Photo Christmas Ornaments...

13 years ago my oldest sister started a tradition. She made a photo ornament of my niece and then she did it again the next year. The tradition was born. Each year I have a hard time coming up with something cute! Sometimes I resort to buying them from Target!! But this year, I started early and came up with a great idea! A matchbook photo album turned into an ornament!! I started by buying a matchbook shape from the Silhouette Online Store. Then I had to decide on some paper. I always love seeing the new christmas scrapbook paper that comes out. But being in an area where the scrapbook supplies are sparse, I had to order online. I went with Echo Park 'Tis the Season. While waiting for the paper to arrive (it wasn't in stock yet) I designed my shape and decided how many pictures to put into the album. I chose 5. It seemed like a good amount to fill in the matchbook but not be too heavy for the tree.

Once the paper came, the cutting began!!

I printed all the pictures using my own printer. Obviously you could have them printed, but with the silhouette software it was a breeze to import them, print, and then cut. For the front of the ornament I wanted to try using the sketch feature on the silhouette. I bought gel pens in white. I found some free chalkboard type fonts and designed the tag. The sketch feature is pretty awesome!! Once all the pieces were cut, all I had to do was glue them together. To attach the photos to the matchbook I used the stapler. I did not love the look of the staple so I covered it with a sticker. To hang the ornament I used a silver brad and then wrapped the twine around it. Then I secured the last photo to the back of the album to cover the back of the brad. (In the words of my 4 year old)... BOOM, DONE! The ornaments are all packaged and ready for Santa's sleigh!

Hello Kitty Pancake and Pajama Party

 My husband started singing the girls a lullaby from The Big Bang Theory called Soft Kitty. Since then Hello Kitty has been known as "soft kitty" at our house and oh how we love her. It was only fitting to have a Soft Kitty Party for the girls 4th birthday.

I started by creating a Hello Kitty cut out from the Cricut cartridge. I printed out the invitation and cut a second head just smaller then the first. Glued them together and got an adorable party invitation.

The Decorations:

I really loved making the party decor. I once again used the Hello Kitty Cricut cartridge to create the banner. It was simple circles with flower, letter cut outs. I placed white paper behind the flower cut out to make the letters stand out. I put them together with tulle and hung them at an angle for a different look. The paper fans were really fun too. After making the fans I clumped them together and glued with a hot glue gun. I added jewels for a bling look.  

The chandelier was my second favorite decoration. I used pre-made paper lanterns, fans, and tissue paper puff balls from Hobby Lobby and Zurchers. I started with the bigger balls and hung them around the chandelier and then filled in the gaps with the smaller tissue paper balls. Loved it!

My ALL TIME FAVORITE decoration was the photo collage. I am no profession photography so I couldn't get a perfect picture of it but you get the picture. I printed out pictures from the last 4 years and hung them with jute and clothes pins. I added a strand of tissue paper tassels just to break them up and add some color. I'll admit that as I hung the pictures and remembering all the cute moments I cried. My babies are growing so fast.

Of course we had to have Hello Kitty bows.

And pink milk (strawberry) in little mason jars and a cute straw.

 Since it was a pancake and pajama party we had a pancake bar with marshmallows, mini chocolate chips, mini Reese's, powdered sugar, pears, bananas, raspberries, blueberries, home made whipping cream, and syrup. YUM!!!! I used a table that could be lowered to the kids level which worked out perfectly.

 Thanks for stopping by!

Photo Collage

Easy Wall Decoration

Since I loved my photo collage so much I decided to keep it around. We had a big, blank wall upstairs between the kids rooms so that is right where I put it. Eventually I want to change the tissue paper tassels to fabric ones but I just don't have the time right now. Soon.