Jeffrey's Sport Themed 3rd Birthday

I am a way "out of order" unorganized blogger!  This should have came BEFORE Jeffrey's 4th party post (The arts and crafts party)....

This was before I got my "good" DSLR camera, so bare with the bad photography!  I didn't take nearly as many pics of the detail as I wished!

Here is the invitation.  I made a baseball card invitation.  Jeffrey was turning 3 so I put a pic of him with a baseball bat and wearing a (handmade) "3" tee.  The front said "topps" like the cards and the player's name.  The back had stats (in scoreboard font) with all the details for the party as well as Jeffrey's height, weight, age etc.

U of Michigan and Duke's team logos were featured on there (my and J's alma maters!)

To "topp" it off, I put them in clear vellum envelopes and included a stick of gum (just like the old Topps baseball card packs! Except mine weren't as stale as the real ones)

I'll post the party details in another post!

Pierson's Birthday Passport Invitation

If you know me, you know I have been planning Pierson's 2nd birthday since before his 1st birthday party!  I have a huge, HUGE list of things to do for the party, but I thought I would start by posting one of my favorite parts of parties - the INVITATION!  It sets the tone for the party, and I think a GOOD solid and unique invitation is so important! ;-)

We are doing a transportation themed birthday party because Pierson seems to be just as equally into cars as he is trains and planes!

Here is the cover of the passport.  Its a custom passport for each child to come to Pierson's Transportation Party!  I just fell in love with this color scheme!

The little retro car in green has embossed wheels that feel bumpy to add dimension.

Here is the whole set.  I explain details below!

Below is the inside of the front cover.  The actual passport.  Each was personalized with the guest's name and their birthday was in the coding at the bottom line of the passport, like a real passport!  I included a photo of the child(ren) that were invited.  There are some hidden symbolisms on the page, too.... like the passport number is 2- 1 30 2008 (2 for Pierson's birthday age, 1 30 2008 is his real birthday), etc...

I will use the little passport logo throughout the party.

Here are 2 views at the very inside with the details of the party.  On the vehicle logos it says "FLY, SAIL, RIDE or DRIVE" to.... etc

I also have a custom map that has a legend with all the vehicles.  I put the train where our local train station is, the airport where that is, and a boat near a lake.  Then I put a 2 logo where the party is and a car on the street where the party is.  I am assuming everyone will be coming by car ;-).

Notice below how the passport is bound.  I SEWED the pages on my sewing machine!  I loved doing it!  So fun! Orange, too... can't beat that color!

Here is a view of the very back cover.  I really didn't have any information to put on this page, so I just made a little RSVP logo!

Here is a look at the passport with the envelope.  I designed a little return address logo for Pierson as well with an adorable little retro car in the center.  I also put a lineup of vehicles on the front.  I like the varied colors on the to address lines.

This shot includes the custom lining that I used on the envelopes.  Pierson's name scattered with fun icons of vehicles and a muted light blue polka dot background.

A closer look at the custom return address seal:

Below is the whole set including part of the favor that I finished.

I made custom luggage tags for part of the party favor for the children.  The front incorporates the lineup of vehicles and the back has their mommy's name and phone number.  I LOVE luggage tags for kids!  I put them on Pierson and Jeffrey's school bags, lunch bags, gym bags.  Such a great way to personalize the favor and in a REUSABLE way!

The favors are in process of being wrapped and personalized, so you will be seeing photos of the whole scheme soon!

Here is another photo of the luggage tags.  I had them laminated with really thick coated laminate so that they are study and can take the wear and tear!

You can see the luggage tag back details here:

That's it for now!  Here is a subset of the batch I created!  What a blast this was.

Amy's Baby Shower Invitation

I had SO much fun doing this invitation.  I could not wait until Amy's 18 week checkup so we could find out if I was going to be throwing a blue and red shower, or a pink and green one.... SO excited to hear that its pink and green this go-round!

After I heard the news that its "pink", I darted to Hobby Lobby to get some ideas for the invitation.  I knew I wanted a diaper pocket invitation.  This is what I came up with.  (Alissa helped do wording because I could not get my writer's block to loosen up! Thanks, Alissa!)

The colors are hard to tell for some reason, but the pink is a bright pinkish (not Pepto Bismol)/ more raspberry pinkish color and the green is a limey green.

I created the diaper pocket, then created an insert for the invitation details that has "lace" trim around the legs of the "diaper".  The wording pulls out and the diaper is nicely secured shut with the green and white gingham diaper pin.

The invitation envelopes have a fun polkadot border around the invite name.

Stay tuned for the complete shower get-up! (Oct 18th!)

The Victim - Orange Bunny.  Orange bunny was given to me on top of one of my shower gifts from my brother and Diana www.moxie-photography.com  I loved Orange bunny because he was hand sized and so soft, and he was bright orange (one of my favorite colors).

