I am no longer actively blogging here at "Taking Time To Create", but I'd love for you to join me at my new blog: "Taking Time In The City". I hope to see you soon!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Over 100 Facebook Followers Card Giveaway!

A couple weeks ago, I hit the 100 Facebook "likes" mark! Woohoo!! In honor of that, I thought I'd host my first giveaway. It's just a little something to say how much I appreciate you all. It feels nice to know that I'm not talking to myself!

The winner will receive 5 of my handmade cards:

Isn't that lion just adorable?

To enter the giveaway just use the Rafflecopter below. Good luck!

Posted by at 9:56 AM 6 comments

Friday, January 25, 2013

14 Days of Valentine's {For $5.00!!}


Last year I did the 14 Days of Valentine's from Ashley at Mommy By Day Crafter By Night. My husband really enjoyed it, so this year I wanted to do it again but change it up a little. I wanted something with a little less sugar (but still a little of course!) and with items that either didn't cost very much, I already had, or I could make for free...and so was born the "14 Days of Valentine's for $5.00"! You may even spend less if you already have some of the items I didn't! Let's take a look:
Day 1: Hand Print Heart Card
Make for FREE
All you need is some paper (lightweight card stock or construction paper would work great), these instructions, and the "Day One" printable found at the end of this post. I wrote a little note about "The 14 Days of Valentine's", so my husband will know what he has to look forward to.

Day 2: You're the Apple of My Eye
FREE (if you keep apples in the house)
Tie the printables onto the apple stem and you're good to go. You could also get some type of apple candy if you'd prefer.

Day 3: Matches with Printables
FREE
Print off these cute printables from Camille Styles. You can even get this type of matches at the dollar store. Score! I bought a pack of ten boxes for a $1.00, and had some leftover, so this one cost me a little less than a $1.00. Woohoo!!

Day 4: Airplane Valentine
FREE
This cute Airplane Valentine is super cute, fun and easy to put together. You can simply paperclip the "Day Four" printable to one wing until it's ready to take flight. 

Day 5: Valentine Jokes in Origami Hearts
FREE
Fold some of these Origami Hearts from "Describe Happy". She has all the instructions you'll need and several fun jokes to go along with the hearts. 

Day 6: You're "Sweet"
$1.00
I'd say this one pretty much explains itself. You can download and print the printables pictured at the end of this post.

Day 7: I Love Us 
FREE

Find a photo you already have printed and put it together with this cute printable. I sized mine, so that I can cut them apart later and frame them in 5x7 frames. 
The original post I pinned no longer has a good link for downloading the printable, so I created my own and you can download it here. You just have to trim it to the desired size.

Day 8: Thanks for "Sticking" By My Side (Chapstick)
FREE
I happened to have an unopened Chapstick, but if you don't they're pretty inexpensive.

Day 9: I Wouldn't "Chews" Anyone But You
$1.00
Buy any chewy candy to go with this printable. You could also do Skittles, Starburst...you get the idea. I went with this candy, because it actually had "chewy" in the name. 

Day 10: We Are "Mint" To Be
$1.00
Once upon a time, you could get mints for less than a dollar. Is that still true? I just bought what they had at the dollar store and didn't look elsewhere, so I'm not sure. If that's the case, though, this one could be done for even less than a dollar!

Day 11: Photo Postcard
FREE
Use a picture that you can print from your computer to create this photo postcard. I printed mine about 4x6 and then printed the postcard back on the reverse making sure they would like up with each other. 
You can download the postcard back here. 

Day 12: I "Soda" Think You're Amazing
FREE
As long as you have some type of soda can in the house this one will be free!

Day 13: You Make My Heart "Glow"
$1.00
Did you know they have all kinds of glow sticks at the dollar store? 

Side Note: We bought a bunch this past summer and had fun with them while camping. They're also fun on an evening road trip.

I'm still trying to decide how to "present" this one. I could just leave them in the package, but what I'd really like to try is attaching them to the printable in the shape of a heart. If you try this one, you'll have to let me know how you give it to your Valentine. 

Day 14: Valentine's Day Brownies
FREE
I'm going to make heart shaped brownies for my husband to take to work that day. Of course I didn't want to make those ahead of time, but you can see where the idea came from here. 


Need some other fun ideas?
I also thought it would be fun to send "Conversation Texts" throughout the day of Valentine's Day. You know..."Be Mine"..."I Love You". It may even be fun to send pictures of the conversations hearts via text.

We're doing our actual Valentine's date on another day, so I'm going to create a poem and a storybook for that day. Sound scary? It's really easy with these websites and FREE! I'm excited to put them together.

Here are your FREE printables for the 14 Days of Valentine's. The links to download them are beneath each picture and will be downloaded watermark free.

Download the watermark free version here. 

Download the watermark free version here. 

Download the watermark free version here.
I'm linking at these great parties:
Posted by at 4:55 PM 13 comments
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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday Party {Lots of Birthday Party Decorating Ideas}

It's been more than 3 weeks since my last post! Yikes! The time sure flies right on by. Our son's birthday is 2  weeks after Christmas, so I was spending time getting ready for that and just enjoying getting to spend more time with him during the day (more about that in a later post). 

So would you like to see the fruit of my labors? It was a fun party! 
If this was your first time here, please don't be scared by the pictures...I was having a hard time with the lighting.  
Keep reading...the ideas are still good ones. :-)
You're invited to check out the party and here's your invitation!

Yes, there are some details missing...that's on purpose folks :-)
As you can see, dinosaurs were also a part of the party. There wasn't too much going on with them, though, so most of what I share will involve the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. You may see a dinosaur in one of the pictures though--let me know if you find him! (Hint: it's a stegosaurus)

 I made the invitation in Word using the Circle shape for the Mickey heads and clipart for the dinosaurs. The fonts are Mickey and Minnie. You can download them both at the same time.

