Luau inspiration

I wanted to stop in and show off a little.  My husband asked me to do the decorations for his boss' retirement party.  It was to be a Luau for a group of mostly men and their wives.  My husband kept telling me that it was a "guy's party" - I think that meant no fufu ;) There was 150 originally expected, although the numbers ended up being around 110.
I searched the web, having an idea of what I wanted and gathered pictures on Pinterest.  I wanted to stay away from plastic lobsters and like.  I was looking to make it look more like being on the islands.
Here is what I came up with.

What do you think?  I got lots of compliments that night.  Even from the servers, who stopped me to say that they looked better than many floral arrangements they had seen there.  I was even asked if I did this for a living.  I guess that is a pretty good compliment!  

Details?  The Birds of Paradise were silk bought on-line for about $3-4/each.  The tropical leaves were found via ebay.  The tabletop Tiki torches were from Oriental Trading ($6.50/2) as were the leis (about $65).  I also bought all fresh fruit - pineapple, coconuts, bananas, mango, papaya, kiwi, lemon and limes.  The fruit ended up being just under $100 (about $7 per table) if you are looking to replicate this in your backyard.  The big flowers were found at JoAnn on sale for about $4 for a huge bunch of 7 hibiscus.  Also, at JoAnn's were extra Birds of Paradise at about $6/each, on sale buy 1, get 1 50% off.  I borrowed the shells from my Aunt Becky since she had done a luau herself.  The total for 15-20 tables was about $350.  Some of the cost was due to buying for the higher original number.  I later saw the torches at a local party store for $2-2.50 each.  It was such a striking table and mostly edible - saw many guests nibbling away!

I've been scrappin'

The last month has flown by faster than most!  I could not believe that it was 6 weeks ago that I learned that I would be a guest Creative Team member for OScraps, while still doing my converting for M&M Designs.  I figured that was pretty perfect - I could use the templates for one and the items from the other.  Needless to say, I have been completing a lot of pages!

I am going to keep scrapbooking!

Exciting News

I am so excited!  I hadn't posted anything at first, because it didn't feel real.  I kept waiting for them to say - "oh, whoops, never mind!"  So, what is my news, you ask?  I have become a CT member for one designer and a guest CT for an entire site for May & June!  What does that mean?
In the digital scrapbooking world, designers create digital papers, elements, templates and more for their customers to make beautiful scrapbook pages (which would later be printed and added to their albums).  These designers then need people to create layouts with their product for the designers to use for advertising purposes (sometimes, it is easier to see if you like a kit, when you can see what someone else has done with it.)  These people are part of a Creative Team or CT, to assist the designer.
Well, Mel from M&M Designs is a template designer over at Stuff to Scrap.  She decided that she wanted to start offering her templates in the .page and .sbpage format so that those of us who us who use another scrapbooking program like Creative Memories Storybook Creator will be able to use her templates.  To do that, she needed someone to convert them for her.  She chose myself and another team member.  Since she is opening a new store May 1st and changing the look of her "packaging", it has been a SUPER busy month for Shawna and I to convert everything in time.  I can't wait to share some of the templates that she is releasing next month!
During the beginning of March, I participated in the OScraps 7th Birthday Celebration.  They had a ton of challenges, one of which was to do 7 challenges (1 each day) and the winners of which would win a guest team member site.  I won the 2nd place prize!  I have never won anything so large.  I will get free products for those 2 months to create LOs with and post them.
Both of these things just show that if you put it out there and try, it could have happen to you, too!
So, May will by busy for me!  I will be posting my LOs for sure!
Until then, put yourself out there - you never know!
Meagan

Mousescrappers Speed Scrap Marathon!

I simply LOVE this time of year!
It is the 3rd annual Mousescrappers Speed Scrap Marathon.  For 3 days (starting in 30 minutes), they will have organized speed scraps to help you get pages scrapbooked.  I love it because I can get 16 pages done of my Disney stuff and earn prizes, too!  For each Speed Scrap that you finish in time, you get a participation prize and if you complete 8 of them by the deadline on Monday, you get a half-marathon goodie bag.  If you complete all 16 by Monday - the full goodie bag!  I love this because even if I miss the prize for an individual speed scrap, I can still finish it and get the goodie bag.

