All good things must come to an end...

Hey!

Happy Monday, peeps! I hope you all had a fabby weekend! Mine was spent creating chaos in my crafting corner studio for another round of.....


Yup! Did you hear me screaming on Friday when I found out the amazing news that I'd made the final of Gallery Idol?! Well I was screaming, jumping up and down and dare I admit it? I even did a li'l dance (I was alone at home when I found out so no-one saw me!) Why am I here? Well it's because of you wonderful people who voted for me! Thank you SO MUCH! I am honestly at a loss for words for just how overwhelmed and thankful I am; I want to come and thank you all in person ♥

For this final round we were given just 3 days to come up with 3 party-themed projects. My first thought was, "Phew! It's not more fabric!" LOL!

I wanted to come up with a solid theme and purpose to my party (that's three quarters of the design process IMHO!) I decided to use a purpose for an actual party we're hoping to have soon: a leaving party for my friend and colleague, Sarah.

Picture the scene: it's a beautiful day, we're enjoying drinks outdoors in the garden surrounded by the lovely Derbyshire countryside - bliss!

Keeping this in mind, I adopted a rustic/countryside/farmhouse kinda colour scheme (I often drool over a farmhouse kitchen just down the road from me with this colour scheme - it's gorgeous!) and used a butterfly as my motif - not only in keeping with the outdoors/countryside feel - but as a metaphor for Sarah leaving: she's spreading her wings and flying on to new adventures (and I'll miss her terribly!)

With all that figured out - here's the three projects I created:

Project One - Invitation
Well it wouldn't be a party without guests, right?!

This invite has a removable tag with all the details of the party on. The pocket for the tag is simply created by using super sticky tape on all edges except the top edge of my card front.

But it doesn't stop here; once you open the invite, you'll notice that I've included an RSVP too. This allows the recipient to easily RSVP in style :)

And that's not all! Just as a finishing touch, I adhered a magnetic strip to the back of the invite tag. I know a lot of people use their fridges as pinboards and if you do, at least you won't have to find a spare magnet to 'pin' this invite to it!

Project Two - Drink in Style!
The champagne will be flowing at the party (I'm quite partial to an elderflower champagne y'know *yummy!*) so I went ahead and stamped directly on to a champagne glass.

Yes. It took me more attempts than I can remember to get the gist of this, but I'll spare you stress of going through it yourself and give you some pointers:

• I used white Staz-On ink (it gives a nice frosted effect) but from then on gently handwash/rinse the glasses for future use!
  

• Ink your stamp up then stamp on scrap paper a couple of times before attempting to stamp directly on to the glass. Too much ink will make your stamp slip and slide uncontrollably on your glass resulting in a white splodge!

• Gently place the glass at one edge of the stamp and roll it across the stamp ensuring the stamp follows the curve of the glass.
  

• If you end up with a splodge - simply wipe away with a wet-wipe straight away, dry with kitchen towel and start again. You don't need to find a new glass!

In addition to the stamped glass I also created a drink charm as well as a butterfly decoration for the rim of the glass so you can drink in style and know which glass is yours!

The twine on the charm continues the rustic theme :)

This glass looks much more impressive IRL - I've come to learn that photographing glass can be a nightmare!

Project Three - Party Favour
Now I can't have guests leaving empty handed so I created a sweet little party favour container which can be filled with a nice treat.

I loved the idea of using a clothes-peg as my fastening; I wanted to keep that rustic/country feel and thought this was perfect. I also stamped my sentiment on the peg - I love that sentiment; it seems so fitting for a party favour!

So there you have it! My leaving party ensemble:

I hope you can come! If my invite doesn't make it to you in time, you can always RSVP by checking out my project on Gallery Idol and considering voting for it, or simply leaving a comment *wink*

Sadly, this is the final round of the competition and I'm gonna miss all this excitement every week (I won't miss the stress and beads of sweat of it btw!) so whatever the result, this is the end. I feel like a total winner making it to the final and having so many of you being there cheering me on; so I urge you to go and check out all of the entries and vote for your favourite!

I think that's enough babbling for one Monday! I'm off to catch up on all the household chores I put to one side during these few weeks of the competition - there's a lot to do. I may be some time....!

Catch ya later!






Party Ensemble Deets
{You're Invited}
Stamps: 'You're Invited' - Frame It (Waltzingmouse Stamps)/'To','Date' - Tiny Tags, Damask Designs, Butterfly - Butterfly Dreams, Background Basics: Text Style (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Vintage Cream, Spring Rain (Papertrey Ink) Rich Cocoa (Memento Ink) Versamark
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Spring Rain, Fine Linen, Kraft (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Cream Button, Cream Button Twine, Linen and Canvas Impression Plate, Tag Die, Fine Linen Grosgrain Ribbon (Papertrey Ink)/ Butterfly Punch (Tonic)/Cuttlebug/Circle Nestability/Alphabet Transfers (Doodlebug)

{Drink in Style}
Stamps: Damask Designs, Tiny Tags (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Spring Rain (Papertrey Ink)/ Versamark/Opaque White (Staz-On)
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Spring Rain, Fine Linen (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Butterfly Punches (Tonic & Martha Stewart)/Tiny Tags Die, Ribbon Twine (Papertrey Ink)/Cuttlebug/ Alphabet Transfers (Doodlebug)

{Party Favour}
Stamps: Damask Designs, Background Basics: Text Style (Papertrey Ink)/'Hope it Tickles' - Frame It (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Ink: Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink)/Tuxedo Black (Memento)/Versamark
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Spring Rain, Fine Linen (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Butterfly Punch (Tonic)/Canvas and Linen Impression Plate, Cream Vintage Button, Twine (Papertrey Ink)/Cuttlebug/Clothes-peg (own supply!)