Pool Party Birthday Tags

I have been very busy helping out a friend with her son's birthday party! One of my good friends is throwing a little backyard pool party for her 5 year old, complete with treasure hunts, games, a bouncey house, and an ice cream truck! What 5 year old wouldn't love that?! So I made her and her son special birthday cards, and I also volunteered to help with the gift tags for all the guests...

If you follow my twitter you probably read how frustrated I was with all of my crafting electronics. I wanted to throw my cricut, my gypsy, my laptop, and my silhouette sd right out the damn window.  I always thought crafty ladies who had more than one cutting machine were insane but it actually came in handy for me. You see, right when my gypsy decided it wouldn't hold a charge anymore, I could turn to my Silhouette.  And then when my Make-the-Cut software decided it didn't want to cut (only print and cut) I could turn to my cricut... and my gypsy was suddenly 100% charged! Awesome!

I digress 

I'll shut up about my anxiety inducing electronic craft and cutting machines and just show pictures...

A lovely photograph of everything.  The name tags are to tie around goodie bags, and various summer treats to tie around the bag as well.  Did I mention this party will have an ice cream truck? So cool...

The name tags for the party guests.  I cut all of the tags using my Gypsy and Cricut.  I then used my Gypsy to fit the names inside each tag, and re-"cut" the mats with a Cricut marker. I'm so glad they turned out, or else I would have slapped a bitch.  The font for the names is from Kate's ABC cart.

Popsicles! The birthday boy loves popsicles, especially those Bomb Pops that are red, white and blue. I was too frustrated to do that many layers, so the kid gets red.  I used a graphic from Lettering Delights' Summer Treats, and pixel traced it to be a layered svg.  I really love how they turned out, actually.  All paper is from DCWV Stripes and Polka Dots stack, I added cotton candy stickles, and I used Make-the-Cut and my Silhouette to cut the shapes.

Ice Cream! This image is from Lettering Delights' Soak up the Sun svg set.  I used Make-the-Cut software and my Silhouette to cut the shapes.  Papers by DCWV, and I embossed the top with swirls Cuttlebug folder.

Did I mention my Silhouette cutting machine decided it didn't want to cut? So I was in the middle of these watermelons and it stopped working. Cool. Remember when I said two machines actually came in handy so I could use the other as a back up? I never thought I'd say this, but my little Cricut came to the rescue! I remembered there was a cute watermelon on the Just Because Cards cartridge. Sigh of relief. Green paper from some DCWV stack, and pink paper from DCWV Sweet stack.  I added black diamond stickles to the seeds.

Finally!!! After two straight days of cutting, gluing, stickle-ing, and extreme electronic frustration, I finished these little party gift tags! Regardless of the ugh-ness, I actually really like how they all turned out!

How do you react when your craft supplies crap out on you? Do you have back ups or do you swear like a sailor?

<3 Rachel w k