I designed these Military Welcome Home Printables awhile ago and I'm finally getting them up on my blog.  If you have family and/or friends that have been away serving our country for awhile throw them a little party to welcome them back home!  I've made a "Welcome Home" banner and a variety of square or circle tags (if you use a circle punch) to use as cupcake toppers or for other decorations!

It's kind of hard to take a photo of the actual banner all made and put together so below is a little visual of what the banner says and looks like once it's printed and cut out.

I had to split the banner into 2 files in order to upload it to the blog so click here for the word "Welcome" and click here for the word "Home".  Once printed and cut out the individual triangles measure approx. 5 1/2" W x 6 1/2" H".

To download the tags that you see below click here.

If you use these printable for a party please share some photos with me!  Thank you to all of those that serve our country!! *Terms of use for free digital files/downloads: All digital .pdf files/designs are to be used for PERSONAL USE ONLY! Commercial use, re-selling, making a profit from, forwarding and sharing these files/designs is strictly prohibited. You may NOT sell the finished (printed & cut) designs. All designs are original creations and are copyright of ©Amy Miller Designs. All rights reserved. By downloading these files/designs you agree to these terms.  All of my downloadable files are password protected, which means you cannot bring them into a design program and alter them.

Well from the title you're probably wondering did I win or lose.  I lost, but it's ok!  I'm a little bummed today but tomorrow I'll shove it out of my head and move on to the next thing.  I recently submitted a design to the big Lilla Rogers' Global Talent Search.  By big I mean there were 1500 people who submitted artwork.  Why was this so big?  Well the winner gets a 2 year contract for international representation by Lilla Rogers Studio plus some great licensing deals.  That's a really big prize in the design world.  Today was the big day that everyone who entered found out if they made it to the next round of 50.  Yes, it went right from 1500 to 50!  When I told my husband last night that I found out there were 1500 submissions he decided to calculate the chances of me getting in, which was 3.33%.  This cracked me up because I'm like are you trying to make me feel better??  ha ha  I didn't make the cut, but I wasn't expecting to anyways.  From time to time I like to enter design contests just to learn and do something new and get out of my normal design mode.  I don't really enter them thinking I'm going to win.  If I do, awesome but if I don't no big deal, I just like to challenge myself.  I did actually win the Pantone Inspired Egg Contest held by Amy Atlas Events a couple years ago.  Go check it out, it's kind of funny!  I'll have to blog about that sometime. So I wasn't going to show my design unless I made it into the round of 50.  Then I changed my mind this morning because I personally really like it and I wasn't going to let not making it to the next round rob me of the joy I had making it.  Everyone who entered was given the same design brief/assignment.  In general you were to design a journal cover that was 5 x 7  with the theme of old-fashioned playground items and include the word "journal" somewhere in your design.   You could interpret this theme anyway you wanted to.  Below is my interpretation!

I'll share a little on how my design was developed.  The assignment was e-mailed to us while I was in Colorado on vacation the beginning of July.  For a brief moment in the woods I had an internet connection and was able to view the assignment.  The very rough sketch/concept below is the idea I came up with right after I read the assignment and sat on the deck drawing and watching the river flow by (wish I was still there!).  I'm not sure if I went with bears because I was in the middle of the woods or because the visual of chubby bears on playground equipment cracked me up!

Next was to figure out a color palette.  I came across this nail polish ad in one of the Ulta flyers and was really drawn to it and thought it seemed fun for my design.  I ended up changing the final colors in my design a little from this but this was my initial inspiration.  Some of you might have seen me post some of these photos on my facebook page.

I then picked colors from my Pantone swatch book based on the nail polish ad to use in Adobe Illustrator.  I pretty much use Illustrator 85% of the time for all my designs and I usually design them directly in Illustrator.  That's why my initial concept drawings are very sketchy/scary looking because I do the real drawing on the computer.

For the background I wanted a little texture and decided to take a photo of some sand since you usually find sand or dirt at a playground.  The background didn't turn out as texturey (were making that a word today!) as I wanted it to but that's ok.  So that's pretty much the process that I went through for this design.

I like it and it really represents my design style of cute and fun!  I'll use this on another design project someday.  I think it would be a really cute allover print. Hop on over to see the 50 designs that were chosen to move onto the next round.  I found it really interesting to see everyone's interpretation when given the same assignment. Also check out this fun time lapsed video that Catriona from CR Patterns made of her design process.

I recently added these Bake Sale and Farmers Market price tag labels to my shop.   They come as a personalized digital .pdf file that will print 12 labels per page that once cut measure 2 3/4" W x 1 5/8" H.  The middle of the label is left blank so you can write in the price for the various items.  You can print them on full size sticker label sheets similar to these or print them on regular white paper and attach with tape to your baked goods.

