It's a WRAP!

I can NOT believe another school year is over! So sad that Madison only has one year of Playschool left! :(
I planned this years party along w/ 2 other moms in the class! I saw an invitation on Pinterest that said, "it's a wrap". We thought that could be a really cute end of the school year party theme!

One of the other moms set everything up at our local children's museum (same place as the princess party). I was SO happy I wasn't hosting it at my house again this year!

I designed this invitation by using images I found on Google. The polka dots boarder was a little fuzzy. I need to figure out how to fix that before I have things printed!

You guys know by now that I love water bottle labels! :) I realized the morning of the party that I forgot to make some. I made these while the kids were eating breakfast! I taped them on the bottles as I sat them out on the table. Nothing like a last minute decoration! ha!

I promise we did have "real" food! We just kept that on a separate table since we were going to serve that to the kids. This was our SWEETs table! :)

Madison found these cute plates at Hobby Lobby and we had to buy them (even though I had already bought red ones from the Dollar Tree).

 I found a bag of assorted sized foam balls at the Dollar Tree. I cut pieces of tissue paper and wrapped it in cellophane. Then twisted the ends and used a little glue to hold the ends. I let the kids spread these out on the table and I put them in the centerpieces.

We found these containers at Hobby Lobby. I knew they would be perfect to use for centerpieces! I used round floral foam (again from the Dollar Tree) and wrapped it with tissue paper and iridescent cellophane. 

More views of the tables. I added pictures of all the kids from her class to the centerpieces.

I had planned to make my sugar cookies, but ran out of time. I found these at Walmart and they were labeled "Peanut Free" (which is a requirement) so I grabbed them! I cut pieces of cellophane and wrapped them up to look like candy.

Party favors! Shortly after decided on "sweets" theme, I saw these cute soda pop bubbles at the Dollar Tree. I thought they would be cute!

A little party favor for the teachers! 

Making Water Bottle Labels...

Earlier this week, I had a friend asked for the template I use to make my water bottle labels. When I decided to make mine, I didn't use a template. I just messed around with it until I figured it out. Since I took the time to sit down and write out step by step instructions for her, I figured I would share it here as well. I am sure there are easier ways to do it, but this is how I make mine! Hope it is helpful!

1- Find an image by doing a google search (needs to be rectangular)

2- Copy and paste the image into a word document. Leave the page orientation as portrait.

3-  Measure the width of the label on the water bottle.

4- Once you have the width, right click on the image and choose "size".

5- Adjust the "height" to fit the measurement of the label.

6- Center it on the page.

7- Copy and paste until the page is full. Normally you can get 4 on a page.

8- Save as a PDF

9- Print on cardstock

10- Use a paper cutter to cut paper all the way across. when you tape it on the bottle, the paper will overlap a little, but is a pretty good fit!

11- peel off the labels from the bottles

12- tape one side wrap around and tape again

 

I get all my stuff printed on cardstock at Office Max. They charge .61 a page. Their quality is great! You can upload it on their website and select the store you would like to have it printed.

Here are pictures of the ones I have made:

 

Before cutting, this is what the ones for Madison's party looked like. I cut the paper all the way across so it is a strip of paper.

 

Here is the finished product!

 

Carter's were a little more complicated. My sweet friend, Morgan, shared some of her design knowledge with me. These are actully 2 Google images that I had to layer and resize. I'll have to do that a few more times to be able to give out instructions!

Open House!

When I'm not planning a party, I enjoy making crafts or sewing clothes for my daughter. Recently, a friend decided to host an Open House for any of her friends that sell things. I decided to set up a table just for fun! It took place last weekend and I had so much fun! I'd love to find a way to do this more regularly! Here are a few pictures of my table and things that I sold!

My little table! If I ever do it again, I definitely need more space! I had a card table set up with all my products and then a TV table for my cricut. I personalized the items as they bought them, so it would have been nice to have a larger working space. Next time I'll know! :)

I give a lot of these round candles away as gifts. At Christmas, I cut a red Christmas Tree and put one on the candle holder. They were so cute! I gave those out to all of our friends and family as a small gift.  This particular one had an apple w/ an H (for the teacher's inital). The tag was a sweet poem I found on Pinterest for teachers that went along w/ a candle. 

