The Giving Tree Birthday Party

For my daughter's first birthday party with our church family we used the book The Giving Tree as our theme. My husband and I both loved the book as children and since our church has done so much for us we wanted to say thank you. I had a lot of fun planning and making things for the party and I just wanted to share a few of the pics from the party.

Here is a picture of our spread for the party. I kept the food pretty simple. I used the colors red and green since the book's cover is red and green. I also used apples as part of the decorations.

Here is the drink station. I did some word art on Picasa and framed it. I also put out a pic of Reese from her newborn photo shoot by Starla Holl.

We did Red Velvet cupcakes and Yellow cake and chocolate icing cupcakes. I cut apples on my Cricut for the cupcake toppers.

Our snacks were all kid friendly. We had Goldfish crackers, Apple Jacks cereal, Apple Rings, Pretzels, Apple Sauce on the Go, and Reese's Pieces (in honor of my daughter Reese).

I stenciled some linen bags for the guests to fill up with candy and take home.

We laid out quilts for our guests. The shade of the big tree was a perfect setting for the party. Here my husband is reading The Giving Tree to all of our guests. In the back I also set up a table for the kids to color pages from the book. I also set up a table for the high chairs.

I repainted an old frame for the guests to use for photo opportunities. I made hats for the kids to wear in the pictures. I also had all the guests sign our copy of The Giving Tree so Reese can see all of the people who came to her first birthday.

And here is the birthday girl. Thats a pretty happy baby (and messy)!

Handmade Flower Shower Gifts

So I took a hiatus from blogging but I have still been crafting. Lately I have been working on some shower gifts and my little girl's birthday party. I will post about the birthday party hopefully next week but I want to show you how I used the same technique from my cloth flower headband post to spruce up a Shower gift.

I made a wreath with handmade flowers. I bought the twig wreath from the craft store. The bottom layer is made of white felt flowers and the top flowers are made from assorted cotton fabric with buttons in the center. I also painted an A and hot glued it to the wreath. All of the flowers are hot glued as well.

I also added some handmade flowers to a dish towel to spruce them up and tie them into the color scheme. The flowers were hand sewn into the kitchen towel.

I bought a plain white frame and hot glued three handmade flowers onto the corner. Inside I placed some word art I made on www.picnik.com. Unfortunately Picnik has now closed but a lot of their cool effects are on Google+.

I put everything into a basket I had at the house and added some matching napkins and potholders to complete the gift. To spruce up the basket I hot glued ribbon and handmade flowers to the front of the basket.

All in all I was very pleased with the gift and I hope that my friends will think of me when they see their one of a kind, handmade gifts.

Young at Heart Banquet

Every year our church has a Young at Heart Banquet for our senior saints. It is my favorite event of the year. I love to decorate. Here are some things we did this year:

It is so much fun to decorate with fun Valentine's day decor. This year we gave every lady a rose and every gentleman some chocolates.

For centerpieces I made this topiary by taking cupcake liners and sticking them on a Styrofoam ball with straight pins. So cute and easy! I will be doing this again for other events.

I found this idea on pinterest and it was so easy and cheap. I found the candle and votive at Dollar Tree and then I simply filled the votive with conversation hearts.

We served Brunch this year and for dessert we did mini fruit pizzas. The Icing is cream cheese and marshmallow fluff spread on a sugar cookie. They were a big hit!

We also did a photo booth. My friend Jackie made the booth by using two project boards and a cricut for shapes and lettering. We also brought several props for fun.

This is me and one of my Bible students posing in the photo booth. So much fun!

Bunny Baby Birthday Party

This site used the cute Bunny Baby book as a shower theme but I think it would be so cute for a first birthday for a little girl. I love this book! It is such a cute and classic book. This theme is so pretty and girly! Love, Love, Love! For this idea and SOOOOOOOOOOO many more cute themes head over to http://www.thecakeblog.com/.

More Valentine's day ideas

How cute is this Envelope Background. This is simple and cheap but looks sooooooooooooo cute. This is a must try! I found this at http://justcallmemarthaa.blogspot.com/.

This is a great idea for little ones. Use a Recycled Chocolate Box to give your child an exciting Valentine's day lunch. I found this at http://katherinemaries.com/.

Does anybody else have a hard time getting gifts for their husband? How about this super cute Sock bouquet. Of course I am not sure my hubby would appreciate how cute this idea is... still I would feel good about it. I found this at http://www.howdoesshe.com/.

There are a ton of cute Food gifts at http://www.bhg.com/. These would be so cute for a teacher or neighbor.

Hershey Kisses Name Cards

How cute are these Valentine's Kisses! They would be perfect to use as name cards at a party. You could do any Holiday with these and just change the shape you attach to the toothpick. I will defiantly be doing these for our up coming Valentine's day party. I can not wait. I found these at http://www.craftaholicsanonymous.net/.

Felt Nesting Dolls

Sorry I have not posted in over a week. We have been out of town due to family matters but I am back in the pocket and ready to get crafty.

Right now I am obsessed with two things: Felt and Nesting Dolls. That is why I am in-love with these Felt Nesting dolls from  http://skipthechips.blogspot.com/. There is a free pattern you can download and make your own super cute nesting dolls.