pickin' fly cards from shutterfly

So, we had our fall/holiday photos taken last Saturday (a very blustery day) as I mentioned in a previous post in The Loop. The next task at hand once you've taken holiday photos and selected just the perfect pictures is placing them in the perfect card.

I've always had a great experience shopping with Shutterfly. Now that I think about it, I've ordered tons from Shutterfly over the last year:

• I ordered my son's 1st birthday party invites,  
• a one year photo book,
• Space Age Thank You cards,
• and a 2010 wall calendar. 

Here are some Shutterfly holiday cards that I have an eye on for the aforementioned holiday pics:

{i love this retro metro card with the cheery green and red "ribbon" look.}

{oh what fun would be oh so perfect for a black and white photo}

{what is great about the full of love card is that you can use an entire photo and obstruct very little of it in the final look.}

{this year in pictures new year's card is an adorable way of recapping 2010.}

Decisions, decisions. Stay tuned for the final choice!

four-legged guests.

My first, first birthday party went off without a hitch. Great group of guests, delicious food, happy birthday boy (until mom blew the candle out in his face--it wouldn't be a party without a few tears). Here is the finished look:

I'm already excited about birthday number two!

the invite is in the mail.

{Silly Streak Chocolate 4x8 photo card from Shutterfly}

I forgot to share the invitation for the dog-themed birthday party. It turned out pretty cute. I debated FOREVER over what to pick. I didn't want competing dog themes so those were out. I couldn't find paw prints or the like. I knew I wanted a pic of my little guy showcased AND I had earned a free set of 25 custom invitations from Shutterfly via my Pampers Gift to Grow points (a rewards program for buying zillions of diapers over the past year).


I landed on a simple design with colors I customized to coordinate and photos I had taken converted to black and white. Pretty happy with the results!

upcycled decorations

So, I took the plunge and committed to a dog-themed first birthday party for my son. If you noticed in the previous post, the cupcake liners and toppers have various dogs donning blue and orange polka dot and striped bandanas. I had my colors--plus brown for dogs/bones/paws--and patterns to pull the theme together.

First project--I knew I wanted to make a banner. I scoured the Web and found a great tutorial for a pennant fabric banner from Penny Carnival. I had leftover blue and white polka dotted fabric from another project for the flags and I bought orange and white striped ribbon on sale at Michael's to string them together.

I personalized my banner by printing out letters from Microsoft Word and used them as patterns to trace on to sheets of orange, white and brown foam. Then I used Tacky Glue to adhere the letters to the flags. Here's the finished product:

With the banner done, I needed to tackle centerpieces. Since I have a dog, I have plenty of "dog" props including dog biscuits that we rarely give Belle--she likes to take them in the living room for private dining and litters the carpet with biscuit bits. I thought I could fill cylinder vases with the biscuits and top with a "1" sign. I used scrapbook paper, also from Michael's and on sale, in orange, brown, blue and solids/polka dots/stripes, and hot glued the sign to a dowel rod. The vases were on sale for 50 percent off at Hobby Lobby (two for $5.99). And...

Additional props... Happy Birthday confetti (dollar store), balloons (Party City), and tableware in blue and orange (Target), decorative scrapbook paper in bones and paw prints (Hobby Lobby) to adorn the table, and "doggie" bags filled with puppy gifts for our littlest guests. (Yes, I did find my son's name in confetti. It was $2+ for a tiny pack but well worth it.)

It was also critical to prominently feature the cutest dog of the whole cupcake topper bunch on the birthday cake. A local bakery, Lubeley's, did an incredible job recreating it and coordinated it with a really sweet "smash cake" for the birthday boy to attack.

Next up... the finished product.

one or seven in dog years.

{My "first" baby, Belle, and my son's favorite friend}

I thought I would kick off my first blog post on my first blog with my son's first birthday party. This is also the first time I have ever been so crafty. I never thought I would get so in to the event but once I started searching for ideas online, I saw what other awesome moms (like Amy Locurto and those she highlights on Living Locurto) had done to create a special day for their little ones. I was inspired but I knew I wanted to do most of it myself.

Now what crafty lady doesn't love a theme? I was a little on my own as my one year old can't exactly pipe up and tell me how he'd like to celebrate. So, I went with his first "word" and favorite "toy": dog. It sounds more like "dough dough" but the word's meaning is confirmed with a finger point at the neighbor's terrier or our own mutt. A dog party sounded great. There were endless possibilities though--what kind of dog? What colors? I needed a place to start.

{Woof Woof Cupcake Kit from Meri Meri}

In my online searching, I came across the Web site from Meri Meri and its Woof Woof cupcake kit. Aren't they adorable? At first, I was hoping there would be a matching centerpiece, tableware, and so on like many of the other themes on Meri Meri. Then I realized this is perfect! It gives me the opportunity to use their piece as a starting point and create cool party from there.


And so it began... more to come. Here's a sneak preview of the next post: