Monster Fun!!

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend! I was fortunate enough to be able to celebrate with Caleb's family and friends. We made the trek out to Montana on Tuesday night (and only sat in traffic through the first 40 miles). After taking a tour of his hometown, and five more hours of driving (or sleeping, in my case), we made it to our destination. It was probably the most "scenic" trip I've taken through Montana. Luckily, the weather was absolutely gorgeous (50 degrees and sun!) and only hit a patch of snow in the mountains. And to make everything even better, his family is absolutely amazing! I was super nervous about meeting all of them (and feeling like an oddball) but they are the nicest people! (When he told me they were the meanest, I was a little worried. He was just giving me a hard time. Luckily there wasn't a test at the end of the trip! Too many people to remember!)
Anyway, after driving all day Saturday (or again, sleeping in the back of the car), we didn't do much Saturday night and I slowly started getting back into the swing of things on Sunday. Here are the two projects I was working on that I'm so excited to share! These items are for a Little Monster's first birthday. The two items match our "Monsters, Inc." party decorations.

The picture above shows a 30-piece set of centerpieces. There are 6 sets with 5 pieces in each set. Each set includes a "Happy Birthday",  a name/age pieces, and three characters. Each piece is double-sided and the words are pop-dotted. This was definitely a labor of love (and lots of fine!). Since it took me a little longer than I would have liked to finish, I decided to add a bag of confetti in as a "free gift". Here's what that looks like:

I was super excited about how this turned out! I'm glad my original plan worked out better than I expected (and that I took the easy way with the character pieces!!) This bag of confetti contains almost 400 tiny pieces! These two pieces would make the perfect addition to any party, especially with the favor bags from a few weeks ago!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful 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!

We're Back! (And Brought Along a Few Friends!)

Oh, my!! We're back! It has obviously been quite a long time. I'd love to be able to use some amazing, awesome excuse as to why we haven't posted anything here in such a long time, but after trying out some new endeavors, this little piece kind of got pushed to the back burner. Not forgotten, just kind of like the week-old leftovers in the fridge. In the meantime, we have been working on putting a cohesive look to our little business, a new "stand-alone" online store, orders, and every day life (who knew naptime for the Little One would turn into naptime for the Big One, too? Or at least the Big One being used as a pillow?)
After debating internally for a while, we have decided to take the next step and open an on-line store. Not that we don't love our Etsy store, but we thought maybe it was a good time to branch out and try something new, and hopefully bring along a few friends and make some new ones! We have more items available in this store, including many new invitations (for now. One section at a time!) The link to this new store is www.twoearlybirds.com/our-store. Like everything in life, it's a work in progress!
I guess now that the mundane is done (tried to keep it quick and simple!) we have a few new projects planned over the next few months. (Hopefully we can keep on top of things and not let it slide like we've done in the past...) With the new movie "Finding Dory" coming out later this summer, we decided to start Dory-themed party line. We probably should have started with invitations, but sometimes an idea comes to you and you have to run with it! This was one of those projects:

This piece features everyone's favorite Blue Tang and Clown fishes.

The fish and letters are pop-dotted, of course!And the middle space features a little under water scene, with a little Peach and a seagull in the corners:

I can't wait to see what the rest of the decorations will look like! A few other banners and the circle garland are next up on the to-do list!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a fintastic day (get it?!)!

Happy 4th!

I know it's a bit late, especially as I am listening to the fireworks going off, watching the All-American movie Forrest Gump as I write this, but I hope that everyone had a safe and happy Fourth of July today!

This is how I celebrated today, doing what I love, by creating this little banner and garland- pretty much the extent of my decorating for the holiday.
Have a great night!

Wedding Wishes!

Good morning! I'm so sorry it's been a while since I posted. There have been some computer issues here, which was a total bummer. I hope everyone had a fantastic week! Maybe with an extra day off for the holiday observance?! I'm sure there are some big plans for the weekend, between picnics and fireworks, and all that fun stuff! We were supposed to head to Montana this week for a wedding, but unfortunately work got in the way. I did make a card, though, because it's what I do!

This is the outside of the card. I wanted to make it elegant, and it came out better than I first thought. After some trial and error, I got the bottom later to work for me. I don't have an embossing plate with the diamond design, so I had to create my own with my paper scorer. The second embossed layer was definitely not done by hand. I chose these colors based off of some shower decorations I made for her. The Bride had a "Breakfast at Tiffany's"- themed shower in May and I was tasked to work on the invitations, banners, and a scrapbook for her. Unfortunately, I don't think I took too many "good" pictures of these before I sent them off. I added the pearls to go along with the pearls worn in the movie (and they add a girly touch!) I kept the inside of the card relatively simple:

I wasn't sure what to write in the card, seeing as I don't know the couple very well (she's the Boy's cousin, and that I never know what to write in cards. I get them all made and then think "Now what??"), I looked online for some ideas. Luckily this one took up enough room so it didn't leave a whole lot of room for additional writing without looking silly. I also made a matching envelope and did some fun, fancy typography on the front. I thought I had gotten a picture of it, but I guess not. Hopefully the couple likes it!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a fantastic and safe weekend!