This design came about when a friend of ours wanted to know if I could make some personalized price tag labels to be used on baked goods and jam that her mother-in-law sells at Farmers Markets.  I got an idea right away to go kind of country with the design and make the label look like a little booth with a red and white check tablecloth for the homemade graphic goodies to sit on and then "built" a wooden sign with the "painted" personalized name on it.  Our friend was going to give the labels along with other supplies that her mother-in-law uses to make and sell her homemade goods to her for a Mother's Day gift.  I thought that was such a great customized gift idea, don't you?

Besides using these labels for individuals you can have them personalized with an organization such as a High School running a bake sale or...

a church or another type of organization.

If you or someone else you know would like to make your bake sale or farmers market items look more professional go order your personalized labels here! Are you hungry for some homemade baked goods now?! : ) What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!

Are you sick of the hot weather yet?  Dreaming of Christmas time and some cooler weather?  I am!  To go along with dreaming of Christmas time I decided to throw my first Christmas in July Sale in my shop.  Everything in my shop will be 25% off when you use the coupon code CHRISJULY at checkout.  FYI - I very seldom run sales especially on my faux cupcake decorations so take advantage of this now!  The 25% off discount will be valid from July 26-29, 2013.

What's included?  Well like I said before, everything!  Here's a little sampling of some of the items. FAUX CUPCAKE DECORATIONS - I make a variety of cupcake decorations in many different patterns.  Here are just a few.  I started making cupcake ornaments because I was trying to find a realistic yet cute cupcake ornament and couldn't find any I liked so I made one myself.  I then had other people ask me where I got my ornament and they wanted one so that's how my little cupcakes were born!

PERSONALIZED FAUX CUPCAKE DECORATIONS - These are made with the very popular cupcake circle toppers!  The personalized Baby's 1st Christmas cupcake is one of my popular sellers along with Our 1st Christmas for married couples with their names and marriage date.  Kids love having their own names on items so a personalized cupcake would be sure to please!

PRINTABLES -  For those that don't know I'm a surface and graphic designer and will keep adding more designs to my printables line.  All my printables are available as digital .pdf files that you can print from home and print as many as you need for your celebration.

ART PRINTS - All my current prints are 8x10, professionally printed and shipped to you ready to just pop into a frame.

Now get to shopping!!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!!  I don't know about you but my favorite treat anytime of the year is ice cream!  While sketching up some new 4th of July paper product designs I came up with an idea for red, white and blue dipped ice cream cones.  Instead of just keeping them on paper I decided to bring them to life! Here's the happy dipped cone family:  mom, dad and baby! ; )

If you are planning to serve ice cream on the 4th of July you could make a little ice cream bar like this one! When I was little we usually made homemade ice cream around the 4th.  We made it with the older machines that you had to keep adding ice and salt around the container.  I'm not sure why we only made it once a year, but that was usually the tradition.  Did you make homemade ice cream growing up?

Here's the supplies you'll need, they're probably pretty obvious but I'll list them anyways:  ice cream cones, vanilla candy melts in red, white and blue and sprinkles!  Tip:  Navy blue candy melts are kind of hard to find.  I found mine at Hobby Lobby.  You can also use white candy melts and blue candy coloring to make navy too if you can't find navy ones available.

How to make them.  Again it's probably kind of obvious but I'll let you know the steps I took.  I used coffee mugs to melt the candy melts.  I microwave the melts in about 15-20 second intervals, stirring between each time till smooth and melted.  You want to microwave chocolate in small time frames because it can scorch/burn very quickly.  Now you are ready to dip!  If you've ever dipped things in chocolate before you know the first few things you dip usually come out looking bad until you get a little rhythm and system to your dipping.  I thought I'd be able to just dip them the whole way to the line on the cone but that ended up to be too much chocolate.  When I added sprinkles to the chocolate and placed them on wax paper to dry all the chocolate and sprinkles started heading south and began to pool on the wax paper.  So I had to change my method of dipping.  I dipped the cone about half way between the top edge and the line where I wanted to stop then used a teaspoon to apply the rest around the sides while holding it over the mug for whatever dripped off.  In general you just want to cover the cone lightly with chocolate so it's not too heavy, add the sprinkles to it while it's still wet and lay it on wax paper top side down to harden.  Tip:  Half of the reg. size cones I bought were broken on top so you might want to buy an extra box if you want them to look really nice and not look like a bite was taken out of them! ; )  Use those broken ones as your "test" cones to dip first and get your own system down then move on to the better ones.  You could make these cones a few weeks ahead of time and store in an air tight container in a cool dry place till you are ready to use them.

