DINOSAUR PARTY

Chomp, Stomp, and ROAR! This party is fit for a dinosaur!

I am in love with how this party turned out. Designing it, I knew I really wanted to play in on the whole jungle trend that is happening in the party world. Starting with our invitation back and using it throughout the set I really think it adds a modern feel to the party.

Invitations

For place settings and party favors we made simple, little dinosaur terrariums. All the items can be purchased at the dollar store. We just used small vases, some rock and moss, small toy dinosaurs, and and one of our cake toppers. I think this could make a super cute activity as well.

SHOP THE PARTY:

ICE CREAM PARTY

How in the world is it already July?! I haven't even made a dent in our summer bucket list, but there is one item I for sure crossed off - having an ice cream party! (Everyone has this on their list, right? LOL)

All our ice cream party goods coordinate perfectly with two invitation sets. Our ice cream trucks shown below and these. 

Invitations

I kept our party pretty simple this time around by skipping the traditional dessert table and opted to just to an ice cream bar right on top of the main table. After the cake of course ;) 

I just love how easily our cake toppers transform an ordinary grocery store cake into something adorable!!

How fun are these darling little favor boxes?! 

For favors, we just filled up our ice cream truck favor boxes (available in the party package) with salt water taffy. 

I just love how perfect this party is for a summer time bash! 

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Patriotic Birthday Party

It is finally summer and we are celebrating by sharing this fun patriotic birthday party. We based the design around our bomb pop invitations using this free patterned paper for other other party items. 

Invitations

I love serving popsicles in glasses, because not only does it look super cute, but you can unwrap all the pop beforehand, stick them in cups, and then throw them back in the freezer until you need them. That way when you are ready to hand them out, you can just throw them on a tray and hand them out - no impatient kids waiting for you to unwrap one pop at a time ;) 

My favorite part of this party was definitely the backdrop. We designed it by hanging paper fans at different heights and accenting with decorative garlands like this one we made using the patterned paper we are giving away. 

Place settings were simple, but fun!

What patriotic party would be complete without a sparkler candle?! 

{Free Printable} 4TH OF JULY PATTERNED PAPER

Y'all. 

It is FINALLY summer!! After this Florida girl has survived another Midwest winter, you better believe that I am ready for all things summer and party. We styled a sweet summertime bash designed around these super fun bomb pop invitations and our bomb pop garland. The best part? I created most of the designs using coordinating pattern paper that I am giving you all for FREE today. You can check out the party in its entirety here. 

The pattern paper we throw in each printable party set of ours is one of my favorite things to offer because you can basically make anything you want out of it. Needed something we didn't offer in the package? No problem, just print up a couple of sheets and cut out what you need! 

Each design prints up full sheet. This particular one that we are giving away features a fun red and blue watercolor designed that I painted to go with our invitations. There's a stripe and dotted version. 

One of the first things I made from ours was cupcake wrappers and some party flags to top the cupcakes with. You can just google cupcake wrapper template and a bunch pop up. Pick one, print it, and use that as your template to cut these babies out. 

Seriously, one of my favorite things to do is to line trays with our patterned paper because it's such a fun and easy way to add a pop of pattern to make everything tie in together. 

Friends don't let friends drink from boring water bottles.... or something like that ;) For these, I just cut our paper into strips, wrapped around the bottles, and then taped. 

This sweet garland was one of my favorite details. I just cut out circles (and then cut those in half) to make this festive garland. 

The final thing I did was make candy wrappers for the goody bags. I just wrapped hershey miniature candies, but you could do any size bar with these. Just measure and cut!

I had so much fun playing around with the paper and really being able to kind of give an idea on what to do with it. Other ideas could be: party hats, cones, straw flags, or even placemats! 

What would you do with it? Click below to get the papers for free and be sure to tag us with your creations!

LASER TAG PARTY

You guys.

I am OBSESSED with how this party turned out. The bright colors, the dessert table...just all of it. I had so much fun styling this party for our little guy's birthday and even more fun sharing some of the behind the scenes action in our Instagram stories. 

