Free Printable | Glow Stick Valentines Tags

It's been SO long since I've done one of these. My kids are not little anymore and opportunities for things like cute classroom Valentines are coming to a fast end. However, this project was the perfect use for all our leftover glow stick bracelets from Theo's 10th birthday, so he agreed to let me design them 'in house'. In the spirit of the season, I thought I'd pop in and share the love with anyone in need of a last minute classroom Valentine's Day idea. Enjoy!

Printables and images are © CAKE Creative Co. and are for personal use only. If sharing them on your site, please credit CAKE. and link directly to this post.

Free Printable | Teacher Appreciation Gift Tags

It's teacher appreciation week!  Here's a sweet and simple last minute project to show your favorite teachers some love...

1. Purchase clear containers
2. Fill them with gobs of gummy bears
3. Tie on a pretty ribbon
4. Download, trim and attach this free printable tag (don't forget to have your child sign it first)

And you're done! Now go out and make a teacher's day.

Printables and images are © CAKE. | events + design and are for personal use only. If sharing them on your site, please credit CAKE. and link directly to this post.

Free Printable | Magical Unicorn Class Valentines

A good play on words is my fave, so it's no surprise that I love creating silly Valentines.  The past few years I’ve come up with candy-free ideas inspired by goodies in Target's dollar section, and this year I hit the jackpot with these ‘mystical ponies'.  Cater to my daughter's horse obsession... why don't mind if I do.  Perhaps the boys won't love them quite as much, but having a unicorn around never hurt anyone, right?

To go with the unicorns, I designed a set of cards as a freebie for you to download and print (white cardstock recommended). The colored stars in the pattern are intended as a guide for placing the figures. Just punch out the colored stars and thread a small length of baking twine over the unicorn and out the back.  Tie the twine firmly on the back of the card to hold the figure in place.

images © cake. | events + design 

Feel free to get creative and attach any one of a kind magical creature you can think of.  Dragons, yetis, hippogriffs and jackalopes are all fair game… if you can manage to find them in tiny plastic form of course.  Have a magical Valentines Day!

These printables and images are © CAKE. | events + design and are for personal use only. If sharing them on your site, please credit CAKE. events blog and link directly to this post.

Family Tradition | an Ornament Advent Calendar

Hi friends- today I'm sharing a special family tradition post on the Land of Nod's blog- it's our ornament advent calendar.  I'd also love to hear about your unique family traditions if you'd like to share in the comments.

Click over to Honest to Nod for the complete post.

A Joyful No Sew Holiday Banner

Felt message banners are such a fun and easy way to add some joy (or love, or peace, or cheer…) to your home this holiday season. You can make them in endless festive color pairings and trace the letters in any font you like. I did my banner lettering freehand to save time and add a bit of extra character. Here’s how to make your own:

images © cake. | events + design

Supplies
- 2 sheets of contrasting colored felt
- thin wood dowel, at least 2 inches longer than your banner
- Baking twine or yarn
- No sew hem tape (w/ iron) or hot glue gun
- Ruler
- Pencil or chalk

Directions
1. Create your base felt.  Use a ruler and mark the center of your felt at the lowest point you want your angle. Then mark both sides of the felt about 3” up, forming a triangle at the base. Trim from center to the edges.
2. Line the top of your base felt with hem tape and fold over about 1 inch from the top, leaving a gap to slide a dowel through. Iron/Glue and press firmly into place for a strong hold. Slide your dowel in place, leaving an 1” extra on each side.
3. Measure your lettering felt on top of the base to ensure your letters will fit within the space. Either freehand sketch/trim your block letters, or use a paper cut program like Silhouette create templates in your favorite font. Trace them onto your lettering felt and trim out.
4. Line the back of your letters with hem tape or hot glue, and place on to the backing felt.
5. Cut a length of your twine or yarn and tie to each end of the dowel. Hang and you're done!

Our Minted Holiday Photo Cards

Using Minted for our family holiday cards has become a bit of a tradition the past few years and they never disappoint. Minted is headquartered here in San Francisco, and I love supporting their community of independent designers.

Our family always does a photo card and the options are endless- with lots of ways to tailor them to your personal style.  As you can see, I'm a fan of rounded corners and kraft paper envelopes, and I'm pretty sure all you metallic lovers will get on board with the gold foil stamping.

I also learned a new trick I wanted to share with you guys... if you upload your family photo first, just click the 'find it fast' button and you can see your photo placed in each different option to know at a glance what looks best. Very cool timesaver.

