Gender Reveal Party

I meant to post photos from our Gender Reveal party months and months ago, and I just remembered! 

 We had planned to do the party at a really pretty park in town, but the weather just didn't cooperate with us, so we set it up downstairs in our church dining room. 

 So here are all the lovely pictures from our party that day! ... Beware- LOTS of photos! : )

First, here are the invitations that I created on Picmonkey.com. I found my inspiration while browsing through Pinterest. I was able to find clip art on Google to save and insert to Picmonkey.

 {obviously we weren't able to do the party at the park.. bummer}

I planned and prepared pretty much everything for the party myself. Of course I got many of my ideas from Pinterest! Like the banner over the food table. That idea came from this banner, which is originally found on Etsy. I didn't have any burlap material, but I had some tan-ish fabric. I hand painted each of the letters and hearts, then hot glued the triangles to a ling of twine. I LOVE how it turned out!

I really enjoy when I'm able to put together a special party and I have SO. MUCH. FUN with all the little details! I'm totally a "detail" person when it comes to planning these kinds of things!

For the drinks I just bought a big container of powered lemonade and added Koolaid packets to make the colors blue and pink. Blue raspberry Koolaid and Cherry Koolaid. The blue needed a little help, so we added some blue food coloring. I made labels for the drink dispensers with kraft paper and twine.

To raise the drink dispensers, I brought my two largest pots from home and turned them upside down to make little stands and covered them with fabric. I had the pink and blue fabric already in my fabric stash, so that worked out perfect!

The little heart banner is made from kraft paper and my super cool paper heart punch!

I kept the food and treats pretty simple so I wouldn't be overwhelming myself with all the prepping.

Pink Bow and Blue Mustache sugar cookies! 

I bought the mustache cookie cutter from Etsy and the bow cookie cutter came from Ebay. 

I made the sugar cookies a couple weeks before the party and just froze them until the day before the party so I could frost them. Normally I use royal icing, but I decided to try a butter cream frosting this time and I am SO glad I did! It was SO much better than royal icing could EVER be! I will never make sugar cookies with royal icing again, they were soooo delicious! I just colored the butter cream frosting with food coloring.

Aren't they just ADORABLE?! 

Rice Krispie treats dipped in pink and blue colored chocolate

Mini pretzels dipped in blue and pink chocolate 

CUPCAKES!!! 

Okay, these were not anything special. I wanted to use cupcakes as our way to reveal the gender. I didn't make them, but I supplied everything to this local teenage girl I found through our online classifieds in town. I paid her to make our cupcakes and insert the color (pink or blue) into the middle of the cupcakes and then frost them. I have this little cupcake corer thing I got from Ebay that worked perfect. When I went to pick the cupcakes up from her she had turned my white top frosting green and yellow!!! AAHH! So being the picky person I am, I went home and as carefully as I could, I scraped off the yellow and green and refrosted most of the cupcakes. I just did enough to look good on the table, and brought the rest of the yellow and green ones in case we ran out. 

I made my own cupcakes toppers using my heart punch, craft paint, and toothpicks. 

I got the idea to dye the edges of the cupcake liners from this post. 

Pretty blue and pink striped paper straws from Etsy.

I love Mason jars, so of course I decorated some with twine to hold the straws. 

Baby's ultrasound photo framed was a nice decoration for the table! And of course I love adding some cuteness with Scrabble tiles : ) 

 

Everybody got to wear a felt pin to show their vote. Pink bows and black mustaches. I got my inspiration to make them from here! 

The chalkboard is just some cardboard painted with chalkboard paint. And I found the little boy and girl clip art from searching Google. I fell in love with the framed little boy and girl clip art idea after seeing this gender reveal party.

We gave an "Old Wive's Tale" quiz before finding out the gender. You can find the printable quiz here.

After we gave the quiz and the answers, I went through the list and told which ones applied to me.. just for fun in case that changed anyone's vote!

We also took some team pictures with signs I made before finding out the gender.

I had been thinking "boy" for quite a while ..

Hubby had been thinking "girl" ..

But I was right!! : ) 

B. O. Y !

Such a fun party! Loved it!

Check out my "Gender Reveal Ideas" board on Pinterest for more fun ideas! 

Also, come check me out on my other blog, Bumping into Style, where I share my maternity outfit endeavors (or "attempts" .. ) and little tid bits of my pregnancy progress! I am currently in week 34! 

Make Your Home Smell Delicious!

Here's a super cool thing I figured out to get my home smelling super amazing! I just wanted to test it out and see if it would work. I know we've all seen ideas on Pinterest for simmering orange peels and cinnamon sticks to get your house smelling lovely and holiday-like. So I thought I'd try with some coffee beans! We aren't coffee drinkers, but I LOVE coffee flavored things and the aroma. Hubby bought this bag of beans for my birthday last year and made the candle/coffee beans idea thing for me that I had found on Pinterest. 

All you need is just a small handful of beans and little bit of water in a small pot. {I really need to get a cheap thrift store pot for things like this}. Keep the burner on low heat and soon your home will be smelling wonderful! I LOVE THIS TRICK! Just be sure you remember every once in awhile to check the water level!! ... Burned coffee smell does NOT smell as amazing! ; )

"Life is Better in Flip Flops" Decor Sign

Ah... flip flops. One of the things I look forward to the most out here in Canada when the warm weather comes! Back when I lived in California I could pretty much wear them all year long! But... here in Canada, .. ya, not so much. So I really wear the heck out of my flip flops during the few short warm months we have! 

