Pretty Paper Pumpkins

My Aunt Mary and I found this idea of covering a pumpkin with paper and we decided it was a must try! She and I learned things along the way about the process, so I decided to share, plus our pumpkins have turned out adorable! Here is the one I did:

Went well with my October in the Botanical Rifle Paper Co. Calendar

I worked on it last night and it definitely takes some patience, but I think any level can conquer it.

Time: 
30 minutes - 1 hour (depends on pumpkin size)

Materials:
Faux pumpkins - I preferred white
Gold Leaf Paint
Paint Brush
Sheet of Pretty Paper
Sponge Brush
Mod Podge Matte
Scissors

Directions (in pictures because I think that makes it more fun!):

Directions & Photos via me

Painting the stems with gold leaf paint was a great way to glam up the pumpkins. I liked it so much, I kept the smaller pumpkin white. I loved the mix of pattern and plain. Like I said earlier, this project takes some patience. Patterns won't line up perfectly and you might have some bumps - get over it. It's not going to be perfect, but a busy patter definitely helps distract!

Rifle Paper Co. paper is my Aunt Mary's and my favorite for this project because they are busy and bright. The paper I purchased is from Paper Source and on the Rifle Paper Co. website they have other fun options. You can also check out my post from last month about favorite places to find fun paper.

Photos via me

Now go make some pretty pumpkins! And yes, I recommend faux - you'll want to set them out every year!

Lots of Love,

Craftacular 2014!

Well I survived my craft show! Love of Character had a booth at a Wichita craft fair called Craftacular and it was a great learning experience. Plus, I got to get my name out there and was able to show off some of the fun things I've been working on lately! My booth turned out really cute, so I thought I would share it with you all:

Make your own box! Pick the hair ties, note cards, confetti pop and box - I'll put a quote on it and viola!

New note cards I'm making for the Little Boxes of Character!

My amazing husband made this totally awesome peg board display to hang my pictures!

Photos via me

I would not have been able to make it through the day without Dustin - he seriously helped so much! There is a lot of work that goes into packing up and setting up a craft fair display. He also checked in on me and made sure I was doing ok - much appreciated! I also wouldn't have had as much fun as I did without my fabulous friends stopping bye - seriously meant the world to me! Like I said earlier, it was a great learning experience and great place to try my booth out. I sold some silhouettes, boxes and hair ties and was able to try out that handy little Square - a must for events like this! Hopefully I will be able to try this out again and put to use the things I learned. Thanks for all of your encouragement - wouldn't be able to do it without you!

I still have a couple Halloween boxes available this week if anyone needs a good Halloween hostess gift! Just shoot me a note and I can get it over to you. They are $12 and here is a picture of the goodies inside:

Hair Ties, Candy Kabobs, Halloween bucket with candy, Paper Straws & Notecards

Lots of Love,

Paper Straw Candle Card

While shopping for my mom's birthday card, I stumbled upon this cute number:

Well crafty girl problems, instead of just buying the overpriced card, I decided to attempt it at home instead. It isn't as perfect, but I think it still turned out adorable and my mom loved it - probably more because it was homemade!

I liked the mix of fun girly colors and the beauty of making your own is that you can pick your colors. You might not all be a party girl like me who has paper straws laying around in abundance, but I'm sure you can pick up a pack for a dollar or two.

Here are the two simple steps for creating this yourself:

Viola! A birthday card full of homemade character! If you get stressed out trying to be crafty, maybe just stick with purchasing the $6 version from Target. No one will judge - it's adorable!

Just a reminder, I have a booth this coming Saturday at Craftacular! Below are the details and below that is a sneak peak of the fun Halloween boxes I am making to sell there...

Little Box of Halloween Character! Comes with Halloween Candy Kabobs, Love of Character Halloween Hair Tie Pack, 2 Spooky embossed notecards, mini bucket of candy & paper straws!

Hope you like! The show is this weekend and I'll be selling boxes, silhouettes, confetti pops & hair ties! If you have any feedback for me before the show, send it my way!

Lots of Love,

Happy Birthday Mom!

Survived the big wedding weekend of one of my dearest friends and had so much fun - Congrats Megan & Leo! Had such a great time, but on to the next big event for the month, my mother's birthday! My brother and I decided to get ambitious and invite her and my grandma over for dinner. I was in the mood to set a fun table with my china and my brother had yet to show me his cooking skills he learned from his last job. I found a tasty looking recipe on Pinterest, hit up the grocery store - that's big for me - and away we went:

Had so much fun setting my table with our china! Check out this old post for the details.

Used lots of my fun MacKenzie Child's pieces and I loved the idea of putting this fun cake dome from Social Manor over the flowers (I think you should probably remove after your dinner to give them air!).

My dining room looked so fun, especially with our quirky IKEA light  - see details here.

Had to make my mom a Little Box of Birthday Character! Plus, Mikey got her the gorgeous fall bouquet from Whole Foods - $9.99!

For dinner we started with a baked brie appetizer that I picked up from Fresh Market - you can get a take and bake brie for $10.99 that is delicious and so easy! You just need to call a day early for them to prepare (or start of the day). For the main course, we made a delicious homemade asparagus pesto shrimp pasta - you can find the recipe here! Then for dessert, my grandma brought some adorable desserts she picked up from Fresh Market. The dishes all looked gorgeous on my favorite Annie Glass pieces!