Seeing stars!  I bought this green rubber star mold last year from the $1.00 section at Target.  It was actually labeled as an ice cube tray but I thought maybe I could use it for a chocolate mold.  I used some of my left over melted chocolate to make stars to match my cones.  I used a teaspoon to plop some chocolate in the molds, tapped the mold on the table so the chocolate would level out then added sprinkles while the chocolate was still wet.  I put the mold in the freezer for about 3-5 minutes to speed up the drying time.  The chocolates were a little hard to get out of the mold and took a little coaxing to get out.  A real candy mold would have worked better but this ice cube tray worked for my needs.

Another shot of the happy little family!

Dipped cones ready and at attention to hold ice cream!

Baby ice cream cones!  Could they be any cuter?  I've had these in my pantry for awhile and finally got them out to play with!  Great for portion control, unless you eat about 6 of them! ; )

Sprinkles...they just make you smile!

So what's your favorite ice cream flavor?  I'm not sure if I can pick just one but peanut butter and cookie dough are typically my favorites!  Although I'd probably eat almost any flavor you put in front of me! Looking for more red, white and blue fun?  Come follow my 4th of July Pinterest Board! Linked Up At:  SNAP, Tatertots & Jello, Whipperberry What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!

Earlier this week I set out to find some 4th of July candy making supplies and had a little trouble finding what I wanted.  So I thought I'd pass along what I found and where I found it if you might be looking for the same things and save you a little time driving everywhere.

1.  Navy Blue Candy Melts - Navy blue candy melts are a little hard to find.  I found these at Hobby Lobby with their candy and cake making supplies.  I've never used the Make 'n Mold brand before.  The color was great but there wasn't much vanilla taste to them.  They worked fine for what I needed them for though. You can also custom make your own navy blue by using white candy melts and candy coloring.  You have to use coloring specifically for candy not the same coloring you use for say cake frosting.  Candy coloring is oil based and will blend well with the candy melts.  If you use regular frosting coloring your candy coating might harden up because there is a little water in the regular coloring.  Candy coating/chocolate and water are enemies, they don't play well together and if you add water to the candy coating it can harden up and become unusable.  I've heard of people using just a very small amount of reg. coloring to get a pastel color but if you go one drop too many it will turn into a disaster.  There is also a product called AmeriColor Flo-Coat Oil Candy Color that you can use with AmeriColor's Gel Pastes (the kind of coloring to use for reg. baking) that will allow you to use the reg. coloring for candy melts.  I've never used this before but my 2 cents would be to just get the specific candy coloring to make custom candy melt colors.  Hope I didn't loose you through all of that! ; ) ha ha 2.  Red, White and Blue Jimmies - These are Betty Crocker brand and I found them at my local grocery store (Fry's Food Stores) with the regular cake decorating supplies right by the cake mixes.  I would think you could find these at your local bigger grocery stores too in the same area or a special 4th of July section. 3.  Red, White and Blue Nonpareils (aka little tiny balls that you will find on your floor for 6 months after you use them!) - I found these at Hobby Lobby.  One would think they would be in a special 4th of July section, right...NO I found these in the themed party supply section with basic red, white and blue patriotic items they carry all year long. I know I could have purchased all these items online but I needed to start on my project that same day and didn't have time to wait for them to be shipped to me. Check back later this week when I show you what I did with these supplies!  Here's what I made with these fun supplies! Happy making and baking! What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!

Have a little one graduating from Kindergarten or Preschool this year?  I've got you covered with these cute ice cream cone graduation invitations.

Pink and blue versions.

There are also matching party tags to use as favor bag tags, cupcake toppers and more.

You can purchase them in my shop here!

Looking for a fun way to send someone money as a gift?  Keep on scrolling to reveal the party that's going on in this box!

We live further away from most of our family and don't make it back home for most celebrations like High School and College graduations.  So I send the usual money inside a card for those celebrations.  I can't take full credit for the idea I'm going to share, I found it while hopping around Pinterest (you know, that place that can be a time suck and you pin a million things you are never going to make...yep that place).  I came across a box of balloons that intrigued me.  So I clicked the photo and that sent me to the blog She's Crafty who shared the idea of sending money in balloons.  I thought that was so cool, I would love to get money in a box of balloons at my door!  So I put that idea in my back pocket to save for another day.  Side Note - I LOVE balloons!  Seriously I just love them and they make me happy.  When you see balloons that usually means something fun and happy is going on and who doesn't want fun and happiness going on, right?!  I'll take a bunch of balloons over flowers anytime.  Ok, so that's my weird obsession with balloons...back to my story.

