My little girl is graduating from Preschool and moving on to Kinder. Instead of the traditional real flower lei, I wanted to make something fun and childlike. I decided to put a modern spin on the plastic straw lei using these bright and happy hues.
See how I made these paper flower beads on the Cardstock Warehouse blog! 
FIVE. What a fun age to have a birthday party! This party was filled with a lot of firsts. First time having it at somewhere other than our home (a gymnastics center!), first time inviting school friends, and the first time where the kids almost outnumbered the adults.
Ellie chose Cars 3 for her theme. I hope our kids want Disney/Pixar parties every year because this was such a fun one to put together. Being outside of the home, the decor was very minimal but that let me really focus on the few things that I wanted to do!
In the goodie bags, I made mini notebooks with some cardstock and printer paper. To bind it, I put a couple staples in the spine. I also made magnetic Piston Cup bookmarks using a tutorial by Erica, Lead Designer at Cardstock Warehouse. You can see how here!
Of course, I had to do cupcake toppers.
This mirrored cardstock from Cardstock Warehouse was perfect for headlights and the metal hood emblem.
It has become a tradition now for my sister, Sara to make Ellie her own personal cake for her parties.
Check out this inside!!! When you cut into it, it just smells of strawberry and chocolate. SO good.
I think it is safe to say that my husband and I have happy and full hearts after this weekend. Seeing our girl have so much fun with her family and her friends was the best thing ever.
See past parties here!
I am so excited to be a part of the Cardstock Warehouse 2018 Design Team where I have the opportunity to work with some really beautiful and luxurious paper, alongside some very creative ladies.
My very first post is up! My daughter and I show you how we handmade secret message Valentines and personal paint palettes for her classmates.
See more here!
It’s a family of SUPERS! Having kids has turned Halloween from one of my least favorite holidays to one of my favorites. Now that my daughter is 4, she is able to tell me exactly who she wants to be and I love the challenge of making the costume. This year she wanted to be a Superhero Princess and it could not be more perfect for her or her brothers as they each have their own sets of superpowers. 
Using felt, glitter canvas, gold foil iron-on, metallic duct tape, and sparkly ribbon, I was able to make all of the pieces of their costume. Their arm and leg cuffs and belt are removable using velcro strips. The boys solid onesies are from Primary and I was able to find the capes and masks from Amazon. All of which I embellished using a little hot glue and my Cricut machine.
My husband and I came up with their own logos and symbols to match their superhero names: Super Princess Ellie, Thundercloud Chasey and Lightning Cades!
Powers: Strength, Sneakiness
Description: Chase the “Thundercloud” sneaks up on bad guys with his stealth moves and surprisingly loud screams. He gets his strength from his “thunder” thighs.
Powers: Speed, Throwing
Description: Lightning Cades outruns all of his enemies and never stays in one place. He throws everything he can get his hands on and never misses his target.
Powers: Kindness, Wit, Laughter
Description: Ellie isn’t your average superhero or princess. She defeats enemies with her mind and epic dance-offs.
Let me tell you, I had high hopes for a professional photo shoot in front of a green screen and everything and then the flu hit our household and mommy’s superpowers were almost depleted. That’s the thing though about a family of SUPERS, I was able to pull powers from each of these little heroes and my number one hero, my husband, to power through and get these finished just in time for Halloween. Whew!
Happy Halloween!
The holidays are creeping up and if you are a fan of making your own gifts, this felt board is a great option for the little ones in your life. It can be as intricate or as simple as you have time for and provides hours of imaginative fun! These are my tips to help you along the way!
If you have been following along, you know how much of an IKEA fan I am.
TIP: Fiskbo frames are perfect for kids in that they are lightweight and there is no glass involved, just a sheet of protective plastic.
This sheet of plastic was perfect to hot glue the felt backing on. Trim around the edges to take off the excess felt, put it back into the framing and secure down.
You’re left with a clean, flat and secured felt board! 
