Christmas Cards are here again!

It is the most wonderful time of the year! It's the most -fully-stressful, -fully-crazy, and lets be honest a lot of work for mom. One of the ways I have been able de-stress a little during December is by getting my cards done early and sent out.

Because I love design, and do free-lance design work from home, I always enjoy designing my own cards. This year I teamed up with ProDigitalPhotos.com and custom designed my cards.

There are a few stipulations I have for myself when designing a Christmas Card...

1. I try to design or find a unique design.
2. I love them to be interactive.
3. I love them to be personal.
4. I feel it is important to bring Christ into our card with a Christmas Greeting.
5. There must be a personal touch, either a handwritten note, or stamped envelope...etc.

This year I chose a slider card, and did a little information graph to share about our family. I love the cotton paper that Pro Digital Photos offers and the quality is amazing! My goal is not to be "braggy", but informative and throw a little silly for fun.

I have used many card sites, but I have to admit, Pro Digital Photos is really easy to use, convenient (like just a few miles down the street from me in Pleasant Grove, Utah ... but they ship everywhere!), they have great selections of paper, and templates to make my card exactly how I want. Their store is SO extremely cute and totally decked out for the holidays. Their prices are fabulous too! Not only do I love having my Christmas Cards printed at Pro Digital Photos, but I print lots of my client work there, including wedding invitations and Canvas'.

Each year they choose a different theme for Christmas to wrap it all up, and make it extra special. This year is Dreaming of a white Christmas. With each card order you get a little bag of lavender to place by your pillow at night to help you sleep better ... as well as DARLING wrapping. Makes getting your Christmas Card order, that much more exciting!

You can't go wrong with printing your cards at ProDigitalPhotos.com this year! I promise you won't regret it!

For previous years posts about Christmas cards, click here!

All you Need is Love ... Perfect Classroom Valentines!

Valentines day has a big history for me ... 

usually it has been getting dumped, 

but it all made a turn around when I got married! 

Now Valentines Day is fun, and the older my kids get the more fun it is becoming. 

While my kids are young, and they still let me enjoy all of the fun creative stuff ... 

I am going to take advantage. 

I teamed up with one of my FAVORITE Printing companies.

PEAR TREE GREETINGS

I let the boys choose their favorites, and this is what they chose:

Bryson chose a very simple SLAM DUNK BASKETBALL SUCKER HOLDER Valentine

And Chad chose this darling ELEPHANT FINGER PUPPET Valentine

If you're thinking you're too late to order your Valentines, think again! Pear Tree is so fast and I have always received my orders in just a few short days. 

Here are a few other favorites:

Check out our Valentines from LAST YEAR

... And be sure to order your cutest Valentines, from PEAR TREE GREETINGS,

and be the talk of the classroom!

2014 Christmas Card reveal from Pear Tree Greetings!

It isn't too late to order your Christmas or New Years cards! Check out some of these create interactive Christmas Card ideas that I found!

Anyone who knows me well, or has followed my blog, knows I have a PASSION for Christmas Cards. I have teamed up with many different companies over the years. All have been wonderful ... but this year I feel like I got my most ideal Christmas Card ever! I have had my eye on if for a long time ... so I decided to team up with PEARTREEGREETINGS.COM and make it happen!

I love cards that are interactive! I love that the receiver has to do something with the card, rather than just look at it. I love that it stands out! This year I chose the Spinner card from  PEARTREEGREETINGS.COM just for that reason. I haven't seen anything of its kind on any other website ... and so in an effort to be different ... I had to create one for myself!

Isn't it just cute! That is not all ... there are lots of different interactive spinners, not just for Christmas, but for baby announcements and other special occasions!

But while we are talking about Christmas Cards ... Check out these other super cute interactive cards. It was super hard to choose my favorites, because they are ALL so cute!!

To save a little extra when you order your cards from PEARTREEGREETINGS.COM  ... be sure to use the coupon code SAVEJINGLE for 

$15 off $75 order

$30 off $100 order

$80 off $200 order

AWESOME deals if you ask me!

**This blog post is sponsored by PEARTREEGREETINGS.COM but opinions are strictly mine. I have have nothing but great success each and every time I have ordered from them.a

Perfect Teacher Gift

On the search for a last minute teacher gift for Christmas?

Why not personalized note cards for your children's teachers? I gave these to my kids teachers for back to school, and Bryson's teacher personally emailed me and asked me where I got them! She wanted to make them for all her teacher friends!!

Wrap it up in a cute strawberry package ... and WA-LA! There are lots to choose from ... but here are my favorites for teachers at PEARTREEGREETINGS.COM 

Be sure to order your cards today, ready for the last day before Christmas Break!

Spooky Dinner with Spooky Decor

Last year we were invited to a darling "SPOOKY" dinner, a few days before Halloween. It was a SPOOKY dinner with all sorts of yummy food made to look grotesk, for Halloween!

I got so excited about this and was thinking of all the fun spooky dinner items I could make for our own spooky dinner!

