Spongebob Birthday Invitations

Are you ready for another installment of the "Lil Man's 1st Birthday Stuff" series?? Hehe! I toiled over these invitations. I flipped flopped so many times with different ideas. I wanted them to be simple. I'm not much for the crazy busy invitations with a bunch of pictures and stuff on them. I was extremely pleased with how they came out. Of course, when I made these, I didn't know I would be starting a craft blog...so I have no tutorial, but I will tell you to the best of my memory how I made them. 

Basically there is nothing to it, but if someone would have told me that when I was making them, I probably would have screamed. 

I used a yellow, brown, white, and black cardstock and red 1/2" grosgrain ribbon. 

I bought the envelopes first, and sized the invitation to them. I cut a yellow piece that size, and then printed out the information for the party on a white piece of cardstock. The brown underneath just covered up the extra white and yellow with 3 narrow black strips for the belt. Then, I cut out 2 triangles to look like the collar on his shirt, and added a ribbon tie. 

They were a hit, and I loved them! Hope this gives you some inspiration. 

Oh, and I couldn't forget these adorable stamps my mother ordered for them, too.

Linked up to:

Sunday Showcase @ Lolly Jane

Simple Birthday Hat & Shirt

Happy Friday everyone!!! Hope you had a great week, and have an even better weekend!

Now on to the post...

My son turned one last May, but I am just now posting some of the stuff I did for his party. His theme was Spongebob because he LOVES Spongebob. LOVES LOVES LOVES the ole yellow dude. I will say that the Cricut was my right hand in planning his party. I did everything with it from the invitations to decorations to cupcake toppers.

Honestly, this has to be the EASIEST craft project I have ever done. No joke. You can look at it and just know how to recreate it. No sewing. No crazy tutorial here. All I did was take an extra Spongebob birthday hat that I had for his party, and hot glued on some cute Spongebob fabric that I bought to make his shirt. Easy peasy. Have you made one? I would love to see!

And this adorable shirt...all I did was print out a number I liked on my computer...traced it onto the fabric...ironed the fabric onto some heat and bond...then ironed it onto the shirt. I could have stopped there but I wanted to make it look a little more finished, sooo....I added a contrasting yellow straight stitch around the edge of the number. I love how it turned out, and got so many compliments on his outfit the day of his party. 

Linked up to:
Making the World Cuter

Purse Brag Books

This is an old project that I did for Mother's Day last year for my mom, mothers-in-law, and grandmothers-in-law. They LOVED them. I found this idea at Brown Paper Packages just in time for Mother's Day. It's basically self-explanatory, but I can tell you how I did mine. I also added more blank pages for the grandmas because they each have a lot of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

These are the supplies I used:

- Badge holders (these were about 2 1/2" x 3 1/4"...found at Walmart)

- Silver rings that open, keychain rings, etc.

- Distress Ink

- Coordinating scrapbook papers and ribbons

- Any embellishments, if desired

- Straight cutter, not needed but really helped

Oh, and this little guy helps with distressing...just a little cheapo dauber. I'm sure you could use a makeup sponge, too.

So, what you do is cut 2 pieces of the scrapbook paper to fit the front and back cover. Then just decorate or embellish how you want. What I did was cut two of the same pattern for the front and back for each book, doing a different patterns for each lady. Then, I did a strip of a coordinating pattern. I then added a little piece with their first initial stamped or printed on it. If distressing, distress EVERY piece of paper.

How did I do the little "frames" you ask? Well, that would be a stamp that I found in the dollar section at Michael's, and it was PERFECT for this little project. 

Also, on the back cover, I added a little piece of cardstock with a little note with who it was from and what day it was given. 

Here are the finished books. I did one with the ring and a few different ribbons, and the others I just tied with a simple knot and bow. I liked both. 

They were wrapped in a piece of tulle with a tulle bow. Simple and cute. The ladies LOVED them. Who doesn't love personalized gifts??

After I did these for Mother's Day, I saw that Kierste from Brown Paper Packages did something else with these badge holders that was similar. She did quiet books for her lil ones, and she also listed some other ideas. 

Christmas Ornament

 I know it's past Christmas, but I figured I could tell y'all how I did the Christmas ornament (check this post out) I made for my son for our tree. I did one because I would like for him to have an ornament from every year, that way when he gets older, he'll have a lot of ornaments for his own tree. Anyways, I bought this clear plastic ornament from Michael's. Then, I just painted red, green, and white dots with acrylic paint, added his name cut out of vinyl. Then, I stuffed it with tinsel. The picture is pretty self-explanatory. I plan on doing a lot of this next Christmas for all the kiddies in our families. 

