Elmo Themed 2nd Birthday Party Invitations

Our first daughter turned 2 in the middle of December and a little thing like having a second daughter was not going to stand in my way of throwing her a fabulous party. However, having a newborn does complicate party preparations a bit.  So, it took a little while to get this stuff up. First thing first though- the invitations!

I actually finished these the day I was induced (I was late again!) and mailed them the day we got out of the hospital.

Elmo is a theme that is surprisingly difficult to make fun for kids AND sophisticated for the adults. I felt that most of the Elmo party stuff you can buy is good for just kid parties, but doesn't fit the bill when it will be mostly adults.  So, these hand made invitations had to help set the tone.

 

I started by cutting the eyes, nose and mouth with a 1 inch circle cutter i had lying around. Then cut out the heads by hand and hole punched black paper for the pupils. After putting them all together I created the text and spaced it out to account for all the room I needed to later add the Elmo head.

 

The invitations were a huge success and everyone loved how creative and different they were. I have gotten so many compliments on the caliber and the personal touch.  One thing I always make sure I include with the invitations is a custom made email for people to reply to. I think it always adds an extra special little something!

 

Anyway, hope these inspire your own invitations! Thanks for reading!

Large Name Letters with Tissue Paper Puffs

One of the decorations I am doing for my daughters birthday is her name in large 20 by 14  inch letters.  However, I really wanted to make it special so I am decorating them with hundreds of tissue paper puffs (not sure what else to call them, so if you have a better name please let me know!).  While it is certainly time consuming,  they look so beautiful when you are done, I just could not resist. 

What you will need:
- Foam core
- T square
- Pencil with flat eraser/pen with round flat bottom
- Cutting board
- Exacto knife
- Tissue paper
- Scissors
- Glue

First, I needed to measure and cut out the letters from the foam core.  Next you will want to cut out hundreds of squares of tissue paper.  I used 2 inch squares because I wanted some volume but not tons.  Once you have the squares, take your pen or pencil and put the flat part in the middle and wrap the square around it.

To make the project go faster, I put down a line of glue, but you can add a dot if glue to exactly where you want to stick the tissue paper puff if you would like. Please note that if you use too much glue the foam core will curl slightly when it dries.

Lastly, you press it down into the glue and do the next one.  After a while it will start to really come together!  Once you are done, you can also glue a ribbon all around the edge to hide the foam core from showing and really add a touch of sophistication.

It may take a while, but is incredibly easy and adds a nice personal touch to any event :) Here is a picture of how it looked at the party:

Elmo Themed Party Pictures

I will post more specifics later, but here are some pictures from our fabulous Elmo Birthday Party for our daughter's 2nd birthday!

 

 

Newborn Digs: Step 2

Now that I conquered softening up the pack and play and making it much more our style, I placed it where it was destined to go next to our bed.  However, there were a couple problems:

1) I had to create an area that would serve for the middle of the night feedings and changings, but wouldn't wake us all up completely.

2) The central air vent hit directly on where my newborn baby girl would be sleeping- obviously not ideal.

3) Figuring out where is the best place (easiest access) for supplies when you are half awake in the middle of the night trying to change the diaper on a hungry baby.  Why should I have to bend down to find everything when I could theoretically have everything right within my reach and enabling me to never take my eyes off of my daughter?

4) We need something special with our new daughter's name on it.                                                

5) Doing all of this and still trying to keep our room looking nice.

I was super inspired by a soft white starry look, so I began my projects:

- Small lamp with super soft light and easy to access to on switch
- Starry mobile to distract baby from crying during diaper changes
- Canopy to block the draft from the central air
- Shelf with supplies right next to changing station
- Basket with baby girl name on it
- White ribbon, silver and shimmer details will keep it perfect for a little girl, but still within our decor

Since I have already included my canopy How To in another post I'll spare the details, accept that we made another trip to ikea, got the same hardware I mentioned before, painted it white and attached it to the wall.  We added simple white curtains without blackout liner because it isn't necessary yet- the purpose is to block the draft.  We installed the baby cam and since we were happy with what we had, I was able to then judge what else do to with the amount of space left.

I tried getting some diaper organizers but they didn't look very nice and cheapened the look I was going for, which lead to the shelf and basket idea.  I went to Pier 1 thinking I could get a really nice basket and ended up walking out with the perfect lamp.

I had to get a pretty white shade on this beautiful lamp which has such an unfortunately ugly shade.  I even got it on sale in the store for only $20! Thank you to their daily deals coupon on facebook!

After a trip to Target we got this shelf, lamp shade and a basket- my vision was finally coming together: 

I wanted to hand make her a mobile that went with the look so I went to A.C. Moore and was able to find all the supplies I needed to make the mobile: Felt glitter stars, silver beads, and a loop.  At home I had silver paint and clear fishing wire so as soon as I got these things I got started. 

Unfortunately the only smaller stars they had that were paper or cloth and came in 2 sizes were white glittery felt stars which came in packs of 3 colors, so I had to get a couple to have enough stars.  I picked out the white ones and based on how many I had made piles of 3 and 4, and distributed the silver beads to match up.  We also started painting the loop silver since it would need a couple coats and it dried while I was stringing the stars. 

I threaded a needle with the fishing wire and tied a double knot at the end.  I put it through the center of the stars and added a bead after so as to weigh it down. I measured 6 inches between stars and created 10 strings with 3 stars (1 larger one, 2 smaller ones), 5 strings with 4 stars ( 2 larger ones, 2 smaller ones) and the center string with just 4 larger stars. 

