Christmas in July - It's a Wrap

{I actually meant for this to be a gift wrapping series, posting a new idea each week in July-- an ode to Christmas in July. But seeing that it's July 31st, I had to, uh,"wrap it up" a bit}

I love beautiful presentation as much as the next person, but I'm the first to admit that gift wrapping is not my forte.  A present stuffed into a gift bag is about as fancy as it gets.  Add some tissue paper and that's REALLY fancy. And if wrapping paper is involved, it's pretty much a miracle if I'm able to wrestle a ribbon onto the box... Ribbon and I do not get along. 

So I've been trying to remedy the situation.  Here are a few easy ideas that are fun and virtually ribbon free:

::Art Wrapping Paper::

First, I enlisted the help of my graphic artists to create some original wrapping paper~

I picked up a bolt of white paper from a local restaurant that uses it to cover their tables.

You can also use a large paper roll that goes with kid's art tables & easels.

I'm all for creativity, but I try not to make more work for myself.

Therefore, I armed the artists with washable crayola markers

wah lah!  Doesn't even need ribbon or a bow to dress it up. 

In this form it's even okay to write on the present itself.

and if you happen to have an aspiring picasso, even better!

˙·٠•●♥Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥●•٠·

::Initial Tag::

Another easy way to dress up a present is to cut out the recipient's initial out of decorative paper or cardstock~

This is especially good for children's presents and eliminates the need for a card.

'Cause lets face it, even if they can read, the card just ends up getting tossed aside.

I free-handed this one, but if I have a lot of presents to wrap (think christmas), I'll break out the cricut.

˙·٠•●♥Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥●•٠·

::ECO Bows::

A great way to upcycle plastic bags, magazines and scrap material.  These take a bit more time, but it's an easy project while watching mindless tv-- America's (apparently) Got Talent works for me!

::plastic bag pom-pom::

tutorial via creature comforts

::felt bow::

tutorial via how about orange

I tweaked the tutorial a bit by using felt instead of magazine pages. For the felt bows I only used 7 strips of felt due to the thickness of the material (I omitted the 2 shortest strips). I twisted and stapled each strip. It was easier for me to stitch everything together with a little thread, but a hot glue gun would also work to attach the stapled strips together. Also, this "pattern" is very forgiving, I didn't measure anything out... just guestimated lengths and it still came out pretty nicely.

˙·٠•●♥Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥●•٠·

::A few more fun ideas from Martha Stewart::

::cupcake carnations::

 very cute and also a great way to use up all the "odds & ends" of baking cups leftover from various parties.

::yarn wrapping::

not only is yarn easy to work with, but the color combos are endless and it's reasonably priced.  Loving the look of that fuzzy yarn.

::japanese newspaper & decorative paper::

i love that it's simple, yet eye catching

::eco-friendly gift wrap::

cloth, repurposed paper, even leaves.

˙·٠•●♥Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥●•٠·

linked to:

shabby nest

tatertots and jello

the inspired room

the blackberry vine: pretty packages party

Everything Tastes Better on a Stick

I don't know if it's been scientifically proven, but I've a theory that if you put food on a stick, there's a greater chance it will be eaten-- Food on stick = Fun!

Check out these great photos by sweet paul for Parents magazine.  Love the vintage-circus vibe--

Funny Lil' Man Sighting

So we go out of town for a few days, and what do we find when we return??? Why our Funny Lil' Man Party has been featured on several fabulous blogs!  In the words of 4 year old Smarty Pants-- "Wow! That's so cool!"

There are so many wonderfully creative people with incredible ideas out there... and these are some of the very people that inspire and motivate me. It's a huge, huge honor to be featured.  If you haven't already checked out these amazing sites, then what are ya waiting for??

Sara's Party Perfect

CoolKids

Maddycakes Muse

Lizard n Ladybug

 

Lovely Finds~ Modern Bird Studios

What a cool way to turn a nice photograph into a modern work of art~

modern bird studios via freckles chick

Hope you're having a wonderful Monday!

TOMS Wedges

I love TOMS shoes and have blogged about them before.  But Wedges???  Be still my heart!

With a $5.00 off coupon code and 5% back @ TOMS Shoes on Ebates... Not a bad deal!

Funny Lil' Man Party!

This weekend we celebrated Happy Vee's 2nd Birthday with a Funny Lil' Man Party.  The perfect theme for my funny and joyous little guy!  It was a warm day, but the kids and adults had a nice time.  I tried to keep the party planning simple but, as usual, I got side-tracked by a bunch of fun ideas... The Mister knows better than to question.  He just shakes his head and carries on.  Smart man!

::The Invitation::

see here for more detail

::The Setting::

  

{close-up of the "tie lanterns}

 

{the children's table}

 

children's dishware from target

i think they have the market on cute melamine

{the birthday banner}

::The Food::
I would've preferred an outdoor food table, but with the heat, we decided to keep the food indoors~

kids: homemade turkey & chicken salad sandwiches

adults: roast beef, italian & turkey sandwiches from jersey mike's
caprese soba pasta salad

green salad
fruit

the mustachioed cupcake trays worked well as sandwich platters

 

just for kicks, i put this framed photo of happy vee on the buffet table and stuck on a paper mustache.

::Activities::

{make a tie craft}

more details on the mustaches, spectacles & lips here

{photo ops}

{other activities}

since the kids are on the younger side, i didn't have set games.

they were free to play on the swingset/slide.

i also set up a table for making bubbles,

a small tub filled with water and rubber ducks for them to splash around in,

and lots of these for them to kick around....

::Dessert::

{ice cream and cookies}

the ice cream was pre-scooped the night before into baking cups.

it made serving dessert easy and no one was left with the inevitable last scoop of melted ice cream

{homemade cookies}

soft chocolate chip & snickerdoodles cookies

more detail on the vintage tags here

::The Favors::

{chocolate lollies for the adults}

mustache mold and premium dark chocolate from bake it pretty

  

{children's favor bags}

 

beach ball

salt water taffy

mustache lolly

sidewalk chalk

I also sent them home with the melamine plate & matching cup

salt water taffy from trader joes

my, are these good!

Happy Vee enjoying his new toys
more detail on the "tie" shirt here

That was fun, but I feel like I've been planning birthday parties for several months!  Time for a little break... or actually, time to finish up some projects that have been on stand-by!

linked to:

CSI Project