Car Birthday Party {DIY Details}

 

 

 

 

For those of you that follow me on Facebook or Instagram,

you've been seeing all my car posts over the past few weeks.

 

 

My little buddy turned two!

And to celebrate, we threw him a car birthday party.

He LOVES cars.

And this is an understatement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I mentioned when I shared the invitations with you,

we decided to go for a playful vintage car theme in lieu of the Disney Pixar Cars theme,

and I'm glad that we did, because I loved the way that everything turned out.

 

 

So here are some of the DIY details!

 

 

Since Ben's birthday is in February and we live in Pittsburgh,

all of our set up had to be inside.

We live in less than a mansion,

so we kept it simple, like our Winnie the Pooh Party last year,

and just had some family and close friends over for food and libations.

 

As for decorations, I mostly stuck with the old tissue paper standbys.

As luck would have it, Target had a bunch of their tissue on clearance when I went shopping,

so I got a lot and maybe went a little overboard.

 

 

I made a ton of these pom poms in all different sizes and colors and hung them from the ceiling with fishing line.

They added a fun burst of color when you came in.

 

 

I also made two long fringe tissue banners,

one for over the food table and one for our living room where most of the seating is.

Tissue paper decor is great because you can buy it super cheap is basically any color.

If you're not picky about colors, the dollar store is a great resource.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My centerpiece for the food table was this "road sign" in the shape of a B (ya know.... for Benjamin).

 

 

 

 

 

The letter I bought for a couple bucks awhile ago for his bedroom.

It's just the paper mache kind from Joanns.

I painted it black and then added the dashes.

Simple. Simple.

 

 

 

 

The food table turned out really nicely with some fabrics that I had from other projects.

The route 66 fabric is one of my favorites. I just put it over a box to elevate the cake stand a bit.

 

The "fuzzy dice" are white square boxes that I had which my mom and I added black dots to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For my food labels, I made a simple placard in Photoshop to look like a license plate.

 

I tried to make them look as much like a PA plate as I could, and added Ben's name at the top.

 

 

 

Not all of the food was themed,

but we did make "nuts and bolts" (chex mix), pot holes (peanut butter cup cookies), and dip sticks (pretzels) for the snack food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also made pigs in a blanket (because who doesn't like those?),

and my mom made this awesome stop light for the dips (ketchup, mustard, and relish).

 

 

 

 

 

 

She did a great job just using poster board!

So cute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For our drink table, I also kept it simple. I used more steel accessories that I had around the house and some bandannas from a camping trip.

 

 

The only thing really themed was the gas pump placard I made in photoshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The car cake was so much fun for me to make.

The bottom is two round cake layers,

and I carved the car out of a loaf pan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I knew I would be carving the car, I wanted a pretty dense cake

so I opted for Elvis' Pound Cake.

 

 

 

I have to say, it was yummy, but definitely dense.

I could only eat a very small piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tires are chocolate donuts.

The headlights are yellow m&ms.

 

 

 

 

The grass is coconut which I threw in a ziploc and tossed with a few drops of green food coloring.

Shake shake shake, and you have grass!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I made a road sign to go beside the car which I just posted on a chopstick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also made Ben a special shirt to wear.

He was so busy at his party, that this, unfortunately, is the best picture I got of it. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bought a plain shirt at Target, and free handed the car with a bleach pen.

I don't know if it was because the shirt was a little thin, or that it was lighter in color,

but I literally left the bleach solution on the shirt for about 1 minute and then rinsed it off.

Any more, and I was afraid it would all just bleach to one big blob.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my last detail is our favors. I got these little steel buckets for a buck and filled them with some candy, toy cars, and playdoh for good measure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that's that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben had such a great time playing with his friends and family,

and he especially liked the cake. :)

 

 

Happy Birthday, buddy!

We love you!!!



DIY Bridal Shower Invitations

My best bud and her mother are hosting a bridal shower in the coming month

and I had the pleasure of helping them out with the invitations.

 

This was so much fun for me.

We looked at a ton of invites on Pinterest and saw a couple we liked,

so I combined our inspirations with the bride's personality and color scheme (purple and blue)

to arrive at this.

 

 

I personally love them,

and if time travel were possible and I somehow ended up back to planning my own wedding,

I'm sure I would want something similar for myself.

Hopefully, the bride feels the same way.

 

The invitations are 5x7's with rounded corners,

printed on white card stock.

I had a lot of fun playing with a ton of new fonts.

(Many of them can be found on the Resources board of my Pinterest page)

 

 

I also included 4x6 recipe cards on kraft paper

with the bride's name

so all the guests can share their wealth of food knowledge.

I love this idea since I got SO many great recipes at my own shower, many of which I still use.

 

 

Lastly, a little poem about her "wishing well".

This is a custom that was unfamiliar to me until a few years ago.

I'm sure many of you, however, have heard of it.

Basically, the wishing well is for little house gifts for the bride and groom aside from the registry gifts.

I love this idea as well since setting up a new home with cleaning supplies, pantry items (especially spices!), and other necessities is so darn expensive,

and typically you don't register for many of them.

 

The poem reads,

"Spices, detergents, and gadgets galore,

There are never enough,

you can always use more.

Please bring  little item for our bride,

would you please.

Spatulas, freezer bags,

or maybe Febreeze.

Wrap it in tissue,

and your name do not tell.

It's just a little something for her

Wishing Well."

 

 

A little twine and stamping on the envelopes, and it was all set!

 

Hope she loves them.

Engagement Gift- Family Recipe Album

I love my family.

And recently, one of my favorite people in the world,

who also happens to be my cuz,

said yes to a young man who asked for her hand.

After admiring the scrapbook/album/family recipe book that my mom made for me before my wedding

(I'll have to share that one later... literally 3 HUGE volumes and crazy detail),

I decided to get her started on some family recipe pages of her own.

Mine are much shorter

and MUCH less detailed than my mom's,

but I like the way they turned out nonetheless.

Each page has one of our favorite family recipes,

a family picture

 some old, some newer,

and I tried to include a tidbit about the recipe or the family with each page.

Congratulations, Amy!

And Erik, if you ever read this, you should know that I've begun to pray for you through the intercession of Saint Bartholomew, the patron saint of cheese(makers).

MAY YOU BE HEALED!

Car Birthday Invitations

It's that time of year again!

I can't believe it, but my little buddy is turning two!

yikes!

We had such a great time at last year's Winnie the Pooh party,

and we're looking forward to more good times at this year's Car party.

It took me about 1 millisecond to figure out what the theme should be for this year.

We pretty  much eat, sleep, and breathe cars around here.

:)

While Ben loves the Disney Pixar movie 'Cars',

and I've seen some awesome 'Cars' parties out there,

we opted for cars in general.

Updated vintage?

Is that a thing?

We're making it a thing...

So here are the invites.

 

I have a new love of my rounded corner tool.

And for square invites.

 

However, I couldn't find square envelopes that I liked,

so I made these with some fun-colored paper I had.

Who doesn't love some washi tape?

So, obviously, I'll let you know how it all turns out!

I'm purty psyched!