sloan turns two: the crafty details

working on the decorations for sloan's 2nd birthday was a really fun project for me. i started working on it weeks ahead of his october 18 birthday, doing research over at blog.hwtm.com, designing a logo, and buying materials. it was fun getting crafty and making like martha stewart. i'm very happy with how everything turned out, especially since this didn't do much damage to my pocket.

with my measly photoshop skills, i came up with a logo which became the basis of all the printed materials. i am in love with the font which is called sketch block from dafont.com. i chose the colors orange with touches of blue because the theme was supposed to be basketball. that didn't push through but i stuck with the colors anyway because it's a nice, eye-catching combo.

we had no plans of coming up with a big party but i wanted to still be able to share sloan's milestones to family and friends. channeling my inner dr. seuss, i came up with this poem that summarized his favorites, the skills he has acquired, and how he's growing up so beautifully :)

thanks to the wonders of social media, i was able to easily share this with family and friends through facebook. we also attached a printed copy to the sugar cookies which we gave away to his ninongs and ninangs.

the sugar cookies are from swell sweets, which i chose because all her sugar cookies are nicely done - as in the design isn't messy as what i've seen in photos of other suppliers. the best thing is that the cookies taste good too. also, sugar cookies were a good alternative to the usual cupcake giveaways because you don't have to worry about the icing being ruined :)

i made variations of the logo: the original ones had the text "sloan turns two," another version has the number two, while the third has the text "happy birthday." i created smaller versions which i taped onto microwavable  bowls where i put candies, chocolates, and wafer sticks.

by the way, i had everything printed in alva in UP diliman. at about P30 per 11x17 sheet of paper, the price is super sulit. you just have to cut everything yourself, at bilang bilog yung design, medyo best in effort since we don't have the big puncher available here. pero keri lang :) i had enough time anyway since i started preparing quite early.

using a nice wrapping paper which i got from fully booked, i made some pinwheels, following how-to videos which i found online.

these are grocery-bought cupcakes, specifically from the brand lemon square which i am a big fan of :D i taped some of the designs on toothpicks and used these to jazz up the cupcakes.

another good use for the wrapping papers: make your own banderitas! i used two types of prints for contrast. one is the wrapping from fully booked as mentioned, the other was a roll of orange-and-white pola dots wrapping paper from a store called tie me up buttercup in greenbelt. it was pricey but worth it because it's more than your usual length of wrapping paper and the texture is really nice and sturdy.

the letter s is from the invitation house. they have branches in greenbelt 5 and mall of asia. at P120 a piece, hindi na rin masama. i actually tried to make my own using styro, pero mega fail hahaha! good thing i saw this one and its colors go well with the theme too.

the white frames are from ikea, which we got during a trip early this year to singapore. i always see this in parties featured in hostess with the mostess, and so i was super excited when i chanced upon them in ikea tampines.

the super nice bucket was "donated" by my boss during the halloween party at work para may lalagyan ako ng candies. the sticker says it's from gourdo's but i'm not sure if they sell it by piece or it serves as a packaging for whatever product. 

since we are on tipid mode, we didn't order fancy cakes and just got the usual stuff from the ever reliable red  ribbon. syempre hindi ito nakaligtas sa tema! i jazzed them up too using some of the printed materials.

apart from the banderitas, we also got some balloons from national bookstore. these cost around P10 each.

the food was from amber's, which i'm sure many are familiar with because it seems to be a staple in office parties hehehe :) this was really sulit because the servings are generous.

naging tambayan ko ang din kodak sa trinoma sa paghahanda ko sa birthday ni sloan :P i had some photos printed, plus i also had photobooks made which we sent to my sister in jakarta and gave to mike's family in laguna.

   

of course, i also made trips to nationl bookstore for basics like tapes, yarns, etc.

and that's how we prepared for sloan's 2nd birthday :) i loved that it turned out exactly how i wanted it to. simple, classy, and fun, and even budget-friendly. again, it was a really fun project for me and already i'm excited to prepare for his 3rd birthday hehehe! i guess that's how it is when the birthday celebrator is really special :)