The Birthday Party! Photo-heavy post!

I've eluded to a secret project that I had been working on for a little while, but now that the party is over, I can share the details!

My stepdaughter turned 15 on October 2nd and we decided to throw her a surprise party! She had been talking about wanting to do an Alice in Wonderland themed "something" for a while, so I recommended we try to do a Mad Hatter theme Tea Party for her birthday. Everyone thought it was a great idea! I volunteered to do the invitations and other crafty things since her mom will freely admit that she doesn't have a creative bone in her body. I poked around on some online message boards for some ideas and suggestions and came up with a plan for the invites and we sent them out to family and passed the word around to her friends via word-of-mouth. We were going with the surprise planning for almost a month.

Unfortunately, the surprise lasted until the night before her party. We had planned to have her come spend the night at our house on Friday night so her mother could set everything up at her house for the Saturday morning party. Well.... Kelly (being the good ROTC girl that she is), volunteered to work a double shift at her school's football game, which would make it impossible for her to come to our house (as she wouldn't get here until around midnight). So, we had to tell her what was going on. She was thrilled!

Friday night, dearest husband and I were up until almost 2am getting our stuff together to take over to her mother's house in the morning. When we arrived, I found that their neighbor (with all good intentions) had taken over essentially. Instead of the mish-mashed teacups, mish-mashed chairs, and whimsical decorations and food.... I found a very beautiful and elegant tea setup. Not what I had pictured, but beautiful nonetheless. My invitations, drinks, and snacks didn't fit in anymore. :-( I was a little disappointed, but Kelly loved it anyway!!!

We had tea-party foods (egg salad sandwiches, sans crusts; deviled eggs; banana bread; TastyCake cupcakes; breakfast casserole; fruit; etc), hot tea, cold tea, and mocktails (orange juice and gingerale).

I had also made whoopie pies as take away snacks...with the Alice in Wonderland theme mixed in!

And continued the theme on the drinks....

These are the invitations that I made (using A Child's Year for that hat image and the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder for the inside; I changed the typical "10/6" that's on the Mad Hatter's hat to "10/2" for her birthday and found an Alice in Wonderland-type font for the inside wording).

I made the tags for the drinks and whoopie pies with Sentimentals and some stamps.

Overall, I was quite happy with how everything turned out... not a pro yet, but not bad for a beginner! :-)

Finally!

I have finally had some time to do my crafting! I haven't been updating the blog with the photos, but I have spent a few nights the past week or so in my craft room playing around! I also found a new television show on TV that is about scrapbooking and has been giving me some great ideas (especially when I have it playing in the background while I'm playing around!)

My hubby has also been supporting my "habit", but more about that in a few!

Before I get to the crafting update, here is some updates about my personal life!

First, I have a stepdaughter that's a HIGH SCHOOLER! How scary is that!?! K started 9th grade on Monday and I think we were more nervous about how it would go than she was! So far, she loves it! She's amazed at how the teachers and administration is treating them like "adults"... the biggest shocker: That they don't have to ask to go to the bathroom at lunch time! :-) Oh I miss high school!

Secondly, we had a big birthday in our house this past week! Our puppy... well, not a puppy anymore, turned 4 (28 in human years, right?) Our Yorkie named Princess (nicknamed Princess Pie, P-Dub, SugarSugar, or many other unmentionable names!) celebrated her birthday on Tuesday.

No, I didn't really make her wear a hat. It's a "sticker" that I put on the photo on Picnik! But it looks real, doesn't it?

We are getting ready to head north to PA again next week for my mother's wedding. It'll be a very stressful and time-crunched trip, but I am still looking forward to seeing my family! I miss them so much! And I've FINALLY gotten my dress and shoes for the wedding. I hope they work!

So here's what else has been going on!

My hubby, as I said, has been supporting my habit by BUYING ME MORE CARTRIDGES! Recently, for a project that we volunteered me for, I had to purchase (yes, HAD to!) A Child's Year.

I can't write more about the project.. just in case... but as soon as it's complete, there will be LOTS of details!

Then, we heard that Michaels had a sale on their carts, so HUBBY suggested we go check them out! He had two carts in hand for me, but I talked him into only one. That was so backwards from what I THOUGHT was going to happen, but true story!

So we ended up purchasing what I think is my new favorite cartridge, Create-A-Critter!!! SO MUCH FUN!

Also last weekend, hubby WANTED to take me to Hobby Lobby and Joann's! I'm not quite sure what's gotten into him, but I'll take it while it's here!

Of course, then I had to play with these new toys! So here's what I've come up with!

This was a card that I made for hubby and I to give to our new high schooler with some words of encouragement for high school written on the inside! Made with the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge.

A friendship card made with the Stretch Your Imagination cart as well.

Card made with the Winter Frolic cartridge.

Card made with the Winter Frolic cartridge.

The card for my Mom's wedding. Made using the Cuttlebug and Stretch Your Imagination cart.

First Anniversary card made for my mother-in-law using Stretch Your Imagination cart.

Just a really neat image cut using the Happy Hauntings cart. It's a haunted house that I cut and pasted onto a sheet of 8.5x11" paper and then the "Enter if you Dare" image cut and glittered and glued. Don't know what I'm going to use it for, but I had to try it out!

I've also done quite a few scrapbook layouts, but will share those later!

Projects

I have been in a paper craft-making mode lately and wanted to share some of the projects that I've completed!

The following cards and envelopes were made using the Cricut Wild Card Cartridge; one of my favorites!

The following card was made for my beautiful stepdaughter for finishing 8th grade with great grades and becoming a high schooler! Eek!

This was the envelope that went with the card for my stepdaughter.

This card wasn't made with Wild Cards. It was Paper Pups and Cuttin' Up.

This page was made to remember the first time we took our Yorkie, Princess, to the ocean to swim!

This page is for my stepdaughter's 8th grade Prom (also known as MORP).

My stepdaughter was also involved with Upward Cheerleading this past winter/spring, so this page commemorates her final performance and the awards ceremony!

Thanks for visiting and checking out my projects!!