iPhone/iPod Music Centerpieces & magazine covers

I think a good party centerpiece should be personalized.

This one sure was.

Her name and a personalized magazine 

cover design with words related to her favorites

musical groups and fun and playful wording

like on the bottom corner: "Family Reunited and

It Sounds So Loud." 

Kinda fits a party, don't you think?

Here's another view with the colorful

poufs added around the themed items.

Photos and something curvy like

the ear bud wires makes for

fun and movement in the centerpiece.

These iphones were made from

foamcore and over-sized and 

you wouldn't hear anything out of 

those earbuds...but....hey...it's

all in fun.

That's why we like to make

these funky notes too. A bit quirky 

and whimsical. Color is always

oh so important too.

 The only thing missing is a bit of BLING.

Wouldn't some rhinestones around the

microphone be cute?

Maybe next time.

How to make elf shoes.

Not really too hard to make.

I used an old pair of sandals so the bottom

sole would be waterproof and firm.

Then I cut out the shoe shape from green

vinyl fabric matching the width of the

shoe with the sandal.

I put the right sides of the vinyl together and stitched all 

around leaving the bottom open.

Then I turned the vinyl right side out.

I folded over the bottom of the vinyl about 1/4" and then

used a heavy carpet thread and a strong sewing

needle to hand stitch it to the shoe.

Then I hot glued upholstery gimp trim around

and on top of the stitching.

Then I stuffed the curvy toe of the shoe so 

it would stay upright.

I sewed a bell to each tip and hot glued fluffy fur

around the top.

  

Voila! Sturdy waterproof and durable

elf shoes that were comfortable to wear.

The lovely gold frame design in the top picture was  
compliments of a fellow blogger in France.
http://elfeerique.blogspot.fr/2012/12/mes-ptits-templates-n3-cadeau.html

PEACE. LOVE. LIFE. (party decorations)

Peace.
Love.
And the Important Things in Life.

This is just a wonderful theme. It's so versatile and can

be so personalized to fit the party person.

Here's some ideas from this year.

Coincidentally one was for "HALLE" and
one was for "HALEY".

FOR HALLE:

Here's the logo created by Laura at Party Perfect for 

HALLE in grunge-style lettering.

We made the centerpieces.

Here's the table centerpiece for 
Peace, Love, Laugh.

Peace, Love, Trust.

Peace, Love, Harmony.

You get the idea?
Peace, Love, Adventure.

Each placecard matched a 
centerpiece design.

Here's a bunch of the designs.

www.marlyssandstacey.com

Peace, Love, Out. 
(until next time)

NY Broadway Theater Playbill Party Decorations

Broadway is such a great party theme.

We've done it for boys and girls both.

We've started with placecards.

Then done Welcome Signs.

And moved into the room with

centerpieces....both low on 

the table and elevated up on a pole.

(Notice that we added the Bar Mitzvah

girls face into the design above and in the one 

below there is a picture from the actual

play the Bat Mitzvah boy was in.)

Or...here's a broadway stage with an working foamcore

kleig light that runs from 2 AA batteries and a golden

envelope with the 'winner' for the table name card.

We've done large DJ signs.

This was one of my favorites.

It was 4ft. x 8ft.

We've also made a kids area sign with 

a Broadway theme.

And....of course, a Sign In Board.

And a Gift Card Box.

This is a theme we always have fun with

and enjoy the end results.

SIGN IN BOARDS for Parties.

One thing we do often make are Sign In Boards.

I think they make a wonderful party props to set

the tone of the party and let people in on the theme

of the night and highlight that special person.

They also are a great spot to grab a picture.

(This happens to be my Eagle Scout grandson Ryan.)

 It really isn't so much about the signatures or

the messages. The messages left are usually the same

as people have already told you in person...like "great job!" or

"Happy Birthday" or "Mazel Tov" or "proud of you".

But it does gives folks another opportunity to congratulate and

also see that you have taken the time to have something

fun and interesting to make the party personal and lively.

I often hear...."But what will I do with it after

the party? I might get a memory book instead because it's easier

to keep." 

Well, memory books are fine. I like them. We also make them.
(You can view a blog post I made about them here.)

But, personally, I like Sign In Boards better.They are BIGGER.

Big things at a party just have more impact and pizzazz.

That's just a fact. They are more memorable. 

