Super Mario Invitations

Hi friends!

I am so sorry for being a little MIA lately - I have been hard at work getting our house in order as well as putting in some time designing a bunch of awesome new party packages for a few clients of mine!

Although I can't wait to share some of the pictures with you from those, right now our household if fully focused on our favorite about-to-be-7 year old :) 

This adorable little man:

And no, that was not a special  night that required dressing up - this guy just loves to look good ;) What you can't tell, is that he has turned into quite the little gamer this year, with Super Mario Bros quickly becoming his favorite, so having a super mario party was a bit of a no brainer.

I kind of tossed out the idea of a slumber party (with the lure of late-night gaming) because I think Jason and I can both agree that with three kids, we are tired of tossing out the cash it takes to go to one of the big party places. This solution is either genius or completely crazy - I guess we will just have to wait and see which one, ha!

The invitation are finally out, and I am over the moon with how they turned out! Jason and I were tossing around ideas for the concept when he suggested a mushroom the folded open. Light bulbs went off, and I instantly knew what our design had to be :: a fold out invitation that showcased the game itself. 

The invitation is double sided and intended to be folded, accordian style:

I LOVE how they turned out! I think (hope!) they really capture the spirit of the game and some of the most loved characters. 

I love to make our invitations really special, because I think it's a great way to get guests (especially little ones!) excited about a party, so I decided to box these up individually (I used gift card boxes from the dollar store) and threw in some chocolate coins as well. Since I wanted the chocolate coins to look like the ones from the game, I printed up some images and punched them out and glued them to the sides of the coins. 

We also included a small note that explained it was a sleepover as well in the bottom of the box. From there I layered the invites like this:

I also created some address label wraps to coordinate with it:

Other than that, I have to admit that we have absolutely NOTHING for this party in two weeks! (aside from a semi-plan)

Let the Mario madness begin :)

xo,

Rachel

Snowflake Party :: Invitations

Hello :)

We enjoyed our first snow day here, and while the big guy of the house is shoveling the driveway (for the second time today, ha!) I wanted to finally share with you the invitations that I sent out for Cayden's snowflake party. 

As I mentioned before, she had planned on having an ice cream party up until a couple of months ago, so I already had the whole thing planned: it was going to be girly, a little shabby-chic with an eclectic mix of prints, and lots of chalkboard details. When she decided that snowflakes was going to be her theme (hey, at least it's more season appropriate!), I knew a lot of the ideas I already had would be carried over. 

{You can see how I made the lined envelopes HERE}

Our little girl is pretty terrified of any new place and especially dressed up characters, so the party is being held at our home with a surprise gift of a petting zoo & pony. Since it's still pretty cold up here, I wanted to give the parents a heads up and include a small note that told them to dress warmly. 

I also made a back design for this one: 

And because every party needs a little sparkle and fun, we added snowflake confetti to the envelopes:

A little bit of washi tape, and the envelopes were sealed and ready to be delivered! 

xo,

Rachel

Gingerbread Party

Happy Monday!

 

I'm excited to share with you the "sweet" little party we threw this weekend for just a handful of our children's friends. I knew that we just wouldn't have the time to throw an all-out Christmas party this year, so I have decided to throw two smaller, low-key versions ;)

 

 Gingerbread was our theme and we based all our decorations off that.

Invitations went out by hand and featured an actual hard candy, because really, shouldn't everything come with candy??!

 

 

I fastened our front wreath with some adorable lights I found on sale at one of my many late night Toys R Us runs:

 

 

Wrapped balloons in cellophane acted as large candy decoration.

 

For a real treat, we made homemade gingerbread ice cream, served with little gingerbread men.

 

I set up small birdhouses that I painted brown to act as gingerbread houses {white felt was cut out and glued to look like 'snow'}.

The got to decorate them with ribbon, poms, pipecleaners, and foam stickers. 

 

Next up was gingerbread men decorating:

 

And we were left with some beautiful creations :)

 

The guests were sent home with their little men wrapped up with with their name:

 

....and a little box of popcorn using this recipe.

 

Everyone had a blast, and we are now one step closer to Christmas!

 

How was your weekend?

 

 

xo,

Rachel



Construction Truck Party :: Plan of Action

Hello :)

 

We have been busy cyber monday-ing our little hearts out over here and I am just starting to settle back into a routine after our long holiday.

 

We finally began putting up our Christmas decorations, much to the cat's delight!

 

 

Aside from decorating, we have such a crazy-busy week ahead. It is game time for our construction truck party for our little guy, since the big day is (eek!) this weekend! I have been getting all the details together and DIY-ing my little heart out.

 

Awhile back I did a quick sketch of our party plan of action.

 

This is just when I sketch out some ideas and come up with a basic plan on how I would like the party to look. Often things change as it comes time to actually by things and start putting things together.

 

Having it all out on paper tends to help me plan what I need to make and buy.

 

As far as designing the party is concerned, I typically start with the invitation. From there I tend to build on that design. The invites have been out for awhile now...want to sneak a peak??

I considered doing a box invitation with this but decided to just do a detail on the envelope instead:

 



 

I am so excited to put this party together!!

 

Follow me on instagram: nestling_designs for pics to see more sneak peaks as the week goes on!

 

 

Hope your week started off wonderful as well :)

 

 

xo,

Rachel