things I made

Animals Ready to Party

For Roman’s birthday party last week I added some little party hats to some off his toy animals. It was a little easy detail (it took 15 minutes.) But Roman looooved it. We put them on parade and then sang happy birthday to him. It turns out when you put miniature party hats on animals it makes them 1000x cuter.

ps: The animals are made by Schleich. They are my favorite, and have a nice little collection going. Also: Here is the mini cakes DIY and here is the polka dot art DIY and here is what we do with the animals at Christmas.

photos by Paul Ferney for Oh Happy Day

Watercolor Wedding Invitations

Last year at this time I was busy working on these watercolor wedding invitations for Nancy and Elias’ destination wedding. (It was featured on Martha Stewart here.) These are the most labor intensive invitations I’ve ever made (see some outtakes) but are also my favorite thing I’ve designed. I have to give credit to my talented studio manager Alexis Birkmeyer who printed and painted and duplexed each one by hand (she is the most detail oriented person I know-perfect for letterpress.) The invitations were two sided: English on one and Greek on the other. and several parts were duplexed together which means you take two sheets of paper and glue them. It was all wrapped up together with pretty silver string. Nole from Oh So Beautiful Paper featured them today with all the details. Go here to read more.

ps: Here are some watercolor business cards and my watercolor Christmas card.

Mini Piñatas DIY

Yea! It’s a piñata day! We miss Mexican food here in Paris since it isn’t as readily available as back home so we started having Taco Tuesdays where my friend Rubi makes amazing homemade tacos. Last night we got together and I made everyone their own personalized mini piñatas. There was one at each person’s plate filled with treats and surprises. You just open the flap on the bottom to remove the treats. So fun!

Materials Needed: Cereal boxes, scissors, exacto knife, crepe paper in folds, tape, glue

Step One: Draw a picture of the donkey on a cereal box and cut it out with scissors. You need one for the front and one for the back of each pinata. Then cut out long strips from the cereal box about 1.5″ thick. Tape the front and the back together with the strip. (See more detailed instructions here.)

Step Two: Once your armature is built its time to decorate. Cut off the end of the crepe paper fold and cut on one side to create the fringe. Add lines of glue starting at the bottom. Then glue on the fringe, wrapping it around the pinata until its all covered.

Step Three: When you are done cut a trap door at the bottom to fill with treats like small candies, gifts, party poppers, and confetti. Guests can choose to use the little door or can take it apart anyway they like to get the goods.

I loved making these! They were ridiculously fun to work on. Next time I’ll make the ears separate but I started making them late at night so I didn’t think of it until the next day when they were close to done. I also experimented with tails but I thought it looked better sans tail so I left it as is.

You can find the other piñatas in my piñata series right here.

All photos by Oh Happy Day

Tiny Tassels DIY

I was experimenting the other day with my medium of choice: crepe paper! And I tried my hand at making some tiny Confetti System inspired tassels. These would be adorable for little favors. Crepe paper is so great to work with because there is no need to use glue and you don’t have to spend time poofing out the tassel like with tissue paper. See the whole DIY at Project Wedding.

photos by Oh Happy Day

My San Francisco Apartment: Bedroom

Our San Francisco bedroom never totally felt finished to me but we ran out of time to make changes (we had to move) so it is what it is. I love our Dwell bedding which I purchased right after it came out. I guess I was on the same wavelength as every other person out there because I’ve seen it in lots of home tours. The drapes are pinch pocket drapes I made with fabric Jenny sent me. The vintage paintings I’ve picked up at flea markets and thrift stores and a couple on ebay, I never quite finished it.

See our Living Room right here.

Sources and Notes: Bed from Room & Board | Bedding from Dwell |Drape Fabric by Thomas Paul |Yellow Lamps from Ebay | Chevron Frame from Furbish | Vintage Persian Rug from Craigslist | Artwork in small white frame by my friend Sunny Belliston | Faux Bamboo Dresser from Ebay | Bench and Nailhead Chair from Craigslist

(ps the dresser photo was pulled in from earlier last year so the artwork and lamp make a repeat appearance.)

photos by the lovely Aubrey Trinnaman