Holiday and Birthday Garlands!

So this door sign (above) was from the holidays (obviously I'm late to post), but you can really make a sign like this for any occasion or non-occasion to Welcome people to your door.

For this project, I used all Paper Source materials from paper to stamps to glittery Christmas trees (these are clothespins in between the letters as you can see in the second picture.  They added a nice touch to the door).

I used the Cameo Silhouette to cut the letters out of gold paper.  The silver and gold looked elegant and I alternated between embossing the snowflake stamp with silver embossing powder and white embossing powder on every other letter.  I bought card stock pre-cut into circular patterns so that was something I didn't have to do.  I hole punched the tops of each letter so I could string a sparkly yarn through.  I then used clear packing tape to literally tape the yarn to the inside of the door.  When you're hanging something like this alone, it's always a fun trick to test your agility and reflexes as you weave the yarn through the crack in the door, hold it with one hand and hold the sign on the other side of the door with the other hand so the letters don't fall to the ground.

Overall, I really like having something on the door to celebrate each season.  Paper Source has amazing pre-made garlands of cupcakes, popsicle sticks, owls, acorns, leaves and many other things you wouldn't have thought about.  They also sell paper wreath-making kits, some of which are gorgeously intricate.  Though you could make and customize those yourself on the Silhouette, you have to buy a lot of paper and it's a lot of time on the machine - so I like this short cut.

Here is a link to some adorable garlands (many - like watermelon! -  perfect for the summer) : http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/kits/garland/all.html
And here's the link to several flowered wreaths:
http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/kits/flower-kits.html

This next hanging banner was made for my friend, Pam's, baby's first birthday party!  Since the theme of the party was New York, the sign is modeled after the NYC Subway markers, using those same colors and the circles they are displayed in.  (Isn't the cake with the skyline amazing?  Love!).  I also made little taxi cab and Statue of Liberty cupcake toppers, which are pictured below: