More photos from my friends' 50th Anniversary party. First, I showed you how we staged the tables and decor
outside and then I shared the "50 years of FAMILY"
garland that I made for them. Today I will show you what I did inside the cottage for the dessert area.
It was such a beautiful day, but we had some items that we wanted to showcase that really needed to be inside. They had found some old family photographs as well as Barb's wedding shoes. We didn't have a good space to stage these outside and really the photos and cupcakes were better off inside. There were several framed pictures as well as an album full of old family photos.
For dessert they had 13 dozen baby cupcakes in a variety of flavors-I remember peanut butter and jelly, pina colada, salted cashew, strawberry, traditional white, lemon, peanut butter cup, double chocolate....that is all I can recall. They arrived from the baker in 2 large and 1 small pizza boxes. I knew the baby cupcakes would be a huge hit based on the novelty and flavors but I needed to make the display look cool too. We've been through this before people....it's all about the attention to details and presentation is important.
If I didn't have something to display those little suckers on-if I left them in the pizza boxes (Gasp- that would NEVER Happen...but if it did) it was going to be a hot mess of tiny confections as too many kids with too many dirty hands would be grabbing at baby cupcakes (shudders)...ending with frosting EVERYWHERE. Never fear people...I had a plan. I used the same 3 cake plates we used for the pie's at Brandin's wedding.
And just like at the wedding, I got busy and never took a photo with the actual dessert ON the cake plates. Sometimes it's hard to be a good blogger!
By displaying the cupcakes on the cake plates I achieved several things.
- Presentation and Details..blah blah blah.
- The plates are different sizes, designs, and heights which all add visual interest.
- It gave me space to separate the cupcakes into 3 groupings which made it easier for everyone to see what they wanted and take them without smearing the frosting on 10 other cupcakes.
- It allowed me to separate them by flavor.
- It elevated the dessert into something Important AKA it tricked the kids into behaving more responsibly AKA it kept them from just grabbing haphazardly and leaving a path of sweet destruction. It was all smoke and mirrors but it worked.
- They looked really pretty.
Along with the decor I made for the space outside, I made a few mixed-media projects using "stories" from the AMAZING Brian Andreas. I say "stories" because that is what he calls them. Really, I think of them as poems....really amazing poems...that tell a story. Oh, I get it! If you don't know of Brian's work, I suggest you rush over to his website and check it out at
StoryPeople.com. Be prepared to spend some time over there. He is quirky and philosophical and ridiculous and honest and I can always find a "story" that speaks to the occasion.
When my father passed away I knew that Brian would have something perfect and he did.
When I die, he said, I'm coming back as a tree with deep
roots & I'll wave my leaves at the children every morning on
their way to school & whisper tree songs at night in their
dreams. Trees with deep roots know about the things children
need. -StoryPeople 2013
It was perfect because my father was an elementary school principal for 30-odd years. He started the year the building was first opened and he remained at the helm until he retired in 2002. I always think of it as his school. When he died, I really wanted to plant a tree in his name at the school and this poem would go right along with it. Perfect right? Yeah, I thought so too. Until one of his former teachers told me he had confided in her that she was to make sure no one every planted a stupid tree in his name. Huh? Who knew he was so anti-tree? That's a joke... he loved the outdoors with a passion that I never understood. The truth is more like maybe there is a scraggly tree growing in Brooklyn in front of the school that maybe had been planted in memory of a teacher when she passed away and it was maybe growing out of control and maybe he didn't love looking at that tree so much. Maybe.
So NO tree. How about a bench? Nobody had any whispered confidences regarding my dad and any distain for benches....so a bench it is. A group of his former teachers raised the money for a beautiful marble bench that sits in front of the school in his memory. We had the poem inscribed on it.
How DARE I commit such an egregious COPYRIGHT violation you ask? See that is the thing about Mr. Andreas. I called StoryPeople and they said something to the effect of "no problem, as long as you give credit to Brian by putting "StoryPeople" and the year below the poem you can use it for something like this". Seriously... there is a
section on his website that talks about using his work. This man actually allows the use of one of his "stories" on wedding invites for a nominal fee, a copy of the invite for their files and an actual invite to the wedding. He's very generous with his art. Although the website does say there is a nominal fee for one-time use of a story, they didn't charge me anything. I did buy the official print of the story and had it framed to hang in the school next to the principal's office. Made me feel better about using the story.
I found 3 of Brian's stories that I really loved and made little stand-alone art pieces out of them with no real plan on where I would use them-where have I heard that before? They are pretty self-explanatory so I will not bore you with details. If anyone has a question, just send me an email.
I will briefly talk about how I displayed the pieces. The two rectangle projects are made from a base of chipboard. They stand up on Tim Holtz Grungeboard easels. I die cut the Grungeboard with the Tim Holtz Alterations Small Easel die. I had a lot of trouble with this die when I first got it and I actually ended up emailing Tim about it. The problem was the score lines would cut right through which made it unstable and useless. Tim introduced me to the Sizzix crease pad. Who knew? Not me. The crease pad is used with dies that have FOLD or SCORE lines to keep those lines from becoming CUT lines. Once I got a crease pad I have perfect easels every time. Note: The easel is designed so that it folds flat which is genius because it allows you to mail the project in an envelope (padded) or for storing the artwork flat.
I could have used the easel on the one tag project that I did as it would fit behind the large #12 tags, but I wanted to use the vintage flower frog. Sadly the photo of the tag is blurry- should have checked them before I left town but I didn't. The little details are awesome on this project and you can't really see them soooooo....I covered the #12 tag with polka dot paper. LOVELY. I layered the "story" over a shiny gold metallic paper and placed it below an architectural element I die cut from Grungeboard covered with paper from one of Tim's paper pads (truth time: I forgot which one) using the die Pediments. I dyed the Idea-ology Gem Clip with Butterscotch Alcohol Ink. The Idea-ology Enameled Tag is also colored with an Alcohol Ink and then I added a "5" and a "0" from Numbers Remanent Rub. There is a small Jewlers tag that I die cut from Tabs and Tags using Grungepaper covered in vintage book paper. I used the same Grungepaper/book paper combo to die cut the heart. Both were inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and covered with Rock Candy Dry Stickles
The "story" is
In the end, I think that I will like that we were sitting
on the bed, talking & wondering where the time had
gone. -StoryPeople 2013
Could that be any more appropriate for a 50th Anniversary? No...No it couldn't.
The Shoes.....I couldn't believe when they told me they found the shoes that Barb wore to walk down the aisle. I think I squealed when they brought them over to my cottage. Seriously...how flippin'
GORGEOUS are they? The patina that comes from age just makes them more beautiful. I wasn't sure what to do with them because there was no way I was going do something permanent that would ruin them. In the end I went with simple to let their beauty shine through. I simply grabbed some vintage clip-on rhinestone earrings that I have in my stash, clipped them on, and displayed them on the doily. Simple but elegant and super cool.
I realize you probably can't read the other story so here it is for you:
I read once taht the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand
& Eskimos had a hundrend words for snow. I wish I had a
thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way
uyou move against me while you sleep & there are no words for
that. StoryPeople, 2013
If you haven't checked out Brian's website
StoryPeople.com now is the time to grab a coffee (or tea) and head on over...plan on staying a spell...and enjoy his quirky awesome take on life. You can see his artwork, books and the stories. Click on "Storyland" on the left side of the screen; there are several ways you can browse through his stories. You can even get one emailed every day! I promise you will find something that really speaks to YOU.
Using the mask gives it so much depth. It makes this tag so much more visually interesting even though I only used ink. Can you believe it? I didn't use one. single. embellishment. What the What? 
