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!

A Plethora of Projects!

Good morning, friends!! It has, unfortunately, been quite a long time since we’ve posted something new. Between the usual, school and work, we’ve been pretty busy. And on top of that, the kiddos have passed on the cold bug, so we had been fighting that, too. That was a huge pain, but it seems to have cleared up. Hopefully that’ll be the last of it, although the fall/winter season is in full swing here. The rain does help with the productivity- who wants to go outside in the rain?! In the little bit of healthy free-time we’ve had, we’ve been uber busy with our crafting projects, and a few projects for ourselves. We’ve had a handful of superhero projects- some invitations and a ton of bags, and this little set of a card and a banner we created for our little cousin’s Hulk-themed birthday:

We were also tasked with creating a few new bag designs. Here is a picture of some of our new ones, which include The Incredibles (no capes!), Robin, and the Ninja Turtles, though only two are shown

We also worked on some cards in the last few weeks, including these two “punny” cards. The first one is a card we sent out to our family and friends- a little farm-themed card that reads “Cow’s it Going?”. The other is one we wanted to post a while back, but never got to it. It is a fall inspired, little shape card that features a fox in a pile of leaves. The inside of the card reads “Sending you piles of smiles”

 

The biggest, most exciting news of the last few weeks is that our very close friend (hopefully she still thinks this…) and her husband are expecting a little one this April!! It’s all very exciting! We made a few cards to send to congratulate them:

How cute are these two?! The Winnie the Pooh card was inspired by the scrapbook paper that was used in some of the details, like the crib sheet. It’s kind of hard to see, but it’s there. And the paper has been in our collection for a while now, so we figured why not use it?! We also included a little basketball because they both used to play and are now gym teachers. And like all of our projects, we used a ton of pop dots! The second is a super cute side step card designed to look like a baby’s nursery. We included the dresser, with clothes and all, along with some toys and dolls. We couldn’t forget the crib with the sleeping baby and the mobile hanging over!

The last two projects we have to share are some Halloween ones we were working on. The first was a set of cards we made for our sister-in-law (don’t mind the pajama pants in the background- we got an early start that day!). These easel cards feature a little googly-eyed witch and her broom. We also embossed a spider web on the background and added some rhinestones in the corner of the card. The inside of the card reads “Witch-ing you a Happy Halloween” and a little bat that holds the easel up. And as with all cute, “girly” cards, there’s some sparkle, too!

The last project we’ve worked on was a banner we made for a customer. This one was a personalized Halloween banner that features two teddy bears, one a ghoulish witch and the other a spooky jack-o’-lantern.

We, of course, used pop dots on the characters and letters. We finished off with some rhinestones on the letters. Each piece is tied together with multiple colored ribbons and some glitter tulle!

Phew! Quite a long post today, huh?! Sorry about that! We probably could have (and maybe should have) done them individually. Hopefully we’ll finish and post some of our new holiday items that we've been working on and some holiday projects we have planned! Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Cupcake Saturday!

Happy Saturday! We hope everyone is having a great weekend! We are using our first weekend of fall decorating the apartment a little and catching up on sleep (a lot!) We also decided to spend a little time in the kitchen and our favorite day of the week is making a comeback! We originally had another project planned that was supposed to be posted, but this is much better! The other night we were in the mood for some cupcakes and so we went with it. These little sweeties are pretty much fall in a cupcake!

These are our vanilla pumpkin mousse cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. We found an absolutely delish recipe for pumpkin curd, which is pretty much pumpkin, sugar, and butter (how can you go wrong?!) It's definitely one of those foods you can eat out of the jar with a spoon. Or a finger. The only thing that would make it better? Whipped cream mixed into it to make a mousse. The cupcakes are filled with this mousse. They are then topped with a basic cream cheese frosting, kicked up with a bit of cinnamon. They're a little "messy", but totally worth it! These pair quite well with some of the curd mixed into some freshly brewed coffee to make a pumpkin spice latte. It sounds like quite a bit of pumpkin, but it definitely isn't, especially in fall!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy the weekend!

Welcome, Fall!

Good morning!  And happy third-day-of-fall! We hope everyone is having a fantabulous week so far. Our week has been pretty good. The first days of the new season have definitely been fall-like. We’ve finally had a good rain storm for the first time in quite a while. The biggest problem with the rain is the wet pant cuffs... We’ve also been working at school. It’s always fun to work in the same school and grade as each other and mess with the kids a little. Sometimes you have to go with the “No, I’ve never met her before today” when they ask if you’re related. Good to know most of them can tell the difference between their everyday teacher and the sister.

Anyway, today’s project is a quick fall-themed home décor project we came up with. We wanted to post it on Tuesday but unfortunately didn’t get around to it until today. It is a set of fall-themed wall signs.

We were inspired by some prints we found online and maybe possibly a new line of projects to sell. Just what we needed- another set of items to create!! Especially since we were talking about what to focus on last night!! We decided to go with some fall images, including a cute scarecrow, a tree with its changing leave, and a set of little pumpkins. The last one is a little “sentiment” that reads “welcome fall”. How cute are they?!

