Princess Party Collection!

Calling all royalty... our Princess Party Collection, as featured on Kara's Party Ideas, is now up in the shop! This printable collection offers a fresh take on this classic party theme, with clean lines, crowns, cameos, castles, and our oh-so-sweet Champagne Pink and Gold Glitter combination that we're loving so much right now!

For an extra special touch, we can also customize this collection with a custom cameo of your princess or prince (upgrade required). Just send us a profile photo of the guest of honor, and we'll illustrate his or her likeness and customize this collection so it becomes a special keepsake! 

Above are some examples of custom cameos we've done with this collection so far. "Prince Curtis" hosted a Royal Prince Bash, with a winning color combination of our Jeweler Blue and Gold!

But before you can have a party, you need some royal guests! We're pleased to share that due to popular demand we will soon be offering customizable invitations (sold separately) to go with some of our best selling collections including this one! These invitations will be offered as instant downloads. Just open in Adobe Acrobat Reader, highlight the text, type in your own words, and print!

We hope you love this new collection as much as we do!

L

ethan's first birthday party!

Dear Ethan,

You're one! Getting to know you this past year has brought me the greatest joy, so I thought I'd write this little post to you. 

A little about you right now: You love your big brother, and you love to drum. The other day, the dryer was going and thumping out a beat. I turned to see you bopping in time. Every time music plays (or any type of beat, for that matter), you bop your head and move around and bring smiles to everyone nearby. So it's pretty appropriate that most of the gifts you received for your birthday were musical. You pound those drums with the biggest, most toothy smile!

You hardly ever cry. Except when you're hangry, or when a tooth is bothering you. And you drool. Boy, can you ever drool. So we keep these fabulous little BibbyBubby bandana bibs on hand, and pretty much soak through five bibs a day. We do loads of laundry just for bibs these days. 

You're not too mobile yet, and up until this point you've just been pretty content to let the action come to you. And believe me, there's a lot of that around our house. So you roll places, and usually find yourself in sticky situations. 

Your nicknames right now are Monchichi, Loverton, Lovenut, Droolerson, and E-fin (thanks to your big brother).

This weekend was Mother's Day, but we also celebrated your birthday with family members and a few close friends. It was a fun, beautiful, simple day and you were surrounded with those who love you most. You attacked the cake with enthusiasm, and enjoyed opening gifts with the assistance of your big bro. Here are some snapshots from the day.

My hope and prayer for you? That you will grow up to love and honor God with your life. That you will love others genuinely, and with a servant's heart. That a deep and lasting friendship will form between you and your big brother. That you will discover your true passion, and that you'll find satisfaction in it. You know... little things like that.

Love you to the moon and back!

~mommy

Noisemakers by Oh Joy from Target. Printable cupcake toppers by Inklings Paperie.

caleb's pirate party!

Dear Caleb,

I blinked, and you turned five. Yesterday, you were just a 9lb 3oz warm, cooing weight in my arms. Today, my arms were full and you held the door open for me without me asking. Twice. My heart grew when you were born five years ago, and it hasn't stopped growing. God is so good.

Today, we celebrated your 5th birthday. Every day, you see us package and ship dozens of paper products for other people. You look on my computer screen and ask me what kind of scratch card I'm making. So I set out to create a collection especially for you!

Last December when we took you to Magic Kingdom for your first time, you absolutely loved the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I thought that it would give you nightmares, but you came bounding out of the ride begging to go on it again. (But not before purchasing a plastic sword first, of course.) A pirate party seemed like just the thing!

I may have gotten a little carried away perusing Pinterest for inspiration. I may have put my paper engineering skills (and patience) to the test by making dozens of little pirate ship cupcake wrappers this week. But as much as I love all of these little details, I never want them to come at the expense of missing those little moments that go by so fast. 

Like the expression on your face today when you saw the room decorated for the first time. 

And the fact that you conceded to putting on a striped shirt this morning… even though you've made it clear to us that "stripes and plaid aren't fun". 

And the sound of your voice cracking when you got really excited over each and every gift you opened. 

And overhearing you tell your pal how cool his hand-drawn card was in the middle of gift opening. 

Or seeing you run around with your pack of buddies with the biggest smile on your face, getting sweaty as you burned off the sugar buzz. 

And seeing you leave with the last balloon (a white one) with gratitude, even though you wanted red. The four-year-old Caleb might have shed some tears over this one. But not the five-year-old.

Because at the end of the day, a Pinterest-perfect party doesn't hold a birthday candle you. 

Love you, bud!

~mom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. You can see the printable Classic Pirate Collection here!

Party held at Tiny Town Play Lounge (Visit their website here) 

Pirate Party Favor Hats (Find them here at Target)

Pirate Party Favor Swords (Find them here at Target)

Pirate Eye Patches (Find them here at Target)

Pirate Plates (Find them here at Target)

Pirate Napkins (Find them here at Target)

IBC Root Beer (Find it here at Target)

Red Striped Plastic Table Cloths (Find them here on Amazon)

Plastic Gemstones (Find them here on Amazon)

Gold Plastic Coins (Find them here on Amazon) 

20 + 20 (Mark's 40th Birthday Bash!)

My husband Mark turns 40 this year, and when I asked him how he'd like to celebrate it, he responded, "A day at the cottage with friends." So this weekend, we did just that.

Naturally, there was some paper prettiness that went down. He is married to me, after all. I joke with friends that my creativity ends when I get in the kitchen, so I tried to line up as much catering as I could so that I was able to focus on my forté: cute decorations, and good wine. Hehe.

For the theme, I started with a black & white chalkboard motif... but then I worried that it might seem too depressing (mostly black), so I threw some mint green in there. Where does the "20+20" come from? Well, he's as fun as two twenty year olds (I wish I knew where I read that...) so I thought I'd spin off of that for fun. I cut long runners (12" wide) out of chalk cloth that I found here, and then at the last minute I drew some fun swirls and numbers on the runners. It was an easy way to dress up our simple white tablecloths!

Our food was catered by the phenomenal chef Dino Grossi, a client and friend of mine from Volare Ristorante in Wixom. And together with the help of some friends and family, we pulled off a perfect evening and the funnest weekend filled with laughter, conversation, and good food to celebrate my hubby.

Looking forward to many more birthday celebrations to come!

Happy Birthday Mark!