Category Archives: Decoration Inspiration

Yesterday my family held a surprise dinner party for me because things have been a tad gloomy around here since my mother died.  The party was meant to boost my spirits and I cannot tell you how amazing it was to know that so many friends took the time to spend a few moments of their time with me. These are the things that life is made for and the moments that I live for. I will forever be grateful for the tons of laughs and special gifts that I received.

I loved every gift however, one particular gift captured my heart in a way that I cannot explain and not only because it came from my daughter, but because it showed me that she does know me rather well.

I was very proud of her attempt at creating this for me.

The gift I am talking about is a do it yourself plastic cube that my daughter turned into a family  memory block.  My daughter is not the most creative person, in fact, she fought me tooth and nail growing up to not have craft time, because she disliked doing them. I was touched that she took the time to create this by hand for me. The white and red sequence on the top matches my bedroom and while, I personally would have placed a printed design from Boutique Printables into the cube and made it a bit more colorful, I love it just the same.

I was in tears when I saw it, literally the thought is what counts when it comes to a gift like this.  What she said next was more than a mother could ever hope for.  She said, “Mom, I know I hated doing crafts when I was a child, but I always loved the things you make and often wished I could.  I decided to give it a try, it was fun and I realized that do it yourself gift making is contagious and I will try to do it more often.”  Knowing that I inspired my child to be creative ~ priceless!

This simple dollar gift meant more to me than all the wonderful gifts that I have received in my entire lifetime.  When I saw the picture of me holding her as a baby, it just made the gift even better and it inspired me to write this today.   It is amazing with a dollar plastic cube, some old family pictures a few decorations can do to make the perfect gift.  I suppose in some way that is why people simply love our personalized designs, you can do amazing things with them.

What will you create today?

Party favours and thank you gifts are often seen as something that you provide for the women who attend events,but what if the event is a sporting banquet or golf tournament? In this case, there will be more men than women in attendance and you will need to plan accordingly.

via: http://www.incasagifts.com/A93002-Love-Is-Party-Dish-L.jpg

How do you address the issue of who receives party favours and thank you gifts when it comes to events? When preparing gifts for events, I always follow the standard rule of thumb and I try to stick with creating or buying more neutral type gifts.

The gifting rule is loosely based on the theory of probability and goes something like this:

The norm is to provide one gift for each single individual and/or couple. If you have 100 people in attendance, you may only have to provide gifts for 75 people if 50 of them are in a relationship (attending as a couple) and 25 of them are single. You will have to give one gift to each of the 50 couples and one gift to each single individual.

How do you determine what kind of gifts to provide? That is pretty simple ~ the female receives the gift in a couple situation, so most gifts can be female oriented.

You could easily make these with Boutique Printable chocolate wrappers

This is important to note when it comes to deciding which gifts to offer because if you only have a small set of gifts for men, you will most likely be giving them to the single men in attendance.  

Let us take a typical event scenario where you can split your guests into male and female. Chances are, when you do this, you will come out relatively even, it will not be exactly 50/50, but there will not be a huge significant difference. If you split that group even further, you will most likely end up with 60% of those individuals being in some form of relationship. That leaves the rest of the guests being 40% single. The single individuals can once again be split into groups that are probably going to be 20% male and 20% female. Men who are coupled, are expected to give the gift to his escort, girlfriend or spouse. This translates into the ratio for men type gifts being at only about 20-30%, under normal circumstances. The men’s factor is often ignored at events and this is really unfair, you should offer gifts to the men who attended as a single person afterall, they did pay for a ticket just like everyone else.

It is interesting to note, if the event is a sporting event or golf tournament chances are the ratio is more likely to be, 45% individuals in relationships, 35% single males and 20% single females. When it comes to sporting type events, the majority of gifts should be male oriented and the female is expected to give up her gift. The same scenario applies only in reverse.

In the best case scenario, you should create 30% male oriented gifts, 30% female type gifts and the other 40% being neutral gifts. If you keep to these strategies, you will most likely never miss giving a great gift to anyone.

Tips:

• Stick to neutral type gifts and you will never have to worry about this ratio at all.
• Throw in an extra 10% for kids, because there are always one or two lingering around.  
• This number will be significantly higher when the event is child and family oriented.  In that case, every child should receive a gift and you should plan accordingly. That means you will have gifts to provide for attendees and children.

Here are some ideas to what gifts you should provide for each category of individual.

