Sesame Street Party – Invitations (with Template!)

Earlier this week I posted about my son’s Sesame Street 1st Birthday Party with the promise that I’d be blogging about all the projects I made for it. I figured first things first – we have to start with the invitations.

I started with the image of the gang from Sesame Street. I don’t have a proper credit for it as it seems to be floating around on a lot of blogs and parenting sites but I found it on Google Images. I’m sure it probably originated with Sesame Street. I used a photo editing program to add the multi-coloured circles and text and done! I somehow managed to forget a picture of the finished product but I printed them 4 to a page and then backed each with colourful card stock. It was a pretty simple invite but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on something that people were probably just going to throw out not long after receiving it. And I think they turned out pretty cute :)

If you like them too maybe you’d like to make your own! Click on the image below to get a copy of the template – all you need to do is add your text and print them out!

Lots more Sesame Street Birthday posts coming up so be sure to check back!

Another Year of DIY Valentines

I’m so disappointed – I had Valentine’s Day projects to share but I never got the opportunity to post any of them and now the day has come and gone for another year! But I think I’ve got a pretty good excuse, Nathan turned one last week and I returned to work. It was a busy week! I’m hoping that as we get used to our new schedule I’ll find a better rhythm of posting here because I have a lot of birthday party projects I’m excited to share. In the meantime, here’s this year’s Valentine’s Day cards.

 

Hopefully you’ll see me back later this week!

DIY Card Week – I Adore You

Today I’m sharing a card that I made for Nathan to give my mom on her birthday last month. Making cards from Nathan is fun because I can create them in a different “voice” than I do the ones from me and Chris. This card started with the “I Adore You” sticker (he really does love his Nana!) and then I picked other papers and elements to match.

I liked the contrast of the orange and blue and added in the heart pattern paper as I thought it went well with the sentiment of the card. To make it stand out a bit I outlined and coloured in one of the hearts. Had I just left off there I think this would have made a great Valentine’s Day or anniversary card but that wasn’t exactly the theme I had in mind so I added the cute little tag, attached with a brad. The giraffe is adorable and it automatically helped the card to feel more like it was from a child.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve got even more cards to share with you so stay tuned for a DIY Card Week 2!

DIY Card Week – Birthday Clown

Well my grand plans for DIY Card Week have fallen a bit short as my son is sick with a cold and nasty cough. It might have to become Card Weeks and the posts will just continue next week ;). Just a quick post today to share a birthday card I made for my brother. He was turning 29 so you might not think a clown to be age appropriate at first but I thought juxtaposing the silly clown sentiment against the plainer, numbered background helped “age” the card a bit. And my brother is a fun guy anyway!

I liked the black and white with all that colour. The centre is a Sassafras sticker and I love its vintage feel. Sassafras definitely makes my go to products for card making.

 

I hope to be back tomorrow with another card post so stay tuned!

DIY Card Week – Birthday With Love

As I mentioned in a previous post I’ve got a backlog of DIY cards that I haven’t had the chance to share with you yet so I’ve decided to declare this DIY Card Week and I’m going to post as many as my son’s naps allow ;)

The first post of the week is a birthday card I made for my aunt back in October. I kept it simple and feminine with lots of pink and layering.

I like the idea of using the same paper for a couple of layers like I’ve done here. It’s a good way to use up scraps and it also helps to balance your composition. I inked everything in pink and then piled it on. The two flower shapes are paper whimsies from Sassafras and the paper is from one of their lines as well. The “With Love” is a sticker and so is the cupcake. I thought the cupcake helped to make it feel more birthday instead of just a generic card and I liked that it had some dimension.

I really am a convert when it comes to inking edges. I’ve never bothered before because those special ink pads are expensive, especially if you need them in multiple colours. But adding ink really does help define and separate your elements so I tried just using the edge of a marker and it works like a charm. Now I ink everything.

Be sure to check back all this week for more cards!

Most Popular Posts of 2012

Happy New Year! 2012 was a great year for me with the highlight being the birth of my son :) Tonight I want to take a look back and share my most viewed projects posts of the year.

This Clothespin Wreath was a hit on Pinterest and was my most viewed post of the year. It was really easy to do and I’m thinking about making another one soon with a Valentine’s Day theme.

People really got a kick out of my DIY Turkey Headbands this past Thanksgiving. Again, another really simple project but they turned out so cute!

Another popular post was my Paper Flower Garland. I love this one because, if you’re a paper crafter, then you’ve already got everything you need to put these together.

This template for Monthly Baby Photos was a real hit both on the blog and with my friends in real life. I post Nathan’s monthly photo on Facebook each month for my friends. It’s a fun way to watch him grow and to commemorate his milestones.

And last but not least, you guys were digging my homemade birthday cards – these three in particular! Find the posts here, here and here.

I’m really glad that my cards have been popular as I’ve made a bunch more recently and will be sharing them soon. I’m still debating on whether to have a week devoted to cards or to do one  a week for a while. Anyone have a preference?