Little did Orange Bunny know the torture he would endure during the next 4+ years of his life.  When Jeffrey was 5 months we decided to "Ferberize" him.  They recommend giving  your baby a "security object".  Orange Bunny was the perfect pick because he was not too big (no suffocation hazard) and he was so soft.... oh, and he matched Jeffrey's nursery perfectly (blue and white with orange accents).  Within 2 nights of the "Ferberization Process," Jeffrey was hooked.  He would take Orange Bunny's and suck his thumb while simultaneously holding the orange bunny's ear.

Orange Bunny went everywhere with Jeffrey.  Jeffrey could be screaming and having a tantrum and face bright red and we would bring out Orange Bunny and like magic, he was smiling and laughing.  Poor Orange Bunny- the thing lost both eyes, and even the little embroidered Y shaped nose.  His ears got unevenly worn (Jeffrey seemed to pick one of the other).  We ended up buying 2 more backup bunnies online after doing a hard search for them.  (They have since been discontinued)

I tell you all of this to help explain why we chose the theme we did for Jeffrey's 1st Birthday Party.

Happy 1st Birthday Jeffrey and Orange Bunny.  It was BOTH of their birthdays, and Jeffrey loved no object or commercialized piece of junk toy more than Bunny!  (Thank goodness, I wanted a unique party!)

Jeffrey's nursery was done in all blue and white w/ orange accents.  SO, the color scheme for this "Happy Birthday Jeffrey and Orange Bunny" party was orange and blue and white, of course!

Here is the invite!  The main cardstock is a white corduroy textured cardstock and there is an orange band w/ blue/white gingham trim.  A blue matching embossed oneside is on the front.  Inside there is a pic of his Orange Bunny!

It reads:

"Guess who is turning onesie?"

We hope you will join us for the first birthday party of

Jeffrey Hiram Anders, III

&

his Orange Bunny

date, place, etc

Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Gary's House

The party was a blast!  We had it in Michigan because Jeffrey's birthday was the day before my brother got married, so naturally it made sense to have it up there.  Grandma Kathy did a great job helping with the theme.  Check out some of the pics:

Yummy cookies (orange bunnies and carrots, of course!)

There he is with his orange bunny!  All dressed in orange and blue!

Thanks to my mom, it was a hit!

Saving the Date

Save the dates for Caroline.... oh what options we had put together.  I find it fun to work up lots of different options for my clients.  This was about 3 years ago!  She wasn't sure of the design she wanted, so we played and tweaked and came up with this set of proofs.  She went with a chocolate/red and ivory color scheme with chocolate ribbon.  I think she had 125 save the dates!  Big wedding!

A Party at Durham's Museum of Life and Science

My amazing friend, Anna, hired me to do little Alexander's 4th birthday party invites.  She was holding the party at The Museum of Life and Science in Durham.  J and I went to a wedding rehearsal dinner that was held in the Butterfly House at this museum and it is INCREDIBLE.  There are literally hundreds of butterflies flying around this greenhouse type room with tropical plants and flowers.  You will be walking and have butterflies in your hair and on your shirt.  So many unique, colorful butterflies!

The invitation read:

Bugs, Butterflies, Dinosaurs and more

and the Museum of Life and Science

there is so much we can explore

Come celebrate and explore at

Alexander's 4th birthday party!

Details, details, yada, yada, yada.

I though it would be cute to do a color block invitation.  1, 2, 3 and then 4.  Using cutout punches of different species, I laid out 1 dragonfly, 2 butterflies, 3 frogs and then the # 4 in the bottom corner.

Partnered with a vellum / translucent envelope to give the guests a "sneek peek".  I thought it would set the right tone for a fun day of exploring and celebrating at a very awesome museum!

A little contrasting textured firefly on the inside was the final touch!

I also cut out shapes on the name label on the envelope.

Pierson's 1st Bee Day

Pierson's 1st "Bee" Day was Bee-yond fun.  I had so much fun finding ideas for his party.  My great friend, Kristin, and I decided to tag team the birthday planning (her son, Jude, turned 1 in September)... so we started w/ her party and I used lots of the same things in my party.  No need to reinvent the perfect bee day! (So you caught me, I planned his party 6 months early.... I am a bit of a overachiever when it comes to being prepared and planned ahead of time!)

#1 Priority: Invitation:  Had to have a cute way to get the "buzz" out about his party!

It reads:

Have you heard the buzz?

Pierson is going to bee 1!

Join us at the Anders Hive

for Pierson's Bee-day celebration

Address/date etc

It'll bee the sweetest place to bee!

