Hello everyone, and happy weekend! After the holidays this part of the year always seems to drag on. I am actually looking forward to it this year, maybe in the lull I can actually get caught up on some things. Like I said a few weeks ago, projects out the wazoo over here.
So far I have shared Braxton's third birthday party (here if you missed it), as well as the paper rosettes I used as decorations (here if you missed those). So today I want to share the pinwheels that were made for the party. These are much easier than the rosettes, super easy in fact.
Grab some scrapbook paper and cut it into four even squares, or as close as you can. My paper cutter was having some issues, so some of my papers are a little wonky.
And my paper wasn't double sided so I cut out squares for the back of the
pinwheels. Glue these together with both of the patterned sides facing
out and trim if necessary.
Cut from each corner towards the centre,
leaving a roughly one inch space in the middle. You can see below with the red lines the general idea, just make sure you leave an area in the middle because you will need it to finish the pinwheels. And I think more is better here, you don't want a dinky little area because you will be gluing most of this in on itself.
If everything goes according to plan, you
should be left with four small triangle attached to the middle section
of your paper. Glue down every other corner of the triangle into the
centre of the square. I used a pencil to save my fingers from the hot
glue.
You
can see what I meant by every other corner a little better in the
picture above. Once this is dry, cut a corresponding circle of paper and
glue that down in the middle. If you're feeling frisky you could always use little gems or large sequins.
And that's it, as I often like to say. How easy are these? I could make these for any occasion and would adore them. You can even grab a paper straw, or skewer and glue that to the back and use it in a jar or pot on a table.
This was actually a craft that I enjoyed making, it was so easy I didn't really have to think while I did it. Very therapeutic, and great to binge watch TV while you are doing it too.
Happy crafting! Feel free to share if you make these, and any changes you make. I'd love to see them.
Kerby
Linking to:
Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesday #282
Two Chicks and a Mom - Funtastic Friday #111
eighteen25 - Show & Tell #13
Hello one and all! Can you believe it's the middle of January? That means we have almost completed the first month of winter, only a few more to go. I do love the winter season, but hate that it coops the kids up for days on end. Nothing is worse than toddlers that are sick of being in the same house for days on end.
I thought it was time to finally talk about Kaley's first birthday party, which was a Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star theme. I know most of my 2016 posts we about Kaley, but those should calm down a little now that I'm no longer doing monthly pictures. I knew right away that this was the theme I wanted to do, since I only get to pick a few for them before the start to pick for themselves.
I love the way that pink and gold look together, it is classy and girly all at the same time. This was such an easy choice for Kaley's first birthday theme, and since I picked it extremely early I was able to do most of the decorations in the summer.
I made the invitation in PicMonkey using the create option with a ton of trial and error getting glitter words to work. This was fun once I got the hang of it, and took so much longer than it should have because of it.
It's hard to see because the background of the invitation is white, done with shades of pink and touches of glittery gold (Trust me that it looks much better in person). I printed these invitations out on 4x6 photo paper and chose a matte finish so that it would be easier to read.
I wanted to have a star-filled night type background for the table, and I chose to use tissue poms as the clouds. I used light pink, dark pink and white tissue paper to make these. Then I cut out a million (not really, but it felt like it) stars in four shades of pink card stock (these were bought as a package and were in a gradient) and I used glitter scrapbook paper for the gold stars.
I hot glued the stars onto fishing line in random patterns that were roughly the same length and used the same amount of stars. A note, I taped the fishing line to the wall under the tissue poms, but also taped the stars in the middle and bottom to the wall to make sure they all stayed forward facing. To make it look a little less formal I taped extra stars along the sides to make it look a little more natural. Pictures do not do this justice, it was so pretty in person!!
Ans if you've followed this blog for any amount of time you know I like to dress our front window up as well. The living and dining rooms are attached, so it helps the two rooms flow together for the parties. I chose to make tissue paper tassels and hang them with some extra stars from the window.
