By Kelly on Aug 31, 2012
Three day weekend alert! Wahoo! Jeff tried to convince me to go on a fun little getaway, instead I convinced him to stay home and get some more projects done on our apartment. Namely, build a day bed, make a pot rack, and buy some final storage pieces. Guess I’m pretty lucky he doesn’t leave me when I suggest spending his day off at Home Depot instead of wine tasting. But, it is Labor Day after all! What kind of weekend do you have planned!? Working hard? Or hardly working? Either way, hope it’s great, and I’ll see you here on Tuesday!
Birthday Cake via Enchanted Mommy
{Inspire} Links to Love
The cutest little circus party!
Michelle Edgemont takes push pins to a whole new level.
New to blogging? Some great WordPress tips.
This & That comes to life!
I would secretly love to have a city hall wedding.
The rise of homeschooling.
Awesome plates, going on my Christmas list!
Etsy announced… GIFT CARDS!
{Create} DIY Projects & Recipes
I could cry my eyes out over how awesome this popsicle stick table is. I wish I had a place for one!
A cupcake stand you can eat!
I am SO obsessed with this birthday cake!
Make your own honeycomb balls.
How refreshing does this sound?
I could use an origami business card holder.
GIANT peanut butter cup blossoms!
Donut life preservers!
Make a cardboard ferris wheel! AH!
{Celebrate} This Weekend’s Local Events
To find weekly events and markets in your area, plus future events, check out the complete Local DIY Event Guide.
Posted in DIY, Happy Weekend
By Kelly on Aug 30, 2012
Oh how I love me a well thought out theme party and Renee Marie Photography made my day with this one! When little Jason wanted a construction party for his third birthday, mom Nicole got hard at work hammering out every little detail. She turned a park into a true construction zone for a day, complete with caution tape and signs! Within the party zone (Hard hats on!), toy construction vehicles made for the best, interactive centerpieces and guests could dig in (Ah! I can’t even stand the cuteness!) on dirt balls and boxes o’ rocks. Now you know every little boy would go nuts over this party.
All Photos by Renee Marie Photography
Participating Vendors
Venue: Diablo Vista Park
Paper Goods: Delightful Prints
Looking for more DIY birthday party inspiration!? Check out more DIY birthday parties here!
Submitted via Two Bright Lights
Posted in Birthday parties, DIY, Real DIY Birthday Parties
By Kelly on Aug 29, 2012
Some of your kiddos may already be back in school, but for me school always started the Wednesday after Labor Day. That means just one week until the first day of the next school year, and if you happen to have a surplus of school supplies (because you can’t resist buying them ALL, like me) then you’ll love these five fun crafts to do with pencils! And colored pencils. Kids will surely be in the school mood, or they’ll just get in trouble for chopping up, gluing and carving their pencils. Just don’t blame me!
1. Colored Pencil Necklace: I am just obsessed with this project. How fun would this be the weekend before school starts? Chopping up last years colored pencils since there’s a brand spankin’ new set in the backpack this year!
DIY Colored Pencil Necklace via Design Mom
2. Paper Covered Pencils: Have some ugly pencils? Cover them in paper, or bitty bags in this case, and even add some fringe! You may end up keeping these for yourself though…
DIY Paper Covered Pencils via Lauren Elise Crafted
3. Pencil Dish Rack: A project for the grown ups! I’m regretting buying my dish rack now that I’ve seen this!
DIY Pencil Dish Rack via RE_
4. Pencil Eraser Stamps: Don’t buy stamps, make ‘em! Pencil erasers can be easily carved into different shapes for stamping (adults only with the x-acto please!), then let the kids run wild stamping their notebooks, binders and text book covers!
DIY Pencil Eraser Stamps via Creature Comforts
5. Pencil Arrows: If you’re able to wait, this project may be a good one to save for Valentine’s Day. These simple heart arrows would make great valentines for school parties, but they’d also be a pretty cute surprise in the first day of school pencil case, too!
DIY Pencil Arrows via The Crafts Dept.
Have something you’d like to see in the “Five Things to do with…” series? Let me know in the comments below!
