My Halloween fix!!

I love that Aussies are getting more and more into Halloween.
I know it can be written off as just another excuse for money making with all the costume buying, candy buying, decoration buying but I LOVE the idea that it's a great excuse to have some fun with your family and neighborhood. Taking my little kids door to door in my street is still 1 or 2 yrs away due to age but I'll be there with bells on once they are a bit older! Until then this year got my fix by carving my very first pumpkin - it was much easier than I thought it would be and was lots of fun!!


I hope you all have a fabulous Halloween, what ever you are up to.

image found HERE

If any Trick or Treaters pop by our home tonight they'll be getting a pack of 'giggle berries' - a bit of marketing mixed with some sweetness never hurt, right?

Happy Friday Find

Just came across this fun bunting cotton tape available from Brusselsprouts


I can see some rather gorgeous gifts wrapped in brown paper and tied with this tape in the near future - CUTE!!

Rainbow of Ribbons - party food!

Only 4 weeks to go now until Milla's 3rd birthday party. So sticking with the Rainbow of Ribbons theme I have started thinking about the food.
The party is just a casual BBQ at home with immediate family so the good old meat and salad is a 'no brainer' but how can serve a few things to tie into the colourful theme??
No panic - once again Google has come to my rescue! Check out these ideas:




PERFECT! I can do a veggie and dip platter and a fruit and yogurt platter in rainbow!! Yay!

RED: Strawberries, Apple, Watermelon / Capsicum, Cherry Tomatoes, Cabanossi
ORANGE: Orange, Rock melon, Mango, Mandarin / Carrot, Pretzels, Rice Crackers
YELLOW: Banana, Pineapple / Cheese, Rice Crackers
GREEN: Grapes, Honeydew Melon, Pear, Apple, Kiwi fruit / Snow peas, Celery
BLUE: Blueberries (this one is a little tricky)
PURPLE: Cherries, Grapes / Purple Cabbage

Any other suggestions?

Then of course no kids party is complete with out a bit of sweet stuff but I am going to be 'that' mum and limit the amount. So I have plans for a small candy buffet - Nothing spectacular just a small table with some rainbow coloured goodies to nibble on. These are some of the fun sweets I have found for it:


Twizzlers


Rainbow Sour Straps


Skittles - NOTE: The regular Skittles have red, orange, yellow, green and purple ones in the pack. If you want blue ones to complete the rainbow you need to source the Wild Berry Skittles. I found them at an international candy store.

Cute hey? I will have just as much fun setting up all the rainbows of food as I will eating them on the party day... speaking of eating, check out the fabulous plates and napkins I found from HERE

LOVE them!!

Next is the cake.... and no I am NOT doing a rainbow layer cake ;) Stay tuned!!

Trial Market set up - feedback please?

Giggleberry Creations will be making it's market debut at Mathilda's Market in Sydney on the 5th of Dec at Lane Cove (Yay). I'm thrilled to be able to show off and sell Giggleberry bunting in person for the first time and am busily sewing up as much stock as possible.
In the meantime I am slowly but surely getting together my market stall set up. There will be a trestle table supplied but the rest is up to me. I think I have 90% of what I wanted now so I decided to do a practice set up today while my babies slept to see if it would actually work out the way I had pictured in my head....

What do you think??


My wonderful brother whipped me up this stand for hanging and displaying my buntings (LOVE it)


I plan to show off some of my customer feedback photos on this gorgeous magnet board by Park Eden


The beautiful Samone of Red letter Studio has made me some 'As seen in...' & 'Published in...' signs to show off in the perspex frame on the end of the table


The buntings will be in these funky white Locker Baskets (from Sweet Little Birdy) for customers to flick through - I think I might need 1 or 2 more of these??



The awesome sign was printed off and laminated by my gorgeous father in law at his work... he also did a few smaller ones that I plan to maybe hang on the wall behind me (If I'm lucky enough to score a wall)


I have a few more bits and peices to add to the final look to make it 'pop' even more but I would be VERY grateful if you PLEASE leave some feedback via the comments about the set up - I'd love any and all ideas, suggestions and improvement ideas.
THANK YOU in advance.

