Beth Allison's Wonderland

Monday, May 21, 2012

The twins turn ONE!!!

Actually, they turn one tomorrow, Tuesday the 22nd, but their birthday celebration was yesterday! The little men had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed birthday party, based on the book by Eric Carle of course! It was also very homemade, haha. I'll share the details with you here:

Giant caterpillar made from paper lanterns. Thanks Pinterest ;)

Another Pinterst find: photos of the twins together over the past year, formed into the shape of a "1"

We had a small "game": Guess the number of gummy "caterpillars" in the jar! My sister, Cathy, won, with her guess of 42! (The answer was 41).

Centerpieces/decorations were made from Mason jars filled with M&M's (that look like the dots from the book), with big lollies (from OrientalTrading.com), and labels I made on Word, with a Dollar Tree pinwheel (they came in packs of 3!)

The guest book was The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which everyone signed on the inside front cover.

I made the hats from Diego party hats, haha! Here's the before and after:

High chairs:

Gift table (it's our old coffee table I drug outside):

The birthday boys!! They were just playing around in the kitchen before the party:

in their Very Hungry Caterpillat outfits I made them! I found fabric on both Amazon.com and Fabric.com

The set up:

The photos are monthly photos of each of my boys (Asher on top, Eli on bottom) from newborn to 11 months. Their 1 yr photos were in frames around the party.

One of favorite parts of the party!! The drink cups! Mason jars with paper red stripey straws, and a paper leaf tied with twine. The leaves had holes punched in them (the caterpillar in the book ate through the big green leaf...) and people could write their names on the tag to identify which was theirs :)

The cake:

This obviously took the most time to make out of all the party crafts/DIY's, but I love how it turned out!

My birthday boys!!!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY ASHER LUKE AND ELI JAMES!!!!

Mish-mash of the whole party. It's my first time trying to make a collage like this so don't make fun! Anyone have suggestions of a easy non-iPhone app way to make a collage like this on my computer?

Thanks for viewing!

-Beth

Monday, April 23, 2012

tutorial: pinwheel cupcake toppers

I was recently asked by a friend to make a cake for her cousin's baby shower that she was hosting. After going back and forth with ideas, she decided to have cupcakes for the shower, and we had the idea to decorate them with tiny pinwheels! It was a fun process trying to make tiny pinwheels, and I wanted to share how I did it with y'all!

1. First, pick out some sheets of pretty, coordinating paper. Scrapbook "paper packs" are GREAT for this. You won't need a lot of paper, so you can pick just a few prints, but I say the more the merrier! My friend Eryn picked this paper pack from Joann's to match the purple and green color scheme of the shower.

2. Cut the paper into even squares. For these tiny cupcake toppers I did 2" squares. Play around with the size for whatever project you have in mind. I also made a few giant 12" pinwheels for shower decor (but sadly don't have a picture).

3. Cut slits at each corner, going 2/3 of the way in towards the center of your square.

4. Put a dab of hot glue in the center of the square.

5. Carefully fold every other point into the middle of the square at glue it in place.

6. Like this...

7. I stuck a straight pin through the center of each pinwheel to help make a path for the brads I was using as centers, but if you have very pointy brads or just use a rhinestone or something as your pinwheel's centers, you don't need this step.

8. Insert a cute brad, rhinstone, button, etc to make your pinwheel's center.

9. For cupcake toppers, make a bunch!

10. Glue lolly pop sticks to the back of each pinwheel.

11. Get some plain jane cupcakes ready. This would be a great way to spruce up store bought cupcakes if you're not the baking type.

12. Another shot of the sea of pinwheels before being sunk into cupcakes.

13. LOVE IT!

These would be too sweet for a kid's birthday party as well! Have fun making your own!

P.S. I also made 12" pinwheels for decor at my wedding! Possibilities are endless!

-Beth

Easter 2012

Another successful holiday with the twins in tow. High five to Dan and me. Their last major holiday of their first year of life...wow. I'll save the sap for their first birthday post (which is too close for comfort! 30 more days!)

Back to Easter : we celebrated as we always do - at my grandparents' house. Pocking Easter eggs, eating amazing food, with family to love at every turn. When we arrived we made time for a group family photo with my grandparents. So, so sweet: check out my grandma pocking eggs with my cousin Jaret while my nephew Mason looks on. Love it.