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Friday, June 22, 2012

Kalia's First Birthday Party : Chalk Signs

I showed you the fabric heart I did yesterday.  I mentioned that my vision for the fabric heart was to use it as a photo booth.

I not only wanted to capture pictures of the guests, but I also wanted them to be able to write messages to Kalia as well.  It'll be a lot of fun to look back at these years down the road.  So next up on the project list was chalk signs!

Lucky me, we had an old dresser that had seen much better days and was on it's way out to the street.  We pulled out the drawers to take some of the weight off, and a lightbulb went of in my head.  (Yes Dad, that happens every now and then).  I needed thin wood to make my chalkboard signs for the party, and the bottom of the dresser was made with thin wood.  Score!!

I took apart the dressers and drew out my various shapes onto the wood.


And then got to cutting with my jig saw.


After I cut out all of my shapes...


(no in process pictures from here on, sorry!  naptimes were flying by!), I did two layers of chalk paint over each of them.

My sister in law has a whole lot prettier hand writing, so she wrote a message for the guests instructing them what to do with the chalk signs and the photo wall.


We left out some chalk, and left my point and shoot camera sitting on the table.


I taped balloons to the ceiling so that the photo wall felt more secluded, and then added curling ribbon to the bottoms of the balloons.  So much cheaper than using helium balloons! I added the accordion scrap paper things in the background after doing some test shots and deciding the wall was missing something.  The guests did the rest.


I cut out one of the signs to look like a stop sign and hung it from Kalia's playroom with rules on it.  We've had some not fun experiences with those mats and food and shoes!


I also used a sign to tell guests where to leave the gifts.  I'll show the full decor later, but for now, here's a cropped shot of the gifts sign :


So what do you think of my photo wall?  We had fun with it, and I know those pictures will be so fun to look back at one day!

While I'm on the topic of pictures, thanks so much to Erin and Chris for gifting Kalia with photographing her first Birthday party.  They take such great pictures, and did an amazing job capturing all of the details and moments so Chris and I could just enjoy the celebration!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  More Birthday posts coming soon!

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4 comments:

  1. So cute. Lots of love definitely went into that party and I can't wait to see more. Don't you love when an idea strikes like that? Makes life so much easier.

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  2. What a cool idea! Other things I have learned through the years with my kids birthdays. . .get a picture of them in/on a piece of furniture you plan to *always* have (it's not too late to start!). . .if you're going to keep the birthday cards, write the gift that came with it on the back of the card (it's fun to look back and remember that "oh yea, Pa gave you that bib!"). . .set the traditions now and I promise you, they will not forget -- and will expect them -- in the years to come. Capturing the notes and people who attended her party the way you did was a super-great idea! They grow up, we grow old. . .
    Oh, and I saw the bestest idea on Pinterest the other day -- taking a toddler-sized table and covering it with chalk paint. Even though my youngest is 8 I think the kids will like it and I have an old "snack table" they used to use that I think I'm going to do it with. Just an idea as Kalia gets older and starts to want to color everywhere. . .:)

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  3. Newest follower from The Girl Creative. Great idea. Getting ready to plan a first bday too. Thanks for the ideas. Love for you to stop by and follow back when you get a chance.

    www.thenaptimereview.com

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  4. This is so creative! Would you come over to Cast Party Wednesday and share it with us? Thanks, I hope to see you there! ---Sheryl @ Lady Behind The Curtain--- http://www.ladybehindthecurtain.com/?p=30929

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