Fridays with Fin :: Shark Birthday Party!

Our little "Shark Fin" turned TWO last week! We had such a fun birthday celebration for him. I knew I wanted a shark themed party, basically, since last halloween, when he went as a shark...

Beware, I'm using "Fridays with Fin" to talk about our little guy's recent birthday party... but, mostly to shamelessly promote the shark-party printables added to my shop!!

I didn't want the party to be a scary-bad boy-blood red-shark-theme, but rather, cute-fun-lovable- "sharkie"-theme! So, I went with pool and orange for the colors and a non-intimidating shark motif. I sent the invites, with a printable envelope label "warning" the guests to open at their own risk! 

Once the invites were out, the other details came along easily! I had SO much fun finding cute pieces to match the color pallet and shark theme. Check out these favors... mini orange pails {adorn with personalized stickers} held a clear bag with a pool colored lollipop, shark squirt-toy and shark bubbles {wrapped in a printable label!}.

Guests were welcomed with custom printable signs and balloons...

Along with printable signs on the outside, I had a "happy birthday" banner hanging from our mantle and a banner saying "FIN" tied to Finley's high chair.

Our dining room table was used as my "display table" for bright orange flowers, an orange-filled vase, gumballs, lollipops, suckers, shark cookies and shark-fin cupcakes! The table wasn't complete until I used orange polka-dot gift wrap, cut down as place mats, with a cute printable tag at each setting.

I stole was inspired by Martha Stewart's Shark Cupcakes for the dessert. I used orange foam sheets and cut them into shark fins, popped them on top of pool-frosted-cupcakes, and finished them off with printable cupcake wraps! I did see that you can buy fondant fins, so if you want your fins to be edible, there IS a way!

Just in case your guests ever question whether they are eating "pasta salad" or "potato salad", you've gotta have personalized food label tent cards to help clarify! Yes, this is where my family and friends always poke fun at me, but its not about what the label says, really, is it!? Its about what it does, visually! ;)

I added some extra flair to the water bottles as well, with personalized water bottle wraps. Such a simple way to tie the colors and theme into another piece of the party!

And once I spotted these adorable mandarin izze pops and orange striped paper straws, I knew it was a detail I couldn't say no to! Who cares that not one person like the taste of them, right?! ;) Oh, and that shark cookie that so perfectly matches the party colors... made by my mama! :)

Okay, so I labeled anything I could get my hands on... down to the napkins, pails and vases. Again, necessary? No. Darling? Yes.

Here's some random final details from the party!

 All in all, I think the party was a success! The true test? A HAPPY Shark!

And happy parents!

Want to throw a shark party on your own? Check out the printable invitations and printables decorations in my etsy shop!

Super Hero Birthday Party

I had the great joy of  designing the party printables for my sis-in-law, Lora's son's 2nd birthday party! Her son {and her hubby} L.O.V.E. Superman, so the theme was an easy decision! Check out the SUPER details and amazing party my SIL threw! Calling all SUPERHEROS...

Each guest was welcomed with this darling hand-painted banner and each little guest was given their very own hand-made super hero cape! My sis-in-law made them all herself! And, of course, all the little superheros got their sugar highs power from these tasty cupcakes with personalized toppers!

Lora spruced up water bottles and juice bottles with these personalized labels and gave each superhero their own favor bag filled with comics and a superman pez!

Just wanted to show off those capes again! It was SO fun to see all the little's running around with their capes and pretending to be flying! Oh, and I just had to include the pic on the bottom of my very upset super hero! ;P

Here's the Birthday Boy in all his Super Hero Glory! I mean, come on, look at that pose in the top left pic! He's got that down! Check out the bottom two pics... Lora hung a banner of photos of the birthday boy and I wrapped his gift to look like superman's bod! This theme was SO fun to play around with!

And here is what set the tone for the whole event! The invitation...

Calling all Super Hero's moms and party planners... Throw your own Super Hero themed party for your mini-mighty-men! Order the invitations or printable party in my etsy shop!

 

{here's some extra cuteness, just for fun!}

Customer Approved! Noah's Camping Party

I LOVE getting photos from my customer's showing off their successful parties, using my printables! Noah's mom ordered my camping party invites and some party printables to make his 8th birthday a very special day! In fact, his mom is still getting comments about how much fun the boys had at {for most of} their first sleepovers! Here's some of the fun details...

I love how the personalized pennant banner turned out, hung on two wooden poles! The invite, framed and displayed on the buffet table, helps carry the theme through out. And how cute is that little camper!

