Painted Pumpkins: A Family Tradition

I love looking for opportunities to take old traditions, and adding to them my own unique, modern spin. Halloween is no exception. For the past 4 years, my family has been painting pumpkins as well as carving them. The project was such a hit the first year that we've made it something of a tradition ever since.

This year, my son chose to do an Angry Bird Space theme, while my older daughter selected Tinkerbell for her pumpkin.

I found an Angry Bird Space pumpkin carving template here and had it enlarged by 30 % to get the scale just right. We taped the template to my son's pumpkin and started punching holes. Once the holes were complete, I cut out the pattern and he scooped out the pumpkin guts. :) Next, we decided on red spray paint for his pumpkin. I found glow-in-the-dark paint at Michaels to accent the eyes.

Disney has a great template for Tinkerbell on their website. I enlarged it too, by 25%. Just as we had done with my son's pumpkin, we punched holes and scooped pumpkin guts. We chose a green paint for the pumpkin and then bedazzled away!!

Last year, my son chose to make a Mario carved pumpkin. We found an easy template on Mario online. [One piece of advice: Carve the pumpkin first and then spray paint it. If you do it the other way around, the paint will come off when you remove the tape used to set the template in place.]

My daughter loves Hello Kitty, so that was the obvious choice for her pumpkin. We used spray adhesive to adhere large glitter fleck to the pumpkin and Swarovski crystals outlined the kitty’s eyes.

This is an incredibly easy project to do with young children, and yet the results are sure to impress! Enjoy!

A Fancy Nancy-Inspired Butterfly Birthday Tea Party

In the spirit of butterfly migration month, I thought it would be a perfect time to share some highlights from a birthday party we threw for my daughter two years ago in our home. My daughter, like many others (myself included), loves Fancy Nancy. She represents all things fancy and has a deep love of Paris (moi aussi!!)

The inspiration for her party was the Bonjour Butterfly book in the Fancy Nancy book series. Since Nancy loves tea parties, we knew our butterfly-themed birthday had to be a tea party too.

I rented these adorable tea tables from a local woman who hosts children's tea parties for a living. To make them extra special, I added fuchsia pink tulle to the backs of the chairs and polka dot wired ribbon with silk roses in the center. I did the same for our dining room table below.

My daughter had to have butterfly-shaped tea sandwiches, so I used a butterfly cookie cutter, and that did the trick! We couldn't decide on whether or not to do a cake or cupcakes. In the end we decided on a butterfly fairy Barbie cake, and cupcakes with tea pot cupcake toppers.

My mother-in-law has many beautiful tea cups and pots, so she gladly let us borrow them for such a special occasion. I found these incredible silk tea bags online in pyramid shaped boxes made by Silkenty.

Auntie outdid herself as Fancy Nancy. She is a preschool teacher and jumped at the opportunity to make all of my daughter's birthday wishes come true! She read the Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly book to the girls and did an outstanding job as Master of Ceremonies for our fashion show.

As you can see, the party was a huge success! It’s amazing how just a little inspiration (even from a children’s book), can go a long way…

Seahorse & Stripes: An Introduction

{My Family}

Hello.  I’m Keli Wozniak, Founder and Designer at Seahorse & Stripes, and I’m so excited to share my new blog with you! 

For those of you who don’t know me, I have an appreciation for all things creative, but my true passions are in the areas of home staging, redesign and party planning. I’m also a mother to three amazing children and wife to a very supportive husband.  We live in North County San Diego.

I started Seahorse & Stripes as a creative outlet – a place to express my thoughts about design as well as to share DIY projects and highlights from some of the parties I've thrown. I can’t wait to start blogging and to catch you up-to-speed on some of the projects I've done, and share with you all the things I have planned. 

I love learning and gathering ideas from my friends, so from time to time I will have them guest post and share their ideas too.  And of course one of the greatest features about blogs is the opportunity to hear from you – the reader.  I’d love to get your feedback, so please don’t be a stranger!

It is my hope you would walk away from my blog feeling inspired; taking with you tangible ideas and tips to help you with your next redesign project, upcoming party and everything in between.  So stay a while, look around, and please, enjoy!