confetti by lexi

yoga birthdays, revisited

after a request for the yoga and yogurt birthday invitation i posted a couple of years ago, i realized i had never posted the two equally cute revisions i've created since. as i always say in my response emails, i create everything from scratch, so anything is customizable! usually, it's all about favorite colors, or coming up with wording specific to your activities or rhyming with a different name or age. but, i especially love when i've done little people and include hair and/or eye color to match the birthday child. for the invite on the right, for example, i was given a photo of the pigtailed birthday girl going down a slide in just that pose - the result is ella in yoga cartoon! i'm always up for a completely custom challenge, but sometimes a few changes are all you need to make it your own...

namaste!
:) lexi

starlight movie night

after sharing last weekend's backyard party yesterday, i realized that i never posted the one from last year. our eleventh hour brainstorm then was to rent an inflatable movie screen and have a movie party under the stars. for the invitation i designed a drive in movie style logo on a big screen, complete with retro frame details, stars, and concessions characters - "let's all go to concessions! let's all go to concessions!" i couldn't resist! i even included a few vertical static lines. remember those?!

the invitation design also lent itself well to creating some fun signage. in addition to the welcome sign above, i created others for concessions, the game room, the restroom, enter this way, and thank you for coming. like the banners yesterday, it was an easy element that helped set the scene and personalize the party. ferris bueller's day off was our special feature that night - the kids would stop and watch parts of it here and there, but it really ended up being background noise to the seventh graders more than anything else. although the two fifth graders watched it from start to finish despite the noise and flying objects - boys will throw anything!

you can't have a movie party without popcorn and candy, right? the movie screen company also had popcorn machines available to rent, so it was fresh and hot. as always the candy was a hit. gotta love the bulk choices at sam's - the display boxes they came in were perfect for the movie theater feel. other concessions included quesidillas made to order at the grill - yum!

and last, but not least, i created a popcorn cake. this is a remake of one i've made a couple of times before. it was silly to try to come up with something new. it's such a fun design - and easy, too! i love the added touch of using real popcorn with melted marshmallow to "fill" the container and have a couple of spilled pieces. so there you have it - another take on the back yard bash! and i'm finally sharing things from the very high "to post" pile...

goodnight!
:) lexi

surprise crawfish boil

sunday was my older daughter's 14th birthday, and like almost every year, it was a soccer tournament weekend and we had to wait for her game schedule to be released before making any birthday decisions. it didn't turn out to be a very good schedule, which left her unsure about what she wanted to do, if anything. so, while she was busy being disappointed and indecisive, i secretly took it out of her control and set about planning a last minute surprise back yard bash for saturday night after her game. i knew she'd be hungry and she loves crawfish, so a crawfish boil became my theme. i created the invites as a pic to be texted and sent it off to one of her friends to circulate. then i printed a few variations of it for decorations...

to set a crawfish table, all you really need is newspaper, which was the basis of my invite design. a few full legal copies of it were the perfect addition to our crawfish table for a fun personal touch!

half page print outs cut into flags, alternating with blue cardstock flags, made for a cute banner - and another perfect personal touch. a few uncut ones taped around in different places let the birthday girl see the complete invite she'd missed. don't you love that blue and red washi tape?

a party like this definitely needed a photo booth with fun props. i added another flag banner to my set up and used elements of the invite along with the same fonts and colors to create a logo style caption for the pics. i highly recommend sparkbooth for party photo booths. i love the personalization possibilities and how easy it is to set up and use. kids (and many adults) always have fun when i bring this out!

and last, but definitely not least, i even figured out how to perform surgery on swedish fish to make candy crawfish to embellish the cake (!!), with yet another little piece of the invite, in flag form, flying above. over all, the decorations, mainly created from the invite, really pulled everything together. plus, they were easy to hide and quick to assemble, so the birthday girl was very surprised even though i did it all right under her nose - yay!!

