Ambrosia Creative

We had a very lovely evening socializing and enjoying pumpkin-based dishes at our annual pumpkin party for all the ladies from church.

Despite some major glitches along the way (an entire string of lights shattering, missing tablecloths, missing committee members, and so on), everything came together perfectly at the end. We had to work within a ridiculously tight budget, so decorations were handmade or bought on the cheap, and I took full advantage of the outdoor patio/courtyard area our relief society room opens up to. To elevate the “budget” decor, I relied heavily on lighting, hence all the tea lights, luminaries, and string bulb lights.

This undertaking would not have been possible without an awesome planning committee (those that didn’t go AWOL on me) and amazing, amazing friends that came early and stayed late to help, just because. And husbands, I did not forget about you. Your prowess in hanging lights and managing extension cords is worthy of a gift certificate to any electronic store of your choice.

Resources and design notes:
Pumpkins – Martha Stewart tutorial here.

Luminaries – Vellum paper rolled and held together with double-sided tape. Paper trees cut out of black paper, taped onto battery-operated tea lights, then inserted into vellum luminary to create a spooky tree silhouette.

Battery-operated Tea lights – Best price at Costco; 24 lights for $12. Otherwise, order from Oriental Trading.

String bulb lights – Borrowed from dear friends Kaleene and Shawn. But can be found at Target, $8.99 for 25 feet. I know this because we had to buy them a new string to replace the one we broke!

Fall leaves – $1 for pack of 50, dollar section at Target.

Our next big Relief Society activity is only a week away and my mind has been pretty preoccupied with all the party details, so I wanted to design an invitation that had no post-printing work involved: no folding, ribbon tying, stuffing into envelopes, etc. The result is a full-color, double-sided, 5″ square invitation.

And big props to my darling friend Angela who happily obliged to get dressed up and nails painted red (and hands dirtied with pumpkin guts!) for our little photo shoot.

Hello, I’m back. I ducked in last Friday to slap on an “open for business” sign, then quickly left. I had been glued to my computer for so long, my hands were beginning to lose their unique human properties and nearly fused themselves with the keyboard and mouse. Scary.

I owe Ryan majorly for a couple of late nights he spent running the press and cutting my stationery down. And for adhering to an unreasonable production schedule that only a wife can get away with. Also, a huge thanks to Raya for taking product shots of my prints.

So I’m going to switch gears now and share with you a free download. This evening, I was working on an “e-” version of a save-the-date card for an upcoming church activity (recycling an old illustration of mine):

And it came to mind that this would make the perfect Halloween download. So if you could use some stationery for a fall or Halloween-themed event, click here to download a printable PDF. The design has no text or copy so you can customize it for your own use.

Happy fall!

My latest design for an upcoming Enrichment activity; a Saturday morning committed to making quilts, quilts, and blankets. Hence the loads of fabric I bought yesterday.

It’s that time again for what’s becoming an annual church activity for our Relief Socity: speed friendshipping!

The concept is the same as speed dating. We spend a couple of minutes chatting with someone (we will have some questions prepared ahead of time, just to get the conversation going) until a timer goes off. Then, everyone switches partners to begin a dialogue with a new person.

The setup:
We held this in the Relief Society room to make the space feel more intimate. Long tables were placed in a U-shape with chairs on both sides. The tables were covered with a paper table cloth and we taped down paper arrows on one side of the table. This was to give the sisters sitting on that side of the table the direction to shift over to the seat on their right once the timer went off. The sisters sitting across from them remained stationary.

As for food, it was an after-dinner activity so we just had bowls of yummy snacks all along the table so everyone could snack and chat.

Some of our ice-breaker questions:
What do you consider to be your strongest character traits?
What traits or habits do you wish you didn’t have?
Do you believe people can change?
What do you consider to be the most important world events of your lifetime?
Do you think life now is harder or easier than when you were young?
What are you most proud of?
What are your hidden talents?
When was the last time you peed your pants?
At school, what were you like?
What were your hobbies as a kid?
How long did you date your husband before kissing him?
What TV show do you currently love?
How old were you when you moved out of your parents home?
Who makes you laugh the hardest and why?
A favorite movie or book?
What was the best trip you ever took?
If you could go somewhere you’ve never been, where would it be?
What are five things you couldn’t live without?
What’s the bravest thing you have ever done? The scariest? The dumbest?
What would I be surprised to learn about you?

I like it when our church activities – including clean-up — end before 9. Having the ladies decorate their own tables (and even bring a cake) showcased their creativity and made for a very eclectic, but snappy party. Again, home by 9. And I’m on the committee. Some of you know what I’m saying.

I teamed up with my friends Lynette and Angela to put together an Asian-themed table. We were originally going to implement some sort of Paris look. Think black and white. Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face with her glorious balloons. But at 6pm last night, we threw that idea out in favor of an Asian theme (uhhh, two of us are Asian after all…) We gathered inspiration from this Martha Stewart Kids party and literally spent the whole day putting it together.

So I think I got off easy by making just the cake. Angela procured candies, paper, and made the beautiful origami flowers while Lynette spent the entire day going from store, to store, to store, shopping for all the little details. By the time I came with the cake, the two were nearly finished with the table. Again, this was all pulled off today. And both ladies have two little children. My friends are amazing.

One last thing. I was very happy at how this frosting turned out. And also this whipped cream frosting. Both from Cafe Johnsonia.

Lots of pretty pink envelopes were handed out today in church. Because pink is synonymous with Relief Society. Or is that just crazy talk in my head?

Here are my small-budget invitations for our upcoming RS birthday party. In an attempt to fancy up my painfully simple invitations, I scored these envelopes at Borders where they were ringing up at the register at $1.00 per pack of 8 (obviously some type of mistake and obviously something I took advantage of) and designed mock mailing labels to go on the envelope face.

I wish I can share what we’re doing exactly for the party, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise for the few ladies in my ward that occasionally visit my blog. But the theme is decidedly very “birthday.” Meaning games, cakes, balloons, decorations… I love parties.

Without getting into how long I procrastinated these and how late I stayed up last night putting fifty of these together (cutting paper down from parent sheets by hand really bites), here are the invitations I designed for this year’s Relief Society Christmas dinner.

Our RS President wanted the focus to be more spiritual than feast. Dinner involved a salad, and different types of soups served in bread bowls (play off the ‘Bread of Life’ theme). As appetizers, we had spinach dip (also in bread bowls) already set out on the tables. Having this dinner at a sister’s home made for an intimate evening. Dessert was peppermint ice cream pie.

(Nativity illustration from iStockphoto)

That blog-cation was short-lived, no? I finished off a couple projects this week, so I can breathe a sigh of relief for the time being — and blog.

Ultra-simple announcement done for church. Our Enrichment supervisor wanted to incorporate a silhouette of Emma Smith, so I thought it’d be fun to balance the old, vintage feeling of a profile with a modern, graphic patterned background inspired by:

{Dwell Studio}

{Photo via DesignSponge}

These came out handsome-looking. Oftentimes, when I feel overwhelmed by a huge load of projects (especially church ones) and I am plagued with designer’s block, I recall the scripture: