The power of {4}

Its a sad day at the Mayer house…its our little guy’s last day of three. That isn’t going to keep my super hero down! It was recently brought to my attention that my son likes to play dress up, wear costumes and play super heroes ‘too much’. I say, what?…Creativity and imagination help pay our bills around here so, I didn’t give it another thought. Instead, being the rebel designer, we set out to make super hero treats! We set out to find our new craft store and get our supplies. Here’s what we did.

Cut felt into trapezoids (look, even a geometry lesson) then had my helper stick the pre-cut sticky stars. Then we gathered up our ‘baking supplies’…I’m not the best baker so, instead I opted for Oreos, which will make great superhero heads!

Vegas, baby

My best friend, Rayana White-Brotherton got hitched in Vegas this winter to her long time love Jacob. She is one of the most creative people I know so, her wedding announcements needed to capture her fun, hand crafted, and retro self. Cheers to two great people and may your life be full of luck!

Thanksgiving..a little late

It looks like I  got a little behind on my posts. Don’t think that I haven’t been running around garnishing things. This year (okay, last year) we hosted our first family holiday, Thanksgiving. We ended up with 15 people and lots and lots of food. I wanted to make it as special as I could and have a little garnishing while I was at it. Here’s what I did. A simple place setting, flower arraignments, oh and a nut bar – haha, totally perfect for our family.

Shawn and Carlie

Two amazing people meet and creative sparks fly! I often like to sign myself up to do wedding invitations for friends and family, I like to tell them is a gift but, really I like being part of their big day and getting my hands on a non corporate design. My neighbor has a print business in his backyard so, I ran on over to him to see what kind of fun techniques we could come up with. I really love using clear Thermography to create a raised pattern and it almost looks like glitter – shiny? Done.

Making it Personal

The most inspiring moments in life are those that are unexpected and usually from children.

Our friend’s two-year old boy has stage 4 Neuroblastnoma Cancer. We took a road trip to spend time with them, to show our support and to meet the little dude for the first time. It was a really great day for him, he was running, laughing, playing with his three older brothers and my son all day ….just being a kid.

He will be going through more treatment so, his amazing mom is on a mission to decorate his hospital room during his extended stay. Theme? Circus. Perfect! With many restrictions like, no holes in the walls, no painting, and to be kid friendly she thought peel and stick wall clings would be perfect. I found a really cute set on Amazon for her right away.

But, I wanted to do more, take the burden of finding elements to make his room complete from her and send a package to little Brady. I had to make it personal. I found silly games, a blow up clown and a simple carnival style banner.

I did some quick tags to attach to some of the simply packaged treasures like crazy straws and circus peanuts. Clearly Brady is the world’s strongest boy so, I went with it! I also found some cute circus facts to add to the back of the labels.

Simple acts of making things personal well, make it personal. I am inspired by this family’s strength and positive energy and proud to say that I march in Brady’s Army. Stay strong little man – we love you.

Preparing for the holidays

My family holiday cards are planned all year long. I start out with getting a photo session booked, be it with my favorite local photographer Jennifer Tai Photo Artistry or with my BFF Rayana White, this is the first step in guaranteeing a great card. People always love receiving holiday cards with family photos. My family especially loves being able to frame an 5×7 so, I keep a pannel of the design frame ready.

While I prepare for holiday card 2011, I’d like to share the last few years of custom cards. Can you tell who the center of our universe is?

{heart} you day

Up until the day my son is embarrassed by the little projects we do, I won’t stop. In reality, even when he’s begging me to stop, I’m not really sure I can! My son goes to daycare and is in a small class so, I always do homemade Valentine’s Day cards. I like to try to incorporate pieces that he can do himself (he’s three, he can’t cut a heart yet and I feel like I’m a little bit of a micro manager with the glitter…so, its best to choose which elements he’s in charge of).

This year I did sucker butterflies. I had him paint on red and pink construction paper and smear glitter wherever his little heart desired. After drying, I cut the paintings into heart-shaped wings. Now, if your kiddo is confused as to why you would chop up his amazing artwork, I suggest you do this while they are distracted. He then helped me twist the pipe cleaner antennas, stick on the googly eyes (you’ll notice that I jump at the chance to use googly eyes…swoon). Officially a hit with the ladies at pre-school. Since he’s the only boy in his class, he needs to represent.

Rockets and Beyond

My little dude decided that he was tired of his ABC nursery (tear) and wanted to do a ‘rocket room’. His must haves….blue and rockets…check. A lot of requirement gathering for a 3-year-old, the session was quick. So, I set out to make his dreams come true…and beyond.

The beloved ABC canvas prints are OUT. Memories of being eight months pregnant and demanding that my husband create frames as if it was the end of the world seem like it was yesterday.

Rockets, are IN. So, I got him involved by making some paper rockets. Knowing that in a year, a month or even a week he may change his mind, I set out to make the difficult elements of his room to change (wall color, furniture, quilts…ect) a neutral palette. I chose to have his sheets, artwork and accent pillows be the items we can updated throughout his childhood without it having to be a big financial hit or too much work to pull off.

While we were crafting, I pulled out some of his construction paper and giant paint brushes to paint a few pictures to frame. The frames cost me about $40 at Wal-Mart and the artwork $0 (we already had all the supplies).

I found these really cute magazine racks to save space on a book shelf that go behind his hanging chair. They hold about 10 thin books and about 7 hard covers. So easy for him to pick a book and then put it away!

Turning Three {3}

Three is a big deal. It’s an age between a toddler and becoming a little kid. I didn’t take this birthday lightly. My little dude’s party invitations we’re a ‘turning’ theme so, I made his invite as a wheel with cute photos by my BFF, Rayana White.

I have been obsessed with finding the perfectly themed party favor, and since we were going with bounce, turn and jumping I decided on mini bubble gum machines that I filled with jelly beans for the younger kids (lord help the person that gives my son gum…). I also made cake pops, water bottle labels, favor tags and thank you’s.

It was a wonderful day, my mom came to town to help me with my over the top garnish (we both swear to never do cake pops again…stay tuned, whoever calls me out on when I get suckered into it again wins a prize). It was first time I had his party at a location. It really took a lot of setup and clean up stress out of the mix. The Pump It Up crew was amazing.

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Monster Bash

A very close friend of mine didn’t believe in having a baby shower…I say, no way to that! With a lot of convincing I co-hosted her Monster Bash baby shower. Going with the theme of monsters and a baby girl who is guaranteed to be beautiful, smart, witty and to know how to handle a shot-gun, I got a little out of hand when it came to the monster theme.