That's why you're getting a Sign In Board. 

To have something cool at the party. 

You wouldn't be having a Sign In Board if you weren't having a party. 

So don't worry about later. 

Take a picture of the board and save that.

You don't have to save the board forever and ever.

Another good thing about a Sign In Board is that it's standing

right there at your eye level when you walk into the party.

You really can't miss them. You CAN miss a book.

I hear often that not that many people signed the book.

Maybe they did miss it. Or...maybe they didn't.

A book is intimidating. Writing in a book means you should

comes up with something clever on the level of what 

J.K. Rowling would write in a book. Most people aren't prepared

for that much pressure. They are there to PAR-TAY or celebrate.... not

be profound and clever in writing something beautiful in 

a book that will be kept (hopefully) forever and read and

reflected upon the words left there. Oh dear...such pressure!

Where's the Sign In Board???? 

You can view more Sign In Boards on

our website.

Life before Google

I have all these artwork resource books I used before Google 

and all their wonderful images came out. 

Yes. 
I've been doing party decor artwork that long! 

I remember the 'olden days'.

They use to be called 'morgue' files and my files
spilled over even into 2 tall file cabinets of pages 
I had torn out from magazines that I kept in labeled folders...
just for inspiration or to place on my overhead projector 
and to help me draw up designs.
That was before I even had a computer.
OMG...times are so much better now!
I LOVE my computers....both of them and my ipad 
and my iphone. I'm in 2012 with both feet!

But...It pains me to even think about throwing out these books.

Ahhhhhh...do I have to???

Well...I've decided I don't have to do it today.

But some day soon.

THIS is what I need in front of my house.

Or at least in my town.

http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/index.html

That darn ipad. I love it but it has it's limitations.

It makes me crazy that the ipad doesn't

support Adobe flash. 

It makes me especially crazy that our

 website Photo Gallery section is

generated by Flash so it gives folks this

error message...and me included....when

I'm on my ipad.

The pictures are available on regular computers

that have Adobe Flash installed to work with

their SPECIFIC browser.

But sometimes it won't work with Safari even

though it works with Google Chrome on my

home computer.

I experimented with other options for the website for

all the ipad users and finally

just decided to add more pictures into the

body of our website and forget about the

flash Photo Gallery updates for now.

The iphone and ipad users are taking over the world

and Apple is forcing you to go in the direction it

wants you to head whether you like it or not.

And...I have to admit..limitations or not, I'm

a huge ipad and Apple fan.

Here's the latest picture I added to

the CENTERPIECE page of our

www.partydecorationsbymarlyss.com

website.

Winter's Coming so Tropical Beach Parties will be in.

Nothing like having a beach party in the winter.

Makes perfect sense to me.

If you can't be there, pretend to be there.

We've definitely done more beach themes in the

winter time than in the summer. But not always.

Here's some fun BEACH THEME ideas we've done.

Sign In Boards are popular.

Catch a Wave on a surfboard SIGN IN BOARD made

from foamcore with layered glittered letters.

Note that these two surfboard sign in boards

were done in October and January. See?

Looking for placecards or a 3D lifeguard

chair to display? Check out this blog

post I made here.

Now I know you don't want to think about it...but

there are sharks at the beach. We even made 

paper mache shark heads as centerpieces one time.

I can't say it was one of the strangest things I've

been asked to make but it's on the list of unusual.

But we had fun making them.

Camp plays friendly with a beach and water theme.

That's what good about a beach theme. 

Everyone loves the beach and it can be 

incorporated with camp or travel or tropical islands

even if you are in the middle of winter.

Funky Lighted MITZVAH BAR sign

I read somewhere..or they tried to teach it

to me when I took some college graphic design

classes, that you shouldn't mix more than 2 different

font styles in one design piece.

Fail.

I disregarded that like I disregard what I KNOW a 

teacher tried to tell me in a graphic design college class: 

You never point things directly to a corner in a graphic design. 

You always miss the exact corner on purpose. 

Well I remembered that while I was in 

his class but afterwards....well....I can't 

stay I always followed that rule because it 

made no sense to me.

Same with the font rule.

I used Beetle for Joey.

I used Inspiration for Mitzvah Bar.

I used Arial for OPEN.

Fail??

I hope some 'rule enforcer' doesn't send

me an email and tell me I broke a rule.

I like this funky sign.