Here’s hoping 2013 is a fantastic year for all of us!

Crafty Christmas – DIY Gift Tags

Have you seen the price of gift tags lately? Unless you’re buying the little stickers then you’re probably paying an arm and a leg for them so why not make your own? These tags were so easy to make but are really cute and unique enough that your gift recipient will take notice.

The measurements for these will vary depending on the size of tag you use but the method will stay the same. Cut three strips from a piece of double sided paper making each strip a little shorter than the last. Score each strip along even intervals and then fold them accordion style. Pinch the longest strip together a bit at the top and hot glue it on to your tag. Repeat with the remaining strips being sure that the middle strip is flipped over so you can see the coordinating pattern. The last step is to glue little paper stars to the top (I cut mine out with my Silhouette).

Simple, cute and you can make them on the cheap because, let’s be honest, they’re probably getting thrown out with the wrapping paper! I made some of these for my craft sale that were about 5 inches tall. I priced them at $2 each and sold 6 of them.

So, how’s your gift wrapping going?

Easy Hanukkah Toddler Crafts

I hope everyone celebrating the festival of lights has been enjoying themselves so far! I’ve mentioned before that while we’re not religious, my husband is Jewish on his father’s side so we acknowledge Hanukkah each year. This is Nathan’s first holiday season so I was searching for ways to get him involved in celebrating and came up with two simple toddler crafts that we did together.

The first is the handprint menorah. I’ve seen this done before but with paint. Since Nathan is only 9 months old the idea of spreading paint all over his hands and hoping he didn’t touch EVERYTHING within reach didn’t really appeal to me! So instead I traced his hands and cut them out of blue paper. I glued them together with one thumb on top of the other to make the shamos and then I cut out little yellow flames. I glued all the flames on myself but if your child is a bit older they can enjoy gluing a flame on each night when you light the menorah!

Our second craft was a simple paper chain. Nathan has just discovered colouring so I gave him a yellow and a blue crayon and had him scribble all over some cream coloured cardstock.

I cut the cardstock and some patterned blue paper into strips and then made them into a paper chain. If you’ve never made a paper chain before I explained them in a little more detail here. I hung the finished chain over one of the bigger pictures we have hanging in the living room though I take it down now and again so Nathan can shake it – it makes a great noise ;)

 

Happy Hanukkah!

Crafty Christmas – Dry Erase Christmas Countdown

Today I’m sharing another one of the projects I did for my craft sale – dry erase Christmas countdowns. I’d seen the idea for writing on glass with a dry erase marker on a few blogs recently and I thought it would be the perfect way to keep track of the days leading up to Christmas!

I started with some 8x10 black frames that I bought at Good Will for a few dollars each. I removed the glass and the ugly bathroom art and sprayed two with Nickel and one with Red paint. Painting only one coat allowed the black to show through a bit which gave the frames a kind of vintage feel.

While the paint dried I used my Silhouette to cut out “Days Until Christmas” and the little dashes to write the numbers on top. I glued my letters down on some Christmas paper and arranged some additional paper elements. Then I popped the glass and the paper back into the frames.

 

And it was as easy as that! I was selling these for $20 each and including a dry erase marker with each one. I thought that was pretty reasonable for decently sized Christmas decor that can be used year after year and I think they would have sold at that price in a different setting. Unfortunately, I didn’t sell any of them. If you like one of them and you’re local or you’d be willing to pay for shipping just let me know :). Otherwise, give this craft a try yourself – there’s still 18 days until Christmas!

P.S. Linking up with Clean & Scentsible, Free Pretty Things For You, Someday Crafts

Crafty Christmas – Treat Containers from Formula Cans

I like to give away baking at Christmas. It’s an affordable way to spread some cheer to neighbours and friends who you wouldn’t normally buy presents for. But it can be tricky determining what to put my homemade sweets in for gifting as pretty containers end up being more expensive than the baking but a Ziploc bag really won’t do.  Yesterday, Chris needed cookies for a charity bake sale at his office. I knew the chances were high that if I sent them in one of my containers I’d never see it again so I had to come up with something quickly that still looked cute. Enter the formula can!

I’ve been saving them since Nathan started on formula 3 months ago so I have a LOT of them – he goes through about a can a week! I just knew they’d come in handy some day. I took a clean, empty formula can, measured a piece of glittery Christmas scrapbook paper to fit and then wrapped it around the can and hot glued it on. Done! Isn’t it pretty? The lid is plain so I don’t think anyone would even know it was a formula can (unless they have a baby of their own at home!). This was a 900g container and it fit two dozen Hot Chocolate Cookies perfectly – great for Christmas gifting! And since the tin is air tight it’ll keep the cookies fresh too :)

If you wanted to get even more creative you could add extra embellishments like ribbon or stickers but I think I like how pretty and simple this one is. I'll definitely be making more of these before December 25th!

