Sunday Link of Support!-smart shopping mama!

Who doesn't love a great deal??? Especially on children's/babies items!! These kiddos grow out of clothes and toys so fast that a lot of times they are outgrown before they are even used.

So here is an opportunity for you to get great deals on gently used or in a lot of cases, BRAND NEW items for literally a FRACTION of the price.

http://www.jbfsale.com/default.cfm

This is the motherload of all consignment sales!

They have them twice a year, in the spring and fall, and well worth the wait! The are held all over the country! All you have to do is look for your state to find an event: http://jbfsale.com/findevent/

Well, we are ADDICTED to them! Seriously, the week of the sale CONSUMES our lives. haha!

Mama Reina consigns AND volunteers at the event so that she and mama Rachel can get in and get the good deals early! This year, we even took it up a notch so that we could both shop and not have to mess up the baby nap schedules too much! Here is how we did it without hubbies having to get involved or hiring babysitters!

Reina volunteered for two three hour shifts running the registers, which also counted as doubles. So she got to go into the sale at the first possible pre-sale time at noon. Natalie, who usually doesn't nap until 2:00 was dropped off at Mama Rachel's house at 11:15 so that Reina could get to the sale on time. Then Natalie and wes played together (and did some crafts of course!) until it was time for Wes' nap. Rachel distracted Natalie so that she wouldn't be TOO sad when her boyfriend went to bed and so he wouldn't be too upset to miss the fun!

Here they are playing together during the many different days of hanging out! <3

Reina shopped until she literally dropped and then unloaded everything at home and picked up Natalie at 2:30 and by then Wes had woken up from his nap. Then Reina took both kids in the car back to her home so that mama Rachel could shop at the early friend of a consigner/volunteer slot!

Here is a shot of the kiddos in their matching car seats! :) A preview of things to come for Rachel when she little baby #2 arrives! :) Poor Natalie was a bit tired by this point.....

The key was to make sure we each had the car seats taken out of the car for MAXIMUM space to shop! :)

It took so serious juggling and long baby sitting between the two of us, but we did it without a babysitter or hubbies having to take off work! yay!

Here are some of the great finds/deals! Including a pottery barn kids chair that Natalie has been begging Reina for since Wes got one!

Next one in Philadelphia is coming up in March! This time, we may both volunteer so we both get in the first session. Keep you posted!!

Happy shopping and happy saving!! :)

Mermaid Party!

Lucia asked us to create Mermaid decorations for her daughter Lily's 2nd birthday! We altered the colors of our usual mermaid decorations to match her color scheme she had already come up with!

 

We added more ribbons: including white tulle, pink, lime green, purple, and teal! It makes the banner much more colorful!

 

We added a shell to put the "2nd" on!

And did pink and lime green shells for the mermaids to sit on!

 

We also changed the mermaid so it is wearing two different colors! The shell top is pink and the tail is lime green! So cute!

 

We can't wait to see photos from the actual party! Have fun at your party Lily!

Friday feel the love

We did these adorable Minnie inspired hanging decorations for Pamela a while back! She wanted some fun zebra print so we used this pink printed paper on the decorations! She loved them so much....here's what she had to say about working with us!!
       

"LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my order!!! Came quick, very friendly people, they sent me proofs before finalizing my order to make sure it was what I wanted. Definitely the most satisfied with this purchase out of all of my Etsy purchases! I even received a thank you card that matched my order. Awesome!"

                              -Pamela from San Leandro, CA

Minnie Mouse Party Package

We recently had a huge influx of Mickey and Minnie mouse party packages! And what was super fun about it was that each one was very different! So we will be able to show you the different kind of party packages we can put together for you! There is no pre-set package, everything is very flexible to fit your precise needs!!

 

Today we will share our Minnie mouse inspired party package and then we will share our new items in detail in a future entry. Just want to show you all we did for Londyn's 1st birthday! :)

 

We did a centerpiece, a Minnie Mouse High chair banner (more on that later!), hanging decorations, and a first year Minnie Mouse Montage! (a brand new item and SO cute!!)

Close up on the personalized centerpiece!

Party packages can be done in any of our themes! Just ask! :)

Veggie tales birthday Banner

We recently created a veggie tales inspired birthday banner!! :) So excited to share this new creation with you, our readers!! :)

 

 

It is very colorful and features our own hand created Bob and Larry!

 

A tomato to show off the year! :)

Using all primary colors: red, yellow, blue, green and orange with colorful patterned paper in stars, red polka dot and green gingham!!

Stay tuned for more veggie tales inspired decorations!! :)

Dr. Seuss Banner

Now I know we have already raved over one of our newest banners: Dr. Seuss! But we like to show you alterations we have done due to people asking us to customize it a little bit!

 

So this person asked for red letters instead of teal letters:

 

 

 

The detail in this banner is pretty insane! The hat and Thing 1 & 2 are amazingly done!