When our son decided he wanted to have a laser tag party, I instantly envisioned having a square invitation with the graphic we used on the back. Since we would be taking the boys to the event and then bringing them back to our house for a sleepover, I knew having a small insert (our 'game plan') for those details would be important as well. 

Invitations

I jazzed up the welcome sign from our set with a little crepe paper. This is my favorite trick whe hanging on a front door because it just gives it a little pop of color and fun. No mistaking which house is the party house! ;)

(I'm posting the link to the entire party set at the bottom)

I am absolutely loving the stage of life we are in when it comes to our children's parties. Having the 'main action' part of the party outside of our home means a) Less mess (um, YESSSS) and b) I don't have to plan any games or activities - I can just focus all my energy on decorating. Which, let's be honest, is the most fun part!

Balloon garlands are most certainly having a moment in the party world, and I knew right away that I wanted to incorporate a large one on our dessert table to really bring a huge pop of color and make a large statement (without a lot of work or money, am I right?!). 

What helped make this super affordable (and awesome!) were pairing regular balloons from the party store with these amazing marble balloons. 

Another thing I'm a huge fan of? Buying grocery store cakes and jazzing them up with a fun cake topper. Can you tell yet that I'm all about easy party ideas? LOL

Building a dessert table for a sleepover, I typically put the emphasis on snacks (think popcorn, pretzels, etc) with a few sweets thrown in. That way the kids can just grab a snack and carry on with their partying. 

Here is a small styling tip when it comes to making Twizzlers stand up straight and pretty (as opposed to sad and droopy which is how they come out of the bag as) - wooden skewers. I just shoved a skewer through the center of the candy to make these really shoot of like laser beams. Aren't these colors PERFECT for this set up?! I think this food detail was my favorite of the party. 

I picked up this small #8 Balloon from Party City, but you can easily find them pretty much anywhere these days! 

VIP passes are always a hit! Normally I would throw these into lanyards for the kids, but honestly, if you just print them off on card stock, punch a hole, and thread some ribbon through them, I promise you the kids will not care! 

I tried so hard to find a cute laser set like the ones we used for the centerpieces for under $5 a pop, but in the end I couldn't so I did the next thing I knew the kids would love for the favors - mini pinatas! Filled with candy and topped with a note not to open until they were home ;). 

I am a huge fan of our candy wrappers. Such an easy thing to include and they really just take ordinary candy and make them totally coordinate with the entire party! 

Another successful party to celebrate another circle around the sun! These party decorations were so easy to set up, which means you could easily bring them into a place if you are hosting your party at the actual event. 

I always love to hear - what was your favorite detail about the party?? 

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Woodland Hedgehog Party

I've often joked that our gal keeps me on my toes with her party requests, and this time it was no different when she decided upon a hedgehog theme! 

In my mind we could either go two directions with this - fun, bright, and modern or a classic woodland vibe. Our girl choose woodland and I have to say, I ended up having an absolute blast with it!

Since this was going to be a sleepover, I utilized our small inserts with the invitations to give out all the details.

Invitation

The plan was pretty simple. We were going to be taking the small group of girls to Dave & Busters (a birthday favorite around here!) and then come back to our place for food, cake, and a sleepover. This, of course, meant that we could have some fun with the dessert table ;)

We kept the treats pretty simple with items they could just grab and go like popcorn, trail mix, cheese and crackers, and (of course!) a few sweets. 

Hedgehogs are definitely getting more popular, but it was still a little tricky to find items to use. A lot of what I did manage to snag were found in the floral section of the craft stores with other items for fairy houses, like this cute guy we used with our cake topper.

Our 'tree stumps' were just chocolate covered oreos using regular and dark chocolate. I first swirled the light chocolate and after it cooled and hardened, I add the dark chocolate.

These sweet branches were just pretzel rods dipped in chocolate and drizzled with a lighter chocolate melt. 

One of the things I was most excited about for this party were our favor gifts. We created little terrariums for the girls to take home using vases from the dollar store and more elements found in the 'fairy house' section of the craft store. The girls LOVED them and I think they turned out super cute. 

