Happy Birthday to Me.

My 25th birthday was on Thursday the 6th, but I had been celebrating since last Monday it seemed! Mr. P has a brother whose birthday is 3 days before mine! It was quite a busy week!

I'd like to share some pictures of my Sushi Birthday Night with the girls. We did some easy cupcake decorating and demolished sushi from Sakura.

I thought using the rice crisp cereal over the cupcake made it look like the puffed rice sushi variety. It also tasted awesome and gave the lemon cupcakes some crunch. We used "pull n' peel" twizzlers and gummy worms for the decorations on top.

I also put together a party favor bag. I planned this party at the very last minute and didn't get to diy a lot of the things I would have liked. I did keep up with the "kawaii" kind of theme and had frog shaped plates, a cupcake "cupcake" holder, paint-dipped chopsticks, and a cute notepad that opened into an apple shape. I knew that was all too much to fit into a take-out style box.

 I found out about "Furoshiki" which is a Japanese wrapping cloth. It's super environmentally friendly. I found an easy guide posted on "Keeping the Christmas Spirit Alive,365"  I have extra material lying around and cut some squares out. There are many different styles to try. I went with the one that looked like a shopping bag. I just twisted the "handles" together and secured with the chopsticks!

  

Handmade Spice/Herb Bottle Gift Idea

J's Birthday was on the 7th. I shall not disclose her age. Since I can remember J has always liked to cook. I remember when we were teenagers she would cook us meals. We would also make each other gifts and cards for just about any occasion or holiday. Diy toe socks were one of my favorites!

I thought it would be nice to do that for her again. I found the bottles and blank cards at A.C Moore. The bottles have, as J said, "An apothecary feel." Everything else I already had in the recent craft stash I have created. Use any scrapbooking paper or any type of paper of your choosing! You may need to buy the spices/herbs you use for your gift. I made a set of two and thought it might be cool to make her more through out the holiday season that's coming up. :p Guess she'll know now?!

Handmade Spice and Herb Bottle Gift Set

Supplies:

For the Vessels/Bottles:

• 2 glass jars/bottles/containers in the size and shape of your choosing! I loved the ones I found!
• Mod Podge
• Elmer's Glue All
• Clear Acrylic Sealer
• Scrap paper (I used paper from a scrapbook packet that shared the same scheme)
• Ribbon
• Scissors
• Ruler/Measuring mat
• Letter stickers or if you have nice handwriting do it yourself! You can always leave a blank box for them to write on if you choose to just give an empty set to store their already owned spices!

Directions:

     1.  Measure and cut your background paper to fit around the circumference of your container. Make it about about a 1/2in. longer so you can glue it together on the overlap. Also cut smaller placards of other patterned paper to place your letters/write on. Really easy, just cut out strips and squares to fit your jar size.

     2.  I made a thin layer of Glue All on the back of the background label and wrapped around, be careful and even when wrapping around. Have your 1/2inch overlap seal over. Let dry.

     3.  At this time I used my letter stickers to label the smaller placards I cut. Once background is dry, another thin layer of Glue All on backs of placards and place on front of bottle. Easy! Let dry.

     4.  Once dried again apply a thin layer of Mod Podge over entire label and slightly off edges. I didn't cover the whole bottle with Mod Podge, I didn't want that texture on all of it. Let this completely dry and have tops sealed and covered when giving labels a light spritz of Sealer.

     5.  Cut some ribbon that will make a bow on the necks of the bottles. Or around if you chose a different shape! Don't tie till dry and filled.

Meanwhile during all that drying time, I made the card too. You can always use card stock or cardboard you have on hand to make your base card. I just glue-all'd and mod podged' measured squares of the matching paper for the card. Be creative! I'm still working on pretty penmanship, until then I use stickers or stamps! I didn't give a tutorial for this, mine isn't anything crazy fancy. I liked matching the layered paper to the bottles and added dimension to the card with a bow!

The hard part is over!

I chose chives and a sugar and spice mix to give her! I have an organic chive plant. So, I just cut some fresh chives and added to the bottle! I used this Sugar and Spice Blend recipe as a base. I did change a few things. I didn't add paprika, I substituted with some pumpkin spice blend and a little more ginger. Mmmmm. She really liked it!