Custom Event Creations

After lots of encouragement from family & friends I've decided to start my own business.  WooHoo!!!!
I've made paper crafts for family weddings & events and received lots of positive comments on my work.  I love crafting with paper, searching for great ideas, and creating a custom product for each individual event.


My first venture was my sisters wedding two years ago.  I made their wedding programs, menus, place cards, favor tags & table number cards.  You can read more about those details here.

A year later I hosted her baby shower and created lots of fun details for the party.  I made buffet/food tent cards, candy jar tags, favor bags, welcome sign, and other items for custom games. You can read my post about her baby shower here.

Then came her son's christening (here) ...

 
...and my daughters 1st communion (here).

A prewedding event was the next opportunity for me get my crafty on...you can see the other details of this event in this post here..

Another wedding...this time for my sister in Cali!  If you want to see more check out this post.

I've had lots of practice creating these custom event creations for my family!  But the decision was finally made when a friend of mine, who is just starting her event planning business, asked me to create a couple favor samples for an upcoming event that she was planning for a client.  I did some research and made this favor.  You can see the original on pinterest.

Green apple w/brickle dip

I also made this sample favor...again the inspiration was found on pinterest.

Trail mix

This client has an exquisite farm complete with Clydesdale horses that caters to weddings & other events.   She is having an open house event at the end of the month & inviting many wedding vendors to showcase their products.  They loved the favor idea I created for them.  I was asked to make 100 apple favors for the open house.

The winner!

We decided to go with Apple Brickle Dip because we could just fill the decorative wide mouth mason jar with the dry ingredients.  This prevents us from having to keep 100 favors cold.  On the top of the lid we will include the recipe with the other ingredients needed to complete the recipe.

They also asked me to create a candy buffet complete with my handmade buffet tags for the open house.  Yay!!! I'm thrilled but also a little bit nervous. ;)

This opportunity really put everything into perspective for me.  So I started working on my business...coming up with a name, creating business cards & setting up an etsy shop.

 I am super excited about the start of my business...Custom Event Creations!!

Please check out my etsy shop out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/CustomEventCreations

So although I have not been busy with creating Cents-able Spaces lately, I have been busy being creative!!




 I'm linking up to:
Scissors & Spatulas

Delightful Order

House of Hepworths

San Francisco Wedding

My sister got married in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend.  My daughter was the flower girl.

Because it was my kids first week back to school & my oldest started high school this year we weren't all able to make the trip out there.  We decided that only Emma & I would fly out to California.  It was the first time either of us have been there so we were excited!  We were only there for a long weekend but we managed to squeeze in some sight seeing.

Golden Gate Bridge

 The wedding was held on the Mayor's Balcony of City Hall.  It is an absolutely beautiful building!!

The beautiful bride & her flower girl

My princess

We didn't plan ahead for something for Emma's hair.  It was a peacock wedding theme...one of the bridesmaids had made this embellishment for a gift for the bride

 

 ...and reused it as a hair piece for the flower girl...PERFECT!!!

As part of my wedding gift I made the wedding programs, menus, cupcake picks & table number cards for the bride & groom.

wedding program

menus

table number cards

cupcake picks

The reception was at an incredible restaurant over looking the Golden Gate Bridge.  We had an amazing whirlwind trip.  We were so happy to be there to celebrate the beginning of their forever with them!

me & my girl

I'll be sharing my etsy shop here on my blog tomorrow or maybe even later today.  Stay tuned!  And if you enjoy reading my blog please consider becoming a follower through google.  Thanks so much!!

A Prewedding Party

My step sister lives in San Francisco but most of our family is in New Jersey.  She got married over Labor Day weekend in California.  Since there were many friends and family that weren't be able to make the trip she had a party at our parents house in NJ in July.

I had told them that we weren't able to make the 9 hour trip up there for the weekend between religion, dance & soccer camps that were happening the week before & the week after her party. But we decided a few weeks before to surprise them and "crash" the party.  There were all so surprised & thrilled we were there...and we were too!

I'm the old one on the left...ha ha ha! My step sisters (twins in the middle) and my sister on the right are all 28.

They set up tables around the pool area.  Because the party was in July a tent was necessary but they added some sheer fabric to soften the look & block the fence behind.

Budget conscious antique mason jars were filled with wild flowers and tied with raffia.

