I am creative

For those who read this and know me well, you know I couldn't draw a picture to save my life.  Ok ok if my life REALLY depended on it, I could probably draw something.... with stick figures (and stick animals) and a few basic shapes like the sun, a christmas tree or 'M' birds. 

Drawing is not my thing, and because of this I used to think I was not creative or artistic and I used to dread art class in school.  My dis-like of anything artistic even lead me to convince my highschool guidance counsellor to let me out of the manditory art credit!  Instead I took an extra history. 

Scrapbooking became a big thing right around the time that Shaun and I got married and I decided that I would scrapbook our wedding album. I am happy with the way it turned out, despite that it is quite plain.  I learned a lot from the process and hope someday to go back and give it a bit more flare.

After that successful endeavour, I decided to scrapbook each kid's first year. I am very happy with how things have gone so far, but have accepted that scrapbooking with three young kids is very difficult!  I do not have my own space and usually take over the entire kitchen table when I get the urge to get some done.  That being said, I am sure I will miss it when William's first year is complete.  I am sure I will find more projects to scrapbook after that - perhaps trips!!  On another note we are planning to take the kids to Disney World this fall!

Right now I am really enjoying planning Patrick's birthday party.  I think because it has forced me to become creative!  Patrick really wanted a Super-Mario themed birthday party which we quickly agreed to since he is very much into the Mario games on Wii and DS.  However, after agreeing to the theme I found out that it is almost impossible to get Mario party items in Canada.  The local balloon store even told me that the lisence to have mario products has not been released in Canada!!

E-Bay to the rescue for most items: foil balloon, iron-on transfer to make a birthday shirt, pull-back racers for cake toppers, keychains to use for helium balloon weights.  I did also find cups, plates and napkins with Mario and Luigi on them from Great Brittan but with exchange & shipping it was going to be $20 for a 8-piece set!  So that was a no-go.  Instead, we are using the blue/red/green colur theme for tablecloth, napkins, etc.

Finding images of Mario, Luigi, etc on the internet was a snap!  There are lots of choices, some more questionable than others though.  I even found a blog of a Dad who drew Mario themed colouring pages and that sparked my interest to create more Mario-themed paper products for Patrick's party.  Using the colouring pages, we'll make a colouring book for inclusion in the loot bags - I created a front page (pictured on the right below) that Patrick will personally autograph as a thank-you card of sorts.

With a colouring book, you need crayons!!  The dollar store sells 6x4 small boxes of crayons.  To keep with our theme, I designed a crayon box wrap (pictured center) and glued them onto 'toy story' theme boxes.

I had a lot of fun creating the invitations as well (pictured left).  I created them in WORD, 4 per page and printed on card stock.  I did two types: one as pictured with Mario at the top and a second type with Peach as the top picture for the girls he wanted to invite.  The envelops are standard quarter-fold card envelopes.  I cut out the mario image and glued it to the front as well as the mario star as a 'seel' for the back.  I think they look pretty sharp!

click the picture to enlarge

I've also designed personalized loot-bag pages to glue to glittery gift-bags keep with the theme.  We will have the loot bags out and visible so they'll add to the decorations.

Best of all, I'm saving all my templates for future party planning endeavours.  I only wish I'd thought of these things earlier this year for Kathryn's Princess birthday party!  But there is always next year.