Bird House Gift Tags

Thought I would post a quick little post to share my new creation. I tried to think of something cute and different to use as gifts tags for a gift for my mother-in-law. I found inspiration from a stencil a had laying around and the bird house gift tags were born!

What I used:
- brown card stock
- patterned scrapbook paper in two colours
- pen
- scissors
- permanent maker
- roll on scrapbook tape



I first picked a set of coordinating scrapbook paper and paired them with a combination of two colours of brown card stock.

I traced the house part with he hole onto one piece of brown and the roof on the other brown colour. Then I traced the back piece on one of the patterned papers and the butterfly on the other.

I cut all the pieces out. I used a hole punch to start the opening of the main house piece so I could easily get in there with the scissors to cut the circle.

Individual Cut Pieces

Butterfly Piece Folded from Bottom Middle to Top Left Side of Body

Finished Butterfly

I then attached the pieces together. I first attached the back piece by rolling tape onto the back corners of the house piece.  Then the roof by taking the middle peace and the side about one inch in from the edges. Before I attached the butterfly I bent the wings from the middle of the bottom to the top corner on either side of the middle section. I then attached the butterfly by just the middle section. I used a marker to fill in the body of the butterfly and add antenna.

And those are my cute brid house gift tag creations!  The hole in the centre is where I wrote my "to" and "from" information.  So I do recomend to use a subtle tone on tone patterned paper in order to see your writting.

Finished Product

Shown on Two Garden Flowers from Each of my Kids for their Grandmother





Here is the template for this project.  Right click to save image and print it on plain paper as an 8 1/2 x 11 picture. 
Done this way, your bird house gift tag will beasure about 5 inches tall.

 

 

 



Hand Print Valentines

Oliver and I got crafty and made Valentines for the family today.  When it comes to painting with Oliver the funnest way to go is hand prints (its a bit less messy too!).  I love seeing his little hands printed into all different colours and designs.  Since it is Valentines Day the most suiting design would be hearts... so we printed his hands upside down with his thumbs and pointer fingers together to make a heart with the space between his two hands.  That was the plan anyway!

What We Used:

- Card Stock

- Acrylic Paint

- Paper Plates

- And Little Hands

We took turns painting the paint onto his hands with a paint brush.  Then I help him press his hands down onto the card stock.  We did two different colours.  So we did one hand with one colour first, washed our hands and then did the other hand with the other colour.

Oliver choose the colours so the hand prints don't look very Valentine themed... but they do look cute.  And I love the heart it makes!

I had some card stock with a multi-coloured foot print border left over from some invitations I made a while ago.  I thought it looked cute with the hand prints and I tried to coordinate the colours with the coloured footprints.  Most of them were sucessful but their were a few where Oliver got caried away and the heart shape isn't completely visable.  But all in all Oliver did a pretty good job... now it was Mommy's turn to get creative.

I cut some hearts out of yellow card stock using the old "fold the paper in half and cut a hook shape which unfolds to make a heart" trick.  After a few tries I cut one that fit in the heart shape of Oliver's hands so I used that as a template and traced it on all the other folded card stock pieces.  I cut them all out and carried on.  I try to utilise every scrap piece of paper when making cards or scrap booking, so I used the folded pieces of card stock left over after cutting the heart on the back for a quick heart embelishment.

I stamped "be mine" with red ink on the little hearts... which I thought were so cute.  And "Valentine" on the back over top of of the heart cut out.

Then with a white button and a needle and thread I hand stitched the heart to the card right in the heart space that Oliver's hands created.

And that was out Valentine's Day craft!  I'm sure our family will love them and Oliver is super excited about handing them out and showing them off!  Happy Valentine's Day!

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Disney Cars Party

My two year old is crazy for Cars so a Cars crazy party is what he got!  I had lots of fun with this... luckily the Cars 2 movie was coming out in theatres in August so there was Cars stuff everywhere in stores.  I got most of my supplies from Dollarama.

