Printable Easter Tags; You Give Them Some Sass

I wanted to make some quick and easy to use and "pretty up" Easter printable tags for us all this year.  Usually I use a boring blank tag for treat bags because I am grabbing whatever I can last minute but alas the cycle has broken tonight!  I whipped up this sheet of tags with a simple bunny image that I greyed out so you can put your own personal twist on the little fella depending on what you are attaching him to (loving not using my colour printer for this).  Although you don't see it above, Ellie's gift tag will also get a small white pom pom attached to the bunny for a tail (I will use the glue gun for that in the morning).

Here is what you need.

Print the template here, pull out some coloured pencils, paints, glitter etc etc and make these bad boys your own.  I love that I happened to have a piece of Kraft card stock and I look forward to using the rest of these tags with some twine.  Notice I also ran the pencil around the edge of the tag which you may want to consider as they looked as though they were "missing" something when I neglected that the first go round.

I hope you like them and they become a part of your holiday this year.

Quickly a note about the One Of A Kind Show in Toronto that I went to last night.  Lots of nice things, two vendors in particular I think I will share with you but as neither were Easter oriented lets hold off until after the holiday.  Other than that it was a great outing of sanity with mom although we were out far far too late for a work night...  ugh if only my younger self could see what a wimp I have turned into! 

Night all,

xox
Dish

Late Post Tonight...Going To The One Of A Kind Show

Hi all,

Sorry but I am leaving you now to head to the One of a Kind Show in Toronto.  They are open until 11pm this evening and I convinced my mother to sneak out with me.  I didn't decide until this very moment and as such didn't have time to prepare anything. 

If I'm not destroyed when I get home I will post a sneak peak of the show...otherwise I will catch you tomorrow.

My apologies.

xox
Dish

Unique Easter Finds

The great thing about my day job is I have time between appointments to mill around a bit in fun areas within the city.  I now carry my camera everywhere as I never know when I will fall in love with something and then spend the rest of the day annoyed that I couldn't snap a picture of it.  Earlier this week I came across these happy Easter finds and wanted to share. 

As I mentioned during our Valentine's prep I am always looking for items to give my kids at holidays that aren't edible.   In this French inspired boutique, Belle De Provence, I found several Easter items that oozed cuteness and no calories.  What do you think about the little tin eggs seen in the above and below pictures?  In my mind I see these hung on a little Easter tree, each one filled with a perfect spring surprise.  I also have a crush on the bunny couple above...

 These candy jars would be beautiful in a shop window and the royal trio below would add perfectly to my holiday mantel decor.

 I had the pleasure of talking briefly to Sabrina, the manager of the Belle De Provence store in Bayview Village Shopping Centre in Toronto and asked her how she would describe the store.  It's a French Vintage themed shop with a strong feminine approach to luxury bath/body products and gift ware.  You can buy all of their bath and body products on-line but unfortunately the gift ware is only available in the store (although if you call they will ship gift ware items to you).

Not a bad adventure to break up the work day and certainly worth checking out if you are in the area and need to indulge yourself.  Sadly since I was focused on Easter I didn't pick up any bath products for myself whilst I was there....I guess a soak in the baby bubble bath will have to do for tonight. 

Night all,
xox
Dish

Belle De Provence --- Bayview Village Shopping Centre
2901 Bayview Ave, Toronto, Ontario M2K 1E6
416.512.2767
lothantique.ca

Printable Easter Egg Stained Glass Template

Simple and pretty eggs to create some Easter bunting or window art for the holiday gatherings.  The first egg pattern allows for much creativity either with your hand punches or scissors.  I like the delicate butterfly pattern that doesn't overwhelm the eye and balances off the heavy pattern of the other egg. This would look wonderful with the two patterns alternating down the line. 

Special "How To" Notes:

1.  Each egg requires a front and a back with the tissue paper in the middle....so you need two egg cut outs for every one egg.

2.  The heavier the card stock the better for the eggs as you reduce the chance of being able to see the tissue pieces through the card stock when held up to the light.