My nephew LOVES firetrucks and I made this for his 3rd birthday! In this scene he can fight the fire in the building by knocking them out of the windows!
TIP: One of the best parts of a felt board is how interactive it can be. Make sure to give the props purpose to keep imaginations and attention spans running!
Not only does the ladder come off the firetruck, but I included a moveable water hose to assist with those blazing flames!
TIP: The ladder is attached with small velcro dots. Although felt does stick to each other, it can be hard to play if they don’t stick well enough. These velcro dots give a little bit more reinforcement which is probably needed when kids are playing anyways!
I had to include my nephew in a firefighter costume. And because I know that children change interests all the time, the velcro dots will come in handy making new outfits and new scenes for more fun in the future!
TIP: My last tip is to make sure all of the pieces have a place to be stored and protected. It is as easy as hot gluing some stiff felt pockets for the large and small pieces. Plastic bags don’t hurt too!
Although the pieces in this scene were rather intricate, they do not have to be! A simple house with doors that open and close or a couple roads with rectangular cars are just a couple of examples of scenes that are interactive and fun!
I am super excited to announce this collaboration with… my 4 year old daughter! Lol! In all honesty though, it really was a collab and it is titled “Ellie loves…” Her title in the project was Head of Adhesives with the occasional marker drawing. I have been trying to find a reason to make something in the kawaii style (which is basically putting a super cute face on something) and my daughter’s favorite foods were the perfect subject. Every couple days, I posted one to Insta and we are finally at our last one…the kawaii sprinkled donut. I hope you enjoy seeing them all together in one place and I can’t wait to collaborate with her again!
Can you believe summer is almost over and it’s almost time to go back to school?! If you have been following along, you know I am a huge fan of thoughtful gift giving. It can be quite challenging when you don’t know much about the person though and unfortunately my daughter’s teachers always fall in that category. This past year at our school, the parents were given a questionnaire that all of the teacher’s filled out and that made buying thoughtful gifts SO much easier.
If this is not available at your school, I made this questionnaire for you to take gift giving matters into your own hands!
FREE TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRE (download here)
Just print it and ask your child’s teacher to fill it out at the beginning of the school year. I even included a place for your student to write their name so they know who to give it back to. I can confidently say that this survey is “teacher approved” having asked a handful of close teacher friends and family what they would like their students to know about them! Not only will you know what to get those deserving and hardworking teachers, this will also give you a chance to get to know them a little bit better!
Has this been helpful? I would love to hear from you!
I don’t know about your house but at our house, we are not truly ready for preschool until we have a “pretty thing” for our hair. This adds another 5-10 minutes to the already long get ready routine so I was motivated to help the situation. Disney’s Hercules is up on the favorite movie list and Baby Pegasus is so cute. As you can tell from the Moana Necklace a few posts back, I love making things with my daughter’s favorite characters.
You will need:
If you decide to try a character, find an image of them online. I discovered this Steve Thompson illustration while I was searching for Pegasus images. He is a Disney illustrator and designer and I love his take on the characters. After printing and cutting your character out, trace them on what you decide will be their base color. You can then cut individual pieces of the character apart to use as guides for other colors of felt.
TIP: Try to keep it simple and only plan to cut out the larger color block portions. For smaller things, like the eyes and mouth, I would suggest embroidering.
Glue all of your pieces onto your base and you will start to see your character take shape! Decide what details you would like to add and embroider those on. I used the outline stitch with only one (black) or two (other colors) pieces of thread.
TIP: Use tacky glue instead of hot glue for those really small pieces. You don’t want to burn those fingers.
Once you decide which setting your character should be in, use the stiff felt for that base. I wanted Pegasus to be on a cloud under a rainbow, of course!
To make the rainbow, I was not sure how big it would end up being so I started with the inside and worked my way out with rainbow sequins and clear seed beads. I also added some clear, iridescent sequins to the outline of the cloud.
Turn your character around and hang your ribbons from the bottom with a little bit of glue. Make a loop for hanging and glue onto the top. Cut out another piece of felt to cover the entire back portion and glue on.
