Housewarming Party

Painting, and shifting is chaotic; but after all of that, the number of days you spend shopping to furnish it, and the feeling of living in a brand new house of your own is AMAZING! And when you get to have some guests over to celebrate all of this, it is even more FUN!

The first thing we did is figure out the guest list to work on the arrangements for seating, food, etc. We were sure we wanted to go with a theme of "Moving and Painting", to make it fun and unique for everyone!

The Invites

For our housewarming party, we did not want to go with individual handmade invites since they are a pain to hand out! So, I created a fun chalkboard evite that could be easily texted or mailed to all those we wanted to reach.

The Favors

I was sure I wanted to give out some favors, but I did not know what. After a lot of head-scratching and back-bending research, I realized I wanted to give away some cute jars with seeds. The wrapping had to go with the theme, so tied some (my fav!) jute twine and thank you tags on them. On the other side of the labels, I stamped the names of the seeds. Think they look stinkin' cute!

I printed out these chalkboard thank you tags for the favors.

The Photo Booth (How-To)

All you need for this (cheap) decor:

• Empty paint cans (or you can purchase new paint tin cans)
• Plastic table cloth 
• Paint chips (from when we were selecting colors)
• Moving box
• Styrofoam peanuts (or some fillers for the moving box)
• Paint Brush
• Printer 
• Bamboo skewers

Since we were planning a lunch event, we wanted to use the backyard to its full potential. I wanted to create a fun photo booth that would be able to capture all the special memories from the event. Going with the theme of "Moving and Painting", we could use everything we had lying in our garage, and from my craft stalls last year!

For banners, I used colorful paint chips (we had from when we were color selecting) and added them to a jute twine. Here's a "Welcome" banner work in progress:

Here's how it looked on the front door:

For the backdrop, we had some empty Dulux paint cans from use, and I bought a cheap plastic table cloth from a dollar store in Watergardens. First, I added some paper on to the cans to make them bright for the photos.

For assembly, I hung the paint cans from the fence with the help of "S" hooks, then stuffed the paint can with the table cloth and let it fall to the ground to indicate flow of paint. It would add a pop of color to the white fence and make a fun colorful background. The paint chip banners were added for more pops of color. I also added a moving box as a part of the photo booth, and filled it with styrofoam peanuts I had lying around. :) I also hung some clean paint brushes from my craft room as a part of the backdrop.

Also blew up some shipping labels I found online, and printed them out on paper. I then used them to fill up empty spaces and spruce up the moving box.

Then I got started on the photo booth props. Here is how I made them. They look super fun!

I had an IKEA easel chalkboard, so used it to attract kids and adults to the photo booth.

A camera on a tripod finished my photo booth, and I must say it was a hit for adults and kids alike :)

The Party Flow

Since I was using up my backyard, I had enough space to house the people without overcrowding around the food.

Signature Drink Station - Masala Cold Drink

We had one beverage dispenser and we kept filling it, as it was a huge hit among the crowd.
Near the drink, we kept glasses, water, and anything else needed.

The concept of different stations really did work and kept people bouncing around.

The Food

For the food, we catered.  I was going to try to cook, but between the arrangements, a full work week I had to give in somewhere. We did make one item– the masala cold drink above.

The caterers did everything. The guests had so much fun, as did we the hosts.. Mission accomplished!

Happy Party Planning!!

Craft Market stall experience 2.0

For my second stall, I tried to be a little more prepared - in terms of inventory, and display, both.

In terms of inventory, I tried to stock on some newer kinds of cards and photo albums. I added some more 3D box cards, some shaker cards, and some fashion cards. As for photo albums, I had created some newer projects to feature in my stall - Travel journals, Art journals, Explosion boxes, "Women's Wallet" photo albums, "Burger box" photo albums, and some fun Easter favor boxes, and cards - for the occasion.

To display all this new inventory, I made quite a few purchases and tried to come up with fun display ideas for my items. Baby steps to a gorgeous stall some day! I got a new shabby chic card display stand. Dear hubby helped hammer some nails to add twine on the shelves. This would help the cards stay put. I had a cork board lying around, so I added some jute twine to hang the cards with some cute wooden clothespins. I put a metallic table easel to make my cork board standing comfortably erect on the table. I bought a marble cake board, and a stained plastic glass to make a "center" display. I thought this would be perfect to display all the Easter stuff I had made. I even sat and made price tags for all the items.

On the day of the stall, I had so many butterflies in my stomach. But, this time, at least I knew what to expect. I was better prepared. With newer displays, we took a little longer to figure out where to place what. But here is how it looked in the end. Overall, I was quite happy with it, and exactly how I imagined it! 

But the day was SLOW. There were fewer visitors to the market on the whole, and most stalls felt that the number of buyers were much lesser than the number of visitors, hence, fewer sales this time. But we had some friends visit us, and it was great to catch up, and get the encouragement. And, a big thank you and shout out to all who came by, gave me encouragement, and purchased things from my stall!

Anyhow, I had lots of new experiences, and lots of new learning. Items that I sold were mostly my greeting cards, and my Bunny Easter favour boxes this time. I had made some cardboard weights to keep my 3D box cards stable, and they worked like a charm in the Melbourne winds! However, my cork board kept falling off the stand, so I need to stabilize it further - I think two easel stands will do the trick! Also, I think I forgot to stick the cake board to the glass, so that kept topping over every time someone touched it. This time I need to remember to stick it down!

Craft stalls are so much of a learning experience! You just cannot predict how the day is going to turn out. But, I guess that's the thing - You should be prepared for both the scenarios - the good one, and the bad one. Have fun through the day, meet lots of new people, and most of the times, "Gray skies are just clouds passing over"!! :)

Flip card - for a Birthday/Anniversary!

Folks, so on this post, I am sharing a card I had made for a birthday taking inspiration from those flip cards we loved as kids! 

So, for the cover of the card, I made a house. Cut some scraps of paper to make it, and added some newsletter butterflies, lace, confetti and a tag as embellishments.  I made some clouds, birds, and the ground with white acrylic paint. Thought it looked super cute. Also hand drew some ethnic design near the spine to add some layers. 

Retirement Card/Album!

This was among one of the first scrapbooking albums I had created. I think I had made this back in 2010 as a project for retirement. At that point of time, I did not exactly know what kind of craft I was getting into, and due to the lack of resources, I had handmade EVERYTHING! I even sketched out the embellishments and the letters myself! Tied all this using lace to finish it all.

This was the cover:

Mini Album - A perfect Wedding Gift!

Hi folks,

In this post, I share a recent mini album which I had made as a gift to a cousin at his wedding. The mini album contains about 20 pages.

The front and the back of the mini was meant to resemble a gathbandhan (a wedding knot). The maroon front with the sequin and gold lace signifies the girl's saree and the pink back signifies the dupatta on the boy's shoulder at the wedding ceremony. For a closure, I used a gorgeous gold pearl brooch, and added a metal clasp to it. I also added some pearls and beads as danglers.

For the background, I used acrylic paints to get some brightness. For the title of the album, I used adhesive stickers and adhesive sheets on bright orange cardstock, and then used gold foil over it to get an embossed look. I also made gold embossed metal corners with gold foil to give a rich royal look that is a complete must at Indian weddings!

Graduation card - Black and white

Hello folks! 

I had created this simple and quick card for a graduation. Used simple classic colors of the graduation robe, but it came together quite well I think! :)

Lots of love,

Divya