Batman Birthday Invite

Before I go into the details of this rather adorable Batman Birthday Party Invite, I would like to say something.

When you are out of the habit of blogging, almost two months goes by with no post, and you don't even realize it. I am not sure anyone else realized it either. Probably because of my "radio" silence increasing more and more over the last year, I am sure the few people I had reading this blog have given up on me. So let me say thanks for sticking with me that long.

I have come to the realization, that I am okay with my blogging life (or lack there of). Of course part of me wants to be read by thousands and thousands. I would be lying if I said I didn't want to be known in the blogosphere for my mad skills. I want validation from friends, strangers, and mega bloggers. 

BUT...

I am not good at the life. I am not great at self promoting. I don't have the funds for a blog face lift (hence that I am in the dark ages and still have a blogspot) or to go to all the amazing and fabulous conferences out there. I am not a great entrepreneur (heck I couldn't even spell it...spell check had to help). I admire those woman who do and can. They are so very awesome at what they do.

For years I felt that because they are awesome at what they do and I don't do that well, it must mean that I am about as far from awesome as you can get. 

So I backed off of blogging. I backed off because, someone could do it better. No one out there would miss me or what I do. I was getting an ulcer watching my blog views go down. My comments become nonexistent. Basically I backed off in a pity party kind of way. 

So, why even blog a tiny bit now? 

This is why. I still love creating things. I can say in some confidence that there are things I am good at. Even if only my mom reads this blog anymore (thanks MOM I love you), I still want to share. Who cares if I am not a dot com. Who cares if no one sponsors me. Who cares. Who cares.

So I "blog" for me right now. I create for me because I like to. I decorate when I can. I make stuff when I have time. I share because it is fun. If someone gets an idea from me. Great. If people occasionally stop by from Pinterest. AWESOME and welcome. However, even if just my mom reads, that is good too. 

I had a good run for awhile. Who knows maybe when my kids are all in school if this blogging thing is still around I will jump back in with a little more professionalism. 

For right now, I am good with just sharing what I do when I do it. 

LONGEST intro to a blog post ever. Sorry about that.

So on to this Batman Birthday Party Invite.  I wish I could say I came up with the concept of this modern simple batman invite all on my own. However, thanks to Pinterest I came across my inspiration on The Hostess with the Mostess Blog via a party done by Posh Paperie. I really liked her design style and the concept of the party so I copy-catted her a bit.

For the invite I turned to my handy dandy PicMonkey.

I used geometric overlays for the flood lights. I used the bat overlays found in the Halloween section. The rest was just a mixture of some of my favorite fonts.

One of the things I liked the most was the idea of a geometric Batman. So I made one. This Batman was completely made from mixing and manipulating geometric overlays. He turned out pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

For the back of this card, I just copied and positioned image after image of the original Batman head.

I also used the Batman head for some birthday posters (which I will share soon) and these name tags that I taped to the outside of the envelopes.

The whole invite ensemble looked like this.

I was able to save this all to my computer and just print from my printer on to cardstock. Setting aside making the little Batman head image, it really was very simple and the perfect way to invite some fellow superheroes over.

Basket of Sunshine {with Printable}

Is anyone else ready for Spring yet?

ME! ME!

I actually don't mind Winter. However, here in Idaho Winter comes early, hits hard, and lingers. So about the middle of February I start longing for Spring. In fact, in these here parts of the woods if we have a day in the low 40's we leave our coats at home and some even brave a pair of shorts (mostly adolescent boys).

So yes, I am ready for some sunshine and Spring.

Speaking of sunshine, today I have this fun and easy Basket of Sunshine idea for you and there is a free printable.

We used this basket of sunshine as an act of service. We had a person in our neighborhood who was going through a tough trial. We wanted to let him know we were thinking of him. So we went to the store and gathered up a cartload of yellow things.

