Kids, they grow up so fast. It seems like only a few days go by before the celebration shifts from baby shower to baby’s first birthday to a full on birthday party. Each moment reminds you of how big they are getting… AND tests your creative capacity. If you are lacking inspiration, then we have just what you need. We caught up with an old friend who knows how to throw a party that both kids and adults can enjoy.

Kelly, who once helped drive creativity in Paper Source stores, gave us loads of party ideas for kids when she shared two of her latest creations. Words hardly do these celebrations justice, so we asked Kelly to tell her story the best way she knows how… through photographs!

Enjoy!

Photos courtesy of Kelly Allison Photography

Garden Party
Paper Source elements:
Party Flags
Paper Crowns
Chalkboard Garden Signs
Straw Pennants
Origami Food Containers
Bottle Wraps
Butterfly Cupcake Decoration
Pin the Bee on the Flower Game

Photos courtesy of Kelly Allison Photography
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Bun in the oven? You’re in luck! We have wonderful things cooking too. Not only are our baby announcement designs an adorable way to welcome your new arrival, but our growing Paper Source family has provided plenty of reason to showcase real baby shower ideas.

Check out these DIY shower ideas…

Many of you celebrated our newest bundle of joy when you followed along with creating Something Sweet for Ann. Learn everything from concepting an original baby shower game to incorporating personal details from Ann’s coworkers.

Heather’s team celebrated the arrival of her first child with this Cute As a Button baby shower theme. Check out the clever ways a little button can go a long way. Read the rest of this entry »

This little fella, who I often refer to as my nephew (admittedly not blood relation though), turns one year old today. Happy Birthday Grayson!

Grayson’s mom is my oldest and dearest friend (next to my sister), so I was happy to help her create a birthday party invitation to fit his celebration – a football-themed gathering, complete with beer and wings! Come on, we all know a first birthday party is for adults.

The original concept was a football field with various photos of this dimpled monster. But, after spending time in my husband’s childhood closet, I suggested a trading card invitation. (If only my influence could steer them back to the Bears.) Dad took on the task of getting him to sit for a photo and Mom and I got busy replicating an old-fashioned trading card.

The design is printed on Paper Bag to make it look authentic. I printed four to an 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet and trimmed down to fit the coordinating 4Bar envelopes. The Paper Bag labels were printed using the Word template provided on our website.

The celebration is supposed to be team neutral, though I suspect it will be a sea of Reggie Wayne and Peyton Manning jerseys, so we focused on Night and Pool and added Curry accents. My favorite part of the invitation is the stat chart, an essential element of any trading card and a great way to share details of the first year.

Along with finished invites, I mailed a dossier to Grayson’s parents (pardon, his talent agency) with extra invitations, labels, envelopes and digital files. Everything fit perfectly into a Pool presentation envelope and gave them an easy way to store invites for mailing or upcoming press events.

–Crazy Aunt Liz
PS colors: fig & gravel
Latest fave: Personalized Note Pads

Take treats for school in paper bags with adorable personalized labels. Run our large circle labels through the printer with our print template or write each name by hand. An adorable back-to-school design that is great for single lunches or an entire classroom!

Materials Needed: Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re like me and haven’t gone completely digital… or you hate dog earring pages in your favorite books…then you’ll appreciate this simple how-to! These page savers are so FUNctional! Kids will enjoy making them and adding them to notebooks or text books.

–Annie
PS colors: peacock & paper bag
Latest fave: Spritzer Rubber Stamp Cleaner and Rubber Stamp Cleaning Pad

Materials Needed: Read the rest of this entry »

Being the mom/stepmom of three boys, the thought of hosting twelve boys (ages 7-11), at the Evanston store terrified me! How would we keep these boys engaged in the crafts we wanted them to test? (Especially since we planned to sugar them up with donuts during the hour they were with us!) As it turns out, the boys LOVED to craft!

Quiet and hard working, they started by testing our Ninja Kit concept. (Due in stores this Fall thanks to the overwhelming response from the boys!) This interactive kit creates puppet-like ninjas with jointed arms and legs for action-packed battles!

They then switched to building our Space Creatures Kit, and had a great time making the aliens and other-worldly pets uniquely their own. Read the rest of this entry »

Decorate your Easter table or start an Easter project for the kiddies with these lovable little lambs! This idea is great for baby showers too!

–Annie
PS colors: peacock & paper bag
Latest fave: Spritzer Rubber Stamp Cleaner and Rubber Stamp Cleaning Pad

Materials Needed:

• Lamb Treat Bag How-To PDF Read the rest of this entry »

At my house the stockings have always been my very favorite thing at Christmastime, both opening mine and shopping for them. And, here at Paper Source, we have tons of great items for stockings, from candy to toys to little coin purses. Even glitter or stamps make great stocking stuffers!

The newest and coolest items for women and teens are the colorful flip flop bracelets. Intended to be purchased in multiples (each one is unique), these are made from recycled flip flop parts and remind me of the jelly bracelets I loved as a kid. Another great stocking stuffer for ladies is the mushroom knit bag. It was hand knit in Nepal and is so cute! Read the rest of this entry »

For this blog entry I wanted to focus on some of my favorite new kids gifts! One item that I like simply for its cute design and Japanese aesthetic is the Momiji doll. The new ones for fall are Snuggle (with the mushroom hat) and Happy Birthday (with the adorable pigtails and a cake for you!). These sweet little dolls are collectible and have a hole in the bottom where a child can store secrets or place special notes for friends. It’s a whole new way to pass notes in class.

A favorite around here are the sound machines. We have a lot of fun in the office with these, playing the bomb dropping sound when someone bombs a joke or the “re re re” knife stabbing sound when we’re dealing with a difficult situation such as… well, a completely new computer system. The sound machines come in three styles: classic, cartoon and horror, just in time for Halloween. You could have a lot of fun scaring trick-or-treaters, hiding in the porch shadows with the Spooky Sound Machine.

Another personal favorite is the Monster Balloon. This thing gets huge! It can be inflated to over 3 feet in diameter and is seriously mesmerizing for kids and adults alike. It’s made in the US from completely biodegradable latex, and is a great lung workout for whoever gets the treat of blowing it up! What fun they would be inflated with helium in clusters for a party like this pic!

Now that the new school year has started kids will need some things to keep them entertained, besides just Silly Bandz and Japanese erasers – hopefully some of these great kids gifts will do the trick.

–Lindsay, PS Buying Team
PS colors: beet & peacock
Latest fave: Pretty Aprons