Allison: Party Ideas & A Giveaway!!

**Giveaway is now closed**

Hello again!  I can not believe how fast the weeks are flying!  I feel like I just posted my weekly post, and here we are again.  As I enter my 30th week of my pregnancy, and another week of temperatures over 100 degrees here in Arizona, I'm not too sad that time seems to be flying.  :)

This is a special week in the history of our blog.  If you all continue to view our posts, we should hit our 5000th view sometime this week!  I can not believe that!  It has been so fun to stretch myself creatively and to have an excuse to stay better connected with my sisters.  So to celebrate this milestone, I'm going to have a giveaway that will start today and end tonight!  It's a quick one.  That's because I think we may see another give away from another crafty sister...

When I had my daughter, it seemed to ignite the crafting gene that lay dormant within me for thirty-one years.  As her first birthday approached, I began to scour the Internet in search of the cutest ideas, most creative favors and most beautiful cakes.  In other words, I totally stressed myself out, trying to make this birthday (that she wouldn't even remember) the best of her life.  Here's some of what I did.

For Isla's birthday, I decided on a princess theme.  The cake was pink, the decor was pink... lots of pink.  Probably my favorite part of Isla's party, was the party favor that I made for each of the kids that attended.  I found this wand online and thought it was adorable!  I considered putting together a tutorial of how it was made, but the one I found here couldn't have been easier to follow.  I LOVED how they turned out, and the kids seemed to enjoy them too.

A month later, I threw a baby shower for my good friend, Chiara.  She and I had talked about different themes, but I was secretly pushing a flower garden theme so that I could share my new favorite craft.  But before I got started on the decor, I had to focus on the invitations!

I had seen this invitation idea before, but wanted to make it my own.  So I came up with a template and started to play with the decorations.  I love how they turned out and was so glad that Chiara liked them too.

The diaper cake... oh, the diaper cake.  This was my first attempt at making this fun center piece, and it actually wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.  My poor husband had to help me hold the diapers a few times, but besides that, it came together pretty easily.  I simply wrapped the diapers around and around each other (with an empty toilet paper roll in the center).  After I had reached the desired size, I stretched a large rubber band to secure the diapers.  To finish it off, I wrapped a folded receiving blanket around each level of diapers and secured each with a cute ribbon.  To add a little extra something, I decorated the cake with my favorite little fabric flowers.  The flowers became my main decoration at the shower.  I thought they looked so girly and cute.  After the shower, I sent at least one flower home with each guest as a favor.  They worked perfectly.  A couple of weeks ago, I shared the tutorial of how to make them here.

Finally, the best part of every party... THE FOOD!  Chiara is Italian, and requested some kind of version of tomato caprese.  I found a fun arrangement of fruit and had to use my good friend Brittany's amazing cheese ball recipe (which I think I'll save and share later.  So mean, huh?).  It was fun to plan and prepare for this shower, but it was even more amazing to see how much fun Chiara was having.  She was so excited for the arrival of her little Claire, and I was so glad that I got to be a part of the celebration.  Love you, Chiara!!

So there you have it!  Some of my favorite party ideas, mostly "borrowed" from other people.  :)  Those are the best ideas.  So now to the fun part...

**THE GIVEAWAY**

Alright... here's the deal.  You could take home these three adorable little wands for the princesses in your life, if you leave a comment below on the following question:

Why do you like to craft/create?  If you don't like to craft, why?

This is a question I've been thinking about a lot lately, and would love to hear your thoughts.  Comments left before midnight tonight will be entered in a random drawing for the wands.  Don't forget to sign your name to your comment.  Good luck, everyone!

**

Etsy shop grand opening & Saturday's Market

One final announcement before I end this eternal post.  Five Crafty Sisters has officially opened their own Etsy page!  Some of the crafts/projects you see on our posts will now be available to buy (in case you'd rather buy them than make them.)  So far, Sara and I are the only sisters selling, but we're hoping to convince the others soon.  Here's the address if you want to take a peek:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/fivecraftysisters

We're excited to be able to share our creations with our blog and Facebook friends.  One advantage our readers have, is that you probably know us.  And if you're local to the buyer, we can most likely just deliver whatever you buy instead of having to pay and wait for the shipping.  Not a bad deal!  :)

We will also be opening a "Saturday's Market" soon.  This will be a post on Saturdays that will either feature items that we're selling on Etsy, or introduce new items that will be available in our shop.  We're excited to take this new step.

Thanks for reading, and I hope your Summer parties are fun and full of great ideas!  Have a great week!!

Allison