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Monday, June 18, 2012

Mother’s Day Brunch

Mother's Day Brunch
So you might be looking at this picture and thinking that I’m slightly behind the times seeing as how it was Father’s Day yesterday and Mother’s Day was about a month ago; or you might be thinking that I like to plan really far ahead!  Either way read on because, although this is what I did to celebrate Mother’s Day this year, my Ideas, Tutorials, and Recipes can be used for any party, and any time of the year. 

Amanda's Parties To Go
So I knew I wanted a theme that was really bright and happy.  Something a little bit modern and definitely fun.  Off to Pinterest I went in search of inspiration.  I came across the picture above.  It’s from Amanda's Parties To Go.  She has a great site and freebies to print.  Her freebies also inspired me to make my own from scratch.  I made them using Photoshop.   
Mother's Day Signs
I made these signs to stick in with my flowers in vases and to pin to crepe streamers which I tied around the chairs. 

Sign
Sign 2
Sign 3
I also made little circle tags to attach to my napkin rings and narrow tags to wrap around the stems of glasses.
Mother's Day Brunch Tags
NapkinNapkin Ring














I really like how my napkin rings turned out.  They were so very easy to do.  Here’s How I made them… (click 'read more' to keep reading)

Step 1:  Cut a strip from crepe paper/streamers the length and width that you want.  I bought mini streamers from the dollar store so their width was appropriate already with out extra trims.  For the length I just wrapped the streamer around a napkin and then snipped it from the roll.  I used that length to measure the rest. 

Step 2:  I punched out a border punch from cardstock, matching my length of crepe paper I already cut—don’t worry though it really doesn’t have to be perfect—using a eksuccess punch (which I love!! check out my cards I made with the same punch…so much fun!)  I then glued the border to the crepe paper, wrapped around into a circle with the ends overlapping a bit and glued it to stay in place

Step 3:  I then cut out my circle tags that I made in Photoshop  and glued them onto the napkin ring with a little jeweled flower. 

There easy, peasy and oh so cute!

To add more color and to make my napkins stand out more, I added a bright orange napkin on top of my pretty white china plate. 

TIP: If you’re having a dinner party and don’t want to fuss with extra decorating but want a pop of color, just add a brightly colored napkin to each place setting…it’s one of the cheapest and fastest things you can do to brighten up your dinner table! 

I mentioned I used my tags on my glasses…

Glass Tag
It’s just adding a touch of color, to the base of the glass.  Nothing life altering, just that little bit extra. 
TIP:  If you’re having a dinner party that people are mingling around, you could make tags with each guests name…that way there’s no guessing to whose glass is whose.  So much cheaper then buying those silly little ornaments or jewels that wrap around the glass stem…besides they hardly ever match your party theme anyway!

To decorate the top of the glass I made my own drink stirrers.
 Glass
I just cut my straws down so their tops would be just about a “two fingers width” sticking out of the glasses.  I then glued a pretty flower made from streamers on top.  The easiest way to make the flower is too wrap the crepe paper around the straw and glue it down as you go.  Just play with it. 

Crepe Flower Stirrer
Enjoy
There’s my little guy enjoying his ‘Morning Sunrise’ breakfast drink that I made.  Want the recipe?  Of course you do…Get Morning Sunrise Here
Oh and If you like lattes…who doesn’t?…you can get the recipe for the Vanilla Latte you see in the picture plus other coffee drinks at Leia's Culinary Treasures.

Vanilla Latte
I had made a few extra streamer flowers so I stuck them into my absolutely fabulous designer lanterns…

Lantern
Okay so they’re not actually designer…they’re Dollar Store and they’re tea light holders.  Really pretty for a evening dinner party or a garden party but candle light for brunch?  Not so much.  But I loved them, and wanted to use them, and so they wouldn’t be empty—in went the little flowers.

For more table décor I used a short cylinder vase, also from the dollar store, and shoved in crumpled tissue paper and added orange Gerber Daisies (fake—from the dollar store) and my little signs, which you saw above. 

              Gerber Daisy    Gerber Daisy 2
I also re-purposed the glass bottles from sparkling water.  Under the labels is hiding a really pretty green color.

     Green VaseGreen Vase 2
As I’m sure you’ve noticed from all my pics, I had a pinky-purple table cloth under all my pretty décor and I used white paper doilies as my table runner—also from the Dollar Store.  I really love the Dollar Store!! 

Above the table I put together a hanging cluster.

Hanging Arrangement Hanging Arrangement 2
The Chinese Lanterns I got at the Dollar Store, 2 for $1.  I made the “poofs” out of tissue paper.  They are made like my Napkin Flowers--here— except with tissue paper and double the amount of layers because these are fluffed up and fluffed down to get a nice ‘poof’ and then hung up.

Poof
My largest “poof” was made using 9 layers, which means 4 layers of tissue paper were pulled up, 4 layers were pulled down, and 1 was left in the middle to be scrunched this way and that.  Experiment with different sizes of tissue paper and different amounts of layers.  You’ll find that once you start, you can’t stop!

Brunch Time
I hope you had fun exploring my little brunch and that my creativity inspires your own!
Until Next Time, Happy Partying!
The Preacher's Wife
PS.  If you’re curious about the complete menu from that day here it is, plus some links for recipes… (and yes I made this in Photoshop too)
Menu
1. Egg Tartletsfollow the link for the recipe, except instead of frying in a pan bake in jumbo muffin cups @350 until set
2. Crepes with Creamy Filling & Blueberry Sauce
3.Morning Sunrise
4.Vanilla Latte






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