Wall Art for the Boys Room

If you have followed my progress with my sons bedroom, over here on this post; then you might be excited to see some of the final touches I have done. I finished up the Wall Art that I wanted to hang in the boys room. However, with our move coming up in just a few short weeks, I wont be hanging them on the wall, but I will still show you the art.

I used the bed sheets (with the monsters on it) as my point of reference. Note: you can find those bed sheets photo in my other post-linked above. To start, I had small and large paint brushes, several different sized canvases (which I bought on sale at Hobby Lobby), painters tape, different colored paint, and my pencil to draw out the monsters. I decided I wanted both the zigzags and monsters. That way it isn't too much of one thing. I started out with the monsters first. I used my pencil and drew out the monster on the canvas, making sure it was as close to the design on the sheets as possible. Once I liked what I had drawn I began painting the main body color. I then outlined it with the black, and then the yellow for the teeth, and nails.

The final product is this:

I also added in the zigzags. I did one in orange and one in blue. I kept the grey from the wall color as the main color in the zigzag and I think it will look great on the wall. I used a stencil of a zigzag that I found online. I then blew it up to the size I wanted (I did this using my printer). I then printed several of them, cut them out and taped them down onto my canvas. I then painted one of the colors, and then took the stencil off. I let the one color dry; then painted, very carefully, the 2nd color.

The finished product:

All of the canvases together look great! I will probably put one large with one small monster and one zigzag canvas, and hang them in clusters of three. Once we re-paint the room and hang the boys names again at our new place in California, I will more then likely place one cluster either with their names or spread the clusters out on the other walls. If anyone has a great way to hang clusters of photos please let me know. I love any ideas!

Happy painting,
Sarah

Brians 1st Birthday Party!

My first born, Brian, turned one in February 2013. I know I am way behind on posting this but I figured a lot of people love to see what others do for birthday parties to help get ideas. I decided I would post a few photos and explanations of what we did for his Big First Birthday!!

Like all birthdays you have to start with a theme! We chose MONSTERS!! Brian was a very cranky baby when he was a newborn, and so his nickname; monster, kind of stuck! Once we had the theme, I needed fabric and banners/printables to start picking colors and monsters from. I found this fabric:

over at fabric.com. I love the bright colors and the fact it has a dark background! Heres the printables we chose, sorry its a little hard to see, but the colors in the fabric and on the printables are all very similar!

Now that I had the theme and colors, I started working on the onesies for him, his crown, his bib, and pants. I found a tutorial on pinterest on how to make pants, and went from there. The tutorial used a pair of jeans from her son, traced them and then made the "pattern" just slightly larger then that. I loved how detailed her tutorial was. You can find it over at Growing Home, and while your over there check out all her other posts! I also made a bib and appliqued onto the bib. I have a tutorial that I made on how to make a bib, you can check it out over here at Bibs for Babies! I also appliqued onto two onesies, and made a banner out of fabric. The crown I made, I just drew out a crown that I liked, and then cut out 2 pieces of fabric, sewed them together (right sides together), then flipped it inside out and put a binding on the open side (the bottom), and then attached the monster, embroidered the ones on and finished it off with some cute stitching.

Brian wearing the crown and bib.

Heres one of the onesies I made.

Heres the other onesie I made. (Note: the monster was purchased).

The bib I made. (Note: the monster was purchased.)

This is the banner I made. (Note: The monster were purchased.)

The crown I made. (Note: The monster was purchased.)

Back of the pants, pockets on the back and on the side.

Front of the pants.

Now that I had all the clothing made, I needed to make goody bags and goody bag items. I purchased a few candies and coloring books to go in the bags, but I wanted the bags to be something the kids could have and keep. I made the bags from two rectangles, and then sewed the corners, so the bag had a flat bottom. The handles were just strips of fabric. I also made a few different monsters from felt.

The goody bags at the party and the monsters at the party!

The goody bags in progress.

Monsters in progress.

I loved the idea of showing pictures from the past year (of my birthday boy). The idea of seeing him in photos growing up was such a cute idea, and so I made frames from some scrapbooking paper I had on hand. I simply measured out a frame for a 4 x 6 picture and then used one as a stencil and cut a few out. I stuck to the same colors and used scrapbooking paper that didn't have a ton of detailed pattern on it.

The photos all framed up with the scrapbooking paper.

This is the photo chain, with the photos at the top starting at birth and the ones at the bottom being more recent.

For the entire house, we used streamers, a few balloons, and a few curled up ribbon to help give the tables some pop.

A friend and my sister-in-law helped make this wall!

A three headed monster to take pictures in!!

The gift table with balloons in the background.

The dessert table. (Check out the fabric banner I made hanging above)!

I have been making cakes for many years now, so of course I was super excited to make my sons birthday cake. Now, I was at my in-laws house and using some of their stuff and I brought a few of my tools with me, but its always difficult to bake and decorate in someone elses kitchen! It was a hot week too, in California, and the house wasn't too cool, and because of that I was struggling to get the icing just right. Anyways, I did a trial run of this cake at home (as seen in the first photo below), but hated everything about it. So, then when I arrived at the in-laws I decided to change almost everything about the cake. I also enjoyed making the cupcakes as they were simple but made a cute display!

Trial run cake- did not like this at all!

The table all set up!

The cake and cupcakes.

The cake up close.

Again.

The adorable monster cupcakes.

Just too cute, all the monster cupcakes are looking at me!

In the end I loved the cupcakes, and the cake! The top tier of the cake (the orange monster) ended up being the smash cake. The top tier was removed, and we gave it to our son as we sang happy birthday! He wasn't too sure what to do with it at first, but once he got a taste he was a happy little guy!

Singing Happy Birthday and waiting to blow out the candle!

Eating the cake!

He enoyed ripping the paper off the presents as well, and also enjoyed taking down all the decorations and playing with the balloons. I tell you the best toys are always the cheapest stuff!

Opening gifts!

Playing with the balloons!

Helping us take down the decorations!

Overall, the party was a huge success, and we had a blast planning and throwing it. We have to thank my father-in-law and mother-in-law for letting us use their house and for supplying the awesome food! We are very lucky to have such awesome friends and family members who came and showered Brian with such love and too many gifts to count! It was a great party and I am so thankful the entire thing went off without any issues!

Now time to plan Brians 2nd birthday party and our newest addition, Jareds 1st birthday! YIKES!!

Happy Planning,
Sarah