Neutral type gifts include:

• Candles
• Candies and chocolates
• Hair Products
• Nuts (peanuts,etc.)
• Alcohol
• Glasses and Mugs
• Playing cards
• Novelties

Men prefer things like:

• Coloring books & crayons.
• Puzzles
• Mini Games
• Books
• Writing pads
• Mini Craft projects
• Glow Sticks
• DVD’s (movies, music, etc)
• Surprize bags
• Stickers

I think these are pretty neat too!

Whatever choice you make, one thing’s for certain, you must provide some type of door prize, party favour or thank you gifts if you want your event to be memorable. People will never forget the event if they have something to take home from it. That is the real reason for the gifts in the first place, so that people will remember to come to the next one, they are basically a nice form of date reminder.

Which one seen throughout this article is your favourite? I personally like candles, so I am somewhat biased, however, I wouldn’t mind a plate like the one above to have my berries on.

I have often been asked, “What are printables designs used for?” I have yet to find the perfect answer, because the truth is, they are used for some many things, it is hard to actually define what they are. The dictionary definition implies that they are printable (able to print on a computer printer) designs created by a graphic artist for the purpose of visually representing an idea or thought.

While that sounds like a great definition, it does not really quite cover the extent of the uses and demands for printable designs.

When Boutique Printables was created, we had a single purpose for our unique design creations. We wanted them to be simple, elegant and customized for each different individual.  We have accomplished that and so much more. Individuals have been using our printable designs to create things we never even dreamed of for quite some time now and we cannot be more proud of our efforts.

Printable designs can be used for things like:

• Party and event decorations
• Party and event promos, invitations and brochures
• Wrapping paper
• Party favours and thank you gifts
• Bag and chocolate bar wrappers
• Banners
• Scrap Paper
• Paper Mache
• Printable Artwork
• Printable Crafts
• Decoupage
• Photo Album inserts
• Calendars
• Note Pads
• ScrapBooks
• Craft Projects

How about some homemade gift tags?

Or book markers?

As you can see there are many uses for printable designs, and many reasons they are so popular.  What are your reasons for using them?

Some Boutique Printables Inspired designs:

Mother’s day happens to be in the middle of May and it is also always around my birthday. I am very lucky to be able to celebrate both of these special moments at the very same time.

In Canada, it is springtime. When I am visiting my children and writing from this corner of the world, I often sit on my deck in the middle of the mountains in my small country garden admiring what nature has to offer.  For mother’s day, I will receive perennials and trees as gifts to grow in the garden.  It is what I want, I am not a huge fan of cut flowers, while I think they are beautiful, I also think they are not the best choice for someone who is committed to helping the environment, such as myself.

The plants and trees that I have received as gifts over the year,  grow each year and I know that my family enjoys watching them change with every passing season.  I am hoping that someday when my grandchildren are older, I will be able to tell them that I planted these flowers so that one day they would see the world as I have.

Fresh cut flowers can be turned into great craft projects and potpourri, this is true, but I simply prefer plants and trees because they will last a very long time.

Cut flowers will dry out within a week under normal circumstances, and when they do it always feels like the special moment is gone. At least, it does for me, that is the reason I prefer flowers that keep on growing.  Tropical plants, bonsai trees and herbs can grow inside the home and take little care and maintenance.  One of my favorite plants is the aloe plant because it simply is the easiest plant to take care of and it has great medicinal uses.

Cut flowers were the gift of choice for mother’s day in the past, but this has changed considerably in recent years due to efforts towards more environmentally friendly choices.  If you are a crafty person, why not try making some silk or paper flowers like these ones?  At the very least, you will not be wasting cut flowers and you can recycle.  Remember, mother’s day does not mean you have to buy flowers, it just means you have to buy something your mom will love. 

Think about what your mom would prefer before  you make the choice, and you will never go wrong. 

 This simple card says more than a dozen roses.

These paper flowers are just as beautiful as any other flower vases that I have seen.

It is not what you give that makes a gift special, it is how you perceive the person and what  you think they would like that does.  This year, think about how you can make or buy something different, unique and special as your mom for mother’s day.

Event decorating is truly the art of creating something out of nothing and being able to do this in the most crafty, unique and cost effective way, is the ultimate goal of any decorator. Decorations are the first impression that  guests will have of the event and can set the tone for the entire evening.  If the event is warm and inviting, chances are  guests will feel relaxed throughout the entire evening, equally so, if the event screams of dark and dreary images, this is also how guests will feel, and unless the event is a vampire horror evening, this is not really the best way to go.

That is not to say that black and red are not good colour choices for some events; they can be, however, that truly depends on how they are being applied. Both of those colours are very dark and used together, they create a very loud presence, adding a few touches of white or pink, will tone it down a great deal.