Posted in DIY, Five Things, Parties, Etc., Parties, Etc. Inspiration
By Kelly on Aug 28, 2012
I’m so excited to be participating in this month’s DailyBuzz Style 9×9 Challenge! If you haven’t already checked out the DailyBuzz community, you must. Right now! Ok, now that we’re all caught up, I’ll explain a bit about the challenge. This month, in honor of their one year anniversary, bloggers were asked to create a post inspired by our favorite of the past year’s Top 9 posts! Holy cow, that was a tough decision! I ended up choosing Neon + Neutrals because I really just can’t resist a good pop of color, despite it taking me quite some time to warm up to the neon trend. I’ve already experimented a bit in neon here, but I just love this neon + neutral cut out bunting I ended up creating! You can use it for any party, and if you aren’t into neon, switch out any color behind the kraft background.
Supply List:
Kraft Paper or Brown Paper Lunch Bags
Neon Cardstock
X-acto Knife
Ruler
Letter/Shape Templates (Print off letters in a bold font from your computer) or Stencils
Spray Adhesive
Scissors
Ribbon, twine or other string for hanging
Tape or glue
To Make:
Cut out flags from your kraft paper. I used paper lunch bags for mine, so I simply marked the center of the bag just above where the bottom folded up and cut from each top corner to the center. My flags were 5 3/4″ wide at the top and 8″ tall, but they can be any size you choose!
Cut out your letter templates and trace them in reverse onto your flags. Cut out each from the flags. Remember! Reserve any sort of “centers” you cut out (like for an O or A) as you’ll need these for your final flags.
In a well ventilated area, spray the back side of each flag with spray adhesive and glue to your neon cardstock. Using your kraft flag’s shape as a guideline, cut off the excess cardstock.
Lay out your letters/shapes in your desired order and tape or glue to your ribbon or string!
Hang and, well, bust a move!
All Photos by Studio DIY
A special thanks to DailyBuzz for giving me the opportunity to participate in this fun excuse for a colorful DIY!
Looking for more DIY projects? Check out the full project gallery here!
This post is in participation with DailyBuzz Style.
Posted in Baby Shower DIY Projects, Birthday Party DIY Projects, Bridal Shower DIY Projects, Decor DIY Projects, DIY, DIY Projects, Parties, Etc., Parties, Etc. DIY Projects
By Kelly on Aug 27, 2012
I had an awesome week in New Jersey, New York and DC seeing family and so many friends! It was a whirlwind, but I’m so happy to see everyone I hadn’t seen in a long time, and meet lots of new bloggers and creatives along the way. A highlight of the trip was definitely my very first visit to the New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF). Holy moly. Jess from The Eagle’s Nest and I walked the show together and it was equally overwhelming and amazing. If you follow me on Instagram and Twitter you’ve probably already seen my updates and photos (and freak outs over everything!) but I wanted to round it all up here for you to enjoy in it’s entirety. I look at everything from a party perspective, and boy was this show loaded with perfect products and inspiration.
Washi Tape Heaven: I just can’t ever get over how awesome washi tape is and the show was chock full of it. I particularly loved (Ok, hyperventilated over) Sweet Bella’s selection. Not only did they have tons of colors and patterns but they also had MT Casa, also known as washi tape FOR YOUR WALLS! It killed me that I couldn’t buy anything (and that the company is entirely wholesale) but I really hope it’ll soon be available in the US somewhere. Let me just tell you how colorful my apartment is going to get if there’s a way for me to get my hands on this. If you’re looking to get the wall effect without the actual wall tape, I loved the washi wall in another booth (bottom right) where they took the regular size and just lined up strips of it. You could hardly see the seems and this would be great for a photo booth or dessert backdrop.
Love, love and more love. A lot of you may know about, and understand, my obsession with Rifle Paper Co. I really can’t get enough. I have the cards, the notebooks, the wall art. Seeing a whole booth of their products was like stepping into paradise, and an incredibly well decorated paradise. How awesome is their paper flower booth design!? I’m particularly loving their striped collections, especially those gift tags!
Visual Display Mecca: I do this all the time at stores, and NYIGF was no different. I just love the displays, or the way products are displayed. Sometimes more than the product. String art is all over and I’m doing my own DIY of it soon, so I was madly in love with the version below. The pencil mirror jumped out at me because back to school season is on my mind, and I’d love to recreate the display just to the left of that as an inexpensive party backdrop or even room divider. A few pieces of cardboard and some colorful string to tie it all together!? Perfection. As for the rest? Balloons, garland and color (Oh my). Enough said.
Pencil Mirror from the Tozai booth, booth design from the Journey Trading Co. booth, Garlands from the Ameico Inc. booth, Sunglasses from the Tina Frey Designs booth, wall decor from Gold Leaf Design Group
All Photos by Studio DIY
Posted in DIY, Events
