One Cute Nursery

The Joy of Designing for Baby and Beyond

You are here: Home / Home

Mod Baby Shower for a Boy – Brown and Blue

By:

This post contains affiliate
When it comes to decorating baby boys’ nurseries, the brown and blue palette is a favorite. It is the perfect balance between delicate and masculine. This combination is also widely used on baby showers and this post is loaded with ideas! 
This is my grilfriend’s baby shower; this girl knows how to throw a party! Renata is brazilian and she actually imports from Brazil what they call ‘ forminhas’ which is basically paper wrappers for sweets and appetizers, favor boxes and some other party supplies. With a palette of colors in mind and forminhas in hand, we sat down and designed the decor. 
All photos via Flavia Andrews (that’s me! )

Let’s start by welcoming the little man 🙂 . This banner is a variation of the popular onesie banner on a tulle. I chose all baby blue patterned papers for the onesies and chocolate brown die cut letters mounted on foam squares  It’s hard to see, but the letters actually look like 3D (see the happy birthday banner on this post).

Welcome Baby Boy Banner 

Renata handcrafted these beautiful pom poms.
I was in awe with the flower arrangements that my girlfriend put together, she’s really good at it!. Hydrangeas are definitely my favorite flower! 🙂 and these ones have a hint of blue / periwinkle that I love. 
The party started at 3 pm, so the perfect thing to do was to serve Hors d’oeuvres and here is where she put the ‘forminhas’ to work 🙂
Is there anything cuter than baby feet? Yep, I don’t think so! Look at these cuties that Rafaela, my girlfriend’s  sister made! 

This is a gorgeous cupcake stand…I love how it really sets the mod mood on the table…
I die cut these tiny itsy bitsy onesies to decorate these ‘tacinhas‘ (little cups) where Renata served a delicious potato salad.
These sweets are my all time favorite, and Renata serves them at every party (they are very traditional in Brazil). The chocolate balls are called ‘brigadeiro’ and they are melt in your mouth chocolate goodness with condensed milk – I have to make these !- and the white ones are ‘beijinhos’ (little kisses) made of coconut…She actually made the coconut balls for my son’s birthday. 
This fun and giant die cut baby bottle shows us -non expecting ladies- where the drinks are…
I also die cut litlle baby bottles to use them as tags for the wine glasses…

These favor boxes are also ‘forminhas’ imported from Brazil. The favor tags are handmade by me. These design is totally opposite from my popular favor tags where the onesie is mounted on a scalloped circle, here the scalloped circle is mounted on a tiny onesie. 


The baby’s aunt made the beautiful cake. Look for her link at the end of this post…

These are the credits and their respective links:
And that’s all! Thanks for looking!

UPDATE: Check out her second baby shower here!

Sweet Little Cupcake Boy Birthday – Baby’s First Birthday

By:

A few months back I got the pleasure to prepare the Sweet Little Cupcake Boy First Birthday Package for little baby Nolan.

I was so excited when his mommy was so kind to share with me the pictures of his party! She really did a great job and made all the decorations shine! This takes me to write a little disclaimer:

All pictures shown in this post {except for the invitation design} via Jaime (Nolan’s mommy). Thank You Jamie!!

With a few exceptions, I don’t get to see my party decor “in action”. So, when Jamie sent me these pictures, my first thought was “Oh My! I have to write a blog post about it.” Thank you Jamie for allowing me to share this beautiful party with my readers.

It’s been 4 months since Nolan’s party, I thought I was just going to sit down and blog away that same night but things got a little complicated when my dad fell sick and then his passing…I don’t think he got a chance to see these pictures actually… 🙁

Well, moving onto happy thoughts!

First things first: this is the invitation that I custom designed for Nolan. He looks so adorable with his birthday hat! I gotta say, his picture makes the whole design!

Sweet Cupcake Boy – First Birthday Invitation 
Note: The package itself does not include the invitation, neither the centerpieces that you’re going to see in this particular party. They were added by customer request.
The Centerpieces: Tin buckets anyone? 
Love the way she placed these picture frames by the centerpiece. What a neat idea! 

Sweet Little Cupcake Boy Centerpieces

The cupcake toppers…Mmm, yummy cupcakes…

See the paper plates and the cups on the bottom right corner of this picture? This is the set  that inspired this collection in my shop.

