eyeheartprettythings

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!)

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! :)

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

I’ve been crafting away for several months now planning this watercolor themed baby shower. I’ve had my hands full with my 2 boys, so I’ve slowly been working on bits and pieces here and there as the weeks go on. This week I’m working on making a garland out of round paint chips. I saw the idea for a paint swatch chandelier here, and decided to make it into a long garland that I could hang along the wall. This is a super simple and very cheap project. The only thing I had to purchase was the scalloped paper punch (about $9), the string (about $2) and craft glue (about $10), all sold at Michael’s or any other craft store.

Get the paint swatches from any hardware store. I went to several different stores and took a few here, a few there…”browsing” for paint colors (lol!) because I didn’t want to clean them out of all their paint chips :) I wanted my garland to be double sided, so I made sure to have enough paint swatches to punch at least 20 circles of each color.

First, punch out all your circles and create color stacks. I lined each of my stacks up in color order (pink to orange to yellow to blue) so that I could quickly grab and glue. Tape your string to the top of your table and lay it flat (this keeps it tight while you’re gluing). Take your first colored circle and brush some scrapbooking glue on the non-colored side. Taking a second circle of the same color, pinch the string in between the two, pressing hard so the glue sticks. Continue on in whatever color order you wish. I think this could be cute as an ombre garland in all pinks, or even as a brightly colored rainbow garland. Whatever your theme is, this super easy and inexpensive garland makes a perfect decoration piece.

Happy crafting!

A few months ago I began mentally planning a baby shower for my friend Amy. I have always wanted to set up a milk and donuts display at one of my parties, so I started looking around for little jars. Rather than buying a bunch of mini mason jars, I figured I could up-cycle all the baby food jars that I was currently going through with my 6 month old. :) Much to my husbands dismay, we had tons of dirty, empty jars sitting in our sink waiting to be cleaned for days. Despite soaking them in hot water to peel the labels off, they all still had the hardened and impossible remnants of glue on them. That’s when I discovered the use of olive oil!

How-to:
Put a bit of olive oil onto a paper towel and rub it onto the glue, then use either your fingernail or a knife (I used an x-acto blade) to gently scrape at it. The hardened glue softens and comes off easily. No soaking, chiseling, or frustrated relentless scraping. Then I popped them into the dishwasher for a final rinse and had 30 beautifully clean jars to serve milk and donuts with! :)