That "day" came last year when I had 2 nieces graduating from college and I was trying to think of what to get them and then I remembered the balloon idea.  This year I had another niece graduating from college too (I'm starting to feel old having nieces graduating from college!) so off went another box of balloons and I took some photos to share with you. I chose to do a theme box using their college colors.  Here's what was inside:

A PARTY in a Box!!

Here are some of the supplies I used:  tissue paper, curling ribbon, balloons, candy, college logo confetti and $$$.

To put money in the balloons:  roll the money and insert into a deflated balloon and then blow it up.  I blew mine up pretty small to include 6 balloons in my box that I shipped.  Inside some of the balloons I put a "Try Again" note, not each balloon had money so it became a little game to find which balloons had money.  I also included a little note in the box front and center that said "Pop the balloons to reveal more surprises".   I added that note just to make sure they knew money was inside the balloons and they didn't think it was just a cute decoration and throw them away!

A party in a box wouldn't be complete without a little sweet treat...chocolates also in their college colors.

This black and gold box was one that I sent last year to my niece.

This green and white box was another one that I sent last year to my niece.

The response back was great, they all loved their party in a box!   My goal was just to make them feel special and like a kid again opening their box of fun!  I almost was going to nix the idea thinking that it was maybe too juvenile for a college graduate, but I'm glad I didn't because I got this message on my Facebook page from one of them:  "Love that I have such a creative and awesome Aunt! (ps, I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning yesterday when I openend up the box, huge smile on my face!)"  My goal was accomplished!  Hearing about the huge smile on their face and feeling like a kid again made my day! Tips, Hints & Randomness: -I used this idea for graduation gifts but it would be fun to do for a birthday or wedding gift.  A wedding gift would be so fun do all up in their wedding colors...another idea saved to my back pocket! ; ) -The plastic tubes that the M&M's are in are candy tubes that are used a lot for 1" gumballs.  I got mine from Petite Party Studio here.  If you live local in the Phoenix area check out their store in downtown Gilbert, it's an adorable little shop! -Balloon sizes - 7 to 9 inch balloons work best but I've also used 12 inch.  The 7 to 9 inch ones just keep their shape a little rounder if you aren't blowing them up very big.  Water balloons are too small, it's hard to get the rolled up money in there and blow it up. - If you didn't have to ship the box of balloons and could actually hand deliver them I think it would fun and hilarious to use a huge box (like a kitchen appliance or furniture box) and fill it with a bunch of balloons with small bill denominations that would take the recipient forever to pop open! - If you aren't comfortable sending cash in the mail write a check and put it in one of the balloons and fill the other balloons up with notes, quotes or confetti. - Wondering what's in those smaller white boxes with polka dot ribbon in each box??  I made each niece a cupcake ornament with their college colors and year they graduated on it.  You can find similar ones here in my shop. - Like balloons?  Follow my "Balloon Fun" Pinterest board here. - Wondering how much this cost to ship?  The box I used was approx. 12"x9"x5" and I sent it USPS Priority Mail and paid $5.54.  In general the smaller the box and the lighter in weight the package is it's cheaper to ship. - This balloon idea would be so cute to do for Valentine's Day with red and white balloons with little notes inside each balloon with "why I love you" type messages. *Side Note  - Please note that I do not condone using copyrighted artwork.  I'm referring to the college logos that you see being used in some of the photos.  I will from time to time make some custom things for my immediate family members for special occasions like you see in the above photos.  I am a professional designer and would never use copyrighted artwork for profit. What other ideas would you put in your Party In A Box?? 

I'm sharing a FREE printable with you for Teacher Appreciation Week.  With the popularity of chalkboard art popping up everywhere I was inspired to make a faux wooden chalkboard note and gift card holder.  I also made a matching note card.  You can download both printables towards the bottom of this post.

Teacher Appreciation Week is a week long celebration the first full week in May and Teacher Appreciation Day is the Tuesday during that week.

The gift/notecard holder is pretty easy to assemble.  Download, print, cut, fold and tape the side flaps to the back of the holder.  Write a little note of appreciation to your child's teacher or have your child write the note.  You can also enclose a gift card if you wish.

I also came up with this idea from a blog post I read by Christi, from Love From The Oven.  She wrote a post about what teachers really would like to receive as gifts during the holidays.  She posed this question to over 50 teachers to see what types of gifts they enjoy receiving.  You can read it here.  The number one answer was a gift card followed up by a simple hand written note of appreciation.  This gift/notecard holder works for both answers.  Keep this printable in mind at Christmas time if you decide to give something at that time.

To download the gift/notecard holder click here.  To download the matching note cards click here.  As with any free printables and artwork on my website, please use this for personal use only.  Thanks!

If you are looking for a personalized gift for your child's teacher keep in mind my cute cupcake decorations you can purchase in my shop.

Make sure to thank a teacher!