Birthday Girl

Hello again dear friends! I'm back to share a bit of a different post. We recently celebrated Emily's 7th birthday and she chose to go with an art theme (how perfect is that!). We hosted the party at a nearby art studio along with Dyland and 8 of her friends. I thought I'd share with you how digging into my stash helped me make her party extra special.

We began with this adorable invitation from Big Day Invitations Etsy store. The owner was very speedy and accommodating as I requested a couple of changes from her original design.

These were the goodie bags. Super simple to make, I typed the message on my computer then used my Coluzzle to cut out the circles. Once stapled in place, I sprayed them with Glimmer Mist to create the appearance of paint stains.

The kids had a blast painting a canvas. Please forgive me for not posting too many photos of the girls as I did not get permission from their parents to do so.

I used some old Prima Fairy Flora papers that I had in my stash to create the watercolor mats on these frames. I also splattered some Glimmer Mist.

I also decided to bake the cake myself. I wanted it to look like a white canvas so the icing was very white and plain accentuated by colorful candles. Since the theme was art, I surprised the girls with six layers of different colors in the inside of the cake. Now, I don't regularly bake, so for me, this was a big deal! I followed this tutorial and must say, kind of felt very proud of myself when I heard the kids and moms wooing and ahhing as they got their slices :)

Lastly, a rare pic of my girl and I as I don't really like to be in front of the camera. I just cannot believe how fast time has passed, it seems just like yesterday when she was handed to me for the first time and now look at her! I'm so proud of how sweet and kind she has turned out to be.

I'll log off now before I start crying (or start think about having another one, LOL!) Thanks for your visit today.

Hugs,

Jolaine

Strawberry Shortcake Inspired Birthday Party

Hello friends,

So today my post is not really scrapbooking but it's still scrapbooking-related. I'm sharing with you photos of my daughter's 5th birthday party. She wanted to go with the Strawberry Shortcake theme. I didn't really use the cartoon character but I did use the colors and elements found in the movies to draw inspiration and put together a party I'm calling Berrylicious Birthday Bash! This was soooo much fun to plan and create. Hope you enjoy the images!

For all the party decorations, I put my Cricut to do some serious work. Turns out the Indie Art cartridge has a cute strawberry image I used to make the birthday banners and frames, which I used as wall decor.

The super sweet tutu and head piece set Emily wore was purchased online on Etsy.com. For the top, I adhered an iron-on sequin number 5 to a plain tank top I found at H&M.

To get the guests in the berry mood, I made a wreath using a foam wreath frame, a feather boa, and a strawberry garland.

The dessert table consisted of delicious Italian pastries I had a local bakery custom decorate to coordinate with the theme. The cake was made by my talented friend Pepper Fateman. I also decorated take-out boxes so all the guests could take some goodies home.

The strawberries were a big hit. We simply used white Ghirardelli chips and red food dye to coat them with a hot pink layer of chocolate. They were super yummy!

I also turned to my Bug to cut out the scalloped circles which were used all throughout the party for everything from labels to balloon ties cover-up.

The party favor/craft activity was flower pot decorating and seed planting. My sister was so helpful! Not only did she come to my house the day before to help me decorate but she also wore a Strawberry Shortcake wig and facilitated the whole activity! Thank you Jordania, you're the best!

The entertainment was provided by the most gracious and patient clown I've met. Her name is Smiley. She did musical games, magic tricks and face painting with the kids. They LOVED her!

Finally, this is is a family shot. Thanks Fanny for documenting this moment!

Have a great week everyone, thanks for stopping by!

Candyland Inspired Birthday Party

Hey there my crafty friends,

Today's post is not so much about scrapbooking but it's certainly related to paper crafting. I wanted to share how I used my scrapbooking supplies to create a candy inspired party for my son's first birthday. I got so much inspiration from this amazing blog so I had an idea on what to keep my eyes open for.

It was soooo much fun planning and creating all the goodies. I tried to do things here and there on the weekends not to feel bombarded right before the party.  I was very pleased with how everything turned out...

The picture frame mural was cut using my Cricut and Small Wonders paper by K and Company from Michaels. Frames, title and flourishes were cut on my Cricut using the Storybook cartridge. The frames were cut at 10" while the flourishes and title were cut using the Fit To Page option.

This worked out great; my mom loved it and I plan to give it to her. Since the frames already have holes on them, I'm just going to use a ring to turn it into a quick brag book.

To offset the candy buffet table and background, I made a birthday banner by cutting circles with my Coluzzle and stacking them together. I then cut the letters on the Cricut with the Alphalicious cart at 6.5". The last step was to punch holes with the Crop-a-Dile and string red grossgrain ribbon.

I used a minimal amount of adhesive because I'm planning to pull it apart  in order to reuse the cardstock and pattern paper  to make a birthday mini album later on. By the way, the cardstock I used was a Recollections 8.5x11 pack from Michael's in primary colors and the pattern paper was Bright Stripes by the Paper Company Studio bought at AC Moore. The ribbon was also from Michael's.

I'm a kid at heart so I really enjoyed putting together this candy buffet. Some of the apothecary jars I already owned and others I bought at Home Goods. All the candy was purchased at BJ's, except for the rock candy and the jumbo swirl pops. The small salsa containers were a lucky find at Walmart.

Guests took candy home in these bags. I bought them at Michael's as well. I typed a simple rectangular tag on Word and printed it on regular white cardstock, then matted it on the same striped patter paper I used in other party elements. The tag read, "Thank you for being so sweet!" The picture frame in the back read, "Having you at my party has been a real treat... Please don't leave without some sweets."

The cake was an amazing creation by a super talented mom I met in my local moms group. I was really impressed at home beautiful and whimsical it came out.

I wanted the centerpieces to be fun and bright and I needed to stay away from flowers because, of course, the party was for a boy. To keep the candy theme going, I used cardboard vases from Bloombox and styrofoam to keep the candy upright. A strip of pattern paper gave it the finishing touch. To cover the styrofoam, I brushed it with Modge Podge and glued in shreded red paper I found in the Easter section at Michael's.

Quick tip, I purchased the First Years Take and Toss sippy cups for the younger children and cups with straws for the older ones at Walmart. They weren't that expensive and helped me avoid sticky floors! I adhered a mailing label to each one and provided a washable crayon so everyone could write their names. This worked out great! Last time I had juice boxes for the kids, by the time I blinked, there were 20 half empy juice boxes and spilled juice every where.

To make the cupcake toppers, I drew a 1.25" circle in Word with various text boxes and used a 1.5" circle to punch it out. I then cut 2" scallop circles on the Cricut using the Alphalicious cartridge. I assembled them with a 4" lollipop stick found at the baking section at Michael's. If you plan to use this idea, let me know so I could upload the file.

The goody bags were just a kit that contained a toothbrush and tooth paste. I was thrilled to find these in the travel section in Target. They were a big hit at the party.

Some more pictures:

More:

All of my dining room furniture and couches were moved to the garage.

The furniture you see in the pictures was rented from our local party supply store.

In a different room, I set up a kiddie pool filled with balls for the babies to play in. I also had a Candyland board game and Candyland Castle game for the kids to play with.

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading this LONG post, whew! It's now back to the drawing board for me, I have thank you notes to make, and Emily's birthday is in six weeks!!!