Dinner was delicious and I could not have done it without the help from my little brother. We made quite the team. Now, every birthday party needs a present and I was quite excited to give my mom hers! Dustin and I decided to get her tickets for the Fleetwood Mac concert that went on sale yesterday. Since I didn't have the tickets yet, my brilliant husband gave me the idea to use a fake concert ticket generator to make her some fun birthday ones. Such a cute way to give someone tickets for their present:

You can put fun sayings and I used her birthday for the seat details. Printing them on pink paper added a fun pop of color.

In her Little Box of Character I decided to go with the rocker theme since I was giving her tickets. I got her the Fleetwood Mac greatest hits CD, added some fun glasses and put in a bottle of champagne.

This week I can show you the birthday card details - I went the homemade route! It was such a fun night and I think the birthday girl had a great time, which is what matters the most.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Lots of Love,

Olive Box in my Mailbox - October!

Time flies - it's that time of the month again when I get a cute little box in my mailbox!

This month was all about Halloween....and the little black cat!

I'm going to use the black cat sheets of papers for my Halloween Party - good for putting on tables under serving pieces or for using in fun pictures. The little clips are so cute and will be cute to use for projects - they would be really cute on a package to hold the gift tag. Now I just need to find someone that's the "cat's meow" to send the card to...

If you are interested in getting Olive Box in your mailbox click below:

Lots of Love,

Start the Spooks!

I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel the itch for Halloween! It might be the fact that we got some pumpkins or the fact that my husband is dying to put out our decorations...I told him to wait one more week...but Halloween is coming up and we have to get ready! This weekend I worked on the invitations to our annual Halloween party. My aunt recently showed me how to use embossing powder, so I decided to be creative and make homemade invitations. They are simple, but I love that about them. To show them off to you, I put together a little scene using the fun (and cheap!) decorations I scored in the Dollar Spot section of Target and from Dollar Tree.

The invitation is printed on paper (A6 Persimmon) from Paper Source. I also got black envelopes (A6) to go with them and used a white pen to write the addresses. I think they turned out fun and I'm excited to mail them out this week! Sorry for the spoil before you receive them - I was too excited.

My favorite find is the shiny pumpkin - they are battery operated and light up. I was also excited about the battery operated tea lights because they are safer to use in your outdoor pumpkins - plus the Kansas winds won't blow them out! The spider web runner will be fun to put on tables and the glitter spiders are fun to have crawling all over. The witch hat was a DIY tonight:

Photos via me

I found the hat form while wondering around Michael's tonight. They seemed like a fun table decoration, so I decided to buy a few to try different decorating ideas. Close by was glitter washi tape on sale for 99 cents! I thought it could make a fun, sparkly hat and I think it turned out to be just that! It took one episode of Scandal to make it, so just get your materials, sit down to your favorite show and start covering the hat form with strips of washi tape. I did one round all the way around then kept layering the tape on. You can also make fun patterns by going diagonal, straight across or cut the tape into small pieces. I'll keep you all posted on what I decide to do with the other two hats!

Lots of Love,

Character Filled Halloween Finds

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I have always loved figuring out what to dress up as and we always decorated growing up. Now that I live in a neighborhood known for their trick-or-treating, I get really into it! We have a Halloween Party every year (so we have people to help us hand out candy!) and I'm always on the hunt for fun Halloween items. I put together a list of some my favorite finds while searching the internet:

Rifle Paper Co. Cards | Target Jute Pumpkin and Pier 1 Sparkle Pumpkin | Love of Character Hair Ties | Social Manor Witch Silhouette | Big Lots Glitter Bottles | MacKenzie Child's Bowl

Love these festive Rifle Paper Co. cards to send out to friends and family during the Halloween season. I also think they could be cute framed and paired up with the cute witch silhouette picture from Social Manor. The Halloween Hair Ties are from my new hair tie collection and I think they are a perfect hostess, friend or family gift - small something to spread Halloween fun. Every Halloween party needs some kind of potion and these bottles from Big Lots would be a perfect way to serve the "potions." On the pumpkins, I love mixing the harder jute material with the sparkle - adds texture and character. Last, but definitely not least, your candy bowl. One of the most important pieces of Halloween decor. I love the black and white MacKenzie Child's pattern for Halloween. It's a costly candy bowl, but you can leave it out all year long!

Also, make sure you are checking out your local Target Dollar Spot and Dollar Tree stores if you need affordable or mass quantity decorations. I share another night all the goodies I've purchased!

Lots of Love,

Craftacular 2014 - Love of Character Appearance

A couple weeks ago I told you all I had two business announcements to make. The first one was of course Holiday Galleria and now that I've survived that, I'm ready to share the second one. I will have a booth at the Craftacular event this month! The event details are as follows:

I was asked by a Wichita local on Etsy to sell my silhouette pictures and I decided to take on the opportunity - why not! I will be selling my silhouettes, Little Boxes of Character and Love of Character Hair Ties & Headbands. 

If you are in the area that day and looking for something fun to do, I would greatly appreciate your support! Plus, it's a free event where you can come out and support local artisans. The Facebook event page has more of the details!

I will be keeping everyone posted on the products I make to prepare (mainly fun boxes for the upcoming holidays!) and on the booth that I work on putting together - that part makes me nervous! Luckily, Dustin has said he will help and I think we have some good ideas to use. Hope that some of you will be able to venture out that way and check out the event!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway to win a pack of hair ties!

Lots of Love,