All hand cut, not printed!

 

 

 

All tied together with red and white tulle and ribbon! So cute!!

 



Stay tuned for a whole Dr. Seuss/ Thing 1, Thing 2 themed party for a pair of twins!! :)

Spooky!

We have been talking about making a Halloween banner for a while now and thanks to a recent order we were able to do that!

 

We put a ghost and jack-o-lantern on the ends!

 

And used spider web paper for the letters!

 

The ribbon is also great: bright orange glitter, lime green, purple, orange, and black and white spider ribbons all went into tying this banner!!!

 

Of course we had our litter helper add the finishing touches to the banner!

 

Ready for my close up!

 

visit us on our Facebook page to enter to win this banner for FREE!! :) Drawing is 10/1!

 

https://www.facebook.com/etsyrandrcreations

Celebrating motherhood!!

To celebrate our 200th blog entry today, we decided to also celebrate our mommyhood! (Since that is the only reason we are able to stay home and do all these wonderful cricut projects!) We have both been so happy to stay home with our kids and do fun activities and adventures with them everyday!

And now our R&R Creations family is growing!!!
 

Rachel is pregnant with baby #2! She doesn't find our if it's a boy or girl for another month, so stay tuned for that announcement!

 

But her son is very excited to become a big brother! He's practicing all the things he will teach the new baby soon!

 

 

Rachel has done such a great job with keeping up with her end of R&R too, despite the morning sickness and total EXHAUSTION that comes with creating a new little one! :) Go Rachel!!

 

A HUGE congratuations to Rachel, Wes and Alex on their exciting news!

 

To celebrate our 200th entry and mommyhood....... we are doing our very first give away!! :) Just in time for the fall, our "SPOOKY" banner is so cute and can be yours for FREE as our thank you for being a reader! :)

 

Simply leave a comment on this entry answering the question.... "What is your favorite thing about being a mommy/daddy/aunt/grandma?" to be entered in our drawing! Or enter on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/etsyrandrcreations

 

 

Good luck!!  (more on this banner tomorrow!)

 

 

  

Baby shower Cupcake Toppers!

One of our friends asked us for some cupcake toppers for a baby shower! The mommy-to-be loves pink and purple and wanted butterflies and flowers....

 

 

I'd say we really hit the nail on the head and managed to incorporate all of that in one set! But if you see one specifically you love we can make a set around those too!

 

 

Our favorite are the adorable onesies with butterflies popped off on them!!!

 

Friday feel the love!

"LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my order!!! Came quick, very friendly people, they sent me proofs before finalizing my order to make sure it was what I wanted. Definitely the most satisfied with this purchase out of all of my Etsy purchases! I even received a thank you card that matched my order. Awesome!"- Pamela, San Leandro, California

Pirate Chest Banner

We had a request or two small banners for a pirate party! One banner needed to say "Gifts" and the other said "Candyland"! Instead of our usual pirate boys on the end she requested pirate treasure chests!

 

It simplified the small banner and looks great!

We tied them together with shiny silver ribbon!

 

Butterfly party!

Our adorable butterfly party is back with a polka dot makeover!! :)

 

This mama in Las Vegas wanted the main staple of this party to be lime green polka dot and gave us full artistic reign to do whatever we wanted to compliment it!

 

So we stuck with the polka dot theme and added in light pink and purple!

 

Here are the cupcake toppers:

 

 

Then she also asked for favor tags, which we glued ribbon to so that she could easily attach these adorable butterflies to the lolly pops she was giving away as favors.

Finally, here is the matching banner! :) How cute is all of this polka?!

 

Like us on Facebook for a chace to win a free gift!

www.facebook.com/etsyrandrcreations

Elmo Invitation and thank you Set

We recently showed you are cookie monster invitation and thank you set........ Now we bring you Elmo!!!! :)

 

The colors and patterned paper can be adjusted to whatever you liking! :)

 

our famously adorable 3D tri-fold!

Favor Tags

People are always looking for something different! This person already knew what she wanted the favor tags to say, so we had to create the tag around the wording. Her only other request was to add a hint of red polka dot! So here is what we came up with:

 

 

These are great because they are very versatile! We can change the colors and patterned paper to fit ANY party!

 

Like us on Facebook for a chance to win a free gift!

www.facebook.com/etsyrandrcreations

Toddler Time! Play Doh fun!

The kids have discovered Play Doh!!! Sharing at this stage is hard, so make sure each kid has their own, along with plenty of manipulatives to use to really explore.

 

 

 

 

 

We gave them some exploration time with some "tools" to use:cups, spoons and forks, and cookie cutters. (Although they make tools and utensils specific for Play Doh!)

 

They loved sticking things in it and squeezing it in their hands!

 

They also liked to put it inside of cups and dump it out! (Make sure they know the difference between a ball and Play doh!)