First I made the invitations.  I used red folding cards from Dollarama (these are great, they are available in all sorts of colours and come in a pack of 6 for $2!).  I searched all over for a Lighting McQueen stamp but all I could find was a "Ready Set Go" which suited pretty good.  And of course a few weeks later I found the exact stamp I was looking for at Dollarama of all places, but the need for it was long gone.  So I found some pictures on the Internet and printed a bunch of McQueen's and Mater's out on photo paper.  I used some gold metallic rectangles to set it off a bit and then embossed the "Ready Set Go" stamp in glossy black.  For the inside I stamped "Your invited" and printed the party info also on photo paper with another picture of McQueen racing as a watermark.

I didn't go too crazy on the decorating and focused more on things for the kids to do.  I put up red and yellow balloons and just used plain yellow and red plates, silverware, napkins and table cloths.  I got Cars tattoos, Frisbees and beach balls and let the kids go wild.

Oliver showing off some of his funky tattoos!

My dad rented a red "sports" car and offered rides around the block.  Well it wasn't really a sports car but it was red so Oliver couldn't tell.

Oliver pretending to take McQueen for a spin.

I also planned some activities that the kids could do inside in case it was too hot outside and they needed to cool down.  I found these great cardboard canvas pictures with McQueen printed on them.  Instead of goodie bags I got Cars themed paper bags and filled them with Cars stickers, stamps, crayons and markers for each of the kids.  All of which I also found at Dollarama and the kids loved using them all over their Cars pictures.

Oliver colouring his Cars picture.

I also baked some plain sugar cookies in a bunch of car and truck shapes and put out some maple syrup cream cheese icing and a bunch of sprinkles and candies.  The kids had a awesome time decorating their cookies and couldn't get enough!  It was messy but fun and super cute watching the kids put a few sprinkles on their cookie and then a few in their mouth.

Oliver decorating his car shaped sugar cookie.

I made my signature birthday cake with rice flour and maple syrup.  Oliver just loves it and its not packed full of sugar like store bought cake so I feel better about him eating three pieces.  The icing I also made with maple syrup whipped with cream cheese.  Click on the lower right picture for the recipes.  I used green sugar on the top and let it run in order to look like grass and created a road with chocolate cookie crumbs that went across the plate, up the cake and down again.  Yellow gummy bears made the road lines and I used a tiny McQueen from a Kinder Egg and reflective stickers on toothpicks of the other movie characters.

McQueen and Mater Cake Balls

Cars Cake

The cake balls were my favourite part about this party.  I made them chocolate cream flavor with chocolate cake and vanilla icing.  Click the above left picture for the recipe.  I coated half with red chocolate and half with milk chocolate.  I used yellow chocolate on the red ones and wrote "95" on them to signify McQueen and used shaved almonds for Mater's two buck teeth.  I love how the Mater's turned out!  They were almost to cute to eat!

Oliver really taking McQueen for a spin!

All in all the party was a huge success by Oliver.  It was tons of fun and a great memory with the family.  He suitingly got a McQueen car as one of his presents and scooted around the backyard for the rest of the afternoon.  He absolutely loved the entire day!

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John Deere Party

It's the little guys first birthday!  What better way to celebrate a little boys 1st birthday who has a half Mennonite Daddy?  John Deere of course!

  

We kept it simple and just decorated with a few bunches of helium balloons.  I could not find any John Deere themed balloons so I got generic yellow and lime green balloons and wrote JOHN DEERE on them with permanent marker and decorated them with tractor stickers!  (this trick works great, I once threw the Hubby a Tom Tom party and wrote TOM TOM, LEFT and RIGHT on the balloons and it made great conversation pieces... a Tom Tom is a GPS by the way!)

 

We bought pre done invites because they were a really good deal.  I still wanted to customise them a bit so I printed a really cute One Year poem on Vellum and pasted it in.  Here it is below, I think it is so adorable!