I also give away a lot of these candles! I think they are so cute! It is just a glass cube with an initial cut out. Inside, I put a small votive candle and surround it with glass marbles. Depending on the holiday, I put candy to match the season around the candle. In the winter, I used Epson salts b/c it looked like snow! 

This is the same as above, just no candle. Some of my friends have taken the candle out after it burns out and instead of replacing it, they make it a candy jar. Perfect for your desk or in your living room!

These have been a huge hit! Cute little post-it note holders made out of acrylic frames. I sold so many of these at the show and have orders to do more!

These are made to hold your cell phone. I plan to take this one for my desk at work! It would also be good for your kitchen counter or nightside table. Anything personalized is cute, right?

Personalized Hand Sanitizers! These were also a big seller! Everyone uses it, so it is a perfect gift!

More sanitizers! I love the baby carriage ones! Perfect baby shower gift! Just a sweet little reminder to friends, to clean their hands before holding the baby! Would also be cute in a nursery on the changing table.

I had these planters left over from my son's bday party. I wanted to find a way to get rid of them! I added 3 seed packets and a garden shovel. I used the shrink wrap to hold it all together. I added a decorative pinwheel (that can be put in the flowers) and put on a tag that says "thank you for helping me grow!". 

Here are the things that Kelly chose as her "Hostess Rewards"! Thanks so much for hosting, Kelly!

Carter's First Birthday! Roar!

My sons first birthday party was probably one of my favorites. His nursery is a dinosaur theme, so I decided to go with that for the party theme as well. His party was the weekend before Easter. I thought it would be fun to have a Dinosaur Egg Hunt as the main activity for the party! Everything was just perfect!

For his birth announcement and party invitation I used the same colors as his nursery. So that was an easy color scheme for the party! I used a company on Esty to design the invitations. I sent her a picture of his room and she went from there. The dinosaurs at the top are the same as the dinosaurs on his bumper and the paintings we have hanging in the room. The stripes at the bottom are the same as his bed skirt. They are just perfect in so many ways! I found the suckers online and put a round foam ball wrapped in tissue paper into the bucket. I used stickers from the Dollar Tree to decorate the bucket.

 I found these plates on Amazon and thought they were adorable! They were the right colors and cute dinosaurs for a 1st Birthday (some are a little too scary!). The buckets were from Hobby Lobby and again I used Dollar Tree stickers to decorate them.

For the mantel I used my Cricut to make a banner. I printed pictures from each month of his first year. The little dinosaurs were actually on a banner that I cut apart and put onto sticks. Then I put them in planters.

My mother-in-law made this diaper cake for his baby shower and it was in his room. I thought it was too cute not to include it in the party! I put it on the sunroom table w/ some wooden dinosaur cut outs (the kids could color them if they wanted too).

Oh this cake! I loved it! Tricia at Darlin' Designs (http://www.triciasdarlindesigns.blogspot.com/) made Madison's first birthday cake as well. I sent her a proof of the invitation and she matched it exactly! I used Spanish moss on the table b/c I thought it look like it went w/ dinosaurs! ha! 

I used my Cricut to make this little banner for his high chair. 

 His Smash cake was just a small little cake from Harris Teeter. I added the dinosaur and the candle. I found the bib at a cute little Etsy shop.

Somehow I didn't get many pictures of the food table. We did dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets for the kids and subs for adults. Very low key, but everyone was happy!

My daughter and her cute dinosaur dress! She was hunting for eggs! For the big kids I put a variety of candy and dinosaur prizes in the eggs. 

The birthday boy! Hard to believe that was a year ago! For the smaller kids we had a separate hunt. In their eggs, I filled small jewelry ziplock bags with goldfish and puffs. 

I found these buckets at the Dollar Tree. Not sure why I didn't use my Cricut to cut out letters for their names? I used letter stickers and dinosaur stickers from the Dollar Tree. Each guest got a bucket and they filled it with eggs as their party favor.

The Dinosaur Egg Hunt was a big hit! I highly recommend it even if it's not close to Easter! It was a fun activity that they all enjoyed!