:) lexi

girl on fire

colleen is obsesssed! she started reading the first book when the movie craze began and happily finished in time to see the movie. and now, she wants a hunger games birthday party. nothing says party like a fight to the death, right? so i spent some time researching ideas, drawing images, and replicating logos to create the invite and set the scene. i was a "girl on fire" and just couldn't wait to share! but it's only a small peek. i'll have a complete look at everything when it's all said and done. may the odds be ever in your favor and...

happy hunger games!
:) lexi

flashback friday :: fiesta time!

tomorrow is cinco de mayo, so i thought it was a good day for a mexican fiesta invite, which is a great party theme any time of year. actually this is a combined from the stack/flashback post, with a take two at a fiesta invite from a few years ago. that one was for a ten year old birthday. this one for a one year old, with a few changes, like the "1" on the cactus and the green border on a one-layer card rather than the pinked edge of a second layer.

the first time around i also created a cake to match, with a flag, and stickers for the favor bags. posey's party was not local, so no cake, but i did create matching thank you notes. these are the three options i presented. any of which would make cute personalized stationery even if you're not throwing a fiesta.

happy cinco de mayo!
:) lexi

original post: november 24, 2008

it's still game time...

after posting the claw machine arcade party ensemble yesterday, i remembered this one from last year that had yet to be posted. it was for a rolling video truck party for the birthday boy, combined with a crawfish boil for the grown ups. a truck filled with video game systems rolls up to your location for an instant gaming party - pretty cool! the challenge was to create something equally as cool to set the stage. i love when customers ask me to go all out. i started off simply playing with a game style logo, which eventually led to the full blown game case.

a cardstock "cd" was the perfect spot for all of the party info - there's no need to use real ones, since it's really just for effect. the clips on the side were just right for the special parent offer, just like the real thing!

we even created a vip access lanyard for guests to gain access to the game truck. repeating the "game" logo and using the same colors are all it takes to pull together a perfectly coordinated ensemble. of course, some of my favorite details are the little things - "rated 8 is great" for miles' age, "merlin made" instead of nintendo, and the spine of the box. small realistic touches like that really make a spoof more interesting.

the last piece of the ensemble was the party favor, a fun tshirt. again, repeating the logo and other details really help pull it all together. i especially love the quote the client asked me to use! so there you have it, another take on the arcade party and another set of fun party papers to go with it.

game over!
:) lexi

let the fun begin...

i had so much fun with this little ensemble from the weekend that it gets to jump ahead of the stack! one of my return customers wanted to throw some kind of game night party for her daughter and i showed her mignon's 9th birhtday post for some inspiration. we had turned our family room into a "mini arcade," focusing on the new dance dance revolution for the wii that we had gotten for christmas that year, and borrowing several other games. the biggest hit was scoring a claw machine for the night. it turned out to be just the inspiration my client was looking for. so after she found a place to rent a claw machine, i created a paper one for the invite. i love fun drawing jobs like this!

we carried claw bits and pieces over to the favor bag sticker and a cd sticker for the birthday girl's party mix. "game on" from the invite is changed to "game over" for the favors!

and of course, a claw machine cake was necessary. i think i duplicated the paper one pretty nicely. and judging from the birthday girl's big smile when i delivered it, she thought so too!!

game on!
:) lexi

flashback friday :: hear ye! hear ye!

did you know that this week was princess week? the first annual princess week actually, brought to us by julie andrews, along with disney and target. of course, it's mostly a marketing opportunity to re-introduce princess movies and products to young audiences. but i like to let my inner sparkle shine, too, so why not? by lucky coincidence, i've noticed a little extra action on my princess invitation and cake posts lately, so what better time to flash back to them than princess week? i chose to showcase the princess ponies scroll invite above, since it's most recent and i love it. but it was hard to pick just one, so i'll link them all...

from my own princesses' parties

open the castle door!

a castle is pretty (tasty) in pink

another tasty castle

have a royal weekend!
:) lexi

step right up!

come one come all! i have yet another invite from the patiently waiting to be posted file - take two on an earlier amusement park ticket invite. not only is the original one of my personal favorites, it's also one of my most viewed and googled designs, which is how this customer found me. the added challenge was to play with the color scheme and add a little more sophistication fitting for a sweet sixteen. new words and red, black, and grey were just what it needed. the stack to the left is how many i had to print (a lot!), the slightly shorter stack to the right is an enclosure card with transportation details. this invite may be small in size, but it packs a lot of punch. six punches per card, in fact!

