Giraffe + Elephant Thank You's

I added these cuties to the shop recently.

A friend of mine from the far away land of Baltimore, contacted me 

earlier this year to do some custom Thank You's for her to send out 

after her baby shower. 

I knew that she was doing elephants in her nursery as well as gray and yellow. I sat down in my living room and started messing around with some watercolors and was having so much fun!

I had created a couple different versions but in the end, we liked the chevrons and confetti the best.

We couldn't decide on which we liked more so we decided to print both! 

{Perfect compromise!}

I love how they turned out. They are one of my favorite items!

I think that they would be super cute party invitations too. 

{Add that to the to-do list!}

The Thank You's are available in an 8 card set {with pretty gray envelopes} or as individual cards here and here.

Pink, Grey, and Glitter Shower

{Invitation Design}

Pink, Grey, and Glitter...Oh My!

Some family members and I hosted a baby shower for my expecting sister-in-law at the beginning of this month. We wanted it to have a soft and feminine feel without being too baby-ish. Instead of filling the space with bottles and binkies, we chose to fill it with florals and glitter. 

If you ask Lauren her favorite color it will be gray every time... so we took that and added the pink and the gold. We tried to add details in all the right areas and I think it turned out beautifully.

::INVITATIONS::

I did hand drawn water color illustrations for the invitations {pictured above} and also carried the look through out the rest of the print pieces. 

To be honest it was the first time I picked up a paint brush in a very long time! I had SO much fun messing around with paints again! I can't wait to get into them again!

To add a little "bling" to the invitations I bought spray glitter {who knew you could buy a can of spray glitter?...not me. From Michael's} and with the help of my wonderful husband we put a very subtle dusting of glitter on each invite. BUT that wasn't enough glitter! So I added a gold glitter belly band! I bought a roll of gold glitter wrapping paper from Michael's {which was cheaper than buying sheets of glitter scrapbook paper} and cut them into 1" strips and used double stick tape to connect the ends.

The envelopes are from Paper Source in the color gravel. The envelopes were hand written in white gel pen!

{Centerpieces}

::CENTERPIECES::

We used mason jars for the centerpieces. We spray painted the bottoms in gold {which I don't think we necessarily had to do} and then covered the bottom in glue, then poured on the glitter! {You better believe that there will be glitter all over my mother-in-law's house for weeks to come!} The jars were filled with pink gerbera daisies and white mini roses from our local Whole Foods. {One of my favorite places to get flowers.}

{Place Settings}

{Garland}

::PLACEMATS, CONFETTI + GARLAND::

We purchased scrapbook paper in different patterns and colors {grey + pink}  from Michael's and used it for placemats as well as confetti and a festive garland! {We had some left over and made it into a necklace for the mommy-to-be}

{Confetti + Straws with flags}

{Silverware}

::WRAPPED SILVERWARE::

We started off with grey napkins from Ikea and added a strip of pink burlap, layered with a piece of gold polka dotted scrapbook paper, and topped off with a strand of gold sequins! {All hot glued together...ouch!}

{Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes}

{Best Bruschetta Recipe...ever}

{Cake Pops made my my Sister-in-law, Rachel}

::BEVERAGE STATION::

We purchased these super cute glass bottles from Ikea. {Everyone was asking where they were from.} I used a gold sharpie to label them. Which didn't really work that well, I probably needed some kind of paint marker.

We purchased the grey + white striped straws from Etsy and then I added the custom flags. The water bottle labels were designed to match the rest of the shower with water color details.

{Beverage Station}

{Water Bottle Labels}

::FAVORS::

The favors were made by the mommy-to-be's sister. They are reused baby food jars! {How appropriate!} She made both Vanilla and Sage & Citrus. She topped them with fabrics that matched the shower and a little bit of natural twine. I designed the labels to match the rest of the shower! {They look very cute sitting on my kitchen windowsill at the moment!}

{Candle Favors}

{Words of Wisdom Tip Book}

{Diaper Cake made by mommy-to-be's mother}

{Gift from me and my sister-in-law. The cute tag is a Penelope Poppy design!}

OH and the shower won Project of the Week at Project Nursery!

{Thanks to all who voted this week!}

**Photography by Lauren Armstrong Photography**

Fresh.

I have two fresh & new designs that just launched on minted.com in the past couple of weeks! Go check them out!

{Simply Baby}

{Up, up and away!}

The moving announcement was actually the one I designed for my husband and I when we moved into our first home last summer!

Sprinkle

I was asked to put something together quickly for a co-worker's *sprinkle* that we are going to throw in April. Just a simple e-vite to send out to the office. I think it's pretty cute.

Pete is having a little boy, due in early May.

They are doing his nursery in a woodland creatures theme + owls, hence the little owl at the top of the invite.

Hope he is surprised!

Shower Invites on Minted

It has been really exciting these past couple of months being a part 

of the Minted community! 

It is so fun to see my designs up on the site for sale!

Two Penelope Poppy designs won in the February Showers Challenge 

and they are now available online!

 Urban Baby

Sweet n' Chic

I also have 4 wedding invitations for sale and there is a Thanksgiving card coming to the site soon! 

Check out the rest of Penelope Poppy's collection on Minted!

Sock Monkey Baby Shower

My little sister is pregnant with her first baby!

I threw her a baby shower this past Saturday. Planning this shower has been my life since November. I lived + breathed "Sock Monkey" for 5 months!

We decided to do a Sock Monkey theme because my sister LOVES monkeys!
Her entire guest bathroom is literally filled with them, I'm talking toilet seat cover, toothbrush holder....the whole deal! Her and her hubby are also doing a monkey theme in the nursery {of course}. I loved the color palette that we could do with a Sock Monkey themed shower...the red + chocolate brown + cream is such a modern palette compared to your old school baby blue.

I designed the invitation to fit a #10 envelope. I thought it was nice to see something that wasn't your typical 5x7.

It is safe to say that I probably bit off more {a lot more} than I could chew.
I had so many ideas and wanted to do all of them! I am really thankful for the late night craft session that went down at my place the weekend before. My mom, aunts and cousins came to the rescue!

I came across Sock Monkey sugar cookies in my search for all things Sock Monkey and I just HAD to make them! Now...please note that I have never worked with royal icing before and it was SO much harder than I anticipated. At one point I had a total melt down and said to my hubby "I HATE doing things that I'm not good at!" -haha.

However, I got through it and was pleased with their outcome even though most of the monkeys looked a little sad because there mouths kept running...making little frowns. I also decided to make them cookie "pops" which I had never done but they came out perfect.
{there were only a few casualties}

Our favors doubled as the center piece. The favors were "candy kabobs" -consisting of swedish fish and bulls eyes {I never knew they had a name....I just called them caramels with the icing middle}.

I decoupaged pots with different kinds of coordinating scrap book paper and we stuck the kabobs in the pots using floral foam. For added monkey-ness, I added big Sock Monkey cut-outs on skewers in the middle.

A few of my favorite things:

Super cute polka dot balloons that I found on amazon.

This HUGE stuffed Sock Monkey head that I actually found at Big Lots!

And my sister of course!
I am so excited for the arrival of my first nephew, Brody Alexander!
{Due April 20, 2011}


The Sock Monkey invitations are also now for sale in my Etsy shop!