Here's a custom Christmas card I did for our friends two years ago. If you haven't decided on cards yet, here's your chance to snag a free one! If you have Photoshop, this should be a snap. If you don't, download the .jpg file and you can insert your photo using Word or a free photo editing program. After you've inserted your photo, you'll need to include your name. I used the typeface "Oil Can" from Lost Type, which is a pay-what-you-want website.
 

 I hope you're able to make good use of this free download!  The first one is a phone wallpaper.  I designed a very similar one 2 years ago (you can find it here) and so I made a sister design to go with it.
   

Simply click the download link, save the image to your phone and go to Settings>Wallpaper.

Invites designed by me, styled by @sarahjlarsen

I thought long and hard about what theme to use for Arden's 1st birthday.  Since she's always been my happy, sunshine baby I originally thought of a yellow party.  And then the whole Arden's Garden idea popped in my head and well, I LOVE a good pun.  A big thanks to Tai Pan Trading for helping me pull this party off, since October isn't really the most prime time to throw a garden party.  They still had the perfect garden related options for me, as well as the best white dishes around!

I designed the invites and went from there in terms of color and style.  I wanted the party to be a little less rustic and a bit more mod, so I paired the graphic veggies with a modern typeface.  I included a tomato encouraging guests to bring canned foods to be donated, in lieu of gifts.

I made the turnip garland from ornaments found at Tai Pan.  It's a toss up between the garland and the cake for what I think makes the whole table.  Or is it the cookies?  I love it all so much.  That amazing cake was made by Dolce Bella by Erin.  I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said it was the best cake I've ever had.  And those cookies?  Yes, those are The Alison Show's infamous sugar cookies and yes they taste even better than you're imagining.

I picked up a few grocery store bouquets and some buckets from the dollar store.  Not bad for $15 worth of flowers right?

I set up a little potting station for the kids to make a bean plant.  I love bean plants because they sprout so quickly.  I used this project as party favors for all the mini guests.  I love having an activity double as a favor!

Inspired by Caravan Shoppe's table coverings, I created these large coloring pages to cover the kid tables.  I printed these at Staples...their engineer prints are large and super cheap.  I was so surprised how much Arden loved coloring!  She spent a lot of time at that table.

We served mini sliders on pretzel buns, since Arden's favorite food is meat.  I also had other fruit and veggie options for everyone to snack on!

As much as I LOVE decorating for parties, I love gathering with my friends even more. We were so lucky to have so many friends come celebrate Arden!

Turnip Ornaments, Metal Buckets, Veggie Dishes, White Platters, Orange Pants: Tai Pan

Arden's Birthday Dress: Dream Catcher Baby

Cake: Dolce Bella by Erin

Cookies and Expert Party Suggestions: The Alison Show

Invitations and Printables: Collected (me)

When I was in high school, Stef and I used to harmonize to the song "Goin' to the Chapel". And now she really is going the chapel! I loved working with Stef and Alex on their wedding invites. I only wish I could be there because they are going to have an evening full of great music.

For months I had an idea brewing for our holiday card. We moved and had a baby in the same year so I thought it might be a great idea to combine everything into one. I decided to hand letter most of the card and then chose images from my Instagram account. And of course with the craziness of the holidays, I took forever to decide on where to print them. I really thought they needed to be letterpressed so I worked with Rowley Press again. I can never say enough good things about working with Leland! I'm really happy with these and was so happy that they (finally) made it to our friends' and families' homes!

One of my main goals when I plan parties for my kids is to make sure the party really fits their little personalities.  Rilo has recently become "obsessed with gum"...her words, not mine!  Sometimes I'm mortified because it's often the first thing she asks for upon seeing someone.  So the gumball idea worked!  I used the tubes of gum balls from Kara's Party Ideas as the color inspiration.  I liked the rainbow color theme because Rilo says that every color is her absolute favorite.  She can't pick just one to save her life!
 
I also used the gumball tubes as inspiration for the invitations.  I used the colorful dots all throughout the invites and party.  I cut out a little bit of honeycomb paper to make a popup "gumball" when you opened up the invite.  Then I put them in a bright pink envelope, sealed it with rainbow washi tape and then placed it in a small red box.  And just for added flair, I threw in a few gum balls in the box.  More tape, a tag and some string and they were finished!
 

 
I'm not much of cake maker or decorator so I asked The Mighty Baker to make the cake and macarons for me.  The salted caramel buttercream filling was SO good.  I'm still eating that delicious cake...it's worth not losing that baby weight.  I wanted to keep this party pretty simple, so I ordered some 5" honeycombs, and filled a few glass jars with gum balls and called it good!
 

I created a gum ball craft with dot paints and pom pom balls and a few of the kids played Pin the Gum on the Gumball Machine.

For the food, I had circle shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids, and a build your own sandwich bar for the adults.  Rainbow goldfish, veggie chips and a rainbow fruit and veggie platter rounded out the food.  We sang happy birthday and had cake and ice cream!
 

 
Thanks to Kayti from @thebeyoutybureau for this cute photo of Rilo blowing our her candles!
 

I sent the guests home with a gumball tube and a goodie bag with a mini colored pencil set, Hi chews and little smiley face stickers!

I loved this little party and most importantly my Rilo Jane loved it too!  Here is my big 4 year old, in all her cheesy smile glory!

 
Sources:

Cake and macarons- The Mighty Baker

Plates, cups, straws, favor bags, confetti balloon- Shop Sweet Lulu

Gumball tubes, party hats and other party favors-Kara's Party Ideas

Honeycomb paper- Devra Party Corp

5" Honeycomb Tissue Circles- Factory Direct Party

We haven't had family photos since Yan took photos of us when Rilo was just over a year old.  I can't believe I let that much time go by!  Yan came to our house before Christmas, so we could capture Arden while she was still little.  I love every single one of these images.  They just feel like "us".  I told Yan, she better be planning on taking photos when she's old, because she's the only one for me.  She is magic!

I found these great pirate patches in packs of 4 in the party section of Target. Rilo loves to dress up lately and has loved Jake and the Neverland Pirates so I felt like this worked!

You can download this file below!  You can cut out little notches so you can wrap the elastic around twice, or just use wash tape on the backside!

My little boy Collier is turning 2 next week!  Since he was 4 months old, he has loved to jump.  He'd jump on your lap, on the floor and in his jumper toy.  When he's upset, we tell him to jump it out.  And when he's excited, well he jumps then too!  So it only felt fitting that we have a jump party for his second birthday!  I wanted to do an interactive invitation, with an image of Collier jumping around.  It took 2 prototypes until I was able  to get something to work, but here's what I came up with!

If you want to see a video of it in action, you can find me on Instagram (@collectedblog). And contact me if you'd like to work together on a project: bri@collectedblog.com!