Party Planning: Reusing Home Items

So I'm just a couple of days away from my besties baby shower and I'm so excited! I hope she loves it all. I'm also excited to use some of the items in my home that I thought would be perfect for the theme. I love to find and reuse things that I already own, even if I have to make a few changes to them. That's the fun part in my opinion! Being that the color scheme is black/white/turquoise, when I ran my foot into my sons changing table, I realized I could use it for the shower..... it's turquoise! It was originally my sisters and it was black. Well I decided to paint it, to suite the color scheme in my sons room. Now its great that I can use it for the baby shower. Buuuut, you'll have to wait for the baby shower to see it because right now it's cluttered with junk. HEHE.
However, the other item I'm using from my sons room is his lamp. With some easy tricks, so I won't ruin it (because I'm not ready to change it permanently), I covered the shade and now it's perfect for the party. Take a look!
Btw, this idea came from watching Nate Berkus. Easy, simple changes can make a huge impact. He's so right!

All I did was wrap the lamp shade with this houndstooth fabric. I attached it to the lamp using Zots (clear adhesive glue dots), that I purchased at Michaels. For fabric they stick really well and I can still remove it later. I did the same with the grosgrain ribbon that I used to line the top and bottom of the shade. That's it! Cool lamp, right?? I love it! I'm thinking of making it permanent and changing the color/pattern scheme of Nate's room.
Stay tuned to see the changing table being used for the party! :)

In the SHOP: Christmas Cards

Wanted to share the printable Christmas card I designed for the holidays. Christmas cards can get pretty pricey if you go to professional studios, so this is a great alternative. I personally love the candid photos more that the polished pro set-ups, they just show real love and emotions, versus the stale smiles. I save the pro pictures for the living room walls.
Once you make the purchase, email the image you would like to use, then I will email you your personalized Christmas card, you print as many as you like. It's that easy!

Now only $12!! at THE SHOP

Tutorial (kinda): Monster Photo Booth

Since Nate's Lil' Monsters party was posted, I've received tons of emails with request for a tutorial on the Monster photo booth. While I'm no good at writing down the things that I work on and to be honest, I wing it most of the time. LOL. It's true. This time I took a few photos to show the process..... somewhat. Also to show that I did in fact make them myself! When I made the carnival game booths for Nate's Carnival party last year, people did not believe that I had made them myself but I'm a very handy woman actually. I work a saw and a drill much better than my hubby (sadly). I'm also the one that usually puts any furniture together! LOL. You can check out the carnival booths here and here.

I started with a jigsaw, pencil and a ruler.
I recycled one of my game booths and decided to extend the back wall to make room for the monsters. The side walls are pre-cut wood boards from Home Depot, measuring 4'x2', priced at about $7 to $8 each. The new back wall is a thinner wood board (sorry I couldn't tell you the type because I don't remember) but that was also pre-cut at 4'x4', around $13. I decided to cut a foot off the side, making the back wall 4' tall by 3' wide. I used a hammer and nails for this, only because I was in a hurry but I recommend screwing them together with thin screws. Much more secure that way. Did that make any sense??? LOL

I didn't bother to paint or touch up the insides since I was going to cover the walls with fabric. Which I forgot to take a picture of but it was very simple. I bought enough fabric to fit the dimensions inside of the booth and with a staple gun, attached the fabric to the walls. Much easier than having to paint it all over again. The fabric I bought in the Downtown L.A. fabric district.It was now time to cut out some monsters! I purchased another pre-cut board, same one used for the back wall of the booth. Drew the shape I wanted with a pencil and pulled out my jigsaw. By the way...... I LOVE my jigsaw! (Excuse the way I look, but I don't wear make-up when I'm gettin' down and dirty!)

Cut out monsters, now time to cover them with fun furry fabric!

I bought a yard of each color but really only needed 1/2 a yard for each. Each monster measured about 3' tall and about 1 1/2 to 2' wide. I purchased this fabric in Downtown L.A. as well.

Using my staple gun, another of my favorites, I stapled the fabric to the back of each. Making sure that the fabric was nice and snug. The facial details, eyes and mouth, were cut from foam sheets, glued on with a hot glue gun. You can get those at any craft store.

That is how Charlie and Bud were born! :)

I know it wasn't very clear but I hope you got the jist of it, hehe!

I'd like you to meet Charlie!

This will probably be my last post till next week. I'm knee deep in fur and eye balls and I probably won't be able to dig myself out until after the party! LOL! Before I go, I wanted to give you a sneak peek once more. I'd like you to meet Charlie! He's VERY excited for the all the Lil Monsters he's going to meet on Saturday. Nate and Charlie have already gotten to know each other and Nate LOVES him! Hope you do too! :)

Party Planning: Fruit Treats

As I continue to plan Nate's 2nd birthday, I as usual am obsessed with the dessert table. Unlike Nate's first birthday party, where he was too young to have most of the desserts, I want to add items that aren't as sweet. Because there is no way, I will be able to keep him away from the dessert table this time around! So what are naturally sweet treats..... fruit! Nate LOVES fruit, especially watermelon and grapes. Therefore, on the dessert table for Nate's Monsters & Aliens theme party, I will be making.....

