Gingerbread Aprons

We found out a few days ago that Adam will be having his hernia surgery on January 7th which was the day before we had planned to hold Mylie's 4th birthday party.  For various reasons, we couldn't hold the party the week before the 7th, and the week before that is Christmas!  So we decided to have her birthday party a mere week away from now.  GULP!

So today, I had the gorgeous invitations designed by Danny (whose website has slipped my mind for the moment but I will add it in later or you can comment and I will get you a link.  If you need awesome digital photo invites that you can just print off at your local photo shop he is your man!) printed out and I will be hand delivering those tomorrow. 

I was inspired by this blog to hold a gingerbread decorating party.  Should be easy enough to do considering the house is already decorated for Christmas!  Each child will have a station with a gingerbread house (already put together and solidified, because we all know kids just can't wait for it to dry!) and all the icing and candy they need to make it beautiful!  I will be sewing each little girly their own gingerbread girl apron to wear while decorating as well as sending them home with the finished gingerbread house.   I have quite a few more ideas up my sleeve but will save them for later!

Here is Mylie, modelling the first apron I made yesterday.  I bought the pattern from my favorite place of course, etsy.

Birthday Banner and a Bum

So today while I was doing a little papercrafting, my oldest daughter L. decided she wanted to join in.  I gave her my cutting mat,  my circle cutter and some cardstock and she was good to go.  It kept her quiet while I worked on a little Soda Fountain-inspired birthday banner for the lovely Violet who turns 1 shortly.  L. was so engrossed in her creation that I didn't even look to see what it was.  Can anyone guess from the title of this post what it turned out to be??
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It was a bum with a head and hair on it.  Because why not use pretty paper and a make a bum out of it?  When you are 7, toilet humour reigns supreme (okay, maybe it still does when I am 30, otherwise this wouldn't have made my post, right?)

So here is her masterpiece:

And here is an introduction to a few of my favorite tools that I use when I am scrapbooking or papercrafting.

My personal favorite, The Big Shot.  Not only does it feature pink and sparkly accents, but it cuts lots of cool things like all of the lettering I used on the birthday banner, the cupcakes, ice cream cones and ice cream sundaes.  And best yet, the cartridges don't cost an arm and a leg.

Next is my EK Success circle cutter.  I have a love/ hate relationship with this thing because I like what it does, but only when it does it right, which isn't always. Would love recommendations from others!

And finally, my craft hammer and paper punches for making the holes to string the banner together.  Love these because unlike a hole punch, you can use is wherever you want on the paper, even dead centre on a 12x12 piece of paper.

I saved the best picture for last, the whole reason for this post, Violet's birthday banner!  Bree, I will be sending it off to you tomorrow!