Mermaid Princess Party

June 21, 2016April 21, 2017 | A Peace of Creativity

While I was (very) pregnant with the twins, my best friend’s daughter was turning 3 and having a mermaid party. I really wanted to help even though I could barely walk through the store at the time! I didn’t know what I was going to make at first but I knew that I would use whatever I could find at the dollar store in one trip.

Looking for anything mermaid or princess, I decided to pull together some centerpieces.My daughter and a I spent some quality art time together dipping shells in fuschia, aqua, and green glitter…

and we carefully placed them in the bowls on top of the glass beads with the mini tiara combs.I wrapped jeweled ribbon around the top of the bowl and glued small styrofoam balls to look like pearls.After everything was done, each centerpiece probably cost about $3 a piece. Such a steal and perfect for the mermaid princess’ special day!I had some leftover shells and pearls. How cute are these for some table confetti?

For more mermaid princess crafts, check out these tiaras and wands!

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Twin Party

May 4, 2016April 21, 2017 | A Peace of Creativity

My wonderful bff and family threw me a small get together to celebrate the imminent arrival of our twin boys. It was so nice to see everyone and get to spend some time with each of them as I know after the boys are here, we may disappear into a black hole for a while.

When they asked me what I wanted in terms of a party, the first thing I told them was simple. No games, no decor…just some desserts and drinks and a place for us to get together. Of course, they made it the most elegant and delicious “simple” celebration possible!

Thanks to Westwood Flower Garden, the tables were adorned with a beautiful type of baby’s breath, yellow feverfew and orange and yellow tulips, all in metallic vases.

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My sister, Sara, put together a sangria bar, complete with all the fruit and garnish you could ask for, even jalapenos!

Appropriately enough, she made a “baby-friendly” version.Desserts included a delicious, homemade chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and fresh flowers and metallic sprinkles…

Processed with VSCO with c3 preset Chocolate covered strawberries, homemade lemon bars, chocolate chip cookies and vanilla pudding cups with fruit.For the favors, my bff made peppermint flavored rock candy and white chocolate bark with edible, gold star sparkles. Almost too beautiful to eat!My sister, Emily and my Auntie Julie drew 26 animals. One for each letter of the alphabet and asked that guests make one page for the boys’ alphabet book. Such a simple and cute activity for the guest to do.

I am so lucky to have these wonderful women in my life. Thank you to Lauren, my sisters, my mom and my mother in law for knowing me so well and making it the perfect “twin party!”

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A Birthday to “Lava”

April 3, 2016October 21, 2025 | A Peace of Creativity

Our kiddo turned 3 last month. How time flies! One of his favorite movies is the Pixar animated short, Lava, about a Hawaiian volcano looking for love. It was the perfect theme for a birthday party.

As the guests arrived, Lele, the volcano’s love greeted them with a lei. The paper umbrella wreath found a home on the front door with a pink ribbon. The backyard was where most of the party would take place.

Simple colored glass vases doubled as centerpiece as well as holding down colorful napkins on the picnic table.

The same leis that greeted guests at the front door were strung together and hung under the pergola for some eye popping color. Fake, tropical leaves were stapled onto a rope and hung from the eaves of the house. Paper lanterns and honeycombs were hung from the trees. Both the tropical leaves, lanterns and honeycombs were from previous events I had planned. Holding on to certain decorations can come in handy.
For the kiddies, there was a plastic pool with balls and another splash pool with water.
Uku’s Fishing Hole let them catch colorful fishes of their choice. And a sandy treasure hunt let them dig for gold coins, jeweled rings and beaded necklaces. Any gummy fan would have loved the favors: gummy fruits and ribbon skewers! One of the best parts of the party was six layer rainbow and M&M cake grandma made. Our kiddo had a blast!

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Paper Umbrella Wreath

March 21, 2016February 25, 2025 | A Peace of Creativity

A very special 3 year old’s birthday is coming up soon and prep has begun! If you have seen Pixar’s Inside Out, then you have seen the short, Lava. My kiddo fell instantly in (should I say it?) “lava!” Haha!

This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation if you make a purchase using the links below.

Thanks to the Family Chic blog, I made my version of her paper umbrella wreath for the front door. All I used was a foam wreath and those cheap, little, paper cocktail umbrellas.

After opening them up, all you do is push them through the foam. I learned about half way through though that it was much easier to push them through when I broke off the ends of the toothpick to make them a little shorter.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this was and how good the finished product looked! Get all the supplies here!

