Vintage Picnic Baby Shower Part II

I wanted to share a couple more details from the baby shower last weekend. Starting with...

The He Says, She Says game I adapted from the one Jen made for Kristen's bridal shower I was so impressed with. Jen was kind enough to send me the file which made customizing it for the baby shower a breeze. 

I asked both Joey and Lulu the same 14 questions. Then I included either one of their answers to each question on the game sheet next to a pair of girl and boy silhouettes. Guests had to answer who they thought said each statement. Everyone loved hearing about the baby and the new parents' childhoods. 

 

I also wanted to show you a closer look at one of the other vintage greeting cards I framed for the party's decor. Since the cards were smaller than the frames I wanted to use, I just added a doily to the sides, which even added to the vintage effect.

And while we're on the topic of J + L's baby shower, I can't resist sharing another invitation my brother helped create for the modern pink tutu themed shower Lulu's side of the family hosted the weekend before. It is the sweetest thing ever!

They hand-cut the "body" for each invitation after printing the text onto a lovely iridescent card stock. Then they superglued the string of scrapbooking pearls around the neck and hand-sewn "tutu" to the bottom.

My brother has some serious crafting potential! It must run in the family... ;)

Sadly I had a previous engagement and wasn't able to attend the party, but I know they had a blast without me.

Vintage Backyard Picnic Baby Shower Invitations

My mom and I are hosting a family-style baby shower for my brother and his wife (also Ava's godparents) who are expecting their first -- a little girl who will undoubtedly become Ava's favorite playmate. I have lots more to say about my brother's sweet little family and my sis-in-law's adorable baby/mama style. But without further ado, I am excited to share my latest project in anticipation of their vintage backyard picnic shower... 

 

I wasn't given much notice to design these invitations (seems to be a trend lately) but was really happy with the finished product. My sweet little brother had started working on them himself (he didn't want to bother me as I was deep in the interview process for a new position I just accepted today!) and Lulu had a specific design in mind, so he provided the image of the vintage buggy. They're printed on 65 lb. Kraft paper and wrapped with a doily and pink ribbon to give it a feminine touch.

Breakfast at Tiffany's Bridal Shower Invitations

Project of the week: Invitations to Breakfast at Tiffany's Bridal Shower

I think I came pretty close to the one we envisioned here.

Ribbon and rhinestones would have been nice, but I whipped these out in one evening with very little notice.

The card stock is Bazzill Basics grasscloth in Navajo and it's very close to the authentic Tiffany blue color (though it's hard to tell in the pictures above). I bought 12" x 12" sheets from Michael's and cut them down to 5" x 7" (3-up) at Kinko's before printing.

I found the Audrey silhouette in Google images and plan to use it in the party decor as well.

Everything else is right on track and the bridal shower planning crew is ready for action in -- drumroll please -- 29 days!

Mother's Day Card Silhouette Tutorial

I usually try to create a really special and personalized card for my mom on Mother's Day using photographs of us together, or now more likely, Ava.

I'd been wanting to try this silhouette tutorial so this year, I thought I'd use it to create my own version of this card (below) using Ava's cute little baby head silhouette:

Here's how you can do it too: 

1. Crop the photo.
   
   
   
   
2. Optionally, you can use Picasa's new effects to make the lines stand out more clearly (I used Neon).
   
   
   
   
3. Print onto photo paper or any other heavy card stock.
4. Cut out the silhouette as you would like it to appear on the card.
5. Attach it to the front of a blank card with a few pieces of tape. I used a natural toned linen card.
   
   
   
   
6. Trace within the edges of the silhouette like a stencil. I started with a marker to get the most definition, especially around the facial features.
   
   
   
   
7. Remove the stencil and fill in the rest of the silhouette. I used oil pastels in a couple different shades of pink. I like how the pastels bring out the texture of the linen card stock.
   
   
   
   
8. Finish decorating the card as you like. I trimmed the card's edges using jagged-edged scissors and added a few colorful flowers by spinning the round top edge of the pastel and the word love across Ava's head.
   
   
   
   
   
   Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers!

A Modern Day Fairy Tale Bridal Shower Invitation Tutorial

Ava and I have been hard at work on the invitations for Kristen's bridal shower and I have to say, I think this is our best work yet!

We knew we wanted gray chevron stripes and hot pink accents to go with the theme we decided on.

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I found a great downloadable template for the gray chevron stripes and center cutout online. Sorry, I didn't save the source, but I manipulated it quite a bit using Paint (of all things!) so it's hardly recognizable from the original anyhow.

Then I imported the file to PowerPoint and added the lettering there, which was mostly inspired by these beauties (on the left, below) you may remember from here:

I downloaded a font called Baroque Script (available here) for the bride's name and date and other cursive wording. I used Niagara Engraved for the capital letters and Tw Cen MT Condensed for the rest of the lowercase wording.

Once the digital file was prepared, I just ran it off through the printer (we recently got a great, photo printer -- a Canon PIXMA MG5320 -- which has been treating us very well so far) onto 4.5" x 6.5" white linen card stock from CutCardStock.com. (I've done a ton of research over the last few years and this place usually has the best deals considering they trim to most sizes at no additional charge. And white linen is classic and works with most designs. I usually try to order as much as I think I'll need for a while in bulk to avoid multiple shipping charges, which is really the killer in my price comparisons.)