Galaxy shape Fruit Pops, perfect for the Alien part of the party

And a Monster watermelon! Love it!

Party Planning: Xbox

A couple of weeks ago a cousin of mine asked for some ideas for her sons birthday party in January. She wants to have an Xbox theme party, because her boys happen to LOVE their Xbox (my husband as well, grrr). So I came up with a couple of options for her to decide on and I thought I would share them here. Any feedback would be great!

Centerpiece ideas

Cupcake topper ideas

DIY: Cupcake toppers

I know I'm a couple months late on this but better late than never, right? Sometimes life gets so chaotic and we get side tracked...... well at least I do anyways! So I'm doing my best to catch up and get to some blogging that I should have done a long time ago. I wanted to share the very easy way I made Tahlia's cupcake toppers for her 7th birthday. Not everyone knows where to look to get party ideas, some may come across certain ideas and not realize how easy it can be to create a similar look, with little effort. One thing I can advise anyone to do, is look for those scrapbooking stores, or aisles in your local crafts store. By now, most of you know how much I love printables. I'm learning so much and even trying to get into making my own. But if learning how to create a printable is not something that interests you, there are printable packages you can buy from great sites like Etsy, the Celebration Shoppe and Mygrafico. Scrapbook embellishments is another way to go. You can find embellishments for all kinds of themes and they make things look almost professionally made. For Tahlia's cupcake toppers, I found flower and butterfly embellishments by K&Company at Walmart. They were so inexpensive, at only $3.99 for the pack. I also purchased glitter cardstock at Target for only 99 cents a 2pk. I'm always looking for new ways to create a cupcake topper and if anyone has any great ideas, please feel free to share them!

I used my scalloped paper puncher, glue the embellishments to the glitter cardstock, then glue the entire piece to mini wooden forks (you can use lollipop sticks as well) and there you have it.... cupcake toppers! Easy as pie!

$3.99 a pk

Kid-tastrophes

Ok, so I have been a mother for many years now and I have still not mastered all possible "kid-tastrophes". In reality, you never really "master" parenting or anything kids related. God, how we wish there was a manual! Anyhow, last week I learned some very interesting tips on taking care of some "kid-tastrophes", while watching my new favorite program, "The Nate Berkus Show". Let me just say, I ADORE Nate Berkus and his design talents. I've gotten inspired to decorate, in just the couple of weeks his show has been on. We'll see what becomes of that! Well back to the topic..... my son, who thinks he's Picasso, left his art on my hallway wall earlier this week. I tried to spray a cleanser on it but it didn't remove anything, that's when I remembered what I saw on the Nate show. There was a demonstration on removing permanent marker from walls, just by spraying hair spray directly on the area. Lo' and behold, it WORKED!!

(Don't ask me why I took a picture of it. I just take pictures of everything Nate does! LOL)

You can check out The Nate Show's website for other neat little tricks, to handling "Kid-tastrophes". I will never just paint the walls, when they get "artsied" up, like I use too!

Side Note: I want to thank the Children's Party Network for featuring my profile and another of my photos (the 4D Sonogram toppers)!! This site is just amazing! To be able to share your passion with others that share the same passion and who you can learn from, is great.... I love it!

DIY: Dessert Stands

Ok, back to business! My parties are over and even though I LOVE doing this, I'm so glad the planning is over (for now). I haven't been this exhausted since Nate's first birthday party. But through the exhaustion, I worked on a few projects, that I am excited to share with everyone. The first one being, DIY dessert stands. A few months ago, I saw featured on "Hostess With the Mostess" (one of my favorite party sites), Julie of "Joys's Hope". She made these AMAZING dessert stands with items purchased from the Dollar Tree store. I immediately fell in love with these stands! At that moment I was on a mission, to find these items and make these stands. And days before my daughters 7th birthday party, I found them and started spraying. Julie was right though, once you start, you won't want to stop! I have the desire to spray paint EVERYTHING now......next thing you'll see on my blog, will probably be my children in different colors, hahaha! Check out my dessert stand and click on the link, to see full instructions from Julie. Also check out the many great ideas and DIY posts from Julie, "Joy's Hope" is an amazing blog!

From Dollar Tree: 3 steel serving trays

2 glass candlesticks

1 tube of Super Glue Fix All adhesive

From Home Depot: Rust-Oleum spray paint

(Pink Berry Gloss)

(Green Apple)

Be sure to use Primer on all the pieces, it really makes a difference in the finish look.