Birthday Preps

Last month we (Mabe', Zoei, Aiza and I) flew back to Philippines for a short vacation. I wouldn't call it vacation, though. 'Coz everyday we had to go somewhere. My idea of vacation is just to layback, relax and basically do nothing except eat and sleep. The only time that we were able to relax was when we all got sick and had to stay home for 3 days.

Our schedule was fully booked from the moment we got there until the day we left. We picked up Zoei's and Mabe's dresses, met with the organizer at Portofino Clubhouse (where my Zoei had her birthday celebration) and the organizer at Palms Country Club (where my mother-in-law, Elinor, celebrated her birthday), attended cousin Jacq's wedding, attended Ehds' (my sister's fiance') 'pamamanhikan', hosted Zoei and Elinor's birthday celebrations and had a house blessing. On top of these, I was creating an AVP for Zoei which took me three days to finish. I also did a pictorial for Mama Elinor and an on-site AVP (with the help of my brother, Remil) to show on her birthday.

Well enough of that... for now. I'm here to show you what we were busy with the night before Zoei's second 1st birthday celebration. We were lucky to have Mama Elinor, Melody and Roselle, who all helped us prepare the give-aways and prizes. 

The crew. Melody, Elinor, Roselle and Mabe'.

The goody bags which Melody graciously picked-up from the supplier.
They were filled with candies and snacks.

Customized boxes made out of acetate paper. 

Big thanks to Melody for picking up the bags and Roselle for buying the prizes. And also for staying up late helping us create the boxes and arrange all the give-aways with Mama Elinor. Like Dora would always say.... "We couldn't have done it without you. Thanks for helping!"

Read more...

Busy busy busy...

Mabe' and I have been very very busy for the past few weeks preparing for Zoei's first birthday... the reason why I haven't had time to write a new post for 2 weeks. The theme for the party is Ladybug and Bumblebee. So, I have to come up with an invitation, banner, guestbook, decorations and give-aways that will match the theme. Unluckily, here in Dubai, almost non of those are available. (then why pick that theme!? I don't know. ask Mabe'.) We then have to do everything ourselves. =P 

First the invitation.. well, that was quite easy. I just googled ladybug and bee cliparts, took one photo of Zoei, created a layout using PS, and viola!

 

Next was the banner. Creating the layout at photoshop was easy. But, instead of just printing it out on a tarpaulin, Mabe' wanted to do it 3D-style. (3D-style? I probably just made up that word 'coz I don't know what to call it). So we headed out to buy styrofoam balls, googly-eyes, wires, acetate, foam boards, acrylic paints, paintbrushes, paint rollers, glitters, glitter paint and double sided tapes.

Painting the foam board was fun! Using the paint rollers, I painted the red and yellow parts while Mabe painstakingly painted the black dots. The black lines are actually black duct tape.

The letters were cut-out from the other foam board. It wasn't easy, specially the round part of the letters. They were then painted and sprinkled with glitters. 

The ladybugs were made from two different sized stryrofoam balls cut into halves, painted and sprinkled with glitters. Black wires and beads were used for the antenna and then a pair of googly-eyes for the finishing touch. For the bee's body, we used an egg-shaped styrofoam. And for the bee's wings, we used a yellow colored acetate glued to a wire.

Here's the layout I did using PS...

And here's the finished product... The photo was made out of 2 A4 sized glossy paper I printed out, glued to a foam board then cut-out.

For the give-aways, we were lucky to find chocolates wrapped in ladybug and bee wrappers. We just needed a box to put it in to. So I created a pattern, using an A4 sized paper, that when cut, scored and folded, will make one box. We needed 60 boxes, so scoring and cutting the acetate took a lot of time. The chocolates were stuck, using double sided tape, to a yellow paper printed with a thank you note. Mabe' just then added the ribbon.

The tiny bags for the prizes were also made out of acetate paper,  but making it was much simpler than the chocolate boxes.  Mabe' then added the black and red ribbon handles.

Like Zoei's guestbook during her Baptismal celebration, I made another one using my talent in scrapbooking. Yes guys, scrapbook! It's not just for ladies you know. Hahaha... Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the pages when it was still blank.

I'll be posting the photos of the pages of the guestbook and the 2D ladybug and bee (which I also forgot to take photos of) on my next post, Zoei's 1st birthday celebration.

Read more...