Some of the things we chose:

-box of Golden Grahams cereal
-snack size bag of Golden Oreos
-Lay's in a canister
-bottles of Fanta pineapple soda
-bags of microwave popcorn
-small bag of Peanut M&M's
-Lemonheads

I spray-painted an old crate we had bright and sunny yellow. Once it was good and dry, we loaded up the crate with our sunshine goodies. I tied a bit of fabric around it and attached the Sunshine tag.

Save the image of the tag to your computer and then you can print it off in the size you need.

This really is a fun way to brighten someone's day and to get out there and offer a bit of service. My kids really became invested in this little service project. I love service like that. Plus you guys know how much I love myself some color coordination. 

O"FISH"ally The Best Valentine

I have another classroom valentine idea for you today. This O"FISH"ally The Best Valentine is not a new idea, but I made up a new tag. I used bright colors and fun fonts. This valentine is great for Goldfish crackers or Swedish Fish.

Since this little Valentine is for a bunch of preschoolers I opted for the Goldfish crackers.

The printable is all ready and available for you to use.

Download printable HERE

I cut out my tags and simply stapled them onto the bag. SO EASY!!

I have already shared our SODA The Best Valentine and our You're So Cool Valentine this year. I have one more to share and then our little clan will be all ready for Valentine's Day 2016.

Statement Valentine's Day T-shirt

We call this face his I am too cool for Valentine's Day but I am still gonna celebrate it smolder. Before we talk about this Statement Valentine's Day T-shirt that is perfect for your tweenager boy, can I just say, when in the crappity crap did Oldest start looking like a mini man??

Remember when he looked like this-

Well you may not. You may have never known that tiny face with huge chocolate eyes and eyelashes for days. But man, this Momma remembers. This Momma is also finding it really hard to admit that the above pictured 6 year old could really have turned into this almost 12 year old.

Sigh. Time does march on. I am getting old. Babies grow up and turn into tweenagers (I am denial about the very soon TEENager label).

Speaking of tweenagers, lets get talking about this Statement Valentine's Day T-shirt before I start blubbering. 

This is the last year that Oldest will really celebrate Valentine's Day in the have a party and pass out valentine's way. When you are in your last year of elementary school, you are still technically part of the fun, but excitement is different. They are older. They are cooler. 

When I approached him with the idea for this shirt, he was immediately on board. He liked that it was simple. He liked that it was ironic. He liked that it was pretty funny. 

So I whipped out this Statement Valentine's Day shirt in like 10 minutes. So easy peasy.

I used heat transfer vinyl and cut it with my Silhouette. The font I used was Bauhaus. The T-shirt was from The Mart and was under $3. Happy dance for that folks.

Iron it on.
BAM.
Done.

Now the in house tweenager is all set for his school Valentine's Day party. And it would appear that even he is pretty happy about it.

I am sure this laugh only came because someone farted, but I will take it.

Happy Valentine's Day! Remember, head over to my post Boy Approved Valentine's Day T-shirts if you need more ideas.

You're So Cool Valentine

It's is February.  Time for some more classroom valentines. Every year I stress that I am officially out of valetine ideas. One of my favorite ways to spark ideas is to hit my stores party aisle. I peruse around and just let my brain wonder. This year I found these sunglasses and immediately jumped on the emoji band wagon. I made these You're So Cool emoji valentines.

Whew. One more classroom valentine done.

I have four classroom valentines to make this year. It will be the first and only time I will have four to make. Next year Oldest will be in Middle School and will be too cool to hand out valentine's.  I have already shared his tweenage approved Valentine for this year over at Skip To My Lou.

But today it is all about this valentine, which Little is not too cool for. In fact, he is just the right amount of cool.

I found these sunglasses at The Mart (Walmart if you don't know my lingo) in the party department. They were super affordable.

I made up this valentine using PicMonkey, and made it available in a pdf.

I attached the sunglasses with a little thread and some tape on the back. These were super fun, super easy, and very kid approved. Short, sweet and to the valentine point.

Download You're So Cool Valentine HERE.

Two down, two to go.

Do you need more classroom valentine ideas? Check out this post of Boy-Approved Valentines.