Gender Reveal Party | It's A...

Last weekend we had our Circus themed Gender Reveal party! It was so fun to have friends and family join us for a celebration and the big reveal of 'What's Under the Big Top' (i.e. my belly)!

Unfortunetely the cute carousel/circus tent looking pavilion that we were supposed to use for the party was being used for a charity run, so we had to set up in a different, less attractive, pavilion. But it was super fun none-the-less.

Below are some of the photos from the party and explanation of the details in case you are thinking about throwing a circus themed gender reveal party too!

 Slide Show of the Event: 


 

 Invitations:

I designed the invitations and they were a lot of fun to create! I borrowed the wording from an invitation I had seen online as I thought it was so clever! Want to have these invitations for your gender reveal party? Check out the 'Gender Reveal Package' in my ETSY shop!

 

 Banner: 

Our banner said: "What's Under The Big Top?" in 'Coffee Tin' font off of daftont.com

 Straw Flags:

I designed these cute little 'Boy or Girl' flags and attached them to red and blue star straws. Want some of these cute straw flags for your gender reveal party? Check out the 'Gender Reveal Package' in my ETSY shop!

 Treats:
We had lots of blue, red and yellow candy options including red and blue tootsie pops arranged in a glasses with tissue paper in the bottom to look like bunches of balloons.

And we had Nutter Butter cookies and Peanuts in cute little Elephant Peanut Bags (as Elephants LOVE peanuts). 

 We also had yummy butter pop corn in blue and white popcorns bags with clowns on them as well as pink popcorn and cracker jacks boxes.  All the bags were from heyyoyo.com! To finish the event we had

A big hit was my homemade 'Dunk-A-Roo' type dip that we dipped Barnum and Baileys Animal Crackers into!  The dip is simply a box of confetti cake mix, one large tub of plain yogurt and 1 tub of cool whip mixed together! I put sprinkles on top!

 

 The juice we had didn't quite match the theme so I covered the labels with blue and red construction paper and added a tag/label to each with a sparkly foam star (from Michales).

Each of the guests got a 'Gifts for Guests' bag to fill with treats!

To finished off the event we had cake. I made a tinted the batter red, covered in white frosting and sprinkles and placed these cute circus toys on the top!

Me enjoying some popcorn and juice through my cute straw! Notice my blue and red nail polish! :D

Decorations:

I made these 'Team Boy & 'Team Girl' flags so that I could get a photo of all our guests holding up what their guess was...

 A few of our guests with their guesses...

 I framed some of the baby's ultrasound images and had the frame on the front table where the guests were writing down their votes so they could have a better look at the baby!

I found the cute vintage party hats at a local warehouse store and used them for decor on the tables.

I made little signs using circus font and images to explain all the 'stations' to guests.

I found an awesome antique squeaky clown and a Barnum and Bailey's animal cracker tin at a local antique store to use for decor as well!

I made 'Wishes For Baby' cards that matched the invitations for guests to write their wishes for the new baby on. I will place quotes from their cards in the photo book I make of the event. Want 'Wishes for Baby' cards for your gender reveal party? Check out the 'Gender Reveal Package' in my ETSY Shop!

What's it going to be?

 The Balloon Box:

The daddy-to-be put the structure of the box together. He used a box we already had (from a shop vac) and taped the flaps up to make the box taller. Then he used another box to make the lid/flap across the top. I then wrapped the box in this stripped wrapping paper that I found at Michael's and fringed it in yellow construction paper & Bristol board. We then taped on some ribbon to hold the lid down and placed a 'voting chart on the front of the box'. Guests wrote their name on a yellow ticket and placed it on the boy or girl side of the box.

 The Big Reveal:

 We had the guests stand on the boy or girl side of the box, wearing their blue or red clothing items, and opened the box!

Team Boy: 

 Team Girl:

The Reveal... It's A....

 GIRL!!!

Balloons flying away!

 Mommy and Dadddy-to-be with the box/balloons!

 We can't wait to meet our precious little girl!

  Want some of these unique designs for your gender reveal party?

 Check out the 'Gender Reveal Circus Package' in my ETSY shop!

Pumpkins out of TP rolls! |

As September rolls around I get so excited about fall, my favourite time of year!

This year I came across these cute pumpkins made out of fabric and a toilet paper rolls!
 So simple and easy but they look so cute.

Here are how mine turned out:

Here is how I made them:
 
1. Choose three different fall fabrics - purcahse about 22 inches of the fabric - my fabric was 45 inches wide, SO I was able to make TWO pumkins out of one 22inch long piece, by simply cutting it in half. (So now I am able to give some as gifts too).

2. Place your piece of fabric face down on the table.

3. Scrunch up two pieces of tissue paper and then unfold them again placing them in the middle of the fabric. (This will give your pumpkin a bit more roundness).

4. Place a toilet paper roll in the middle of the tissue paper and fabric.

5. Start by tucking one corner of the fabric into the middle of the toilet paper roll, and continue tucking each corner in clockwise.

6. Use a piece of brown card stalk or brown paper bag rolled up a few times for the stem, OR you can even use a stick from outside. Simply insert the 'stem' into the middle of the pumpkin.

7. To finish it off I used wide green ribbon from the dollar store to make the leaves. I simply cut a piece of ribbon about 10 inches long and then stuck the ribbon under the stem before pushing the stem into the center of the pumpkin. I also tied twine and brown string to the stem to look like vines. I also want to add green floral wire to the stem and then curl it around a pencil to make it look like curly vines coming off the stem.

* Once fall is over you can simply unfold the pumpkins and keep the fabric and leaves/vines/stem in a bag and then next year simply recreate your pumpkins on new TP rolls!

Antique Nursery Finds |

It is getting so hard not to get started on the nursery for our little one.
We are only ONE WEEK away from our gender reveal ultrasound!!

I had a midwife appointment today and I heard our sweet darlin's heartbeat again today!  After the appointment I stopped into the Antique shop to do a preliminary sweep for items that would work well in either a little boy's 'Western' theme nursery OR a little girl's 'Sweet Antique Peach' nursery.

Here are a few of the finds:

 Some of the Western finds include: 
1. An awesome 40/50s 'Rodeo' poster that is a target for a suction bow and arrow toy.
2. A cute vintage red side table for only $20.00!
3. A three horse ceramic napkin holder that could be used simply as a shelf decoration (or to hold something).
4. Great quality leather bookends with a cowboy/rodeo rider on them.
5. A cowboy playing card set (could make a collage out of all the different cards in the pack and then frame it for wall art).
6. A cute handmade wooden horse and cart.
7. A neat vintage cow toy.
8. A limited edition wagon bank, still in the box.
* I also got the idea of using old Hardy Boy books as decor in the room as they have icon bright blue spines and interested covers!
* There were also a lot of cute wooden crates that would work well for extra storage bins for toys, diapers etc.

Some of the items I found that would work great in a little girl's nursery include: 
1. A super cute soft yellow tea pot with white cherry blossoms on it.
2. A whole shelf full of adorable ceramic 'nick-naks' all in soft pastel colours (my favourites were the birds).
 3. A cute round, pastel coloured Peter Rabbit tin.
4. An adorable water colour painting of a little girl eating a peach (would go great with the 'Peach theme' nursery).
5.  A box of ceramic Cupie Dolls all really cute poses (would look cute in various places on a shelf).
 6. Adorable pink ceramic shoes! I just think they are precious!
* There was also a little white wicker rocking chair and some great embroidered items that would look great on shelves or framed as art for the room.


I can't wait until I can actually go an choose some of these items for the room once we find out what we are having! :D