3.  When punching or cutting patterns into the card stock eggs ensure that you punch/cut the two together in order to ensure the patterns line up perfectly.

 You can download the egg template here.

Love to hear your thoughts and hope you enjoy.

Night all,
xox
Dish

DIY Paper Easter Baskets

I love teachers!  They really do know everything but even more fascinating to me is that they can pull it all off with a large number of kids in 10 minutes or less.  Take for example this perfectly festive paper Easter basket that my son made today with his teachers Kathleen and Nelvie. 

Kathleen was kind enough to show me how she put them together in order to share with all of you.  First you need a square sheet of paper, this one is 10 inches, with slits cut up the corners towards the centre approximately 4 inches.  

You then simply pull the sides together and fasten.  Kathleen used a stapler (because she needed to make a million of them) but when I do this I think I will use a needle, thread and a pretty button to secure the sides of the basket.

 Then you just need to fasten on a rectangle to make the handle and you are good to go onto the decorating station!  I may use my scalloped scissors to add some sass to my handle.

Aren't they adorable?!!  Way to go son, I love it and look forward to you bringing it home.

Kathleen, thanks for sharing and keep up the great work!

xox
Dish

Classy Easter Printable Art

I love being able to change some of the artwork on my mantel based upon the season and holiday.  This year I liked the idea of mixing mediums a bit with the printable egg framed and then adding a bit of a pop with a ribbon bow.  Some years I have more than one printable but this year I liked the idea of having the same image in different sizes with coordinating bows.

I printed this image as a jpeg at my local photo finisher but as you may just want to print it at home you can download the pdf version here.

A crazy easy way to quickly add some understated class to your holiday decor.  I personally love it.

See you all Monday, have a wonderful end to your weekend.

xox

Dish

Start The Season Off Right: Bunny and Nest Cupcakes

I went into my crafting archive for this post as I thought we needed to start off the food part of this season with something sweet and easy!  Let's be straight ANYONE can pull off the nest cupcake with some coconut and Cadbury Mini Eggs. 

If however you have a Sunday free why not try crafting some bunny heads with either some modelling chocolate (you can buy or make) or fondant.  To create the bunny ears I used  two sizes of flower cutters (the petal portion specifically) and stuck them together.  I then painted the nose and inner part of the ear with pink luster dust (luster dust, some colourless vanilla and a paint brush).  The hardest part of making these little bunnies was trying not to permanently stain my hands while mixing a small amount of fondant with black colouring to make the eyes. 



Fun right?

Get the kids involved in this one.

Night all.

xox
Dish

So Sorry & Be Oh So Very Thankful For Your Blessings

My friends,

It is with a heavy heart today that I apologise for no craft.  It was an awful day and although very very early this morning I did attempt my Easter craft, it failed and then I was called to the rescue of a friend. 

It was an emotionally heavy day and I am very choked up for her, her partner and most importantly their beautiful son.  Life is complicated and curvy and some times terribly unfair.  Some of us are stronger than others but I truly believe you should never look down on someone unless you are helping them up. 

I have no idea what your life is like but I will weep (beyond cry) tonight for this family and I will think of all who suffer but I will also cry in thanks for the blessing that I have.  Please take a long moment to consider your blessing and know that someone that you know through a "friend" (me) is hurting. 

You can understand now why spring and Easter didn't seem particularly crafty today.

My heart and love go out to you all.

xox
Dish

Springing Into Action With Potted Bulbs And Easter Eggs

Now that I have my plate clean for awhile from birthday party obligations I am finally able to get excited about spring and Easter.  I have many ideas as to things that I want to do this season but I first needed to fix the house up to celebrate the end of winter.  This for me always means that we have fresh potted bulbs from the local markets and I have my favourites: white tulips, white hyacinths, grape hyacinths and the white crocus.  I have a stock of various white or off white ceramic and glass pots that I throw the ugly plastic green bulb pots into and voila, spring has sprung a casa Dish.

Today I decided to spruce up my beautiful pots with a bit of Easter whimsy, see below.

