Step 1: Invites

To celebrate my champagne--or golden or lucky--birthday (I turned 25 on the 25th of October), I held a little get together at my apartment. It was such a wonderful evening with my most favorite people.

This week, I'll be showing you what I did to pull the evening together.

First up: Invitations

This invite really is simple to make, but it delivers a big punch when your guests first open their envelopes.

Start by going to a local craft store. I usually shop first in the scrapbooking aisle as you can buy individual sheets of paper instead of dedicating yourself to an entire 50-page pack. Buy multiple sheets of a decorative paper you like for your party (one sheet makes four invitations) and some corresponding vellum and ribbon. With the decorative paper, I try to keep it simple but interesting - a few colors but a great design.

To print the wording, I used a publishing program on my computer to set up four separate areas and then copied and pasted the matching text. This takes a few tries to get everything lined up. Instead of using your valuable vellum, practice first on an ordinary sheet of paper.

Now begins the construction phase. Cut your decorative paper into fourths, making 4 smaller rectangles. Do the same to your vellum (which now has your printed wording). You might also want to cut off a little additional vellum so the decorative paper forms a sort of border for the text.

Line up the vellum paper with your decorative paper. Using a single-hole punch, punch two holes at the top of the invite about an inch apart.

Cut a piece of your matching ribbon (be sure to buy ribbon with a smaller width) to about 6 inches. Strand the ribbon through the front and then up through the holes to the front. Cut off the ends at an angle (they will likely have frayed from the pulling).

Now you have your inexpensive, but ultra chic, invitation.

I've made this same style of invitation for a bachelorette party, birthday parties, baby showers, and a wedding shower. It's simple and lends itself to lots of themes.

You've Been Boo-ed

In college, I was a member of a service sorority, and every Halloween, we went trick or treating for canned goods to donate to local shelters. During our trick or treating, I started noticing these "You've been boo-ed" signs in everyone's door. Finally, I stopped to ask. Turns out, a trend is sweeping the nation. A yummy and fun trend!

It's called Boo-ing, and it goes like this.



1) You go to You've Been Boo-ed's web site and print out the card.

2) Fill two bags (or pumpkins) or baskets FULL of goodies. It can be homemade treats like breads, cookies, cake. It can be candy and chocolate. It might even be a basket full of scary movies, popcorn, and soda for the family to use in their Halloween celebration. However you choose to fill it is up to you.

3) You place the "You've Been Boo-ed" card in the basket, and you silently drop off a Boo basket at the front door of two neighbors.

4) They find the basket (surprise!), read the card, post the "You've been boo-ed" sign in their front door (so they are not boo-ed twice), and then they boo two neighbors. The chain starts from there!

It's a great way to spread cheer all around your neighborhood!

Now... off to boo some friends! Enjoy!

P.S. They have a Christmas version: Been Jingled

(From BeenBooed.com)

Pumpkin Seed Frenzy

Last night, I was introduced to a world I knew very little about... pumpkin seeds.

I went to my first "Wine & Knives" party, which was a lot more fun (and a lot less deadly) than the title implies. It was an ol' fashioned pumpkin-carving party, complete with lots of great food and wine. We carved, and we ate. Then we carved, and we drank. And finally, the pumpkin seed making began.

Once we had all removed the "guts" of our pumpkins, we washed off the icky (my descriptive word of choice for the insides of pumpkins) orange stuff to get to the seeds. (This takes some tugging and scrubbing, but it's worth it.) Then we tossed some of the seeds in a bowl with olive oil, some kosher salt, garlic salt, a little spicy something, maybe paprika, and toasted them for about 15 minutes on 375. Out came deliciousness like I have never known.

So it got me to thinking... What about a Pumpkin Seed Bar?



At your next carving, set out bowls of spices--sweet and savory. As guests take a break from carving or finish up a project, invite them over to make their own custom batch of pumpkin seeds.

