A Rainbow Unicorn Birthday Party

Both of my girls celebrate birthdays this week – Sophie turns 4 and then four days later Alice turns 2 – and we’re hosting their joint birthday party this weekend! We’re keeping the party very low key with just a couple of little friends and their parents in our teeny backyard patio, but of course I can’t resist the opportunity to do a bit of decorating! We’re going with a rainbow unicorn theme this year, with colorful honeycombs and paper party decorations, some very special cupcakes, unicorn balloons, and a few iridescent elements. Here are some of the images I’ve pulled for party inspiration!

Party Inspiration: A Rainbow Unicorn Birthday Party

1. Jordan’s rainbow baby shower

2. Cupcakes via Cooking Classy

3. Meri Meri ombré rainbow partyware from the Oh Happy Day Party Shop (photo via Instagram)

4. Unicorn balloon by Northstar Balloons via Pixie Dust Party Spot

5. Colorful bunting fan garland via Lark

6. DIY iridescent party favor bags

7. Fringe Streamers by Nine Photography via Ruffled

8. Honeycomb garland via Oh Happy Day

Printable Vellum Favor Tags

This post is brought to you by CJ Affiliate’s VIP Content Service. Thank you My M&M’S for sponsoring this post! All content and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make Oh So Beautiful Paper possible!

My girls have birthdays coming up in September, and I have party planning on the brain! And when it comes to party favors, I’m always in favor of something edible – ideally chocolate. So today I’m partnering with My M&M’S to create three DIY party favors with their adorable personalized M&M’s, complete with printable party favor tags from Courtney of Swiss Cottage Designs! For the packaging, I combined two of my favorite things â€“ anything iridescent and colorful vellum – to create three packaging options perfect for any occasion! So whether you’re planning a wedding or a bridal shower, baby shower or a birthday party, just pick your favorite printable tag and add some colorful M&M’s and you’ll be good to go! Oh, and keep reading below for a special discount from My M&M’S just for Oh So Beautiful Paper readers!

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

My M&M’S are the ideal personalized party favor. As a party guest, I always hope for something edible rather than a random personalized trinket, and who doesn’t like chocolate?? My M&M’S are completely customizable with photos or text, which means you can make them totally unique to your event. You don’t need graphic design skills to create the personalized M&M’s – just upload a photo or type in your selected text and My M&M’S will take care of the rest! I kept mine simple with short messages of “yay!” and “xoxo,” but I think it would be so sweet to include names for a wedding or bridal shower – or even a name and birthday for a kids birthday party!

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

I used three different size party favors, each with different printable party favor tags: a long and skinny rectangular candy box, a square favor box, and glassine envelopes. Courtney and I kept the favor tag designs fairly simple with cute hand lettered messages and sweet little illustrations that could work for a variety of occasions. The favor boxes are both clear so you can see a little glimpse of the My M&M’S inside, while the color of the My M&M’S peeks through the glassine envelopes to give a hint of what’s inside. My M&M’S are the perfect solution for DIY party favors and candy buffets, especially since you can choose your own colors! I used a color palette of pastels – pink, lavender, cream, and light blue – with a bit of aqua and dark green. With 25 colors to mix and match, you can find the right color combination for any event!

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

For the long rectangle favor boxes, I used strips of transparent vellum in our color palette of pink, purple, and aqua – they look so great against the My M&M’S! I also found positively DREAMY opalescent vellum and a white vellum with iridescent dots for just a little extra sparkle. I printed Courtney’s designs directly on the opalescent and iridescent vellum, cut the printed vellum into 2″ strips, and layered that over another 3″ strip of vellum in a complementary color.

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

I paired the square favor boxes with circle favor tags. For some favor boxes, I wrapped the boxes in 1″ strips of colorful vellum and sparkly iridescent twine. For other favor boxes, I wrapped the entire box in squares of iridescent cellophane and tied it up with sparkly twine. To turn the circle tags into gift tags, just print onto vellum and punch them out using a 1.5″ circle punch, then punch a 1/8″ hole for the twine. Or print the circle tags onto these labels and stick two labels together to create a tag!

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

The glassine bags feature a layer of iridescent cellophane (DIY tutorial coming tomorrow!) with a colorful vellum tag and sparkly twine.

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

I printed mostly black and white versions of the printable party favor tags, but I included some color versions in case you want to print them onto labels or white printer paper. Use full sheet labels for Little Wishes and cut down to 2″ wide, use these square labels for the Love is Sweet tags, and use these circle labels for the Best Day Ever tags. They’re all formatted in the appropriate templates for each label and ready to print! The color versions also look AMAZING printed onto the opalescent and iridescent vellum, I’m just saying.

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Here’s everything that you’ll need to make your own!

My M&M’S in your chosen colors – and My M&M’S is graciously offering Oh So Beautiful Paper readers a 25% discount through September 1, 2016 with the code OHSO!

