August is a busy time in my family. Cramming in last-minute summer fun, shopping the back to school sales, the MN State Fair, and both my mom and sister's birthdays.
Usually, I pull cards from my stash to give to them for their special days, but this year, I decided to make very personalized ones.
My sister loves purple. And blue. And paisley. So when I came across some purple and blue paisley paper, I knew I had to do something special with it.

I used the gold in the paper as inspiration and I embossed the greeting and the edges of the paper in gold embossing powder.

She loved it, of course!

While I was out shopping for my mom's gift, I found some amazing wrapping paper sheets that I could not pass up - it was covered with drawings of donuts! My mom (and I!) LOVE donuts. I made sure that the box I put her gift in was small enough that I would have some paper left over after wrapping it so I could make a card.

It was perfect! I managed to get a piece left over with a half-eaten chocolate frosted donut - her favorite. The card and wrapping paper was a huge hit! And I have some of it left! I can't decide if I want to make more cards and add them to my Etsy shop or if I should just give donut cards to my mom for every occasion.


Since I do project life, I like to keep track of cards and projects I work on, so with the scraps from each card, I made  3x4 project life cards to slip into my album along with any pics from their (joint) birthday lunch.

I love making specialty cards for people, especially people I know will appreciate them and love them as much as I do (ok, maybe no one loves them as much as I do...)!

My sister, my little sister, my only sister, is engaged! Her boyfriend asked her on her birthday in August and we've been planning ever since! I get to be her Matron of Honor (I'm married, so I'm no longer a maid), and I'm helping out as much as I can with all the plans. 

As my gift to her, I"m making all of her paper goods. Save the Dates, Invitations, Thank You cards, programs, advice cards, the whole nine yards! Plus, I['m throwing a shower for her, so there's all those paper goods, too!

I've been experimenting with different layouts and ideas for the invites, but I ultimately had to make the Save the Date cards first, so last week, I finally sat down and finalized a design. 

Then I hunted down supplies and spent 3 days in front of Netflix cranking out 100 of these puppies! 
(the following picture was taken in a dim room, so the colors aren't accurate)

I am very happy with how they came out, and better yet, so is my sister!

Erin's favorite color is Periwinkle and I was able to find the perfect shade of paper to match her dresses! And her flowers are going to be hydrangeas and I found a hydrangea stamp on eBay! It's actually a double stamp. I had to stamp the light blue with one stamp, then wait for it to dry, then stamp in exactly the right place with a separate stamp in a darker periwinkle.

It took a lot of time, but they are perfect!

I'm thinking of doing the invitations in a similar, simple style. Now I can start working on them...
And the programs...
And the advice cards...
And the thank you cards...
And the shower invitations...

Oh my, I think my head is going to explode now...

Once she got the 'traditional' out of her system, she started making mini books.

After I graduated college, I was a substitute teacher for a few months while I looked for a permanent position. And my Mom was inspired...

And here is what happened when Mom came across a group of photos my Dad had taken when I was little:

Apparently a 2-year-old and a red chair is pretty entertaining. This book has 9 pictures in it! Of me playing on my chair! :-)

I wish I had more of my Mom's creations to share, but this is all I have at my house. I know there is a hook-loop wall hanging that used to be in my Dad's office and a macrame wall hanging that used to be in our stairway. I wonder what happened to those...?

Anyway...

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Creating!

My mom has always encouraged my creativity (Hi, Mom!) and has dabbled in quite a few creative endeavors herself over the years. Macrame, scrapbooking, watercolor painting, interior design, and now; mosaics.
She knows that any time she wants to go do something creative, I'm her go-to person. So when she called me up the other day and asked if I wanted to go to Mosaic-on-a-Stick (no joke, it's actually called that - it's a Minnesota thing), of course I said yes!

Before heading out to St. Paul, we stopped at the Arc's Value Village store by my house and picked up some cheap, beautiful pottery that we could smash up and create with!

Armed with $10 worth of pottery, excitement, and no idea what we were doing (!), we entered Mosaic on a Stick and were floored at the plethora of beautiful pieces that adorned the walls, tables and floor of the store. Even the outside was covered in mosaic-y goodness!

We quickly wrangled an employee to show us what to do. She was very helpful and friendly and we were soon smashing and gluing to our hearts' content! I really wish I had taken photos of the smashing process, but it was so fun and went so fast, I didn't even think of it! The pieces we ended up using were all from 2 painted candle holders. Some pieces even had a little wax left on them.

My mom had the best time arranging all the pieces onto the simple square mirror frame she chose. And I kept busy snipping her pieces to fit. Check out our creation!

The glue has to dry overnight and then it has to be grouted and dried for about 24 hours. We had the choice of coming back in a day or 2 and grouting at the store or taking the mirror and some grout mix home and doing it there. Mom chose to take it home. We decided black grout would make all the colors stand out more.

She promised to take a photo and send it to me when it's done and I will post an update of the final product!

See that, Mom? You have to do it now! (hehehe!)

And thus ends another creative adventure!

Happy Creating! (with or without moms!)