Crafty Christmas – Dictionary Page Ornaments

So as I’ve mentioned previously, I participated in my very first craft sale this past weekend. I worked really hard to build up an inventory of awesome Christmas crafts and decorations – things that I was really proud of. I was up until 2 the night before the sale putting the finishing touches on things and I was very pleased with my 8 foot table piled with Christmas goodness. So you can imagine my extreme disappointment when I sold almost nothing! The good news is that I don’t think it was my fault. We got a lot of snow the night before the sale and the roads were a mess in the morning which meant not a lot of people came. So now I have a bunch of boxes full of Christmas crafts in my basement but I also have a lot of great projects to share with you. First up are super simple Dictionary Page Ornaments.

I bought a bunch of Styrofoam balls at the dollar store and decided to turn them into “unbreakable” ornaments. Basically, ornaments that would be safe should your toddler decide to throw them or your cat decide to climb your tree (I’ve lost many an ornament to my cat’s antics). For this project I chose balls that were a bit bigger than a ping pong ball.

I started by tearing up pages of an old dictionary into small squares and strips. Then I applied a layer of Mod Podge to the balls and covered them in the dictionary pieces, overlapping them to make sure nothing would show through. This is the point where it got messy – I then applied a generous amount of Mod Podge to the top of the dictionary pages and used my fingers to really rub it in and smooth everything out. My hands were black when I was through!

To dry the ornaments I set them in an old egg carton so that they wouldn’t stick to each other or anything else. Once they were dry I used straight pins to attach a loop of red ribbon for hanging. And voila – Dictionary Page Ornaments. I think they turned out simple and pretty and I was selling them for $2 or 3 for $5. I got a ton of compliments but I didn’t sell any. Oh well, they just might make it onto our tree this year ;)

Making sure you keep checking back as I’ve got a lot more Crafty Christmas posts coming up!

Even More DIY Birthday Cards!

Last month my cousin turned 4 so, of course, birthday cards were made! I love making cards for kids since I get to use up all the cute stuff I have in my stash. Lauren loves elephants so this card from Nathan was a no brainer.

 

It’s made entirely from Sassafras paper and stickers. I just did a lot of layering and added the 4 sticker since it was her fourth birthday. Here’s a look at the inside.

For the card from me and Chris I just kept it simple and girly with some patchwork papers and a pretty sticker tag. I love that little caterpillar crawling across the top of the card :)

 

And here’s the inside of that one – felt birthday shapes and some cute little stickers including a little To and From tag.

 

We all had a great time celebrating with Lauren (and a bunch of her rambunctious 4 year old friends!) at her butterfly themed birthday. Can’t believe she’s 4 when it seems like just yesterday I was driving to see her in hospital on the day she was born. Looking forward to another great year with one of my favourite people in the world :)

DIY Paper Halloween Wreath

Last October I guest posted over at Clean & Scentsible sharing my DIY Paper Halloween Wreath. For those of you who missed it, I’m re-posting here today. These wreaths are so quick and simple to make – you can literally put one together in half an hour!

Here's what you'll need:

• 12 inch Styrofoam wreath form
• Two 12 x 12 sheets of Halloween paper (double sided if you want extra pattern variety)
• Halloween ribbon
• Tissue paper
• Halloween stickers
• Paper cutter or scissors
• Stapler
• Pipe cleaners

Except for the paper, I had all of this stuff in my crafting stash so hopefully you will too!

Start by cutting your paper into 1 1/2 by 6 inch strips. If you're using double sided paper you can flip half your strips over so that you end up with 4 piles of different patterns. If you're using single sided you can stick with 2 patterns or just cut only half of 4 different sheets.

Next, start wrapping strips around your wreath form, one at a time, overlapping them slightly and stapling them at the back. Don't worry about how the back looks, just make sure everything is lined up nicely at the front of the wreath. Keep stapling on strips until your wreath is completely covered. Don't worry if things don't line up exactly right on the last strip as you'll be covering that spot with ribbon. Here's the front and back of my finished wreath.

The next step is making the tissue paper flowers. You need 8 squares of tissue paper - the bigger the squares the larger your flower will be so consider the size of your wreath when cutting your squares. Pile the squares on top of each other and fold them like an accordion. When you've finished, twist a pipe cleaner around the centre to secure your folds.

Using scissors, cut the ends of both sides of your folded tissue into points. You can cut rounded edges for pretty flowers as well but I think the spiky kind look a bit more spooky!

Now spread your accordion out and start pulling the layers of tissue away from each other.When all the layers are separated, adjust them so that there is a flat back to your flower - that's the side with the pipe cleaner tails. Use the pipe cleaner to affix the flower to your wreath or you can hot glue it on. Repeat this process until you have as many flowers as you'd like. I only made two for my wreath because I didn't want to cover up too much of the paper. Once your flowers are in place, stick some Halloween stickers on to them.

The last step is to tie some ribbon around the top of your wreath for hanging and you're done! Wasn't that easy? You can use this same idea to make wreaths for all kinds of holidays - just switch the theme and colours of your paper, tissue and embellishments. I made one for Valentine’s Day a couple of years back and I think I’ll do a Christmas version this year!