I am sure you could buy something similar from a floral design store but I like to make my own.  I bought these little eggs from one of my favourite stores (which you will see me site many many times over the lifetime of this blog)  The Creative Bag.  Although I have never done it, you can order from them on-line. 

I felt happier today just by having the bulbed flowers in the house. 
Why don't you treat yourself and pick up a few?

xox
Dish

Oh "Kid Culture" How Do I Love Thee!

I have one girlfriend in particular that always seems to know "cool stuff", those wonderful pieces of information that you file thinking "must look into".  Well here is one of her finds that I just had to track down for myself. 

Kid Culture is a brilliantly eclectic (eclectic cool not eclectic weird or "look at all of this junk") store in the Dundas Junction, west Toronto.  

The store only having been open since September 2011 has made a niche for itself in this up and coming artsy family community coined "The Junction".  Clare Raman, owner, busy mother of 2 girls and an experienced crafter herself calls this little store her charm bracelet and I completely agree.  Not only is Kid Culture charming but every piece Clare carries is unique and made by someone with love. 

One item in particular that makes me light up is the over sized t-shirt super hero capes with coordinating crowns. Old made new and way more fun, what could be better than that?!

 Clare also carries a full section of boys clothing, not just boring filler pieces but each a real show stopper.  I bought my eldest son the Toronto streetcar (black bottom left) and subway (centre bottom) Ts below and not only was I (again) the coolest mom but happily we now have full blown tantrums every day if he can't wear one...thanks Clare....

If its one of a kind girls clothing you are looking for again I assure you there will be no disappointment here.

Want to check it out?  Clare is working on setting up her website so you can order to have things shipped out to you but in the mean time I would call her to chat...she's lovely. 

Kid Culture  2986 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario 416.859.9006


xox
Dish

Nautical/Ocean/Under The Sea Birthday Party Games

Well here we are at the end of the Under The Sea birthday party and now you get to see some of the kids having fun which was the real theme of the party.

Remember the ribbon sticks I made?  Huge hit!  I made a CD with some ocean/sea/sailor music and the kids danced away.  Some of the mixed adult/kid titles were Roll Up The Map by The Never Land Pirate Band, Yellow Submarine by The Beatles, Excursion Around The Bay by Great Big Sea, Under The Sea by Samuel E. Wright, Fresh Off The Boat by Nelly Furtado and Rock The Boat by Party Animal.  Have fun with this and pump it!  We certainly did in our Under The Sea Kids Club!!

Note: I wish I had had more songs from The Never Land Pirate Band...all the kids got into the Roll Up The Map, so cute.

The next 20 minute to make craft game had the kids fully engaged (all ages) for more than half an hour which is incredible at this age.  Two pieces of bristol board taped together and then edges rounded to make a terrible but effective looking lake.  Cricut used (thanks ma) to make many fish of various sizes, paperclips put on (thanks papa) and then put into the lake. Each kid was given a fishing pole from the Dollar Store (there is a magnet in the lure) and alas we were fishing.

The official fishing rod "untangler". 

So that's it folks for this project.  Hope you enjoyed taking a swim with us over the past week.

On to the bunny hop? 

xox

Dish

Quick St Patrick's Day Crafts

Crud...another stellar mommy moment...I forgot it was St Patrick's Day today.  No huge build up for this Irish fest, didn't put our clover up on the front door, no special baked goods and none of us wore green. 

That said I did in 10 minutes pull off some festive accessories for dinner this evening which seemed to save my track record at least in the eyes of my son and husband. 

Check out the quick napkin shamrocks and green lemonade (just added a few drops of green food colouring).  Seriously 10min or less. 

No pattern necessary for cutting the napkins....trust me when I say the more you do the better you get. Just go at it.

Happy Irish Day all and remember no post tomorrow.  Monday we will finish the Under The Sea party with the party games.

Cheers,

xox
Dish

DIY Ocean/Nautical/Under The Sea Party Cupcake Toppers

I just love how the cupcakes turned out for the party.  They were a hit and the bakery loved the toppers too which is saying a lot in my mind since I am certainly not a professional!! 