Happy 1/2 Way to Christmas!

Good morning! I hope everyone is having a great week- I know I am! Nothing planned or anything, but a good week, nonetheless! I did receive the best compliment from a customer about yesterday's invitations, which has left a huge smile on my face, though, so I guess that's always good!
Anyway, today's project is celebrating the fact that today is indeed 6 months till Christmas! (but who's counting?! Oh, wait, I am!!) To start my holiday planning, I designed a few treat bags for the upcoming holiday season:

How cute are these two?! I've been trying to come up with some more gingerbread-themed projects for this year. Maybe some cookies in these? We'll see! I'm just hoping that I get everything done in time this year! The next two pictures are of each of the bags up close:

I added a little glitter to each of the bags as their "frosting". I was contemplating adding some to the white outline, but I didn't want to ruin them, since it was already placed on the bags. Next time! And a little more sparkle, on their bows!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day and here's to hoping everything gets done in the next six months! Come back tomorrow for  (hopefully) a new project I was asked to work on!

Happy {Second Day of} Summer!

Good morning! I hope everyone has been having a good week so far and staying safe. A lot of ugly weather happening this week- between severe weather back east and super hot temperatures (definitely not looking forward to the weekend of 97 degrees...) I guess summer really is here, or will be soon enough!! With that, it seems only fitting to post a summer-themed card today:

Doesn't it just make you want to sit at the beach, drink a cocktail, and play in the water?! I know I would want to! Although, I guess drinking a glass of wine on the patio at night would have to do... A lot of the pieces are pop-dotted, to add a little pizzazz:

The last picture is of the other side of the card:

I went with a single-sided, notecard-esque design to make sure it would all fit in the matching envelope that you can sort of see (or at least it matched before my plan changed) My new envelope-making toy sure is getting a lot of use this summer!! I have a few more finishing touches to add to them, but that'll happen in time. These took a whole lot longer than I had planned. I was really hoping to get them out before summer began, but I guess the first week of the season wouldn't be too bad, either!
Thanks for stopping by! Please come back tomorrow to see a surprisingly "cute" custom project I finished for an awesome customer!

Happy Father's Day!

Good morning! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, treating the dads in your life like kings for the day! Unfortunately, we can't be with our dad this year (not like a few years ago when we secretly drove across the country and surprised the parents when we were sitting in the driveway when they got home). So, instead of giving him a big hug, I sent him this card:

 

I am fully aware this is not your "typical" Father's Day card, but when I saw the sentiment (on the sign), I automatically thought of my Dad and started laughing hysterically! Good thing no one was around at the time. From there, it kind of all came together pretty quickly and was probably the most "efficient" card I've made in a while.

The card is a step card, with the mountain scene in the back, the skunk and outhouse in the middle, and the sign and sentiment on the last step. I used pop-dots on some of the cuts, to add more dimension to the card. I tried the googly eyes, but it just didn't work this time (left more for the Minion projects from this week) I also used my new toy to make a matching envelope.

Hopefully it gets to him in time!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hello, Sunshine!

Good afternoon! Or, evening, for most of our readers. I hope everyone had a great work week and here's to a great weekend, celebrating all the dads in your life! I know it's a little (lot) later than normal, but after baby, and "big-kid" sitting this morning, I found that it took me this long to get some energy to do something productive today. As I am sitting here, watching last week's episode of Game of Thrones again, my first thought was, "Oh, darn, I was doing so well posting every day. Two days in a row!" My second thought was to a snarky text message from my Dad the other day about this episode and how everyone dies and this one was a spin-off of the Discovery Channel series "Naked and Afraid". Oh, Dad. Who woulda thought we'd all be interested in this show?! Even after watching it the second time, I still have my complaints. Like darn Ollie. I have never felt so much anger and hatred towards a character. Ugh. You killed Ygritte and Jon?! How dare you! At least they can stay in that cave together now. Although Jon will probably somehow find a way to come back. Oh, my gosh. Never would have thought I'd come to this. I blame Caleb... I probably should have prefaced that with *Spoiler*. Sorry.
Anyway, on a brighter side of the 7 deaths (and counting) we've gotten to so far, today's project is one I made for my Boy a while back. Before our lives were full of this dark material. (We're not really like that, I promise!) So, we don't usually use nicknames for each other, but I will text him during the day and call him Sunshine (well, because he makes me smile. Sickeningly sweet from an outsider's point of view, I know...)

