It's VBS Time

Colossal Coaster World time! 

If there even is such a thing, I get the creative gene honest from my Mama. Right now she's a busy bee decorating for VBS at my hometown church. (And yes, I'm going to brag a little.)  She's the VBS director, and every outing with our family revolves around the theme the minute VBS is over, the training, planning decorating and "we need this for VBS". There is no telling how much time and money she gives willingly for this every year. It's her gift. Her niche. 

Today's agenda - Cotton Candy Cafe for snacks. Cuteness!

And before I get any ideas on "ooooo I need that for ABC's party", all this is typically donated (literature, too) for other churches without a VBS budget. Last year, 4 churches were able to use the same materials! What an awesome way to pass on the gospel!

I can't wait to see more! I'll get to go back to our daily conversations after June 15.  Lost her to VBS. But I wouldn't have it any other way. 

AND------

Big news! AO is going to her first VBS next week with NanO! She'll get to experience my favorite week of the year!

One of these days I'm going to figure out a way to take off and teach VBS. I miss it!

Now I'm waiting on the sanctuary pictures. It's always spectacular. 

Sure, the decor isn't necessary. But if being creative gets kids excited about a whole week of learning about Jesus, why not go the extra mile? 

Tonight's Thrift Store Makeover

I rarely get to experiment for fun using graphic design. Occasional fun invitations, but that's about it outside of the black, red, and blue colors in my real job as a graphic designer in the hardware industry. 

First, one of those 50% off thrift store frames. Second, taking it all apart. 

Painted the interior mat black to help the words pop a little more. 

Bonus points - Walgreens printed it (and a bunch of other projects) for 40% off. Score! I have to say....pleasantly surprised by their poster prints. I have another couple to show you once I get this all together. 

I haven't updated art in a long time....and it's time for a little personality in this joint! I'm craving color!!

Thrift Magic 101

I've become a bit of a thrift store junkie. Like the kind that would need rehab.

Remember how excited I was about this at our local Salvation Army Thrift Store? See the frames 50% off?

What, you gasp? Thrift stores have SALES!!!

 I came home with this load of loot. Check out that 1970's red covered bridge. Not a real painting....just the cardboard printed junk. 

 But the frame had potential. $4 bucks means LOADS of potential.. 

  

Sooo, I decided that after an almost year and a half sabbatical from painting, it was time to break out the brushes.

I'll fly away is one of my favorites. Reminds me of the washboard band I was in during college. But most importantly, it reminds me of my Pop. While he was in the shutting down process in hospice at the hospital, I filmed a moment that I want to be my last memory of him. He was out of it, and not very coherent. And not really himself. I had a moment alone with him, and we were singing I'll Fly Away. If you've ever been around a dying Christian, it was very much what he was wanting to do. Hard to explain, but the words are perfect. 

. 

So I did a little painting. The frame first, then a little art. A little white wash over the cardboard. Then to the fun stuff. Free hand painting. It was so nice to have paint all over my nails instead of garden dirt.

And now it has a new home on our portrait wall. 

$4 Art. Thanks to the hubs for letting Mama have a play date. ;-)

Baby Shower Happies

Tonight's project...party favors. For my life long bff Kimberly, I took little pewter crosses and made very similar cards for her baby shower. It was oooo so sweet.

But, not knowing how many Sansing and Junkin peeps we may have at the party, we ordered crosses from Oriental. I took brads (that are very cute birds) and pined them in the center of the cross. I had cards printed at vistaprint (well, duh) and voila! Cute, sentimental, memorable, keepsake happies.

 

 

Custom Cupcake Stick Toppers

I love vistaprint. I uploaded the party design and had envelope seals printed. I used a scrapbook punch and sucker sticks. Now I'm in the assembly portion of the project. I hope these look as cute as they look in my head for the party! I think they are going on chocolate cupcakes. I almost bought some toppers off etsy...but heck, creating is half the fun!

I rarely get to use my creative thoughts for "fun" projects because I stay busy. But, thanks to my sweet husband who's been painting backgrounds and assembling and mailing out orders, I can have time to be creative! ;-)

  

I did the invitation myself (one of those fun graphic design projects) then uploaded (all to match) and printed banners, signs, stickers, bags,  invitations....you name it.......on vista print. I've gone way overboard, but it's part of the Aunt Pen "being" Aunt Pen that John will have to get use to with me. My baby bubba is having a baby, and I can't help but be pumped! Especially with everything going on with us lately. It's been good baby therapy!