I wish it was easier to take pictures of the front window so you could see how nice this looked in person. I also wished my front window looked a lot nicer than it does, but that's a problem for another time. I can't seem to find the pictures that I took for a tutorial, so I may make some more to show you guys. I will say that the regular tissue paper (pinks) was much easier to work with than the metallic tissue paper (gold).
For the cake smash portion of the party, I set a little area up for Kaley's high chair in the living room so that everyone could see. I put the same stars up for the background, and tissue tassels around the front of the chair. I printed out Kaley's monthly pictures to frame the stars, using gold washi tape on shades of pink card stock. Because I hadn't taken her 12 month pictures yet, I just used a picture from her cake smash the weekend before (watch for a post on that in the future!).
Now for the table and the food, which we decided would be a brunch. We were having Braxton's third birthday party and Kaley's first birthday party a few weeks apart and I wanted to be able to serve different food. Add to that the fact that this party was the week before Christmas, I wanted to make sure that people would be home early in case they had Christmas dinners to go to.
A mimosa bar was a must, but I didn't want to put it on a separate table. So I just put the glasses, juice and champagne at the back of the table on each side, away from little hands. You can see this in the pictures below. For the food we had: a fruit tray, croissants, carrot cake with cream cheese icing (just boxed carrot cake mix with this cream cheese icing), banana bread (recipe here), mini cinnamon rolls and a breakfast bake that my mom made (not pictured).
Yummy. That was what all of that was, and the cinnamon rolls lasted about five minutes after the kids found them. I didn't want to have too much food because it was a brunch, and this worked out to be the perfect amount of food. And all of it was so easy to make ahead of time and set out right before the party started.
Instead of cake I just made some cupcakes with the leftover cake batter from making Kaley's smash cake. I thought it might be a little early for cake, and there were tons of sweets on the table already. I think the parents appreciated this, though I'm sure the cinnamon rolls gave them a sugar high for a few hours.
I used two cake stands to make a tiered stand to put the cake and cupcakes on, which made a great centerpiece for the table. Some gold candlesticks and glitter vases filled with pink flowers finished the table off. I used leftover gold stars hot glued onto cake pop sticks for a little food bling on the cake, banana bread and carrot cakes.
And now some pictures of the birthday girl, who had a special little outfit for the day: a onesie with gold writing and a pink and gold tutu. I don't even care if she hated it, it was the most adorable thing ever! Don't mind the grumpy face, she was tired because it was her nap time right when the party was starting.
She had such a fun day, even though she was exhausted. Kaley decided to stick close to Mommy and even helped open her gifts, kind of. Once the party was in full swing she owned the place and had everyone laughing.
It was a great day and our family and friends spoiled her rotten, and even Braxton had fun stealing Kaley's toys and playing. It was so special to be able to celebrate Kaley's first birthday as a big event, just like we did for Braxton. Though I'm pretty sure that we will now start doing a combined party, since their birthdays are only 16 days apart. Way too much going on to do two birthday parties and Christmas.
Thank you for sharing this year long journey with us, you will have to come back again next year to see what we do for the kids birthdays. It's anyone's guess at this point since my kids change favourites on a daily basis. I love planning and decorating parties, and am so happy that I have someone to share all the hard work and results with.
Kerby
Linking to:
Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesday #282
Hello and welcome back! I hope everyone is having a great start to 2017, lots of goals and resolutions being started. In the past I have set resolutions, but this year I don't think I will. After the year that just passed, I don't want to make any promises (and that's probably best for everyone).
Back in December I shared Braxton's third ABC themed party, and if you missed it you can check it out here: ABC, Guess Who's Three! It was a quickly planned party that turned out fantastic. I wanted to share how to make the paper rosettes with you guys.
First you will want to gather your supplies: card stock, scissors, a ruler, a stapler, a glue gun (not pictured) and if you can manage it a scoring board. A scoring board is not necessary but amazing if you have it. I actually borrowed one to get this craft done and it made my life so much easier.
Fold your card stock in half lengthwise and cut it right down the middle.
Then use your scoring board lengthwise again every inch. If the last score doesn't complete an inch, that's alright. If you don't have a board you will want to mark out the inches and fold on them. You should be left with a long accordion piece of paper.