I added some pop-dots and embossing on the pieces. For a quick card, I'm pretty happy with how this one came out! The inside of the card has matching rainbow paper:

He wasn't expecting it and it definitely put a smile on his face! That's my goal with all of my projects- to put a smile on faces!
Thanks for stopping by!

You're One in a Minion!

Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is having a fantastic day! I've been quite busy, and somewhat successful, in my crafty creations over the last few days. I have set a few goals for this summer, one being to create and list a new project or two every day. So far, I have posted a total of two new items. Another goal- to update our website. Success? Nope. Not yet. Good thing there's still plenty of summer! Anyway, as promised, here is a sneak peak of what I've been working on:

How cute?! I decided to create some minion-inspired items. I love seeing the new commercials with these guys and can't wait to see the movie! I know, not your typical almost-30 year old, but oh well! Anyway, over the last few days, I have been working on these projects, with a few more planned for the rest of the week. The first round includes some banners, a garland (which, unfortunately, didn't win the fight after being tangled), and some adorable confetti! We also have some invitations/cards and favors, of course! Now the next step is get them all posted on Etsy!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Ooh, La La!

Oh, my! It has been quite a while since I've posted here. It has been quite a busy month and a half. After Baby came along (luckiest Auntie, ever!), parentals visiting, and the last month of school, it didn't leave much time for crafting. I was fortunate to get some time to craft, but never as much I'd like, of course! Now that summer is here, I have gotten more done in the last two days than in the last two months combined! I am currently working on a few orders and a lot more new projects to list. One of these days, this hard work will pay off, I'm sure of it! I wasn't sure which one to start with, so I decided to go with an invitation I was asked to design a while back. This was for a repeat customer who is having a pink Parisian-themed party for her daughter:

 This is what I came up with. I figured that every little Parisian princess would love the color pink, lace, and sparkle, so I went with it! The inside is double-sided and printed to look like the inside of a passport.

The left is the side that is designed to look like the passport, with a die-cut Eiffel Tower. The right side has all of the party information. And it is all tied together with the scroll design on both sides. Needless to say, my French is a little c-rusty (get it? Like the bread). Or, should I say, non-existent. I'm pretty sure the words are all spelled correctly!

Thanks for stopping by! Stop by tomorrow for a sneak peak at the new line of items we've been working on!

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!

A 'Super' Weekend!

Good afternoon, friends! I hope everyone is having a great weekend! The last few days have been pretty busy around here with some rather large orders. Almost all of the orders have been for superhero things, including favors and invitations. I'm pretty sure I can make the favors with my eye shut (OK, maybe with a little peak) In the last week, I've made 100+ of them, and that's not including the last (much smaller) order of 20 I need to finish up tonight. I was also asked to work on some custom, personalized invitations for a little soon-to-be 5-year-old's upcoming Spiderman-themed birthday party. This is the final product:

The customer wanted all of the information to be hidden below the band, so as you look at it, it says "Swing on by to celebrate Harper", with the Spiderman character on top. Hopefully I didn't forget any of the small pieces for her name... (I had a few extra that I'm not positive where they came from. I did a triple-check though, so hopefully it's all good...)
One of the little things I add to (almost) all of my orders is a card. Since most of the orders are for a birthday or special occasion, I figure a greeting card is usually needed. Since they usually use up some scraps and I know how big everything is supposed to be, they don't usually take too long. And sometimes it's the small things that make an impression! (Who wouldn't want to get a card like this? Much better than a store-bought one, in my opinon. But I guess that's not fair, huh?!) Anyway, I thought I would share some that I've made this week, starting with the Spiderman one:

These are two I made for a set of twins. One was dressing up as Super-girl and the other as Wonder Woman

There are a few others I've made, including Hulk, Superman, and Batman, but I think I'll keep them to myself for now and save them for another day!
I guess now that I'm all caught up with my orders, that means I should probably spend the rest of my weekend working on the boring stuff. Like cleaning the apartment... I'm pretty sure the parents wouldn't want to have to carefully maneuver around all the crafting stuff once they get here later this week! (By the way, totally looking forward to it!!)
Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day!

B is for Baby...Blocks!

Good morning! I hope everyone is having a fantastic day! It's actually been a little cold and wet here this weekend (I know, I'm a complainer!) Or, maybe it's just my apartment...my heater just went on by itself for the first time in awhile! Anyway, as I'm sitting wrapped in my blankets, trying to find the gumption to get up and start working on (the tons of) things on my list of to-do's, I was looking through all of the pictures of projects I've been working on and decided that maybe I should start sharing some of them. (That, and who would rather clean up than look at cute things?!)
The project I wanted to share today was one I worked on for a shower gift for our friend back home. It is a set of blocks that can be used to document the baby's age, etc. It's similar to a perpetual wood block calendar, so I guess it can sort of be used for that, as well. Since they are both gym teachers, and they're having a little boy, I went with the sports theme here. There are quite a few pictures, and I thought I did a good job of getting pictures of all of the numbers, but I didn't, so there are a few missing.

