Congrats Grad!
My oldest daughter graduated from college last month. She did not want a big "to-do" about the occasion, but my husband and I decided that such a momentous event could not go unnoticed. So we recently had a little family party.
Of course, what is a party without invitations? I made these from a catalogue card generator at blyberg.net. I stumbled upon the website somehow- it is actually designed to assist bibliophiles with cataloguing their libraries (remember the old card catalog system in your local library?). I manipulated the spaces to create this invitation instead. There really is no better way to announce the graduation of a future Master of Library Science student than with a catalogue card!
So we set up some decorations- here you see the mantle that is often the centerpiece of our decorations. I made the banner with my Cricut- (Everyday Fonts and Pretty Pennants cartridges). I haven't used this font before, but I like it! (Yes, there are still Poinsettias on my fireplace- I can't bear to get rid of them after the holiday!)
We decided to go with a navy blue and gold theme here for a more "sophisticated" version of her college colors of blue and yellow. On the mantle you see some battery powered LED lights in yellow that I bought for tailgating a couple of years ago and use a lot more than I thought I would (see for example my New Year's tablescape). The battery operated star was bought at Target at a Fourth of July clearance sale. I also bought a red one and they also get used far more than I thought. I often shop the holiday clearance sales not only for the holiday that just passed but for future events as well.
This was our "Champagne Bar". Of course, I had to glitter the champagne bottle! (Okay, so it was sparkling wine!) The candles are also from my New Year's tablescape. The confetti and "Cheers" napkins are examples of shopping post-holiday clearance sales- these are from New Year's but are perfect for this occasion. There is also confetti with her name on it that I found at Party City. I found the gold champagne flutes there as well. They are plastic.
Honestly, I wrestled with whether is is okay to toast with plastic champagne flutes, but they worked with the color scheme and I did not have to find space to store more glassware! I repeated the "Congrats" pennants here, a little smaller than the ones on the mantle. The "books" on the table are actually storage boxes that I found at Michaels which work well to celebrate the English grad/future librarian and she can use them in her future apartment. Of course, my favorite thing on the table is the diploma! We are so proud of her!
I love these little picks that I made for the champagne strawberries. I simply took a little bit of Christmas tinsel (you guessed it- post holiday Christmas sales!) and hot glued them to the top of a cocktail pick. This tinsel had a little wire in it and that made it easier to work with on this project. You also saw them on our New Year's post. I can see doing this with other colors for other celebrations as well.
Of course, I cannot have a party without a cake. Since the theme of the party was Toasting the Grad, I thought that I had found the perfect cake to make on the Hello Cupcake blog. I love the Hello Cupcake books, and I have successfully made several of their cupcakes in the past. I am looking forward to getting a copy of their new book, Cake My Day!.
This was not one of my successes. From the start, the candy melts did not look as smooth as glasses, so I decided to make the goblets from fondant. Apparently, I did not take into account the extra added weight of the fondant on the flutes. They were also too tall and too heavy and fell off of the cake before the party. Cake fail! Oh well- we live and learn! Luckily I had made the banner for the cake when I made the others so I just left it there and smoothed over the frosting where the glasses fell off and went on from there.
This is the first of many celebrations we look forward to this year and I hope that you too are finding much to celebrate in the New Year as well!
A final "Congratulations" to my daughter and a big "Thank You!" for stopping by today!
~Cynthia
Of course, what is a party without invitations? I made these from a catalogue card generator at blyberg.net. I stumbled upon the website somehow- it is actually designed to assist bibliophiles with cataloguing their libraries (remember the old card catalog system in your local library?). I manipulated the spaces to create this invitation instead. There really is no better way to announce the graduation of a future Master of Library Science student than with a catalogue card!
So we set up some decorations- here you see the mantle that is often the centerpiece of our decorations. I made the banner with my Cricut- (Everyday Fonts and Pretty Pennants cartridges). I haven't used this font before, but I like it! (Yes, there are still Poinsettias on my fireplace- I can't bear to get rid of them after the holiday!)
We decided to go with a navy blue and gold theme here for a more "sophisticated" version of her college colors of blue and yellow. On the mantle you see some battery powered LED lights in yellow that I bought for tailgating a couple of years ago and use a lot more than I thought I would (see for example my New Year's tablescape). The battery operated star was bought at Target at a Fourth of July clearance sale. I also bought a red one and they also get used far more than I thought. I often shop the holiday clearance sales not only for the holiday that just passed but for future events as well.
This was our "Champagne Bar". Of course, I had to glitter the champagne bottle! (Okay, so it was sparkling wine!) The candles are also from my New Year's tablescape. The confetti and "Cheers" napkins are examples of shopping post-holiday clearance sales- these are from New Year's but are perfect for this occasion. There is also confetti with her name on it that I found at Party City. I found the gold champagne flutes there as well. They are plastic.
Honestly, I wrestled with whether is is okay to toast with plastic champagne flutes, but they worked with the color scheme and I did not have to find space to store more glassware! I repeated the "Congrats" pennants here, a little smaller than the ones on the mantle. The "books" on the table are actually storage boxes that I found at Michaels which work well to celebrate the English grad/future librarian and she can use them in her future apartment. Of course, my favorite thing on the table is the diploma! We are so proud of her!
I love these little picks that I made for the champagne strawberries. I simply took a little bit of Christmas tinsel (you guessed it- post holiday Christmas sales!) and hot glued them to the top of a cocktail pick. This tinsel had a little wire in it and that made it easier to work with on this project. You also saw them on our New Year's post. I can see doing this with other colors for other celebrations as well.
Of course, I cannot have a party without a cake. Since the theme of the party was Toasting the Grad, I thought that I had found the perfect cake to make on the Hello Cupcake blog. I love the Hello Cupcake books, and I have successfully made several of their cupcakes in the past. I am looking forward to getting a copy of their new book, Cake My Day!.
This was not one of my successes. From the start, the candy melts did not look as smooth as glasses, so I decided to make the goblets from fondant. Apparently, I did not take into account the extra added weight of the fondant on the flutes. They were also too tall and too heavy and fell off of the cake before the party. Cake fail! Oh well- we live and learn! Luckily I had made the banner for the cake when I made the others so I just left it there and smoothed over the frosting where the glasses fell off and went on from there.
This is the first of many celebrations we look forward to this year and I hope that you too are finding much to celebrate in the New Year as well!
A final "Congratulations" to my daughter and a big "Thank You!" for stopping by today!
~Cynthia
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