This weekend I had the chance to be featured on Etsy. It was fun getting to email and chat with those who visited. I’ve recently added a couple new items to the store for the occasion and I thought you might want to see what I’ve been up to- as always you will find DIY’s here for everything listed in the store.
Bird shower invitations-
A set of 9 vintage chalked bird postcards-
Also, these magnetic letter alphabet birthday cards-
Make the alphabet cards yourself: A fun way to make a kids invitation that is also its own special gift. They will love figuring out the word and playing with the alphabet.
Grab a set of magnetic alphabet letters ($1 at Walmart)
Prime and then spray the letters using one color for the alphabet and a different color for the word you would like to spell. Let the whole alphabet dry overnight.
Cut the top off a plastic sandwich bag, put all of the letters into the bag and then fold over and down the top.
Attach your own invitations or use the one I am providing, the backside is customizable for your personal party details.
Download the invitation shown above by clicking on the image below.
The small print: The downloadable pdfs on this page are free for personal use only, not for commercial use. If you wish to incorporate any of my designs in your own personal projects, please attribute it to me by linking to my site. As a courtesy, if you wish to link to anything on this article, please link to this page and not directly to a downloadable file. Thanks and enjoy.
Let’s be honest, I even had fun playing with these;)
blessings.
PS. The bird DIY’s will be shared with the bird-nest baby shower reveal in a few weeks.
In honor of the Rookie Mom’s contest we had this week I decided I would share with you my own little Rookie mom mistake.
Five weeks prior to the babies being born, in a craze of nesting instincts, I became suddenly obsessed with needing fancy, pretty burp cloths. I quickly bought a handful of the prettiest ones I could find.
As it goes- we didn’t use these, EVER. I think maybe twice. Instead we used large bathroom towels (because of reflux), we used swaddling blankets (because of accessibility) and we changed our shirts often from not using anything at all.
This week I decided they would make lovely little lumbar pillows and realized the project was the easiest pillow making endeavor that could ever exist, EVER.
Make it yourself:
Take a fancy unused burp cloth, that you probably shouldn’t have purchased-
Cut a slit in one side.
Stuff between the layers with a good chunk of lose batting-
Using a simple needle and thread hand stitch the hole.
A bit of justification for money poorly spent. I was able to make three with my leftover burp cloth collection.
Thanks for your entries in the rookie mom contest. The winner of the Rookie Mom Survival Guide is Cerise who said “We live just outside Dallas. We love going to parks and taking walks. Although for a rainy day the best time we’ve had is going to the pet shop and looking at all the animals”. Congrats Cerise and please email me your address.
Random Number Generator Min 1- Max 22 = 12 Powered by RANDOM.ORG
The imperfect party challenge has just over a week until completion. I am bursting with excitement to show you the lovely parties that have been entered. In the meantime, I would love your help getting the word out this last week, if you are willing. I hope to ensure we get a hold of every wonderfully imperfect party around.
To share about the contest just copy and paste the exact code listed below (in the HTML section of a blog post, in the widget area of a sidebar, or on your twitter/facebook update). I am so grateful for your help my friends, thanks.
Start with a 6 inch diameter circle of heavy weight paper or cardboard for your base circle.
You will use 6 pieces of coordinating tissue paper. Doing one at a time begin making your petals. Connect the two short ends of one side and secure onto the base circle with tape. Connect the other opposite two ends and secure on the backside of the circle.
Working gently with the paper poof your petal out and into shape.
Repeat to create six petals.
Finish off with a 4 inch diameter pre-adhered piece of felt to cover all the lose ends. Simply place it on top and press down, the center will hold up to a rainstorm- it was tested last week:)
Since it is officially March, Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up quickly. I am not Irish, or a leprechaun, or even very lucky. Thankfully though, St. Partrick wasn’t either. He was a great (English) man of faith, which puts him in my heritage. I love celebrating his work and sacrifice.
For a great kick off to celebrating this year why not make a few of these shamrock cupcakes. They would be a fun gift for any child- a much healthier alternative to the holiday class treats this year. The cupcakes would also be lovely as party favors for your Saint Patrick’s Day celebration.
