Friday, April 12, 2013

Birds and Butterflies and Boxers OH MY!!

A couple of weeks ago I alluded to a big project I was working on. Well, I was actually working on 2 projects at the same time (note to self: not the BEST idea, if you want to keep you sanity that is). I had to keep quiet about the projects because 1 of them was for a dear friend and coworker who is going through some difficult times right now....

It all started a couple of months ago when my Mom was trying to come up with centerpiece ideas for the Minister's luncheon in April. I had just been fooling around with a really cute idea for a "garden" centerpiece using tootsie pops as the "flowers" on the top of the box. Well, she LOVED the idea so it was a go. No problem! 10 gardens.....not needed until the end of April....I have this under control! :-) I searched through my collection of SVG files and found lots of choices that I could use for decorations on the sides of the box. I played with the layout and edited the selection until I was happy with the look.



I am delighted with how they came out!! Super cute and super fun to make!!

Around 5 weeks ago we found out that one of my coworkers was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is not able to work right now, her husband has been laid off for over a year, her elderly disabled mother lives with them and they have 4 children.

A couple of my friends organized a fundraiser for her (without her knowledge) to help out. While I was discussing the plans with them they told me they were planning on getting those "fruit arrangements" (you know what I mean...right??) to use as centerpieces... did I mention they need 23 of them?!?  I said WAIT! Do you know how much that will COST?!?! I told them about the centerpieces I was making for the church and explained how I could modify them for the fundraiser.

They loved the idea and gave me the green light to make them. They had a graphic of a tough boxer chick that they had used for the t-shirts, tickets and a banner. I imported her into my SCAL2 program and went to town designing my ideas. She was an amazing piece of inspiration to use and I REALLY love how she came out.


Isn't she just ADORABLE?!?! I love her!!

So now I had 33 centerpieces to make....no problem right?! WRONG! LOL I was up to my eyeballs in paper and realized that I *might* need some help. ;-) So Mom and I rallied our crafting peeps, set up a mega craft night at the church, and went to town making all 33 centerpieces. 16 fantastic ladies showed up to help and we were able to complete all 10 luncheon centerpieces and *almost* finish the fundraiser boxes.

While I could have done this all on my own (I'm not sure if my sanity would have survived) I am forever grateful for all of the help I received! The ladies did a fantastic job and really made my life easier!

So, I am giving a HUGE Thank You SHOUT OUT to the First Church craft group! We also had co-workers and friends come to help that evening and they were just amazing! The support you shared that evening is greatly appreciated! I also wanted to thank Cheryl from Creative Kuts, she helped edit the file down to actually make this boxer girl usable for this project. :-)

I think both centerpieces came out great! Let me know what you think!!

~Christy

12 comments:

  1. Thank you Christine! I'll go check it out!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think these are fabulous centerpieces! I'll bet people loved them. The possibilities are endless---you could make a business out of these and sell them as centerpieces to companies and charities that have functions, etc. Just something to think about....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the kind words! That is actually an idea I've been playing with! I'm grateful for the support!

      Delete
  3. Girlie stop playing around and go into business! Think about the weddings, retirement parties, engagement parties, baby showers, birthdays, sweet sixteen parties, divorce parties and etc, you can be selling your beautiful centerpieces.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sheila, I hear you!! You will be seeing more of these -- I promise!!

      Delete
  4. I can't decide which centerpiece is cuter. I love the cancer messed with the wrong girl one, but there are tootsie pops in the flowers. Definitely a tie, and I agree with the commenter above, you could totally sell them!

    Ashley @ http://downsizingashley.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Ashley! I really like how the tootsie pops came out as well!

      Delete
  5. I absolutely positively LOVE the Boxer "Cancer messed with the wrong girl" Being a cancer fighter/survivor myself I can not tell you how awesome I think they are. You really should go into business!
    http://mommysrambles.blogspot.com/2013/04/today-i-cried.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Kimbra! I really, REALLY love the boxer chick. :-) I was so happy when the box came together and it turned out this great!

      I'm glad you are healthy and strong now...I pray for my friend every day!

      Delete
  6. Love these! The boxer chick was a super-sweet idea! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog!

    Also, just in case you didn't know, you're a no-reply blogger so I couldn't email respond to your comment... you can find a tutorial to help you fix that here. You'll probably get lots more comments/replies to your comments from bloggers if you do that too! : )

    -Mel the Crafty Scientist

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for letting me know Mel! I had NO idea....I did look at your tutorial, but since I'm a Google+ user I needed a few extra steps, so I googled again and found some further information at:

      http://www.flusterbuster.com/2013/02/are-you-no-reply-blogger.html

      another great tutorial....

      Delete