This year I was super excited to try the new Minted Envelope service and they turned out better than I could have hoped. You can choose from a bunch of beautiful envelope designs and for a limited time, the recipient addressing is FREE!

It it so easy you guys. All I had to do was export my google address book into Minted's template and upload to the site. I picked out this simple greenery graphic that coordinates with our cards and now all I need to do is stamp and send.  I'm telling you- your biggest holiday card challenge is going to be how to choose your favorite design!

images © cake. | events + design

This post was sponsored in part by Minted, but my good opinion of their products is all my own. 

Season to Sparkle | The Party Hop - Day 5

As the week comes to a close, so does our Season to Sparkle.  So last, but totally not least I bring you our final 3 party hop projects.

Whatever Dee Dee Wants glitters up the partyware...

Squirrelly Minds DiYs the fun on the holiday napkins...

and KoJo Designs sparkly favor bags will definitely send guests off in style!

I hope you've enjoyed sharing in the holiday inspiration this week.  Do you have a favorite project?  Thanks so much to Sara for bringing this fun and stylish event to life!  We'd love for you to share + pin your favorites with the hashtag #thepartyhop.

For more from the Season to Sparkle party hop series, click here.

Season to Sparkle | The Party Hop - Day 4

Lucky you! Another day of fabulous holiday crafts!  Hop on over to these blogs and get all the deets:

Bump Smitten is rocking the giant balloon fringe...

Paisley Petal Events topping her cupcakes with the cutest glitter bows...

and Modge Podge Rocks is hanging the holiday garland...

For more from the Season to Sparkle party hop series, click here.

Season to Sparkle | The Party Hop - Day 3

Are you having fun yet?  Hope you enjoyed yesterday's projects! Today we're sharing even more holiday goodness, starting right here with a mouthwatering turtle recipe from lgrollins...

You-Make-Do is livening up the cocktails with these sweet drink stirrers...

and Me And My Insanity is prettying up her party hats...

For more from the Season to Sparkle party hop series, click here.

Season to Sparkle | DiY Sequin Holiday Wreath

Welcome back to the Season to Sparkle party hop.  Today I'm sharing my DiY tutorial for a sparkling sequin wreath... So shiny! So colorful!  This thing gives off some serious holiday bling.

Now in theory it's super easy to make. So easy a four year old can do it.  But I'm going to tell it to you guys straight... this is a time consuming project.  It took about 4-5 evenings of sequin pinning to get it finished. I even enlisted my daughter Caitlin's help because her nimble little hands made her the perfect assistant.  Yes, for a while there I was afraid I was running a sequin sweat shop, but she promised she was having fun. The whole time she just kept saying with awe "it is SO beautiful mommy!".  Sequins will do that to a four year old (and some of us grownups too I guess).

Supplies:

- standard sequins in a variety of colors and sizes

- sequin pins (plan for 2-3 packages of 500)

- foam wreath

- satin ribbon for hanging

Directions:
1. Pick a spot on the foam wreath and begin pinning your sequins. There's no rhyme or reason to it, but I recommend working out from a single spot and covering the front area first, then working your way around to the back.

2. When you're satisfied with the amount you've covered, loop your satin ribbon around the top of the wreath and tie a simple bow. That's it!

Tip: The larger the sequins the faster the process will go, but make sure your pins are large enough for the hole in the larger sequins. Otherwise they'll just keep falling off. I learned this the hard way and ended up using sewing straight pins for some of the larger ones.

Okay, so you ready for more?  You bet!

The Frog Prince Paperie is sharing these fun fringe cupcake toppers...

And Confetti Sunshine is crafting up some sequin filled envelopes...

Come back tomorrow for more... there's may be something sweet in it for you.

For more from the Season to Sparkle party hop series, click here.

Season to Sparkle | The Party Hop

I know it's been a while since I've posted, so let me make it up to you with something really special this week... my friends, get ready to party hop!

To help inspire your holiday party planning, I've joined Sara of Confetti Sunshine and a team of talented creative bloggers to bring you the 'Season to Sparkle'. Cheerful color meets modern design in this glitzy party setting and I love everything about it.

There are loads of shiny happy DiYs planned throughout the week, but first a shout out to Tiny Prints who joined us to sponsor this event and provided some great ideas of their own.  Just look at this clear acrylic serving tray... I want one on my coffee table stat.

