Natalie and baby Ruby's sip and see

My Mom and I had so much fun planning this very pink and very girly sip and see for my sister Natalie and her new addition Ruby Jean. Here are a few pictures of the beautiful party.

Welcome!

Food and Drinks

Dessert table and my cute little Ruby

Dessert table and Ruby Jam compote favors

 

Drink Tags, favor tags and wagon sign

 

4 Generations. 

My sister, My grandmother, my mom and baby Ruby

Ruby & I... my beautiful niece!

 

Monster Jude turns 4, Monster Jam Style!

 I had fun with this theme. I spent many hours searching the internet and pintrest for some great ideas. Thanks to all the other parties before me that had many ideas that were an inspiration for this party. 

Theme: My little Jude the Dude, is so much into monster trucks this year, so we went with a Monster Jam Party.

Location: I wanted an easy and painless party so we choose to have it at MyGym  one of Jude's favorite places to go. They take care of all the entertaining which was so nice for me as the host as well as the parents!

Invitations: I loved making this invite... I created a sutto Grave Digger Monster truck and the rest fell into place. (I used photoshop, to design and create the invite, my signs, and monster truck graphic)

Birthday Boy and Sister Apparel:  We went with a McQueen pit crew button down shirt for Jude, black shorts and some cool spikey orange hair, and Emelia finally was able to wear her girly grave digger shirt that Jude and Daddy bought for her at the Monster Jam. :)

The Cake: I always like to attempt to make my kids cakes. So when I searched monster truck cakes on the internet I found some amazing and creative cakes. I started getting a bit nervous when Jude kept pointing to these 3D Well constructed Monster truck cakes. I had a pretty good idea of how i should construct the body (similar to his train cake last year) so the day of the party.. (crazy move on my part... (in my head i was thinking i may need to just run to the market and buy a cake.. throw some toy trucks on the top and call it a day.)... but I did it. It turned out fabulously! My son was so happy when he saw it... now it wasn't the awesome 3d grave diggers we saw online but it was a truck!

 SMASHED CAKE... it wouldn't be a monster jam if something didn't get smashed. (small miss-hap during the party... a ball hit the truck and smashed it, but the rest of the cake was fine and it was delicious! :)

Decorations & Food: I could only do so much decorating since it was at a party/gym place. I choose to go with Green, Purple, Orange (Jude's favorite color) and black and white checkered pattern. Here are a few pictures of the cute decor & food (we served just snacks and dessert).

Goody Boxes: for the Boys.. they each got a Hot wheels die cast monster truck, a spongebob gummy crabby patty, and monster slime. The Girls got, a light up bling ring, monster high pencils, a jump rope, pink lollypop, and lip gloss. 

Favor Tags & Thank you Cards :

..... and another party done for my sweet Monster Jude the dude!

Thank you to all our friends & family, like always the party wouldn't be a party without all of you!!

  

 

Teacher Appreciation Week

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. I had fun making the week special for my daughter's kindergarten teacher. The theme was out of this world teacher’s.

MONDAY:  Door poster. 

All the kids got a kick out of finding their alien.

 

Tuesday: Bring flowers for your teacher

Wednesday: Bring a dessert from the Kindergarten Class.

One of our other room moms brought a dessert for the teacher luncheon 

Thursday: Bring a note for your teacher

My daughter wanted to draw her and Ms. Brittle at the beach

 

Friday: Class Gift... Thumb Print Plate

"You made an impression on us this school year!"

 

Our class gift:

Using Crayola Air-Dry Clay I made a plate. I purchased the clay at Michaels craft store. I think I paid roughly $8.00 after using a 20% coupon. It is super easy to use and had a great texture after it dried.

The best way to make this plate is. 

• I took plastic wrap and covered a large plate. This is to protect the plate and it is also easier to take off the plate once it has dried. (I used one of my decorative chargers, because i wanted it to be a bit larger than a normal size dinner plate) 
• I took out the clay and pressed it into the top of the plate trying to keep it at least 1/4" thick throughout so I had a nice solid plate. Using the plate below will allow you to get the natural shape of a plate. I used a little bit of water to get the plate smooth. You want to make sure your center is thick enough for the kids to press their thumb prints into the plate and it doesn't break through to the other side or leave it too thin in that spot. Remember this is handmade and will not be perfect. You will have various imperfections. 
• Once i had my plate shaped I used a tooth pick to carve into it. My daughters teacher loves the beach so I drew some seashells on it as well and wrote out the year and grade. If you make a mistake no worries. just wet your fingers a bit and rub over your design and then re-do it.
• Next i took a few paper towels and wet them and rung them out. Then i opened them up and laid them on top of the plate and then wrapped the whole plate in plastic wrap, stuck it in a shallow box and took it with me to school the next day. 
• At recess I had each child press their thumb print into the center of the plate. I then took the plate home. I put it on the counter took off the plastic wrap and let the plate dry for a full 3 days. 
• Once I felt that it was completely dry I took it off the decorative charger. 
• Then I painted it the teachers favorite color. I bought some acrylic paint as well as some acrylic high gloss glaze. Once that dried i added a very light brown wash and then wiped it down so it was only left in some spots. Then I let that dry. Next I glazed it with the gloss glaze. Let that dry completely on both sides before the next step.
• I also purchased a thin black paint pen. I wrote along the Edge of the plate "Thank you... You have made an impression on us this school year! Kindergarten Then in the center i wrote all the kids names. 