Vintage Shower Sign

When I was about 7 months pregnant with my now 19-month old son, I repainted and put new flooring in the master bath. It is a soft white and hunter green. I had to work with the color of the counter tops in there because new counter tops is not in my budget as of right now. Since then, the bathroom has been totally bare because I have yet to decide how I wanted to decorate. I had previously wanted lighthouses, but the green kinda threw that off. So, I needed something new. I decided on vintage. Anything vintage-y and bathroom related. I have been dying for one of these:

image from greengingergallery.com

Only thing is, I wanted it to say shower. The only solution? Make my own. I totally forgot to take pictures as I made this, but it's really simple and no explanation needed. I took the cardboard/wood-ish back out of an old picture frame. I painted the with the same soft white paint of our bath room. Two coats in, and the board was still soaking it in like crazy. I took a good look at it, and liked the aged look of it. So, I left it, and then added a border of the hunter green around the entire edge. I then went to the handy dandy Cricut and cut out the saying on clear contact paper with a cute vintage looking font. I fiddled with the placement for a little while, and then painted with the same hunter green. I was so excited to take the contact paper off and see my work....then, disappointment came. I was totally bummed because as I'm pulling the contact paper off, some of the paint is coming with. I'm guessing the reason was because of the type of paint because acrylic craft paint had never done this. But, to my shock, after I took it all off, and was ready to retouch every single letter and number, I took a good look at it, and fell in LOVE with it. It was exactly what I had wanted. The aged, messed up look of it is perfect. And, it was totally FREE! Can't ask for better! 

Linking up to:

Someday Crafts
Sunday Showcase @ Lolly Jane

Oh, Christmas Tree

How corny of a title, right? Well, I couldn't think of anything more fitting. =) I decided it was about the time to post our little tree. I've had this faux tree since 2005. It's starting to look pitiful, and I didn't realize it until this year. It's thinning really bad. I mean, you can see right through the tree. So, I've decided, I need a nice, full, new tree. One day! Anyways, on to the tree. Last year, our tree was silver and red. I still love those 2 together, but I wanted something fun this year because our son is 18 months, and he's more active and all that this year. So, after Christmas last year, I decided I wanted a Grinch-ish/Whoville-ish looking tree. I don't think it's quite there, so we'll just say I was going for bright red, bright green, and white. Surprisingly, I'm having a hard time finding plain, white bulbs.

Here we go. 

My lil man LOVES, I mean LOVES Spongebob. He can spot him from a mile away. So, I knew I had to include him in the tree, especially after my mom bought him this adorable ornament at Kohl's. Of course lil man put him on the tree, but I decided to move him up so everyone could see him. 

 This ornament I made for my son. I want him to have an ornament every year. I just decided to make him one after I saw the clear, plastic balls in Michael's for super cheap. All I did was paint on some red, green, and white dots. Then, I added his name in vinyl to the front and the year on the back. Super easy! 

 These Santa boots are probably my favorite part of the tree, next to the topper. I think they are SUPER adorable. I would have NEVER thought to put them that way, until we saw a tree with these on it in Kohl's. I had to have em. 

The next few pictures are just some of the different kinds of ornaments on the tree. I think they're all adorable.  The simple red and green glitter balls and the red key are from Walmart along with the bright green glitter picks. The white balls with red dots, swirly stick things, the green letter T with red dots, and the candy shaped ornaments are from Hobby Lobby. The ribbon that the bows are made out of is also from Hobby Lobby. 

And, now for the whole tree. If you're wondering where I got the tree topper....my mom got it for me at a Cracker Barrel right after Christmas last year. It was the inspiration for the theme of the tree.

Behind our tree on the bookshelf, hangs our cute elf stockings that I got from Michaels for $3 each, plus I used the 40% off coupon on 2 of em. SUPER cheap! I didn't even do anything or add anything to them. I just hung our initial ornaments over each one. I would like to get some white iron-on initials for each one though. Maybe for next year. The stereo behind it is wonderful, right? Lol! We have nowhere else to hang them. I'm in the process of trying to make one of those signs with the hooks that says "the stockings were hung," but I have so much other stuff going on that it was put on the back burner. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed looking at our little tree. Won't be long before I have to put it all away again, so I'm gonna stop fooling with it. 

Child's Artwork Board

When I saw this cute idea over at Brown Paper Packages I knew I had to/wanted to make one for my lil man who started drawing. It was so super easy, and free! I had everything on hand. My parents let me have the scrap wood from a project they had just done. I also had the clothespins, paint, and the vinyl. It's a super simple project. Paint the wood and clothespins your choice of color. Then cut out what you want it to say in vinyl. Then, attach the clothespins to the board using hot glue, E6000, Gorilla glue, whatever. Put the vinyl on it. Sand the board and clothespins if desired. Add picture hangers in the back. Well, that's what I did. You could hang this several ways. Add your child's artwork. Then, stand back and admire!