Happy Friday Find - World's longest line of bunting!

I just stumbled upon this clip on YouTube. It is a time lapse film of the Guinness World Record Attempt at the longest continuous line of bunting. It was made by Metal, the arts organisation based in Southend UK.



A massive 9000 flags were made by people of all ages across Southend to create a length of bunting that was 2159.30m long!! That's allot of sewing!!

Happy Friday

Custom Magnet Board for Giggleberry

Mr postman knocked on my door yesterday with a parcel in hand - I LOVE when that happens! Like a kid on Christmas morning I ripped it open as I knew what it was going to be and couldn't wait to see it!!

Remember HERE I showed you a sneak peak of a custom item being handmade by Ali from Park Eden? Well this is the very item I received yesterday. A custom Fabric covered magnet notice board with coordinating Giggleberry logo magnets!!


How so VERY, VERY, VERY cool is that!?! I LOVE it and have it already hanging in Giggleberry HQ, Yay!
Thank you sooooo much Ali, your work is amazing and I just can't wait to show this off on my Mathilda's Market stall on the 5th of Dec!!
www.parkeden.net
www.facebook.com/ParkEden
www.twitter.com/parkeden

Tied With A Ribbon

Through my planning and bloging about Milla's Rainbow of Ribbons birthday party coming up in late November I have been lucky enough to meet the very lovely and VERY clever Jemima of Tied with a Ribbon


Like many of us 'micro business' owners Jemima started Tied with a Ribbon after her handmade creations were ohh'd and ahh'd at by many friends and family members. Jemima told me that earlier this year a special friend of hers gave her the "very big push" she needed to take the leap and start a business - Yay!

Now in my last post I told you about the Pass the Parcel game I had planned ready for Milla's party but I also said I would tell you more about the final prize that is in the parcel in another post - this is it:


One of Tied with a Ribbon's latest Hairclip Hangers. How PERFECT is it!?! Rainbow? Check. Ribbons? Check. Gorgeous? Check!
When I asked Jemima about her Hairclip Hangers she told me "My Favourite item to make at the moment would have to be these Hairclip Hangers. I love choosing fabrics, ribbon and felt to create an individual and gorgeous way to tidy up those hairclip boxes always overflowing with ribbons and clips." And you can tell - the fabrics are gorgeous and the handiwork that has gone into these padded fabric hangers is faultless! My fav bit is that this hanger would hold soooooo many clips (perfect for my little girls collection!) and it can also hold the sweet ribbons girls love to tie in their hair.


Check out the other 2 designs Jemima has listed in her etsy shop - Babushka and Cupcake - CUTE!
Seriously, think Christmas gifts for all the little girls you know - they will LOVE these I'm sure.

Clearly I could waffle on about these forever but I won't drive you bonkers :0 Just do yourself a favor and check out Tied with a Ribbon for some sweet handmade goodies (the 2 pinwheel hair clips in the photo were also made by Jemima!!)

Rainbow of Ribbon party games and crafts

So we've got a date set for the party. The invites have gone out. Decorations are starting to take shape. Now what to do with the little party guests to keep them interested and entertained for the duration of the party???
I did a little google searching and found this GREAT idea that will fit in just perfect with both the rainbow and the ribbons idea of Milla's upcoming party - A ribbon scrap rainbow artwork!


Thanks so much to Mama Jenn blog for this idea.
Just like Jenn I have so many ribbon bits and pieces that I just can't bring myself to throw away, the old "Just in case" sticks with me for crafty bits and in this situation it has paid off. I have cut all the ribbons into small pieces and sorted them into the 5 separate containers, one for each colour of a rainbow. I will draw 5 lines on an A4 piece of paper and copy it so each child at the party will have one.
With a couple of pots of glue, some paint brushes the containers of ribbon scraps and rainbow outlined pages all set up on a little child sized table I'm sure this will be a fun activity and also something the kids can take home too!