Spices you might include: kosher salt, garlic salt, roasted garlic, paprika, cayenne, cumin, rosemary, dried basil, dried thyme, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, all-spice, nutmeg. You won't need a lot of each spice as a little goes a long way.

Provide guests with bowls and spoons. Let them combine and mix to their heart's desire. Then lay them out on a single layer on lightly-sprayed parchment paper, label the parchment with their name, put the parchment paper on a baking sheet and pop in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes. As oven temps vary, watch your first batch closely. It may need less than 15 minutes.

Most guests won't eat all of them, so individual baggies might be handy.

For some delicious recipes, visit 101 Cookbooks. They have some great ideas you can whip up before guests arrive to inspire their creativity.

Happy Seed Making!

Halloween Greetings

I always find myself itching to send greeting cards to friends and family. But instead of buying boxed cards this year, I wanted to make my own--put my own unique twist on them--and be creative. So I tried to do a combo Halloween-Valentine's Day card. A love scare, if you will. Armed with some scrapbooking materials, a huge box of notecards, some glue, and glitter, I made my attempt. Sure, a kid might have made these by the looks of them, but with a little creativity, my simple steps and some amazing punches from Martha Stewart, you could make your own personalized, spook-tacular Halloween greetings!



1. Find some notecards and matching envelopes. Check Hobby Lobby and Michael's. They usually have a great variety of colors and often discount packs.

2. Pick your notecard. An eery purple was my first choice.

3. Using stickers, punches, or cutouts, arrange the card any way you like it. Glue all items down using a glue stick or spray adhesive.

4. For added punch, spell one of your words in glue and cover with glitter. Once the glue has dried, shake off the excess glitter. [Hint: I used a small, clean paint brush to brush away any glitter that stuck to the card.]

5. Finally, address the envelope, put a stamp on it, and send your love-scare to your Halloween-tine. :)

You are be-WITCH-ing!

There's no bones about it; you're the best!

You look delicious! (This vampire only wants candy, not your blood.)

You are spooktacular!

Cupcake Flags

Next week, I'll be updating with ideas from my recent birthday party, but first I'd like to send out some love to the sweet girl who made my cupcake flags for the event, Laurenmakes. In addition to doing customized flags like the ones for my birthday, she has some great Halloween and fall flags. She designs, prints, cuts, glues, packs, and ships them all herself. They come to you as precious as you'd imagine.





(From Laurenmakes)

Giving In: Vampires

I don't understand the obsession with vampires. I haven't read Twilight. I haven't watched Twilight. I have no plans to read or watch Twilight. But there's no denying it: vampires are HOT!

In honor of this latest craze and just in time for Halloween, I give you vampire...

Mummies vs. Vampires checkers. Check out PsAndQs on Etsy. Probably the safest vampires and mummies you'll ever play with.



Red Vampire Bat Coffee Cup Cozy from flappergirl on Etsy. You can go green (by not using those disposable cozies from coffee shops) while showing your knack for red. :)



As some of you may know, I have an obsession with cupcakes. All things cupcakes. So naturally, I couldn't resist the Vampire Cupcakes from Baking Bites. Get ready, office - we'll be having these for Halloween!



Another vampire-y idea: Red velvet cupcakes with white frosting. Use red gel icing to make fang marks. Simple, easy, and delicious!

Creative Costumes

Halloween is great for seeing other people's creativity. Usually, they're all more creative than me. So this year I've rounded up a few quick (and some not-so quick) but creative ideas.

Ladybug Halloween Costume from Reader's Digest


Come-Clean Washing Machine from FamilyFun -- I've been begging my brother to make and wear this for his marching band's Halloween show next week. So far, no luck. But I'm still trying.



Baby Sushi Costume from Parents



Lego Costume from CountryLiving.com -- Another one I've been begging my brother to try.



Print-and-Color Halloween Masks from WomansDay.com -- Pick from 15 of their print-and-color masks for a super-fast costume.


(From Reader'sDigest.com, FamilyFun, Parents.com, CountryLiving.com, and WomansDay.com)