Hand Drawn Lego Star Wars Alphabet Poster

One of the fun things about working in design is doing random projects for the fun of it. This is one of those projects.

If you know much about my nephews, you are well aware of their obsession with Star Wars. They know the movies, the characters, the games, the books and I think they own nearly every single Lego Star Wars set that's been made.

I thought it would be fun to make them an alphabet poster of the characters for Christmas. I took on the challenge of finding and drawing 26 different characters for the poster. You'd be surprised how many sources there are on the internet full of Star Wars info for such a project as this.

I started off with a basic google search for "alphabetical list of Star Wars characters." Then I wrote out a list to make sure I had a character for each letter. Once I had my list ready, I did an google image search for each name, made a contact sheet to use as a reference, then sketched out some dimensions so each would be proportionate.



Then it was time to sketch. Each little character was hand drawn with pencil then I inked the lines in with my Sharpie.



Once I had all the line art ready, I took a photo of each character (because I don't have a scanner) and then added the color to each in photoshop.



I should correct myself here, I only did 25 characters. I asked my sister to get a picture of the boys doing some sort of Star Wars light saber battle scene to use for the "F" for the FORCE. The photo was perfect!

Now that I had 26 graphics for each letter of the alphabet, I downloaded a Lego font and added the letter to each character. I also included the character's name inside the letter, just in case the boys needed it. Ha! Right.

So there's the finished poster - sorry about the large, ugly watermark!



I gave it to them for Christmas and was not surprised when they told me nearly every single name in a matter of seconds. The boys know their stuff.

Check out the Halloween costumes my sister made them last year - here. They're awesome!

Top Posts in 2011

I have enjoyed other people's posts about their top 5 posts from the previous year so I decided to do that here. I just based it on most page views for posts made in 2011, though, some of the most viewed pages were from 2010 posts.

Anyway, here are the top 5...

5. I Think I Did It



Maybe it's the coffee ice cubes or the fact that a ton of people are looking for a perfect iced coffee recipe, but either way, this post made it to the top five. I feel kind of bad because I am going to share something this week that will make this post obsolete. Seriously, folks, stay tuned.

4. P is for... (part 2)



I would like to think it's my clever "Princess and the Pea" cake that got all the page views but it probably has more to do with the super cute dollhouse, pillow and quilt that were given to my P.

3. P is for... (part 1)




This makes me happy to be in the top five because I'm usually not a crafty gal. I busted out all my secret skills on this party and it seems that people liked it, thank you pinterest.

2. Homemade Pizza Balls

Say hello to my favorite snack recipe for 2011. Those babies were so good. I have made them several times since and have no plans to stop. The Nathan's ball is my fave.

1. Maybe a Tad Biased



Maybe it's the too-cute-for-words pictures my sister took of my P or the subtle announcement at the end that made this the top 2011 post but in all honesty, I'm quite certain it's the fact that my sister linked up to the news. Most page views in one day goes to this post as well. Thanks, sister.

Hope you enjoyed at least one of those!

The Stache Party

So last week was my dad's birthday and my sister and I worked up a little party to celebrate his many years of life!

I originally saw this photo collage on pinterest and wanted to do it for dad. I didn't even know it came from MS at the time! Have I mentioned how much I love her?

Anyway, my mom pulled some photos together for me and I took pictures of each one with my phone, converted them all to black and white and added a border, then printed them for the backdrop at our swanky venue.

Looking back on dad's pictures, one thing that popped out was his mustache. He's had one my entire life so I thought I would be fun to incorporate the stache into the party decor. Thus, the theme was born.



My sister and I made treats for the party. Lots of mini cupcakes came out of my oven and a few didn't make it to the party - a girl has to taste-test. I used Bakerella's cookies and cream icing recipe (with butter, not shortening) and added some crushed Oreo's to a little of the chocolate batter (in a box) as well as the vanilla batter (also from a box). Folks, I may never make  a standard cupcake again. Those things were delicious. The cookies even kept their crunch.



Anyway, my sister made a variety of fancy treats like peanut butter bites, rolo pretzels and sugar cookies. They were all so tasty. She also cut out mini mustaches and the number 60 so we could top the treats. I think the party table came out pretty cute if I do say so myself!



My sister probably got tons of cute party pics so while she was doing her thing, I chased her kids around trying to get them to pose with mustaches with me for a little photo booth fun.

Side note - do you have the pocketbooth app?

photo from itunes

No!? Go get it now. If you do, you know how much fun that thing is, especially at parties AND parties that have mustaches on sticks!

Anyway, here are just a few of the photo booth pics - there's a whole lot more.



Oh, and the swanky setting? We had it at none other than Jim's Coney Island. I've mentioned it on this blog before and some know it by "Never on Sunday's" but I basically grew up there. I've even ran into my Dad at Jim's a time or two. It was the perfect setting: laid back, the smell of chili dogs and Greek food and just classy enough to not get stares from the other patrons as we ran around covered in fake mustaches!

I hope dad had as much fun at the party than we did planning it!

P is For... (part one)

Today is Sweet P's actual birthday but we had her party over the weekend. The house was full of friends and family and she loved every minute of it!

The theme for her party was "p is for..." Her nickname is Sweet P and we just call her P a lot of the time so I wanted to play off that.

Everything was centered around things that started with the letter "p," from decorations to food. Today's post will cover the decorations, everything from pom poms to pinwheels and a whole lot of pink.

