MY FAVORITE THINGS: PART 6: Cardboard & Knives

Now who would leave such a mess?

And who would want to take a picture of it?

Would it be the same person?

All I know is.... the vacuum has gotta hit that floor before

all those little packing pieces get tracked over everywhere.

As a side note while we're talkin' about shipping things:

What a great knife! How did I not know that this quick-change blade was out there. Just press that little gold button and the blade pops right out to put a new one in.

This is definitely one of my favorite things.

It was $9 at Home Depot. Amazon has them for $3.99 but the shipping is $5 bucks so it's the same thing and there's instant gratification at Home Depot!

3 New Candle Lighting Centerpieces..asian, sports, stars

Candle Lighting Ceremony Centerpieces.

One for an Asian theme.

One for sports.

One with stars.

All have separate pieces on each end for the candles...

...although Elyssa's aren't in the picture....any amount of candles would work.

Eric's would work with baseballs, basketballs, tennis balls as well.

Could even have baseball bats on the sides or hockey sticks....lots of

possibilities. I love the photo of Eric with the rose in his teeth.

Asian Centerpieces...from start to finish.

Here's how it all starts out:
Pieces everywhere.
Hot glue gun ready with extra glue nearby.
Cell phone nearby.
Carry out drink left over from carry out lunch.
Scraps on the floor.

Then the beautiful finished project emerges:

These were the elevated and low on the table centerpieces for an
Asian-Inspired Party Theme.

I love the difference from the works-in-progress and the Voila! It's Finished~!

Stacey just knew I was going to have to post this picture on the Blog...how
could I not?

When just one trampoline won't do.....

I always thought one trampoline in my yard was plenty.

But now I see that two are better. Double the fun.

One if by land...two if by sea....or I mean, lake.

Beach Place Cards/Life guard chair/Berylium font

Here's a Welcome Sign that was a life guards beach chair. It was cleverly engineered by Stacey to fold completely flat for shipping (and almost completely assembled) and then to open up to look like this cool beach chair with just a little easy glueing for the legs and arms.

This centerpiece was for the Placecard Table and sat behind these Place Cards. It was OPEN SEATING for kids at Rachel's Hot Spots in Ocean City, Maryland. Adults had planned seating at other Hot Spots.

Everyone received sunglasses and they attached to the placecard and made them able to be free standing.

Side Note:

I found a very interesting "sandy" font for the words on the bottom of this picture. It's called Berylium. It reminds me of writing in the sand...interesting font. I've never used it before. I like it's bumpy texture and character.

GIFT CARD Money BOXES for graduations, wedding & mitzvah parties!

    

We have fun making these Gift Card Boxes for parties.

Guests can drop their congratulation cards with their gifts of

money or a check down inside.

There's a "trap door" on the bottom so the cards can be 
removed without damaging the box.


One of our most popular ones is our 
guitar amp gift card money box with a 
choice of sizes and types of accent guitars 
to go with it if you'd like.


They are often used at bar mitzvahs, birthdays, 
graduations and weddings.

I can't think of any theme that we couldn't come up 

with something to make a Gift Card Box to match.

If you'd like to see a few more ideas, you can go to our main website at:

www.marlyssandstacey.com

(or you can send us an email at: marlyss@mac.com
 and we'll design one up with your specifications.)

Trade show clever PARTY IDEAS.

Stacey and I went to a local party event trade show put on by a very upscale linen company called Fabulous Events. Besides having tons of fun chatting and looking and feasting on delicious treats we saw some cool and creative ideas.

I especially liked this beautiful table arrangement. I loved the idea of the twisted wire cascading down the clear vase and twisting around votive holders to have candlelight all down and around the clear vase. What a useful idea.

We also liked these balloon arrangements by Crystal Balloons. Loved these simple balloon tulips for table linen tie-ups and her "waterfall" centerpiece.

Here's Stacey taking a look at Robyn's creative ideas.

We also found a person we are highly likely to use to cater for Stacey's big upcoming birthday event next year. I think we'll have a "Bash"....it's going to be a milestone birthday.

Funky, Whimsical and Swirly...all good words.

What a fun website to visit...BeFunky.com

Easy to use and fast and creative.

I whipped this out in just a few minutes playing around to see

what the site was about.

I think anything a bit offbeat and funky and whimsical....

with some added swirl....

is delightful to me.

ipod centerpiece in neon yellow

Following along the same track as the last blog about music being a popular theme.....here's an ipod centerpiece.

I made a comment in a previous blog about old 45 rpms making a cuter centerpiece than an ipod but I think I need to retract that! This one competes with it on an even scale in my opinion. I think it's those swirly ear buds that did it. Those ear buds that are always tangling up have a certain sense of movement and curly whimsical grace.

We also are on a neon run of colors here which makes me happy because I love bright colors. I said to Stacey that I think I'll repaint my bedroom neon yellow and lime green...she knows I just love lime green even though I have it no where in my house......and she just gave me that look. You know the one that someone uses when they think you might have slid over the edge. I guess those aren't the best bedroom colors but my bedroom does have a bright burgundy and deep green...not those sleepy time colors they say you should use and I sleep quite well in there.

Update to this blog post: (December 2009)

Here's a "low on the table" alternative ipod centerpiece. This centerpiece has a guitar on the reverse side (actually a pink Taylor Swift guitar) and was accented with foamcore drumsticks.

The overall size including the base was about 22" high.