Guest Peace: Lola’s Market

November 2, 2015February 25, 2025 | A Peace of Creativity

Linda is a Southern California native and a passionate party planner in her spare time. Every event she holds is perfected down the the smallest detail. She has a beautiful eye for color and shabby-chic, rustic decor. She is a loving wife, mother of 6 and has 7 grandchildren with one on the way! That’s a lot of parties!

Our little Lola loves our small garden in the backyard and that inspired me to create this party for her. She loves the flowers, orange tree, tomatoes and herbs. She likes to pick the fresh basil, mint, and grape tomatoes and pretend she’s making soup!

The bunting was made by my husband, Reid using a 1/2 yard of burlap, fabric paint, alphabet stencils, a stencil brush and some twine.

My daughter Sarah assembled these huge, gorgeous, paper flowers from a Martha Stewart flower kit.
Outside, we taped vegetable seed packs to the patio beams for decoration.

For centerpieces, we used kale, tomato & pansy plants and wrapped the pots in fabric.

To add to the fresh farm theme, we served our veggies in berry baskets and the raisins, candy corn and chips in bushel baskets.

The food table was decorated with fresh flowers, crates and chalkboard signs to add to the rustic feel and the lucky kiddos went home with a favor bag full of yummy snacks.

To finish it all off, we ordered a green cake and added fresh flowers the day-of. Happy Birthday Lola!

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A Hot Air Balloon First Birthday

September 28, 2015April 12, 2017 | A Peace of Creativity

When my sister-in-law told me she wanted my nephew’s first birthday theme to be “Growing UP, UP, UP”, I was super excited. The possibilities with hot air balloons seemed endless. To start the process, I gave her a selection of color palettes and asked her to pick her favorite. I find that this is the best place to start. When you begin an event, you most always have an idea of a few colors you would like to use, but finding coordinated hues can be difficult. That is where searching color palettes online comes in handy and you can base the entire event off of an inspired palette.

For invitations, I like to incorporate a 3D aspect using foamy double-sided tape. In this case, I found mismatched prints that went with the theme and cut out number ones. Pair with red envelopes and they are ready to send! The other item that I was in charge of was the Happy Birthday banner. Using the same font from the invitations, I printed and cut out letter stencils on cardstock. Those stencils were used on a thick, red scrapbook paper.
For the bunting, I cut letter-sized, brown, kraft colored paper in half and created another stencil to cut out the triangular shape from the bottom. Punch two holes on the top and string! To add more color and make it a little more dynamic, I picked out 3 coordinating prints and 3 solid papers in the same colors. Having the color palette on my phone made it easy to make sure I was picking out the correct shades at the store.
Spray adhesive really worked best on this project as the craft glue was creating wrinkles in the paper. The party was at a beautiful park in the neighborhood. To separate each word on the banner, I used the extra invitations and as a finishing touch, added some red, burlap ribbons.
My sister-in-law created this adorable banner of all of the monthly photos using scrapbook paper and string to attach and decorate the baskets. In a stroke of luck, Oriental Trading Co. had these paper lantern, hot air balloons in the exact colors we needed. They really added to the space and were super easy to assemble and take down.
It was a beautiful day only made better by celebrating the very first birthday of the sweetest little nephew.

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GUEST PEACE: Invitation 101, A Crash Course

September 21, 2015April 12, 2017 | A Peace of Creativity

Desiree Jacobs is the Founder of Heirloom Paper Co. She grew up in the greater Los Angeles area and attended college at California State University, Northridge. After 10 years in non profit and corporate worlds, Desiree decided to professionally explore her love of special events and fine paper products. As a wedding enthusiast and stationery obsessive, it was a natural fit for her to start Heirloom Paper Co. based in Encino, CA.

I’ve always considered myself a creative person, but I’m not a painter, a musician, or a photographer. I struggled with how to tap into my creativity and I realized awhile ago that while I’m certainly not a skilled artist, I have a strong eye and a good sense of how to take a vision from an image in my head to a tangible reality. As owner of Heirloom Paper Company, I work with my clients on creating custom invitations for weddings, mitzvahs, and parties, and really enjoy helping my clients tap into their vision of their event and creating an invitation that will set the tone of their event.

Invitations can be printed using any one or a combination of printing processes: thermography, engraving, digital printing (offset/flat), and letterpress. Your invitation suite always features the main invitation and envelope with or without a liner, and is typically accompanied by a reply card, reply envelope, and often one or more additional cards to share information with guests regarding accommodations, transportation, weekend events, or website information.

