diy decor

MAX’S COW PARTY!

My little baby turned 2!! Eek! His favorite thing in the whole wide world (besides his big bro) are COWS. He has an entire backpack full of cow figurines that attend all of our outings. With every person he meets, he tells them about cows or the one time he pet a cow or cows say moo… I could go on. There was no other choice but to make him a cute little cow party and celebrate with family!
Cow PBJ’s, farm veggies, and cow cheese! I just used a cow cookie cutter to cut out the bread and black food dye for the spots. Just dab a corner of a paper towel in the food dye and dot on the bread.
 Milk bar anyone? Vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.
 This is what I call a deconstructed cow cake… easy peasy. I used pink frosting and pink jelly beans for the udder 🙂
I cut out squiggles of black paper for the table decoration.
I had some leftover tattoo favors from Max’s little preschool buddies that I used as table decoration. Moooo Max is 2! We do custom packaging like this in our Etsy shop!
 Our party hat DIY is HERE. Just decorate with black squiggly shapes and a pink “2”.
 Max’s “aunt” Ashley got him this bouncy cow for his birthday! He obviously LOVED it!
I made Max his tee shirt with the tattoo image printed on iron-on transfer paper.
Sources – click below:
Letter balloons by Northstar Balloons
– L

MODERN MINT & NEUTRAL BABY SHOWER

We LOVE planning parties, especially baby showers! It’s so special and important to shower that mama-to-be with lots of love and thoughtful details. I was honored to co-host with 2 fabulous ladies, Dara and Emily, friends of the guest of honor, Leeron. It will be the second boy for Leeron, but we didn’t want to go all blue blue blue. We went with white, neutrals, and pops of mint and sage green. 
Lauren of Rock Paper Scissors designed the invitation, and I really went off of that for decor. It always starts with the invitation for me! The big letter “R” is just a paper mache letter from the craft store… use painters tape to mask off a straight line, paint, and remove tape. 
Diagonals, squares, and triangles mixed with all white flowers and live moss made for a simple and pretty party! 
The drink tags were my fav! Guests remembered which drink was theirs by the baby picture of the mama and pop-to-be and the color tag. Leeron’s amazing husband, Matt, secretly emailed me their baby pics, I changed them to black and white in photoshop and cropped to a square. Just punch a hole in the corner of the picture and the colored square and tie with string. The color tag was nice so that you didn’t have to have a different baby pic for each guests. Just use different colors for each pic. Leeron was so surprised (and immediately removed that one embarrassing photo from her tween years)!
Use painters tape to mask off a diagonal line. Paint and remove tape when dry! Super simple!
Every baby shower needs a diaper cake, right? See our TUTORIAL HERE. I used double stick tape to add on the triangles of leftover scraps from the garlands to keep that geo-mod vibe.
Cake topper by Rock Paper Scissors to match the invite.
Every party needs Campfire Crispies, especially a baby shower when you can be punny and say “She’s about to POP!” These were SO. GOOD. Fluffernutter flavor: toasted marshmallow and peanut butter with a white chocolate peanut butter coating. Droooool. Order HERE.
And of course us being us, we needed a tattoo station with the party’s hashtag (from our little shop HERE)! 
Here’s the actual party! It was at night, so I took the photos above so you could see the details!
 The simplest projects make the biggest impact. Jenni and I have done these live moss letters several times. Simply cut the tops of paper mache letters you can find in any craft store, and stuff with live moss from your florist!
Even though Leeron couldn’t enjoy it, we all loved the signature cocktail “The Leeroni”.
Hostesses with the mostesses: Dara, me, Leeron, Emily
The gorgeous and glowing mama-to-be, Leeron!
Loved throwing this baby shower for a very deserving mama!!!
-L

FEATURED: SWEET BIRDIE BIRTHDAY PARTY

We adore DIY parties- that’s our fav for our own kids, so we’re always on the lookout for new creative yet achievable ideas. That’s why we’re so thrilled to feature this Sweet Birdie Dessert Birthday Party by Shauna Younge! You’ll love her pastel and wood grain color palette, pretty dessert table, and simple touches that made this party memorable!
 
SHAUNA:
After I designed the hexagon and faux bois invites and found a great cake recipe, I planned a bash that was full of bright, spring-y colors offset by lots of white and gold accents. I created DIY faux bois color block placemats to bring color and warmth to my white desk for the girls to dine in style. 
Along with sliders, powdered donuts, and popcorn, the girls devoured vanilla ice cream and my strawberry cake. I customized labels with each girl’s name to decorate the paper ice cream cups from Sweet Party Shop. I also designed faux bois labels for the milk bottles to add a natural element to the all-white room. Land of Nod’s birdie garland and cupcake kit added a bit of whimsy to the dessert table that really kicked up the color a notch. 
CREDITS
Party concept, styling, and dessert table: Shauna Younge
Images: Sydnee Bickett
Birdie garland and cupcake kit: Land of Nod
Ice cream cups: Sweet Party Shop
DIY projects: DIY starburst birthday crown and DIY faux bois color block placemats


Check out more of Shauna’s ideas on her blog, Sweet Tooth, and contributor to Momtastic. Also do NOT miss her dessert table portfolio HERE!

JENNI’S CONCERT THEMED SHOWER

HIP HOP HOORAY! A baby boy is on the way!
Jenni is due soooo soon with her second baby, Remy! Don’t you love the name for a sweet baby boy by the way? Two great friends, Lori Mahon and Lauren Rauter, co-hosted with me. We decided to throw a concert-themed baby shower since Jenni currently thinks at one point thought she could be a country singer, and her husband Gabe a singer/performer/song writer (and for that matter Lori, Lauren’s husband, and my husband are all in the music industry as well! It is Nashville, after all). A nod to 90’s hip hop, Jenni’s love of country music, and concert references mixed together to create our decor.
It all started with the invitation, designed by Lauren of Rock Paper Scissors. Actually all of the paper materials you see here were all printed by Lauren. Geez it’s handy having a graphic designer bestie.
Concert posters, concert ticket garlands, and DIY marquee lights were the main decor, offset by cassette tapes and a boom box I got off of Ebay and spray painted gold!
Below is a DIY cassette tape mobile! I spray painted an embroidery hoop and cassette tapes gold, then used fishing line to attach. Command ceiling hooks held up perfectly.
For food, we did all concert food: hot dogs, nachos, soft pretzels, popcorn, and soda all held together in a food tray so it was easy for guests to carry around. 
Note the music themed names we gave all of the food… we crack ourselves up.
 Custom painted scoops sold on our Etsy shop.
Jenni’s fav Sugarfina gummies in the shape of sneakers! Perfect for our hip hop theme!

At every shower we throw, we like to have the guests write their address on the envelopes for Jenni’s thank you notes! Saves a ton of time for the mama-to-be.
Of course, we have the diaper cake – tutorial HERE – topped with baby Nike Dunks, Jenni’s request for her baby boy!
For favors, Lauren made these little boom boxes wrapped around an animal crackers box.
 Being a Love & Lion shower, we had to have a tattoo bar 🙂
Big sis-to-be, Amara, helped open all of the prezzies.
 Gorgeous mama Jenni!!
We LOVED throwing you this shower, Jenni! You’re already an incredible mom, and we know you’re going to be a pro with two. Love you!
-L