Buzz the Queen Bee to RSVP

Maureen #

Bee-bee-que and Bee Hive Cake to be served

#2 Priority: Outfit:

I appliqued a bumble bee on top of a black/white gingham jon jon that I made for Pierson.  The lining is a soft yellow and white plaid and it has white pique piping.  The yellow buttons have little white polka dots going around the circumference.

I also made him a bib (for the cake mess that was about to occur).  I used a yellow hand towel and cut a neck and sewed in a t-shirt collar.  Then I appliqued the number 1 in black/white gingham to match the rest of his get-up.

I almost forgot Priority #2.5... Cotton's outfit.  Yes, my dog had a bumble bee costume on.  He looked so pitiful, but I loved it.  He was just humping stinging and buzzing kids all over the house, left and right.  He looks so sad, but I think he was happy.

#3 Priority: Favor (of course): I decided to use empty honey bear containers for a "sweet" part of the kiddie favors.  I filled them to the top with Earth's Best Organic Smiley Cereal for the babies and Tootsie rolls and Butterfingers for the older kids.  (black and yellow packaging was key!).

Then, I topped each honey bear off with a party hat that had paper shred for the pom pon, ribbon around the base, slapped the kids name on the hat, and put a little personalized sticker on the front of the honey bear that said "Thanks for Bee-ing so sweet... Pierson's 1st Bee Day - 1.30.2009"

For the toy part of the favor, I wrapped up books for the children.  The babies each got 2 chunky board books (by Bright Baby), and the older kids got a book by Eric Carle.

I used the most fabulous wrapping paper, houndstooth!!!  Black and white.  I found that and almost had a panic attack (I am being completely serious) at Hobby Lobby over Christmas.  I mean, how perfect?

Each gift had a circle giant tag with the child's name personalized.  It says "Thanks for buzzing by to bee here for Pierson's first bee day".  Ok, I went a little overboard using "bee" in place of "be".  Wrapped with yellow and black raffia.

Baby books (above).  Toddler books were larger (below)

Look at the happy bears just waiting to be handled by all the kids that were there!

Then, of course, I had to send home a sweet confection for the road.  I know most people opened it on the car ride home and devoured those sweet little bees!

Like the glass shaped hive (courtesy, Kristin) that we put bumble bee stickers on.  Thanks, Kristin!

#4 Priority: Food:  We had an array of foods, theme appropriate, of course.

Menu:

Bee-bee-que (with buns if the guests wanted it on a sandwich)

Cole Slaw

Baked Bee-ns (Kristin's famous)

Fruit cups w/ honey yogurt dip

Bumble bee Nectar (Lemonade punch)

Bee-r (J found the most perfect beer, it had a yellow wrap w/ a huge bumble bee on the front of the bottle!)

Bee and Hive Sugar cookies

P.Bee Honey bees (can't even describe - yum)

Bee-bee-que.  Not the midwestern type bbq. (When I first moved south, I thought bbq was when you put chicken on the bbq.  Totally different down south...in a better, fattier kind of way)

My mom and I were up the night prior until 1 am shredding this dreaded pork butt bbq.  I had never made it, ever.  We decided to go all out and do it ourselves.  Bought 30 pounds of pork ass and roasted that pig right up... all day long.  By 2 am it was shredded and ready to go.  We split it into 2 crock pots - one was plain (just some vinegar sauce to keep it moist) and the other had the mustard based sauce.

Turned out scrumptious!  We had 3 sauces (in honey bear containers, of course).  Red sauce from Mac's BBQ in Charlotte, Mustard from Maurice's BBQ, and The Q-Shack vinegar based.

Bee and Hive Sugar Cookies

Priority #.... Well, lets start back at 1: CAKE

I was bound and determined to not have to buy that $40 William's Sonoma cake pan.  That would have been too easy.  So I did a 3 layer cake, with a dome cake (from Jeffrey's previous birthday where we had sports balls cakes) on the top.  It was actually very simple.

Dr. Oeteker Organic cake mix, my favorite.  Layered chocolate/vanilla/chocolate/vanilla so when that hive was cut into it looked like a striped bee!

The bumble bees on top were chocolate covered almonds with almond wings and yellow frosting stripes.

Placed the cake on a black/white Houndstooth covered cutting board.  Yes, the houndstooth that I almost had a panic attack about at Honny Lobby. (I won't tell you how many rolls of that paper I purchased that year.  Hey, its an investment)

I also made a small hive cake for Pierson to crush.  J's mom, Vicki, had her birthday the day of the party (Jan 31!) as well, so we I made her a cake of her own!

To my girl, Kristin, super help! ;-)  Thanks!

To my mom, Kathy, for taking my orders.... some call me "host-zilla".

With all the chaos, this was the only family photo we GOT!  Oh well!  There is always next year.

J's mom was the birthday girl, too.

The guest of honor.  Pierson Burke.  Otherwise known as Peanut. (He was smiling at Auntie Claire)

May the bees be with you.