The high-chair banner. This banner is beautiful, I love how it fits perfect the width of almost any high-chair
The Happy Birthday Banners . Jamie got two: one for the main table and one for the mantle…
Happy First Birthday Banner

Happy First Birthday Banner

The favor tags…I want a sugar cookie now!

and last but no least, the Welcome Sign…
Again, this post would not have been possible without these beautiful pictures taken by Jamie. So Jamie, thank you so much! I am glad I fulfilled your expectations with this party package.
All these products are available in my Etsy store. Thank you all for looking and sharing the joy! 
Have a wonderful weekend, XOXO

Caillou Birthday Party

By:

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. For more information, please read my Affiliate Disclosure page.

On Saturday July 21st our little boy turned 2! That same day we offered his birthday bash at The Little Gym. It was F-U-N!

Now, before I start sharing details with you, I have to say: this was WAY too much preparation for 90 minutes! That’s all you have. But knowing me, and always putting so much thought into every little detail, I had to do all these goodies for two grand reasons…One: My son LOVES Caillou! and the look on his face when he saw everything set up -and Caillou images all over the place- was worth all the effort I put into it.
Two: This is what I do, this is what I LOVE to do and I enjoyed every second of it.

I designed the invitation, inspired on all the Caillou party supplies sold online that I have bought two months before. Once I had all these goodies in my hands…

images via birthdayexpress.com

… I designed the invitation. Mostly inspired by the placemat and the image of Caillou with his hands up in the air from the cup…Cute!
Now, for the party goodies I made:

– 2 Happy Birthday Banners
– Food Tents
– Juice Bottle Labels
– Favor Tags
– Welcome Sign
– Centerpieces
– Cake Decoration (well, maybe 1/3 of it!)

*** UPDATE: please DO NOT contact me to via email or via comments looking to purchase Caillou themed decorations of any kind, as right now I am unable to sell any handmade items or distribute digital files. I made these decorations for my personal use only and the purpose of this post is to give you inspirations and ideas on party styling *****  Thanks!

Resuming…

Beforehand, I want to say that I am not the best photographer out there, neither I have the greatest camera, and on top of that, the light wasn’t good at the venue. The walls are yellow and they soaked up the natural light…. and I picked yellow tablecloths nonetheless! So, my apologies for the not-so-good pics. Here we go:

First, the Welcome Sign. This is the only picture with natural light of course, it was outside hanging on the front door…

This is a simple Happy Birthday banner. Initially I thought I would put it as a background for the main table, but behind that table there was a window – bummer!- so I opted for a wall on the side of the room. Here is where the yellow soaks up my natural light!.

Here is a zoom…

This is the main table (with the outside view background). I put a second banner over the skirt. In case you’re wondering, I use foam mounting tabs to hold everything up on the wall and on the table skirt, it works great!
These are the kids’ tables…

Every time I go to Target, my first stop is the Dollar Spot. I am always stocking up on tin buckets… I am obsessed with them! They are cute, cheap and they are multi-use. So, I used them for the centerpieces… just like in last year’s party and weighed them down with crayons.