Isn't Noah's Camp Run-A-Muk shirt perfect! And how fun is the idea of kayaking in the pool! Perfect for an urban camping party!

A bowl of "Happy Camper Crunch" favors and these adorable cupcakes made for a perfect sweets table!

Noah's mama decided to have nellie*design print her order! Remember, you can order just the digital files to print on your own OR have ME print for you... takes a LOT of the stress of all you busy moms out there! Now, you can order the "boy" version of the burlap-design camping printable party pieces!

Customer Approved! Camping Party Printables...

I had the pleasure of "meeting" {via etsy convo and emails!} Gina, of Gina Lee Photography. She came to me after finding my camping party invites on my etsy site and I showed her a new twist I was working on, having a burlap background, and she said go with it! After the invites, came some other fun party printables! Take a peek at the amazing party Gina created for her daughter using my party printables!

LOVE the burlap carried through on the tables and the different patterned material everywhere! Very rustic-chíc! And, how awesome is that cake! Matches perfectly to these darling favors, below...

Gina told me about these canteens she was giving each girl and said she wanted a label for them to spruce them up a bit! She gave me the dimensions and here's what we came up with! I think these were a big hit amongst the girls!

Every camper needs water, and with the help of these stylish water bottle labels, the girls were able to hydrate in style!

There were plenty of snacks and goodies to go around, as well as these adorable "Happy Trail Mix" and "S'mores for Later" favor bags!

There is something so special about a cloth tent! I wish I was 8 all over again and attending Miss Madeleine's party so I could snuggle right under that quaint, nostalgic tent! ;P Perfect touch, Gina!

You can see more from this party at Gina's blog, here! Thank you Gina for sending me pics of the amazing party you had for your daughter! It is so special and I am proud to have had a hand in it!

I was so inspired by this party, that I decided to create a printable party package for the theme! Now you can create your own burlap camping party! Just order here...

Seersucker & Nautical Knot Bridal Shower

I had the privileged of designing the party printables for my SIL's bridal shower... you might remember me talking about preparing for it here! Pink seersucker, nautical knots, navy blue and fuchsia accents... oh my! I started with the invite design and then built the party around that. The wedding colors are navy and khaki, so I wanted to girly it up a bit and added pink to spice things up for an all-women get-together! Enjoy!

A great way to add a personal touch and carry the theme throughout the room is to add frames with photos and customizable prints and put the actual invite on display!

Chocolate covered pretzels acted as mini "knots" in favor bags titled "tying the knot", while wrapping boring old bottled water and napkins with matching paper ties everything together!

Pink frosting, strawberry cupcakes and printable accessories make these cupcakes match perfectly to the rest of the party! And I couldn't resist including a pic of the darling Isabella trying to figure out how to eat one of these fancy cupcakes!

Tented food labels are so helpful and so cute... just as cute as that bride!

It was no question to include pink lemonade as the main beverage to match the other pink details!

You know you're dying to make these adorable lifesaver cookies! Nautical, check. Tasty, check! One of my crafty SIL's whipped these up after she was inspired by these...

Pink balloons, seersucker runners, nautical knots and pretty flowers finished this party off perfectly!

 

A mini "Love is Sweet" banner hung above the dessert table and a large "Bridal Shower" banner hung in the main room. Sorry, I SO wish I had some mad photography skills or had tracie with me all the time, 'cause not many of my photos from the actual shower worked out all that well {lots of windows!} so I took some pics after the shower, in the backyard!

Throw your own pretty, preppy, pink nautical bridal shower by just ordering my printable party and putting your {simple} craft skills to work! So easy and produces quite the wow factor amongst all the ladies!

In demand :: Camping Party Invites!

Ever since this blog post, I've been getting some major action for the invite below...

And, I've had a couple customers change up the colors/ideas a bit! Take a look at some of the new ideas we came up with for the same invite!

Looking to have your own camping themed party and want to customize this invite for yourself... check it out here! Complimentary color changes + text personalization! Also, I'm working on some party printable pieces to match these invites, so stay tuned for those!

Need some camping party inspiration... check out the party this invite was originally created for!

Camping Party Invite

A good friend of mine, Tracie, threw a camping-themed birthday party for her daughter and it was unbelievably gorgeous, down to every last detail... and it spread like wildfire in the blogosphere {like here and here and I'm sure other places that I'm missing}! I am so proud to say I had a part in it! Tracie came to me with her theme and asked me to create the invitations. As I’m sure you all know, invitations are the introduction to your event, so I felt excited to create something that would inspire an awesome celebration... and wow, did she do a good job!

Click here to place an order for your own adorable camping party invite!