It was a last minute idea, so I needed a quick, easy invitation, and some darling decor that wouldn't take too long!

I ordered the invitations from PEARTREEGREETINGS.COM on Monday (October 20) and they were on my doorstep on Thursday morning! THAT IS CRAZY FAST folks! PLUS, the designing literally took me 5 minutes! Being a Graphic Designer myself, I am pretty particular when it comes to design, type, and style. It was so hard to decide between all the darling designs!

Next was the decor, and again ...  PEARTREEGREETINGS.COM was my stop! I decided on my menu first, then created tags for all the food!

I needed quick easy party favors, and luckily I made my famous sugar cookies a few weeks ago, baked them and froze them. It literally took 15 minutes to bring them out of the freezer and frost them for my party guests. Being smart when planning a party is really important!

It was important to me to have food that was edible, and not too gross ... so my menu was normal, but with a few special touches it made the food seem pretty spooky! Here is the menu:

MUMMY GUTS

Mummy idea was found here

I didn't make the dip, but grabbed some spinach artichoke dip at Costco.

Pita chips are Townhouse Pita chips

DECOMPOSED SALAD

A simple homemade salad, and Olive Garden dressing

Homemade croutons

Grapes in the background of vampire eyes

HUMAN INTESTINES

Spaghetti with homemade sauce and meat

FRANKENSTEIN BRAINS

Spinach Fettuccine with Alfredo sauce (sauce purchased from Costco)

BONES

Homemade rolls shaped like bones 

(You could used store bought dough. Cut into strips and tie a knot in each end)

WITCHES PUSS

Green Jello shots. Purchased the shots at Party Land in Utah.

(Found them online here)

I have to say that these were a HIT with the kids! Seriously their favorite part!!

The Decor was fun, but not complicated! The black cloth I got at Wal-Mart, the extra cards I had from PEARTREEGREETINGS.COM that I hung on the black cloth, and lastly a few spider rings.

For the table I did red square plates, then black plates. The napkin rings were those cheap vampire fangs around a red napkin. Then were the cute witch hat straws! I found the idea here. They did take some time to make, but I made these a few days before the party!

The whole night was a huge success!

My boys had such a great time! Be sure to look around Peartreegreetings.com to inspire your next party! TRUST me ... you will be glad you did!

In Honor of Shark Week ... Summer Shark Party ... Pear Tree Greetings

It has taken me all summer to find the time to upload my pictures, and actually post about my cute Chad's 5th Birthday SHARK party! I figured no better time than now, since it is shark week of course!

I can't believe it was 5 year ago since my little Chad made his presence in the world. 

5 years goes faster than I ever imagined it would. 

I had a great friend tell me that she allows BIG birthday parties for important birthday milestones. So she does a birthday for the years they turn 5, 8, 12, 16, and 18. The other years are set aside for family and a few friends. SO I decided to try this ... and so far, it has been GREAT!

I saw a few years ago on a friends blog, her little boys "shark" party. With Chad's birthday being a summer birthday ... I knew that this was the party that I wanted to throw for Chad's 5th. 

We started off with the invitation search ... and luckily ... my favorite invitation and invitation, card, and stationary company PEAR TREE GREETINGS had just the right touches for our party!

The front acts as a shark mask, and the back as the invitation. 

(I can't tell you how many mom's told me that their child played with the mask for days)!

We ordered the invitations, and then saw that there was PARTY DECOR, and THANK YOU NOTES!! It was the perfect touch for the perfect 5 year old party!!

We started off the party, by giving each child a shark visor.

Then played fish, fish, shark (aka ... duck, duck, goose) 

while we waited for all the little sharks to show up. 

We invited 18 little ones to the party, and to our surprise ... we had 18 kids show up!! I luckily have the most darling babysitters that love kids, and they came to my rescue ... 

because, lets be honest, me and 18 kids would not be easily tempered! ha ha

Then we opened the garage, and played pin the fin on the shark, 

and hit a really great shark piñata, in the garage of course!

Next was the back yard for some cake and treats!

Again, I got to use all the darling decorations I got from PEAR TREE GREETINGS. I used some of the printed circles, and stuck them on kabob sticks for cake toppers!

Followed by some gift opening. 

***NOTE: when you get 18 gifts, I would suggest you do what I did. Let your child pick out a few of their favorites, and play with those first. Then when they aren't looking, put the others in a closet, and bring out one when they get board. It has been a summer of entertainment, and he has enjoyed playing with each gift, rather than them getting lost in the shuffle of everything!

Our next activity was a slip and slide and a sprinkler that my sister got Chad for his birthday. 

t shot up balls and the kids loved it.

As the kids were worn out, sugared out, and super tired ... we ended with a fishing station, 

(SADLY, I was so busy running the station, I didn't get one picture!)

They got their grab bags of treats (the candy from the piñata, and a bag of fish bate!)

It was certainly a fabulous party, for a fabulous 5 year old. It wouldn't have been as amazing without all the cute decor, stickers, invites, and everything from PEAR TREE GREETINGS. Be sure to grab your Shark decor for your kids party here!