Tonality Designs

Lil' Thanksgiving Turkey

Here's an easy Thanksgiving project you can complete before next Thursday. Use them to embellish your  placecards or favor tags. I used them one Thanksgiving on invites and a label for wine charm favors.  

Supplies:
3/16" Satin Ribbon with Picot Edges (Any fall color will work. If you can't find Picot Edges, just use regular ribbon.)
2" Piece of Brown Cardstock or Brown Paper Bag
Red Tissue Paper
Mini Glue Dots
1/2" Craft Glue Dots
Yellow Puffy Paint
Black Puffy Paint
White Cardstock (Card size depends on use. This Lil' Turkey is perfect for embellishing a handmade invitation, favor tags, place cards etc. To use as a small 4.25" x 5.5" folded card you'll need a 8.5" x 5.5" piece of paper folded in half.)

Instructions:

1) Draw bean shape on a piece of brown cardstock (or brown paper bag). Should be about 1.5" tall. Tear out bean shape using your outline as a guide. This is your turkey's body!

2) Cut five 2" pieces of ribbon. Fold one ribbon piece in half, secure with Mini Glue Dot. Repeat with other four pieces. These are your turkey feathers!

3) Using Mini Glue Dots, attach the five folded ribbon pieces to the back of your brown turkey body. Layout as half circle to look like feathers. 

4) Tear off a small rectangular piece of red tissue paper (only about 1/8" x 1"). Attach to the front of your turkey body using a Mini Glue Dot. This is your turkey's wattle - what make's your turkey gobble!

5) Attach turkey body to your card using a 1/2" Craft Glue Dot. Add the finishing touches to your turkey. Create a beak using the yellow puffy paint. Create eyes and feet with the black puffy paint.

There you have it! A perfect Lil' Turkey you can add to any of your paper goods this Thanksgiving.

 

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!

New Baby Shower Invites on Etsy

We've been welcoming some new babies into my family lately so I have some new designs now available on Etsy. I'll be adding coordinating party accessories soon.

First up: No Pink Allowed! My cousin Cristina already had two super cute girls at home and was expecting a boy. She didn't really need any of the big items, but definitely was in need of boy clothes and toys. Playing off the idea of a boy's "No Girls Allowed" Club House, "No Pink Allowed" was born. I have pictures of the shower that I'll share soon. Also, baby boy Justin was born happy and healthy at the beginning of August.

Next: Sunshine Baby Shower: Welcome to the World! This shower is still in the works (being held October 16th), but I had to share the invite. I really want to share the other stuff I'm creating, but I know the mother-to-be Kathryn reads my blog! Kathryn is a really close family friend and I'm honored to get to help her sisters and mom with the shower. Kathryn requested that nothing be too girly and noted that she was using golden yellow and gray in the baby's room. With the mention of yellow I couldn't get away from thinking about sunshine, so a whimsical sun instantly became the center of our theme. And now, I can offer a great gender-neutral shower theme on Etsy! More to come from this theme after October 16th!

Lastly: Tortoise & Hare Baby Shower! This design was created a couple years ago, but since I didn't have an Etsy store then, the design is like brand new again. Originally created for my cousin Brian and his wife Mayumi, the Tortoise and Hare theme is whimsical and another gender-neutral option. To see a couple pictures of this shower, here's a link to the baby shower game we played. I'm reworking some of the party decor in order to offer a complete set on Etsy. I'll have it up later this month.

So that's the 3 new Etsy offers! Go baby!

Trick or Treat Invitation Inspiration

My brother-in-law is turning 30 on October 28th, so my sister and I have been trying to think of a Halloween/Birthday party theme and invitation. I was thinking it would be fun to have an 80s Monster Mash! "What's an 80s Monster Mash?" you say. Well, it's a costume party where everyone has to come dressed not only as a monster but as a monster dressed in 80s garb. So come as a werewolf, but it better be a Teen Wolf, Michael J. Fox inspired werewolf. Or come as Bride of Frankenstein meets Material Girl. Or what about Dracula in some fingerless gloves and parachute pants!  You get me? Wouldn't that be such a fun party?!?! Anyways, in thinking about the party I came across a couple invitation ideas I just have to share with you.

This first idea comes from Martha Stewart and friends. Who wouldn't love to receive a severed finger in the mail? My sister thinks this is awful, but I can't help but laugh.

I love this Vampire Invite that I discovered on Nickel Design on Etsy. I've seen this done in different ways and think it's an easy, yet clever DIY invitation idea.

Lastly, what about sending a JibJab movie (the above picture features my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece). Their definitely quick and easy since you can just email it or post to Facebook. And you can't help but smile when you put your picture on random characters.

So that's where I'm at. I'll let you know what we decide to do, but how about you? Are you planning a halloween party? If so, I'd love to hear about your ideas! Either post a comment here or send me an email at amy@tonalitydesigns.com.

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

Baby Shower: Sugar, Spice & Everything Nice Water

I had a custom request via Etsy for a Baby Shower Water Bottle Wrap. I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. I also really liked the custom colors for our Party Mum design.

S'more Please!

{Via Tookies on Etsy}

I keep coming across these amazing S'more treat ideas. Do I love them so much because they scream summer or because I really could use some chocolate? Either way, I'm in love and want s'more!

{Via Tookies on Etsy}

{Via LakewoodCookies on Etsy}

{Via Glorious Treats}

{Via Naturally Chic}

{Via Twig & Thistle}

{Via Crazy Agnus}

I couldn't resist also sharing this too cute onesie! {Via The Wishing Elephant on Etsy}

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.