Clear Rectangular Candy Boxes

Square Acrylic Favor Boxes

Glassine Bags

Colorful Vellum (I used blush, pink, purple, and aqua)

Iridescent Vellum

Opalescent Vellum

Prism Twine

Paper Trimmer

1.5″ Circle Punch

2″ Square Punch

1/8″ Hole Punch

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

The favor boxes would look so cute stacked in rows on a table, while the glassine envelopes could be placed in a cute basket or pinned on a board for guests to take! I’m just completely obsessed with the combination of iridescent and pastels. These glassine favor bags, printable party favor tags, and colorful M&M’s will definitely be making an appearance at my girls’ birthday party in just a few weeks!

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Printable Party Favor Tags with My M&Ms / Design by Swiss Cottage Designs / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Save 25% at My M&M’S through September 1, 2016 with the code OHSO!

Download all of the printable party favor tags below!

LITTLE WISHES: COLOR | BLACK + WHITE

BEST DAY EVER: COLOR | BLACK + WHITE

LOVE IS SWEET: COLOR | BLACK + WHITE

All printable artwork © 2016 Swiss Cottage Designs created exclusively for Oh So Beautiful Paper. All artwork is made available for personal use only and may not be altered, reproduced, or sold in any way. By downloading the patterns you agree to the terms of use.

Photos by Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

This post is brought to you by CJ Affiliate’s VIP Content Service. Thank you My M&M’S for sponsoring this post. While this was a sponsored opportunity from My M&M’S, all content and opinions expressed here are my own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make Oh So Beautiful Paper possible!

Happy Weekend

It feels strange to be wishing all of you a happy weekend after the tragic events in Nice yesterday. It’s getting harder and harder to find the bright spots between the shadows these days. My heart is with the people of France today. I don’t have many words today – just wishes for more peace and love, less violence and tragedy.

Friday Flowers: Pink Spray Roses, Hydrangea, Scabiosa, Foxglove, Blackberries, Japanese Painted Fern / Oh So Beautiful Paper

 

The last two weeks on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

My poor husband came down with a bad cold this week, so we’ll be sharing a cocktail recipe on Monday instead of today while he recuperates. It’s going to be a good one! See you back here on Monday. xoxo

Stationery A-Z: New Baby Cards, Part 2!

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a much-belated round up of new baby cards. Well, we unearthed so many great cards during our search that I couldn’t resist doing a second installment! So today we’re sharing twelve more adorable cards to send love and congratulations to new parents. Each and every one of these cards makes me smile and laugh, whether it’s a sweet sentiment that has me remembering the indescribable feeling of holding a newborn in your arms – or a joke about the sleep deprivation that all new parents experience. Oh, and they’re all gender neutral, so you can totally stock up now and save these cards for just the right baby. And if you’re still looking for just the right card, you can always check out the New Baby page in the Market List any time of year to browse our list of nearly 300 (and growing!) new baby cards from some of our favorite stationers!

New Baby Card Round Up / Oh So Beautiful Paper

1. Truth from Sea & Lake – bye bye sleep!

2. Bunnies! This quirky baby card from People I’ve Loved just makes me smile

3. A sweet card from Mr. Boddington’s Studio

4. Send a bit of encouragement to a brand new parent with this card from Emily McDowell Studio

5. Yay for mini versions of ourselves! From Farewell Paperie

6. A super cute card to welcome a new baby from Hello!Lucky

7. Parenthood is DEFINITELY one wild ride, right Smudge Ink?

8. Congrats for new parents from The Good Twin

9. One of my faves from Dear Hancock

10. Send love to Earth’s newest resident from Ladyfingers Letterpress

11. So many emotions all wrapped up in one card from laLa Grace – parenthood definitely requires a healthy sense of humor, particularly during those early sleep-deprived days

12. Love this gender-neutral new baby card from Hammerpress

More new baby cards in the Market List right here!

Happy Weekend – and Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Friday everyone! And Happy (almost) Fourth of July! Do you have fun plans for the long weekend? I’m hoping to take our girls to a swimming pool for the first time in FOREVER. We took Sophie swimming when she was just a wee baby, but this will be Alice’s first swimming experience! Sophie hated swimming pools (and any large body of water, really) back then, but I’m hoping things have changed now that she’s an (almost) four year old. We’ll see! But in the meantime…

Envelopes by Lauren Essl (Blue Eye Brown Eye Calligraphy) via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Envelopes by Lauren Essl (aka Blue Eye Brown Eye Calligraphy) from the #dailydoseofpaper feed on Instagram!

…a few links for your weekend:

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

That’s it for me this week! Check back in a bit for this week’s cocktail recipe – it’s a REALLY good one! Have a fantastic holiday weekend and I’ll see you back here on Tuesday! xoxo