Category Archives: Entertaining

DIY Geometric Table runner

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I needed a quick solution to cover two long six foot tables for a party recently. I bought a giant roll of brown builders paper for only $11 at Home Depot (so cheap!!). I laid it on the tables and used masking tape to wrap the paper around the edges. I’ve been dying to try potato stamping for awhile now, so I went out and got a big russet potato and some black paint. I cut the potato in half, and then cut a triangle shape into it. You could do this with circles, squares, or a variety of shapes (depending on how talented you are at carving :)

Here’s a quick video I made on instagram showing the process.

XO
Kiira

Follow me on instagram + twitter for more party ideas & DIY projects!

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DIY Baby Shower String Monogram

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I first saw this idea over at Green Wedding Shoes and I fell in love with it. I stored it away in the back of my mind for the future and this baby shower was the perfect place for it.

This DIY is so easy and super affordable. My friend Amy and I knocked it out in about 30 minutes. Each ball of yarn was under $3, and the wood was only $7. I think in total we spent under $20 to make it.

Supplies:
– Piece of wood (you could use reclaimed wood or brand new from the hardware store)
– Paper to trace letters
– Ruler
– Xacto blade (or scissors)
– Nails (we used medium sized nails)
– Yarn

We found the wood at a hardware store and they cut it to size for us. I used plain white paper to trace out the letters, cut them out and hammer the nails around the border of the paper to create our outlines.

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Once you’ve got your outlines, take your yarn and begin wrapping around the nails, in whatever pattern you like. You could do horizontal lines, vertical lines, or geometric shapes like we did. Keep wrapping your yarn until you’ve filled the space between the board and the head of the nail. This gives you a deep dimensional look and makes the colors really pop off the board.

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I had some leftover wood and yarn so I created a heart shaped one as an extra accent piece.

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There is so much possibility with this DIY. You could create any shape you can think of (as long as you can make it with nails!) Perfect for hanging in a nursery, living room, kitchen or even to give as a gift. Nothing beats a thoughtful hand crafted gift. I’ll be making many more of these in the future! :)

Happy crafting!
XO
Kiira

Credits:
Photography: Amy Stone
Wood & Nails: Home Depot
Colored yarn: JoAnn’s Fabrics

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Simple, affordable DIY Succulent centerpieces

View More: http://amystonephoto.pass.us/marshallbabyshower

I wanted a simple and affordable solution for filling extra table space at a baby shower I was styling with my good friend and photographer Amy Stone. The colors were peach and turquoise, with hints of gold metallic. I had tons of old canned vegetable cans stored up, so I sprayed them metallic gold and planted miniature succulents in them as centerpieces. Super easy & super affordable. The spray paint was under $5 and the cans were leftover from my pantry food. The succulents were free since I clipped them from plants in my garden and re-planted them into dirt in the cans, but you could always head to your local nursery to pick some up or even Ikea sells mini succulents for $2.99!

Enjoy and happy planting!! :)
XO
Kiira

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To see more of my DIY, follow me on instagram + twitter!

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Featured by Hostess with the Mostess!

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I’m super excited that Judah’s 1st birthday party is being featured today by Hostess with the Mostess! Check it out here, and check my blog for some of the affordable DIY decorations I created to make this party extra special :)

XO
Kiira

To see more glimpses into my day, check me out on Instagram!

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Summer Farmer’s Market DIY

For most of the DIY’s for this party, I used brown craft paper, or recycled brown paper grocery bags (Trader Joe’s rocks!) I drew out a rough pattern to make teeny-tiny paper bags to hold chips. I rolled the paper to make popcorn cones. I folded the paper into little pouches (I’m an origami master at this point, lol) to hold the napkins & silverware, and tied them with blue baker’s twine. Pinking shears are a girls best friend, so I clipped the edges on all my bags & signs to give them a handmade but finished look. I used the leftover scraps of brown paper to fold little flags over wooden skewers (kabab sticks found in the cookware section of your grocery store!) to be my food signs. Then I hand lettered the words with a white gel pen, which I found at an office supply store.

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A super cute accent to any party is a string of bunting flags. I had an old gardening calendar that had wonderful fruit & vegetable graphics. I used it to cut simple triangle flags, folded the top, and stapled them over a string of white twine to make my farmer’s market bunting flags. I traced and cut out the letters J U D A H and pasted them on to personalize the flags.

