What's This?! What's This?!

This is Halloween! Good morning! I hope everyone is having a fantastic week. With now less than a week to go before Halloween, I guess a "Nightmare Before Christmas" post is better late than never. (Hey, it's before Christmas, so there's that!)

I started this project, or at least came up with the idea, a few weeks ago, but finally got around to putting the finishing touches on it. This picture includes a "Happy Birthday" banner and a 10'+ garland. The banner features two little Jack Skellingtons, and of course I included a little Zero in the middle!

The garland has some of Jack's facial expressions. To top it off, both pieces feature purple sparkled cardstock because glitter makes everything better! (It's not a great picture. Apologies.)

These will be up for sale later today, along with some place cards and party favors! (I understand it's a little late for Halloween, but hey, maybe there's someone out there who wants a "Nightmare Before" Christmas!!)
Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your day!

May the 4th Be with You!

After all these years, I finally broke down and hopped on the Star Wars bandwagon. I guess it's about time, too, especially when you have more than a handful of family members, both young and old, who are fans... I have two "inspired" projects to share with you today. The first is a birthday banner:

For the banner, I used a font similar to the one used throughout the franchise. To add a girly, yet subtle, touch, the letters and pennant backgrounds were made in "galactic gold" (perfect name, huh?!) Of course, everything is multi-layered, because that's what I do! The two banner pieces are book-ended with some favorite characters.

 This is where it got a little tricky, because of the characters. I didn't want to just print and cut the characters out (Eww, yuck. I never liked the look of that. Anyone can print out pictures and glue them on.) After a little work and maneuvering, and patience with the small pieces, everything came together, better than planned! (I may be a small fan now, only because of this)
The second project is a matching birthday card for the Brother (talk about old fan...) I had one card designed and (somewhat) ready to send out, but then this idea came into my head and I decided to go with it. I hope he's OK with it 1.) being late and 2.) not a surprise...

The inside of the card, which I unfortunately don't have a picture of, is printed out in the same font as the banner and reads "Wishing Yoda Happiest Birthday, I am. Celebrate, you must." (obviously read in Yoda's voice)
Who knew Star Wars could be so fun?! Now, maybe I'll continue working on the matching party favors I started like two years ago...
Have a great day!

Brother, You're the Best!

Bazinga! No, not really. It just seemed like the right thing to write! Today is our brother's birthday and he's a big fan of the television show "The Big Bang Theory". After seeing this onesie his wife made the Little One

I decided to go with the same theme. (Hope Brother doesn't mind sharing his birthday post with his Cutie Patootie nephew who is making his blog debut today!!) Anyway, here is his birthday card:

Since the characters on the show are scientists, the Periodic Table made an appearance. (It's amazing what words you can spell with elemental abbreviations!!) Here is the inside of the card:

Hopefully he'll like it as much as I enjoyed making it!
It's been awhile since I last posted, but it's been quite a month! Between the new baby (although I haven't been able to smother him with kisses because his grandpa is always hogging him), some longish-term positions in school, and on-line work, there hasn't been much time to get some fun projects in. It's kind of a bummer because I have so many ideas in my head and when I get home, all I want to do is take a nap! Oh well, there will be plenty of me-time come summer!! Thanks for stopping by! Have a fantastic day!

Happy 1st Birthday, Cousin!

Good evening! We hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend! I've been keeping busy with a few orders and some special projects, which is why this post is a little late.  I've been trying to get a few baby projects done, and a lot of cleaning, but everything else seems to get in the way. If only there were two or three more hours in the day! It also doesn't help that the weekends have been  absolutely fantastic weather-wise and it makes it a little difficult to want to stay inside and work.
Today's project is a birthday card for our littlest cousin. Today is the cutie patootie's first birthday! Here is the card I made for him:

I wasn't quite sure what theme to go with, so I decided to go with this cute little sock monkey. I added some special touches, like the number one, for his first birthday, and of course, some balloons and a sweet treat! (Yum! Cupcakes...) Here is what the card looks like when it's open:

I obviously used a fair share of pop-dots on this easel card (one of the easiest ways to make a card even fancier!). It was quite a bit thicker than I thought it was going to be and it took a few times to get it into the envelope. Hopefully the little guy will enjoy his card (as much as a one-year-old will) and has the happiest birthday!
Thanks for stopping by! Here's to a great week!

Cowabunga, Dude!

