Amazing Autumn

I've already told you how much I love fall so I will get right to it! A-Manda Creation has a beautiful new fall kit called "Amazing Autumn"  that you can get here.  How gorgeous are these colors?

Here are my layouts. The first one uses Sensational Scraps Vol. 2 Template by Keystone Scraps.

This one uses Getaway Templates by Memories by Digital Designs.

Bushels of Fun

Having recently moved to the midwest I am embracing all things fall.  One of our favorite fall activities (there are so many good ones) is apple picking.  Last fall I was determined to fit apple picking into the schedule before my due date with our second daughter. I had told my oldest we will get a pumpkin, go apple picking, and then her baby would come.  Those were more concrete examples than telling her the baby was due October 24th.  I was scheduled for a c-section on Wednesday the 19th of October so we knew time was running out and planned to go apple picking on our last available weekend.  Friday the 14th, even though I wasn't feeling great we drove a few hours north to the Wisconsin border.  As we started walking around the orchard I started feeling very crampy.  Since it was still 10-15 minutes apart we kept picking.  When we finished I decided that we should probably skip the rest of the activities and head home.  We also wanted to swing by and get our stroller while we were up north because the taxes would be cheaper.  The way we took was full of construction and we were down to one lane traffic.  I realized the cramps were really contractions and they were about 6 minutes apart.  As we got to the exit to get the stroller we realized they were about 2-3 minutes apart. I called the hospital who said come right in... that would have been fine if we were at home but we were still at least an hour away!  We vetoed stopping for the stroller and headed in.  Our sweet Kinsey Sloane was born that evening!  So apple picking is even more special now! 
A-Manda Creation has an awesome apple picking kit called "Bushels of Fun" that you can pick up in her store here. 

She also has another kit called Apple Picking if you need even more apple fun! 

It was so fun to take my apple baby apple picking this year!  Hard to believe she was almost 1!

I used Template Pack 19 from AK Designs for this layout!

Look at this adorable outfit Kinsey got for her first birthday?  Can you tell Mommy works at an elementary school? How precious? I just had to take a ton of pictures!  This layout uses the October Template Challenge Template by Karen Diamond Designs that you can pick up here at SNP.  Hurry over you have a couple of days to enter this challenge!

 

I rarely use the same kit in the same book or at least with the same child but I love this kit so much I had to use it again! So fun!!!

 

Party Printables!

I love birthday parties! I thought I used to do a good job with birthday parties until I discovered making my own printables.  I saw Amanda of A-Manda Creation speak about printables at a scrap retreat earlier this year and was inspired.  She does amazing things like decorate her boys rooms with her kits, make gifts, candy wrappers for Valentine's, Father's Day Subway art and gifts, Cute Thanksgiving Printables, Santa Gift Tags, and much much more!  So I mentioned to her that my daughter's first birthday was going to be themed after her favorite little mouse that owns a bow shop...and if she felt inspired could she make a kit.  She did and it is GORGEOUS! I just love "Bow-tique" Don't you?

You can get it here in Amanda's store.  So I might have gone a little crazy using this kit to make printables!  First I made her invitation...

And printed them at Costco.  I love their printing services!  So cheap and they looked great!  On to the party! I made bag toppers for the goodie bags... I needed big bags to fit the goodies so these were huge!  I used the little mirror elements to add one of Kinsey's 1st birthday pictures to the bag toppers.

(Her pictures were taken by Jennifer of Greyberry Photography. Love her!)

I also made little menu cards for each of the foods we served. We went with kid friendly fare and themed them all based off of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so we had Mickey's Meatball Panini's, Pluto's Hot Dogs, Goofy Juice, Coca Loca's Cupcakes, Pete's Pop, etc...

 

We even had Goofy Juice... I made wraps for the juice boxes out of papers for the kit and found a fun Goofy font!  According to Amanda you can wrap ANYTHING! (I did learn though that you should take the straws off and glue them on the back after wrapping if you want your cute wraps to stay on. I figured this out about 10 juice boxes in)

 

I also made centerpieces.  I found a bunch of ideas on Pinterest and combined them all. I used the kit to make all of the little circles to add to the pots with her name and 1's and little Minnies.  How cute!

 

 This last touch is where I think my whole family realized I had gone off the deep end.  I also made wraps for the water bottles that said "Happy Birthday Kinsey"

I had designed a banner but ran out of time to get it printed up so it didn't make it to the party but I think we had more than enough to make it AMAZING!
I love that now I don't have to spend a fortune on things at the Party Store and it can be completely personalized to my party!!! My oldest is already asking what we are going to do for her "Bee-Day Party" theme for her 4th birthday! How cute is that?  I've already recruited a designer to design her kit... Here's a peek at "Happy Bee-Day" by Designs by Snowlady!

Come back tomorrow for a look at the printables I made for the baby shower I threw for a co-worker two days before Kinsey's party... yep I took on two major events at my house in one week!!!