Tonality Designs

Funky Nutcracker Birthday

My niece, MacKenzie, was born on December 27th and since the day she was born my sister has always worried that MacKenzie's birthday would be overlooked because of Christmas. Yet of course we don't let that happen, as you can tell by this 5th birthday soiré. Inspired by MacKenzie's new love of ballet, we did a Nutcracker Birthday.

The invitation read:
Point your toes and plié, as we get ready to wish
MacKenzie a happy 5th birthday!
It's right after Christmas, so the Nutcracker is still here
To dance and to shower Mackie with fun birthday cheer! 

As for the decorations, luckily my sister always goes along with my crazy ideas. So she willingly collected over 20 nutcrackers, and with her husbands help, they transformed the traditional Christmas decorations into funky, bright colored birthday nutcrackers. They were oh, so fabulously funky. And we didn't stop there, of cousre we had beautiful flowers, fake snow, paper snow flakes and all the custom paper details I designed with the ballerina drawing of Mackenzie. 

One of the activites was cookie decorating! 

Another activity was coloring our custom ballerina coloring sheets!

I really loved how the mantel turned out! MacKenzie has her very own birthday stocking and we added, bright, colored ornaments, custom mini banner, snow flakes and our ballerina topper.

The birthday girl and me! What a fun day — I love you Mackie Moo! 

Happy Bee-Day!

We created this Happy Bee-Day theme for a 1st birthday party, but we think it woud also work great for a Sweet-as-Honey Baby Shower. All items are now available on Etsy as DIY PDF printables.

As for the photos, a special thank you to my friend Sarah Miller and sister Sarah Detrick. They were both visiting from Ohio and they used one of their precious vacation days to help me capture pictures of this wonderful party. They both helped with the styling and the talented Sarah Miller did a wonderful job behind the camera! Thank you both (also, I loved every minute of your visit so come again soon)!!!

On to the party!

 

I'm all a buzz about the DIY Bees we created for the centerpieces! Instructions coming in another post!

See the complete Bee-Day collection on Etsy!

Monster Mash, Birthday Bash!

Over the weekend, my sister Megan did an amazing job on her husband Brad's 30th Birthday party! Of course she had me design all the paper goods, but I have to give her credit for pulling it all together so bewitchingly. Pictured above is my niece Mackenzie. Does she not make the cutest witch?! Along with planning this party, Megan also made her costume which is just wickedly sweet. You'll note she's holding a Frankenstein Monster Mask. Look even closer and you'll realize it uses a picture of the birthday boy! We had a laugh using Brad's picture to create the monster!

The table really turned out spook-tacular!

A carved out pumpkin acted as the perfect cooler.

We dressed up the wine bottles and each wine glass got a custom tag to act as a wine charm. My favorite saying was "Eat, Drink and Be Scary!"

We got this Skeleton Hand idea from the Hostess with the Mostess Blog. We just loved it! We did 4 different banner sayings: 1) Fang-tastic Goodies, Just for You! 2) Indulge if you dare! 3) Wickedly Sweet Treats 4) Beware! You can't stop at one!

Creep, Boo, Scare! Spooky sayings act as toppers for the different desserts.

I'm sorry, but she's just too cute!

The custom pennant banner looks great with the added touch of the large spiders!

Yum! Wish I could have been there. The only bummer of living in California is all my family that's in Ohio. But since I was able to help my sister with all the planning, I feel like I was there in spirit. Thanks Megan for doing such a wonderful job and taking such great pictures. I look forward to Christmas when we can host a party together during my visit home!

And Happy Halloween everyone! I hope this acts as some inspiration!

A Spooktacular Birthday!

My latest invitation design is perfect for Halloween but even better because it's celebrating a Halloween Birthday! It's the final design my sister and I decided to go with for her husband's 30th birthday. I can't wait until we finalize all the decor ideas!

Birthday Rockers In the House Tonight!

Our Pop Flower Birthday really turned out better than we imagined. And thanks to photography by the very talented Kat Riley, we have some great inspiration to share with you today. All items will be available through our Etsy website.

Party Styling Tips:

1. Mix and match prints. I love designing patterns that we can mix and match. By designing all the paper details with different prints, you build in instant interest. So for example, instead of just using one pattern paper for your placemats, think about using 6 different patterns that coordinate. You can make it work by sticking to a strict color pallet. Here it was teal, lime green and dark blue.
2. Anchor everything with a neutral - in this case the neutral is white, but the neutral could also be a color. By using lots of white and clear glass (table clothes, flowers, plates, streamers, wine glasses, candle holders etc.), your eye has a place to rest and the colors pop even more. If we would have used blue or green table clothes the patterned papers would have blended in and the party would have lost its crisp, clean, modern feel. Using our placemat example from before, when using different patterns be sure to anchor it with a neutral, solid plate - it will tie your table together.
3. Simple materials like ribbon can add that extra WOW detail. Here we added an abundance of curling white ribbon to our cupcake topper, favors, tabletents, etc. The playfulness of the ribbon makes everything more festive and fun. We kept it white in line with rule #2 above - colored ribbon would have taken away from all the other colors we were using.
4. Cupcake toppers don't have to be limited to a circle or square. They also don't have to be on short sticks or only used on cupcakes. Here we cut out inspirational words (love, hope, joy, wisdom, prosperity) and the guest-of-honors name. We also cut out the flowers and even made some typical square toppers, but they weren't used on cupcakes. Instead we put them in tall vases used as candy jars. By using 6" and 11" sticks for varying heights and adding curling ribbon, our three different topper styles bring the unexpected to this ever popular and typical party detail.
5. Design your buffet tables in zones. Styling a nice buffet or dessert table can seem like a daunting task. How do you make it look professional and not just a clustered mess? We say think of the table in zones of 3-5. Our dessert table was designed in 4 zones with 3 flower arrangements dividing the zones. So it went from left to right: Zone 1: Candy jars; Zone 2: Mini Cakes; Zone 3: Cupcakes; Zone 4: Wine Bottle Favors. We created interest in each zone by adding a different paper topper or label. We also added height to short items by adding taller than usual toppers or elevating the plates.
6. Simple flower arrangements doesn't mean boring. We created 6 flower arrangements for under $20. How did we do that? We made sure the vases were interesting (paper wrapped spaghetti jars and soup cans). We used only 3 flowers all in one color (each vase used a couple stems each of white china mums, white stock and white lisianthus). We added a pop of the unexpected (we found blue glittered leaves and organic stems at Michaels thanks to their Christmas section).

Please enjoy all our pictures. Again, photography was by Kathryn Riley Photography. Thank you Kat!

Party Credits:

Styling, Flowers and Paper Designs: Tonality Designs - Available on Etsy

Photographs: Kathryn Riley Photography

Pirate P-arrr-ty!

Inspired by two of my favorite boys on this here planet, this Pirate P-arrr-ty was so much fun to create! It was a joint party for my cousin's kids, Drew (age 4) and Will (age 2). Everything you're about to see (and more) is also now available via Etsy as DIY Printable files!

First off, my creativity was put to the challenge when thinking of centerpiece ideas. Flowers just didn't seem appropriate. I really wanted pirate ships, so I tried Googling ideas and I came up empty handed. I thought for sure there would be some sort of DIY idea, but nothing. I did find a couple ship & boat ideas but they just weren't quite right. So after a bit of brainstorming, I came up with these super easy, yet super cute (if I do say so myself), paper pirate ships. Here's what I did:

Materials:

• Paper for the sails, skull flag and base - I designed mine, but you could cut the shapes out of 8.5 x 11" paper. My designs are available for sale on Etsy (Click Here). If not purchasing the DIY files, simply cut out the following:
  • 1- 5.25" x 3.5" rectangle out of white cardstock (small sail)
  • 1- 6.25" x 4.5" rectangle out of white cardstock (large sail)
  • 2- 8.5" x 5.5" rectangle out of black cardstock (ship)
• 18" dowel rod
• Styrofoam or floral foam block (we used floral foam blocks that were 2 5/8 x 3 1/2 x 7 7/8 and cut them in half)
• Black and white tissue paper (or wrapping paper)
• Double-sided tape
• Hole punch

Instructions:

1. Cut out shapes for sail, ship and skull flag.
2. For Sails: Punch hole in the center of the top and bottom of the small and large sails (see picture). Thread onto 18" dowel rod like pictured. If you have the skull flag - fold in half. Place the top of the dowel rod in the center of the fold and using the double-sided tape tape the flag shut.
3. For Ship: Place 1 ship piece face down on table. Put double-sided tape along both of the short ends. Then line-up the 2nd ship piece on top (face-up).
4. Wrap the styrofoam/floral foam block with the tissue paper or wrapping paper.
5. Open your assembled ship piece and place over your wrapped styrofoam/floral foam block.
6. Stick your assembled dowel rod into the center of the styrofoam block. Your ship is complete!

The other favorite - Drew & Will Pirate Heads! How can you not love heads on a stick! Especially when you add an illustrated eye patch and pirate scarf. They were perfect to use on the ship centerpieces and the cupcakes. I also created treasure maps, pirate hooks, anchors, skull flags and balloons for the cupcake toppers. I love that we went with cutout shapes instead of just the typical circle designs.

Lots more was created. For example, what's a pirate party without a treasure map? The table runners were created by blowing up a 8.5 x 11" black and white drawing I created. The maps were perfect running under the pirate ships and created a place for kids and adults to color!

See more pictures on our Etsy shop! Party on me hearties! Yo ho!

Come Sail Away!

Most of my bespoke designs are do to a request from family. My cousin Kim asked for this Catalina inspired invite. She's planning a 40th birthday getaway and she wanted to get the guests excited about the event. She also wanted the guest-of-honor to feel extra special. I'm told the invite did just that! I'm loving this new style and I'm sure I'll do it again for another theme.

On a side note, I found the great background at Lost and Taken. The website provides fabulous textured photos that anyone can use for FREE. They have tons of really great creations and I'm sure I'll be using them often.

Don't forget to check out our new DIY Printables on Etsy. I'll be adding new designs this weekend and hope to continue adding them throughout the weeks to come.

Born On the Fourth of July - Birthday!

Do you know a real live nephew of our Uncle Sam? For those born on the 4th of July, why not have fun with it? Inspired by the iconic World War I recruiting poster, I think everyone who receives Will's 1st Birthday Invite will be doing a double-take. Although Will's real birthday is not on the 4th, we're celebrating it that weekend so we just went with it. And I'm so happy we did!

Happy Bee-Day!

 

A request for a Bee Inspired 1st Birthday invite resulted in two very different directions. I ended up enjoying both while Brianna's parents had a definite favorite. How about you?

Alyssa's Enchanted Birthday

The latest in the Dream Birthday Collection. This was actually done in November, but since I've been overwhelmed with things and not blogging I've yet to share it with you guys.

I'll open it to you to guess what you think the inspiration was for this one. Just leave a comment with your guess and I'll let you know if you guessed right ;) And let's make it fun, the first right guess will receive a special prize in the mail! (Sorry family and guests of the party, but since you all know the answer you do not qualify to receive the special prize, but feel free to comment as always.)