We strung the now silver loop with the fishing wire and started tying the strings of stars to the mobile, obviously starting from the center one, and working out way out.  I was very careful to stagger them so that the middle one was longest. I originally wanted to use white ribbon to hang it up, but ended up using fishing wire because it looked nicer.

I moved on to painting her name in wooden letters in white, and adding a shimmery sparkle coat.  I used my trusty hot glue gun to glue the letters to the basket and added white ribbon bows to the ends. It was the perfect finishing touch for our newborns digs!  Here is the finished product:

Since I took the pictures with my phone (while storming outside) it doesn't really do it justice, but in reality it really gives off the perfect serene feeling you want to bring home your baby girl to.  If I have a chance to take some better pictures later I will surely post! 

Blackout Wall Canopy: How To

For those of you who want to know how this idea came to be, feel free to read up on it at Blackout Wall Canopy: Background.

Now, let's get into how it is done!

Canopy Hardware:

This costs $49 from Restoration Hardware:

This costs $5.99 from Ikea:

You can't get this online from their website, but there is a picture from the store as proof that it exists! It is supposed to be used to help you organize pans such in your cupboards, but works great for canopies as well!

Blackout Canopy:
This costs around $100 for each panel from Pottery Barn Kids:

Because of the width of curtains, you would need 3 to cover the entire area I was looking for.  However, if you get ruffled shower curtains, you only need 2 and they are much cheaper.  The only issue with this is that you need blackout liner still.  However, as long as you have some pins, an iron and a sowing machine, you can add this yourself quite easily.  Again, I have no formal training in ANY of this stuff.  I literally saw a sowing machine on sale one day in college and thought, "that would be useful to have around."  So thanks to the kindness of people on YouTube and How To's, I was able to learn how to use that machine.
This costs $17.99 each from Walmart + $5.95 per yard of blackout liner for each panel:

+          

Total price for 2 Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn Blackout Canopies:  about $750.

Total price for 2 of my DIY versions (including gas for my SUV): about $150.


I followed the instructions on this fantastic blog on how to make the curtains myself, only using the above mentioned materials:  http://www.betterthanicouldhaveimagined.com/2012/05/diy-blackout-curtains-they-are-finally.html

Then we spray painted our Ikea buy to make it the beautiful white canopy hardware we wanted.  This dried outside in a couple hours, but we waited until the next day to hang the curtains on it.

We screwed it to the wall with anchors since the blackout canopies are heavy and they have stayed up perfectly since August!  We use them every day and my daughters naps have been luxurious and last usually about 2 hours!

Now my daughter has her toddler rail and the canopy still makes all the difference.  Here are some pictures of our set up:

Open and closed canopy with the toddler rail

  

Don't worry, we are still keeping our eye on her with the hidden baby monitor!

I really like how they turned out :)

Good luck in creating your canopies!!!

Wasted Space Becomes Closet Space

Our apartment has a strange layout where there are these unusually long hall areas that lead to the very large walk in closets.  However, the closet in our daughters room is being used as more of a storage area and  has stuff in it we definitely don't want them having access to on a regular basis.  So, until now we have simply been putting all Emilia's clothes in her chest of drawers.  Now that #2 will have clothes we need to accommodate as well, we needed to review our options.

I didn't want to buy more furniture because it would just take up their play space and using their closet was also something I did not want to do.  So, I turned to the hall leading to this closet and thought, "Let's just turn this into a closet!"

I started by finding some pretty hanging closet dividers and was luckily able to find some great ones.  Since this project was looking possible, my husband and I went to the local hardware store to see what we could find to hang a rod from a wall with.

Originally I wanted to hang it from the ceiling, but our ceiling is concrete so that was not an immediate option.  We were able to buy these plant brackets and spray paint them white so they were not so obvious.

We hung the rod from the brackets with some beautiful pink ribbon I got and have used around the room to accent things.  It looks great and works so well if you don't have a closet!

We also went ahead and put up a pocket shoe organizer on the wall and are using it for all sorts of things besides her shoes- burp clothes, combs and brushes, hair bows, nail care stuff.  The possibilities are endless and it is a really easy way to organize things for kids.

Below the closet are storage bins for all her toys.  I have them separated into a bin for balls, a bin for soft toys, and a bin for everything else. Why you may ask?  Because my daughter loves to hide my keys and this way I can shake the bins and if I don't hear them in the first 2 bins then I only have 1 bin to look through!

We have had this area like this since July and it had worked out perfectly.  It also contains the mess a lot and forces my daughter to put things back if she wants room to play with new things!  She hasn't taken to just moving everything over to the big space in her room, but I'll let her figure that one out on her own, lol.

Sofia vs. Pack and Play: Making our Pack and Play beautiful

Many of you may also be torn between the functionality and ease of a Pack and Play, yet wanting to keep a sophisticated look while your newborn stays with you in your room.  This is how I solved that problem:

Normally I would probably try to sow something myself but I was impatient and just ordered two bed ruffles for a twin bed.

When I got them, I ironed them and tied a knot so that the cloth would meet and I could fit it around the Pack and Play.

Since the first fit easily and looked good I repeated with the second and then clipped the bassinet portion over ruffles to keep it in place.

 With this small upgrade I was able to really change the look of our Pack and Play and I am much happier bringing our new daughter back to this sophisticated and functional option.

 The only question left is if I should add a canopy... a very good question indeed! :-)