st patty's day with our cousins

We had a great St. Patrick's Day. We stayed the night at my sister's and the party was on!
We woke up to so many crazy things. The leprechauns were busy that night. The whole hallway was booby trapped with a yarn maze, the milk was green, the table was decorated with gold and candy, and there were two little green footprints on the toilet seat and the water was green! Eeeww! :)
After finding all the funny pranks the leprechauns had played on us we settled down to a yummy breakfast of rainbow pancakes and whip cream.
(and yes, that is my daughter caught sneaking some whip cream in the picture!) :)

kiss me cuteness

Chip board letters are super cheap ($1 each, or even less if on sale). They make for great crafts because you can keep your cost down.
I made this cute sign last year. I simply painted the letters green, then coated the front of them with modpodge and gilltered them. I then beveled a slit in a board thick enough to support them and hot glued them in/on. The shamrock in between the words is a nice touch to break it up and add the dimension of another color.
I am so happy with how it turned out. Total cost <$8.

shamrock banner

This banner and I experienced love at first sight.
Thankfully I just happen to have a BUNCH of old books to rip some pages out of. Scraps of green for the shamrocks, and I went with brass buttons instead of the white that the example had. I just liked the aged look it brought.

pot 'o gold

This cute idea has got to be one of thee simplest things I've done in a long time. You can't go wrong gathering rocks and spray painting them. I love how they turned out. The touch of vinyl was nice. They used a stencil and black paint, I just like the cleaner look. I like the nod it gives to st. patty's day.

eat your greens

Yes, the Leprechauns were at our house and busy at work making everything green and rainbowie for us and boy did we love it!
My kids woke up to a trail of gold leading them to cute St. Patrick's day shirts and a festive breakfast of green pancakes, green butter, and green juice.






For lunch they had friends over and we had a great lunch of green mac 'n cheese and rainbow jell-o. They topped it all off with fun rainbow and gold cupcakes.

Dinner was fun. With fun decor, green enchiladas, green beans, rainbow jell-o and fun cupcakes, how could you go wrong?!

Here's my yummy Creamy Enchilada Recipe. It is SUPER simple and SUPER yummy. I got it from my great sister, who is an amazing cook.

Saute:
2 C shredded chicken
1/2 C chopped onion
2 TLBS butter

Mix:
1 can evaporated milk
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 C sour cream
1 C shredded cheddar cheese

Dip tortillas in sauce, stuff with meat mixture. Roll. Cover all with 1/2 C shredded cheddar cheese and 1 4 oz can of chopped green chilies. Cover with foil and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. (add green dye to sauce before dipping tortillas to change color)

The jell-o takes A LOT of time, but it's not bad if you have things to do between letting layers set. Needless to say it was a late night on the 16th! :) Get the recipe here.

The cupcakes were SOOOO fun to make. I couldn't find the airhead treat that she used, but these twizzlers were a good alternative. I made them with funfetti cake to give them a rainbow feel.

And these gems were inspired by a friend who did this with oreos for us as a treat for Christmas. It just seemed like it was totally appropriate for an Irish Occasion! :)

color me green

So I am still loving all the fun ideas I am finding and coming up with for St. Patrick's Day. It is getting me way excited for the big day and the fun we are going to have around here.
So here's some of my latest....
I saw a picture of this done digitally and couldn't resist making it with real buttons. I LOVE how it turned out. It took a lot of time arranging, but I think that real buttons looks so much more fun.

An ikea born idea, I love how cheap and simple this was. Ikea sells packs of tea candles in colors. Just buy a pack of greens, fill a jar, vase, whatever, and it is a nice touch of green.

Made always has cute ideas, and I loved this one. I love the idea of having a shamrock bean bag toss, but would probably just make them out of green fabric. She made a million of these. One was enough for me. I didn't love sewing on vinyl.

I copied these paper globes that she did for Valentine's day. I love the little touch of green that they add. They were surprisingly easy, but I do suggest that you use your glue gun to assemble them.


I am loving all the free printables out there right now. Tip Junkie is where I find most of mine. She takes me to others sites and I just keep going! :) They are so cute and great for frames, toppers, and party favors. There are cute "kiss me I'm irish" and "keep calm and pinch on" printable that are to die for.

it's easy being green...

...or so it seems lately.
I LOVE holidays and St. Patrick's Day is no exception, but I only had one thing for the holiday I realized when I went to pull it out. (yes, a gold leafed plate with coins and shamrocks...that's it).

I didn't really decorate for St. Patty's Day because Easter comes so quickly after Valentine's I usually just jump it...but probably not anymore thanks to some fun things I've made.
As usual...some crafts come from my (sometimes) brilliant self, and others are inspired by U. So here's what I've got so far. It was been so fun!
I love banners. They are so cute. This one was done with my cricut using the "Blackletter", "Circus", and "Lovely Floral" Cartridges. I tied it with strips of poly satin. It is so much cheaper than ribbon and it looks great!

I am so in love with these scallop garlands. This pattern was designed by my friend and is from her cute blog here. The two changes I made were that I did not space my scallops an inch apart. I like the way they look right next to each other. I also just made my own bias tape instead of buying some. That way I was able to choose the width and length I wanted. I loved this project because it was so easy and I just used material I already had...so it didn't cost a penny!



The link for the pattern is here

Once I saw this I knew I had to do it. So I got out what I had laying around that I thought would make do...and NO I did not have a canvas laying around. I used a piece of MDF left over from my garage shelving, I doubled up some white material I had and then I stapled it on the wood.
I then used the one stamp set I own and craft paint for the letters. I was VERY happy with how it turned out. In fact I am pleased to say that I like mine more! :)

This was also just inspired by my "i{heart]u" burlap sign I did for Valentine's Day. I figured I could do one for St. Patrick's day too and I love it. I used the "Zooballoo" and "Paper Dolls Dress Up" Cartridge to cut out freezer paper. I used the inverse and then ironed it on the burlap and used more of a "dry brush" technique for the aged look. I love it, but still need to add the next layer. Will post update when that happens.

This "kiss me" is just made from chip board letters I picked up at Hobby Lobby (love that place!). I painted them the color of the glitter I was using, then mod-podged the front and covered the letters with glitter. I then just hot glued it on to a board I painted black and had a groove run through the middle to help hold up the letters. I stole a little shamrock from my amazing gold plate :) as a little accent and I love what the darker green does for it! This was a very fast and cheap project that I think looks great.

And lastly my "insect" shamrock art. I loved the one I did for Valentine's Day, so I thought I'd give it a try for patty's day too. I am not in love with the print I did the shamrocks on, but my choices were limited. If I find something I LOVE later I might take the time to change it, if not, I like it enough to keep it.


Still on the list are:
1. Attempt to mod-podge a candle using st. patty napkins
2. A table runner with mini scallops on ends to match my garlands
3. A frames shamrock tree
4. "Keep Calm and Pinch on" and "Kiss Me I'm Irish" printables
5. Irish Cookie pops with tags
6. Paper Globes
7. Green Menu for the big day
(oohh, 7 more things to make. Lucky number!) :)
Here's hoping I get to all this fun stuff...and the house work too...but if I don't get to the house work.....! :)