Ryan's First Year

About the same time I was working on the picture banner for my little sister's graduation, I was asked to make a picture banner that matched my Polkadot Collection for little Ryan, who is having his first birthday party this weekend.

His mom sent me pictures from when he was three days old all the way to his 11 month picture, and plans to add the 12 month picture herself.

Ryan's mom knew she wanted something like this for his birthday, so she took a pic of him in a diaper each month sitting on the same chair with the same stuffed animal so you can really see how he changed over the months...such a great idea!

I really love these banners and plan to add them as a regular item to my list!

3 X the fun!

In early January I started talking to a mom of triplets about their birthday party, which will be this weekend. She was telling me how her boys had each been assigned a color at birth to help identify them. My boys collection matched pretty well with the colors, but it needed a little yellow. I had the matching yellow paper to my line and so I made her order...and let me tell you that this is going to be quite the celebration!

Jamie wanted me to put all three boys names on the banner. She said I could do it how I wanted but her only request was that I put the names in birth order: Jacob (aka BLUE), Benjamin (aka YELLOW), and Zachary (aka GREEN). So here is how a banner for triplets (and triplets with pretty long names, no less!) looks:
I am going to save the rest of the decor for later...most of it is similar to the regular PDCfB. Their crowns turned out pretty cute with their personal color coding, but she had *golden* make bibs to match them, so I am going to hold out for a pic from the party to show them to you so you can get the whole picture!

A Christmas Birthday Banner

Back in November a repeat client of mine decided to order a banner for her daughter whose birthday was very close to Christmas. She said that she wanted it to be reminiscent of Christmas, but still girly. I already had the perfect paper for that! Since her birthday will always be close to Christmas, this mom did not want her daughter Maggie's age to be put on the banner. (Just a note, you CAN just slide the age off the next year or order a replacement card if you wish.)

So with only 3 ribbons actually having letters on them, this is how Maggie's banner turned out:
As my husband and I were staring at it as we usually do after I finish a banner, we decided that we both liked it better than the original layout...though I wasn't sure what to do with the age when the client wanted that included. We just liked the way it was spread out more and had two twirling ribbons.

So after a few adjustments and a few attempts, here is the new customized style for all banners:
So a big thanks to Beth for making me rethink and improve...most of my new products have been sparked by something a client has said or requested, so keep those suggestions coming!

Debut Number Two!

I'm not sure you have all been looking forward to this as much as I have, but even so...the day has arrived...

THE POLKADOT COLLECTION for BOYS...To see all the pics, click on the slide show on the right. --------->

P.S...are you a fan yet? If you are on facebook, become a Polkadots & Pirates fan!

I WANT TO BE A PD&P facebook FAN

New products for the girls line coming tomorrow!

The Boys Line Photo Shoot...

Today was the big day for taking pics of the newly finished boys line, set to premiere in my shop this Wednesday. Last time I had my photographer good friend Darcie do them, today I was alone.

I love taking pictures, but I want my site to look cohesive and I am more of a candid shot (and not professional) photog. But it ended up being pretty fun because I learned a few things and got to try a few tricks along the way.

My model was less than cooperative, but is pretty cute so I forgave him...Then he expected to be paid...Good thing that his currency is Tracie's cupcakes!

I dealt with lots of this since my 3 kids were here as well as my niece Addie...Thank God Daddy was home for MLK, so I had some help!

So needless to say, at the end of the day I had 450 pictures on my camera and looked like this...
Don't worry...there are some that turned out better. More to come in the next few days!