Done! This is definitely more intricate but as long as you have some stiff felt, ribbons and glue, you can make the same thing in whatever shape or style you wish. Cut out a pink heart, add a loop and some ribbons on bottom and you’re done! Get those pre-cut felt shapes and designs and glue those on, add a loop and some ribbon and you’re done!
This can be a great gift and a way to keep all of the bows and clips in one place with something cute to hang up on the wall or towel rack. Now they are all out in front of her. Hopefully we have cut the “pretty thing” searching down a couple minutes. Lol!
Our boys are ONE! The night before the big party, I was prepping and thinking how first birthdays are kind of silly. The boys are too young to remember and yet the first birthday party is such a big deal. I came to realize that this party was in part for our boys, but more so for all the close people in our lives. And of course for us to celebrate having made it through the newborn and infant stages!
Chase and Caden have completely different personalities. The inspiration for the party came from that difference. We always thought that Chase had very gentleman-like qualities. He is quiet, observant and plays independently. Caden always reminds us of a king. He sits up very straight and almost looks down his nose at others! And he loves when he is the center of attention. Little Man Chase and King Cades became the theme of the party and to make it even more fun, we made it a carnival!
Color palette: dark and light blues with gold and silver metallics. I wanted to combine top hats and mustaches with crowns and sparkly golds.
My husband and I are big kids ourselves, so when we throw a birthday party for our kids, the fun is for the adults too. As soon as the guests entered, they grabbed a crown and a ‘stache.
My little crepe paper buntings draped the top of every window and sliding door. It was such a simple DIY and I love anything that can be stapled!
TIP: I keep hooks over the slider all year round. They come in handy for holidays and parties.
Over the fireplace, I made a super full but still really easy crepe paper banner. TIP: Did you know that you don’t need any tape or glue with crepe paper tassels? Twist it and it holds!
TIP: Always, always, always try to make decorations that can be re-purposed for another celebration. This paper straw banner was from my daughter’s party earlier this year. I just added some metallic fringe to the ends.
One of my favorite parts of a first birthday party is seeing all of the monthly photos together. For King Caden’s banner, I chose very royal, metallic and bold prints. The shape of the bunting also gave it a medieval feel.
For Little Man Chase’s banner, I chose muted colors and prints that reminded me of a business shirt. The shape of his bunting looked like a tie.
To label each photo with the month, I gave them mini construction paper top hats and crowns and wrote the number on them.
You have probably heard me say over and over that I am not a baker. I wish I was but I’m not. Thank goodness for my amazing market bakery. 
I told them exactly what I wanted and they gave it to me and they were delicious.
Ten minutes on the Cricut machine and I had the cutest little crown and ‘stache cupcake toppers!
For the outside decor, I wanted to keep it fairly simple as all of the games would be outside too. Flowy crepe paper hung from the trees,
dollar store white and blue table clothes mimicked a circus tent around the patio,
and one of my favorite DIY decorations, punch ball balloons! TIP: Those huge balloons are so festive and this is a great way to have them minus the helium. The reason they work so well is because they have elastic on top to hang and a place to tie a tassel on, on the bottom!
The games were spread out on the lawn. All homemade and classic carnival fun. I knew not only would the kids enjoy them but the adults would too.
If you don’t know already, I am the oldest of 16 cousins, I think it’s 16, haha. My mom has 5 sisters. So we have a BIG family. They all came to help with the party and even manned the games and gave out tickets.
Ping pong toss was the first game I thought of, it is my fav! There’s something so satisfying when that ball clinks around on the glasses and then falls in! It was fairly easy to make, the backboard took some brain power and effort.
Can toss was another game that was super easy to put together. We saved our cans and I wrapped them in fun paper, ordered some bean bags and that was it!
Tic tac toe was a little more challenging to make but I ended up finding the perfect square cardboard box, which was not easy to find. I cut the dividers out of foam core and covered them in wrapping paper. 
