Vintage Damask Brown & Blue Birth Announcement

Isaac birth announcement design on a blue vintage background accented with rich brown in the unique square 5x5 card. Looks especially beautiful on linen cardstock paper.

Bright & Fun Birthday Invitation

New birthday invitation! I designed these for my middle son's upcoming 5th birthday.

We have a winner!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Back to School package giveaway! The winner is...

Here are your random numbers:

10

Timestamp: 2009-08-24 17:12:03 UTC

Congrats to Barefoot Mommies! Looking forward to working w/you to personalize your goodies.

Pink & Brown Baby Shower Feature

Bet you couldn't guess I love the pink & brown color combination? I am not the only one though! It is the most popular choice from my customers for baby stationery, and the top choice for girl birthday invitation as well. Today, I would like to share some brilliant ideas for incorporating one of my favorite color combinations into a baby shower celebration.

This party feature is courtesty of the ridiculously talented Kara from Kara's Party Ideas:

i had A LOT of fun planning this shower for my sister in law. lanterns, cupcakes, party favors, mini candy bars, balloons, pink & brown..so cute. here's a closer look at the diaper cake i made. i used newborn and size 1 diapers & tied brown & pink polka dot ribbon around each of the four tiers to hold the diapers together...i also tied a sheer pink ribbon on top of the brown ribbon & added a pink bow on top of each brown bow. i used pink paper grass as frosting :), and put the whole thing on a pizza pan for easy carrying.


the little booties i put on top of the cake were adorable. you can also see the stickers that i put in the center of each bow (i also used the stickers for the party favors)...


jessica loves penguins so i made these penguin cupcakes. the liners were brown with white polka dots (they matched the candy bars and the party favors etc). the penguins are made out of keebler chocolate lovers cookies, tic tacs, and bubble gum tape (cut into triangles for the beaks). i also stuck heart pics (which also matched the theme) into each cupcake...


i found some cute little candy bar wrappers (martha stewart collection) that i wrapped around mini candy bars...they tied everything together...

i froze small plastic babies in ice cubes. we played a game where everyone had to 'break the water' & 'deliver' their baby. first to do it won the prize...

these party favors were actually bought in the wedding shower section (along with the candy bar wrappers above). they matched the pink and brown theme so well though that i just had to use them :). i changed them a bit & they worked great! i found little polka dot baby tags that i tied onto each one with some pink ribbon. each little bag also had velcro that attached the pink heart to the bag to shut it...


i put a small round tin filled with pink & white mints in each little bag. i found some cute 'it's a girl' stickers that i put on the front of the tins...



You can find a variety of invitation & thank you options on the website to tie in with this theme.
Here are a few invitations that I love in the pink & brown theme:




Thanks so much to Kara for allowing me to share her ideas with you! I have more parties to share in the works. In the meantime, visit her blog for more inspiration!

I SURVIVED!

Today was the first day of school here, and I had to send off my middle son to kindergarten with his older brother going into 2nd grade. It was a tough day for me...as a mom, you wrestle with the conflicting feelings of being so proud of them for growing up and becoming more independent, yet wanting to hold on to them extra tight because they are growing up so fast! So, I was a bit of a basketcase on the inside today. It was hard sending my oldest to kindergarten, and almost as hard the second time around. (The only part that made it "almost" as hard was knowing his big brother would be there to help him get off the bus at the right spot!)

The whole day was bittersweet..starting with big brother doling out advice about school and explaining how things work from the time they got up til they hopped out of the van and he took Cooper's hand and walked him in! (If that didn't make my heart melt!) Then, when I loaded the pics from my camera I marveled at just how grown up my oldest looked. He is only 6.5 but looked every bit like a 2nd grader today. Seeing Cooper bounce right out of the car and be guided into school by his big brother without even a glance back... And then, spending the day with only my youngest, who suddenly seemed all grown up too, wanting to clear the breakfast dishes and clean up his toys without being asked. He asked about his brothers all day and kept saying he wanted to go to school too. When I put him down for his nap, I told him we would get his brothers when he got up, and as soon as I peeked in on him after naptime, he immediately said he wanted to go get Hayden & Cooper. Awww...

