Make and Mingle Event at West Elm in Denver

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Thanks for all the amazing comments and supportive words after our most recent ‘keeping it real’ post. We feel all the love. It felt good to keep it real on the computer screen – we’re real behind the screen, so may as well be real on it, huh? We know y’all have joys and struggles, too, so now let’s get together to stitch n’ bitch…and have fun, of course! Join us, will you?

We’re at it again. Kaitlin at The Every Hostess and us are hosting our 2nd Make & Mingle event at West Elm in Denver, CO. We are going to make DIY cross-stitch holiday cards. No sewing experience required – seriously, none – if we can do it, you can too! Buy your tickets here.

We’ll provide everything to make the cards look a little something like this…

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Thanks to amazing sponsors like Curly Girl Design, Fleur de Lis a paperieCory Renee, Bake it Pretty, and Sage 8 Studio you will go home with some wonderful swag. You can sip cups of decaf or caffeinated cheer thanks to Peet’s Coffee & Tea. Plus, Ladybird Poppy will lift your spirits with her gorgeous floral arrangements, too. It’s going to be pretty. Colby Elizabeth Photography will be there to snap all the memories.

Help us keep the lost art of hand-written cards and old-fashioned mail alive, and join us for a night of crafting fun! Plus, who doesn’t want to spend the evening in a gorgeous store like West Elm? Spread the good cheer, and invite friends!

DIY Woodland Winter Cake Topper

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We are experiencing a love affair with bottle brush trees and wood slices this winter. And, as usual, crushing on white and gold, too. Our kids think Christmas is tomorrow with all the holiday blog projects lying around the house – it’s a tease for them, and almost an overwhelming reminder of the upcoming holidays for us. At least they get to enjoy some of the benefits of shooting a DIY winter cake topper – shoot the cake, and eat it too.

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If you’re celebrating a winter birthday, or want to impress guests this holiday season with an adorable DIY winter cake or pie topper, just go out and chop a tree {you can buy them already cut from Michael’s if a lumberjack isn’t in your repertoire}, bust out the gold leaf paint, and glue.

Materials You’ll Need:
Wood slices
Cake pop sticks
Mini woodland animal figures – deer, rabbit, bear, squirrel
Thin popsicle sticks
Mini banner flags
Gold leaf paint
Hot glue gun

Directions:

Dab the ends of the  bottle brush tree with gold leaf paint. You can’t mess this up – just dab here, and there and everywhere.

Write a word, name or phrase on the paper banner.

Use a hot glue gun to glue the tree, animal and popsicle stick with paper banner on the wood slice. I cut the popsicle stick in half to make it shorter.

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Glue ‘legs’ on the bottom-side of the wood slice with the cake pop sticks that will stick into the cupcake, cake or pie.

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A Little Star Baby Shower

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When one of my besties is in town for the inaugural Reintoberfest, and she is preggers, a baby shower is certainly in order. My girlfriends and I hosted a small, fabulous group of women for a Little Star baby shower. It was a surprise…and I think we pulled if off, even with a few slips.

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

The shower was designed after one of my most favorite art prints by The First Snow. Beautiful, isn’t it?

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

We re-created the art print with an antique ladder, ribbons and fresh flowers by Vail Vintage Magnolia and DIY hanging stars that were spray painted gold and white. It worked our perfectly because it’s a gender-neutral theme, and the nursery is also star themed.

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© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

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© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

Our menu consisted of homemade French Toast casserole, egg casserole, yogurt bar with fruit and granola, fresh spinach salad and for dessert we devoured mini bundt cakes. The backdrop for our Champagne and Bundt bar was a DIY Kimi’s Little Star sign. We sipped on mimosas with DIY star gummy drink stirrer and oh my goodness they were good!

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

I made DIY star napkin rings that also served as ornament favors guests could take home. DIY tutorial to come.

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

Meredith made DIY star headbands we all adorned on our heads to represent the “bouquet of stars to place around your sleeping heads” like the art print said.

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

In our family, we say Aunt, pronounced ‘ant.’ In MN, Kimi says Auntie, pronounced ‘on-tee,’ with a bit of a flair, of course. For the shower, we wanted to emphasize her auntie ‘thing’ with custom buttons for each guest. When baby G is born, we will all be proud aunties with gifts of our own to offer him/her. It was a good laugh for everyone. I gave myself the title of auntie of crafts. Jenna was crowned the auntie of shoes. And, Jodi proudly accepted her role of auntie of reality tv. We will take our roles seriously, Kimi!

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

We played a fun, non-cheesy game that I highly recommend for a smaller sized baby shower – Who’s That Baby? I asked guests to send me a baby photo under 6 months old prior to the shower, and I had the photos printed for a photo display. Everyone had to guess each sweet baby face, and the winner was awarded a prize.

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

Another ‘activity’ and decoration was the DIY Due Date Chalkboard. Everyone had a chance to guess baby G’s due date, and whether it was a boy or girl. If you really want to make it a game, bet $ to get a pool going. To learn how to make the DIY chalkboard, read this.

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

We sent the beautiful mama home with Dear Baby, often called Wishes for Baby cards. We all wrote down our hopes and dreams for baby G, which was a great baby shower activity and keepsake for Kimi. You can purchase the Little Star cards and here and the Little Star invitation here.

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

star baby shower-invitation

Finally, what’s a shower without a posed shot, and a tassel banner?!