Oh boy, talk about flashbacks to childhood...
Good afternoon, friends! I hope everyone has been having a good week. On the bright side, it's already Thursday! One more day to go! After a somewhat difficult day, I figure I'd write a quick post this afternoon. So, today's post is a quick birthday card I made for a little girl who is celebrating her 7th birthday today:

 

As you might be able to figure, she's a big fan of the Ninja Turtles. As I said, it was a quick card to make. I wanted to go simple with it because it was a late-night request. As with most of my cards and projects, pop-dots were used in abundance:

I decided to use orange as the accent color because Michelangelo (or Mikey, as he's called now-a-days) is her favorite. I was also tasked to make some invitations and decorations for her upcoming party, which I hope to post in the next day or two.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a fabulous evening!

You're Invited to A Holiday Soiree!

Good morning! We hope everyone had a nice, relaxing weekend. Today’s post is going to be considerably shorter than yesterdays. After a little lull, we spent some time over few days working on some new projects for our shop, including these invitations:

We wanted to get a “head start” on the holidays. Funny story- we’ve had “Start Christmas so it’s done on time” on our to-do list since August (no lie) and we finally did so. (Maybe we’ll get our July birthday gift done now… ) We made invitations for a few themes, including the ever-popular “Ugly Sweater” party, a “Nutcracker Sweet” party, and a penguin-themed invitation.  Hopefully we’ll be able to add a few new invitations and matching items over the next few days. Or the next few weeks. The way we see it, you can’t have a party without invitations, so they're the best place to start!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a fantastic day!

Willkommen to An Oktoberfest Birthday!

Good afternoon! We hope everyone is having a superb weekend so far. We have been pretty busy over here, between school and crafting, and unfortunately we haven't had much time to post here. Now that we have some time this weekend (we're finally all caught up!), we wanted to share some pictures of party decor we made for a customer. These items were for two youngins' 2nd and 4th Oktoberfest birthday party.
A party isn't a party unless there are invitations. These are the ones that we made:

(The background isn't very nice. Sorry.) Since it was for a boy and a girl, we had to include a little German girl donned in her dirndl and the little boy in his lederhosen. We also thew a die-cut flag and little pretzel on top. The next few pictures are of the decorations we made. The first picture is of the centerpiece skewers that are going to be placed in some mums:

We included the little boy and girl again, and a "happy birthday" sentiment. When we were coming up with different shapes to include with the package, we went a little "design-happy" with this party and came up with these little gingerbread-inspired hearts. We made one for each child, with their name and age. Each piece is double-sided, so the centerpiece can be seen from either side. The next picture is of some of the cupcake toppers. This is where we really went happy with the designs:

These little guys range in size from 2.25"-3" or so. We included the little boy and girl and personalized hearts again. We also decided to do two with their ages. The last ones feature the German flag, a salted pretzel, and a little barrel. It's hard to see, but the barrel features some sparkly accents drawn in. These are also double-sided to see from any angle. The next two pictures are of the favor bag toppers and blank food tents:

 

The first are the toppers that read "Danke", or "thank you" in German (one of the few German phrases we, and probably a lot of people, know.) These feature the little boy and girl again, along with the flag.The images measure about 2.5-3". These get stapled to the top of little baggies. The blank food labels also feature the pretzel and barrel. The taller images here measure about 3-3.5". 

We really enjoyed working on this party package! It was the first "legit" package we worked on and hopefully not the last! 

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a fantastic weekend!

Cute New Halloween Projects!

Good afternoon! We hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend so far! We are enjoying one of the last weekends of summer, hoping for fall to come along with its cooler weather and pumpkin flavors- both perfect for getting those creative juices flowing! While we have been busy with some finishing touches on classroom decor (which is super adorable and pictures will be shared once everything is complete!), we have found some time to add new items to our Etsy shop. Our newest listings are some Halloween party decor items we've created. This is the start of our newest line:

The first project we want to share is a party invitation featuring the cutest little witch and her cauldron. Of course we used a ton of pop dots on the embellishments! This party theme would be perfect for any little ghoul or boy! The next picture is of a matching banner:

This banner reads "Happy Birthday", but we also made one that says "Happy Halloween". Both banners feature the same little witchy teddy bear and her cauldron from the invitation. The last spacer has a cute little teddy, all ready to go trick or treating in his pumpkin best:

These little guys, and the letters, are also pop-dot embellished. We wanted to add a special touch to the letters with some rhinestones.
Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully we'll have some more items to share later!