:) lexi

yoga & yogurt

finally!  one of the invitations from the stack on the desk.  the request was for a party at a yoga studio, ending with self serve yogurt just around the corner.  and so "yoga & yogurt" came to life. 

a couple of clean & zen inspiring fonts, plus a yoga mat, a girl, and of course, yogurt.  yummy yogurt!

i had so much fun drawing and tweaking this invite & thank you set.  and the birthday girl and her guests loved it too. 

strike a pose!
:) lexi

flashback friday :: hop on over

today i have a little bit of a different flashback friday.  instead of something i'd already posted, i have an invitation from the desk archives, something i never got around to posting.  this invitation was for an easter egg hunt last year.  i've been wanting to post it for two weeks now, but those peeps have been keeping me hopping!  you might recognize the little hiding bunny from yesterday's "you've been egged" sign - he was perfect for that job, too!

happy hunting!
:) lexi

backyard bash

today i have a fun recent creation to share, one of those designs that had me so excited as soon as i started working on it.  i decided to go with the basic idea of an old playbill or poster style invite and got so carried away playing with text and placement one evening that it was almost 2:00 in the morning before i noticed it.  sometimes creating is like reading a good book - i can't figure out where to stop and take a break!  i totally pay for it the next day, but when that happens, the results are usually among my favorites.  like this one!  i have a passion for fonts and love when words can take center stage in this way.  and i always enjoy drawing simple little images.  i look forward to creating something similar for a different theme - in fact, i may have to work up a few versions just to have on hand!

thanks for stopping by...
:) lexi

shop 'til you drop revisited

girls just wanna shop!  in the last month or so, i've created six of these mall scavenger hunt invitation ensembles, making it one of my top repeat designs.  one fun twist, above, was to create a purse to hold the contents rather than the original envelope bag.  i always love the opportunity to play with a favorite design and the purse was just that opportunity.  it also has my wheels turning, thinking of other fun ideas to make it new and different.

but that doesn't mean that i love the original stripe or zebra versions any less!  so if you're thinking of hosting a mall scavenger hunt, let me know.  and remember, anything can be changed to fit your style - wording, fonts, colors, etc.  i welcome the challenge...

happy shopping & dropping!
:) lexi

children's world's fair xiv

from time to time, i design logos and invitations for local schools and organizations.  the louisiana children's museum is at the top of my volunteer list, specifically the children's world's fair, a learning based fundraiser that they hold each spring.  i've worked on it almost since the beginning and was so excited when they brought it back last year, after a few years off following hurricane katrina.  i recently finished the design for this year's olympic themed fair, but had yet to see it in print, so it was a nice surprise when i received it in the mail last week!  i have to admit to suffering from severe designer's block when starting this one, but finally inspiration hit and it all came together - in fact, everything seems to have been coming together a little more quickly since.  and it's a good thing with how busy i've been - it seems like everyone is throwing parties right now!  anyway, if you're local with kids, this is definitely the place to be on march 10th, so check it out, mark your calendars, and...

let the games begin!
:) lexi

bounce! bounce! tumble, flop!

surprise it's not just another cake!  but it's not just an invitation either - it's an invitation with a cake to match!!  the request was for a gymnastics invitaton for twins, followed by a cake for the event a couple weeks later.  the invite is an oldie but goodie, perfect for twins since there are two kids on it.  and it turned out to be great inspiration for the cake...

so many little pieces of fondant to cut out, but the end result was worth it!  the boys loved it and i heard from several attendees that it was yummy too!

:) lexi

hats off to you!

after most away vacations, i get home needing to catch up on work and life, so it's taken me an extra week to get back to posting.  with graduation season looming, i thought i'd share a graduation invitation i created in december, but hadn't shared yet.  the request was for something simple and somewhat traditional, to include colors and possibly images of the school.  i love simple!  after creating the invite, i was inspired to create a personalized thank you note to match.

the invitation actually started off even simpler, with only the hat and the year.  and since i often give two choices in the first round of working with someone when they aren't exactly sure what they're looking for, i created the circles in the same color scheme.  in the end, she really wanted the school graphics, but both of these would look great in any school colors, don't you think?

