Make do and mend: bubble birthday card.

Yesterday, in amongst a day of tidying and toddler grouping (going to one, not rounding them up!), I managed to make Torin's birthday card from David and me. I based it on the same design as the invitations I made for his party (these ones); this time I simply added a cut out number 2 instead of writing directly onto the card like I did with the invitations, and fixed it onto the front of the card using the same sticky pads I used to stick the bubble onto the card.

From this picture it's a little hard to see that the bubble and the 2 are raised up using the sticky pads, but I hope you get the idea.

Hope you all have a great weekend, and I’ll be back next week with some pictures of the party (fingers crossed for good weather)!

Make do and mend: bubble cake toppers.

Yesterday I spent a little bit of time making some simple cake toppers for the fairy cakes my mum's making for Torin's birthday party. I'm not sure how many cakes she's planning on making, so I made about 30 cake toppers, all in the shape of bubbles to go along with the bubble theme we're having at the party.

These are the finished ones:

They were so simple to make - I found some plain circular labels, drew around the circumferences with a blue felt-tipped pen and then drew a little shape to make it look like a bubble.

I then stuck a sticker either side of a cocktail stick and voilà - 30 bubble cake toppers! I think they'll look great on the fairy cakes as mum's going to ice them in white and blues.

It's coming along . . .

Hope you all had a good weekend! David took Torin out for the afternoon on Saturday so I could get on with painting the dining room - I wanted to do some more before Torin's birthday party this weekend and I managed to paint two walls. I doubt I'll finish the room by Saturday, but at least I've covered up some of the areas where I used tester pots on the walls!

Here are some before and after shots to show you what I got up to:

Before

This is the top part of the wall that is on the right as you enter our dining room - you can just see the entrance into the living room in the bottom left corner. You can see where David painted down onto the wall while he was painting the ceiling white - I like to do this as it creates a neater finish when painting the walls - it ensures there are no gaps, and it's fine to do if you are going to paint over it with a darker colour.

Can you see that the ceiling in here is wallpapered? The ceilings were already like it when we moved in, and as our walls are plain, I don't mind it too much. It's one of those things that we would ideally change, but in the meantime, at least it's nicer than artex!

After

Here's the same bit of wall - much better don't you agree? The wall is painted in Dulux's Gooseberry Fool 5.

Before

Here's a shot of the walls around the dining room door (you can see where I took the previous picture in the top left corner). We recently replaced the door as the existing one contained dangerous glass panels, which we felt was too much of a hazard with Torin around. As you can see, we've primed but haven't yet painted the door, or the surround - I like to do all the gloss work when I've finished with the emulsion.

After

And the same area looking much much neater after I'd given it 2 coats of emulsion. You can see I've painted onto the door surround a little, but I'm not worried about that as it'll be covered over with gloss soon.

Hopefully I'll be able to get this finished soon, and then I'll show you pictures of the completed living room and dining room.

Can't stop looking at . . .

Each week, I'll be sharing with you something that has caught my eye. It may be a picture, blog, product or website.

The work of Wendy Harrison of Letterfest, these personalised prints are hand-drawn and based upon a picture provided by the customer. 

Image from here.

I first saw these personalised prints on Notonthehighstreet.com a while ago, but recently they have re-captured my eye as I think I may try my hand at doing something similar for my grandmother's birthday which is coming up in June. I'll show you how I get on!

Make do and mend: bubble theme party invitations.

I mentioned here that Torin turns 2 next weekend! That leaves me with a week to sort out his party. We're just inviting family and close friends, so there's not too much pressure, but I do want to make it a special event for him. I've decided on a bubble theme as he loves blowing bubbles at the moment, and yesterday I made his invitations - yes, leaving it a little late I know, but all of the guests have already confirmed that they are coming anyway.

Here's the finished article - what do you think?

As I was making them all by hand, I wanted to keep the invitations simple, but personal and indicative of the bubble theme. I'm really pleased with how they've turned out!

Here's how I made them:

Using cream card stock (the same size as the invitation), I drew around a jar lid with a blue coloured pencil. This formed the outline of the bubble.

Using the same coloured pencil, I then created a thicker outline around the edge of the bubble and drew the wobbly shape that formed the patch of reflected light (to make it actually look like a bubble!). 

Again, with the same pencil I then lightly shaded around the inside of the thick outline of the bubble, and around the edge of the wobbly shape.

I then wrote "Torin is Two" onto the invitation using a free font that I had copied from the internet (available here).

I attached the bubble to the front of the invitation using little sticky pads. I find it really helpful to use tweezers when applying the pads, as they are more precise than my fingers!

Each invitation took about 20 minutes to make, so I'm glad Torin's not having loads of guests! Having said that though, I did enjoy making them, and I'll probably base Torin's birthday card on the same design.

I'm still working on the ideas for decorations and food, but I will share those details with you when I've sorted everything out!