color & shape theme for toddlers: valentine matching.

i've never been into decorating for valentine's day, but for some reason {probably thanks to pinterest} i can't stop planning valentine projects!

painting, gluing, and coloring valentines!

a little photo shoot!

{left - i couldn't throw away the hearts from the
photoshoot so i made a giant heart above our desk!
right - a simple burlap banner hanging from our mantel}

but, the real reason for this post: another color learning activity!

• i just did another search for clip art, this time for hearts.
• printed one of the hearts on card stock as a stencil and traced 8 hearts {2 of each color}. 
• i taped one of each color to card stock {i plan to laminate this next time i'm at mardel}
• and then put the rest in a pile.

she did really well, other than one mistake. She gets the concept of one-to-one correspondence, so she could match them without knowing what color was what. To make sure she was learning as she played, i told her what color to pick up next. She knows purple, but this was great practice for white, pink, and red. 

like i said in the circle bath post, i like keeping the color options small to keep it from being overwhelming and i like to play the game several times a day for reinforcement.

i also love taking advantage of the holidays to learn specific colors and shapes!

you can't tell by her face,
but she was excited when she
looked down and realized she had
hearts on her jammies!

what valentine fun are you up to this month?

love and hearts,
amber.

DiY banana invitation.

it has been a season for babies in my family and i love celebrating with mommies-to-be! while sitting on the couch this month, i had the chance to do a little prep for decorating a monkey themed baby shower! here's a peek into the festivities!

good ol' pinterest led me to this gem. i knew it was The One when i saw it - i'm not good at making cute traditional style cards on the computer and i didn't want to spend much on invites cause we had a tight budget. these cost 50 cents + cardstock i needed to buy anyway.

there was no tutorial on the site, just a picture, so i thought i'd do a step by step just for fun :-)

• first, i found a banana image on google and copied it into word. i used multiple text boxes to add the necessary info and make it curve with the shape of the banana. i added a monkey picture for good measure.  no worries if the text box takes away part of the lines - you're going to cut them off anyway.

• next, i printed off as many invites as a needed + 1. i cut out the extra banana OUTSIDE the black line and used it to trace the banana shape on the pieces of felt.

 

•  i cut out all the rest of the paper bananas INSIDE the black line, to be the actual fruit. i glued the bottom half to the felt, centering it on the felt peel.

•  once dry, i cut the peel in half, starting at the base of the stem.

how's that for cheap, easy, and adorable? gotta love pinterest.

love and soon-to-be babies,

amber.

cowboy WANTED sign

my husband's love for football always means increased creative time for me. we have a history of chilling out in front of the TV - him engrossed in the game and telling me random facts about players while i get my craft on.

this week i had a rootin' tootin' fun time planning the decor for my husband's cousin's new cowboy bedroom! first project down - 

cowboy wanted sign

• cardstock
• coffee
• oven
• cookie sheet
• printer
• computer

i came across this idea on bellezaeluce.com, but she didn't have a tutorial. stink. i know very little about how to do things like this. i got my game face on and pretended like i knew what i was doing. google has the answers to everything, right? right.

• i downloaded this free font and this free font {the serial publication one} and used it with Playbill {already in word}

• i called up benjamin and had him tell me what he wanted his nickname and his crime to be! he had fun brainstorming his elaborate heist, but for space's sake, i had to narrow it down to bank robber and train hijacker.

• if you want to add the lines {i use word 2010} go to "insert", then "shapes", select "line". once you have it lined up where you want, double click it. a new group of options will pop up at the top. select the down arrow on "shape outline" and then the arrow for "weight" to select the thickness of each line.

• i originally had a sweet-faced picture of him from easter, but really now, what bad guy wants his smiling face on a wanted poster plastered all over town? not this one. he rounded up his cowboy gear and gave me quite the glare as i stared down the barrel of his gun. i'm super grateful he didn't pull the trigger.

• following the same plan as i did for my Christmas ornaments, i printed this in black ink, tore the edges, placed it on a cookie sheet, poured about 1/4-1/2 cup coffee over it, and stuck it in a 200 degree oven.