Here's the invitation I designed (front)



(back)



And on to the decorations! My mom bought me a 12"x12" paper pad in Martha Stewart's Vintage Girl line and I made just about every single decoration for the party out of the one packet.

 

It came with 3-4 shades of pink glittery paper, pink and white plaid, pink vellum and tons more.

Remember these


and this


Well, I combined the two and strung them together with some twine to make a little banner to hang on the table.



and remember these



They were the little labels for all the food on the table. Since the theme was "p is for" all the food started with the letter p:
   pizza balls (both the pepperoni and buffalo chicken)
   pitas and cheese (artichoke cheese dip)
   pretzels dipped in chocolate and white chocolate
   popcorn
   peanuts
   pineapple kabobs
   pringles
   sweet pea cupcakes with this frosting
   pixy stix
   pink lemonade
   and P's very own "princess and the pea" cake





And I saw this idea and wanted to do it for P. I asked everyone at the party to write one reason they loved her on the card before they left and Eric and I filled out the rest.



I made a label for the front that matches her invitation. I put it in a little nook with a couple of pink pom poms and one of the photos of her from the day she was born. I love that she'll have sweet notes from people that love her to look back on as she grows up!

And last but not least, one of my favorite projects I did for the party, P's paper quilt. I'm not sure if these exist, but I saw this photo originally on pinterest where the girl used fabric scraps and glued them to a canvas to make a mosaic. Since I don't have a lot of fabric lying around and since I had an awesome paper pad full of cute quilt-like paper, I decided to make a paper quilt.

I made a hexagon template with clear vellum and cut out the shapes from six different sets of paper. Then I arranged them on a huge canvas and glued them down with decoupage.



I went through P's monthly photos, most of which were taken by her fabulous Aunt Ashley, and had them printed on 5"x4" photo paper. I used my vellum template and cut each photo out and glued each into the center of the hexagon "circles."



I still have to have her 11 and 12 month photos printed, but you can see the near-finished quilt in the background in the photos but here's kind of a close-up.


The center has a hexagon with her birth date and stats on it that I just printed out on a sheet of white paper and cut out the shape.

So that pretty much wraps up all the decorations and ends my craft streak for the rest of the year!

Tomorrow is part two of the celebration!

Blush and Bashful

To steal a line from Steel Magnolias, areas in my house are starting to "look like it's been hosed down by Pepto-Bismol."

Why so much pink?

 

My sweet p's 1st birthday is coming up!




So here are some crafty things I've been working on.




glittery pink pinwheels!


And this will probably be combined with some other things I've made:


No doubt a girlie party in the makings!

Say What!?

I was recently asked by BabyLifestyles.com to have my nursery featured on their website!!!

Say What?

I was shocked when they asked me to be included. I don't decorate and don't really DIY but I did a little of both for P's room. What can I say, she inspires me. Do you know who else inspires me?

Find out in the feature here!

Happy Friday!

Sesame Orange Shrimp

If you have followed this blog for a while, you know I love Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. I love getting that she has pictures of all the recipes and she usually has easy, unique things to try.

Sometimes I have some ingredients on hand that I don't know what to do with and don't really like searching through her books to find a recipe. So instead, I go to her website. I think she publishes most of the recipes online anyway.

I had a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer so I did a quick search for shrimp recipes and found this one for sesame orange shrimp.

I will say, the shrimp was delicious, however, if you make it, I recommend doubling the sauce recipe and making some noodles to go with it. I made rice but it wasn't the best. I think noodles with extra sauce would have been perfect.



And just because I can, a donut picture. Thanks dad for the dozen Dunkin Donuts! I did share.



Oh, and, since I figured out how to share a pdf file on here, remember these? You can download the file for free here.

Happy Hump Day!

Getting Crafty for a Baby Shower

One of my good friends is going to be having a baby soon and it's going to be a little girl.

Her sister threw her a baby shower over the weekend and me and P had our longest car ride to date. She did great on the way but cried the entire ride home, for 45 minutes. Boo.

Anyway, I made her a little monthly calendar for the first year. Not sure what to call it. Each month has a little sheet to fill out the basics: weight, height, new for the month and favorite activity. I printed them out, cut each one out and then got a little stamp crazy!

Do you know how much fun stamping can be?

Anyway, here's the start:

Stamp happy:

And finished it with a little ribbon:

And then I customized each one with a monogram on the back.

Download it for FREE here.

A Handmade Christmas

This Christmas was filled with tons of awesome handmade gifts and I have to brag on my family a bit!

My aunt is a great quilter and seamstress. This year she made the ladies casserole dish totes. Each one was customized with fabric to each person's liking. My sister's was out of Amy Butler fabric, not sure what mom's was and mine was Tula Pink fabric. It's handy and pretty! Oh, and there was her homemade fudge in the pan!! MMM.

My sister, who is uber-talented, made everyone hand-painted plates. I love the paper airplane!

My mom made a little onesie for Sweet P! I love the bling and little ruffles on the sleeves.

Hand on the hip model pose!

Then there's my mom's dad, aka grandpa (and the one that scroll sawed the letters for my drawers), he made this keepsake box for Sweet P. Beautiful.

And, then there's my dad. You've seen this a zillion times now, but I love it!

As you can see, I come from crazy-talented genes!