A year's gone by

Oh how time has flown,

We can't believe

How Oliver has grown!

He's such a joy

And so much fun,

Oh my! Our baby boy

is turning One!

I also printed the info on vellum and layered it on top of the printed prefixes to make it look like it was all printed inside and then I didn't have to hand write them all!

Oliver sporting his Birthday hat!

We lucked out at a party store in Groove City when we were on a weekend trip and found everything we could possibly need for a John Deere themed party, which is also where we got the invitations and thank-you cards.  I think the table looks awesome all Decked Out in John Deere print!

Oliver's cousins also sporting their party hats!

the Dinner Table

Gotta love plastic table cloths!  I know their bad for the environment but just roll them up and gone is the mess!  And look how great the table looks with all those tractors...

the Dessert Table! YUM

Cake for the Adults!

Healthy cake for the Kiddies!

The most important part to any birthday, but especially for a 1st birthday, is the cake!  Of course! 

For Oliver and the kids I made a rice flour cake sweetened with maple syrup.  The frosting was cream cheese also whipped with maple syrup.  Click the above picture for the recipe.  I was going for a muddy tire to tie in with the John Deere theme.  Once I iced the cake I placed a cup in the centre and covered the icing with cocoa.  I used a wooden spoon handle to notch ruts around the edge.  Then I cut the same size circle out of a piece of paper and placed it on top of the cake and sprinkled the hole (in the centre) with yellow sugar sprinkles. 

For the adults I decided to try cake balls!  I did a double chocolate version, click the picture to view the recipe.  I covered them with yellow and green chocolate and drizzled some with the contrasting coloured chocolate and sprinkled the rest with various yellow and green sprinkles.  I was very thrilled with how they turned out and they were fairly easy too. 

Both the cakes were a huge success among the adult and miniature guests.  And Oliver was completely thrilled with digging his hands into a slice.

Oliver ultimately enjoying his 1st Birthday Cake!

Oliver suiting got a John Deere tractor as a birthday present from his Nana and Papa.  So I took him and the tractor to Zehrs (that was an interesting trek) and got some pictures done.  The one I used for the back of the Thank-you card was my favourite!  It really captures his charm!

So Oliver had a fantastic 1st Birthday!  We sent the Thank-you cards out and we have tons of great memories!

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Mellow Yellow Baptism

I think baptism's are my favourite events!  There's always so happy and there's always a little baby getting passed around and cuddled!  I started planning the theme for my son's baptism long before he was born and ultimately before I new he was a boy.  So what better colour to decorate with then the most cheerful yet mellow yellow.



The Invites for the Baptism

I found these super cute printable invitation cards with the multi coloured foot prints around the edges.  I printed the info onto them and attached a 2" by 2" photo with foam mounting squares.

 

We saved the top tier of our wedding cake for a special occasion.  Yes, most people take it out on first anniversary but honestly who can eat that much cake between two people? 

I love the colourful jelly beans in the picture their so cheerful.

 

For the favours, what better way to thank our friends and family then with some yummy homemade chocolates.  I invited my Mom, Nanny (Mom's Mom) and Sister over the Wednesday before to make teddy bear chocolates... I think we made about 100!  We made dark chocolate and white chocolate teddy bears with yellow chocolate bows.  My sister also made the "O" and the "H" to add to the cake out of yellow chocolate.

My Hubby and I both have large families so we needed extra space.  We set the tent up outside with some tables and chairs.  Covered them with white table cloths and yellow satin overlays and hung some yellow paper lanterns for extra colour.

You can have tables without centrepieces!  So I used some cylinder vases I had acquired from an earlier wedding, stuck some large calla lilies with yellow orchid centres in some river rock and used orchids leaves as filler.  For the buffet table I added some lemons for even more yellow fun!

The baptism was a great success!  Very cheerful and everyone was so happy.

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Get Creative!