Semi-Homeade Presents

I'm a semi-homemade kind of gal. I love taking something and making it just a little bit better.

Much better, don't ya think?

 Swayze gives me the perfect outlet to play with new fonts and things!

Cousin Clarence gave S a lab puppy.... I wonder how he's going to be as a cousin with a baby?


MOST important present....

Ribbon wreath for hospital door

I stink at blogging. Sometimes I just PLAIN forget! I took photos of a recent project a few weeks back and I'm just now getting around to posting! Sorry guys!

As if I haven't blabbed enough to my buds, I'm getting a niece. I am SO excited! It's been a fabulous outlet of all those ideas floating around in my head that need a home.

First big project. Swayze's Hospital door wreath...

I (well, John) made me a circle from a metal coat hanger. I eventually realized one coat hanger was not big enough for Swayze, so we added another. I cut ribbon and fabric with pinking shears into strips.

I tied the ribbons around the coat hanger. Several hours, nights, yards of fabric and rolls of ribbon later....Voila. Here you have the finished product.

It turned out WAY cute. I must say...This was a labor of love. Lots of time!  I hope this one stays in the family for me to use one day!

Now I also know that hobby lobby makes a ready to go metal wreath. That would have been much easier! But the coat hanger was free. 

A new look

Since I am trying to keep my mind off of tomorrow, I thought I'd freshen up the blog a bit and piddle around with a few things. I'm learning. I'm more of the creative type when it comes to graphic design - I leave the code writing to the smart kids. I'm fine being the creative geek in the other corner of the room. I work doing creative in the hardware industry for a living, so I love any excuse to piddle and diddle with something a little more on the cutesy side.

(And yes, we worked on orders first tonight. The full time employee, part time boss gig is hard work. With a little more organization, maybe one day I could actually have loads of fun with all the creative ideas that run through my head as fast as a nascar driver on Sunday.)

I also piddled a little in picnik. http://www.picnik.com/app     Love it! I can wash away blemishes and touch up anything in no time. (This is coming from a girl who lives using Adobe Photoshop.  If you haven't discovered this wonder, I highly recommend. 

Anyhoo, hope you enjoy. Any ideas on how to get people to read this stuff? I am completely fine blogging to myself in la la land. I always have a lot to say. At least this way my friends don't have to listen, they can come and read by choice. :-)

Bachelor Party Or Lingere Shower Boob Cake

If you are easily offended, stop right here!

This was my first cake since I took a cake decorating class as part of a 4-H event at the local extension office when I was like 10.

I usually don't bake cakes. Not the kind that require real decorating, usually just dump out of a box, and maybe make homeade icing. That's about the extent of my cake baking.

One of my friends, and the husband of my BF Brooke, asked me to make a boob cake for a bachelor party. You have to know this group of guys. They are super nice "good guys" who were opting for a funny cake instead of full blown strippers and nastiness. Surely I could pull this off.


After research....and a lot of research, I felt comfortable enough to take on this project. Main tips I learned....If you are baking a cake from a mix and you are planning on carving, you need to reduce the amount of oil by a lot. Usually down to just a couple of tablespoons. Also, over fill your pans! By overfilling your pans, you can slice off the top peaks of the cake so it's consistent, and makes a flat base. The boys wanted shot glass boobs, so that's what they got. Pretty crazy for boys who don't drink!

I used a 9x13 pan for the base, then used two pyrex glass bowls for the boobies. Once the cakes came out of the oven, I let them cool, then took the longest serrated knife I had, and shaved off the peaks flush with the top of the pans. I let them cool in the fridge for about an hour, then pulled them back out to carve the sides. I took a glass pyrex top that had a top knob for me to hold, and used my good serrated knife again to cut the torso so it would be nice and even.  Next step was the layer of dirty icing. Basically, I iced the entire cake with a really thin layer of chocolate icing, and set it back in the fridge to harden. This layer helps make sure you don't get little bumps of cake in your real icing layer.

The rest is just icing and getting your creativity flowing!  My mother and Aunt Robin would die knowing I used the icing out of the can and tub. I did manage to pull out my pampered chef icing tool to pipe around the base. The fun part! :-) This was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I didn't tell the boys no! I even got a thank you call from the bachelor, who I don't even know! :-)

 

I figure I can reuse this idea for a lingerie shower, and just put more clothes on the little lady. Fun, Fun!