Movie Party - Part 1, the Invite

We hosted Bug's Birthday Party last weekend - thought I'd share with you some of what we did...

First the theme: A night at the movies.

It was supposed to be a day at the movies, we were going to take her and 10 of her friends to the movies. But as it turns out the local theater that hosts birthday parties, wasn't going to have a kids movie that weekend. For some reason they were the only theater in the area that didn't have Toy Story 3. And we didn't find this out 'till 3 weeks before the party. (Despite me reserving the day 2 months earlier!!!)

That really left us no choice but to host the party on the party at our house...

So we set out to transform our basement into a movie theater - we set the tone with the invitation.

I designed this is photoshop and then just had it printed at Ritz photo on matte paper as a 5x7 photo. Usually when I do invites I print them through zazzle or vistaprints, but given our time frame, doing the 5x7 photo was really the only choice.

Budding photographer

My son has been drawn to all things electronic, we're constantly finding remotes, phones, camera's in locations with new settings.

I was delighted to find this photo while going through the camera tonight.

That is TJ's "buddy" - his pound puppy that he has slept with and dragged all over this house for at least 2 of his 3 years... He loves buddy, he can't live without him, but some day he will live without buddy and we'll have this adorable picture of buddy through TJ's eyes. Our little budding photographer, or should I say "buddy photographer."

When Holiday Cards Go Wrong

I used to torture Bug with trying to stage adorable Christmas Cards. She decided to torture me by not cooperating.

So.... I decided to torture her back, by created these lovely "B-List" cards. Only one of them ever actually got printed, but don't worry, it was sent with an adorable version as well.

 

 

 

To be fair, she is hardly ever that much of a sour puss...  here are a few to prove it.

 

 

And my favorite ever...

*sigh*

 

Crayon Crazy

A little over a week ago, I went to Eastern Market in DC and fell in love with... well, I fell in love with everything. I'm lucky Eastern Market is about an hour away and not very easy to park around otherwise I could get into trouble.

But one thing in particular that I fell in love with what a photo that I thought would have been perfect for the kids play room. It was of a fresh pack of crayons, spiraled out in a circle with all the tips pointed to the center. The problem, it was $250 - that was the "sale" price. What was particularly annoying is that the expensive part was the frame, which I couldn't have cared less about, but the vendor wouldn't separate them.

So, I decided to create it myself.

And now - a disclaimer. I suck at photography. I know it, I accept it, I live with it. We don't have the best camera, I don't even know what to buy that would be an upgrade. I just don't have the energy.

I decided to give it a go anyway, and I'm really pleased with what I came up with. Since my camera isn't a super duper 27 mega-pixel thing, or whatever the latest technology is, I knew I wouldn't be able to take a very large single picture that would have enough presence. So I opted for 3 different photos.

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

And here they are one by one:



My favorite view:

So I ended up with 3 photos, instead of 1, for a lot less money.

Crayons - Free, thank you Birthday Party goody bag
3 - 11x14 photo prints (that I cropped to 11x11 each) $36
3 Frames - $36 thanks to 40% off frames
Craft paper for faux mattes - free, already had it.
Total: $72 plus 2-3 hours to take, pick up, crop and hang the photos.

Edited to add: If anyone is interested in recreating this on their own, I have the original photographs that I'd be happy to send to you for you to print and do with whatever you want.