time to go bananas! {a banana split party}

The lawn fawn team is partnering with xyron this week, to bring you fun projects made possible using their adhesives.

On the last day of school, I presented my kids with an invitation to a banana split party.

They were so sleepy and hilarious when they read the back of the invite.



It said: we're so proud of you for all the hard work you put in this year...but now that school's out, it's time to go bananas! when you get home, there will be a party waiting for you - cake! cookies! cousins! and don't forget to BYOB: bring your own banana.



They gave weird, tired smiles and went to school. I waited until Maia's naptime to set this up:



I wanted it to be a fun surprise when they walked through the door/woke up from the nap.



I love the cherry on top of each letter, all glossy and cute.  I used a brown gel pen to flick some spotty banana dots on each letter, and a white gel pen to create a fun highlight as well.

I crafted the bottle labels to match the invitation. Ice cream sundae + banana, and on the stitched circle to match the banner.

I found the polka-dotted hot pink straws at the dollar spot in Target ages ago, and they worked perfectly here! I also found these yellow corn holders in the dollar spot, just a few days before this little party.  I thought it looked banana-ish, to hold a trio of cakes each:



These cakes are wonky, but so yummy. I baked up one recipe of banana-caramel cake and then used scraps to create these tiny cakes. With a gumball on top, they were the kids' choice.

Speaking of cake,



yup. you are welcome.



They were delicious.  And, thanks to my friend Marlyn (Montreal Confections), I had the sweetest bunches of banana cookies to display at the party. Spotted bananas never looked so cute.

My favorite party craft, has to be the hats.



Banana split party hats, with a cherry bead on top.



I hot-glued the bead to the hat, and then just cut slivers of black cardstock for the stem. A dab of hot glue to keep them stuck inside the bead.

I cut myself a wavy stencil (out of post it strips) and sponged brown ink all over the bottom of the hat. Then, using a white gel marker, I added a white layer over that one before adding tiny paper sprinkles all around.

My niece was the only kid who was nice enough to stop for a picture. She literally froze this way for the minute it took me to get my camera and shoot the picture. ha. It was so weird and fantastic, all at once.  My sister has them trained.

I hope you like it! We went bananas!

♥.

hang in there {lawn fawn inspiration week}

On the last day of lawn fawn's june inspiration week, we're re-visiting sets that have been given new coordinating dies: critters in the burbs, critters on the farm, plus one, and critters down under.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to craft with the tree-hugging koala.

I made a card almost 2 years ago with this koala, and I can't believe I hand-cut everything like a chump, but it's still one of my favorite cards.  It's one that got me noticed by lawn fawn, and I'd like to think it started me toward my spot on this amazing team.  click *here* to see it.

But today.

It's all about celebrating the awesome laziness and perfection that comes with owning matching dies:



I started out with a white panel of cardstock, on which I stamped and masked and masked and stamped to get a nice layer of trees. Oh, and before all of that stamping/masking, I put down a post-it-strip across both the top and bottom of the panel. Do you see how the tree bottoms are cut off? I love doing that - it makes it look like a print instead of a homey-homemade card, especially because I added a wash of blue around the trees in between the post-it-strips.

Once I was happy with the trees (are you saying "happy little trees" now? I am. ha. I used to watch that painting show all the time as a kid) I then popped the koala on there. I adhered the bottom of the tree directly onto the cardstock, lining it up with the stamped trees, but using a foam dimensional under the koala.



I stamped the custom sentiment using Milo's abcs.

I hope you like it! There's more to see on the lawn fawn blog today!

♥.

you'll never know {lawn fawn inspiration week}

Another day of lawn fawn inspiration is coming at ya! I always love it when lawn fawn comes out with new alphabet stamps, and this one is such a great size! A little bigger than the other solid alphas, Clark's abcs is perfect for building custom sentiments.

I made a sing-song of card, using the new clark's abcs and the deer from into the woods.  I stamped all of it onto the 4x6 journaling card and did my usual thing by coloring the impressed outline with a brush-tipped marker.



This deer makes everything cuter.  I hand-drew the grass beneath his feet, to ground him and add a touch of whimsy.

I hope you like it!  Visit the lawn fawn blog to see more amazing samples by the design team.  I think today may be my favorite bunch of projects!

♥.

i'll be here {mama elephant designer series}

Hi there! I'm sharing a card I made with the new Mama Elephant set, bloomsies.

The banner is so fantastic, I couldn't help but combine it with my other favorite new release, in my heart.

I stamped the banner onto a piece of white cardstock and colored it in.  I wanted to make sure that it would stand out on the card.  Next, I planned out my sentiment. There is a lot of selective inking going on, but I'm happy to report no smudges. On this version. There were a few that came before. ha.

I colored the little girl (she's so cute, it looks like she's really coming for a hug) and popped her up in the space between the words.

The banner makes the whole thing pop, don't you think? It will get so much use at my house!

Thanks for stopping by!

♥.