The cupcakes are easy to make. Simply take a small patch of a shamrock plant (dirt and all) and place it in a cupcake wrapper. You can buy these plants for just a few bucks, or pick them somewhere wild (mine are from my yard).
Use a ribbon to compact the dirt together and to make the small plant easy to transport and pot when received. Punch two holes in the sides of the cupcake wrapper to tie the ribbon in front, making a pretty delivery package for your cupcake.
Be sure to label your cupcakes so that others will know what they are- no accidental digestion of dirt at your party. I designed a sheet of labels so there would be no confusion;)
Print the labels on heavy weight cardstock and cut, there are eight per page. Get the labels by clicking the download image below.
* The small print: The downloadable pdfs on this page are free for personal use only, not for commercial use. If you wish to incorporate any of my designs in your own personal projects, please attribute it to me by linking to my site. As a courtesy, if you wish to link to anything on this article, please link to this page and not directly to a downloadable file. Thanks and enjoy.
Attach the labels to your plant using the ribbon, adhere them to the cupcake wrapper, or stick into the dirt with a toothpick.
Bunting is lovely…
Bunting made out of felt is even more lovely…
Flowers are also lovely, ruffles as well.
Three four good reasons why this felt flower bunting was a very lovely addition to our bloom party. It also looks just adorable making itself at home today hanging gingerly above my Chica’s crib.
There are not too many specific girlie touches in the twins shared room. It is nice to see a line of pretty ruffled flowers dangling over her as she sleeps.
Make it yourself: Start by drawing out your circles on a piece of felt. Use a compass or a small glass to trace (I used a left over bottle nipple base). You will need 30 circles for every foot of bunting.
Cut out your circles, lots of circles, the more circles you cut the better (psst. they don’t need to be perfect).
Fold the circles in half and cut two very small slits, side by side, in the middle.
Begin threading your ribbon through the slits to make the flower ruffles. Thread through the back, stack the felt circles one by one- coordinating colors as you go.
Once your felt circles are threaded begin pulling the ribbon to condense the felt. The circles will begin to ruffle and shape themselves, giving the illusion of flowers .
A perfect welcome to the season of cheery flowers, ruffles and blooming that is upon us now.
Total project cost: $3- a decent price to brighten up a party or even a nursery this spring.
Being inspired by the many great subway art tutorials lately, I wanted to include a version in our home. A movable version and the master bedroom seems to be the perfect spot.
An easy piece to make that can speak volumes with just a few simple words.
To make: We used extra pieces of wood we had laying around and added home-made stencils. First I painted the wood the under color, then printed and cut out the stencils. I used the temporary instructions to spray adhere the words directly onto the wood.
Then I coated the whole piece in the top coat, doing 2 very careful coatings so the paint wouldn’t run.
We let it dry, pulled off the stencils and hung it up- drilling right into the wall. I love having these words right above our bed, so sweet to look at as I lay down at night.
I wonder what words do you enjoy seeing as you rest your head to sleep?
I am now thinking of making one for the nursery that says, “WE LOVE THEM”. It is pure joy to see these sentiments showcased in our home.
Only three more weeks until The imperfect Party Challenge voting will begin! I cannot wait to share with you many of the ideas and inspirations from the wonderful parties being entered. There is still time for you to win the $100 Anthropologie gift card as well, enter your party here.
In the meantime, plans are well underway for our neighborhood spring in bloom party. I am releasing the BLOOM printable party pack in PDF form today. A set of free printable party invitations:
The pack includes invitations, thank you notes and two different size party labels. The design has a beautiful textured linen background that looks lovely printed from home. It features the hot pink bloom flower found all over our party design and a fresh mint green to accent.
Download the files and print out on heavy card-stock. Be inspired to bless others and celebrate spring with those around you.
Bloom with ease and loveliness…
PS. If you’d prefer to buy these already printed, they’ve also been loaded to the store.
To end this week’s Roast & Toast loveliness, I want to pass on a few free printable party downloads for you to re-create this imperfectly easy event in the future. Simply add a marshmallow roast to any occasion that would be fitting of a toast and inspire gooey chocolatey goodness for your guests.
