Tag Archives | little celebrations

EASY HALLOWEEN PUMPKINS + FELT FLAGS

By rae on October 3, 2016 in FREEBIES, holidays, KIDS, MAKE

Over the weekend we dressed up a few of our pumpkins for a kid friendly Halloween get together at my friend Stacy’s house. It can be hard to find non-creepy decor that’s still festive, but a few felt flags, hats, and masks and our pumpkins were ready to party! Would be perfect for a photo backdrop, front porch display, or table top decor too! Details below…

PAPER MASKS

Click to download the template. Print onto card stock and cut around dashed lines. Use smaller scissors or an exact-o knife to cutout the eye holes. Trace onto black or other color card stock and cutout as before. I used hot glue to stick them to the pumpkins, but they fell off so I used double stick tape and they are still stuck (go figure)!

I shared small masks last year (HERE) with a “hocus pocus” banner, but turned them into a template and added a bigger size this time around.

WITCH HATS

For the hats, I traced a circle tray onto a piece of poster board (card stock or other paper would work), cut around the line and then cut it in half. To make the cone shape a pulled the corners of the half circle together until it was a shape that I like and then hot glued in place. Double stick tape would work too.

EASY FELT FLAGS DIY

I used this tutorial to make my felt stiff (such a fun trick!). Then cut 10 x 7 -inch triangles out of it. In the past I’ve cut stencils out of butcher paper and then painted over to add words to the felt flags, but this time around I did it free hand — just a paint brush and acrylic paint which makes it easier for the kids to help too!!! Once the paint dries, simply hot glue to dowels.

Fall decor itself is so festive there’s no need to add Halloween specific items, but I have a soft spot for whimsical or vintage designs that don’t scare the kids.

Do you decorate for Halloween or just keep things looking fall-ish!?

XO, Rae

(images by Stacy Jacobsen Photography)

TILLY’S UNICORN PARTY

By rae on September 21, 2016 in KIDS, LIFE

If you’ve stopped by the blog or my instagram account lately, you may notice an ice cream cone theme going on, but it’s a total coinkidink. Our love of all things ice cream related on the other hand, is not. Oh and unicorns. We love those guys too which is the reason for more ice cream cones (slash) unicorn horns today.

Over the weekend while brainstorming ideas for Tilly’s 8th Bday party I realized we never shared all the details from her 7th, Unicorn themed Birthday! Keep reading for pics, links and our struggle to plan her party every year!

PRETTY PAPER GOODS – Invites and thank you notes from Tiny Prints. The style pictured is no longer available but THESE cute ones were another fave.

MENU – Mini homemade mac & cheese cups, apple sauce, fruit & veggie platter, and animal crackers.

THE UNICORN HORN CUPCAKES – I used THIS RECIPE, but didn’t fill the cones up as much so they would still lay flat. You will also need something to hold the cones while they bake. For this we used a big disposable foil roasting pan (like what you put a turkey in), turned it upside down and cut holes for the cones to nest in. Once the cones/cupcakes have cooled, instead of frosting we dipped in melted chocolate and sprinkles.

ACTIVITIES – The party started at our house so the partygoers could eat. Then we headed to a gymnastics facility where the girls tumbled, ran, climbed and swung from things before singing happy bday and eating their unicorn horn cupcakes. Afterwards we headed back home and opened gifts!

It was totally nuts but nice that the party wasn’t over in 2 short hours.

FELT UNICORN HORN HEADBANDS – from Brooklyn Owl, easily a favorite dress up item around our home and we love giving them away as gifts too!

PARTY FAVORS – We stuffed kraft bitty bags with twisty unicorn pops (black ones would be fun for Halloween!), rainbow stickers and friendship pins that Tilly made and taped to ‘thank you’ notes I designed and printed really quick. Favors are easily Tilly’s favorite part of party planning :)

As I mentioned above, planning Tilly’s party every year is a struggle. She would like the festivities to last all day with 30 of her closest friends (always afraid of leaving someone out) at our house, the roller rink and the gymnastics place followed by a sleepover and of course a yummy breakfast. Our struggle every year is to bring her birthday dreams down to earth while also controlling my own desire to throw a costume party at a pumpkin patch (LOL).

We are totally stumped this year and also running out of time. I’ve been pinning like crazy hoping something would stick and would love any suggestions for party themes and activities!

XO, Rae

DOUBLE DIGITS (A BELATED BDAY NOTE)

By rae on July 27, 2016 in LIFE

Our No. 2, Espen, is 10… 10! Which is halfway to 20. Surely I must be dreaming. Yes?

No. It really happened over the weekend and I’ve been teary-eyed ever since. It doesn’t help that summer is flying by as well (ugh!). Time is not a friend of mine but I can’t let this milestone bday pass by without a HBD note.

Here are just a few of the millions of things we LOVE about YOU Espey —>

Your glass is always half-full. You get excited about the big and the little things. You have the best comic relief and silly faces. You are everyone’s favorite and everyone’s friend. Your heart is full of adventure and possibilities. Your work ethic and problem solving skills are better than most adults. You are up for trying just about anything and quick to adjust. And the list goes on.

Your family is head over heels for you and I hope you never question how amazing and loved and appreciated you are!

Now stop growing please.

Love you so!!!

XO, Mom

STYLED (but simple) iPHONE KID PORTRAITS

By rae on September 28, 2015 in DESIGN, KIDS

My little Tilly Jane is almost SEVEN! As with every child, every birthday, I can’t believe it. Not sure this feeling of disbelief that they are growing up so fast will ever end!?

Last week we started party planning and since she enjoys all things crafty and design-y she’s taken over creative control. So far she’s chosen unicorns and rainbows as the theme and picked a cute invite to match, just one small problem-o. The one she wants requires a picture. Normally this is not an issue – no shortage of photos around here! – but this time I couldn’t for the life of me find one that worked well with the design and colors. Instead of having her pick something different we ended up putting together a mini iPhone photo shoot.

In case you ever find yourself in a similar dilemma, here’s how we went about getting a simple but styled portrait on my iPhone for her invites:

We picked the invites first! This helped narrow down colors, outfit, props and background.
Found a “controlled” background with good light – not too bright, not too dark. Could be as easy as hanging up a white poster board on a well lit wall in the house or as fun as a colorful mural in the city. We found something in-between – a brick building close to home.
I took a ton of pics, prompted her to try different things but also let her be herself. I find a little bit of movement goes a long way to make photos look more natural.
Edited before we uploaded. Invite sites often have an editing option but my favorite photo editing app (VSCOcam) on my phone looked way better!

Here’s how it turned out:

Pretty cute I think considering it only took a few minutes and a phone! Looking forward to finishing up all the party planning and celebrating my girl!

What do you usually do for Birthday party invites? Do you ever have trouble finding a photo that will work?

XO, Rae

Navigation

Tag Archives | little celebrations

PAPER MASKS

WITCH HATS

EASY FELT FLAGS DIY