I really struggled and pondered how I was going to make the shark fins as paper I thought would just end up absorbing the oils from the icing and eventually look terrible.  I considered the following alternatives: foam, cookies, modelling chocolate, laminated paper etc etc and it was only when walking around the baking supply store that I came up with the answer.

Sugar Sheets by Wilton!!  What the heck are those?!  Anyway I'd never heard of them but I thought I would give them a try as it seemed to be the perfect answer to my problem and they worked fantastically.  See how I made them below. Oh...they tasted good too.

Then the life preservers which I also brainstormed as to how I would create.  I tried a few things (jellies, modelling chocolate etc) but the painting of the life savers certainly was the easiest, least time consuming and least likely for me to mess up.  Big hit. 

Give it a whirl folks. 

xox
Dish

Ocean/Nautical/Under The Sea Party Fish Net Cake Topper

So before I go into how I made this Fish Net cake topper take a long hard look at the photo above and ask yourself does it look good enough for your party?  Looks great right?!

Would you believe me if I told you it took me 30 minutes to make? It probably would have taken less if I knew how to crochet before hand and I didn't start it at 1am the night before the party.

My message....anything goes with this one, I'm willing to bet the messier the better/more authentic it will look.  Daunted by just looking at it?  Me too and I made it so I guarantee you can too. 

You need the below (okay you also need a needle and thread and 2 skewers).

The pattern is made up of four crocheted ropes.  One very long one (red arrow) and three shorter ones (blue, green and pink arrows) when tacked on make the net complete. 

This last picture just goes to show you at 1:30am you don't care what colour the thread is to tack this thing together (hence the blue) and it still looked awesome.

Make it your own, you can do it I promise.

xox
Dish

Ocean/Nautical/Under The Sea Birthday Party Banners with Printables

Here are the two banners I did for the Under The Sea party, both very different from the traditional alternatives.  The first was a birthday banner made of fish caught in a net along with a couple of crustaceans.  You could cut everything by hand but I used the Cricut for the fish and design software for the letters.  You get the idea.

The second banner I always do for a 1st birthday and it is classically an instant hit.  The month banner from birth to 1 year this party was fish bowls, plants (both cut with the Cricut) and photos.

The monthly tags (2inch) I created again with a design software and you can download them here for your own use. 

Do you like the banners? You can do them too.

Tomorrow is the cake!

Night all.

xox
Dish

Fish Net and Crustaceans from The Amazing Party Store

Ocean Nautical/Under the Sea Party Room Decor

The room didn't turn out the way that I had in my head for several reasons but ultimately I was able to improvise and get it close enough to what I was looking for.  Wall backdrops in my opinion are the quickest way to truly transform a room however it takes a lot to keep them on the walls.  Thankfully this house is scheduled for a major reno this summer so my hubby didn't cringe as much as I thought he might with all the tape I was using to hold these suckers up.  I did however get the lecture about how we would not be "doing this" in the new house.... ;o)

 Here is a shot of the ceiling decoration.  The plan was to actually have hundreds of individual streamers hanging down but I couldn't get the tape to stick to the ceiling so I came up with the above using thumb tacks.  Boy am I ever glad I was wise enough to keep their length out of the reach of the children; something you may want to also consider.

The tissue flowers (DIY, posted here on the blog) added to the party well along with the occasional hanging puff fish.

 Much of the food and table decor was done in fish bowls which people seemed to like.  I personally loved the small ocean Dixie cups beside the fish crackers; perfect for little hands. 

 Finally to finish off this post we have the Ocean Nautical/Under the Sea water bottle labels.  These like so many of the things I do are very very easy but make a huge impact....don't you love the "she thinks of EVERYTHING!" comments you hear floating around.  Warms my heart.



  

You can download a free generic ocean/sea printable set of water bottle labels here

Tomorrow is the Ocean/Under The Sea birthday banners. 

Check it out.

xox

Dish

Sourcing:

Ocean Wall Backdrops:  Buycostumes.com and The Amazing Party Store

Fish Bowls:  Michaels