Handmade Birthday Invitations

(i posted this tutorial back in March on my other blog but it thought it was worth repeating, such an easy and cute invitation!)

I made some birthday invitations for aiyden's 2nd birthday. they were really easy and cute so i thought i would post a little tutorial.

Supplies needed are the invite printed on photo paper ( i made mine in photoshop), foam sticky dots, craft paper, ribbon, scissors, and a hole puncher.

i got double sided 12x12 craft paper and cut it into 6x12 strips. this one had a cute animal print on the outside and polka dots inside, usually about $.69 from the craft store. put four foam dots in each corner of the back of your photo

stick it fairly center on the craft paper ( the foam dots add a nice bit of dimension but photo squares would work just as well)

fold each side in, they should overlap. (my photo was 4.5in x5.5 in which works well)

punch a whole in the bottom and top of both flaps and tie together with ribbon

and that's it! a cute, inexpensive, and unique invite!!

Crib/Bed Canopy

This is a great do-it-yourself project to spruce up your little one's room. We recently moved and Aiyden's room was in desperate need of attention. He has a small room and I wanted to make it cozy and fun! I didn't get pictures while sewing the canopy but it is super simple.

First you will need 3 yards of fabric, I purchased this one from Ikea it's a twill so it's quite stiff which worked well. No cutting was done, just sewed along the two selvedges. Then divide in half, this will be your middle dowel. There will be three dowels in all evenly spaced. I purchased craft dowels from Hobby Lobby (79 cents each). Sew casings for your dowels and slip dowels in from the side, you will have to make some small cuts in the fabric. Once everything is assembled, screw eyescrews into the ends of each dowel and it's ready to hang!

It helps to have two people, my mom helped me with this, we put one eyescrew in the ceiling for each dowel and used fishing line (the one weighted for 200 lbs.) and ran from one end of the dowel, thru the ceiling screw, and back to the other dowel.

almost done!

and two hours later...a great canopy!