free – Elizabeth Smillie

new stuff – and a sweet giveaway

April 17, 2013 Elizabeth Smillie

So, I mentioned yesterday that there was a giveaway coming :) If you follow us on Facebook, you might have seen that we have added Dessert Garlands to the shop! To celebrate the new stuff, we’re having a sweet little giveaway for you {and any of your friends that you’d like to share this with ;D}!

One of the most versatile of our new cake garlands is this Glittery Gold Scallop Garland, and you can enter for a chance to win it! It would be perfect for so many occasions – birthdays, a wedding or anniversary, New Year, Christmas desserts, or even to dress up a dark corner of your home {did you see what I did to my fern for Easter?}. Here’s the description of it in the shop:

Creative and trend setting, these glittery gold scallop cake garlands will top your next cake beautifully. Each garland is carefully created to give your cake a custom look that shimmers in the light. Wedding, birthday, or just a special dessert, these cake garlands are a must! Each garland is made from 2 inch wide scallops, attached to a pair of ten inch tall bamboo skewers creating the bunting.

So, what do you think? Would you like to win one? ;D Or do you know someone who would be just tickled to see this show up in their mail box?

giveaway details: Giveaway open until April 24 at 11:59 pm EST. To enter, use the rafflecopter widget below. One unique winner will be emailed + announced on Thursday, April 25th at the top of this blog post. I can’t wait to see who wins! <3

a Rafflecopter giveaway

p.s. I’d LOVE it if you shared this with your friends – the more the merrier, right? :)

making recycled crayons via the Path Less Traveled

how-Tuesday – recycled crayons

April 16, 2013 Elizabeth Smillie

Have you ever thought of buying small packs of crayons to include in a gift for a child? or to stuff in a busy bag or child’s party favor bag? Well, today we have a quick, eco-friendly, child do-able {with a bit of encouragement and supervision from an adult}, perfect for Earth Day how-Tuesday project – recycled crayons! And, assuming you have crayon bits already, it’s free {always a win!}!

One of the lovely things about this project is that you can make the crayons into whatever shape you choose to suit your theme or the child’s interests – having a beach themed wedding? Use a sea creature or shell shaped mold and viola! Custom shaped crayons!

materials needed: crayon pieces, mold {we used a mini muffin tin with silicon liners – you can also use a greased muffin tin, a silicon candy mold, or even small cookie cutters on a foil lined baking sheet}, an oven

step one: prepare your crayons. Unwrap the one ones that still have paper on them, and, if needed break them further down so that they will fit in your mold

*note: if the crayons have gotten hot {such as in the diaper bag that you might have left in your car? *ahem*}, peeling off the paper might take a bit of work :)step two: arrange your bits in the mold – we chose to arrange by color, but you might decide to do a variety together – the combination options are endless!a little artist hard at work {i’ve been told that I make the same face when I’m concentrating on my work ;)}step three: preheat your oven to 275* {135 celsius} and put in your mold. This little guy was soooo patient!

the pan after about 3 minutes

Keep an eye on your crayons – the wax will smoke once it has completely melted {ask me how I know ;)}

Step four: Pull them out of the oven and let them cool. They will be cool enough to handle after a few minutes, but will take just a few minutes longer before they are “set” entirely through.
Step five: enjoy! At this point they are ready to package or use to color with … we did a bit of both :) My little ones love coloring with these larger sized crayons!

I’d love to hear if you try this and what you do with your new shapes! A collection of multicolored Lego men marching through the crayon box, perhaps? Or maybe some colorful hearts to remind your guests of your special day? Might I suggest using some bags like these to package them? They’d be so lovely!

blessings for a lovely day,

p.s. there will be a giveaway tomorrow!!!

p.p.s. would you like to see more posts like this? sign up for my updates and you’ll receive my newest content and exclusive deals in your inbox!

{I’m sharing this on Today’s Creative Blog, the Girl Creative, Sew Can Do, A Vision To Remember, Skip To My Lou, Sew Chatty and C.R.A.F.T.}

her pink princess party

March 7, 2013 Elizabeth Smillie

Ah, little girls. When they love something, the LOVE it, all the way. And our little princess Emma Grace LOVES pink and princesses and parties. {when asked who her favorite princess is she has no answer – they’re all her favorite!} She doesn’t really care if they’re Disney or otherwise, but if it’s a princess or pink, she is in LOVE. :) The only thing better is when it’s a pink princess – Sleeping Beauty? Score! Arielle, who wears a pink dress and has “orange hair like me!” is quite wonderful, too :)

And so, when we started talking about her birthday a few months ago, just about the first thing out of her mouth was “princess! pink princesses” {and none of us were surprised :)}

– a tiny gold tiara for our 4 year-old princess –

I made up a Pinterest board with party ideas, and the ones she liked best were {can you guess?} PINK and had princesses in the photos. I’m not a huge fan of licensed characters, so we picked out lots of things that were more “princess-ey” than Disney-ish to try. Out of her favorites, we picked a bunch of ideas, and a few of them actually got done :)

-a tiny gold crown adorning one of her baby photos and the crown I made for her to wear-

– lots of pink! the ceiling pouf idea {tutorial here} came from {this} pin, the materials from Dollar Tree and the tissue poms from the kids’ room –

– ribbon and bell wands {our Emma Grace loves these} with lots of soft colors, and enough pink to make her very, very happy –

– the dessert table –

pink lemonade, punch, {these cookies} and {these rice crispy treats}, the princess poster is from Dollar Tree

We decided to celebrate her day with family and as we were scheduling, realized that the best thing for everyone would be to gather on the evening of her birthday, a Tuesday, for desserts and cake. I did my best to make things ahead and then set aside her birthday to love on her and get the party ready, but ah, the best laid plans :)

We did lots of loving on her {each time I would snuggle her and say “happy birthday! you’re 4 now!” she’d say, “awe, thanks mommy” with the sweetest little smile :)}, but by afternoon nap time I was running a bit behind! My sweet sister-in-law came over to help me pull the loose ends together {thank you again, Sarah!}, but one of the things I forgot was to charge the camera battery – hence some of the detail photos {like of the desserts, the piñata before it got smashed …} didn’t get taken. You’ll have to use your imaginations. :)

All in all, it was a very sweet party to celebrate the sweetest four year old princess ever – and she was delighted. Which was the entire point of the party!

She had soooo much fun “helping” to set it up {we are still enjoying some of the decorations – I’m kind of loving the extra pink in our house :)} and I enjoyed making the things and “shopping the house” to find the decor {I actually only spent about $9 on the decorations – can you believe that?! the rest we already had around the house – score!}.

– favor bag tutorial {here} –

I have a few how-to posts planned for some of the decorations, so stay tuned! And I’d love to hear how you and your families do birthdays – do you go all out on themes? or sweet and simple with just a cake {or birthday person’s choice of dessert}?

Elizabeth Smillie

The Path Less Traveled

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