Call us if you need centerpieces like this:
248-669-3622

Or, send us an email at: marlyss@mac.com

Or, visit one of our websites to see even more ideas:
www.guitarcenterpieces.com
www.marlyssandstacey.com

Update to this blog post: December 2010

Looking for something simpler with an ipod theme? Sweet and a little funky? How about these custom designed foamcore photo picture frames? Easy on the budget and easy to ship.

ANOTHER Update: October 2011
Here's a fun ipod centerpiece we did incorporating a photo cutout of the Bar Mitzvah
boy popping out of the ipod itself! And, here's the matching party placecards.

We love ipods and any kind of musical themes around here!

Need PLACECARDS? How about iTunes cards or card stock iPods? Most all our place cards
are $2.50 each and that includes customizing the design to your needs and adding the guests name and table to each one. They can stand in a foam core table topper holder and sits on a 6'-8' rectangular table ($65).

These iPod Touch/iPhones work well as part of

a centerpiece or can be used in a mini version as your table designation.

They can be made to free stand with a back support or

have a wood skewer in the bottom to insert into flowers

or a styrofoam base.

We can also make ipod dancers.

marlysshollyer@gmail.com

Funky Fun Musical Notes

Music has been a fun and popular theme for parties this year. I'd even say it has beat out sports for the first time in a very long time.

Both girls and boys having Bat and Bar Mitzvahs have shown a love of music in many ways. Guitars, of course, top the list.

We make these fun and funky musical notes for accents on all sorts of centerpieces and signs. Both styles are on foamcore. One is cut out and glittered and one is printed and then cut out.

Adding a Table Number to it is also a popular option.

Traditional musical notes are fine too but I think these are more lively and unexpected and a bit more fun.

Peace, Love and the 60's

We get inspiration from a bunch of places. Here's a t-shirt we found.

I just love the way the heart swirls into the circle with the peace sign. I can see that as a

centerpiece design in foamcore and glitter. It would work so well for "Peace, Love and the Sixties".

Here's a fun one we did with a similar idea. I'd love to re-do this idea with the inspiration from the above design.

(This was the d.j. sign and big....about 4ft. by 8ft.)

I guess any colors could work...red, black, white was good....so are neon colors....pastels would be unexpected but unique in my opinion....turquoise and hot pink would be fun too...maybe with yellow or gold added in. I'll just have to keep this t-shirt in the back of my mind until something comes along. Now that it's here on my Blog I won't loose it and have to say...where is that design?...I can use it now and I can't find it anywhere.

Guitar Centerpieces fresh updates...one of many summer goals.

I've been working on updating our websites with some fresh new pictures. Also, I've been working on making it as simple and straightforward as possible so folks can see the possibilities but not be overwhelmed by the choices. That's a challenge.

We have over 60 new guitars to add to the website www.guitarcenterpieces.com.

I've had to re-number them all and upload new pictures. I have them on a site that I can make mistakes on until I get it right and then I can upload it to our active site. This is one of my summer goals. Time's a-flyin' by. I wish I had a stop motion button to keep time from moving so fast. If you find one, please forward it on to me!

Wyandotte Art Fair...having summer fun.

Stacey and I went to the Wyandotte Art Fair today.

It wasn't as big as I remembered it when we went a few years ago. But it was fun.

I bought a book called "A Legend of Santa and his brother Fred" for my favorite Santa Claus. It's a charming book and I couldn't pass it up. Here's a picture of Santa's brother, Fred, from the book.

Here's a picture of the real Santa it is for.

Here's a picture of the totally delightful author. He wrote the words and his talented son beautifully illustrated it and created the vision of Fred. The author is Mr. Donald Henkel from Trenton, Michigan.

I also had to include this very odd combination of booths next to each other. Michigan Atheists and Right to Life of Michigan next to each other? How did that happen? I wonder if the lady in pink has her back to the other booth for a reason.....or was that just happenstance? We found it amusing anyway.....what can I say.

It was a beautiful day....perfect Art Fair weather....70's with a breeze and not too crowded.

Happy Birthday Guitars....young and not as young!

"Happy Birthday Guitars" for any age!

They can be for table centerpieces 

or to hang on the wall.

They can be free standing on the table or 

be elevated up on one of our 24" pvc poles.

We love making Birthday 

guitars....or guitars for just 

about any good reason.

We've now made our guitars for 

birthdays of all ages, several weddings 

(I love those...they are so white and pretty and we add some soft glitter too), a rehearsal dinner, several baby showers (love those little heart and star ones), Sweet Sixteens and many Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.

Piano keyboard and guitar music centerpiece

Here's a mix of a piano keyboard, funky musical notes, the table name and one of our photo realistic foamcore guitars all mixed together in a large elevated centerpiece.

This swirly keyboard is different than the other ones on this blog. It would ship easy.

The keyboard is more swirly than a spiral so it would ship flat and all as one unit.

It's so easy to just add to the top of the pole...we're all about making it easy for people that

want to have a big & fun centerpiece. We've also posted this picture on our guitar website at www.guitarcenterpieces.com

This website is a sibling of our main website www.marlyssandstacey.com

There is another website out there with a name almost the same as ours. It's just minus the "s" on guitarcenterpieces. He makes styrofoam guitars. We aren't associated in any way. He takes a different approach and carves styrofoam. We never use styrofoam except for bases and then we cover it up in mylar.

Here's a guitar that I admire....very artsy, isn't it. I didn't make it but I would like to give it a try and make my own version. I loved to do it in paper mache....maybe mold real hands and add them.

If only I could find the time.