An Elmo Birthday!

Good morning! We hope everyone is having a fantastic week so far. At least it's already Thursday! And a day closer to the weekend. We have been uber busy around here, with the start of the school looming and everyone having their kid's birthdays. We actually had little to do yesterday, so we took a little break. However, we wanted to share some of our newest projects with you. The first is some decor for an Elmo-themed party for twin 1-year olds (how cute?!) Unfortunately, some of the pictures have quite an orange tint to them...or at least the wall does...
The first project is a super cute and colorful 'Happy Birthday' banner:

The banner features Elmo holding the number 1and two presents on the end:

Of course we used pop-dots on the letters and images, and the polka dots add another cute touch!
The next item we made was a set of cake toppers. The first piece is Elmo, along with two Sesame Street-inspired name signs:

 These three toppers are double-sided and are on 8" sticks. We added some ribbon to the name signs. The last thing we made were some goody bags for the kiddos:

 These little cuties feature an excited Elmo, because who wouldn't be happy at a party?!
Thanks for stopping by. We'll have some more new projects to share with you this week.

A New Superhero Banner to Share

Happy Thursday! We hope everyone is having a wonderful day, and week so far. As you've might have noticed, we've been staying busy trying to primp up our Etsy shop. We're hoping that the more items we have for sale, the better chance it'll help us grow. So, our goal for this month is to post at least two new items every day. So, as many of our followers know, we've had a lot of interest in our superhero bags. We decided it was time to make some other superhero things (and hope it helps us!) For today, we have added two new banners. Since they are relatively similar in design, we'll show the first one, which is a superhero "Happy Birthday" banner:

This one features Boy's favorite superhero Batman (he also happens to be one of the easier ones to create!) 

 The first spacer is Batman, with his little cape and crime fighting outfit, and his googly eyes (of course!) The middle space features three matching stars, and the last is the city in distress (or in this case, Gotham, I guess). Each letter and image has been pop-dotted, for the extra special touch, while each piece is tied together with multiple ribbons and tulle.
The other banner was a personalized banner, in this theme. For superheroes, he's quite a cutie! We're going to create a few other heroes, especially because we've also created a little Superman superhero for a valued customer a few months ago:

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day!

New "Frozen" Projects Are Here!

Good afternoon! We hope everyone is having a fantastic day! It's been quite hot here, which makes wanting to do anything kind of rough. However, we've been fighting the urge to be lazy and have completed some "Frozen"-inspired projects, as promised!
These newly-listed Etsy items are just the first few pieces in this new collection.

The first two projects are an invitation and a printed thank you note. When you remove the invitation from its folder, everyone's favorite snowman comes out:

Of course we added some glitter (what princess doesn't love glitter?!) and pop-dotted some of the accents, including the snowflake on the thank you note:

How adorable is this set?! We have a few more projects coming in the next few days, including some banners and decorations. (The banners will be up once they're put together- apparently our missing hole punch is actually at home, and yes, Mom, it will be easier to get a new one instead of cleaning!)
Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!

New Etsy Listings:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TwoEarlyBirds/search?search_query=Frozen&order=date_desc&view_type=gallery&ref=shop_search

A 'Frozen"- Inspired Preview

Good afternoon! We hope everyone is having a great weekend! I hate to brag (most of the time!) but we are having a fantastic weekend! It has been warm (hot, according to the people here) and sunny and just absolutely beautiful. Not quite like the weather in the East. Hope everyone stays safe in these storms (especially those two awesome bike riders in Kentucky!)
Since it has been unseasonably warm here, it has put us in the mood for some cooler weather, and projects! We have been busy working on a new set of party decorations. It's not quite done, but here is a hint of what's to come:

We're quite excited for this set! The first project to be done will be a banner, as long as we can find the hole punch! It always seems to disappear when it's needed...We will post the pictures when it's done!
Thanks for stopping by!

Another Happy Birthday!

Good afternoon! We hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend so far. We've been busy with some school projects and some other things, but wanted to take some time to share another quick birthday card we made.

This is a card for our brother's girlfriend. She is probably the most "mature" one of us, we wanted to go a little more "grown-up". (That, and the background design was perfect for part of her gift, which will hopefully be done this week!) We went with the ever-popular monogrammed look and added some pearls, for an extra special touch. Once we complete her gift, we'll share a few pictures of it!
Thanks for stopping by! We hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend!

Some More Birthday Wishes!