Maybe the simplest game to put together but one of the hardest to play was ring toss. 
The highlight of the games was the prize table where you could turn in your tickets for all of these goodies!
Okay, I lied. The highlight was the cotton candy machine. Everyone wanted to try it but my cousin Kathy is now named Queen of the Cotton Candy. She was determined to master it and I think she did!
The kiddos loved it!
What’s a carnival without popcorn? These mini popcorn containers were adorable. We popped bags and bags of microwave popcorn and my uncle handed them out to the crowd.
I think the highlight of my boys day though was definitely the cake. They were SO tired at this point but they were such troopers. I barely saw them as they were passed from friend to family to friend. They definitely stole the show.
Having twins is no joke, and add in other siblings and you have a very full life; full of every emotion, activity and feeling that you can think of. Our friends and family have supported us from the beginning and our parents have been there for us more times than we can count. This party was for them and I hope they enjoyed every minute of it.
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Moana is THE movie in our house right now. Our kiddo told us that he is going to ask for the Heart of Te Fiti for Christmas. Of course, he doesn’t know that Christmas is a whole 7 months away, but his innocence is so endearing. I wanted to surprise him! Not just with the shell necklace, but one that opened to hold the Heart of Te Fiti wherever he went!
There are 3 parts to this tutorial. Although it is not one of my easiest DIYs, it is definitely doable if you customize how detailed you want it to be.
Here is how you can make your own shell necklace and Heart of Te Fiti gem.
You will need:
You can get most of these supplies here.
Cut out your pieces of felt according to the instructions on the template. Make sure to cut the notch at the top of the grey felt and base felt pieces. In order to give the shell it’s 3D shape, cross over the two notched pieces on your base felt and glue together depending on how deep you want your shell to be. Repeat with your grey felt pieces.
Depending on how detailed you would like to get, you can decorate your shell in a variety of ways. On the bottom portion, I used sequins to mimic the waves of color in an abalone shell, but you could also embroider, glue on other felt pieces, or even use fabric marker.
For the top portion of the shell, I embroidered the wave and tribal signs from the necklace in the movie. Take your decorated pieces and glue them on top of the light blue base. Repeat with the back portions. Make sure to mirror the grey felt on the back to the front so that the two pieces will fit together seamlessly.
To attach the shell to the necklace, thread a piece of cording about 4 inches long through the silver ring. knot on top and at the bottom. Cut a thin rectangular piece of the stiff felt. This will be used to secure the cording to the shell.
Place the cording on the back of the decorated shell piece with the silver loop peeking out the top. Glue the strip of felt across the cording, in the middle of the two knots. Glue together the front and back of the shell at the top, only about an inch wide so that the shell will open. Cut some velcro pieces and attach along the bottom and sides so that it will secure the gem inside.
String your pearl beads on the cording and knot before and after each bead to hold them in place. Moana’s necklace has a lot of detail and I decided that it would be easier to add them after the pearl base was completed. Take another piece of cording and tie your loops onto your base in the same pattern as Moana’s necklace above. Lastly, knot cording to each of the larger loops and cut close to the knot.
You can now attach your shell. I used cording to tie a loop from the jewelry hoop to the necklace but you could open the hoop up and attach it that way. Your necklace is done! Time to start the gem!
You will need:
Knead your clay until it softens and create a small dish like shape to hold a couple drops of your green dye. Mix in. Wear gloves as the dye seeps out through the sides as you are mixing it together.
Continue to add dye until you get the desired shade of green. Roll it into a ball and then shape the semi pointed ends on top and bottom. Make sure it will fit in your shell necklace. Using your tools, recreate the design on the stone from the movie. You can smooth over any rough spots by rubbing them gently with your fingertips. I wish ours glowed in the dark a little more, but mixing it with the transparent clay dulled it out a bit. Like I said above, skip the transparent. The package should give you baking instructions but I did mine at 275 degrees for 30 minutes.
Let it cool, pop it into the abalone shell and…
surprise your own little Moana!
