michelle paige blogs: Invitations

Friday

Spoon Theory and Spoon Party Part 1

My friend Leah lives with fibromyalgia and chronic pain.
When Leah describes what it's like to live each day in pain,
she often refers to the spoon theory.

Cartoon image of Christine Miserandino holding a spoon

The spoon theory is an article written by a Lupus sufferer who explains that her chronic pain is like having a handful of spoons. Each tiny act she chooses to do during the day will deplete her supply of spoons. Daily living becomes a list of mundane choices that must be planned out, in order to finish the day with enough spoons to get into bed at night, and begin the next day anew. Some days there are just a few spoons to work with, other days may be a handful. Click here to read the article.

Spoons have taken on a new meaning for Leah as she lives with her chronic pain.
She's now a serious collector of all kinds of spoons and her
Pinterest boards are full of vintage spoon pics.

When some girlfriends and I were planning a 40th birthday party for Leah,
the theme was obvious...
SPOONS!

(You know how I love a good party theme!)

Check out the invitation!
Serving up a SPOONFUL of love and fun for
Leah's 40th Birthday!

We asked each guest to bring a SPOON to 'gift' to Leah.
The invitation reads:

"Attach a note of birthday love including why you chose that particular spoon for her.
Feel free to be creative with your choice of spoon...
new or vintage, simple or ornate,
any style, shape or function."

These little plastic spoons were found at Party City.

The box of 20 silver, plastic mini spoons were double the price of the 40 plastic mini spoons.
I didn't want them for eating, I wanted them to decorate with!

What's a girl to do?

(Buy the plastic ones and spray paint them, of course!)

I already had the silver spray paint.
It worked magically on the plastic spoons...and I only needed to spray one side.

(I love it when a plan comes through!)

We used these spoons on the invitations and look how we

decorated with them!

We put zebra print fabric in glass frames and then using glue dots,
stuck the spoons on top of the glass! Instant spoon art!

Look at these fun zebra print favor boxes I found at Hobby Lobby.

Of course I had to jazz them up a bit with some feathers and spoons...

and a little hot glue.

Now these little boxes are ready to party!

There's so many incredibly fun things to do with a spoon-themed party,
(and hundreds of pictures to show you)
that I'm going to have to break my posts into 'bite-sized spoonfuls'.
So, for today that's all I'm showing you,
but keep checking in...
You won't want to miss the spoon wreaths
and the photo booth
and the whole SPOON Party!

Thursday

Quick & Easy Bridal Shower Invitations

I love making invitations that are cute and fast! If I can avoid glue, even better! Check out these simple bridal shower invitations I made for my mom’s church friends.

This bridal shower has a bird theme (if you ask me, you always need a theme!). We used some 'birdie' wording on the invitation: 'Come help us ‘feather’ their nests.' and 'The ‘lovebirds’ are registered at…'

Using my parent's computer, I simply added some basic clip art to the party information (Word document) and printed it out. I trimmed the paper to fit the purple/pink cardstock color I found in my mom's stash. I then punched two holes through both the paper and the cardstock.

I threaded the ribbon, (every invitation in my opinion has to have ribbon!) through the holes and tied on a purple feather. Purple is the couple’s wedding color.

I had my ‘build anything, do anything’ dad help me finish all 80 of the invites! His hands were a blur! We had feathers everywhere!

What a fun shower theme to have birds, birdcages, nests, etc. Very trendy at the moment. _________________________________

This next invitation and bridal shower theme is a bit different.
My mom's church friends want to have a bridal shower for the pastor's son's fiancee'.
She happens to live in AZ and can’t make it to the party in WA State. Mom's friends are not letting that (the guest of honor not coming) stop them from having a party.
So, after much thought, we came up with a ‘bag’ theme. We asked each guest to bring their shower present in a bag, so everyone can peek inside at the gifts. I tried to make the

invitations look like gift bags.

I used more scrapbook paper from mom's stash and taped on tissue paper that I crinkled up. I then stapled the invite (again, Word document with clip art) right on top of the tissue paper. Stapling is so much faster than gluing!
This time I made my husband and daughter help me. (I always look for help when mass producing cards! If you're standing around, I'll put you to work!)

I punched a hole on each side to tie on the ribbon handle. I forgot to include on the invitation where the couple was registered, so I added that with a slip of paper that looks like it’s coming out of the bag (I got my sister-in-law to help with that task.).

These invites will be hand delivered, so there's no need for envelopes.
Won’t decorating be fun for this 'bag themed' party. Think multi-colored gift bags displayed throughout, gift bag shaped cookies (with licorice handles) and ‘What’s in the Bag?’ games? I could even see making a cute banner out of gift bags strung together! (Maybe they'll get the groom to come?)
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Once my mom saw how quick the shower invitations were going, she put me to work on a birthday invite. My parent’s adorable foster child is turning 2 years old soon.
A ‘Pink Party’ invitation was needed...this time I only needed to make a few.