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For the party invitations, I wanted a bright yet faded look, reminiscent of a vintage paint can or food label. I designed and printed them myself, and I found brown kraft paper envelopes at Paper Source. I printed and cut out the red gingham liners myself using a template I traced from the envelope shape.

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To see more DIY projects and design inspiration, check me out on instagram + twitter!

Watercolor Baby Shower

This baby shower was very near and dear to my heart because it was for my closest friend Amy. Amy and I both love beautiful details, so I wanted to make this a very special party to celebrate their soon-to-arrive baby Hayley. This was a very DIY baby shower brunch. I was on a tight budget, so I was determined to hand-make everything that I could.

I took my inspiration from some vintage italian watercolored crepe paper party decorations that I found on Etsy. I became obsessed with finding some, but since they were vintage and seemingly one of a kind, I decided to create my own. I ordered white crepe paper balls online and used watercolors to delicately hand-paint them to match my palette. The styling of the baby shower slowly evolved into a vintage watercolor-esque affair. I found some inexpensive textile fabrics in varying patterns that fit nicely into my palette, and I tore them into strips and tied them to a string to create a backdrop for the buffet table. The paint chip garland was an easy and very cheap piece of decoration. I used a scalloped hole punch to create circles from paint swatches I picked up (for free!) at a hardware store. I glued them back-to-back with a string in between. The extra paint chips were scattered around the floral centerpieces to add some color to the white tablecloths.

I created a few chalkboard signs with plywood and chalkboard paint that I picked up from the local hardware store. That chalkboard paint is one of my new favorite craft supplies! I also used a wooden sign and two wooden jewelry boxes which I found at the craft store for under $5 to glue together a long white cake stand. I created little watercolor flags and small colored water balloons filled with air for the sign on the cake.

All of the food was homemade by myself and a few of our close friends who helped out, except for the Krispy Kreme donuts of course. I’d been saving baby food jars for months, so we served chocolate milk in the jars adorned with a paper straw and mini donut through the straw. They were a huge hit! On the menu was sausage & egg strata, muffins, a brown-sugar french toast bake, tater tots, mini quiches, cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit. For our beverage table, a “bubbly bar” with champagne, fruit puree and fresh fruit, as well as some non-alcoholic mixers for our preggo guest of honor.

The invitations and all the paper goods I designed and printed myself. Using watercolors, I painted several pages of ombre colors, which I used for all of the backgrounds on the invitations, signs, labels and flags. I used the extra watercolored paper to punch scalloped circles and assemble a watercolor chandelier for baby Hayley’s nursery. For the guest table, I used my grandma’s vintage wooden hutch. I designed “wishes for Hayley” cards for guests to write and clip onto fabric streamers hanging from tree branches. I also created a Meal Train sign up sheet that coordinated with all the paper goods from the party, and guests were able to sign up to bring Amy and Josh meals once Hayley arrived.

Overall, the baby shower was a beautiful event and I greatly treasure having the opportunity to host this for Amy.






If anyone is interested in some of the crafts, DIY Tutorials are up on my blog:
Long Pastel layered cake
Watercolor Chandelier
Painted Onesies
Watercolor Party Decor + Paper goods
Paint Chip Garland
Baby Food jars for Donuts (how to get the sticky gunk off! :)

Credits:
Party planning + decor: eyeheartprettythings
Flower arrangements: Jessica Burns
Photography: Amy Stone Photography
Paper goods + Invitations: eyeheartprettythings
Donuts: Krispy Kreme
Craft supplies: Michael’s and Home Depot
Food: eyeheartprettythings , Jessica and friends

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Pastel Layered Cake

Baking and assembling this cake took me the entire evening before the baby shower until the wee hours of the morning. I wanted a long, layered cake that would surprise everyone with beautiful pastel colors when it was sliced. I used 3 boxes of white cake mix and divided the batch into 6 separate bowls. I added a tiny amount of food coloring to each bowl, and spread each batch onto a jelly roll pan in order to get the long, thin layers. I baked them much less than the recommended bake time, because the layers are so thin. I kept a close eye on each batch to make sure they didn’t burn.

Once the cake was baked, I used a cardboard cake board that I found at Michael’s and cut it into a long rectangle. I used this to slice around to make sure each layer was the same exact size. Then I used the same cake board as the base, so that I would be able to transport the cake without it bending. I layered each color with a thick buttercream frosting, using extra frosting in the shallow areas to make the layers lay flat.