Make it- Match box invitations are a lovely way to communicate to your guests about your coming Roasting Party.
You will need to collect or purchase the amount of match boxes you will send (they sell them in bulk at most big box stores).
Download this PDF which has two invites per page. Print them out in high resolution on heavy weight paper.
Cut along the outer lines and then fold each invite along the four inner lines. Wrap around the match boxes and attach with craft glue. Write out your party details and stick directly inside the match box.
Make it- Have your guests leave with a sweet taste in their mouths by handing out these favors.
Simply fill a plastic sandwich bag with whatever goodies you would like (we used homemade marshmallows).
Download this PDF which contains two favor bag toppers per page. Print in high resolution onto heavy weight card stock.
Cut along the dark outline and fold straight across the center line. A small amount of glue will hold the paper to the bag top and will seal in the goodies. You can let most treats stand for up to a week. The favor bag looks adorable hung over a metal hanger, or tied with ribbon, or just given as is filled with treats.
Make it: To recreate the look of our gourmet s’more bar use these party labels to coordinate your Roast & Toast theme.
Print the same way as above in high resolution, onto heavy card-stock.
Cut out each label and attach to ribbon or skewer sticks as needed- creating a scrumptious s’more bar for your roast.
I hope these printables will make roasting & toasting a memorable event for your family sometime soon.
Here is a little insight into my brain for all of you: I accidentally say something aloud (ie. etching would look great on baby bottles) then I get so excited I cannot even stop to go pee before needing to make it happen.
As, it turns out…
Etching does, in fact, look quite fabulous on sippy cups (the toddler bottle form). This would be cute for a party or to simply celebrate snack time today.
Make it yourself:
Follow the how-to for wine glasses, using the word “milk”. I found cinnamon to be the best spice at sticking to the plastic sippy cups. Oh, and be extra careful to wipe off any remaining corn-syrup around the stencil or you will find it in your little ones hair later on;)
Adding in a little sparkle from cake sprinkles is lovely as well.
Bling… bling… bling…
PS. I told you the babies would still be loitering around here;)
For our evening of roasting & toasting, a few of my favorite decorations were the three s’more trees.
Lovely additions to our dessert bar and lively conversation starters. I also think these trees would look great in bubblegum pink for a girls party, or in red with velvet cake flowers for a more formal gathering.
Make your own:
Start with a bunch of wooden kitchen skewer sticks, or real branches if you have them. Begin assembling the tree shape and break off each stick to be the correct size (hint: leave the sharp end on the outside to make threading the marshmallow easy). Once you have a rough structure begin connecting the branches using a dab of hot glue and holding them together for about 3 minutes each to set.
Leave the tree to dry for a few hours and then bless it with a a few strong doses of spray paint. Spray paint will not only give you a fun tree color but will also help to secure the sticks together.
Once your tree is ready, find a vase and stick it into floral foam so that it will stand up steady. Unless you don’t have any (like me) then stick it into a bag of whatever you can find, mine were stuck in one bag of coconut and one bag of kisses, sneaky!
Cover the ground bellow the tree with a heavy layer of teddy grams for dirt. Then begin to add the marshmallow flowers and the chocolate leaves. My chocolate leaf recipe is even more yummy than it looks and it’s the absolute simplest to make. A small dab of Cornsyrup is an easy way to hold the leaves in place on the branches.
Stick the marshmallows straight onto the outer branches. To get them on the inside branches you will have to cut the marshmallows open and stick them on. You can see in the below picture what I am talking about, the bottom marshmallow had been heckled at this point and is showing its unsightly cut open bottom-side to you.
Once you get everything arranged perfectly on the tree, stand it in position and watch your guests pick their gooey flowers off with joy.
Welcome, I am Vicky- a new mom to twin toddlers & an event designer. This is where I chronicle my inspirations, projects and designs for these passions daily. Read more about this blog and if you'd like- visit my store.
Pinwheels & Pearls - a birthday
Perfect Pair - an anniversary celebration
Bird nests - a baby shower
Vintage bikes - a Mothers Day brunch
A mad (hatter) tea - a kids birthday party
Sly little fox - a baby shower