Now we have to figure out if we want to frame them or make them into canvases. Either way would be super cute! We like our version (compared to some of the other ones we’ve found) better because they are thought-out and 3D (even a little) compared to just a printed image.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your day and come back tomorrow for some more fall-themed party items we’ve been working on!

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!

This Year Will Be A Hoot!

Good evening! We hope everyone had a fantastic week and we're sure everyone is looking forward to the long weekend. We are looking forward to enjoying our last weekend of summer (it's official, Fall has started here in western Washington- the pools have been emptied!! It's all good, though!) We'll be spending it working on some last-minute finishing touches in the classroom(s).
Today's post features some of the classroom decorations we've worked on this summer. These pictures are from Robyn's adorable wise owl-themed room. It is a little picture-heavy, sorry! The first picture is probably the cutest part of the classroom:

It is the AR chart for her classes. The tree is divided into sections, representing the students' reading progress. Each 25% increment has a cute little owl. Each student has their own leaf, which will get moved once they improve through the school year. Hopefully they'll all be at the top of the tree at the end of the year! (The desk was clean at one point!) The next picture is a set of two bulletin boards.

The first one will be for writing tips, to help the students become "wise writers". The other board is one of three student "brag" boards, that will hold some of the students' work. Each kid has their own labelled clothespin to hold their work. The tree is conveniently placed to cover up an unsightly gap between the two boards and pulls the design together. (And why wouldn't the Harry Potter collection make an appearance in a 6th grade classroom?!) The next two pictures are of the other two 'brag" boards:

You can also see the classroom set of star students (so much easier than cutting them all out by hand!) The picture also shows off the classroom library. You can't tell in the picture, but we spent a few days painting it teal and adding some sparkle to it. It's super cute! There is one more bulletin board, but it isn't quite finished. The last is a little banner we made to tie everything together:

The banner is surrounded by two more owls, ready to learn. We decided to not add close-ups of the banner (it would have been too many pictures), but the two end pieces also have little owls on them, sitting on a branch. We used quite a few pop-dots on them, and added some googly eyes! Then there is last year's apple wreath (which matches somewhat quite nicely!) (Also, side comment- the building was just power-washed and the windows look terribly dirty, but it's water-stained) We also made some matching owl name tags for each student, that will be put on their desks. Phew! Here's to a new school year!
We have a few more pictures we want to share from some other classrooms, but wanted to start off with this one! Thanks for stopping by! Have a great night!

We are entering these projects into a crafting challenge or two:
Fantabulous Cricut: Back to School (owls- Wild Card 2; Letters- Birthday Cakes, Nate's ABC's)

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!

The Newest Items in Our Frozen-Inspired Party Collection!

Good morning! We hope everyone is having a fantastic Tuesday! We have been quite the busy beavers working on new projects to share/post/sell and hopefully all this work will pay off in the future. As you may have seen, our newest party decor is based on the movie "Frozen". There are a few more things we have to add to the collection, but we just wanted to share what is done so far:

Some of these were already posted here on our blog (like the invitation and thank you note) but we also added a few other items. The items here feature Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Cliff, a Love Troll. Clockwise from 12:00, we have a cake topper, some party favors, centerpiece sticks, the invitations and thank you notes, some name/place cards, matching cupcake wrappers, and the picks to match. We also have a few things with Sven, the reindeer, and Hans (even though he's not the nicest).
As we mentioned earlier, we added these items to our Etsy shop yesterday. Pretty sure that was the hardest (and probably least-fun) part of all of this... Oh well. Like we said, hope it's worth it and we can make something other than superheroes (not that we're complaining about it. Too much.) I guess now it's time to start on the next party- thinking of a fall owl/woodland party!
And, a big congratulations to our friends Annie and Tyler who have completed their cross-country bike journey! They are quite impressive!!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!

Relaxing in the Summer Sun, Just Letting off Steam!

Good afternoon! We hope you are having a wonderful week so far. It's been quite hot here- feeling like a snowman in the summer (hence the title!) So, how do we let of our steam? We craft, of course! No surprise there. But, we have a few new banners to share with you today. They go along with our new "Frozen"-inspired party decorations. The biggest one is our 'Happy Birthday' banner:

The banner is bookended with Queen Elsa and Princess Anna, with Arendelle Castle in the middle. (For those of you who haven't seen the movie and have no idea what we're talking about, the movie is great, and should definitely be watched! It also makes winter seem a little closer on those hot days.)

 

We also made two other banners. We don't usually make all of these banners, but we wanted to add some listings to our Etsy shop. So, the first one we wanted to share was a high chair/"I am 1" banner and a personalized name banner: 

 

Everyone's favorite snowman makes an appearance in the "I am 1" banner:

Each snowflake piece features a popped up image, either a character or letter. And of course, we added glitter with the writing and tulle, which is a little hard to see. We also added matching ribbons to hold the pieces together.
Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully we'll be able to post the rest of our complete "Frozen" projects tomorrow. And then we can go on with a new set! Have a fantastic day!


View our Listings Here: "Frozen"-Inspired Banners on Etsy