Handmade Birthday Invitations

I made some birthday invitations for aiyden's upcoming 2nd birthday. they were really easy and cute so i thought i would post a little tutorial.

Supplies needed are the invite printed on photo paper ( i made mine in photoshop), foam sticky dots, craft paper, ribbon, scissors, and a hole puncher.

i got double sided 12x12 craft paper and cut it into 6x12 strips. this one had a cute animal print on the outside and polka dots inside, usually about $.69 from the craft store. put four foam dots in each corner of the back of your photo

stick it fairly center on the craft paper ( the foam dots add a nice bit of dimension but photo squares would work just as well)

fold each side in, they should overlap. (my photo was 4.5in x5.5 in which works well)

punch a whole in the bottom and top of both flaps and tie together with ribbon

and that's it! a cute, inexpensive, and unique invite!!

Birthday Panning...

so, aiyden's 2nd birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, and of course, i want to make the best, most fun birthday possible. we ruled out doing the whole chuck e. cheese thing and are going to have a party in the courtyard with sidewalk chalk and bubbles... anyhow, below are the invites i created. they took a ridiculously long time but i think they are so cute!

i don't know what we're getting him yet (probably something thomas the train related) but i saw this awesome tutorial at Noodleheads for a kids drawstring backpack made from old khaki's. sooooo cute!

decal mania

i got a roll of contact paper a while ago to make some wall decals for aiyden's room. it is so easy and instantly gratifying. they are also completely removable.

did a lovely little silverware set for the kitchen

and aiyden got some birds on a wire

the next one will be a shel silverstein quote for the long wall in his room. nothing better than cutting out letters! but i'm sure in the end it will be great.

some pics...

sorry i haven't posted anything lately! time has flown by since christmas! it's been quite rainy in the bay area lately but aiyden and i were able to get out to the beach last week in between storms and took some pics. the light was awesome because the sun was shining over us but we could see the next storm rolling in...

aiyden waving to the airplanes...

he's very advanced with his handwriting! j/k...

christmas and a few crafts

santa was good to us this year! i didn't get any pics of christmas morning (too wrapped up in the moment) but here is how it looked for aiyden's 2nd christmas...

along with christmas came more toys to store so i hung some floating shelves and fashioned pocket storage out of leftover felt to hold markers, puppets, etc...

the new bike trailer from oma and opa is a huge hit! i think we biked 20 miles over christmas weekend! and elmo goes everywhere with us!

aiyden experienced his first tummy slide with the help of a big kid who gave him a little shove!

some felted items from the holidays...

Felt Playhouse

i've been wanting to make a felt playhouse slipcover for our kitchen table ever since I saw it on homemade by jill, one of my favorite blogs. so, today i was determined to get it done in time for christmas morning. it was actually much easier than i thought it would be. it's not as elaborate as some others that i've seen but it will do the job and how perfect for a two year old who loves to play under the table already!

it's all wool felt, which doesn't fray so no sewing required! (except to attach the panels). everything was adhered with wonder under, hot glue, and velcro!

the front door opens and has pipe cleaners inserted around the edge to keep it's shape

the apples are velco'd on so they can be picked.

and the flowers can be plucked from the window box. pipe cleaners help keep them standing.

i really think aiyden is going to love hiding out in his playhouse!

christmas stuff...

i've been doing a lot of christmas crafting lately. last weekend we watched our neighbors 9 year old daughter so we made some salt dough ornaments, a really fun project for a 9 year old... and a 30 year old as well! i've had a lot of success with felting some knitted bowls but i can't post those pics yet because many are going to be christmas gifts.

needle felted mittens and aiyden's silhouette. the silhouette was really easy, a wooden disc, craft paper and print out of his profile, topped off with some modge podge...

salt dough cristmas tree...

salt dough snowman...

aiyden in front of the tree with his rudolph shirt that i made for him...

posing with mikey doll! aiyden picked out our tree. it's a 3.5 foot charlie brown tree which worked out perfect because the place didn't net it or have twine so we had to fit it in the back seat. i set it on top of a milk crate for some height and covered it with some extra material rather than buying a tree skirt.

we got a pub table for the kitchen which has been perfect for his high chair, now he can can play with his aqua doodle while i make dinner...

apartment is finally coming together! i love our new curtains from ikea. was going to make some but these are lined and buy the time i bought material, i figured it would cost just as much!