Valentine's Day Party Invitations

I'm really excited to host a Valentine's Day Party with Molly and Connor's little friends this year! Last year was a huge success at our house with two dozen adorable little kids running around in one big after school play date. Can't wait for this year!  We are working on crafts and decorations over the next few weeks.

I ordered invitations from my favorite independent stationer, Swanky Press. I went with matching envelope liners because -- why not -- they're adorable! Dressing up your envelopes is so much fun. I used my PSA Essentials Personalized Address Stamp and "Xoxo" switchable middle stamp from PSA Love Birds. (Note: these were really not my first choice of postage stamps... Bluffton post office's offering was limited! What happened to "LOVE" stamps? Apparently not in stock...American flags and fireworks it was!)

Here's how the invitation turned out.

 I'll be sharing lots more party prep and cute kiddo pictures after the party, too!  Sure am looking forward to this one. Shop adorable Party Invitations by Swanky Press here! Shop PSA Essentials at Swanky Press by visiting here!

Valentine's Day Cards

Eeeeek! Today is January 14. That means Valentine's Day is a month away! For all those that complained about the Valentine's Day decorations coming out the day after Christmas, I say this: EMBRACE IT! Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays, not for sentimental reasons and a desire to receive chocolate, roses and cards from my husband (which doesn't happen anyway), but because I love all the crafty goodness that comes with this holiday.

Over the the next few weeks, I'll be preparing for my 2nd annual Valentine's Day play date party with Molly. Connor, and their friends.  You can peek at last years affair here. It was a blast!  There are sure to be plenty of PSA Essentials stamps present this year again. But for today, I am sharing 3 Valentine's Day cards by our design team member, Jamie Green.

All of these cards use our Peel & Stick stamps.  You can find our line of Peel & Stick stamps for sale here.

Which is your favorite card? The countdown is ON for Valentine's Day! Let the fun begin.

Ringing in the New Year

Happy New Year!

These days I welcome a quiet New Year's Eve celebration. As we do with most holidays, our good friends, The Bradford's, came over to celebrate and ring in 2015. Molly and I worked up some decorations to make things extra festive (using my PSA Essentials Peel & Stick stamps, of course!)  The real topper of the evening was the fireworks show by Mr. Matt and Mike. I was a bit nervous (which translated to my children) but soon we all relaxed and it was phenomenal. We watched the 2014 ball drop at 8:45 and called it a night by 9:30.  My kind of New Year's Eve - the perfect combo of fun and quiet!

Molly and I made some personalized charms for champagne flutes. Easy to do -- I stamped the champagne glasses from Mr. & Mrs. Peel & Stick stamps by PSA Essentials onto gift tags. We colored in the champagne with a gold sharpie and then wrote everyone's names. I found New Year's Resolution fill-in cards that were a lot of fun to do together around the table.  While we were stamping, we also made cupcake toppers.

I've seen a lot of decorated balloons on Pinterest lately. People are painting balloons, dipping them in confetti, stuffing them with confetti, there are so many ideas I want to try. I tried to recreate some ideas with stamps.  I admit I haven't perfected this yet! But from afar, it looked like polka dot balloons. 

Now for some party photos! Molly and I got all dressed up for no reason other than we like to dress up. I served the girls sparkling apple juice in champagne glasses and they thought it was SO cool. 

Time for fireworks and sparklers! It was met with apprehension from my kiddos at first.

What a truly perfect New Year's Eve celebration with our family. 

Happy New Year!