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

Thanks to all the Vendors We Love from this Shower
Photographer: Meredith Moran Photography
Flowers: Vail Vintage Magnolia
Invitation and Dear Baby Cards: Fleur de Lis, a paperie
Mini Bundt Cakes: The Bundt Shoppe
Art Print: The First Snow
Auntie Buttons: Share Denver

 

DIY No-Sew Mini Football Pennant

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I been waitin’ all day for Sunday night

The tough get rough in a primetime fight

The last one standin’ gets to turn out the lights

‘Cause I been waitin’ all day for Sunday night

Yea, yea, yeah

Recognize that song {and the foxy lady that sings it} on NBC primetime Sunday night? Well, if your husband/boyfriend/dad/brother/son/friend is like ours, it’s more like, been waiting all day for Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday because we’re pretty certain between college and the NFL, there are big, must-see games every one of those nights!

Yes, it’s that football time of year. Whether you like it or not, it’s here. Might as well make something cute to go along with it!

We made DIY mini pennants that can be used as a DIY pennant drink stirrer, or DIY mini pennant utensils for pre-game tailgate madness or a fun football party.

Can you guess what team we’re rooting for? CO born and raised, baby!

DIY Mini Football Pennant

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You’ll Need:

  • Colorful craft foam sheets
  • Pencil
  • X-acto knife
  • Hot glue gun
  • Plastic forks or spoons

Directions:

  • Step 1: Hand draw or trace your designs with a pencil onto the craft foam sheets. We created a pennant shape in Microsoft word, and found the Bronco logo, as well as the helmet online. For all the letters, they were hand drawn.

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  • Step 2: Cut out your shapes.

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  • Step 3: Glue the letters or shapes onto the pennants. Remember to leave a small space on the left side of the pennant for a small slip to insert a fork, spoon or stick.

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  • Step 4: Use an X-acto knife to cut a slit at the top and bottom of the pennant, on the left side of the letters/shapes.

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  • Step 5: Insert a spoon, fork or stick into the slits.

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  • Step 6: Glue the little tags/strips on the back of the flag, next to the back of the spoon.

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blue-orange-bronco-football-pennant-diy-drink-stirrer-yay-go-helmet-banner-utensil

  •  Step 7: Place in a mason jar because you’re done, and everyone has the cutest DIY pennant utensil ever!

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Big Hero 6 Party

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Just in case it wasn’t obvious to you, the 3 kiddos above are superheroes. They are smaller in size than their favorite Big Hero 6 characters – Wasabi, Baymax and Honey Lemon – and they don’t have the ability to fly on an armed marshmallow man, but they are brave, kind, smart and amazing kids who possess their own superhero powers.

We celebrated the superhero in them, and all their friends at a Big Hero 6 party this summer. After all, it is one of our favorite animated movies. Even Jessica’s girly, sparkle-loving, princess-adoring daughter loves the kids superhero action film.

So, we invited family and close friends to join us for outside, yard games and a special drive-in movie showing for a Big Hero celebration.

It’s all in the details, so here they are…

DIY Honey Lemon-ade Stand

While Gabriella was all-in for a Big Hero 6 theme, something had to be pink and colorful, and well, girly. She wanted to dress like the scientist character, Honey Lemon and host her own Honey Lemon-ade Stand. Jessica created her stand with a DIY balloon arch made with a Balloon Time helium tank above her new, red Wayfair table adorned with ribbon.

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Drive-In Movie with DIY Cardboard Box Cars

The DIY cardboard box cars were the hit of the party. Each kid had his/her own car at the Big Hero 6 drive-in, along with a ledge to hold their popcorn and candy. Since the party was in the daylight, we opted for a drive-in movie theatre in the garage. There was a bonus we hadn’t even considered – while the kids were at the DIY drive-in movie, the adults enjoyed some kid-free time upstairs.

The cardboard cars were made with cardboard boxes, duct and packaging tape, white paper plates {wheels}, black paper {wheels and grill}, green paper {license plates} and red paper {break lights}.

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No drive-in movie is complete without a concession stand. We transformed packaging styrofoam into a backdrop with colorful wrapping paper and photos of the Big Hero 6 characters.

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Yard Games

Before the kids sat to watch a movie, they played various yard games to release their boundless energy.

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We transformed our favorite Bucket Ball game into Baymax Bucket Ball. The game was played with the same rules, but players tried to shoot the ball into Baymax buckets filled with water, instead of plain, white buckets. To make the Baymax buckets, we simply cut circles from black card stock, and taped them with a large piece of clear packaging tape. The tape also made the eyes waterproof.

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Another fun game was Go Go Tomago Disc Toss. We bought hoola hoops, and hung them with rope in-between large trees. Players tried to score points by throwing the ‘Go Go frisbee’ into the hoola hoops.

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hoola-hoop-frisbee-toss-kids-game-big-hero-6-party

It’s not a party until you break open a piñata. Jessica bought a soccer ball piñata, and retrofitted it with red, fringe tissue paper and black eyes to make it a Baymax head.

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Favors/Details

Kids went home with white pint containers with DIY baymax shirts inside, balloons and their cardboard cars.

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Jessica’s hubby carved a DIY microbot for authentic Big Hero 6 decor. He made it from packaging styrofoam and the kids helped us by painting it black.

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Red lollipops were also a detail in the movie we re-created with wrapping paper sticks {spray painted white} and red plates glued to the top.

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Invitations were custom-made by Jenna, of course. We went with a modern, clean approach and added a playful Baymax balloon. You can buy the invites here.

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VENDOR LOVE
Invites: Fleur de Lis, a paperie
Balloon arch: Balloon Time Helium Tank