My personal favorite style of printing to work with is letterpress. I love the texture of thick cotton stock, fabulous ink colors and foils, and the variety of fonts, especially with some of the modern hand calligraphy style fonts. Working with letterpress invitations allows me to tap into my creativity and collaborate with my clients in a unique way. I tend to approach each invitation as a blank slate with my clients and together we dress it up by selecting a layout and each element of the invitation starting with the color and thickness of the paper. We choose our font families (no more than three or it will look too busy!) and color scheme. We bring in design elements like flourishes, motifs, or monograms. Lastly we talk about any extra embellishments to make the invitation pop like edge painting, die cuts, and solid or patterned backers and portfolios.

A few trends in letterpress that I am really excited about are the use of calligraphy and digitally printed patterns. Hand calligraphy and calligraphy style fonts are very popular for bride and groom names and are such a key element in creating style. The use of digitally printed patterns like watercolor or vintage floral prints layered under letterpress text is a newer process that lends itself to a really fresh look. I am swooning over invitations that combine these trends alongside the use of metallic foil. Hello gorgeous!

The key to a cohesive invitation suite is consistency: consistency in fonts, colors, design details, as well as a consistent level of formality. If you are going for a modern and artsy wedding, think about the language, not just in the look and feel. Of course there is etiquette to be mindful of, but it’s ok to break the mold in a few areas- use numerals rather than spelling out dates and choose fonts that reflect a modern tone. For more formal weddings, spell out all dates, always spell out addresses, and choose more elegant fonts and color palettes.

Love what you see? Follow Heirloom Paper on Facebook and Instagram.

Want to talk invitations? Email Desiree at desiree@heirloompaper.com
or visit Heirloom Paper Co.

Images courtesy of Smock Paper and Bella Figura
and are available through Heirloom Paper Co.

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GUEST PEACE: A Young In Love Bridal Shower

September 8, 2015July 19, 2017 | A Peace of Creativity

Kim, Chelsea, Amy, and Tracey are proud to highlight a bridal shower they threw for their very good friend, Megan. They all met in elementary school playing basketball and have remained close friends since then. Megan and her mother are very gifted and creative when it comes to DIY projects. The mother-of the-bride was hand-making most of the wedding flowers, decorations, etc. and because of this, they wanted to put the same DIY love into her bridal shower.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation if you make a purchase using the links below.

This piece was simple and cheap. The chalkboard sign was from Michael’s craft store with a simple tissue pompom for an accent. We spent countless hours on Pinterest grabbing ideas and finding inspiration for our signs and decorations. Amy was the creative genius behind all the custom made signs.

TIP: Oil based paint pens are brighter and last longer. The water base paint pens are more likely to smear easier and are not as bright.

We basically bought out every single Michael’s within the Los Angeles area. Scouring the shelves for decorations, materials, chalkboards, and frames; anything that went with our rustic theme. We came across these letters and waited until they were on sale, then grabbed them up for only $2.50 each!

TIP: Gather as many coupons for Michael’s as you can and keep up-to-date with all the weekly sales.

Looking for a keepsake to give the bride-to-be after her celebration and wanting it to reflect who she is, we decided to do a twist on the traditional guest book. We came up with the idea of having a “guest ball” for all the girls to sign for our baller bride.

Megan is the Martha Stewart of desserts and bakes the most amazing cakes, cookies, cupcakes, breads; basically anything even considered a dessert. We wanted to do right by her and make the dessert table one of the highlights of the shower. Megan loves cookies and cream, so Chelsea made amazing bite size Oreo cheesecakes and the flower girl had about 10 of them within just a few minutes. There was also Devil’s Food Cake in a shot glass, strawberry jell-o with a pretzel crust and whipped cream filling, and delicious Bavarian Pear Tarts. We included jars filled with Megan’s favorite candies – Twix, Starburst Jellybeans, and Now & Laters and ordered mini mint ganache cupcakes from Lady Di’s Cookies and Sweets.

The favors were candied apples also ordered from Lady Di’s. The mother-of-the-bride chose the White Chocolate Cheesecake apple and the Grandma’s Apple Pie apple. Tracey wanted to make the favors a little more personal by adding special gift tags to each one. These were made by first printing out the note on card stock, and then using a gift tag hole puncher to cut each one out.

Outside, multi-size tissue pompoms were arranged for a chandelier affect hanging from the center of the canopy. Amy made about twenty pompoms in total, which were mainly used for the faux chandelier and disbursed in various locations around the shower. The instructions for constructing the pompoms were found on our go-to site, Pinterest.

TIP: For larger pompoms – use more sheets of tissue paper for a fuller affect. For smaller pompoms, use less sheets to ease the construction of fluffing out the paper.

Wanting to continue with our rustic theme, we chose to use mason jars for the drink ware. We tied small name tags around each jar and made it extra special by handwriting each guests’ name on a tag.

