Saturday, October 29, 2011

the party & stuff

Leo's 1st birthday was so much fun :) it turned out great despite being just a few days after we got back from Galveston. that was very stressful! I gotta be more on top of things next year and give myself a whole 2 months to get everything solid. oh, and Leo hates the beach. maybe he'll be more excited about it next year when he can walk and isn't having to crawl through the sand.
for the invitations I made a photo mosaic on a magnet sheet that fit into a sleeve with the lettering cut out so the magnet peeked trough. (I thought I bookmarked the page I saw this on, but I guess I didn't :( sorry lady who's idea I used and can't give credit to!) I found some pocket magnifiers to send along with them from DealExtreme so the recipients could see all the tiny pictures of the mosaic.
Leo's birthday shirt is was one of my favorite things I did for his birthday. I used iron-on vinyl on a black shirt. I put big 1's on the front and back, and small 1's on the sleeves, added a Lion to the front, some stripes on the sleeves, and Charlson across the back. I even did his name, and birthday with the year inside where the tag goes. I love that detail!
I made carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and an extra big one for Leo. I put them in an apple tree I borrowed from my mom and topped each one with a different party favor toy from Party City. I figured I could get away without colorful frosting that stains everyone's teeth and just bring color in through toys. I think it came out really cute :)
I made a fruit frog that I saw here, and made punch like the Ecto Cooler from my birthday, but without green food coloring. also tried infused water for the first time. Matt just cut up a cucumber and threw it in some water with ice. came out really well.

we had a slideshow running on the TV of all the best pictures from his first year, and I put all the monthly pictures labeled with the month on a digital photo frame.
Leo got a bunch of toys and clothes - this boy's loaded! I'm afraid to see what Christmas brings!! we're gonna need more room ;)

I completely forgot about the party favors I made and had to give half of them out the next day!
I put a cover on some small note pads and did a matching insert for some black BIC pens, put those in a cup with some goodies to eat on the car ride home... or just whenever the next day for those who didn't make it home with theirs!
and I finished off the pack of magnet sheets I got for the invitations and made more with a picture of us from the party in a black frame to send out with the thank you notes.
I think it was a wonderful 1st birthday and a good warm-up to the years to follow when he'll actually remember the party!

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Those invitations are amazing. How did you make the sleeve for the photo magnet? That whole project is so cool..the mosaic, the magnet, the cut-out letters, all of it! The party looks fun and very put together so you did a wonderful job for having just come back from vacation!

candice said...

thanks :) I tried to have as much together before we went out of town as I could with a clear plan of where things went and and how I wanted stuff set up. my wonderful husband was such a big help!

I made a pattern for an envelope (think manilla envelope without the top tab) the size of my magnet and just cut the letters out with my Silhouette cutter on the solid side. I covered it front and back with clear contact paper since the smaller letter cutouts would tend to have fragile parts to them. I also covered the magnet I printed with the same contact paper so in case they got wet the ink wouldn't smear, and it gave it a little less of a printer-paper photo look.