The big boys both had a great day, and my new kindergartner declared that he LOVED school as he bounded off the bus with a HUGE smile on his face!

Here they are getting ready to leave for the big day:





I hope your first day is as smooth as ours was! Don't forget, there are just 2 more days to enter our Back to School giveaway, and you can still earn extra entries!

Gorgeous new folded thank yous--SNEAK PEEK!

I made these for a gift for a family wedding recently, and &hearts how they turned out! (I want a set for myself! :) )


They are printed on beautiful linen finish cardstock, which was absolutely perfect for this design. I am hoping to have them added this week to the website.

Don't forget to enter our Back to school giveaway this week for some great organizational tools. I am actually making my own today with the boys new school info to prepare at our house.

Back to School GIVEAWAY!

If you read our last post or our most recent newsletter, you may have gotten some ideas for how Cutie Pies Custom Creations can help you stay organized this school year! Now, I would like to offer you a chance to win some of these great items! This is a great package deal for anyone w/school age children. Here is what you can win:

• 10 personalized school envelopes
• Your choice of a personalized school excuse pad or mommy notepad
• 1 sheet of name or book labels

How do you enter? Follow these simple guidelines:

INITIAL ENTRY (Mandatory!):

Post a comment below to enter!

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES (Optional) You many do as many of these as you'd like, but each may be done only once, with the exception of #5. Post a comment below to tell me about it each time, and include a link if applicable. If you are already a subscriber/follower/etc. just leave a comment noting so.

1. Become a fan on Facebook
2. Follow me on Twitter
3. Become a follower of this blog
4. Subscribe to our newsletter
5. Tweet about this giveaway! *You may tweet as often as once a day for additional entries for each tweet*
   
6. Blog about this giveaway

That's it! Good luck! This giveaway will close on Friday, August 21st at midnight EST.

Back to School with Cutie Pies Custom Creations helpful stationery products!

Summer always does seem to fly by, at least at my house! My boys head back in just over 2 weeks, which will be here before we know it. We have been stocking up on school supplies & getting geared up. Next week, I will be working on making up new school stationery products to keep my own family organized this school year.

One of my favorite tools are the school envelopes, which I personalize for each of my boys to transport those important notes, permission slips, money, etc. to school in. The possibilities for personalizing these are vast--you can modify the text/choices to fit your needs, and there are so many graphic choices available as well.

I also love to use several personalized notepads for school communication. I use THESE to send notes into my sons' teachers. I personalize with my contact info so that the teacher can easily respond via email/phone if needed. I also keep a school excuse pad handy, which makes for less work if they are returning to school after an illness, or need to be picked up for an appointment, etc.

My boys pack their lunch pretty often, and I like to include a note in their lunchbox to let them know I am thinking about them. My oldest son really looked forward to these when he started kindergarten and was in school all day for the first time. I use a special Mommy notepad for lunchbox notes.

Another thing I will be working on to prepare for school at my house is new bag tags for the kids' backpacks. I also use them on lunchboxes & sports bags. Again, these may be personalized with as much or as little info as you need to include.

I have hit the sales to stock up on school supplies already, and to label all of our items, I use THESE. Some of the stickers, I print with names only, but they can be customized with hundreds of graphic choices.

My business truly is based on products that I use myself. As a former teacher, I am all about being completely organized for school, and these items make that easier for me as a busy mom of 3 young boys...I must say my least favorite part of the school year is the frenzied mornings of getting everyone dressed, fed, & ready to go out the door! I keep my school stationery products in a special spot so they are handy and accesible. I hope you'll check out the website to see what you could use to make your school year run a little bit smoother this year!

VacationTime

Just a note that the business is taking a vacation from August 3rd thru 6th. You are still welcome to place orders during this time, but there will be a delay in processing during these dates. Thanks for your understanding!