Tip #1 – Tone Matters.

Tone is the number one consideration when it comes to decorating, it literally can define how your event is perceived.  What do you want your event to say ? This is the question that needs to be answered when setting the tone for the event.

A successful event planner or decorator can create an entirely different ambiance by adding softer colour tones. If  the decor is too loud, or busy, adding pastel colours is a great way to “tone it down” a notch, and if  the decor is too soft, adding vibrant colours can “Jazz” it up.

You decide, Loud or Proud?

via: www.acep.com

Many of Boutique Printables personal designs are created in softer pastel colours and are a quick and easy solution for this problem.  Adding a simple welcome banner can create just the right “Jazzy” touch.

Tip #2  Start small and grow from there.

If you purchase huge amounts of decorations that are very expensive and your are not happy with them, you might be stuck having to keep them if you have used up all of  your budget.  Start by making home made or low cost decorations for the places that you think you can and then add more accent pieces.  At the very least, if you do not like the all the pieces, you can either make new crafts or change the accents pieces to match the crafts.  You will not have to replace everything.

These are home made, can you really tell the difference?

Via: ts2.mm.bing.net

If you are on a tight budget, you can find plenty of things that are similar to what is being used in higher budget decorations like fake crystals, pieces of glass, and decorative stones to make beautiful crafts and center pieces.  Boutique Printables designs are a low cost solution to adding some personalization to your decorations and this almost always adds that missing touch. Personalization is the best way to add some added features to your event without having to pay a great deal.

 What do you think the higher end decorations consist of?

Tip #3  Add height, depth and light.

Height, depth and light helps to define the room itself.  If your guest list is small and your room is too big, it will appear empty.  Moving the tables around and adding some height creates the illusion of a filled area. You can easily do this with paper flower centerpieces or balloons, neither of which costs a great deal.  Similarly, if your room is too crowded, you may want to remove the huge centerpieces and opt for smaller accents, such as, candles and planters.  Candle centerpieces make the room appear more open and roomy and plants provide a more Eco-friendly option and can be taken home by the guest to replant.

How could you fix this room?  Does it seem crowded and uneventful to you?

via: 3.bp.blogspot.com

Lighting can also create a completely different ambiance.  If you use glow sticks, you get a pretty funky party feel, but when you use candles, it gives a more romantic warm feeling.

When considering lighting, you must remember, if you want your guests to fill out donation forms or participate in events that require them to write or read, a well lit area will be needed. The end of an evening is often signaled when the lights go on, so if your event is lit the entire evening, there will be no distinction between the start, middle and end of it.  The best solution for this problem is to light up the room halfway for donations and other activities, and dim the lights afterwards.  This will create a distinct difference and will allow you to turn the lights on indicating the end of the event.

When you start with a great theme and colour scheme it is easy to set the tone for the evening and when this happens, the rest will easily follow.  Have fun, experiment and show off your creations every chance you get.  Take pictures and share them on your social media platforms and do not forget to send them to us, we love to post stuff from our followers.

One of my favourite and most profitable crafts has always been jewellery making. It is a very personal and fashionable craft that takes a considerable amount of time and effort to do. People are always willing to pay for pieces that they like and they seem to enjoy receiving jewellery as gifts. For some odd reason, beads are the most popular choice for materials, even though they tend to go in and out of fashion quickly. Beads have always been a substantial part of any well-equipped jewellery making kit along with decorated gift boxes and printable design tags for the finished product.

Via www.uniquejewelrys.com

The range of materials that you can use for jewellery making is limitless, which also means that there are an infinite number of possible designs that can be created.  The only limit to what you can create is your imagination. In some ways, it is the vastness of the craft that has me mesmerized.  I never know what is possible, until I try.

When I began to create jewellery, I was not a particularly experienced or a fantastic crafts-person, in fact, I do not think that I was very good at it. However, I just enjoyed jewellery making and managed to create some fine jewellery. At least, I thought it was, and I was proud of it. I have simply developed my craft since then. and while I wish that I was capable of more intricate jewellery making, I am happy at what I have accomplished thus far. I  am always improving on the ones I made before.

Via 4.bp.blogspot.com

It is always fun to look at what materials I have available for use and how I can convert them into delicate pieces of jewellery.

I have learned that I can even turn strips of coloured paper into paper-mache jewellery and that always catches attention from my friends and family. “You made this out of paper?” is the usual response.

I also can get my “kids”to tear stripes of paper from glossy magazines and make the jewellery with me. My “kids”, are not really mine, but there is always some kid popping in and out of this house.  My home has always been the go to place for coffee and chat and people just wonder on in with their kids in tow.  Friends and family are always welcome here.