Decorations
Let's start with the decorations, shall we?

I've been dying to try something like the first picture below:
Creating a number from pictures is such a cute idea! Here's how mine turned out:
I created a huge '3' from poster board and then taped my pictures onto it ahead of time, so all I had to do on the day of the party was hang it up really quick. Simple, fun, and not too expensive if you print your pictures somewhere like Costco.

Instead of the usual crepe paper, I decided to make some of these Paper Ball Chains from Dana at Made.
Source: danamadeit.com via Erin on Pinterest
I didn't even have a large circle punch like she did, and they were still super easy to make. Sadly, I didn't get a descent picture of mine, so enjoy Dana's!

More fun decorating ideas:
Mickey shaped confetti--I happen to have a Mickey Mouse paper punch, so I punched a bunch of confetti out of the same paper I used  for the Paper Ball Chains.

Wrapping paper--use wrapping paper for table runners. I found some cute dinosaur paper at the dollar store. For $4.00 I wrapped my son't gifts, covered a counter and a six foot table and still had some leftover. Not bad! I've seen this idea all over the place, so I can't take credit (see it here and here in particular).

Dollar Store Figurines--If you're lucky, the dollar store (or dollar spot at Target) may have some figurines that go along with your theme. I found some cool dinosaurs at Target for a dollar each and a fun blow up dinosaur at the dollar store. They made fun table decorations, and my little guy has a few new toys on top of it. It's a win-win!

 Balloons--They add so much festivity to any occasion. 

Number Shaped Wreath--I'm so, so sad that I didn't get one single picture of the fun "wreath" I made for the front door. What was I thinking? So, you'll just have to imagine it with me. Here's where the idea came from:
Cute, right? I decided to change it up a little, so I cut out poster board in the shape of a '3' (looking back, foam board would work even better). Then I covered the 3 with balloons like above. It was super cute! 
I think that's it when it came to decorations...oh wait! The clubhouse! You probably want to hear about that.

If you've seen Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, then you should recognize this facade. 

It was surprisingly simple to make. You just need some big pieces of cardboard, spray paint, a sharpie, colored duct tape, a staple gun, and few pieces of wood. We managed to get all the cardboard for free and already had everything else but the spray paint, so this project only cost us a few dollars (Wal-mart has cheap cans of spray paint for about a dollar each).

The door actually opened for the kids to go in and out, and we created a fun little play area on the other side. The kids (okay, and some of the adults too) had a blast!

The Food & Desserts
We just did some basic snack type food since the party was in the afternoon but after lunch.

Here are a couple of the recipes we enjoyed:
Homemade Caramels from High Heels & Grills
Chick-Fil-A Chicken Nuggets from The REAL Housewives of Riverton

I just did box cake (gasp!) for the cupcakes, and although I ended up not eating one myself, I heard they were delicious...and so cute!
To tie in the dinosaur theme, some of the cupcakes (not this one) had dinosaur sprinkles. 

Along with the cupcakes, we had what my husband calls Whoville Floats. They are made with Rainbow Sherbet and Sprite. To give you an idea of what they're like you can check out these "Yoda Floats"--they were the closest thing I could find online. Hmmm...maybe that means I should blog about them myself?!?

Well, that just about wraps this party up... 
Oh! Your favors! We made Gingerbread Playdough and Rainbow Crayons (using this method with muffin tins) to send home with the young guests. We threw in some tools for the playdough, a coloring book, and a little stuffed dinosaur to top it off. Those all came from the dollar store or Target dollar spot, so the favor bags didn't cost all that much at all. 

We hope you enjoyed our little party!


Did you find that sneaky dinosaur? Leave me a comment below and let me know!


Looking for more Mickey Party ideas? Check out this post and this post. They're both where I got a lot of my ideas, and they have even more I didn't mention here. 


I'm linking at these great parties:
Mondays: Sweet Sharing Monday |  The Girl Creative | Destination: Cutesy Monday | What's In The Gunny Sack |  Made by you Monday | Make It Yourself Monday | Mop It Up Mondays | Make The Scene Monday | Make It Pretty Monday |
Tuesdays:  Show Me What You Got  |  Tuesday Time Out  | Tasteful Tuesdays |  Too Cute Tuesday | Tuesday's Treasures |  Trendy Tuesday
Wednesdays: Super Link Party |  Show & Share | {Wow Me} Wednesday | From Dream To Reality | Create & Share | What I Whipped Up Wednesday | What We Wore & Made Wednesday | The Creative Spark Wednesdays | Milk & Cuddles | Made By Me Wednesdays | Adorned From Above
Thursday: Pin'Inspirational Thursday | Recipe Roundup | A Crafty Soiriee | Creative Thursday | Taylor House Thursday | Transformation Thursday | Hookin Up With HoH | Creative Juice Thursday | Live Laugh Linky Thursday | Link Party Thursday | Taking A Time Out Thursday | Eat Make Grow
Fridays: Delicately Constructed Fridays | Flaunt It Friday | Financial Friday Link Up  | Friday Fun Party | Friday Flair | Pity Party | Frugal Friday | Friday Favorites | Weekend Craft Soiree | Weekend Warmth | One Creative Weekend
Saturdays: Strut Your Stuff Saturday | Once Upon A Weekend | Sharing Saturday | Dare To Share Saturday | Craft, Create and Inspire | A Pinteresting Party | Serenity Saturday | Saturday Spotlight | Your Great Idea
Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday | It's Overflowing Sunday Party |  Cooking & Crafts Party
Posted by at 6:00 AM 18 comments
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