Customer Party....Baby Giraffe

A sweet repeat customer of mine contacted me a while back to do a custom design for a baby shower she was hosting. She needed invitations, favor tags, large return/mailing labels, place cards and a banner inspired by a polka dot giraffe onsies & toy (see the diaper cake) in a modern color scheme of gray, orange & yellow. I love how her shower turned out; a great mix of elegant with classic stripes, fun with polka dots and modern in color. The unexpected pairing of gray with the citrus colors turned out great! Alison did a wonderful job with this shower.

Alison--Thanks for being a wonderful customers & sharing your photos and creativity. Carli

Owl Party

Owl parties have been popular for a while now & after a few requests for an owl invite, I came up with a few variations, check them out in my shop. This theme is fun for everything from a first birthday to an older kids night owl sleep over or even a daytime pj party, who doesn't love pjs!

Menu: Night time munchies-popcorn, junk food, chips, etc. (oh how my kids would love this menu, okay me too!!)

Decorations: There are darling owl pillow all over the web (etsy, amazon, etc.). They would be fairly simple to make with some inexpensive felt (you could sew or even hot glue them together). Owl pillows would be a fun craft/favor for older children to make.

How cute are these round felt owls? Here is the tutorial . They call for styrofoam balls which can be surprisingly pricey! I have modified crafts which have called for them before by using shaved down styrofoam squares (cheaper, sometimes you can even find them at the dollar store!), or even a wodded up old shirt or rag (using duct tape to form a ball shape) as well as a cheapo dollar store ball (note you can't use hot glue on these though as they will melt, but you could probably wrap with duct tape a few times to avoid this problem).

COMING SOON: NIGHT OWL/EARLY BIRD PRINTABLE PARTY PACKAGE!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Carli

Cute as a Button Birthday

I love the Cute as a Button birthday idea for a little girl's 1st birthday. It is a simple, fun and affordable theme. Check local thrift stores or garage sales & see if you can snag a bag or two of old buttons & you are set!

1. Button Pillow-easy craft to add a personalized touch to the party (courtesy of Charlotte's Fancy)

2. Button Flower pins-Easy to assemble with a little hot glue or gorilla glue (flickr)

3. Cute as a Button Invite by DimplePrints

4. Button Cookies

5. Initial Pillow by Letter Perfect Designs (on Etsy)

6. Button Mums-Very afforable & easy to work with!

7. Button Flowers

8. Button Hair clips-Cute favor idea (courtesy of The Art Zoo)

9. Button Mum arrangement

10. Button Clips (bhg.com)

I love these cute, simple crafts to add to your cuties birthday celebration. Be sure to secure all buttons secrely since they are choking hazards for little ones. Thanks, Carli

St. Patrick's Day..Green Grub

Leprechauns visit our house and leave a little green behind (along with a scavenger hunt of goodies). A little creativity & some green food coloring can go along way! Green milk, shamrock peppers, green noodles (just add the colors to the water & boil noodles as normal), green jello, etc. So many ideas. Wish I could do green eggs & ham, love that book, but kids are allergic to eggs (and I don't like them), but a fun idea none the less. Happy St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day Decor

I am not one for over the top plastic shamrock decor. This year I went with natural green themed decor, moss (love the different colors & textures), sticks, etc. (all free thanks to my brothers property!). I would post pics, but our camera is with my husband at work, so no pics of what we did, our camera is awful anyways, new camera coming soon-whoo hooo! (any recommendations?). My kids & I went on a nature hike and gathered moss, sticks & such and built leprechaun house terrariums in large glass jars. I think the leprechaums will be making their appearance in the next few days, kids are hoping to catch one! They even built a ladder out of sticks (okay, i had to build for them it was a bit harder than my overly creative & ambitious 3 & 6 year old could handle!). The leprechaun visits our house, how about yours? It is really fun and considering it is probably the last "believing" year for Abby, I am tring to milk it all I can; 1 more Christmas-please!!!!

Don't forget to download my free St. Patrick's Day Tags & Toppers to add a little green touch to your St. Patty's Day celebration.

DimplePrints $20 Giveaway!

I am offering a $20 DimplePrints gift certificate giveaway!
ENTER HERE

GIVEAWAY CLOSED-Thanks, Carli

FREE DOWNLOAD from DimplePrints: St. Patrick's Day Cupcake Toppers & Tags

DOWNLOAD HERE

New Designs...Spring on my mind

With an good dose of early Spring happening here in my neck of the woods (cherry blossoms, daffodils & all were blooming late February, that is unheard of in the Pacific NW!), I was inspired to design a few bright, crisp & fun baby shower invites.

Clothes Pin Doll Cake Toppers & Tutorial

I love the darling clothes pin cake toppers that I came across some a few months ago on Etsy & decided to make the one pictured above for Abby's 6th birthday (back in December, still need to get the pics up, our camera was on a weird setting so I don't have many great pics-bummer!). Granted I decided to make hers the day before & had to improvise as I couldn't find the proper "head", but I think it all worked out, yes her dress is a bit wrinkled but hey we all have a wrinkled day every now & then!

I scrounged up things around my house. I used a thread spool for the cupcake base and wrapped it with a ribbon scrap. I topped the cupcake with pink painted fiberfil (no we didn't light the candle, realized it was a complete fire hazard!). I also used the fiber fill for the snow & sprinkled on my favorite Martha Stewart glitter. I wrapped foil balls with small pieces of fabric to create the candies & used an old rubber stamp base for the gift. It was a really fun project to do with Abby & looked darling as the centerpiece of her sweet shoppe. Wouldn't this be a fun project for older girls at a doll themed party.

Want to make your own? Here is a great tutorial (could've used this when trying to figure out what to use for her head, I used a wooden bead, but she has a hole in her head!)

CLOTHES PIN DOLL TUTORIAL

Lots of other cute ones out there!

pictures via flickr