Another highlight was the sangria bar! Who doesn’t love a refreshing sangria with a variety of freshly cut fruits on a hot summer afternoon? We used crates to elevate the jars and house the drink ware. We were fortunate enough that Chelsea had two original vintage 7-up crates, which made an amazing addition to our sangria bar. We made sure to also provide a non-alcoholic option of Megan’s favorite drink, the Shirley Temple. The sign for the sangria bar may look professional, but it is another custom-made sign made with love by Amy.

As friends, we all have different skill sets and interests, which allowed us to collaborate cooperatively to create this awesome soiree. We had such a great time planning, creating, and celebrating and honoring the bride-to-be. We hope to spark an idea and inspire you with these insights and tidbits to Megan’s special day.

See more party ideas HERE!

Message from the Bride:

I had the best bridesmaids ever who made it such a special day. I loved the homemade, artsy touches that they filled the day with. One of the best parts of the shower was eating all the yummy food and desserts. They also added fun personalized games about myself and my husband-to-be. I absolutely loved all the DIY decorations and was touched how everything was customized just for me. The day was filled with so much love and laughter thanks to my awesome bridesmaids.

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Mermaid Princess

August 10, 2015April 11, 2017 | A Peace of Creativity

One of the hidden gems I have recently discovered as a parent are all of the local theater productions put on by kids. My daughter loves to watch live music and it doesn’t get better for her than to see other kids singing and dancing on stage. They are usually very affordable and just short enough to keep her attention. We went to see The Little Mermaid Jr. with some of her besties and I wanted to make something fun for them to wear during the show.

Believe it or not, all of my crafting supplies came from the dollar store. My idea was to make wands, but I couldn’t resist the matching crowns. I didn’t expect to use all of this stuff, but that is the luxury of shopping at the dollar store!

Sticking to an an “Under the Sea” color scheme, I tied extra ribbons to the wands.

I liked the star wands, but wanted the star to have a bigger presence. I cut out starfish shapes from the glitter foam and bunched and glue-gunned pieces of iridescent cellophane to the backs.

This was then glued to the star on the wand with a matching glitter foam piece to cover the back.

The starfish were finished with turquoise and lime sequins.

I used the same techniques with the crowns as I did the wands. Bunched cellophane pieces and ribbons added an ocean touch. I glued a ribbon to the inside base of the crown so the cellophane would not irritate their foreheads.

Jeweled necklaces finished the ensemble! Our little mermaid princesses wore the crowns throughout the entire performance and they waved their wands in applause for the very talented kids in the show.

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Birthday Wish Book

August 3, 2015April 10, 2017 | A Peace of Creativity

A couple of posts ago, I told you about my Mom’s 60th Birthday in Vegas. At the brunch, I asked family and friends to write a quick birthday note for her, a memory, a birthday wish, or something they appreciate.

I found this collection of scrapbook supplies online. Finding collections makes the process that much easier in that the decorative pieces and paper are already cohesive and coordinating. I only added in a few more prints of paper that I thought would go with the existing prints.

My best friend and Guest Peace blogger, Lauren, is a talented quilter and inspires me to want to try it. However, I am not a huge fan of sewing on a machine, so I thought I would try my hands at some paper quilting. This simple heart took a lot more brain power than I expected in trying to…make the pieces exact squares…with the right angles…to then create a heart the size I needed. This small part of my project was a testament to how crafting very much uses both sides of your brain!

With the included stickers and letters of the collection, my paper quilting became part of the front, back and spine of my birthday wish book. To try something a little different than the 6×6 or 12×12 scrapbook, I went with a half letter sized, three ringed binder with an already existing pink flower pattern. Now to begin with the birthday notes. I thought about documenting my process in how I mounted and decorated each note, but really, this was my process in a nutshell: crafting chaos.
As you can see, we are a close immediate and extended family. Sometimes, it is easy to carry on in our busy lives and assume that our family knows that we love and appreciate them. I have found that even when you know you are loved and appreciated, it still means so much to actually hear or read it every now and then. To everyone that contributed a note, my mom loved her book. And the thing is, it could have been words on scrap paper and I think she still would have still loved it because it was more about what you all said than what it looked like.

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This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation if you make a purchase using the links below.

Love what you see? Follow Heirloom Paper on Facebook and Instagram.

Want to talk invitations? Email Desiree at desiree@heirloompaper.com or visit Heirloom Paper Co.

Images courtesy of Smock Paper and Bella Figura and are available through Heirloom Paper Co.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation if you make a purchase using the links below.

Want to talk invitations? Email Desiree at desiree@heirloompaper.com
or visit Heirloom Paper Co.

Images courtesy of Smock Paper and Bella Figura
and are available through Heirloom Paper Co.