While shopping for my mom's dress for the wedding. I found some wonderful bargains!!!!!!!!!!! Party City: is having huge clearance...bunch of stuff 50 cents each. I got these cute invitations that I thought would be perfect for my baby shower...lol... I also bought some crayons really cheap for the kids table. Ross: At almost every Ross and TJ Max, I would find something that was damask. At one Ross I happen to find a really cute Damask photo album for $6. Burlington Coat Factory:They have green damask table cloth sets in many different sizes. Each package comes with one table cloth and 10 napkins for only $14.99. I only bought two of them. I am planning to use these green table cloths with the damask runners that my mom and I picked up at Hobby Lobby a month ago. I am using white table cloths on the other tables. I decided to use my DAMASK FRAMES.(the frames I found at Tuesday Mornings)..one as the cocktail menu. As you can see its a pretty limited menu....this is because at my brothers wedding people were getting carried away...I really wanted some more drinks and I was bummed about it at first...but I think it will be enough...since most of the people that are coming are beer drinkers anyway. The Polaroid/Picture Guest Book pages: creat on Open Office Draw. I will probably cut them in half so people can write on them. Then one of my friends will take pictures of the guests. Then when I print the pictures out I will place their picture according to their names.

This project was so tedious because I printed out the damask on cardstock and had to overlap the patterns to match. My back hurts from hunching over the last 5 hours. I think I burned myself with the hot glue gun like 5 times. PLus, I really didn't follow any directions...I just used trial and error...(read suggestions part) .Anyway, I bought $50 worth of stuff from Joann's Fabric. I also bought vellum paper, but did not use it, going to return them. Everything is styrofoam! So for traveling purposes its not all put together yet. A stick will go down the middle so everything stays in place. Also, I bought little bows with rhinestones to place on the front on each tier. I probably wont put those on until I bring all my stuff to Michigan. SUGGESTIONS; I placed the graphics on top of old gift wrapping boxes that i cut out to match the top part of the foam. I HIGHLY suggest you decopauge the graphic to some type of card board, THEN after you let it dry, hot glue or use spray glue to attach the graphic & cardboard to the top of the styrofoam. Then you can smooth it out with your hand so it doesnt bubble up. I learned that if you glue the cardboard first then decopage the graphic it bubbles up...so I had to peel the cardboard off and reglue and that was a pain!. I used black cardstock and placed it under each flat styrofoam tier. Then I place white ribbon around the tier and then placed black ribbon on top of the white ribbon. I use black card stock to wrap the all the styrofoam squares. I cut the top black styrofoam square to be smaller. The black cardstock was on sale .16/ 6 for .96 cents. (Joann Fabrics)

This has been a busy week! Started on the crystal tree yesterday and the centerpiece for the kids table. Centerpiece will have tons of lollipops stuffed in the flower arrangement. Also put together a few DIY coloring books. I think I might add flowers, poems or something to the tree. Suggestions are much appreciated. UPDATE: 7/14/08 MOM ADDED MORE STRINGS WITH THE LEFTOVER GEMS AND BEADS I HAD! I LOOKS GREAT MOM! THANKS!! PREVIOUS BLOGS POSTED ABOUT THIS DIY PROJECT Manzanita Tree 30-40": Save on Crafts.com http://www.save-on-crafts.com/manzanita2.html0 Wire (Michaels) 2 boxes of GEMS (Michaels) 2 boxes of Beads Silver Paint Plaster of Paris Vase, Box, Planter Ribbon I would say about 55 dollars to make the whole tree.