Every 100 Followers Giveaway: Martha Stewart Home Office With Avery Giveaway

Woo-hoo! It's time for another Every 100 Followers Giveaway! Every time we reach another 100 GFC followers we partay! I'm at 716 (otherwise I would be doing giveaways everyday), but of course I have thousands (eek!) throughout Facebook, Twitter, RSS feed, email and even on Pinterest.  This giveaway is open to ALL of you who follow me, a big thank you for following my crazy.

Have you heard? Martha Stewart Home Office has teamed with Avery for an exclusive line at Staples.  I couldn't wait to see what she had in store, and she has serious organizational tools from binders, journals and notebooks, to labels and tags. She even has office chairs, desks and cabinets. What I love is that the labels are all computer-friendly so you can download the template and run them through

I scooped up a few fun things that are perfect for cute packaging, and a few extra for one lucky winner! Sorry for the blurry photos, they are so tiny on the Staple site, but here is what you'll get...and no not the packaging like the boxes, just the labels :).

TODAY'S GIVEAWAY - 

$25 WORTH OF 

MARTHA STEWART HOME OFFICE WITH 

AVERY PRODUCTS

1 - 36 pack of Flourish 1-5/8" x 1-3/4" brown kraft labels
1 - 12 pack of 2-1/2" x 3-3/4" classic chalkboard labels
1 - 12 pack of 2-1/2" x 3-3/4" classic brown kraft labels
48 1- 3/32" x 1-3/4" paper tags; 1 24-pack in blue, gray, and green and 1-24 pack in gray, yellow, and white with coordinating baker's twine.
1 - 6 pack of 1-7/8" x 6-1/4" classic ElastiNote® tags in red

A total value of $25, it can be yours...all you have to be is one of my followers; Google Friend Connect, Facebook, Twitter, RSS feed, or an email subscriber. That's it! Enter below on Rafflecopter, and remember you MUST be a follower, otherwise, it defeats the purpose of this giveaway and your entries will be voided.

Paper Source

I'm so excited to welcome Paper Source on my crazy sponsor train. I've only been shopping there for years! I think I may have mentioned them once, or twice. In fact, I was just rambling about their Valentine straws and just pinned their too-cute shamrock badge. 

I've the pleasure of living near two of them here in the Seattle area. In fact, the Bellevue one is across from Crate & Barrel, and next door to The Container Store, or as I like to call it, The Trifecta Of Evil.  Of course, the other store is down from Impress Stamps and Trophy Cupcakes, so it too is The Trifecta Of Evil.

But I digress...if you don't live near one yourself, don't worry, you can order online. Why? Because they have the most gorgeous paper in every hue you can imagine with matching envelopes, stamps, stationery, specialty papers, fabulous gift wrap, and more.

Spa party runner? Paper Source gift wrap.

Starbursts? Paper Source paper.

Do I have a lot of their stamps? Yes,  I do. Do I wander around the shop in a haze of creativity? Yes, I do.

Another place to get lost in, their blog.  It's chock-a-block full of REAL ideas, the ones the gals at the stores make and can talk to you about, not a team of perfectionists...ahem...

So if you are needing to do a little shopping, I've got a nice little button right there in the left column.

Fiesta Friday - Octopus Party Ideas + Read Across America/The Lorax Fiestas

It's Octopus Week at the Seattle Aquarium so I thought, what would be more fitting than to share a few themed party ideas over on Today's Mama - Seattle Mamas, like these super cute cupcakes from FamilyFun.

Speaking of family fun, next Friday is March 2 and Read Across America, a nationwide reading celebration that takes place annually  in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday. Thousands of schools, libraries, and community centers participate by bringing together kids, teens, and books.

Check out the Seussville site for Read Across America activities happening all week long. And this year is extra special with the same day release of  The Lorax Movie so of course I had to share some fun parties and crafts from around the web.

A bright tabletop from Eyes Of Mad...how cute are her Truffula Trees?

Check out the Lorax Toolkit with lots of Lorax fun to check out like their blogroll, a fun blog hop with great posts by big names like Little Birdie Secrets and Today's Creative Blog.

Amandalynn Jones' fun party has my go-to party treats, dipped marshmallows!

Make a truffula tree frame, Bar-ba-loot snacks and this adorable Lorax hand puppet with Make And Takes over at Babble.

The party wouldn't be complete without Bakerella's Lorax pops?

And just because everyone loves to win stuff, check out Mama Mary of San Diegos Mamas movie review and giveaway for a $50 Fandago card and movie merchandise.

Need more inspiration? Check out last year's Seuss-inspired post...

St. Patrick's Day Candy Tubes With Wrigley

Looking for a fun favor idea for St. Patrick's Day that's somewhere over the rainbow? I thought, for once, I'll get my ideas out early so people would have time to actually do them. My box of Wrigley candy has been inspiring me with serious candy crafting.

Get your hands on these plastic tubes from Shop Sweet Lulu, toss in a few mini marshmallows,  then fill them up with rainbow-hued candy, of course.  I used original Skittles®, but they don't have blue (why???) so you'll need to get them out of the Skittles Blenders® pack.