The Teacher absolutely LOVED this gift. As well as the kids. They were sooo excited to see the final product!
(if you make this remember to tell the teacher it is for decorative use only) :)

my pin-spiration for this plate came from...
 http://www.rentstorkmemphis.com/jr-kindergarten-fingerprint.html

Thanks for Reading!

Be Creative!

Amy

100 days of School!

(tags)

We made it 100 days of Kindergarten!  I think i am just as happy that i survived the morning rush for 100 days. :)   Having fun being room mom. I made a sign and a little goody for the kids. 

 Classroom Door Sign

For all the kids.

Download the tags here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hljhyqc86j2kjbl/100days20ea.pdf

Easter Cake Pops, Cake, and Bunny tails.

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Last Easter I made the cutest Cake Pops and Cake. Not only were they totally adorable they were super yummy.

CHICKY CAKE POPS:

First I made my Cake Pops in my baby cakes cake pop maker and got my perfect circles. I let them cool. Next I dipped my sticks in melted chocolate then inserted them into my cake balls. 

Let them cool in the fridge. The next step I dipped my pops into melted yellow chocolate. Before the chocolate dries you need to put your decoration for the chick on. I used three orange sprinkles for the feet. Two flat round orange sprinkles for the beak, two flat yellow round sprinkles for the wings, two flat yellow round sprinkles for the top of the head, and then two purple round sprinkles for the eyes. 

CHICKS IN A NEST CAKE: 

First bake two round cakes ice them and stack them. Next take coconut and put about a cup into a plastic baggy. Put a few drops of green food coloring inside the bag and shake, till all the coconut is green. Next sprinkle some of the coconut on top of the cake and insert the two chicky cake pops on top. You may need to cut some length off your cake pop stick. To finish it off i added some of the left over coconut to the corners of my plate and put some jelly beans in the nests. 

Bunny tails:

First i took card board and cut a circle about 3" in dia... can be from anywhere (I used a old cereal box and the circle doesn't have to be perfect) Next I cut a white ribbon long enough to tie around a child's waist. I then cut two slits about 1" in apart in the center of my circle. I then fed the ribbon through my slits. Next i glued a bunch of cotton balls to the top. Be sure to go all the way out to the edge so it covers your card board. then your done. 

My kids loved wearing their tails during the Easter egg hunt. :)

AMY

Hutch to Message Center.

After moving some furniture around I decided to take the hutch off my china cabinet. So instead of throwing it out we decided to turn it into a message center. A place to hold mail, keys, upcoming event invitations, a calendar for the month, homework packets, the kids backpacks and a few other knick knacks.

Here are some before and after photos.

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

Valentine LOVE. :)

This year Emelia get’s to celebrate Valentines day at school. After seeing soo many cute ideas on Pintrest this is what I have decided to make. (inspiration idea from http://24-7-365.blogspot.com/2009/02/lavish-me-with-praise.html)

PHOTOSHOP:  Luckily I had this photo from last years valentine photoshoot with Jenner Rose Photography. Emelia was holding red balloons so with my handy photoshop skills i took the balloons out, so it made a perfect hand to hold the pop. Then designed a cute valentine card.

I'm planning on printing these photo cards on 4x6 photo paper, Next stick the lollipop stick through the photo....  and then mount them to pink card stock. 

THE TREAT: The pop is a marshmallow that I lightly dyed with pink food coloring, dipped them in white chocolate, sprinkled with some white sprinkles and then topped off with a conversation heart. 

It was super easy to make and shouldn't take me too long to make. :) (that's always a plus!)

 Emelia ended up eating this marshmallow in 2 seconds. She loved it.
Photo by: Jenner Rose Photography (orange county, CA)

Valentine "Heart" Door wreath

This project was inspired by a wreath I saw on pintrest. 

http://donablogg.blogspot.com/2011/11/hej-fran-kransverkstaden.html

I ended up changing it up a bit.  

What you will need:

• A wire Hanger
• Fake plant greens. You want them to be on the long side so you can wrap them around the wire.
• Wooden Heart
• Red, White, Black or Brown Paint
• Red Ribbon
• Floral wire and wire cutters

How to make it:

First I took the wire hanger and shaped it into a heart. 

Next I cut lengths off my greens and started wrapping them around my heart shaped wire hanger. In certain places I used the floral wire to re-enforce the greens onto my wire. once i covered the whole heart. 

I painted the wooden heart, tied on my ribbon and then attached my wooden heart to the bottom. 

A beautiful door hanger for a Loving season. :)

Keep Creating!

Amy

Painting Artist party

 

When i had my art party business "The lil Artist" people would hire me to come to their homes and do some kind of painting or craft with the kids. Here is Amy & Emily's 6th birthday party. 

I had so much fun with all the girls!

 All the girls had fun creating a one of a kind piece of art. They created 3D art.
They painted a scene on the canvas then painted wooden shapes and a wooden letter (first letter of their name) Next we glued them onto their canvases.

 Next all the girls took a turn mixing in various drinks, soda, and juices for some yummy Artist Brew.

Then the all the girls painted on one canvas for a colaborative piece of art for the girls room. They also had a art scanvenger hunt and found photos of paintings and art supplies.

 Here is the cake and decor.

 Party favors: Art sets and a drawing notebook.

 Here i am with my two assistants. I miss my art party business. 

One day when my kids are older I will definitely start it back up.

(Photography by: Jenner Rose Photography in orange county)

http://www.jennerrose.com/blog/