Be sure to stop by throughout the week to find out how to bring this party theme to life.  Tomorrow I'll be sharing my tutorial for that super sparkly sequin wreath, and more!  

#thepartyhop holiday bloggers:  Confetti Sunshine  // Frog Prince Paperie // LGRollins // You-Make-Do // Me and My Insanity // Bump Smitten // Paisley Petal Events // Mod Podge Rocks // Whatever Dee Dee Wants // Squirrelly Minds // Kojo-Designs //  
 
The following Tiny Prints items were featured in the Season to Sparkle:

pillow // invitations // custom gift wrap // tray // easel art

For more from the Season to Sparkle party hop series, click here.

Free Printable | Valentines Teacher Gift Tags

Yes, this is a totally last minute post.  Last minute... as in, I just thought of this yesterday when I saw these super cute potted violets at Trader Joes.  And yes, you could easily DiY your own little heart pots too if you happen to have a little more time on your hands. (like maybe next year?)

I put together some non-edible valentines for Caitlin's preschool classmates earlier this week and realized it would be nice to bring in a little something for her teachers too. After deciding on the flowers, I made some coordinating labels and thought I'd offer them up for your enjoyment... you know, because I love you guys.  The link is below. Happy Valentines day!

images © cake. | events + design

Bonus... check out last year's pencil Valentines printables here.

These printables and images are ©CAKE Creative Co. and are for personal use only. If sharing them on your site, please credit CAKE. events blog and link directly to this post.

Holiday Cards + Letting Things Go

I absolutely love the holiday season.  The lights on the trees... the chill in the air... the traditions... the peppermint hot cocoa... you with me?  I even enjoy most of the little nagging holiday to do's, but this year I'm nine months pregnant and energy is in short supply.  So, in the interest of keeping things stress free and simple I'm allowing myself a few shortcuts.  

The first thing I'm letting go of is designing my own holiday cards.  You guys know how much I love to design, but I spend way too many hours agonizing over the details.  So instead I've opted to order our cards from Minted this year.  Their founder spoke at Alt SF this summer and I really admire their business model.  They source selections from independent designers worldwide, and I love that you can add extras like rounded corners and kraft envelopes (check + check) to personalize everything.  I had trouble narrowing down my options, but the card below was my second choice.  That's Caitlin with her 'best friend' Andy the giraffe.  I decided not to share our official card with you yet since I haven't sent it out family and friends, but it might possibly be even cuter than this... I'll share it on instagram after they've hit the mail.

Oh, and another thing I'm taking off my to do list (possibly forever)... fighting crowds at the mall.  Sorry Black Friday. My goal is to do as much of my shopping online as possible, which is a new thing for me, but working out great so far.  I still prefer to have the gifts shipped to our house so I can wrap them myself... because honestly I think that's my favorite part of gifting.  When I was shopping for the Minted cards I discovered they now have a gift wrap section too, complete with custom wrapping paper and some of the most beautiful ribbon that you ever did see.  Why hello, gold glitter and red velvet!  I think some of these beauties need to be paired up with my geometric gift tags, wouldn't you agree?

I'm not sure if I'll be back here again before Christmas or the baby arrives, so if not I wish you all a safe, happy and party filled holiday season.  I'll be back as soon as I can to keep you posted with the big news.  Merry happy everything!

This post was sponsored in part by Minted, but my good opinion of their products is all my own. 

Free Printable | Geometric Holiday Gift Tags

Can you believe the holidays are just around the corner?  For me the season holds extra significance this year because we're expecting baby #2 just after New Years. I honestly feel like I should be due any day, but I'm trying to be patient and enjoy these final months as the mom of an only child... I've heard that the transition from 1 to 2 kids can be quite the adjustment! 

With everything else we have going on I'm keeping the holidays simple, so I was excited to team up again with The Tomkat Studio to plan ahead and design these festive geometric gift tags.  I'm in love with gold and emerald right now, so I'll definitely be using them for our family gifts- paired with kraft wrapping paper and red baking twine.  These printables are being featured along with many other designs, recipes and easy holiday ideas in Tomkat's 2013 Holiday Gift Guide.  I sure hope you'll check it out and enjoy all the fabulous inspiration.  Here's to another happy holiday season!

These tags will look their best printed on white letter-sized card stock.  Just download, print, cut and enjoy.

To see last year's confetti themed gift tags, click here.

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Gift tags and images are ©Merry Happy by CAKE. and are for personal use only. Please do not re-distribute. If sharing them on your site, credit CAKE. | events + design and link directly to this post.