Our Twincesses Third Birthday Party : Tangled

My miracle girls turned 3 Sept 2nd and we celebrated with a Tangled Themed Party. I loved every minute of creating everything for the party. The only downfall is that nothing is ever perfect. We never played our Flynn Skillet Game, I completely forgot to hand out the favors and we never did get pictures of all our guests behind the tower. However, everyone had a blast and I could tell that even at 3, our girls loved and appreciated every minute of it! I thought I'd post about it, as I loved going through Pinterest and blogs searching for ideas and reading about other parties. This is the Pinterest board that I started for my inspiration.

The invitation was mailed in a clear mailing tube. I printed the invitation on one side and a stone graphic on the other. We braided yellow yarn that I found on clearance for the hair. I used that same yellow yarn for the sign on the front door. I found the idea for the front door on this blog. I designed and printed the welcome sign and then mounted it to heavy stock. The flags on the lamp post are simply laser prints cut and taped so that the design is on both sides.

Invitation is now for sale on Etsy! http://www.etsy.com/listing/89260091/tangled-or-princess-birthday-invitations

I made this tower for the girls out of left over cardboard, a hot glue gun, colored pencils and watered down acrylics. I happened to have some old Ivy and silk flowers laying around! The idea was to take pictures of each of the children attending in the tower and then send them to the guests with a thank you note. That of course never happened! I'm working on a thank you design right now and will post that soon!

Flynn Ryder! The girls LOVE Flynn. I found the idea online for this adorable game. I simply found a decent size image of the poster online and printed it out large and tiled it together. I put each child's name on the skillet. The game follows along the lines of pin the tail on the donkey, but it's more like smacking Flynn with a skillet :) With the excitement of everything else, we completely forgot to play!

Floating lanterns are a must! I printed out the pattern on a letter size sheet of paper, wrapped it like a cylinder and taped it together with packing tape. I then hole punched each side at the top to put fishing line through to hang from the ceiling!

The flags have the girls "Logo" on them, as did just about everything else at the party. I printed the flags out 2 up on a sheet, trimmed with scissors, hole punched and tied with ribbon. What a great, inexpensive way to add decor and color!

The centerpieces were a list minute idea. I knew I wanted to make Oreo Cookie Pops, but wasn't sure how to display them. I ended up buying paper mache boxes at the craft store, wrapping them with ribbon and attaching a printout of Pascal. I added some decoration by printing out graphics and glueing them to sticks to put around the cookie pops. The sticks are pushed into styrofoam which is hidden by the purple crinkled paper. You MUST try oreo cookie pops, the are fantastic! I followed these directions... 

Pascal's party blowers were way more of a challenge than I thought they'd be. I found the template and directions on Disney's site. It was almost impossible, oddly enough, to find the party blowers! I had to purchase ones that had designs on them and disassemble them. These are made with foam sheets which would NOT stay glued together on the edges due to the bulky blower. I ended up using packing tape around all the edges. While they were adorable, I would strongly advise skipping the glue all together and just taping them!

 

The cake and cupcakes? Well those of course, was created by my parents, CreativeCakes. They did an incredible job as always! The girls could not stop talking about it. I found the idea for the cupcakes and just loved how it tied in with theme!

I had so much fun setting up Pascals' Party Mix, complete with pretzels, banana chips, dark chocolate chip, rainbow gold fish, nuts, raisins and Cheerios! We had a chicken wrap buffet, aptly named, Rapunzel's Wraps and the guests loved it. 

The favors were tiny paint sets that we put in favor bags and applied labels to.

And of course no Princess party would be complete without a princess right?

All designs by Lil' LJ/Double E Design.

Are You Ready for Some Football : Daddy's No. 1 Draft Pick

It's almost fall, time for wonderful fall weather, pumpkins, Halloween and in Western Pa, where we are from, there is nothing like the start of football season. I have to admit, I don't catch all the Steeler games with 2 three year olds roaming around, but most of my friends and family bleed Black 'n Gold.

One of my highest selling designs is now Daddy's #1 Draft Pick. It's available in any team/color and the back is personalized with a name and number. You can also add the lil' ones name to the front along with birth date. What a perfect new baby gift for a fall baby or for your favorite toddler! So far, I've created this for fans of the 49ers, Cowboys, University of Texas, Steelers, Saints, and slew of others.

And for our true Steeler fans, the Black + Gold = 7 design is in hopes that this year we get ring number 7!

Shirts for Sesame Place!

We visited Sesame Place, an amazing children's park just outside of Philadelphia, in June. I just had to make the girls shirts. After some research, creative thinking and some inspiration from some fellow bloggers, I ended up making them dresses. Emma is in the red, E is for Elmo dress and Mady was a little non-cooperative, she's in the blue M is for Mady and ME LOVE COOKIE dress.

I made skirts following this blogger's advice for Halloween and thought I'd incorporate the ruffles in the girls dresses...

 

I bought them white shirts that were a size larger and used the ruffle to hide my stitching at the bottom of shirt. I got the idea for the dress skirt from a bunch of random photos on the internet. 

I used iron on adhesive for the letters and then hand stitched around them for a little extra finesse.

While the photos don't do them justice, these are finished products! 