More flowers were added to the buffet table...

My step mom did all the cooking for the party.  I had offered to help by making the buffet table tent cards, cupcake picks, and favor tags.

 I made simple blank favor tags that coordinated with the other paper products.  My step mom just added the names in a colored sharpie pen.

It was a great party!  And we are so happy that we were able to be there to help them celebrate!!

I'll be posting about my etsy shop soon...stay tuned!

Mason's Christening

Several months ago my sister had her baby boy christened.  My husband & I were honored to be chosen as his godparents.  We traveled to NJ for the christening for the weekend.

 I was also excited to make some custom paper products for the christening...

 

My sister made the cupcakes & I created toppers for them.   I found some simple brown & blue striped paper at Micheal's.

I used the same paper to make the favor tags.  We made chocolate covered pretzels as a small gift for her guests to take home with them.

I printed the menu cards and attached them to brown card stock.  I added a cute stitched blue & brown ribbon to the top of each menu.

 

Back to School

Hey there...look at me writing again...two nights in a row! Woohoo!!  Don't get too excited I just uploaded a bunch of pictures for my blog last night...so I thought I'd go back & share some things that we've done over the summer.  

I'll start with a recent one...back to school for my three kiddos!  We are already in our 2nd week of school.  We started here last Monday.  This year was a big one for my oldest...he started high school.  How can that be???  Wasn't it only yesterday he was walking to the bus stop for kindergarten?

Jake - kindergarten (2003)

   

And now....my first baby is in high school...I'm the parent of a high school student...wow!!!

Jake - 9th grade (HS Freshman Class of 2016)

My little ones...lol...are now in 5th & 3rd grades.  They are still both in elementary school...together!!  Next year I'll have 3 kids in 3 different school.  So for now I need to remind myself how fast the year will fly by and to enjoy every moment!

Gavin -5th grade

Emma - 3rd grade

 While they were in school navigating their new classes...I spent the morning missing them.  So I  baked them homemade chocolate chip cookies!  Yum! 

Whether you've started school in your area already or you will be starting soon...I wish everyone moms, dads & kids a very successful school year!

New venture & 1st communion

I realize I started this blog as a place to write about my home improvement projects however there haven't been many projects going on around here...or at least completed projects.  :)

 

We had a full summer this year.  All three kids continued their sports throughout the summer months (well with the exception of Jake who broke his big toe along his growth plate & was in a boot for 4 weeks).  We also visited family in NJ, had friends visit us here in NC, enjoyed a week in Myrtle Beach, SC and another week in the Outerbanks of NC.  

In the midst of our busy summer we did decide to move the kids bedrooms around.  I talked about our unused craft space in a previous post here.  We moved my 14 year old out of his "tiny" room into our daughters room.   Since her room was pink & green we had to repaint before he moved in.  I was able to repaint the room & move the furniture around but that's as far as I got.  I haven't decorated my son's room or painted my daughter's room.  We really wanted to live like this for a little while to be sure before making more changes spending more money.  I will share the completed rooms as soon as they are....well...completed! :)

I've also been pretty busy with another creative venture.  I've shared the details of my sisters wedding here and her baby shower here.  I really enjoy creating paper products & making parties and special events even more special with the little details.  I've received many wonderful compliments on things I've made from family & friends.  With their encouragement I've decided to open an Etsy shop.  I'll give you more details about my shop soon and share with you some of the events I've been working on this summer.

One of the special events I worked on was my daughter's 1st Holy Communion. Okay...so maybe it was waaaaaay back in May and I'm finally getting around to sharing it with you. Our amazing photographer & friend took pictures of her special day.

 

I snapped this one as we were leaving the church.  Although sometimes my kids fight like cats & dogs...there are these moments when you know how they truly feel about each other. 

 

We had a small party for family & friends at our house.   Here is the dessert display and really the only area I decorated. 

I made the tissue paper pom poms and hung them with white ribbon from the ceiling.  Because they weren't as easy as I thought they would be to make and I want to enjoy them for as long as possible... they may just still be hanging as I write this tonight. 

 

I found this beautiful paisley paper and used it for her party.  I made tent cards to label the foods on the dessert table.

 

I used the same pretty paper to make cupcake picks.

I think by adding a few pretty paper creations to the area it adds some elegance to the event.  What do you think?