I already wrote about the party a bit. But, I did want to share some of the ways I used my scrapbooking supplies to make the party scrapfabulous! The Elfick’s are a wonderful family. They lived two houses down from in the corner of our cul-de-sac. I miss them tremendously already!!! Dominic is from Scotland and Catherine is from Australia. They have been here in the US for a number of years, but the opportunity arose for Dom’s company to transfer them to Australia. Catherine was ecstatic, of course – her country, her family and friends. I cannot blame her at all!!! Anyway, when we started talking about having a Going Away Party for them, I thought we should have an American theme party to send them off in style. I had some small American flags in the attic, but that was about it for USA decor. So, I set off searching at my fave stores, Target, Hobby Lobby and the $1 Store and Michael’s. They actually had some, I was surprised. But then as I was checking out with my red, white, blue napkins, drink stirrers, plates, paper lanterns etc the sales clerk asked if I was having an Inauguration Party – Ohhhhh! Lightbulb moment! That is why there were displays of USA themed decorations around! Oh well, works for me and my needs.
I made the invitations, with the help of this digital kit from Scrapbook-Bytes. Todd helped me with the pennant. I bought one sheet of all the American themed scrapbook papers from my LSS. I had about a dozen sheets or so. I told him my plan, Cut as many triangles from each sheet as you can, glue them back to back if they were not double sided patterned paper, and then string them with some red fiber. He was a champ – handled that one all on his own! I covered a plain white candle with scrapbook paper scraps from the pennant and then wrapped some gold star wired garland around it. The picture stinks, the light was bouncing off the glass globe and the glass pebbles. I found some blue paper lunch sacks and used my star punch to punch a few stars in the bags. I weighed them down with rocks and put a votive candle in them. I used those and the small flags to line our sidewalk. Again, the picture stinks – hard to get a picture of a bag lit from within by a votive candle when said candle keeps blowing out due to the wind.
I think that is it for decorations. For the kids in attendance, I covered a folding table with butcher paper and set out crayons and playdough. That kept them busy for a while. I had also printed out copies of Patriotic Airplanes and Patriotic Pinwheels from Family Fun At some point they got tired of all my activities and moved on to the destruction of Lael’s bedroom. Oh well, they all had fun!
The other thing I made was a gift for Catherine and Dom. I used one of the lunchboxes that were so popular a few years back in the scrapbooking world. I altered it with some paper from my stash and then was totally stuck. It was like I was a first year scrapper, paralyzed by all my choices. I was opening boxes and drawers and folders looking for that perfect something for the front of the box. Finally, I found it – and it was not even something I made! It is a chipboard frame with a big “F” for friends and ribbon on it. It was made by my friend Liza and given to me years ago. I never found the perfect project to use it, til now! So, big thanks to Liza for that!! Then I cut a bunch of chipboard squares to fit inside and altered them, one side for notes and one side for pictures. Each guest was supposed to write a note to the Elfick’s, along with their contact info (email, addy, phone #), then Aimee took their picture. Each family unit had their own card. I thought this would be a wonderful way for the Elfick’s to keep in touch with all their friends here in the States.
Finally – the food and drinks. I found some cute little mason jar mugs at the $1 Store and got a few of those for our guests. I wasn’t sure if I would have enough glasses without breaking out my good crystal (which I really did not want to do!) Plus, I thought that they fit the theme! The signature drink I served was Carolina Ice Tea. Here’s the recipe:
- 1 1/2 oz Southern Comfort® peach liqueur
- 1 oz Captain Morgan® Original spiced rum
- 1 oz peach schnapps
- 1/2 oz vodka
- 5 oz sweet iced tea
Add alcohol and stir lightly. Pour in iced tea. Stir a few more times and serve.
It was actually tasty. I was kind of worried with that many liquors it would be way too strong, but the sweet tea was the perfect complement.
Food – there was so much! Before everyone arrived, I was looking at all the trays and platters and thought wow, we have lots of stuff leftover. That was so not the case! Practically everything was eaten! We had chicken fingers, shrimp, sausage balls, pigs in blanket, fruit, cheese ball with crackers, deviled eggs, Kahlua cake, flag cookie cake, Southern Caviar, buffalo chicken dip, Party mix, pretzels and nuts. People kept asking me about the Cheese Ball. So, here is the recipe for that:
- 2 packs (8 oz. each) cream cheese
- 1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained
- 1/4 cup green bell pepper, chopped
- 2 tsp. minced onion
- 2 tsp. seasoning salt
- 2 cup chopped pecans
Soften cream cheese. Add all ingredients except 1/2 cup chopped pecans. Chill, then shape into a ball and roll in pecans. Serve with crackers.
I didn’t have any pecans, so I just left them out and it tasted great. They just add a bit more crunch.
I think that is all I have to share. It was fun, I would definitely love to host another party, but not a Going Away one for any more friends. All of my neighbors MUST not move for many many years!
OK, will have to add photos later – can’t get them to work now. boo-hoo