I notice that most kids seem to prefer to move straight to the decorating stage and well dried pasta makes an ideal bead choice for kids in a pinch. Clay is used quite a lot in jewellery making, and kids enjoy moulding the shapes. I am not to fond of clay, I do not like the texture actually, odd as that may seem for a crafty person like me.  When it comes time, I have to take over the baking part, but once that part is finished, the kids can decorate their creations.

A piece of jewellery is never finished, until it has a beautifully decorated package to sit in. I prefer boxes that I decorate and tag with a Boutique Printable’s gift tag, but you could easily put the jewellery in gift baskets, bags and even placed on stuffed animals.  Packaging is as limitless as the pieces themselves.

My more adult choice of jewellery making is created for other people to wear and must be a bit more elegant. In these cases, I mostly use gems and crystals, which are harder to work with, but last a lifetime. I like creating necklaces and earrings to give as gifts, especially for brides to be. When I sell a piece of jewellery, I often feel as though I made that piece just for that person and it says a lot about them.

People appreciate handmade goods more often than shop-bought ones, and home made seems to be the current trend for a great deal of things today. More importantly, I save a fortune with my crafty offerings and I have made a great deal of money do it too!

Unfortunately, I no longer have the time to dedicate as much time to jewelry making as I once did, in fact, I haven’t made anything for quite awhile, but I do intend to get started on it very soon. When I do, it will be boxed and tagged using Boutique Printable designs because like any great piece of jewellery, you need a great package for it to go into to.

Seen throughout are some great inspirations I found on line, which one do you like?

Etsy Black and White Paper Mache

I have been to numerous weddings, christenings, bridal and baby showers over the years.  The best part for me is receiving party favours, gift bags and thank you gifts at the end of the evening. It is not because I do not enjoy being at the event or that I am expecting something in return, it is simply that I love seeing what wonderful ideas people come up.  Personally, I prefer home made gifts over commercially bought ones because they tend to be a bit more personalized, however, it really does not matter. It is the thought that counts.

Via cdn1-blog.hwtm.com

Not only do I like receiving them,  I also enjoy making them and giving them at my own events.  I have a huge collection of favours that are neatly placed on a shelf that I had built just for that purpose.  Collecting party favours helps me to remember the date and is my own personal way of keeping the memory of the day alive.

I seem to have the hardest time keeping candle favours, I seem to always open and use them. Candles are of course my favourite type of party favour.

Party favours and thank you gifts can be made from a variety of different items and come in all shapes, colours and sizes. The most popular types include:

• Candles
• Cookie Cutters
• Perfumes and Bath Products
• Chocolates
• Candies
• Desserts
• Spices
• Statues (Angels, etc.)
• Plants and Flowers
• Novelties
• Photo Frames
• Printable Designs

Easy to make, DIY party favours can cost a great deal less than commercially bought ones and can be given as gifts for any occasion, party, event or gathering.  To make party favours, simply decorate and wrap a small gift with a tag, ribbon or some other type of printable label that indicates the date on which the event took place. You may also want to add a simple reminder of event, for example; the host’s name, a relevant quote or inscription.  The idea of a the gift is to say thank you to your guests for attending the event and is used as a date reminder. For example;  a wedding favour will remind the  guests each year of the couple’s anniversary date.

Here are some great examples of do it yourself party favours that you can use for your next event.

 Via: cdn2-blog.hwtm.com

Via treesouls.com

 Via 25.media.tumblr.com

A recent wedding planning challenge left me scrambling for ways to cut costs without having to compromise the most important elements of the event: the food, entertainment and alcohol.  A friend of mine asked me to help her to plan a wedding for a hundred guests and she was limited to a rather conservative budget of ten thousand dollars.  I took the challenge both to see if I could actually do it and as my personal wedding gift to her and her husband to be.

via weddingbells.ca

While you might think to yourself that ten thousand is a great deal of money, it is small chump change when it comes to planning an Irish wedding that simply must have an open bar.

According to most professionals, a four hour wedding reception with one hundred guests averages about 3500 dollars for the bar alone. If you throw in another 1500 dollars for entertainment, that is almost half the budget gone and we have not even started planning the wedding.  As you can see, it was a huge challenge to undertake, but I am happy to report, that I was successful, it was the best wedding ever and the results speak for itself.

