Calling all volleyball "fans"!

A couple weeks ago I made these fans requested by my client Shelley for her daughter's first birthday party. I thought they turned out so cute (and Shelley said people loved them, too) that it got me thinking.

If you're a regular follower, you've heard a bunch about my sis Kasey this fall. She is a senior in high school and her volleyball "Parents Night" (does everyone have those, or just small town MN?) was coming up. They honor the parents by calling them down to the court to stand with their daughter at the beginning of the game. The kids usually give their parents flowers, balloons, or candy. But I thought I could make something a little different this year. While I was laying in bed one night, the whole play on words with the fans popped into my head!

So Miss A, the long standing VB coach, always has some sort of theme and makes the players dress in some crazy garb to take a picture for the invitation to parents night. This year the theme was some sort of 50s thing. I had Kasey send me the pics of each of her teammates wearing their 50s blonde wig and holding their hot pink dice. These girls cracked me up with some of their poses! I popped in each girls' name and picture and made two fans each.

So here are the fans for the girls' biggest fans!

Wish I could have been there, Kas!

Trick or Treat!

Well...since this stuff was cut on September 6th, it was WAY OVERDUE in getting done and listed...but I have been so dang busy with orders that I feel too guilty to work on something that no one has bought yet. But if I didn't do it now, then Halloween will be over and this paper will still be sitting here.

The pics are no where close to as nice as the ones my friend Darcie took of my first collection, but they will frankly just have to do. Imagine taking them with a one year old hanging from my right ankle and my other two hanging from my left and asking for the 3 billionth time when they can EAT the cupcakes ...so forgive me for bad lighting and less than perfect angles.

But now (finally) available in my shop,

THE HAPPY HALLOWEEN COLLECTION

and THE TRICK OR TREAT COLLECTION:

Pieces can be bought separately or together in a package.

Now just to find the time to finish up those costumes...

Welcome to the Bahamas!

Remember how I told you my sister keeps me in business? Well, as I was paper shopping the other day I got a call from Rachel asking me to help her pick out a style of digital picture card from Etsy so that her friend Darcy (the one that I did this bachelorette party for a couple months ago) could have welcome cards to lay on each person's bed in their hotel at their destination wedding. I said, "Why don't I make something up?" Have I ever told you I apparently like overloading my plate? I get some sick high off of it. Anyway...I told her she better tell me right then so I could get the paper for it since she needed them in just a few days.

She told me the colors for this Bahamas wedding were purple, orange, turqoise, and yellow. So I got some paper and made some cards up. We didn't even tell Darcy until afterwards because we knew she'd feel bad that I had done it on such short notice. Let's just say she was a bit stressed getting last minute details ready for the wedding while trying to hold parent-teacher conferences at school where she teaches 5th graders! Let me just say...been there, done that, and I'm glad I could help!
Thank God she loved them...they're probably sitting on those beds right now since all the guests are leaving MN early tomorrow morning! Congrats, Darcy and Joel!

Finally a teen birthday!

Alright, here is the post I was going to post this morning, but got sidetracked with my HWTM feature. Just an update on that...I already have an order for the circus banner and 20 hats along with a few other items...I'm thinking of making it a collection for my shop if I can just find the time! The circus theme seems to be popular, so hopefully I can get it together!

So, although I love doing 1st birthdays, I have been dying to do some products for someone older. Something more sophisticated. So much so that I had already purchased paper for my sister Kasey's 18th birthday. That ended up being a good thing, because I had a last minute request to make some products for an 11 year old's birthday.

Kendra's mom said she wanted to make sure it wasn't babyish since Kendra was in that "tween" phase...she said maybe zebra or something. My mind immediately went to the hot pink and zebra paper that I bought for Kasey's birthday which is coming up in December. I told her I knew exactly what I'd use. She had to leave the font and design details up to me since she needed it on the fly, but she said she trusted me, so hopefully Kendra loved the outcome!

Here are the banner and cupcake toppers she ordered:

So there you go, Kas...a bit of a sneak peak of what your birthday will look like! :)

OMG...WHAT A SURPRISE!

I was just in the middle of writing a different post, which I will publish later today, but was so excited when I got an email from my friend Julie from OTDC... she wanted to let me know that some of my party decor was featured on The Hostess With the Mostess. I LOVE this site...the only thing I hate about it is that I don't have enough time to go on it as much as I'd like.

I first heard about HWTM when my sister in law Lindsey was looking for ideas for her daughter Addie's party. If you remember they did the Candyland theme that son of The Bachelorette's stars Trista and Ryan Sutter had for his 1st birthday bash. Ever since then I've had a slight obsession with the site.

So to hear this morning that Michelle, one of my clients, had her party featured, I was ecstatic! It was this circus theme for 1 year old Darrian that I did earlier in the summer. There are a bunch of other great Etsy sellers she used that are featured, too! Go check it out!

Cupcakes and Lollipops

A few weeks ago I showed you the invitations that I made for little Ava for her first birthday. Her mom sent me these lollipops that she was using at the party for some inspiration:
She's actually going to stick them into the cupcakes as decorations, so we decided to make that the main illustration on all the partyware. I drew up a cupcake and some lollipops and got going! Now I've finished the rest of Ava's partyware...so here it is!

Just a reminder of the invitations:Then for the new decor...the banner,

the door sign,

sticker for her favors (they're round even though its hard to tell from this pic),

the napkin rings,

and the confetti.

From my stat counter I find that not as many of you read this during the weekend, so I'll be back Monday with more!

4th Time's a Charm...

I know its been a few days...all I can say is that things have been so crazy busy that I honestly didn't have a second to post anything! After recovering from Beckett's party on Sunday and getting back to work, the kids and I left Monday afternoon for a trip to my parents' house where we watched my sister Kasey as she was crowned homecoming queen! We're so happy for her...she's had kind of a tough fall with knee surgery and such. She is SO deserving.


















Here is a pic of my sisters and I...we've all been up for queen, but Kas is the first to win. 4th times a charm!


This is my cousin Tyler...who was crowned King that night, too! Yes, we're from a small town, but this is VERY UNUSUAL, even in a town of 1200! He is my godchild, too...I always take a picture kissing his cheek. He asked me the other night when I was going to stop doing that. I asked him when he was going to stop acting like he didn't like it!! :)



We also got to attend Kasey's "Senior Spotlight Night" at her volleyball game on Tuesday. Even though she can't play she continues to support the team by going to every practice and every game. The kids had so much fun cheering them on!

Okay...I better include some party decor...here is my 3rd run at a circus theme, and I have another on the way! These are the invitations that Maddox's mom gave me to match the banner and confetti to:

I love the turqoise, chocolate, and red together. And here they are: