We Love Cake!

I still have birthdays on my brain so today's layout is a new one of the girls digging into their birthday cupcakes made by yours truly. My girls have food allergies to wheat, eggs and peanuts so their birthday cake has to be especially made for them. Luckily, it tastes really good! :) I played around more with the "Mary Ellen" kit from Noel Mignon on this layout and even pulled out my Cricut to cut out a birthday hat. 

The title was made with alphabet stickers by The Girls' Paperie, Sassafras Lass and Cosmo Cricket (in the kit). The patterned paper for the birthday is by Pink Paislee and My Mind's Eye and I topped the hat with a crepe paper rosette by The Girls' Paperie (all in the kit). 

I used one of the cut out circles from the hat as an accent at the top of my photos along with a Crate Paper brad and sticker (in the shop). 

I've been very busy around here. We're spending some time with my family this weekend for my sister's bridal shower and bachelorette party and then Glen's birthday is Monday. As much as I am looking forward to the weekend, I'll be glad when it's over too. It's a lot of work to head out of town with two toddlers and everything I need for the shower. 

Have a great weekend!

Jill

Vintage Little Girls' 2nd Birthday Party

I'm so excited to share the details of the girls' 2nd birthday party. We went with a little girls' vintage theme - all soft, floral and girly - and I made all of the decorations myself. I fell in love with Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe collection the first time I saw it so that's what I built the party around. To give you a little background on the party - we're waiting until the girls are a little older before we start inviting their little friends to birthday parties. For one thing, we have so many family members come that we would probably need to have another party just for friends. So when they are older and invite friends, I'll most likely expand the party a bit by adding games and party favors. 

Here's a photo of my kitchen where a lot of the party action took place.

I created the banner using my Cricut and cutting the pieces out of Emma's Shoppe patterned paper. I inked each of the pieces and then sewed the tops of them together in a banner using my sewing machine and pink thread. Then, I tied pieces of light pink tulle in between the pieces. It was simple, pretty and set the stage for the party. 

I made the birthday cake myself this year. It was nothing fancy but I did use my favorite new recipes for chocolate cake and buttercream frosting that my friend, Virginia, alerted me to from KevinandAmanda.com. I'm usually not a chocolate cake fan but this is seriously the BEST chocolate cake I've ever had and will be my go-to recipe from now on. 

I also made the cake topper by creating a banner. I cut the banner pieces using my Cricut and sewed them together again. The middle piece was created using a paper doily, a scalloped circle and a "2" foam Thicker by American Crafts. I hot-glued three of the pieces to lollipop sticks and then stuck them in the cake.

My girls are allergic to wheat, eggs and peanuts so I have to make them separate cupcakes. I just use a box mix from the health food section at my local grocery store. The cupcake toppers were created using vintage little girl tags by Pretty Little Studio. I just hot-glued them to lollipop sticks and stuck them into the cupcakes. The little ruffled cupcake liners were just ones I picked up at Michael's. I borrowed vintage blue and white and red and white trays from my sister to hold the cupcakes and other party decor. 

I created the party centerpiece by placing vintage children's books on top of a tray. The "vase" is actually a recycled tulle spool (that I used on the banner). I covered the spool with patterned paper, a "2" Thicker by American Crafts and a raffia bow. The doily flower was made by scrunching up three paper doilies and securing them with a silver pipe cleaner. The red beads were something I once bought at Hobby Lobby around Christmas time. (By the way, I borrowed the red and white checked tablecloth from my mom). 

I had fun creating the girls' party hats once again this year. The bases are created by cutting a huge circle out of an entire piece of 12 x 12 patterned paper. The circle is then cut in half and folded into a cone and secured with hot glue. (You can get two hats out of once piece of paper). I accented the hats with blue and pink crepe paper by Melissa Frances (cut into strips and hot glued). 

The marshmallows were fun to make and my girls loved eating these treats. I dipped them in pink Wilton's candy melts and added sprinkles before placing a lollipop stick in the middle. These were displayed on another vintage tray. 

And here's my invitation...I kept the design simple since I had so many to make. The "2's" were cut using my Cricut and the patterned paper is also by Crate Paper. 

On the inside, I adhered the party details and a punched strip (punch by EK Success). 

And here are my little birthday cuties sporting their birthday hats and tutu's. It was a beautiful day for a party and I'm so happy everything came together as I envisioned it. 

Thanks for looking! :)

Too Cute to Spook!

I've been doing a little scrapping with the "Sleepy Hollow" kit from Noel Mignon and working on my Halloween photos from this past October. Today, I have a couple of layouts to share with you. First, here are my cuties with their "scaredy cat" shirts I got them for Halloween. Halloween will always be cute and fun not scary and spooky at our house. For this layout, I brought out the purple, orange and silver with mist on kraft cardstock. 

And, on this layout, I chose my favorite photos of the girls trick-or-treating for the first time at a couple of local malls. This one is fairly simple but I made a "paper ribbon" border along the bottom of the layout for added interest.

And that's all for today! Stay tuned for birthday party decor next week! I promise! :)

Two Pretty Girls

I think this might be a personal record for me as far as timeliness in getting photos scrapped. As you know, my little girls turned two this past Sunday and I've already scrapped one birthday photo! And how could I not? The gorgeous "Mary Ellen" kit from Noel Mignon had perfect birthday colors for my girls' party pictures! (I used Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe collection to create the majority of their party decor...more on this another time). The Mary Ellen kit also has bits and pieces of Emma Shoppe in it and Noel has plenty of Crate Paper in the shop as well! Here is my first birthday layout: "Two Pretty Girls are Turning 2". I used a piece of pink ledger paper by Pink Paislee for the background and misted it lightly with white mist.

I created the title by piecing together the Cosmo Cricket yellow chipboard letters, a journaling card by Crate Paper, Sassafras Lass alphabet stickers (from a previous kit) and The Girls' Paperie chipboard letters (from my stash). 

I cut The Girls' Paperie rosettes in half and made a banner with them. The Maya Road buttons were inked with old paper distress ink and then threaded with Martha Stewart twine. I used silver Stickles on a sticker by The Girls' Paperie, although a similar effect could be achieved by die-cutting a number and placing it on a ledger background.

I accented the number 2 with two yellow star pins by Maya Road and then added my journaling.

Finally, I layered paper by October Afternoon, an Elle's Studio tag, The Girls' Paperie brad and a little machine stitching for texture.

More birthday fun to come soon!

Two Little Girls at Two!

My sweet little girls turned two yesterday! Birthdays are so very bittersweet. On one hand, it makes a mama proud to see how big your little girls are and on the hand, it breaks a mama's heart! We celebrated with our family on Saturday and then had a relaxing day together Sunday. I'll try to share some party pictures later this week. I had so much fun creating a lot of their party decorations and making their cake. We had a vintage little girl theme (with a few "Cars" (the movie) accents thrown in). Here are some fun facts about the girls at two:

They:

• Love to play! They love playing with each other and independently. Favorite toys include: cars, their babies, Woofie, Clifford, their playhouse, and play food.
• Love to read! They love reading books with mom, dad and others. I often catch them just looking through books on their own as well.
• Are exactly the same height = 34". 
• Love to eat! They are still my chunky monkeys! They love popcorn, Cheetos, ice cream, Grandma's cookies, grapes, yogurt, french fries, bananas and more!
• Still have food allergies (as far as we know). They are both allergic to wheat, eggs and peanuts. We get a re-check the beginning of June. Their food allergies make for interesting cooking on my part. 
• Love to be outside! Whether that means playing with a ball, swinging, going down the slide, going for a stroller or wagon ride, or playing with sidewalk chalk. (And pretty soon that list will include swimming and playing in the sand box!)
• Love babies! I often catch them wrapping up their baby dolls and rocking them. They feed them as well. And watch out "real" babies....because if you are around the girls, you'll most likely have one or two of them right in your face. :)
• Love the movie Cars! Other favorites are the Aristocats and Beauty & the Beast. They also love watching Clifford, Curious George and Angelina Ballerina. 
• Are talking more and more each day. Frequently heard words are: Sis, George (as in Curious), church, juice, shoes, socks, pants, shirt, cookie, ga (works for grandpa or grandma), and baby. They know most animal sounds and are pointing as we count for them.
• Love music! We might have musical girls on our hands. For Christmas, we got them a drum, tambourine, whistle and harmonica and are treated to frequent concerts! :) They also love playing the piano. 
• Have been going to Tiny Tumblers at the YMCA. We had to come up with something to release extra energy! 

Nora:

• Is the bigger sister by two pounds.
• Is our little drama queen.
• Likes to pick on her little sister (she's one minute older). 
• Makes the funniest expressions.
• Is a great snuggler!  
• Is a little more hesitant to leave mom and dad. 

Lily:

• Is extremely tender-hearted and affectionate. She's always giving hugs and kisses.
• Is a great fake whiner! :)
• Seems to be the girly girl - she loves getting dressed up and putting barrettes in her hair.
• Doesn't know a stranger.
• Loves to play in the church nursery. 
• Likes to sing little made-up songs (La-la-la, da-la, etc.)

And that's a glimpse of my babies at two! As I'm writing this post, I'm listening to the two of them throw what sounds like a wild party in their room. (They are supposed to be sleeping!) :) Ha! Love those two!

More soon!