:) lexi

40th photo flashback

the majority of invitation orders i get are for kids, which i love.  but it's fun to have some grown up challenges, too.  i don't know if this one qualifies as completely grown up though, since we were using a childhood picture, but it was for a grown up party!  the trick to this kind of full photo invitation is placing the text so that it doesn't interfere too much with the image.  while the words are going to cover parts of the image, you want to place them so that they are not competing with the features in the photo to distraction.  it's also important to make sure the photo doesn't overpower the words--everyone needs to clearly know who, what, when, and where!

:) lexi

a blue ribbon birthday

the end of last week turned into cake-week, with two days in a row making cakes.  my kitchen was a mess of sugar, butter, and best of all cake scraps!  this one was created to look like the invitation for the party, pictured above--twin vs. twin in a field day face off!

the ribbon was fairly easy to construct, although a little tricky to ice in a few places, like where the blue ribbon meets at the circle and the ribbon cuts at the bottom.  a great plus to the cake is that it's easy to do both yellow and chocolate cake, because the top is a two layer round cake, and the bottom is cut from two square layers.  options are good--a slice of each for me, please!

in addition to the cake, i also created cup stickers and iron-on tshirt transfers.  i love those details that pull it all together!!

:) lexi

meet you at the mall!

back in november, i posted a shop 'til you drop mall scavenger hunt invitation.  since then, i've gotten several requests for it and see it googled often in my stats.  it immediately became one of my favorite designs, and i'm happy to see that others love it too.  as with all of my invites, since i make them from scratch, they are completely customizable.

for example, this customer requested different wording and preferred zebra print to the stripes of the original.  but the changes don't have to stop there!  if you'd rather see something else in the bag, i can do that too.  maybe you want the items in a purse instead of a bag.  or how about a wallet?  the possibilities are as great as our combined imagination!

:) lexi

glee!

i have so much fun with my girls' birthday parties every year, but this year's glee theme for my now 12 year old was so timely and perfect for her group of girls that it was even more fun than ever!  i used a graphic i found online for the invitation, photoshopping the birthday girl right into the middle of it.  i opted for simple wording, using a font that matches the glee logo, letting the pictures take center stage.

before you even get to the cute invite, i like setting the tone on the envelope with fun details to generate a little excitement.  it was the perfect place to add a slushee, spilling out of the cup, of course!  and since we took several gleek shots of mignon trying to get the perfect one above, i created a personalized sticker with a different image to seal it all shut.

decorations included a sign outside greeting the party girls to william mckinley high school, as well as various posters hung around the party space.  i even found a map of mckinley high that i posted in a few places, highlighting the classrooms and characters around school.  these were both helpful when they were taking a glee trivia test, which was the first of several activities...

the glee trivia (how gleeky are you?!) was a freebie found online--i simply changed the header to include the birthday girl's picture in order to match my other printables.  luckily it comes with an answer key!  another great online find was glee bingo--delivered right to my email inbox, and super easy to print and play.  the bingo markers? cheerios, of course!  we played one round until we had several winners to give little prizes to.  the fan favorite was a slushee facial "game" which involved throwing water slushees (water + snowball ice) into each other's faces, while they tried to protect their clothing behind a big box.  the main event was a sing off, using the glee karaoke revolution for wii.

anyone interested in singing in the karaoke sing off signed up at the beginning of the party.  i love that they signed up as their characters, especially when the first rachel asked for a gold star to mimic the real rachel!

munchies and treats consisted of do-it-yourself slushees (for drinking only!), including personalized "big quench" cups and red twizzler straws, tator tots from the mckinley high cafeteria (mercedes demanded them!), and fruit for a little balance.  it was also pizza day in the cafeteria.

for dessert and song, we had the L hand cake from monday's post and big quench cupcakes.  i wish i could take credit for the cupcakes, but they were another online find--google is invaluable when planning almost any themed party!  the directions included a freebie label, but i decided to create my own, similar but with the addition of a personalized birthday logo!

and finally, at the end of the night the girls were given a few glee-ful treats to take home in a cup with another gleeky sticker--nerds & pop rocks (both very fitting!), hand signs pencil toppers, and a trophy from regionals, along with a couple of official glee accessories from claire's.  the prizes for the games were glee key chains, also from claire's, plus a few extra glee bands. 

i followed it all up the next day with one last keepsake--a collage of all the gleeks at the party, made to match the invite!  it was so much fun, i want to do it all over again!!

gleek-fully yours,
:) lexi