choose from, with variations for each one. I explained that all of the elements were basically interchangeable. So, for example, if she liked the design of 3a but the fonts used in concept 2, we could easily switch them around. Or if she wanted the design of 2b with the fonts of 2c, you get the picture. (This isn't always the case, often specific fonts work better with one design or another, but here I think it would have worked to mix and match if she had wanted to.) Danielle chose option 1, and I made round white stickers with a pink 'g' on them for her to seal the envelopes.

Since I'm often asked about my process, I thought it would be fun to show you the options I gave Danielle. Which one do you like the best?

Paper is good

As a print designer, I appreciated seeing this article. It's ok to use paper, just don't waste it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471904576228712797236124.html?mod=wsj_share_facebook

The Spice of Life

"The more she cooked, the more she began to view spices as carriers of the emotions and memories of the places they were originally from and all those they had traveled through over the years."
—Erica Bauermeister, The School of Essential Ingredients

I love these!

These felt desserts combine a few of my favorite things: pastry and obsessive attention to details. I can't decide which is my favorite: the cookies, the brownies, the sno-cone, the strawberry shortcake... Her attention to detail really is astounding. I'd like one of each of them, please!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/63931104/mix-match-batch-o-cookies?ref=v1_other_1