Children's Room 'W' Print - Wheelie Whale

Finally I caved into the bare walls screaming at me to put something up in my son's room. After his whale themed christening I decided to carry on with the theme and came up with a whale doing a wheelie over a 'W' of course! 

I used washi tape for the whale and card stock for the 'W'. The bike is hand drawn with pen. Simples:)

Snails, Whales and Wise Words

We all love seeing friends and families at christenings (they are not just an excuse for a party though are they ahem?!). 

Question is when your baby is mostly asleep or slurping milk on the big day how do you ensure he/she remembers his/her big day?

We decided to put a box of blank cards out and invited our guests to share their words of wisdom. We pegged all the cards up in the garden. It was great to see the advice that three generations of friends and family gave...

Over in the cake camp we plumped for a Snail and the Whale theme, cue whale cupcakes and whale & snail cake. There were lots of happy smurf blue mouths at the end of the day.

Beach Party In Your Garden

Everyone loves a beach party but when you just can't face the drive why not bring the beach to your garden? We decided on a beach theme for our daughter's birthday. 

First off the decorations - there's nothing like roping your children in to help. We made coffee carrier carton jellyfish with googly eyes and crepe paper, fish plates and finally a giant surfboard (ok so I did this one after the little ones had gone to bed). I also put out leis for everyone to help themselves to.

Party Food ...

Sailboat Jellies

Make your own jelly to get the right colour. I wanted a yellow beach layer (which I filled with sprinkles to act as rocks) and blue ocean layer - but in the end the sea was a more murky green as no matter how much I left the yellow layer to set the colouring tinted my blue jelly when I poured it on top of the 'beach'. I used satsuma segments and washi tape on cocktail sticks for the sails (of course letting children know not to eat the sticks!)

Watermelon Whale

This was quite simple to carve and fill with a fruit salad (word of warning the watermelon whale is too big for most UK fridges so I wouldn't prepare this until the day) - I had to go to a local exotic fruit market for the right sized watermelon as you'd be hard pushed to find one in your local supermarket. Prepare to get messy - use a large bowl to scoop out all the watermelon.

Not Forgetting that Cake!

Sandcastle Cake

I had great fun making this - I baked four small Victoria sponges, stacked them on top of each other with alternating layers of buttercream and raspberry jam and then secured in place with a kebab skewer whilst I worked on spreading buttercream around the outside. Next I rolled the digestives out with a rolling pin and then rolled the whole cake in the biscuits.

For the decorations I baked star shaped biscuits and adjusted the shape before cooking so that they looked more like starfish. I used shell moulds to make white chocolate shell decorations and the flags I printed at home to match the party invitations. 

Games

Controversially I ditched pass the parcel (I did have one child ask when we were going to do it!) and instead we had a fishing game, find the shell, and musical statues which all hit the mark with the young age group.

I made the fish from card and paper fasteners which worked with the horseshoe magnet I put on the end of some string on a bamboo cane (decorated with more crepe paper).

Lollipop Party Invitations

This is the first year that we've braved a proper birthday party for our daughter. We've gone for a beach party theme as we're ever hopeful for the Great British Summer. First off the invitations - I wanted to create something fun so lollipop invitations seemed to fit the bill. My new discovery is Japanese washi tape, this was perfect for decorating the lollipop sticks and now it seems to be all over the house. I used a clear envelope and yes more washi tape to send them out in.

Party Outfits Come To Life On Paper

So we have had a string of lovely 40th birthday parties recently. We went to a great 70's party and I decided to get busy with the scissors again to recreate the hosts retro look on card as a thank you.

Here are our birthday girl and boy in the flesh (to the left of me, and in the middle of the guys)...

...and here they are on card....

Felt Tips Not Just For Kids

How much fun did I have creating this little number?

I'm keeping these felt tip pens for myself:)

A cross between a map and a fun take on all the lovely stuff happening in Pangbourne. 

...just need to frame it now...