The circus continues...

Here's day two of the HWTM circus craze. This client loved the circus theme, but was using invitations that had different animals than the original ones that we used for Darrian's birthday. She sent me this picture of a gift bag that matched her invitations for inspiration:
Using this picture and a few others of animals that I like, I came up with these animals to use for Jackson's party ware:

I am excited to say I get to show the real life pictures since Jessica emailed them to me last night...just in time for this post! Thanks, Jessica! So here they are in action:

First, the birthday boy Jackson wearing his crown...The banner...

The hats...The napkin rings...

The confetti

(I used the extra images I had from the hats in the confetti as well, which worked out perfectly!)...

The door sign...

Tomorrow will be day 4 using red, blue, yellow, and green, and day 3 of the paper used for the circus theme, but with a new twist. More tomorrow!

The HWTM Circus Craze Begins!

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know about a month ago or so I was featured on Hostess With the Mostess for a circus party that I did earlier in the summer. In fact, you probably are sick of hearing it. I apologize. I promise I will only mention it a million or so more times! :) No really though, within a couple hours of that post being up, I received this order to duplicate what I made for that party. I was thrilled (and a little nervous that I might become overwhelmed with orders for the circus party!). To make it even more exciting, this party was for 3 year old twins! So I got to make pretty much double of everything, which was fun. I already had the images from istock and the designs in place except for the door sign. Because the twins were turning 3 it ended up working out to use a common circus phrase for the sign. Here is how it all came together:

The banner...
The twins' crowns: red for Annabel and blue for Jack...
A close-up of the hats, which also came in blue, green, and red...

And the door sign...

I still have 3 more circus orders coming! I will be back tomorrow with another order from the circus craze with a few design changes. Better go clean up my living room, which looks like a 3-ring circus right now!

Fly on by and have some fun!

Today brings another airplane party. This one is a biggie, so be ready for lots of pics! The two airplane parties I've done previously used a different designer's invitations as the basis. This client wanted something a little "busier" to suit her taste. After giving her an example of a few airplanes that would suit what she was looking for, I drew one that matched the colors she requested and made the invitations, which I included in an earlier blog. In case you missed them, here is how they turned out:Then I got to work on the rest of her items.

The entire collection...

The banner...
The cupcake toppers...
The door sign with Sara's clever wording "Carter's party arrivals here!"
and the party hats...

The cup wrappers and confetti...
Then my favorite thing yet...luggage tags to put on the favors and a baggage claim sign for the table that the favors will be on...

When Sara, Carter's mom, and I were first discussing options for his party, she asked if I knew anyone who could make her a t-shirt for Carter's party. Can you guess who I sent her to? Yes, Rachel at Goldenshop. You may be beginning to think that this is her blog, too, but its only because what her and I do go so well together and you all know how I love things that match and anything themed! Plus she never updates her blog anyway, right Rach? :) Here is the t-shirt and the bib that she made:I told you this was going to be a biggie! After Sara received her items in the mail, she decided to order a few more things, so then I sent her these:

More cup wrappers,
more confetti,

and 2 yard signs that will be attached to stakes in the yard directing people to the party...

The party is this coming weekend...can't wait for those pics, Sara!

Snow!!

Be sure to check out my Halloween Slideshow/Thanksgiving Give-Away post from earlier today, but I had to share what we woke up to this morning.

I know I said it snowed last weekend, but it was really just white flakes flying around...nothing that stuck once it hit the ground. This is the real thing! Tate, Aves, and my nephew Jack wanted to play so they weren't really having any part of this picture, and as you can see they have already tried to shed their mittens and hats, which is always a battle. But you get the idea.

Brrrrrr.....I hear we're in for more tomorrow.

And the winner is...

Thanks to all who sent the pics of yourself or your kiddos for our Halloween slideshow. The are all seriously so cute...I don't know which is cuter, the kids or their costumes!