I found these tips over at Capturing Magical Memories blog:

Here are my hints for first timers:

• Find a Quiet Place: You don’t have to give up your weekend and sit in front of the computer (unless you want to of course). But try to schedule a couple of hours each day to go through the Speed Scrap challenges and put some pages onto paper.
• Be Late for Your First Scrap: Yes, I did just say be late. But the first time I did a Speed Scrap I got so confused. If you wait until a couple of people finish first and upload their pages you can see how the directions were used. It’s sort of cheating but makes it a lot less stressful.
• Don’t Get Stressed: Just because the name is Speed Scrap does not mean you are being measured by how fast you go. Most challenges have a minimum window of 4 hours to get it done. Many of the hosts are much more generous so always go ahead and post your page for the world to see. (if you are a traditional scrapper just take a quick photo of the page – nothing fancy)
• Have Fun: Just go with the flow. Join the chat room and meet some new friends.

So, head on over and get you scrap on!

You will find me there ;)

Meagan

12 Days of Christmas overview & scrapbook page

I decided to do an overview scrapbook page featuring all of the gifts.

12 Days of Christmas (Day 12 - 12 Handmade Thank You Cards)

We made it!  12 Days of gifts for 2 deserving teachers.  Today's gift in the original post was 12 apples.  I thought that was a little much.  Unless you knew they would need that many apples.  Instead, I started thinking about what they could need.  I had heard that teachers get very tired of all the apple-related things that they get.  That after about 1 or 2 years of teaching, they have all the coffee cups, and apple trinkets they can stand.  That is when I thought of apple thank you cards.  I know that all the teachers I have met, use thank you cards a lot and making them apple-themed would keep to the flavor of the gifts. Remember back to Day 1, I had purchased a whole pack of Grade School 12x12 scrapbook paper and used it to make the clipboard.  Now, I had a new use for it.
I was a little daunted by creating 24 handmade cards for someone else, so I kept putting it off.  I ended up staying up on Day 11 until 2 am (of Day 12) getting them done.  Some, I made 4 of - 2 for each teacher.    But, basically, I used the plain cream envelopes and card that I bought at JoAnn's and added the papers and ribbons to them to decorate them.  Here they are:

Here they are all bundled with ribbon and ready to give.

So, that's it!  All done!  I am glad to have done it.  I hope you all have enjoyed it and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Meagan

12 Days of Christmas (Day 11 - 11 pencils)

I have had such a great time getting all of these gifts ready for the teachers.  Taking something so useful and non-exciting and making it cute, interesting and fun.  Here we are on the 2nd to last day with something that every teacher uses - Pencils!
I got a 24 pack of the Ticonderoga - the best pencils.  I split them up and bundled 11 pencils for each teachers (and got to keep 2).  Again, you could get the cheap, Dollar Store variety, but I know that many times those pencils are not worth even sharpening.
I kept it very simple - wrapping them in red and white curling ribbon like I did the red pens on the 2nd day.  Making them look like a candy cane and attached extra curling ribbon and the tag, which reads:

For the 11th day of Christmas,
Some pencils I hope you'll need,
(school name) is so lucky
to have you, indeed!

So, only 1 day left.  The final reveal is coming up.  It is an extra special gift.  I spent quite a bit of time creating them.  

Another quick crafty item.  I wanted to share what I did for my 12 yo's teachers.  Now that he is in middle school, he has 6 teachers.  I couldn't do something like the 12 days for 6 teachers, and I didn't want to do something too "cute" (embarrassment is a factor for 7th grade boys).  I thought that something useful, easy to carry 6 of them, and inexpensive.  I got your basic Composition Books at Target for .94 each (plus 5% off using the Red Card).  If you picked up a bunch during the back to school sales, they were only .50 each.  Anyway, I decorated each one with papers appropriate for that teacher's subject, added ribbon with a loop for a pen and gift done!

For his science teacher

For his pre-calculus teacher

For his English Language Art teacher

For his Social Science/History teacher

For his World Language teacher

For his PE teacher

Be back tomorrow with the big reveal!
Merry Christmas
Meagan