Party Crafts!

As most of you already know, I am a huge fan of DIY & just craftiness in general. Not only do I love any opportunity to get my creative juices flowing, but in most cases I save a whole lot of money too, so double plus! When it came to getting ready for Madeline's first birthday celebration, I had a lot in mind-- not necessarily the time and energy to do it all--but I am always full of the most elaborate crafty intentions, ha!

I wanted to share three of the main projects that I worked on. I always appreciate & frequently use craft tutorials, and would like to exchange the favor to the blog universe! I will be showing how to make an invitation pennant banner, a unique cake stand with vase, and a ribbon topiary.

The first two are fairly quick and easy crafts, and the instructions are listed below. The ribbon topiary takes a little more time and effort, so I've included it on a separate page. Click here for that tutorial.

PENNANT BANNER ON INVITE
Although I stick mostly to digital invitation design, I just love adding a 3-D aspect to my personal invitations...it's that love for all things scrapbook-y that needs to come out!! I also have a secret obsessment with banners/pennants/bunting that has to be addressed every so often. This invitation design was basically a little piece of heaven for me.

Since I digitally designed the invitations first, I made sure to leave a nice, wide open space in the top corner-- and a right angle corner is a real must for this kind of banner too. 

Here are all of the materials I used:

-your choice of cardstock paper
-pencil
-sharp scissors
-your choice of string/baker's twine (I used Doodle Twine in Limeade :)
-elmer's clear glue (white glue would work on a white invite)
-glue pen (optional)
-stamps & ink pad (optional) 

Although you could easily leave the pennants blank, I wanted to stamp the date of the party onto mine, so that's why I needed the number stamps and ink pad!

First, you will need to cut out a template triangle in order to decide how big you want the pennant to be. I wanted to fit three across the corner, so I tried different sizes to see what worked. When you have decided on the size, take the piece of cardstock you are using & **fold it in half** so there is plenty of room to trace your template triangle on to one side.

 

after tracing, cut out with your scissors & you should get a little folded pennant like this:

 

 

this is when I stamped my pennants with number stamps;

also time to measure out your twine & tie it in a loop to fit over the invite;

I measured mine so that it would be two inches from each corner

 

I used a dab of elmer's clear glue on my finger to attach the twine to each edge of the invite,

it dried quickly and stayed well attached--- then it's time to attach the pennants:

 

 

slip the pennant over the string & use a glue pen/dot of elmer's

to glue the pennant sides together; press the pennant down firmly so it dries & 

lays flat over the twine; pennants should still be able to move along the twine

 

The back of my invitation had a design as well, so I added

another larger pennant to the back, using a different cardstock pattern:

 

 

They turned out so cute! I got tons of compliments.

Here are two copies of the invite to show you the front & the back sides.

 

 

CAKE STAND WITH VASE
This has got to be the easiest way to update a cake stand! I wanted to display my cupcakes on two tiers, but add something a little special to the top. This round, glass cake stand was an awesome, cheap find at a garage sale.

 

I grabbed a small, clear vase from my overflowing flower vase cabinet (y'all have that cabinet too, right!?) & my Elmer's China & Glass Cement, & then glued these two together....seriously, I did this the night before the party & just let it set overnight. The next morning I wrapped & secured some of my party ribbon around the middle, just in case any dried glue tried to peek out!

 

I added two pretty Gerber daisies in water to the vase & voilà! Super cute DIY cake stand with vase! I set the finished product on top of a square, white cake stand for the total effect. I think it really added a little something special!

Hope this inspires you to get crafty too!!

Madeline is ONE

On Wednesday we celebrated Maddie's true birthday with a smaller party for family. She got to eat cake again and open presents again and just generally do whatever she wanted :). She was a happy girl. And we are the happiest parents to have such a HEALTHY, beautiful, bubbling, little social butterfly....Bub the hub and I have to pinch ourselves every single day.

I posted a short video on Facebook of when I went to get Madeline out of bed on her birthday morning, but it's actually part of a longer video that is just too precious not to share! And it's just impossible not to smile back at this little bug.
See the video here: https://vimeo.com/47589351

She was trying so hard to say "birthday"..."BA, ba ba" and then "da!"--- did you hear it? Makes me so proud!! It seems like every day she has a new sound or funny word approximation. Yesterday, she was repeating, "puh puh puh," for us to pick her "up." She's really good at repeating "bubu" for bubbles (a big fave) and we really think we have heard her say, "du" for duck.

You might be able to imagine that I have just about a bajillion photos to sort through still, but here she is all dressed up for her party!

and cake....

and overwhelmed with so many fun gifts!!

we were tired girls at the end...

more to come!!

Party Animals

What a weekend! First Birthday Party was a huge success!! We had so much fun. Madeline definitely had a ball. Lots of photos to come, along with the ones from vacation and my 30th party, but maybe not until Avery goes back to school, 'cause this momma is TIRED!!! But Maddie's official birthday is not until Wednesday, so we have even more partying to do. Here are a few of her precious one year portraits to tide you over.

Trooper

This is just a quick post to say my lil'bub is such a trooper. For real, y'all. This morning she had another round of Botox injections and she did really great. Not to say that she still doesn't get upset (obviously-- if you saw the size of the needles, you would too), but she just knows she's got to do it, and she really is a rockstar. And so is her sweet daddy, because he knows how much it hurts me to watch, so he stays with her in the room while the doctor does the actual injecting. It's hard for him to watch too, but he does it because he's a good hub. and a good dad. I ♥ my family!!

♥waiting for the dr. with elmo♥

Vacation Preview

We just got back from a fantastic vacation to San Diego, and I am really eager to share all the beautiful pics! However, we are hosting no less than THREE parties at our house in the next two weeks, celebrating both my 30th and Madeline's first birthday, so I have a ton of stuff to do first. Don't want to leave y'all hanging too much though, so here's a little preview :).