The other game I just can't go past for a kids party is good old Pass the Parcel. To make it a little different and to tie it into the ribbon theme a bit I decided to wrap the rainbow ribbon themed little gift (more on it in a post later this week) in white paper then wrap it in a brightly coloured ribbon, next is more white paper then another ribbon - until the whole rainbow of colours are used. How cute is that?!?


As a little extra bonus each layer also has a gold foil chocolate coin or 2 in it.

Giveaway!

Remember HERE I gave you a sneak peak at a custom order I had made recently? Well the time has come to share what it is all about - and you have a chance to win it!!!


Heidi of Mini Envy contacted me to see if I would like to work together with her to create a bunting to match the SUPER fun bunting of this onesie (which, along with this one is a brand new design for Mini Envy)


Together we came up with a fun 2m length of MINI bunting that is just too cute! The little flags are just a smidgen of my 'regular' sized flags making this banner one very unique Giggleberry bunting!


So here's the really cool part... you can win both the mini bunting AND a Mini Envy 'Nautical Bunting' onesie! Yay!
All you need to do is head to the Mini Envy facebook page HERE and comment on THIS PHOTO with which of the 'Nautical Bunting' onesie or the 'All About ME' onesie you like best and why - Easy!



Winner will be picked by Heidi on on Friday 29th October. Good luck.

Happy Friday Find

Oh so very groovy - Happy Garland Ring!!


Handmade by Pilli Pilli... I may just need to grab this cutie.

Rainbow Ribbon Birthday Wreath

I spotted this balloon birthday wreath ages ago on How Does She? and LOVED the idea. (check out the How To HERE)


What fun to have this on your front door to greet party guests or start a tradition of a birthday wreath that comes out of the cupboard each birthday and lives on the birthday boy or girl's bedroom door each year?? CUTE!
So as soon as I decided on a Rainbow of Ribbons theme for Milla's upcoming 3rd birthday I just knew I wanted to do my spin on it.... TaDah:


With just an old wire coat hanger bent into a circle wreath shape (you could bend it into any shape... heart, balloon, wings etc) and a whole lot of ribbon scraps in a rainbow of colours I sat in-front of the TV on night and just tied, tied, tied ribbons until I had the look I wanted.


How fun, effective and SUPER easy is that?


This outside the square - you wouldn't need to do rainbow colours just the colour theme of your party. With Christmas around the corner why not make a red and green one - try using fabric scraps cut into strips for a different look again.
This is also a fun and easy craft for kids!

Moo to the rescue!

There aren't many people I have come across through Giggleberry that don't know about moo.com - and 99.9% of them LOVE all the goodies you can create with moo.
I too am one of these moo lovers and can't believe it's taken me until very recently to work out that the moo MiniCards are just PERFECT for the tags on the packs of 'Giggle Berries' that are included in every Giggleberry Creations purchase.


I had been trying to find the perfect way to add a note onto the little bags and had tried a few things but they weren't exactly what I was after...
But using the super easy 'Text Cards' option for the MiniCards I was able to put the little thank you message on the front and have them made in a selection of colours the same as in my logo. Then on the back of the card is my website, email address and details - Simple and effective I reckon, don't you?


Thanks moo!

Custom orders Galore!

It's been head down, bunting up for me this past week with custom orders galore... and I LOVE it.


This one for Cutie Pie Hair Accessories & Artworks' market stall


These three were ordered by a very cute Grandma & Grandpop for their three grandchildren Ollie, Ruby and Ayden ready for Christmas presents


This one is just a sneak peak as it was specially made in collaboration with Mini Envy for an up coming giveaway - Yay! Be sure to 'like' the Mini Envy facebook page so you see more as soon as it's revealed.


This one is ready for Embellish'd new look market set up.



This 12 metres of bunting was custom ordered for length and flag spacing by Say Dream Event & Stationary Design... I wonder what it will be used for??


And this festive Christmas bunting is the first look at the Giggleberry Creations Christmas range and is on it's way to Sugar and Spice Children's Market for something fun coming up - stay tuned.