I couldn't have asked for a better Lucky download from Eighteen25, it worked perfectly! I know...you're welcome!

Missed my other candy adventures? Check out marshmallow robots, candy cake decorating, candy jewelry and wooden gingerbread houses.

Disclaimer: I received free product courtesy of Wrigley, no compensation was given, real or implied. This review is my own personal opinion.

Tuesday Tip - My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Review + Giveaway

Back when my boys were little, scrapbooking was taking over the world.  A dear friend was a Stampin' Up! consultant so of course I attended her demos, was in her Stampers 10 Club and hosted parties.  My mission, to create scrapbooks for the entire family...a military one for dad, a First Year and birthday book for each boy, a family book, and a  Disneyland Vacation book.  Of course, I would also squeeze in a School Days book for each boy, starting from preschool.

If you are keeping count, that's 9.  I've finished one, my 10 year old's...birth though age 4. The rest are sadly half-finished with a layer of dust on them.  The Disneyland trip was in 2006...

To say that I'll probably never catch up is an understatement.  But now with the rise of digital scrapbooking, I feel I have hope.  I was contacted by Liz a few weeks ago with the opportunity to test drive My Memories Suite. It will help you create beautiful pages from scratch or build an entire album using one of the many professionally-designed scrapbook templates provided within the scrapbook software.  A large collection of papers and embellishments are also included and available at your fingertips to help you make each page uniquely your own.

OK, so what do I mean?  Well, I'll show you...this is one of their templates that I opened up and dragged photos of the pink safari baby shower into.  Yup, that's it! I removed the existing text boxes and added those white brads. You can download lots of other types of embellishments, I was limited since I only have the basic software.

Here's another one...another basic template that I tweaked...I changed the background color and added another photo.  You can remove elements (like the colored boxes) to add more photos.  This is also one page of a 8 page album, and each page has a different layout so you can move elements around and change things up and still have a uniform feel to the album.

I know, the possibilities are endless...you can make it an interactive memory experience for anyone who sees it. There are simple one-click options to enhance your scrapbooks, with music, narration, and video. Go beyond pictures by showing off video of the birthday party, or record a narration to capture the memories that pictures alone cannot. You can even make it iPod ready or turn it into a DVD.

If you are old-school and like to touch paper,  you can still have it professionally printed as an album or a calendar. I've only scratched the surface...check out their gallery full of reader submissions.

Use my code STMMMS31319 for $10 off the My Memories Suite digital scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store, a $20 savings! See the pretty button in my left column? It's always there in case you forget...

But wait, not only did Liz offer me my own download but graciously offered to share with one of my readers! Today's giveaway is a

My Memories Suite 

software download 

(a $40 value) 

Enter below on Rafflecopter and don't forget to read the fine print!

Elements Of Design In Party Decor - Repetition

My elements of design in party decor post generated lots of buzz; I also received several emails for more in-depth ideas about why these ideas 'work'. By no means am I an expert with years of design under my belt.  But as you work on more events, you start getting 'the eye'...something doesn't look right, something's missing...and you'll keep playing around until you get what feels right to you.

Thus, I'm inspired to do a mini series using all eight principals of design (check out the post to see what I'm talking about); so far we've got balance, emphasis, movement, and today is repetition.

I don't need to explain what repetition is...but if I need to, it's the repeating of elements. Easy enough, right? Wrong! We aren't just talking having 6 of the same vessels...that can get kind of boring, well not always, but we'll get to that later.  We are talking...well, let me show you...

Macarons are the star in this dessert table from The Caketress...but don't overwhelm it.

Check out how the circle punch runner, round glasses and placemats, globes all tie together well in their roundness on this table from Say Yes To Hoboken.

Repetition in color? Of course! It's the perfect way to tie elements together. This lovely table from Floridian Weddings not only pulls the repetition through the different elements, but check out that backdrop. I don't think it would have worked as well if it were only one color, the paper chains could have become monotonous and blended in.

The repetition of the paper covered books and black silhouettes tie all the elements of this lovely party table from Dear Lillie together. There is a fine line when it comes to repeating a motif...covering everything with them would have been serious overkill.

A nice balance is struck with the repetition of the lollipop stick treats at this Ghostbusters table from Jenny Cookies.

Stay tuned for proportion...

Fiesta Friday - Robot Valentine Party Inspiration

Since we don't have school today for the President's Day holiday, I decided it would be a perfect day for a glorified playdate for Valentine's Day.  If you remember, I was inspired by Nick Jack Will's robot valentine bags which I promptly ordered.  Here are a few ideas I'll be incorporating....

My marshmallow and box robots; robot Rice Krispy Treats from The Celebration Shoppe;  gears I made from Styrofoam; candy rimmed bottles from Sweet Sensations; Michael's Robot Finds; robot centerpieces from Sweet Craft Cakes; robot parts from Spaceships And Laserbeams.