Last year I labeled water bottles…This year – thanks to my girlfriend whose little boy’s birthday party I helped to decorate – I took the idea from her and labeled also Apple Juice bottles – duh!- last year I gave the kids juice in pouches that I couldn’t label.
Here is a picture of the whole label in all colors. 
Going back to the main table, these are the favors. I bought mini totes in all matching colors, except I could not find red so I used hot pink instead for the little girls. I was upset I couldn’t find red…that’s how quirky I am! But, girls love pink so at the end it was all good! 
Here is a zoom of the favor tags…
Now, moving onto…the cake! I searched high and low for Caillou birthday cakes ideas and I found beautiful ones on Pinterest, many very professional made with rolled fondant…but I think that kids are not too ‘fond’ of it -no pun intended! – Instead, buttercream icing is a go! So, I went to my local bakery at the grocery store and I ordered a simple yellow cake with all primary colors icing, specifying that I wanted green on top (to simulate grass in a park) and no writings on top. The decorator called me that morning to double check with me about the “no writing, no words, no happy birthday on top” note I left on the order. And then she asked me again when I went to pick it up! I had a better plan: 
I bought these Caillou figurines in a backpack and I placed them on the cake. My personal touch were the balloon candles and the little “Happy 2nd Birthday Logan” banner that Rosie and Leo are holding…It’s my favorite thing of the whole party decor! 🙂
…and because it’s my favorite part, here are more pictures 🙂
This sight made my son smile BIG time!
So, everyone knows I can’t bake, but I was in the mood for some mini cupcakes with primary colors icing, so I went and asked my friend Betty Crocker to give me a hand and the night before, I iced 48 of these babies myself with these wonderful Wilton Ready-To-Use Icing. They are… imperfectly perfect! The only reason why I did not use cupcake toppers was because they don’t fit inside this particular cupcake stand that I love because it lends itself for some cute decorations.
Here is zoom of the Caillou image on top…
This is one of the bucket tins holding colorful mini Rainbow Spiral Lollipops. I had two tins, one on each side of the main table…
I found personalized latex balloons and paired them with the foil balloons. Swoon!
My girlfriend made these brazilian sweets called Beijinhos (Little Kisses) and they are made of coconut and condensed milk…I ate them all! 🙂 Here you can see a sample of the food tents.
Another food tent -with better light – this picture is terrible…yikes! I was in a hurry.
and finally, a bonus pic of me and my little man…
After 60 minutes of ” serious fun ” inside the Gym itself, the kids came inside the party room, ate pizza, draw on the reverse of the activity placemats, we sang happy birthday and ate cake. We had a full house! All the kids that were invited attended and that makes all the hours of hard work worth the effort. Everyone, kids and adults had a great time!
Thanks for stopping by!
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. For more information, please read my Affiliate Disclosure page.
*** UPDATE: please DO NOT contact me to via email or via comments looking to purchase Caillou themed decorations of any kind as right now I am unable to sell any handmade items or distribute digital files. I made these decorations for my personal use only and the purpose of this post is to give you inspiration and ideas on party styling *****  Thanks for your understanding!

Baby’s First Bee-Day ! – Bumblebee Party

By:

It seems like I have sold one too many Bee-Day highchair banners lately and better than that, I was asked to design other matching goodies like invitations, welcome signs and cupcake toppers.

I think that, if I would have had a baby girl, a “bee-day” would have been in the themes list…It is so lovely, so femenine and especially so out of the box! It’s a nice change from the popular pink and purple themes.

Here is the welcome sign…


This is the popular high chair banner that I sell almost daily…

and I also made these cupcake toppers to match the theme..

If you have seen pictures of my cupcake toppers before, you probably noticed that I always portray them laying down… and not standing up inside a delicious cupcake, like they’re supposed to… and the reason is because I-can’t-bake…Well, I can when Betty Crocker gives me a hand! 🙂

But, that doesn’t keep me from loving cupcakes and in fact, I have a pinboard named Cupcakes Obsession…There, I found hundreds of bee-themed cupcakes… like these:

picture via Pinterest

picture via Pinterest

picture via Pinterest

All of them beautiful but…all the bee decoration on top beats the purpose of my cupcake toppers… Then I went to check out Texanerin and look what I found….

picture via Texanerin Baking
Now, if I only could photoshop { just 🙂 kidding } my bee-cupcake toppers on this goodness 100% Whole Wheat Chocolate Carrot Cake Cupcake… Eye candy, yum and healthy! Texanerin Baking is a wonderful blog where you can find recipes of classic baked goods with a healthy twist…most of her recipes contain 100% whole wheat and are low in sugar. Now, isn’t that the perfect cupcake for a bee-healthy-bee-day party?… It seems to me that today more mommies watch closely what their kids eat and this recipe fits the bill.
By the way, all my bee-day party decor can be found here.
Thanks for looking and happy weekend everyone!
{*no compensation was received for this post*}
{*I do not claim ownership or copyright of the cupcakes’ pictures portrayed above * }

Shabby Chic Babies Treasury

By:

What a great way to start the day and the week! Our Shabby Chic Baby Shower Favor Tags have been featured on an Etsy Treasury List. 



It’s a great honor to be chosen within thousands of products! These tags are very popular and I am proud to say that OCN is the only one seller offering this design.


      Shabby Chic Baby Shower Favor Tags

Thanks to Pat from Stichntheattic for the feature! and by the way, please go and checkout her beautiful quilted items here.

Happy start of the week everyone!

{***no compensation was received for this post***}

It’s good to be back! – More Party Ideas –

By:

Wow! It’s been way too long since the last time I posted on the blog. Had a very rough start of the year, my daddy got sick and sadly passed away last month. Tough times, yes, but life moves forward…After all, he gave me these hands and the skills to be more creative each day…so let’s keep moving!

