Lisa Storms

hot air balloon party decor

Party planning for my son's seventh birthday is in full effect. We are going with a "growing up up up" theme with all things that fly. I am trying to take on all of the projects in my head little by little and will share them on my blog along the way.

First up is this hot air balloon centerpiece I designed for BasicGrey.  I've had it in my head for a long time, and it was so fun to finally create. I designed it to be used long after the party is over for fun storage in my office. 

You can view full step-by-step photos and tutorial over at the BasicGrey blog here.

popsicle bookmark with printable

I made these popsicle bookmarks with my son's class at the end of the school year to encourage them to continue reading daily during the summer. Since I created the printable for the class, I thought I'd share it here with you, too.

These were inspired by the adorable popsicle invitations I often see for summer parties. Start by printing out the bookmark pdf right here. Hit refresh if it doesn't load for you.

Color the bookmarks before cutting out so you don't have to worry about staying in the lines. If you have an ink jet printer you will likely need to use colored pencils or crayons so the text doesn't smear with markers. Or make a duplicate using a copy machine. Or just skip coloring and print onto colored cardstock.

Cut out and glue a craft stick to the back. If you have a scalloped circle punch, you can take a "bite" out before adhering the stick.

Happy summer reading!

summer lemonade party

With the kids finally out of school, we are ready to focus on summer! I thought I'd kick it off with a new lemonade party I created for Fiskars. It's a great reason to have people over and a fun theme for decorating.

Fiskars sent me one of their brand new Fuse Creativity Systems which  can die-cut and letterpress in one pass! I created this entire party using only one shape and design to showcase its versatility. You can letterpress and die cut:

Or just die-cut:

Or only emboss:

Using lots of materials like chipboard, craft foam, felt, stacks of tissue paper, and thin cork:

Check out the full party here with full projects and directions ... and look for the world launch on HSN this weekend.

teacher bottle flags with printable

I have yet another set of flags to share for teacher gifts. I found these ridiculously cute reusable water bottles by Copco (I promise I have no affiliation with them, I just really like cute cups ha!) at JoAnn's. I thought a lidded bottle would be useful during the summer on-the-go.

When I found out they twist open for adding ice and lemon, I saw an opportunity to use them to present thank you notes to the kids' teachers. 

You could obviously add drink packets, treats, gift cards, etc. inside as well. I turned both previously shared sets of my straw flags into these hanging flags. All you do is punch a hole to thread ribbon through to tie onto bottle neck.

You can download all four previous flags ready for bottle hanging here: Download Teacher Bottle Flags.

Make sure to hit refresh if the flags don't load for you. 

Tea packet straw flags can be found here.

Lemonade packet straw flags can be found here.

All teacher gift ideas can be found here.

School parties can be found here.

chevron paper braiding

I have completely fallen for the chevron trend.  Can't get enough of it.  I came up with this fun technique to create a chevron pattern using paper braiding for a story opener in the August issue of Scrapbooks Etc. magazine.

You can find step-by-step photos and directions for creating this pattern by braiding four strips of paper right here.

This will sadly be the last issue of Scrapbooks Etc., which I believe hits newsstands June 19th. I had my first project published with them in 2004 and first joined their Creative Team in 2006.  I will not only miss its inspirational pages but the amazing people I've had the honor of working with along the way who have impacted my life more than they know...

new teacher gift printable

Back by popular demand, I am sharing a new set of straw flag printables for last minute teacher gifts to accompany my original set from last year.  Fill a reusable cup with thank you notes and individual instant tea packets and top with a cute flag topper.

Between finding the new summer Copco cups with polka dotted straws (add white polka dots to anything and I'm sold) and the new Lipton tea packets, a new set of flags begged to be created.

One flag is specifically for a teacher, and the other is appropriate for any staff member at the end of the year.  The pdf for these can be found here: Download Straw Flag. Hit refresh if it doesn't load.

Here is a link to the original flags shown above.

And here is a link to all of my teacher gift posts.