Nautical Themed Banners

For Jared's 1st Birthday this past June, we decided on a nautical theme. However, I didn't want to do a bunch of blue, white and red. I mean, we are in the military and we are always seeing blue, white and red. Instead I wanted to do something with more color; so we went with navy blue, white and orange. I know, its not far from blue, white, and red, but I liked how much it went with our monthly photo stickers, and the other ideas, and fabric I had.

With all that being said, I needed to start working on the decorations and banners in order to find a real theme to the party and something to give me a better guide lines. I headed out to Micheals one day, spent about 30 minutes going up and down and up and down the scrapbook paper. I was looking for the perfect paper to use for the banners. I found a few and was so excited when they all started to really pull together. Once I purchased the scrapbook paper, I then needed templates to cut out my themed items.

I just did a simple google search for the anchor, sail boat and wheel. I then printed, and enlarged them into the sizes I wanted and was going to use. I also made extra copies, just in case one of the kids got a hold of one, or if I accidentally cut one... you know, back ups; JUST IN CASE!!!

I then took all the paper, a pencil and my trusty busy bee scissors and got to work. I first cut out my template and then spend, however many hours, tracing them onto the paper. Then I spend an extra, however many hours, cutting those out.

First set cut out.

First set of each color cut out.

Different sizes for different banners.

Once I had a few hundred of these, I then began cutting the triangles out for the triangle "Happy Birthday" banner.

Heres all those super cute scrapbooking paper I got.

I have a stencil for the letters, and I just trace them onto white paper, and again cut them out, using my busy bees. Yes, I do all this by hand, no I do NOT have a cricut. Anyone want to get me one for Christmas?

I then purchased twine; the ugly, rough, cheap kind you find at the home depot or lowes kind of store; and used that with a lot of hot glue and ta-da:

The end result looked great. Excuse the painters tape, we were on a small budget.

I also wanted a fun high chair banner for when Jared smashed his cake. Just something simple and nothing crazy.

I used the same blue, orange and white paper to cut out circles (as this banner needed to be small, to fit on the front of a high chair.) I used my stencils to cut out the letters, and just used bowls to make the circles. I then cut, and glued them all together.

I again used the cheap twine and a little hot glue to put the banner together.

Again, ignore the painters tape.

The sign was so perfect.

His feet loved it... see?

Lastly, I used ever inch of scrap paper to cut out circles and smaller anchors, wheels and sail boats. I then hot glued them to the twine and used them as "streamers" around the house. I also used the left over anchors, wheels, and sail boats to make individual dangling banners. I used those to hang from lights and areas outside. They blew in the wind, and looked great.

Notice the strand of circles and the anchor and boats in the background.

These are the circles cut out from the scrap paper, and hot glued on to the twine.

You could do a ton of these and hang them in a door way, or use them to block off a room or stairs. So cute, and it looked great.

This was a great addition to the inside decorations. Made the arch ways fun.

The decorations were a great hit, and everyone kept asking where I got the banners. I always love that feeling of fulfillment when I know I made something extra special on my son's big day.

Thanks for checking out the nautical themed birthday party, be sure to pin this, and share with your friends and family.

Now Sail-Away,
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