A Shabby Chic First Birthday

Little sis turned one this month.  I had a blast throwing all the details of her party together... a shabby chic sorta affair with a little country garden feel to it.

The Invites
I design the invites myself using Photoshop Elements and use a business postcard printer online to print- for about $25 I can get 50 of these on heavy duty card-stock, rounded corners, and envelopes!  They also print the back- so all the details (and more adorable pictures) go on the reverse side!  Love this little trick to help save money!!

 Making the Banners
I went to our librarian at school to see if she had any discard books (older books usually missing pages) and I was in luck!  I used old book pages, packaging paper (which is kind of a paper bag feel and you can get at any hardware store), and I printed out the letters on 4X6 lustre finish paper at Costco.  To make things go quicker, I used a spray glue I had left over to throw them together- and I loved how they turned out!!

The Outfit
I made this shabby chic little outfit {the tutorial is HERE} for under twenty dollars and only about an hour of time.  It turned out super cute when paired with boots and some ruffly socks!

The Decor
I went with a country garden feel... think burlap, red checkers, and mason jars!!  I found favors in Target's dollar section: hand shovels and rakes, bubble wands, and pin wheels.

The Grub
The hubby got up early to smoke us a pork shoulder... YUM!  So the menu included chips and salsa to snack on, BBQ Pork sandwiches with a homemade Carolina style BBQ sauce, sweet baked beans, salad, watermelon, and a fresh strawberry-cucumber water, lemonade and sweet tea to drink.  The cake was a delicious dark chocolate with strawberry filling with a smoosh cake in white cake for the munchkin... so fun!  A perfect welcome to summer :)

I had a blast putting it all together and most importantly, little sis had a great time with family and friends!!

PS- I am all about sharing... you can download all of the following tags and birthday banner letters HERE (They are JPEG files designed to print on 4X6... I use Costco and choose lustre finish which is similar to matte)!  Just share the love by following my blog :)

A DIY Shabby Chic Scrappy Tutu {No Sew!!}

 

So I fell in love with this skirt from Lullaby Birds on Etsy... I blame Pinterest!! And when I decided I wanted to do a shabby chic country garden theme for little sis' first birthday... I knew I had to have one!  The problem: my hubby might shoot me if I spend $30 on a skirt for my little one AND it was just the wrong colors.  So, what was I to do but make my own!

Now, by all means, if you have tons of quilting scraps laying around, use those!  I didn't and as I mentioned before, I was after certain colors, so I made my trusty trip to JoAnns, found the first paisley print that I just fell in love with and found five other fabrics to compliment it..

I bought 1 ft. of each fabric, which was more than enough and spent less than $10.  And luckily, my girlfriend let me borrow her rottary cutter and cutting board, so this went super fast and easy!!

I measured from sis' waist to her knees and got 9".  I doubled that and added one inch for tying.

EX: Measure from waist to knee ___ X 2 + 1" = length of strips

Next I measured her waist... 18".  The way I was tying, I needed 2 strips for every one inch.

EX: Measure of waist ____ X 2 = the amount of strips needed.

We used 36 (19" X 2") strips of fabric for her tutu... she is one year old!  For older kiddos, I would probably make the strips wider along with adding the appropriate length and amount needed... possibly 3"strips?  This tutu hit just above her knees.

 You could easily use elastic for the waistband, but I chose ribbon.  I cut enough ribbon to go around her waist plus extra on each end for tying a pretty bow.  To begin adding the scraps, I used a chair and tied the ribbon to both legs of a chair to hold it tight.  I started in the middle, using a double square knot to tie the strips snugly on and worked my way out.  I had 6 strips of 6 different patterns... and because I am slightly OCD, I tied mine on in the same pattern every time.  NOT necessary at all... unless you are like me, lol!

 The entire tutu took me about 1 hour from start to finish.  I couldn't beleive how quick and easy and ADORABLE it really was!  A few pictures of the try on...

and in the cherry orchard...

and in front of the old white barn :)

Thanks for stopping in, and thanks again to Lullaby Birds for their great inspiration!

UPDATE:  See the birthday girl in action in her super cute outfit HERE!

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