Here is the banner that you can find here in my shop for Thanksgiving. It can say "Count Your Blessings" as shown, or can say "Happy Thanksgiving" or "Give Thanks."
And after picking a winner on random.org, this particular banner will be hanging in Goldilocks (Co-pilot the Pug) and the 3 Bears (Carter)'s house for Thanksgiving. I'll send it to you today, Sara!

UNO!

You know how last week I had a lot of hot pink and orange? Well, I'm still working on the last couple of those, but today starts the streak of red, blue, yellow, and green. After being seen on Hostess With the Mostess, I have had quite a few orders for the circus theme I did earlier in the summer. Today, though, I am going to start with those colors, but not for a circus. This client's theme for her daughter's first birthday was inspired by the game UNO.
I obviously wanted to stick with the four colors of the UNO game cards for the main paper. I happened to have those 4 colors in my favorite paper because this paper is discontinued so I bought about every piece in every color I could get my hands on...which wasn't nearly as many as I would have liked. But I did have enough to complete this project, so I bought some coordinating paper to embellish the hats with. Here is how the banner and hats turned out:And on another note, did you vote yet? This is the first election in quite some time I haven't been teaching about how important it is to vote to 3rd graders, so you get my speech instead! I don't care who you're voting for (although I definitely have my opinions which I will keep to myself! :) as long as you vote. 'Nough said.

Quite the Halloween Weekend!

Well, our weekend didn't turn out QUITE as I expected it to. Avery had been sick with the pukies early last week, but the boys seemed to steer clear of it...until late Friday afternoon. While I was on a paper shopping trip Eric called to say Beckett had a 103 degree fever, and by the time I got home Tate did too! We loaded them both up with Tylenol so that they would be smiley enough to at least take a few pictures. They actually felt well enough that we went Trick-or-Treating to just a couple neighbors houses before coming home. Tate starting throwing up at 11 o'clock that night and it lasted through Saturday morning, so we didn't get to make our trip to the farm to TOT at the grandparents' house until Sunday.

Two positives are that I did get a bunch more work done because we stayed at home, so I guess that was a plus, and the weather was BEAUTIFUL here this weekend...no snow like last weekend and we did not even have to put on jackets for trick-or-treating. It has been quite some time since I can say that!

Here are a few pics of my Peter Pan themed brood from the weekend:Tate, AKA Captain Hook, said as he was laying on the couch with a fever Friday afternoon,"We can't just let Halloween pass by and pretend it didn't happen! We HAVE to go trick-or-treating!" After throwing up on Halloween last year, too, I'm glad he went to at least a couple houses. His preschool teacher told me his costume was the hit of the party.
Avery, AKA TinkerBell, LOVED her costume so much that she has it on again right now as I'm typing this. We sprayed her with an entire can of "Pixie Dust" that isn't really visible in the pictures but was so cute as she sparkled under the street lights on Friday night.This is about the best we could get of Beckett, AKA Peter Pan. He just was feeling awful...but he looked pretty cute anyway!
Every year since Tate was born we have carved the kids' names into a pumpkin with their name on it so we can remember how old they were when they wore each costume. The pictures of them by their pumpkins never do the pumpkins any justice because you can't see how they really look with the flash on. So here's what they looked like glowing on our front steps:
And lastly, I did stop for about an hour after the kids went to bed at my friend Kelley's where she was dressing each girl up in her old formals, but each with a bit of a different theme. She was the southern belle, the cutest costume, of course :)! She made her sister in law into a librarian, my sister into the Phantom of the Opera...and when I arrived a little late they decided to make me into a "Lady of the Evening" for lack of a better term. They said that since I had been mysteriously working late into the night for the last few months that this is the look that must be the answer. I particularly like the make-up and hair she gave me, don't you think? Apparently I'm on drugs as well! Or maybe those big bags I was talking about have just gotten that bad!
Thanks to everyone who has already sent photos for our giveaway. There are some REAL CUTIES!! Keep them coming! You have until Thursday at midnight!