• it typically takes 15-20 minutes. you'll know it's done when the edges are peeling off the cookie sheet.

we're nailing it up on the wall as part of his cowboy decor. from the sound of it, i think he's pretty pumped to show his friends and my husband has declared it to be his favorite of all my projects. i love boys.

love and outlaws,
amber.

sports themed garland.

one of emery's favorite buddies turned 1 the other day. we absolutely love him and his family and were super excited to celebrate such a big occasion with them! 

when his mom, kim, told me what she had in mind for his party, i was even more excited! she took the idea from the sewn garland post and gave it a sports twist! i love everything about this party!

she made a sewn garland with his 
name and little footballs!

she created all the circles into different
sports balls before sewing them together!

she used a few extra balls as
labels around the drink table

 

she filled this with
ice and water bottles

one of my favorite tricks i
learned from my aunt -
draw different pictures
on the caps of water bottles
so you can tell drinks apart!
with 40+ people at a party,
this comes in handy!

 

the birthday boy!

kim made tommy this super cute sports shirt!

time for cake!

 

love and first birthdays,
amber.

psych party.

this is the number 1 post that makes me sad about my lack of photography skills. i love this party with my whole heart, but the pictures i took do not make it look like the dreamy, wish-you-were-here party that professional photographers capture. 

oh well. 

a friend from church is a psych enthusiast, who married her equal. naturally, a psych-themed wedding shower was born. this was by far my favorite shower to do - my "homework" involved watching as many psych episodes as i could to get ideas and get the exact quotes i needed! 

because there were a lot of people coming that had never seen the show before, i didn't want them to be totally out of the loop, so i made sure EVERY.SINGLE.DETAIL. had a printed quote to "explain" the method behind this seemingly random decor.

side note: the budget was only $60 so i had to be super frugal with what i got and resourceful with what i had. 

oh, and ps - sry about the weird layout, i wanted the pics extra large for this post so you could read the quotes, but for some reason all the pics are centered weird...{i'm probably the only one that notices...}

creative idea #21: psych party.
idea sparked by: um...psych. all ideas are actually original this time around, except for the framed quotes about gus. those came from an etsy shop, but the link is broken now.

DRINKS:

for the drink table, i used butcher paper from Michaels, markers, army men from the dollar store, embroidery hoop from hobby lobby, and yellow post its from my friend to create the air hockey table/battle scene reenactment.

i picked up cups from starbucks to serve coffee in.

we just had water and coffee, but looking back, there should have been pineapple punch too...

this was the backdrop to the drinks table, to cover up a white board in the youth room of our church.

FOOD:

with shawn and gus being the food enthusiasts that they are, i was pretty pumped about the food table.  i asked a few people who had already offered to bring food if they wouldn't mind making specific things to go with the theme. the awesome ladies were happy to do it!

most of the food table...

i sprinkled the table with plastic gold coins. i would have gotten the chocolate coins to fit the quote better, but i ran out of money and already had these on hand from my preschool days. the plastic coins can be found at hobby lobby, and the chocolate coins can be found at party city.

i splurged on my favorite detail - see the giant wedding ring at
 the base of the bouquet?? $10 half price for 4 of them at hobby lobby. 

"and this is my partner," frames from michaels.

"Gus, don"t be..."

all 3 of these napkin patterns are from hobby lobby - 

2nd favorite detail of the party - i went to the preschool i used to work at and dicut the exact numbers for pi. favorite.banner.ever.

 

you can't host a psych party with out offering cinnamon pie. good gracious, it was yummy. the pie expert that made it though mentioned it should be baked a little longer than the recipe calls for. recipe can be found here. you are so welcome.

i have never loved the Dietzel family more than when they made these amazing mini pineapple upside down cakes. judging by the fact that they were pretty much gone by the end of the party {i think 2 people split the last one}, i'd say they were way better than the ones shawn made. {it could maybe be due to the fact that the Deitzel's used a real oven.} here's the recipe. oh and bonus points for life for my friend that let me borrow her prized possession easy bake oven.

GIFTS:

please don't laugh at me. i tried to free hand the leaf...

this just took 2 pieces of poster board and some safety pins.

THE MAIN ATTRACTION:

i should have brought an iron... 

another lady from church let me borrow her flag, and a friend copied the font from the american duos episode onto construction paper to help me make this backdrop. i especially love it because it's a bridal shower...american duos...get it?

in hindsight, i should have hot glued the cards to the yarn, and had less gaps. i don't like that you can see the yarn...

you can't forget a pineapple...and what better decoration than the actual show?? 

we also had water here

with a small selection of fake mustaches from hobby lobby

they look just like lassie...

lassie as a  baby...

so there you have it, my favorite shower ever.

love and fake psychics,
amber.