All in all, I learned a lot from the process. One of the biggest lessons learned - when sewing, always double, triple check you have removed ALL the pins. We found a few still in their dresses they day they wore them! OOPS! I hope to improve upon my sewing skills with each project. I would love to offer some hand sewn products to my Lil' LJ site - eventually! :)

So proud - made the Etsy Treasury!

Visit this link and check it out! @ Etsy Treasury

Father's Day - FREE Printable!

Remember the adorable tag I made for my girls to give to my husband for Valentine's Day?

 

Well, I thought it would make a great Dad's day gift too! Just click on the image to view it larger and print! Punch a whole a the top, string ribbon through it and tie it around a Starbuck's Card. What dad wouldn't love that :)  Or have the kids make dad a mug and tie it to the handle.

 

And don't forget the adorable bodysuits and tees dad would love to see his lil' one in. Lil' LJ

Congratulations to our Winner!

Melissa C. won our giveaway! Thanks to Melissa, our customers, friends and family, we've raised over $1300 this year for March of Dimes.

Welcome Baby!

I created these birth/welcome home announcements when my twin girls were born over 2 years ago. We were so very happy to welcome home our "Perfect Pair."

This announcement was created for my nephew whose parents wanted something different and fun!

Check out more designs at my Design Blog and look for Lil' LJ to start selling Lil' Stationary later this year via www.lillj.com.

Bunnies and Chicks

I just had to share some of these super cute finds for Easter.

First, these are the super cute outfits my girls will be wearing for Easter. Great buys at Old Navy as usual! 

 


They'll be sporting this super cute Lil' LJ design at school Easter week ;) $17.95

 

Check out this adorable bunny headband, only $5! Go "Like" Two by Two Creations on Facebook and see what other great handmade accessories she has! 

And looking for an alternative to the traditional Easter Basket? How sweet is this handmade bag? $16

And how cute is this for a little boy? What a great way to carry toys from room-to-room after Easter! $15

Looking for an even more budget friendly basket idea? I picked up pink easter buckets at Walmart for $1. My 2.5 year olds will use them over and over again!

Can't find what you looking for? Make it custom!

I LOVE creating custom designs for clients. It's so much fun to see what everyone comes up with. Here's a few of the recent custom shirts I've created. Contact me via www.lillj.com and I'll help you create just what you've been looking for!

Now through May 15th, order a custom design for only $19.95 (regularly priced at $27.95). All we ask is that you go to our March of Dimes donation site and donate $5. Donate Now! Once you donate, I will contact you about your design. All donations via the site are also entered into our drawing for a  Lil' LJ Gift Card valued at $17.95.

Giveaway and March of Dimes Fundraiser

We need your help again this year to reach our goal.

Get the satisfaction of donating to a great cause and get entered into a raffle with a chance to win a FREE Lil' LJ product. Now through May 15, 2011.

Donate at least $1 to our team and you will automatically be entered to win.

Donate $5 or more, and you’ll get an additional entry and yet another for every $5 after that.

Everyone that donates will receive a FREE shipping coupon for their next Lil’ LJ purchase ($5-$7 value).

Every day, thousands of babies are born too soon, too small and often very sick. We support March of Dimes because we want to do something about this. Our daughters were born 11 weeks early. The surfactant treatments they received for their premature lungs during their NICU stay are just a small example of how the March of Dimes has already helped.

The money we raise will help with research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives. And it will be used to bring comfort and information to families with a baby in newborn intensive care. As I know first hand, this is a very hard, trying time for these families.

Help us give all babies a healthy start by donating now. Lil' LJ is proud to be part of our 3rd annual local March for Babies event in May.

Thanks again!

Loree Mayer
Owner/Designer Lil’ LJ

*Raffle drawing will be held using Random Generator. Raffle draw date is 5/15/11 at 9:00pm EST. Coupon code will be emailed to the winner via the email address supplied during the donation process. Coupon offer is good for one time use per customer for one product of your choice. Free shipping is included. Coupon expires one year from date of issue.

Valentine's Sweets from Twins or Siblings

My girls attend school (daycare) 2 times a week and the kids even at this age exchange treats at the holidays. This year, we gave away 2 Hershey Kisses and 2 Hershey Hugs in a baggie for Valentine's Day. We folded in the sides and stapled this tent card to it to keep everything together. *Notice the adorable pink staples a friend gave me to add the finishing touch. The most challenging part was getting the girls to pose. They hug and kiss all the time, but catching it on camera became a challenge!

My inspiration for the colors on this design came from this fantastic blog, Design Seeds. Everyday, she has multiple posts with tons of color inspiration. It's a wonderful reference for anything design. What a great way to pick colors for a nursery or kids room!

Baby Girl Baby Shower Gift : All-Star Style!

I always have such a hard time with gifts for baby showers. I think we all want to buy something we know will be remembered and is from the heart. A friend of ours is expecting a baby girl and she and her husband are huge sports fans. I can't wait to give her this trio :)

And she was the inspiration for the latest Lil' LJ design. How could I have not sold this in pink from the start?! ($19.95)

Check out these adorable converse. These were the shoes the girls wore when they took their first steps, but theirs were black. ($20)

And last but not least, this adorable pink football beanie I found on Etsy! ($12)