To further express my love for flip flops I made a cute little sign to decorate my living room. Yes, I painted another piece of scrap wood! If you didn't see the first one I made a couple weeks ago, you can see it here. 

This time I took photos while I crafted this one. So I thought I'd do another tutorial cause, well, let's be honest, tutorials are so much more exciting when there are photos to go along with the instructions.

I first sanded all the edges, corners, and the top surface real smooth. With a sponge brush, I painted the top and sides with a layer of watered down brown acrylic craft paint and a drop of black craft paint mixed with that to make a darker shade of brown. Then I wanted to give it some sort of aged or sanded sketchy look, so I watered down (not too much) some white craft paint and did two to three coats of that. I like how the dark shows through the white a little bit. Looks kind of beachy like... which is perfect for this quote! 

Okay, now some photos! 

I free handed the words on my last wooden sign, but this time I created a Word document, making sure to size everything to fit. I got my ideas for the layout from searching that quote on Pinterest. 

Flipping the printed paper over, I rubbed a piece of chalk all over where the words were placed on the other side. Because my board was painted with white, I used a bolder/brighter color.

After making sure all the backs of the words are covered in chalk, I flipped my piece of paper back over, placing it where I wanted it on the board, the words now facing up. I used some painter's tape to keep it in place. 

Now you are ready to trace all the words! 

Just grab a pen and trace and outline all of the letters.

Once you're done tracing and you remove the paper, you get this! 

Chalk lines on your board that are now ready to be filled in with paint! Super easy and neato trick for transferring words or shapes onto something for painting!

I found all my skinny little paint brushes at the dollar store! They work great! 

And now I have an adorable new summer decor sign! 

The perfect craft for a lazy Saturday afternoon. I actually find these painting projects very relaxing. 

The mustard yellow is a little hard to see until you come closer. But it looks great in the photos! And at least it will make me happy since I sit near this spot often!

Hmmm.. I have one more piece of scrap wood.. what should I paint next?!

Old Plant Stand Made Pretty

Last winter I picked up this old neat looking plant stand from someone's trash pile at the end of their driveway. .. I seem to like trash finds, don't I? 

Since the warm weather has finally graced us with its presence, I decided I felt like giving it a makeover! So out of the storage closet it came! 

I brushed it up a bit with a little scrubber to get some little bits of gunk left behind from when I gave it a bath in my tub after bringing it home. Then gave it a quick wipe down with some bathroom cleaning wipes.

Spray painting can be a challenge when living in an apartment, so I went for some acrylic craft paint.. plus it's cheaper! The color on the bottle says Aqua, but the photo totally doesn't show its true color. It has more of a greenish tint.. I can't describe it very well really. But it's very vibrant and not as dull as the photo shows. I hate that! But atleast I can see it's true beauty when I look at it in person!

It's so nice to sit out on my balcony and work on a project on a nice sunny day!

And here's my new plant stand!

.. Don't laugh at my poor droopy little plant. I've had it since our first year of being married and it's kind of always been a mopey little plant.

I think I like it inside.. not sure still.. 

And I think I'd like to get a pretty new pot to fit inside.. white, maybe?

Refreshing little update :) 

Hand Painted Wooden Sign Decor

HELLO HELLO! My goodness, it's been ages since I've hung out at my blog! The last time I blogged was in December! I miss the days when I used to blog about everything I did.. I've gotten a bit lazy I guess. Well guess what?! I was feeling crafty last weekend and went browsing through my Decor board on Pinterest to see if there was anything pretty I could make. I found this pretty hand painted wooden sign that I'd pinned forever ago and decided since I had a piece of scrap wood I'd give it a try! 

And here it is!

Didn't it turn out lovely?!

I decided to put it up on a small wall to the side of our couch, right next to the balcony doors. I was never sure about what to put in that spot, or if I should put anything there at all.. in case it looked too crowed with having my photo wall above my couch. But that's where I put it up! Along with a cutie little vintage bicycle decor piece that I got from my Grampa (I begged him for it), who got it from my mom a few years ago haha! I always wanted to put the little bicycle up somewhere but I'm just not creative when it comes to adding wall decor in an attractive way. I take waaaaay too long thinking about stuff first, and then I just get tired thinking so I forget about it!

  

I think it looks GREAT! I'm in love with it! And I can't stop looking at it whenever I come into my living room. It makes me smile and say, "Awwwee..."

As difficult as it was to get a hold of my husband's attention while he was grossly and intensely watching his favorite hockey team play in the playoffs, I was able to get him to hang my new decorations up on commercial breaks! ...

Check out those sunburns!

Now, I didn't take any photos during the creation, because I didn't think about blogging! But it was pretty easy. First, to get the stained look, I watered down some brown acrylic craft paint with water and covered the board a couple of times till it was a shade I liked. When dry, I began on the words. I drew my words on a piece of paper while looking at the pinned inspiration photo for a guide. I did "Love" first and when I had it all drawn up how I wanted it, I took a piece of chalk and rubbed the back of the paper all over where the word was. Then I gently placed the paper where I wanted it on the piece of wood, with the chalked side facing down onto the wood. Taking a pen, I traced over the letters. When I lifted the paper off, the word was drawn onto the wood with the chalk!! Super easy for transferring! So then I just filled it all in with craft paint! (I'm in love with that color these days!) And I just repeated that same process with the rest of the words on the sign. The rest was a little tougher for me though, because I can't seem to write nicely.. After that was all finished and dried I covered the whole board with a clear varathane finish. That's it! 

Feels nice to share something on my blog again! : )