cupcake topper tutorial

Whew! This summer is flying by. I have been busy with weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, visitors, regular summer fun, still settling into our house and we just had a new sprinkler system installed for our yard- yay!

Amidst settling into our house I have been crafting, which I plan to share in several tutorials. I know I promised a photoshop tutorial and it is on the way, but I am still figuring out how best to share those tips with you.

First craft tutorial: Cupcake Toppers.

I did the above cupcake toppers for the aforementioned wedding reception.

I also made some for my son's birthday party and plan to do more soon for a baby shower I am throwing.

This is how I did mine:

I had some left over circle labels from when I ordered them for my etsy jewelry shop. Through their website you can download a template of any of their labels that you order in any format you need. I downloaded it in pdf form, then imported it to illustrator where I designed my labels.



After you have designed them, just print them out. The tricky part here is getting the stickers to print out so that the designs are directly in the middle of the sticker. I actually gave up after a few prints and settled with good enough so that I didn't waste ink. Guess I'm not as much of a perfectionist as a realist. Ah well:) *You can also print these out on regular paper or 8.5x11 sticker paper, get a circle craft cutter to fit around your designs and cut and paste them in the next step.

Here is a pdf of the ones I used for my sons party:
Happy Trails
ivegotspurs


I found a scalloped circle paper cutter at my local Hobby Lobby that was just big enough to show a little when placed in between my stickers. Got it home and started punching away on the paper I had chosen to accent my sticker designs.


Then just assemble them. Place a sticker on each side of the scallop-cut circle paper and insert toothpic. Voila! Easy, versatile, and oh-so-cute!!

giveaway!!!

Hello again dear friends! I really feel I must apologize for the lack of posts I have had as of recent, but I am afraid I only have more bad news. The lack of post trend will probably continue. I have been feeling super sick as I am in my first trimester and hopefully will have a healthy baby come Fall (yay!). But, because of the constant 'ickyness' that is the first trimester I have really lacked in motivation to spend additional time at my computer. Between designing for customers, keeping up with blogs I follow, housework, cooking, cleaning, keeping up with my two year old, friends, family and church duties, I just don't know how other people do it. I love blogging, but really I don't know if I can do it right now. (Really how do people keep up with facebook, twitter, blogging, gardening, cooking, crafting, and ALL that everyone seems to do?)

To make up for this I have decided to go ahead and do a giveaway as I had promised long ago, but wanted all my ducks in a row before posting it. As it turns out, my ducks aren't looking like they are going to be lining up perfectly any time soon, and there is no time like the present right?!

As far as what the future holds for me and this little blog I am thinking I want to focus more on designing blogs. Custom blog designs seem to be the hot items in my etsy shop, so I plan to offer more options, more packages, some premades, and hopefully some freebies. My goal is for this blog to feature all my work, all the packaging options, some tutorials, and occasionally other good finds and information. I am hoping to have the transition perfected by April. This will give me time to catch up with life, stock my store, revamp this blog a little, and feel better as I will be in my second trimester by then.

To enter the giveaway, comment below. Get an extra entry by blogging about it (and let me know in your comment). The winner will be picked two Friday's from now on February 27th!! Happy blogging to all!!!

free valentine downloads

As seen on Samanth Hahn. Follow this link to see tons of cute Valentine prints from samlovesherdog on flickr.

Cupcake pendants from Vintage Glam Blog:

Bunny Cakes:

Secret Agent Josephine:

Happy Palentine's Day cards by Designed by Able:

beautiful free calendar

Spotted this in the Little Window Shoppe this morning. It comes from Mibo, which has all sorts of beautiful prints, patterns, and goodies. I believe this is where Nichole of Pink Loves Brown and Making it Lovely got her lovely wallpaper. All you have to do to get your own free calendar download is sign up for their newsletter! Win-win!! Click here to get yours.

santa's beard: free download

Off to a Christmas party, but not sure what to wear yet? You're sure to be a hit with your very own Santa's beard in tow. Click here to be directed to the site. Photo found on flickr here.

holiday gift tags: free downloads

I'm sure there are lots of cute free downloadable gift tags out there that I have missed, but I have tried to bookmark as many as I have run across to share with you. Here are some of the greats I have seen (click on the words to be linked to the associated tags):

1. Domestica:


2. Sugarloop:



3. A Little Hut:


4. HGTV:


5. A Print a Day:


6. Seussville: (these would be extra fun for kids to use and color)


7. The Black Apple:


8. Papercrave:


9. Fog & Thistle:


10. Lolly Chops:


11. Sew Mama Sew:


12. Sew Mama Sew: