How to Use Engineering Prints to Decorate at a Party

One of my favorite decorating touches at our daughter's first birthday party was the photo collage I made with engineering prints and poster board. Just as I did with my son, I took photos of her every month of her first year wearing numbered onesie stickers. 

At my son's first birthday party, I hung a banner with his photos from each month. 

I knew that I wanted to do something similar for her party. Instead of a banner, I made a collage of the 12 photos with PicMonkey and then had a large engineering print of the collage made.

Here is the engineering print of the photo collage on black poster board and on the wall. I used felt roses for some extra pops of red and to disguise the tacks that I hung the board with.

I loved the way it turned out so much, the was process so simple, and the cost so low, that I decided to choose several of my favorite photos of her from birth to a year and make prints of them to use at the party as well.

A lot of people have asked me how and where I made the prints for the photo wall so I'm going to show you how I did it.

I used Staples and was really happy with the quality and how fast they were done but you can do it at other copy/print/mail centers as well. Follow these instructions if you want to do it using the Staples website.

When you get to the Staples Copy & Print online store, click on 'Oversized Prints'

I selected 'Engineering Prints in B/W'

You'll need to click on Media (Blueprints...) to select the size you want. I chose the 18X24 size. Check the box at the bottom that says 'Fit content to Paper'

Click on 'Add Files' in the upper left corner and select a photo from your computer or disk that you want to print. This is the photo that I used to make a poster for the mantel.

After previewing your photo, just add to your cart and order! All of mine were ready for me to pick them up within an hour. 

For the wall collage I used a combination of washi tape, heart clothespins, and clear tacks to affix my prints to poster boards. Because the paper for the prints is so thin, you might not want to use any kind of adhesive that could bleed through the paper and stain the photo. I hung the prints with a LOVE sign that I made out of leftover paneling and vinyl lettering and it made for such a sweet Valentine's Day first birthday photo wall.

The engineering prints are perfect for a party decoration or something like a word art print but are not meant for high resolution photo printing. Photo canvases are still my favorite way to display my pictures.

That said, I'm going to order one of these engineering prints before purchasing photo canvases in the future. Because it's difficult to visualize how a photo will look when it's really large, this is a perfect way to determine what will look good before paying big bucks for the canvas that can't be returned.

A Sweet February

I'm not sure how it happened. Not only did the last month pass in the blink of an eye but I don't see how we celebrated our baby's first birthday already. 

A girls (and baby girls) getaway weekend to the mountains, two parties, and three snow days capped off with a stomach flu made our cold month fly by.

When my daughter was born a year ago I knew starting another 'baby phase' meant potentially two more years of a nursing baby dependent on me and the schedule that entails. I'm so grateful to have friends that not only wanted me to come away for the weekend with them but also didn't blink an eye at letting me bring a baby on a moms' getaway trip! 

We stayed at a beautiful house in Cashiers, NC. Although I'm sure it would've been more relaxing to go alone, I'm just not at a point in my life that leaving my baby home would feel like a vacation. She enjoyed all of the attention that she got and the chance to be spoiled. The house had a sandy beach and dock and I enjoyed the chance to take some photos in the sunshine.

February was just filled with sweet smiles, sweet friends, and so many sweet desserts! I made three cakes this month, 4 dozen cupcakes, rice krispie pops, cookies, and polished off a box of chocolates. 

A few of our friends and their littles helped us celebrate a 'Bee Mine' first birthday on Valentine's Day. I made this beehive cake with little sugar bees and a heart door and topper.

I also made a little strawberry smash cake for the ever adorable 'first taste of cake' photos.

I made cupcakes with marshmallow frosting and fondant bee toppers.

I had way more fun with the 'Bee Mine' theme than I thought I would and was left wondering how I waited this long to have a Valentine's Day party. 

I covered our living room wall with giant photos from the baby's first year including a collage of 12 months of photos. I'll share the details on how I did it for less than 10$ and other details from her party soon!

The month of sweet moments ended yesterday with a beach themed baby shower and I made this 'baby footprints on the beach' cake for it.

I'm looking forward to March with plans to do a ton of spring cleaning, organizing and projects, helping out at my son's school, warm weather (I hope) and taking a short break from parties.

I'll share more photos and details from the 'Bee Mine' party this week and also some new projects I've been working on soon!

Puppy Dog Tails First Birthday Party

I started planning our boy's first birthday party when he was a newborn. We watched as our families and friends threw their children parties for many years before we were able to view one through the eyes of a child of our own so it felt like much more than just a birthday party to plan.

There are so many cute party ideas out there but I had trouble finding something that felt like it fit, most likely because an infant can't be very clear about their likes. Most days, the little one's favorite thing to do was watch our dog or play on his red and white gingham play mat. With only that to go on, my Puppy Dog Tails theme was born! Forget snakes and snails, this boy is all about cute and so was his party.



I love the red puppy dog tail hooks from Ikea that I knew would fit the party theme well and would be great to use as anchors on a 'look at my first twelve months' style banner.

Warning: This little gem of a project requires a year of advance planning and a commitment to a photo shoot at least once a month! I bought onesie number stickers and each month took a photo of him wearing one. It was a really special feature at the party for guests to look at and see just how much the baby changed in such a short time.
Can I have a favorite month? O.K., it was ten months.

The cake was one of my favorite parts of the party. My sister and I decorated it with enough fondant to dye our fingers blue and red. We molded the brown fondant into a little dog rump and made a pile of mud with chocolate frosting that looked like it had the dog's head buried inside of it. I crushed some oreos and sprinkled them on for dirt.

Here is a close up of the puppy tail on the top of the cake:

It wasn't perfect but it was about to meet with one year old hands!

For other decorations, my sister and I painted wooden puppy masks and the kids looked adorable posing for photos with them.

Bright paint cans were decorated with the puppy dog tails and filled with paw print glow lights and other small favors for the kids.

I used red dog bowls from the Dollar Tree with painted wooden bones to hold snacks. Kix and Cocoa Puffs cereal worked well for baby friendly snacks that looked like puppy food.

The birthday boy enjoyed the day and we are so glad that we could share it with family and friends. As a military family it isn't common to be close enough to home to have family there for special occasions and we were grateful that for this special day we did.