So, here we are trying to balance home work, office work, housewife chores, OCN’s Etsy shop and raising a toddler just shy of turning terrible twos two.


I am back in track { I think } and preparing 4 party packages all due before July 21st including my own boy’s 2nd birthday bash. Here is a sneak peek on what I’ve been working on, hope you enjoy it…. 


It’s good to be back! 

Hello Kitty Zipper Pulls


Caillou Birthday Party Invitation

Thanks for stopping by!

DIY Christmas Cupcake Toppers and Gift Tags – Free!

By:

                                                                                 At Christmas play 

and make good cheer…

for Christmas comes 


but  once a year.


To all my dear readers and followers:  As a token of my appreciation for all your support through 2011 I am sharing this beautiful DIY-Christmas Cupcake Toppers file with all of you! If you need some help on how to make them, you can also download the instructions right here.


Merry Christmas!!

A Girly Baby Shower – Lavender and Pink –

By:

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Jessica hosted her sister’s baby shower and I was very pleased to help her with the decor. Together we came up with the color theme and we agreed on pink…{but of course!}, lavender and light green. I made cupcake toppers, favor tags, napkin rings, welcome sign and the prettiest banner. I can only take credit for the decor on the cupcake stand and toppers {not the cupcakes, I can’t bake..*sigh*} and the other paper goods. Jessica made the beautiful diaper cake, wrapped up the favors in tulle and put everything together in the room making all those decorations shine!

It might sound silly, but I LOVE the tub with the cold drinks! It just looked like if it was made for this particular occasion! The favors were little picture frames with the baby’s sonogram wrapped in white tulle and tied up with the favor tags. I loved the P-A-R-T-Y platters that she filled up with coordinating candies… It was just beautiful!
All photos via Flavia Andrews

To see all the decorations used in this party, click here! 
Thanks for looking! Have a wonderful weekend!

Baby’s First Birthday Design Ideas {by real mamas!}

By:

For the last three months, high chair banners have been the number one seller on my Etsy shop. And I have so much fun designing and handcrafting them! But, I can’t take all the credit because it’s the mommies who have this birthday theme in mind, they convo me with their ideas and I make them come to life. From watermelons to blueberries or simple polka dots…All of them make my heart sing.

Here are some pictures of the projects…Get inspired!

For more birthday party ideas and designs, visit my Etsy shop here!
Have a wonderful weekend!

The Birthday Party as promised.

By:

So finally the big day came and it’s been a little over a week since then.
{*sigh*} I just don’t know where does time go…
Logan turned one almost two weeks ago and it’s amazing how he has turned into this independent {so he thinks} little man. He climbs over furniture, climbs the stairs {I’m always behind him, no worries}, says Dada a little more often than Mama…{isn’t that nice?}and waves bye-bye….and today he finally let go of the furniture to wave bye-bye and gave three steps towards his daddy when he said: ‘Ok buddy, give me a kiss I gotta go to work’…It was so amazing we both {yes daddy too!} had tears in our eyes. Our little baby is growing up so quickly! 
Well without further ado, here you have the pics. I’m very proud of the turnout, everyone had fun and loved the decorations {that I made =) }. Thanks for looking!
Birthday Boy!

Center Table {with lots of snacks, cupcakes and candy!}

Kids Table {they had bubbles, crayolas, noise makers, balloons}

Enough space for the kids to play {I love the room}

Loved this cupcake stand {cupcake toppers and food tents made by me!}

I am so glad everyone had fun {see the bubbles? lovely!}

Logan wasn’t too happy at the beginning {can you tell?}

And then he found….drumroll….a cupcake! {this is the only cute family portrait}

He was so into the sugary buttercream that didn’t even care about the hat {that I made! LOL}
I loved that my neighborhood bakery has this deal: you buy the cake for baby’s first birthday and you get a little “smash cake” for free! I love the idea, it was the best part of the party! Here are the pics:
The “real” cake {yellow cake with chocolate pudding and buttercream frosting}
Smash Cake time! {is this for real?}
hmmm let’s see what we have here…

Yummy! {it is for real!}

I just love it! {btw frosting stains came right out in one wash}
I am very happy to share this with you because you have been my faithful readers since day one, when Logan was only three months and I would sit and share with you all his little milestones…and now look at him!
Please feel free to contact me and ask me any questions about the party and the decor. We are all here to help!
Love always,