A Teen Instagram & Polaroid Camera Themed Birthday Party

Last weekend my daughter turned fourteen and I was seriously stumped on a theme.  To get some ideas we started surfing the Silhouette website and this darling Camera image caught our eye by Imaginisce which sort of set our whole party in motion.  I thought it would be fun to print the wording on the little polaroid coming out of the camera (in hindsight this would have also be darling created as a shaped card).  ;)

With a camera theme in mind I created these fun little instagram treat boxes using cutting files designed by Lori Whitlock (previously shared in more detail HERE).

That in turn had me thinking of ideas for games and I thought it would be fun to do a mall scavenger hunt where her and her friends would break into small groups and then be given an hour to run and take pictures of everything on the list.  I thought I was being really original, but apparently there are lots of variations of this out there. It turned out to be a really fun way to keep the girls entertained on a budget!

Sydney requested I make a KitKat ice cream cake which she had been drooling over for a couple years now on YouTube seen HERE.  I'm not too great in the kitchen, but I found it really easy to create (as long as I was patient enough to freeze it between each layer).  To carry out my rainbow theme I decorated the top with M&M's.  :)

And to finish it off I have a digital layout to share using some photos I took of her with her sister shortly before the party started.  I'm so happy I did this!  Since it was an evening party, I didn't get very many good photos of the actual event so this was a great way to document the day.

For this 2-page spread I used Lori Whitlock's newest Smile Collection available at Snap.Click.Supply.  Aside from a couple brads I used from her Basics Attachments set and the scalloped circle from Masking Template Set 3 I really tried to stick to using only what came with the kit.  :)

I don't know about you, but thinking about planning fun parties that my kids will love (and don't cost a fortune) always makes me break out in cold sweat each year.  With this in mind I hope I've helped inspire you for your next party.  Thanks so much for hanging with me today.  :)

A 1950's Girls Rock & Roll Birthday Party!

How have you been?  I have been forcing myself  to catch up on finally getting the last of my daughter's outgrown clothes listed on Ebay, all while madly working on some exciting design team projects that I can't wait to share over the course of next month.  ;)

Today I thought I would share a few photos from my daughter's 7th birthday that we celebrated earlier this month.  She was going back and forth on choosing a theme and in the end settled on a MUSIC theme.  That was about as specific as she got so it gave me lots of room to turn it into whatever I wanted it to be. 

I decided to run with a 1950's pink Cadillac sort of vibe so I turned to my Papertrey Ink Boys Basic Rock On stamp set, matching die and a mini 6x6 paper pad of Echo Park's Happy Days collection (and some fun retro fonts) to make her invites. 

Once again I was really pressed for time with only a day to crank these babies out so I kept the design simple and fairly flat.  :)

For the party I bought some favorite 50's songs that I loaded onto my iPod so we could play musical chairs and hot potato with an inflated guitar.  I decorated with pink, black and white balloons and bought a ton of inflatable guitars at Oriental Trading Co. to decorate with and give away as party favors.  I rounded out the theme with a record shaped pinata;)

The night before the party I was still feeling like I was missing something special to decorate with so at a late hour I quickly diecut a bunch of records using Echo Park cutting files on my Silhouette and printed some songs on the labels as a hanging centerpiece over the dining room table where we served cupcakes.  They just tied on the chandelier above and were the perfect finishing touch.  Funny thing is my daughter has no idea what records are.  She was like "What are those?!"  LOL!  :)

AND just my luck (and totally a coincidence) I was going through Hayley's new fall clothes that I had purchased the year before and I discovered a birthday girl shirt that just happened to be a Rock-n-Roll birthday theme! I buy Gymboree's birthday shirts every year and had completely forgotten that the one in this year's size had a pink guitar. How cool is that?!



Thanks so much for stopping by!  :)





A Backyard Carnival Themed Birthday

Hello there!



 

I am slowly recovering from my daughter's 12th birthday on Saturday.  I swear the minute the party ended my body gave out on me and I immediately came down with a nasty cold... It always feels like it happens that way, but at least it waited until afterwards I guess.  ;)

Today I thought I would share some of the things I made for her party.  She wanted a backyard carnival theme so I immediately thought of the darling Ferris wheel in Echo Park's Summer Days collection designed by Lori Whitlock.  I wanted the invites to be super flat (and therefore cheaper to mail) so I kept my usual use of buttons and ribbons off this year.  I also was super pressed for time since I made these the day before I needed to mail them out so I wanted to keep the design simple for more reasons than one (please note:  I digitally removed our address and phone number so the look a little bit funny now).  The Ferris wheel on the invitations was a print and cut file on the Silhouette which made it sooo much easier than paper-piecing a bunch of these.  :)

With the same paper collection I also made little pennants as cupcake toppers. I cut the pennants out on my Silhouette and then punched the circles and hearts out of coordinating scraps and these went together really quickly. I made sure to grab a couple of the discarded ones to include on her birthday scrapbook page.

Lastly, I made a banner to hang on the fireplace next to where she opened her presents.  For this one I used more of my favorite Echo Park Summer Days Collection and lots of fun Silhouette files designed by the amazing Lori Whitlock.

 

 

We had a blast with a Coke bottle ring toss, a ping pong ball toss with little coca-cola glasses, a bean bag toss and face painting.  I had wanted to also do a three legged race, but it was getting so hot outside and we had an odd number of kids so we ended up ditching that idea.  To keep with the carnival theme my neighbor loaned us big plastic popcorn themed buckets that we filled with kettle corn and white cheddar popcorn.  The menu also included Costco hot dogs and ice cream cones for dessert. 

 

At World Market my sister found me these adorable treat "bags" to give goodies to the guests in...  I added licorice, silly string and punch ball balloons to carry through the theme.

 

It was a great party! 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supply List

Patterned Paper- Echo Park's Summer Days Collection

Cardstock- Bazzill Basics & Neenah Solar White

Buttons: orange flower (Doodlebug), white (craft supply)

Ribbon: American Crafts

Baker's Twine: My Mind's Eye

Other: Glossy Accents, Chalk Inks, Thread & Embroidery Floss

Lori Whitlock's Silhouette Files:

LW Happy Font

Birthday Girl Phrase

6 Banner Flag Set

6 Banner Set

2 Banner Labels

3 Borders

3 Borders

3 Cupcakes

Echo Park Ice Cream Cone

Summerdays ferris wheel