How did I manage to cut costs and still have a wedding with all the trimmings?  I started by pin pointing areas where I could cut costs, I created a simple theme and planned every to the last detail.

via: www.wedding-planning-101.com

First and foremost, one of the best ways to save money for a wedding is to do it yourself whenever you can.  DIY invitations, place holders, centrepieces, thank you cards, party favours and decorations can save you a huge amount of money and they can often be nicer than commercially bought ones.  This was where I think I achieved the best results. I limited myself to one thousand dollars for this area.  To make the centrepieces, I bought plastic vases that I filled with tissue paper flowers and added glow sticks to the water to make them really fun.  I also left the remaining sticks on the tables for the”children” to use.

I chose a Celtic theme of gold, white and green. Everything had a connection to old time Celtic traditions such as; coat of arms and Irish quotes and proverbs. In fact, I made the invitations, place holders and all printed materials from a Boutique Printables design and personalized it to reflect scrolls with Celtic style fonts.  This was a definite hit, and they made the perfect wedding favour which was a scroll in a gold plastic frame with the bride and groom’s coat of arms.  Inscribe below was the words “mo anam cara, ” which in Celtic translates into, “my soul mate.”

Via: www.edytaszyszlo.com

Secondly, I opted to have a hot and cold buffet style for the food rather than a sit down meal.  The difference in cost went from a minimum of one hundred dollars per person to a more conservative thirty dollars per person.  The meal consisted of two kinds of pasta, chicken brochette, vegetables and soup.  It was not a four course meal, but it was still a nice one.  In fact, I personally do not like sitting through long meals so I thought it was quite adequate.  No one really noticed the difference. If you choose to go this route, make sure that you let someone serve the food, otherwise you may not have enough food to go around.  There is nothing worse than the last ten people getting to the food table only to realize that the main part of the meal is gone.  

Last but not least, I took a look at all the extras that the couple may have wanted to have in the wedding and I decided which ones they could live without and which ones  I could modify in order to save money.  As an example, I decided that they did not need to hire a photographer and I placed a disposable flash camera on each table instead.  The cameras cost two dollars each. In this day and age, there are so many digital cameras, a photographer is no longer a real necessity.  

Here are some of the other areas that I managed to save a great deal on:

• I found a friend to do the music and he charged me five hundred dollars less.
• I made tissue flower and plastic bouquets that cost a great deal less.
• I made the cake myself, it was an Irish flag that went smoothly with the theme and cost about ten dollars verses hundreds of dollars.
• We held the wedding on a Friday instead of Saturday because the reception halls are cheaper on those days, due to lack of interest.
• I hired the limousine only to bring the bridal party to the church.  Due to the small amount of time the limousine was used, I got a great deal on it.  The groom was already at the church waiting, so why pay for the extra run around?

You can plan a wedding for a lot less if you simply look at what is really important, think about better ways to make the same things and use a little do it yourself inspiration. Speaking of inspiration what do you think about all the pictures of DIY weddings throughout this article?  Pretty sweet, I would say.  Can you guess which one I planned?

One of the common factors that you will find in all of Boutique Printables designs are soft pastels or bold colours combined with classic clean design. I suppose in some way that is what makes the printable personalized designs from Boutique Printables different than most other design sets.  While each design is unique to its creator, they are still easily recognizable as a Boutique Printable design.  

Each design can be used in a variety of ways and they can be used for each and every event that you are hosting; from children’s birthday parties, christenings to huge gala affairs.

From the classic bold colours and designs of HamandPea…

…to the softer yet ever popular designs of Ruby Tuesday’s, these are some of Boutique Printables unmistakeable popular printed design sets.

With hundreds of different designs and colours to choose from, it is no wonder that Boutique Printables is one of the fastest growing and most popular printed design websites on the Internet today.

What is created from these unique personalized designs is dependant only on the imagination of the person who is using them.  While each design is created with a special purpose, it does not mean that you cannot use them for some other project.  For example, a gift tag can double as a small place holder card and vice verse.

Here are some basic types of personalized printed designs that we currently offer:

• Invitations and thank you cards
• Buffet labels
• Food tags
• Chocolate and cupcake wrappers
• Gift bag toppers
• Banners and spots
• Scrapbook paper
• Party Favours and Gift Tags
• Place Holders

Via Inhabitots

The Mayan end of the world predictions last year did not happen, at least not in the way that we thought it might. No matter how you look at it, the world did change that day simply based on the fact that it might have actually happened.  Humans began to look at the world from a whole new perspective.

Every Easter, the world reflects on the past trials and tribulations and tries to make change, Easter is about rejuvenation, and rebirth. I like to believe that it changes in a good way and that prosperity and peace is going to be the result of this year’s reflections.