Overall, the cake was a little bit wonky because it was my first time trying this, but I think it turned out nicely given that I’m no pro baker :)

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Watercolor Baby Shower Paper Goods

Wow! This baby shower is less than a week away! I can’t believe how the summer has flown by. I can’t wait to see how everything comes together this weekend. I found these vintage 1930’s hand painted crepe paper decorations on Etsy awhile back. They fit perfectly into the watercolor theme that I’ve been planning for this baby shower, but they had already been sold.  :(  Instead I decided to recreate them. So yesterday I was hand dipping 30 tissue paper honeycomb balls in watercolors in my backyard. OMG it was so stressful. The tissue paper was sticking together and tearing from the weight of the water.  They were very labor intensive, but after drying they turned out beautifully! I wish I had taken a photo of my backyard with 30 dripping party balls hanging from benches, broomsticks and my lemon tree. :)

Here is a photo taken by Amy Stone of the finished product.

 
Today I’m working on all the paper goods for the shower. I started by handpainting a sheet of paper with watercolors, then scanning it in to use for all the paper goods. I designed the invite, drink signs, cake banners, a baby wishes card, and a meal train sign-up sheet. All the little details match and coordinate with the watercolor theme of the shower. I’m so excited about how everything is turning out. Love it!

(My apologies for the crappy photos. I took these late at night and didn’t have any good light, ha!)

DIY Painted Onesies

Only one more week until the baby shower I’ve been planning for months! I feel like my life has been revolving around the preparation for two huge summer events. One down, one to go. Judah’s 1st birthday party this past weekend was a smashing success. We had a blast and all the details were amazing. I will post shortly with the photos, as soon as I can catch a breath  :)

I’m sure everyone has been to at least one baby shower where they have a table set up to decorate a onesie for the soon-to-be babe. Having a design background, I’m kind of picky about those sort of set-ups. I don’t like the puffy paint, 3D raised, cheesy stuff that tends to come out of those situations. You know the mommy-to-be will ooh and aah out of courtesy about how cute the crafted onesies turned out, but the odds that she’ll actually dress her baby in those things are slim to none :)

So I decided to create a few “suggestions” for our onesie table. I used painters tape, foam brushes and fabric paint (NOT puffy paint!) to create a few designs that seemed to be at least more wearable than the typical “i love my auntie” or “Baby Loves the Dodgers!” designs you often see at showers :)

I even mocked up a little design guide for those who might lack ideas and have the desire to paint something super lame like this. Haha! :)

DIY Watercolor Chandelier


After the success of my paint chip garland, I decided to try it out with my own handpainted watercolor chips and make it into a chandelier. I’m throwing a watercolor themed baby shower for my good friend Amy next month, and I thought what an adorable gift to make and give her for the nursery.

What you need:

– heavy white cardstock
– watercolors
– scalloped paper punch (about 1.25″ wide)
– small hole punch
– silver open jump rings (can be found in the jewelry department at a craft store)
– small jewelry pliers
– small wire wreath frame (mine was about 7″ wide. I found it at Jo Ann’s fabrics)

I began by taking some white cardstock paper and my watercolor palette. I spread several sheets of paper out and painted them with like colors. I did a few ombre pages with light pink to orange, turquoise to greenish/yellow, and a few with the full spectrum of pink to yellow to blue. Feel free to get creative with this and make it as heavy or as light and watery as you like. I even splattered the brush with some water droplets a little to get some pretty drip marks on mine.

Once the watercolor paper was dry, I pressed them between 2 heavy books overnight so that they were completely flat. The next day I punched out all the circles with my scalloped paper punch. With a small hole punch, I put a hole at the top and bottom of each painted circle. This is where I clasped the silver ring to hook each medallion together. I wanted my chandelier to have an ombre effect, so I started with pinks and worked my way down to blue/greens. Once I finished creating 10 strands, I clasped them onto my wire wreath frame and was finished. This took quite a bit longer than the paint chip garland, because of clasping each and every circle with the pliers. But the finished product is truly beautiful, and the fact that it is handmade is even better :)


Have a wonderful and blessed weekend! I’m off to Kauai for a much needed vacation!! :) XOX

-Kiira

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