I tried to include a wide range of sports, or at least those that could be easily cut out of the vinyl. Since we were teammates on the track team, and she's a coach, I had to include the winged foot. He is also a basketball and football coach, so I included those sports, as well:

I also included some references to their favorite sports teams (I conveniently  placed the Patriots logo on the four for a reason ;) one that would be frowned upon out here. Oh well!!)

 

Hopefully they enjoy using it and take lots of pictures of the little guy! (And that they don't mind that it was like a month late...sorry!!) Thanks for stopping by!! Have a great day!

A Little Man is on His Way!

Good afternoon! We hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend, apart from the new snow back home. This has been a busy week here. I feel like I say that all the time... The days were spent at work and all of my free time was working on orders, party decorations, and shower gifts! I was fortunate enough to have three pretty large orders this week, including an order of 60 invitations and another of 30 party favors. I also started work on a (almost full-fledged) Spiderman birthday party. Today was also Sister's family shower, and fortunately, I had most of those decorations done beforehand. We went with a "Little Man" theme, and decided that the use of the Seahawks colors would include Dad in the decor.

There were a few more decorations, including matching invitations and centerpieces, but the pictures didn't come out nearly as good as I was hoping. Grr. Here is a picture of one of the banners I did make:

 I plan on setting them up and taking more pictures this week, so I can also post them on Etsy soon. There was also a matching cake, which was just too cute (and delish!)

(As it has been pointed out, Baby's real name is not going to be 'Rocky'- it's a nickname that was picked up because of his initials. We wouldn't want to confuse the little guy!) In the little free time I had, I worked on some gifts for the family, which are absolutely adorable (don't mind if I toot my own horn...) The gifts were fabric projects, and let's just say that, although they are uber cute, I'm  definitely not even close to Aunt Debbie-level sewing skills. I'm just happy that all my pieces are sewn together and will hopefully stay that way! Here is one project I did get a picture of- it went over quite well in the sea of Hawks fans...

The back has the last name and a '15' for the year. I didn't get pictures of the other two projects, but they included a blanket and a nursing scarf (that would be super cute any time!) I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of time to take those, though! Only 2.5 weeks to go! Hopefully Grandma and Grandpa will make it out of the snow and get here in time!!I think it's time for a nap now, even though I should really take those pictures so I get them done. Oh well! Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

A New Chapter!

Good afternoon! I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend! It has been an uber busy week around here. Between work (having to leave the apartment at 6:15, before the sun rises, is never fun. And on top of that, spending the week with rambunctious 7th graders...), crafting work (at least that's fun!) and party planning, I was definitely looking forward to last night, which was my first chance to relax a bit. And fall asleep at 10:00!
As you might have noticed, we have gone with a springy baby boy themed with the newest update to the blog and our other pages. We are right in the middle of baby season, and figured that there will be quite a few baby posts coming in the next month. To signal the start of baby season, we held the first of two showers for Sister last night. Fortunately, she has amazing coworkers who helped put it all together. Since it was her school shower, we decided to go with a storybook theme. Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures, but others did, so I'll post them when I can! I was put in charge of the decorations, or at least the paper ones, including the invitations. To set the mood, we went with baby Winnie the Pooh taking a bath in a tub, along with a Pooh quote. (I didn't get a picture of these. Yet. But there were a few comments on how cute they were!)
Two things I did take pictures of were the cupcake toppers and party favors. The menu matched storybooks, so we decided to make blue velvet cupcakes for dessert, which went with the book "The Velveteen Rabbit".

The toppers were kind of quickly thrown together, but feature both solid and polka dot paper, along with some circles punched from real story books. (The top one fittingly says 'Stork Laundry'!) And here are the party favors (I apologize for the poor picture):

The favors were chocolate chip cookies that go along with the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"! The bag toppers have the little mouse holding a pop-dotted chocolate chip cookie and reads: "If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll say thanks for coming to our shower!"
I also created a banner for the shower that read "Welcome Baby". Since I took the pictures with my phone, and the position of the banner, I had to take a few to get all of it.

The first and last spaces have story books on them, and the middle one features the very hungry caterpillar, all pop-dotted, of course!

And it wouldn't be a party without the new momma opening her gifts:

Soo many cute things! I don't know who was more excited- mom or auntie!!Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!