My grandmother recently celebrated her 85th birthday!  Family and friends gathered for lunch, looked at old photos, and played Telestrations with secret words relating to my grandma.

It was a pretty low-key affair, but I helped spruce it up by making some table centerpieces.

 

The components, from the bottom up:

• Books form the bases
  • Children’s Fables she gave to me and my sister as children
  • A dictionary–she’s a writer
  • River of Grass–she loves nature and has visited most of our National Parks
  • A copy of Heidi Grows Up that was hers as a child
• Doilies on top of the books
• Stemless wineglasses, which I already owned, for vases
• Blue and white decorative rocks for inside the vases
• Assorted small bunches of spring-like flowers, bought from Jo-Ann Fabric
• Tags from Creative Memories’ Simply Beautiful collection
• “Happy Birthday” with Scrabble tile letters, made digitally using CM’s Vintage Chic alpha set in Storybook Creator 4

I was going for form AND function, something that would look pretty but simple, and would also have meaning.  I wanted them to be cheerful and springlike, since we are still having snow here in Ohio.  I wanted them to not be obstructing any views around the table.  And most importantly, I wanted them to have special meaning for my grandmother, which is why I tied in all the books and the Scrabble tiles (she loves word games).

I used a lot of supplies I already had, and the things I did buy at JoAnn were 1) under $20 total and 2) able to be re-purposed for my own crafts or decorating.

The party was great fun and it was nice to be able to put my crafting skills to good use!