Secret Garden Party~The Invitations

With my love for photography and obsession with photo editing and graphic design, I just couldn't bring myself to buy invitations for our daughter's second birthday party, so I made them myself. Honestly, they only took a few of hours from start to finish and for all of you crafty and creative women out there, I encourage you to try making your own invitations for the next special event you plan; it not only makes such an impression on your guests but it also peaks their interest.

Below I am including the instructions for making these invitations...for future reference!

How they were made:

The front of the invitation is comprised of three different photographs and is 4X6 inches in dimension.

The top photograph is of Amelia's eyes; the middle picture is actually a picture of an illustration in Peter Rabbit tucked in some Geraniums; and the bottom picture is a closeup of the same Geranium bloom.

Then I added two pieces of nature-inspired clip art as embellishments. I chose the bottom embellishment to hold the title Secret Garden.

I had the front of the invitations printed by a photo lab.

I designed the back of the invitation using the same photo editing program, where I inserted the same lovely piece of clip art at the top. (I handwrote each of the guest's names inside of this embellishment.)

I printed the invitation backs myself on ivory cardstock with a moss green ink.

On a trip to the Warrenton, TX antique fair in March, I found a vendor who had a box full of keys, and they were 25 cents each-perfect. The vendor also had old skeleton keys for $2 each, which would have been nicer, but not really necessary.

I came home and spray-painted these keys a metallic champagne color to soften them up a bit and give them a little more pizazz.

Invitation Assembly:

After the paint on the keys had dried, I cut small strips of blush hem tape and looped them through the key holes and tied the ribbon ends in a small knot.

Then I used a small scrapbooking brad to poke through the ribbon that was holding the key and ran the brad through the cardstock in the top right corner. {See image above}

Then I adhered the photograph to the backside of the cardstock invitation using double-sided photo adhesive stickers.

Coming up Next

Pictures of the party decorations, food, gift wrap, and birthday dress

_{All images by à la parisienne}

Dressing Baby: White Innocence & Gray Elegance

I just wanted to share a quick post over a quick creative project I did this weekend. I also haven't shared any recent pictures of our baby girl, and Mommy has to brag a little!

I bought this very simple cotton dress for nearly nothing knowing that it would be a great blank canvas for me to embellish. I have been making my own millinery flowers to accessorize my wardrobe and decided that this gray velvet and silk flower would be the perfect adornment for this crisp, cotton dress.

Dove gray velvet and silk millinery flower made by A la parisienne

Notice the natural fraying around the edges of the silk petals~ the more I wear this flower (or the more Amelia wears it:) it becomes softer and more tattered creating a timeworn accesory. I love the juxtaposition of crisp, clean fabrics adorned with vintage accesories.

Does anyone know the name of this yellow toy? It looks somewhat like a Lego and it comes with various sized, shaped, colored pieces that interconnect. My daughter loves these and we only have a few pieces to the set. I know that they aren't new as I haven't seen them since my childhood.

Oh, my little sweetheart is growing up so fast. Everyday she surprises me as I witness her discover new pleasures (toddling around the house holding a crumpled piece of paper in one hand and a block in the other) and hear her say new words (outside, bread, down...).

It is such a joy to participate in her life everyday as her "Mom-ma."