Next, I adhered each printed cards to some 5" x 7" Stardream Azalea card stock using Scotch Super 77 multi-purpose adhesive (which has a really strong smell and makes a big sticky mess, so you may want to do it outside and away from the kiddos) leaving a 1/4 inch trim all around.

Then I just printed the envelopes using the same Tw Cen MT Condensed font for both the return and delivery addresses and the same Baroque Script font for the names (because I like the envelopes to look fancy like that) using MS Word's Mail Merge Wizard (detailed instructions here).

After stuffing and stamping, the last finishing touch was to stamp the key (using a silver inkpad) onto the back flap of each envelope. I played around with several other images on the invitations themselves (like the ring in the No. 38 bridal shower invite shown above) as well as some scrapbooking embellishments (since I loved the flower and ribbon combo around Tori's shower invites above) but this is the only embellishment that made the cut with this design. Simple, modern, with a touch of romantic. Et voila!

Ava's Fist Christmas Card

We wanted to do something a little extra special for Ava's very first Christmas card, so I played around with her Dear Santa photo PowerPoint, shimmery gold card stock, spray adhesive, and red ribbon to come up with these... Joyeux Noel!

Being Neighborly

We're on our way to deliver these invitations to some of our neighbors for a little neighborhood BBQ and pool party in a few weeks. 


I'm excited to try this new peach sangria recipe (sorry, I don't remember where I found it): 

• 1 750-ml bottle dry white wine
• 1 1/2 cups Essensia (orange Muscat, a sweet dessert wine)
• 1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
• 1 cup peach liqueur
• 3 peaches, each cut into 12 slices
• 1 large orange, cut crosswise into 6 slices
• 1 large lemon, cut crosswise into 6 slices
• 1/4 cup strawberry syrup (optional)
• 3 to 4 cups ice cubes

Mix white wine, Essensia, strawberries, peach liqueur, peaches, orange slices, lemon slices, and strawberry syrup in large pitcher, smashing citrus slices slightly. Let stand at room temperature at least 2 hours or chill up to 4 hours. Serve sangria over ice in sugar/orange rimmed champagne glasses.


(Plus, this is great motivation to clean up the yard!)

Queen of Hearts Invitation Tutorial

I just finished these invitations for my friend's baby shower. We're having a Mad Hatter tea party in March but I thought it would be a good idea to send them out (or at least have them stamped, sealed, and ready to deliver) before I might go into labor.

I wrote out the invitation text in a simple Word doc and printed this White Rabbit image in the bottom-right corner of some 5x7 white linen card stock I ordered from CutCardStock.com.

I was trying to figure out the best way to decorate the backs of the invitations to make them look like actual playing cards. I was just about to glue a diamond patterned scrapbook paper onto the back of each one when my mom came up with the brilliant idea of enlarging a real playing card and photocopying it onto the back of each invitation. We also photocopied the front side of the Queen of Heart card (but covered up the center where we printed the invitation text).

Then use something like this to cut the rounded corners... et voila! 

 P.S. You might want to seal the deal with these awesome postage stamps.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

I insisted on being very involved in every aspect of the planning of the baby shower my mom threw for the family. Ever since impressing myself with the results of my wedding DIY projects, I'm obsessed with finding creative inspiration from the blogosphere, shopping around for the best deals on materials, and making as much as I can myself. Even though I was working crazy hours at the office, I did not spare myself my own baby shower to indulge in this guilty pleasure.

Once the theme was decided upon, my crafty mother and I started with the invitations.

Why yes, we did hand-cut every single one of those onesies and their embellishments out by hand, thank you very  much. I could not for the life of me find a die in the shape of a onesie!

I wanted to contribute something extra to the dessert table, so me and my enormous belly stayed up way too late the night before baking and decorating cookies in the shape of onesies to match the invitations.

Et voila! A few of the finished product...

On game day, the pathway to the house was dressed in painted Styrofoam lollipops.

Alana claimed dibs on her favorite.

Another crafty project my mom and I did was make these banners out of scrapbook paper (we just left the pages at their original size but they're also cute cut into triangles) and printed and glued on the letters in the same font as the invitations.

 Sugar and Spice was the theme of the party.

My parents' house is already very vintage-looking (it's an early 19th century Queen Anne Victorian). You can faintly see a couple of the paper pinwheels in the background above which made for festive and easy decorations around the rest of the house.

Daddy-to-be smoking a bubble gum cigar.

Then you cross the threshold and enter into the sweet shoppe...

 ...where a decadent vintage candy buffet awaits. My mom made the awnings out of cardboard and fabric. My baby sis made the cupcakes decorated with heart-shaped candies. We shopped around for the candy and ended up buying it in bulk online. (Even with shipping, the prices were still miles behind any local competitors.)

We looked everywhere for the apothecary jars and the awesome vintage baby scale (which I had to have ever since I saw it on a blog a while back). The labels didn't quite make it onto the jars but if I had an extra ten minutes before guests started to arrive, they would have been attached to neatly tied ribbon around the top of each jar instead of just scattered about the buffet top.

We had goodie bags from the dollar store for the guests to take home their favorites.

 I wanted to make sure my baby brother Troy was a part of the celebration, so we had a series of his childhood penguin drawings screen printed onto onesies that we hung along a clothesline with hand-decoupaged clothespins.

My aunt Tami made this great diaper cake that we used as a centerpiece.

Me and the little sweetheart Olivia.

It was a wonderfully "sweet" celebration.