NC State Wolfpack/Sports Theme Party!

Last weekend we celebrated my son's 2nd birthday with a party at our local city park. This is the same park I grew up going to and celebrating birthdays. I am sure this won't be the last birthday party we have at the park! I planned this party down to every last detail! I visited the shelter several times to count tables, figure out how I wanted everything arranged, etc. Well, lets just say things didn't go as planned! First of all, the tables were bolted down, so I couldn't move them. They had to stay where they were. The biggest problem was the WIND! It was a gorgeous day, but the wind was out of control!

We are huge NC State fans! Our son, Carter, pretty much only wants to wear an NC State shirt every day. Luckily, he has plenty to choose from. :) I didn't want the party to be only NC State stuff. I decided to go with black and white chevron with red accents and a few NC State things here and there. This table was for the gifts and favors.

I found this chevron covered magnet board at Hobby Lobby on clearance. I had to have it! It was supposed to be be standing vertically, but the wind kept blowing it over. I turned it and rearranged everything, but it still  kept blowing over luckily I got a picture of everything in place! Our football stadium is Carter Finley Stadium. I thought it was only fitting that we call our party area Carter Fitzgerald Stadium! :)

I already had this frame from Hobby Lobby. I always like to frame a current picture of my kids at their birthday party. I saw on Pinterest the cute idea for the penalty flags. You wrap a tootsie pop with a yellow napkin and tie string around it. I thought they turned out really cute! I found the Mr. Wuf image on Google and used it to make my sign!

All party guests were given basketballs as a favor! My husband saw NC State, Duke and UNC basketballs at the Five Below store. They were a little more than we'd normally spend on a favor, but decided they were too perfect to pass up! After playing at the park and eating, the kids had the best time playing in the grassy areas with these balls! I found NC State wrapping paper and wrapped a large cardboard box. I found the NC State logo on Google and used it to make my sign.

I made these ball trees by using floral tape to put 2 floral stems together.  I glued fishing line to the sports themed Easter eggs and hung them on the "tree". This one is a little windblown, but you get the idea. I had to put the water bottle on there to help keep them from blowing over. The pots were ceramic so they already were pretty heavy!

There was supposed to be a big bouquet of balloons on the basketball in the center. Again, due to wind we couldn't do that. We lost a lot of balloons while trying to get set up!

I love these water bottles! This cute little Mr. Wuf was the image I found and used on the invitation. I added it on top of a chevron image that I also found online. I just think they are adorable!

We had about 80 people coming to the party so decided to serve hot dogs, chips and fruit. Not very fancy, but practical and not too expensive. I found these cute trays at a local wholesale store. I thought they looked like something you would use at a tailgate or would get at a concession stand.

I put the fruit in an NC State bowl and the chips were in a NC State picnic basket that we have had for many years! I was glad to have a reason to use those pieces!

I've never made or used cupcake picks before. I decided to use BJ's cupcakes instead of trying to make them myself. The ladies there could not have been sweeter! They went out of their way to help me! I used the same image from the invitation and water bottles for one side and then the regular NC State logo for the other. I cut them out with a round punch, taped one side to a toothpick and then used a glue stick to attach the back. I was happy with how they turned out!

My original reason for making this cupcake stand was to put the cake on top. Unfortunately the cake was way to heavy for my amateur stand! At the last minute, I made the large cupcake pick that's on top so I would have some sort of topper.
I used wooden charger plate and wooden candle sticks from Hobby Lobby to make the stand. I painted it white and used a craft/wood glue to glue it all together. I hope to be able to use this stand for a long time!

 THE CAKE! I can't even tell you how much I LOVE this cake! It turned out so perfect! I sent the bakery a picture of the invitation and asked her to put the chevron on the outside and the wolf on the top. When I saw the 2 and his name on the front I was speechless! Just perfect!!

Here is a view of the cake and cupcakes together! Love!!

Here is the happy birthday boy after blowing out his candles! 

One last detail...I made this dress for my daughter to wear to the party. I might have to make myself one next! ;) I have had several requests to make more of these. Not sure if I'm ready for that yet!! 

My sweet family at the party! Still can't believe my baby boy is 2!