For breakfast we just swapped out the dessert bar with some fun goodies like cereal, donuts, and yogurt. 

And that was a wrap! Another successful party in the books ;) 

What was your favorite part?

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VALENTINE COLLECTION 2018

I am SO excited to finally share with you this year's valentine collection! I'm pretty obsessed myself :)

All the graphics used this year are hand drawn which I think really give them a whimsical feel. Ready to see?

BEARY SPECIAL {BLUE}

purchase here

BEARY SPECIAL {PINK}

purchase here

HEDGHUGS & KISSES

purchase here

LLAMA

purchase here

MERMAID

purchase here

NARWHAL

purchase here

PUGS & KISSES

View fullsize

purchase here

So which one was your favorite? Anything you were hoping to see that we didn't do? Let us know in the comments!

LITTLE PUMPKIN BABY SHOWER

Hands down, my favorite time of year is Fall. Crisp air, leaves changing...I love it ALL! So it's safe to say that styling this sweet pumpkin themed baby shower was a ton of fun for me. 

To give a new twist to a classic, we used a peachy coral and a bright magenta as our color palett. 

Invitation available here. 

It's safe to say we had a lot of fun styling the dessert table... Pumpkin flavored everything?! Yes, please!

The sprinkling of pumpkin seeds was one of my favorite details. It gave treats like the macaroons below a subtle pumpkin vibe. 

How darling is this sweet pie frame?! I actually had plans to DIY something pretty similar and then found this gem at our Target in the dollar spot! 

How sweet are these 'leave a wish for baby' cards? What a fun way to remember the day :)

Baby showers are all about those games, and this one was no exception! Baby bingo is always a crowd favorite. 

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BASEBALL PARTY

Summer may be coming to a close, but it still has our heart along with this sweet baseball party. Going to baseball games is a huge deal for our family each summer and it's a love within our boys that runs deep. Living in the Chicago area it's only natural that we are big Cubs fans as well. When our son turned eight he automatically knew that he wanted a baseball party and he wanted it Cubs themed. And since our team took the championship last year it seems fitting to finally share all the details! 

We designed cute baseball invitations to mimic actual tickets and they really set the stage for the whole vibe of the party. 

We held his party at a local sports center that had a whole program to keep the boys occupied and having fun playing some ball. Parties not held in our house are always super fun because I don't have to plan any activities, but are also a little trickier to decorate. 

My biggest tip when people ask how to decorate at a place that you aren't allowed to either hang things up or bring many items in is to have a large backdrop (preferably mounted to a board) that you can easily prop up against the wall. 

We were pretty spoiled in that my mother in law had cupcakes delivered to us from Georgetown Cupcake. Don't they just look dreamy?! (they were delicious as I'm sure you can imagine). 

For snacks we kept to the basics: popcorn, pretzels, and sweets. Serving the pretzels in this super cute cups were not only a hit with the crowd, but made a super cute favor. 

In each of our party packages, there's always a page dedicated to a design that can easily be made into a t-shirt. For this party I simply bought plain baseball tees at a local sports store, printed our design onto transfer paper, and ironed it onto the shirt. I even made sure to add a little detail to the back:

Let's face it: at the end of a party kids are only thinking of one thing - that party swag ;) We gave out baseball essentials in paper sacks with the intention that they could also bring home a few concession treats. 

That's a wrap! Tell us your favorite party in the comments!

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{FREE PRINTABLE} DONUT JOKES

It's that time of year again....the daily struggle of packing lunches. I can't be the only one who hates this chore, right?! But on the bright side, it's an excuse for cute notes and jokes and I excited to share the set I designed this year.  (you can still download the free jokes from last year here)

This sweet set prints up easily on standard letter sized paper. Just print one side, flip the paper, and print the answers on the back! Donuts are 2" so they work perfectly with a craft punch. 

I donut know about  you (see what I did there???) but I am love with the donut trend going on recently and I just knew that I had to use them as my inspiration.

And really, who doesn't love a good pun-y joke with their lunch?

Download the file below!