Then fold this paper in half (I folded with the smaller fold on the outside) and staple. I stapled at the tops of the folds, if that makes sense.
You will want to do this four more times to complete the rosette. Staple the four pieces together and push the middle in to form the rosette. Grab the hot glue gun and glue each piece together and put extra in the middle to keep everything stable. Once this dries you can add a circle of paper to the centre with some hot glue.
That's it! It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. And to make the smaller rosettes, you can just fold and cut the paper width-wise and follow the steps to complete it. Like so:
How cute are these rosettes? They would work for so many occasions and really add a lot of drama to a background or area.
I will be keeping these bad boys for future use, as they are a little time consuming to repeat over and over. Are these not perfect for parties and special occasions? I think these rosettes would look great at a baby shower in soft pastels with gold and silver accents.
Have you guys ever made these? Feel free to share if you have, I would love to see them!
Kerby
Linking to:
Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesday #281
eighteen25 - Show and Tell #14
Hi everyone, this is a little late but I can't believe Braxton is already three! It's so crazy to think that he was just a little baby in my arms. Now I can barely fit him in my arms at all! He is literally over half as tall as me, and that makes me so sad!!!!!
Braxton was a tough cookie this year when it came to a birthday party theme, I think I went through about five before we settled on an alphabet party. He would love a show for about a month and then hate it forever, usually right after I had the party all planned out. In fact, I managed to get almost all of the decorations complete for a Yo Gabba Gabba party before he decided that he hates that show with a passion. Sigh.
But the one thing that has never wavered is his love of the alphabet. Anything with the alphabet on it is a winner in his book, so having this theme to fall back on was great. Though planning a party in less than a month is not what I am used to and I panicked quite a bit over getting everything accomplished. It wasn't my finest planning or decorating, but it definitely got the job done.
Behind the table I made some paper rosettes and pinwheels in a variety of colours, with red, green and blue being the main colours. Just like the ABC book by Dr. Seuss, which is a favourite book of Braxton's. Not so much for Mommy or Daddy though, and has been assigned to the car for road trips. And a quick birthday sign using printed letters on card stock finished the table area off.
These were easy once you got a system down, but there was a little trial and error. Mostly because I did them over the course of about 10 nights and would completely forgot what I did the day before. And the pinwheels used alphabet scrapbook paper and some present scrapbook paper to add some fun pop of colour.
The food, which I forgot to take pictures of, was marked with fun little cards that used the alphabet. This was a little tough to think of foods that didn't all start with the same letters!
We served sandwiches, pizza rolls, vegetables, meatballs and of course cake! And as usual we had way too much food leftover, so guess who didn't have to cook dinner for a few days? That's right, me.
I also made an alphabet banner that was originally to go over the table, but i ended up miscalculating it's length and it ended up being about three feet to long. So instead, I decided to put it over our large front window. I usually decorate this area anyway, so it worked out.
A cute little sign for the treat bags, mimicking the same signs that were on the table completed the decor for the party. Like I said, not a lot of decorations but it still looked great.
The birthday boy was tough to get pictures of this year because he kept trying to run away with everything, but we managed to get a few. Kaley thought it was her birthday and kept trying to open the presents, but we managed to get her occupied with a few envelopes.
It was such a fun day, and Braxton got spoiled as usual. And my silly boy started to love Elmo about a week before his birthday, so his attention was caught with the cards and gift bags. What a sweetheart, he kept thinking the cards were the gifts.
We feel bad when December rolls around because both kids have to wait all year for their birthdays, and then Christmas is right around the corner (especially for Kaley). So they can literally have all their gifts in a 3 week period. But our families are so supportive and loving, and help make this easier by showering our kids with love and attention.
Well, that's all I've got for you guys. It has been so crazy trying to get both parties ready as well as Christmas ready, I can't believe I even remembered to take these pictures!
If you want to see Braxton's previous birthday party themes, you can find them here: A Winter One-Derland, A Wiggly Second Birthday.
Thanks again for reading along with my kids, hopefully I will be able to get back to crafting and household updates again soon.
Kerby
