you make do™

make a sweet bee celebration

bee party: bee cupcake toppers, straw toppers, bee banner, drink label, envelope printables to accompany invitation and thank you card printables—or to use as a treat bag or seed packet favor, cupcake wrappers, and drink label printables, above. Find these party printables in our shop as an instant download. Also, available in lemon yellow hues to print on light paper ---> here. 

make a sweet bee party.

If you are thinking of spring or summer party ideas, think of this: Grass underfoot. Warming sunshine on your face. Sweet bees. Lemonade and fresh lemon slices in a pitcher. Picture it.

I made these sweet bees party printables for any simple spring or summer day. A spring picnic or summer bar-b-cue. A baby shower. A wedding shower. A birthday party. A wedding celebration. Or, just to have a friend over. Honey, this celebration is sweet.

 

ideas for making a bee party.

For an eco-friendly party, print printables on brown paper bags—a tip my mother uses often. We recycled our shopping bags by cutting them open, then cutting them down to letter-size sheets that would fit into our printer. Using a high, no-steam setting, we ironed our recycled paper bag creases flat. Print only as many as you need, then recycle your party decorations when your celebration is over.

Use twine to make your garlands. Rolls of twine—along with fresh lemons—make natural, creative centerpieces too.

Your envelope printables can be used for party favors too. Print extra to fill with peanuts, trail mix, or natural candies for party treat bags. Or, give them away as seed packet favors filled with wildflower, vegetable, or sunflower seeds.

For a children's birthday party, print and make several envelopes. Fill with surprises and hide for a scavenger hunt.

Serve honey-sweetened iced tea or lemonade.

For sweet party treats, consider honey cupcakes, lemon cake, lemon bars, lemon poppyseed cookies, and lemon scones.

Honey tea sandwiches, and peanut butter and honey sandwiches for children, are perfect party food for this party theme.

Place jars of golden honey on the table. Honey jars with beautiful honeycomb within can be found at food specialty shops and local farm markets.

And remember the flowers. Bees—and we—love fragrant wildflowers all around.©heather cahoon • you make do™ 

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make a vintage book collection

 

make a book collection.

Collecting vintage books is the best of collecting. Inexpensive gems are easily found. Clippings and handwritten notes, more than a century old, are often found within—a glimpse into another lifetime. When I find these treasures hidden inside my vintage books, I carefully slip them back where they had been placed—and forgotten—so long ago. Those delightful surprises wait between the pages for one to happen upon with surprise again one day.

care and collecting of vintage books.

║Vintage children's books are filled with illustrations, like mine shown above, that are too sweet to stay closed within the pages of a book. Make a good copy of your favorite illustration on cream paper, then frame and hang to display on walls.

║A small stack of books, with complimentary hued covers, bring prettiness to a nightstand or dresser. Top with a vintage clock or lamp. 

║Enjoy and display your books; but find a place out of direct, fading sunlight.

║Collect what you are interested in. I am a children's book illustrator, so I am drawn to vintage children's books. My collection favorites are vintage children's picture books—most often nursery rhyme books that were so common at the beginning of the last century. I also hold dear our classic volumes of Heidi and Mary Poppins. Homemaking draws up much of my day; so I find vintage cookbooks and the ways of homemakers of the past fascinating to read about and collect too.

║You do not need to deal with expensive dealers or auctions to find real treasures. Every book in my collection was less than $1 and found at estate and yard sales or adopted from library discards. My collection is small, but carefully chosen.

 

║Do not judge a book by its cover. Take it off. Many old, discarded library books are covered with plastic-wrapped book jackets. Remove the book jacket to display your volume with it's original, beautiful, canvas or leather bookcover.

 

║Bindings and pages are fragile. Place your book on a solid surface before opening; and be sure your hands are oil free. Never place your book with open pages face down to mark your page. Damaging even to new books, this is a sure way to crack your book's binding and leave your pages loose.

║When purchasing old books, check for bookworms—small, white worms that feast on the glues used in vintage book bindings. Bookworms may be eradicated by placing the book in a sealed plastic bag with moth balls for at least 2 weeks. But, you may simply choose to pass up this problem for another less troublesome book.

║Do not repair your old books. Tape becomes brittle and yellowed with age, marring the pages of books. Bookbinders with archival book materials can repair your books properly if you wish; or continue to enjoy your books as they age in their own ways as we do. We place pages that fall loose in a folder on the book shelf, in case the one who cherishes our books next may choose to have them repaired.  

║Use your vintage books. Our more-than-a-century-year-old book of nursery rhymes is more tattered than when I first happened upon it—from our children enjoying its contents. But, books were made for reading. Even old books. If you have read The Velveteen Rabbit, you know that only things that are used and worn are truly loved.

 

And, our vintage book collection is. ©heather cahoon • you make do™

make a classic train birthday party

 

make a train party.

Our young one's wish is the wish of many—to have a train birthday party. To celebrate his special interest in trains, we made train decorations. A delight of banners, straw toppers, and cake toppers awaited his beaming smile when we returned home from a little picnic—beside a decommissioned red caboose on a sunny afternoon. Train birthday games and ideas below.

train party printables instant download! Party printables include:

⊗ train cupcake topper printables, use as goodie bag or treat bag gift tags too!

⊗ choo choo train cupcake wrapper printables

⊗ straw topper printables

⊗ striped banner flags to make a garland

⊗ train party invitation printable

⊗ thank you card printable

⊗ matching envelope printable

⊗ train signal party centerpiece printables

⊗ "chugga chugga" train party drink label printables

⊗ "chew chew" cutlery wrap printables

 

 

train birthday party ideas.

⊗ Train party favors wooden train toy whistles can be found in many main street toy stores. Print extra train cupcake toppers, shown above, to use as gift tags—simply punch a hole in the tops of each printable and slip a loop of ribbon or string through the hole to make a tag. 

⊗ For guests You may share a bandana and a train engineer hat with all, for some party pretend play. Bandanas can be found inexpensively at craft stores. We found engineer hats at our local store. I also found a little engineer hat, bandana & whistle set. Our birthday child had pinstriped overalls, so he wore those too.

⊗ Train party activity Read a train story to young guests. Vintage Thomas the Train by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, and The classics The Little Red Caboose and Tootle. The last two train stories are illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators, Tibor Gergely. These are our little train aficionado's favorite train books. 

⊗ Train party game Make a party train. Children line up, hands on the person in front of them. The birthday child leads, chug-chugging in a line inside or outside.

⊗ Train party treasure hunt Make pretend train tickets that you hide before the party. The children can go on a train ticket scavenger hunt. Finding a golden ticket (decorated with gold pen, gold stickers, or gold glitter) wins a prize or extra cheers from everyone.

⊗ Train party decorations Print extra banner flags from our train party printable kit to make a banner for the party entrance. Write, "all aboard!" on your banner.

⊗ Train party cake If you choose to make a cake instead of cupcakes, bake it in a bundt pan—the round, ring mold of the pan makes and instant "track" foundation for you train party cake. ©heather cahoon • you make do™

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