Good evening! We hope everyone has had a wonderful week! It's a sunny, "last Friday of School" day here and we couldn't be happier! We've finally caught up with all of our orders and side projects, and have some time for 'us' crafting (like yesterday's project in honor of today being "National Donut Day"!) Today's project is one of the birthday cards we made for our niece, who is celebrating(ed) her birthday today:

(Our pictures aren't doing the card justice. Unfortunately. They are much brighter in person.) The card was designed around the saying we found that was just too cute and fun to pass up. The inside of the card reads, "Birthdays are nature's way of telling you to eat more cake!" Because who needs a reason to eat more cake? Or cupcakes? Below is a close up of the little cupcake:

Of course, we used googly eyes and pop-dots to add a little dimension!
Thanks for stopping by! Join us tomorrow for another edition of Cupcake Saturday! It's been quite a while, but these are totally worth it!

Happy Birthday, Mom & Dad!

Good evening! We hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. We have been super busy around here, between school and orders, and finally everything is getting back on schedule. With all that we've had to do over the last few weeks, we did find some time to work on a few projects. Today's projects are some cards we made for our wonderful parents who are celebrating major birthdays today (or yesterday, ECT now). It's always kind of fun when you tell people your parents have the same birthday. They're always a little surprised when we tell them, and then say it's pretty cool.

Since they can both be considered "50's kids", we decided to go with 50's-themed cards for them. The first two cards are for our mom:

The first is a shaped card with a pair of roller skates. Our mom told us stories about her roller skating when she was a little girl (I think. If not, then I can picture a little Mom with pigtails skating. I may be thinking of something else totally...) The inside of this card reads, "with a Birthday hi!". The second card features an ice cream sundae and more of the super-fun and cheery colors. The inside of the card says "Wishing your birthday is as sweet as you!"
The other two cards are for our Dad:

The first is a red and black card with a musical theme. It was a toss up between this record and a jukebox, but figured either would work for him because he enjoys listening to the Golden Oldies and singing half the words to the songs. The outside of the card says, "For the record" and the inside reads, "You rock! Happy Birthday!" The fourth and final card is a 'Route 66'-themed card. We first saw the road sign, but couldn't figure out how to work with it, since it says 66 (and Dad's not quite there yet.) We decided to change it to read 65, instead. We also went with a vintage car to top it off. At least this one doesn't have any holes in the floorboard!
All four cards are multi-layered and have a ton of 3D poppers on them. (If you can't use googly eyes, 3D is the next best way to go!)
Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

A "Hello Kitty" Card

Happy Tuesday! We hope everyone is having a great week so far. Like we said a few days ago, we are trying to catch up and share all of the projects we made over the last few month or so. Today's project is a new card we made for another valued customer. This is a birthday card for a little girl who loves Hello Kitty:

How cute is this card for a little girl?! It is another shape card. Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of room to write, but sometimes all you need to write is "Happy Birthday", right? We used some pink sparkle paper. I was questioned as to why nothing was pop-dotted, but since the pink is so thick, I decided that this wouldn't be necessary. As for the yellow balloon, the patterned paper and her skirt originally had yellow in it, but it still looks cute! I'm just happy that it stayed up, after fighting it for a while.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day!

Gnome Way!

Good evening! We hope everyone is having a great weekend so far. We have been pretty the last few days, and unfortunately haven't been able to spend a lot of  time we-crafting. As you can tell, our blog needs some attention, and we're pretty sure no one wants to see all of the superhero bags and banners we've made in the last week (we'll save that for another time). However, we wanted to take some time to make a card for our biggest brother, who is celebrating a birthday today. (Honestly, I'm not sure how old he is today...I'm thinking 34, but after 30, who counts?! ) Anyway, here is the card we made him:

How cute is that little gnome?! We wanted to make it a (somewhat) masculine card for him, and had plenty of scraps to make it in these colors (love when that works out!) This is a 3D shape card with quite a few popped pieces, which can be seen in the picture below.

I didn't take a picture of the inside, but it reads "Gnome way! It's your birthday!" I thought it was just so cute, and then got a little more excited when I remembered that his internet alias has had the word 'nomes' in it for the longest time. It may not be spelled the same way, or even have the same meaning, but close enough! Well, he might not have gotten it in time for his birthday, but now that it's on-line, he knows it exists and that it will be in the mail on Monday! And it's still his birthday when I posted this, so... Happy Birthday, Bro!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great night!