If you’re having a birthday party for some roller skaters you know, read on for some cool party tips.

Location. First of all, think about where you’ll host the party. Places can include your local roller rink, a park, a gym, or anywhere that has concrete for the kids to skate. While it’s hot, you might want to plan a trip to the ice skating rink which is a fun way for them to cool off.

Guests. Go through the guest list with your child to figure out who to invite. If you’re planning a party at a roller rink, take into account the number of kids you’ll be paying admission for.

Food, Favors, Decoration. If your party is at a roller skating rink, decorations can be simple and you can usually order food there as well. If not, go simple by bringing pizza or easy to eat finger foods since most kids will want to quickly return to playing after they eat. Choose decorations such as balloons and birthday cake with a roller skate theme. For favors, make small gift bag filled with snacks, candy and roller skate themed items such as pencils and keychains.

Invitation. You might want to tell guests to bring their own skates and/or safety equipment such as a helmet and knee pads which can be included on these two adorable Tiny Prints birthday invitations perfect for a roller skating theme party.

Have a teenager in your life? If so, you might be having a hard time deciding what to get them for their birthday. I have a girl cousin who just turned 13 so I know how difficult it can be. One thing about teens is that they really want to embrace their individuality. A gift option that would be perfect for my cousin and any teenager is giving them something personalized and unique. Tiny Prints has a line of new note cards especially for the teen in mind. Match these with a personalized address labels and a gift certificate to really create an outstanding birthday gift!

I am a fan of the Food Network with Giada De Laurentiis and Rachael Ray being my two favorite cooking celebs! That’s why when I heard that Giada was pregnant, I was curious to find out more about her baby. Doing a little research online, I discovered some really cool information about her baby shower that took place early this February. The Today show threw her a fancy get together including what else but a fabulous menu of braised duck pot pie and squash coconut soup. Yum!

A great idea at her shower you might want try is including an adorable childhood picture of the guest of honor (a photo of Giada as a child is shown below). You can check out the website yourself on MSNBC. But here are a few pictures from their website.

Giada’s baby shower
Source: http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/02/28/712450.aspx

Have an aspiring cowboy in your family? Here’s few tips on how to plan a cowboy birthday party that they’ll get a kick out of.

1) Invitations. After you’ve gone over the guest list, choose or have your child use their favorite invitation. Here are some adorable ones from Tiny Prints.

2) Decorations. Sites such as Oriental Trading sells fun decorations such an inflatable cactus and gold nugget bubble gum to give as favors. They even have a pinata shaped like a cowboy boot!

3) Activities. Purchase inexpensive cowboy hats, vests, bandannas and other fun costumes for the kids to play dress up. Play pin the tail on the horse. Or how about playing pass the cowboy hat to a Country Western music CD. The person who ends up with the hat when the song stops wins!

4) Food. Barbecue goes best with a cowboy themed party. Serve hamburgers, hot dogs, corn bread and baked beans. End with a cowboy shaped cake and root beer floats!

Following my post on Diva Dialogues, I learned that in addition to creating your own wedding website, these days you can also create a fun baby website for friends and family to get updates about your little one. Sites like Babysites.com and Babyjellybeans.com allow new parents and new parents-to-be to download current pictures of their new babies or pictures of the pregnancy. Having a website would allow loved ones who live far away feel involved in the process and be able to view pictures and get exciting information about all the changes that are going on.

A great idea would be to send out one of Tiny Print’s Pregnancy Story cards with the information of your new website.

Or share your website information on one of Tiny Print’s birth announcements.

Gingham Garden

As I mentioned yesterday, I found lots of fun ideas while we were away at the BizBash conference in Los Angeles and one of my favorite ideas was the All American Softy truck. When I saw this truck sitting in the convention center, I was immediately brought back to days when I would run after the ice cream truck with all the kids in the neighborhood for a summer time treat. There was something about hearing the cheerful tune from the truck that was able to suspend any game that we were playing in the moment for a cool break.

Now, you can rent an All American Softy truck for any party for attendees of all ages! This truck also fits perfectly with our of our new themed party invitations: sweet tooth birthday party.

By guest blogger: Rick Bucich

This is the third installment of brief tips which will help you take better photographs of babies. Seek out catch light in your baby’s eyes. Nothing makes a portrait come alive more than that sparkle. Take a close look at any good portraiture; you will likely see light reflected in their eyes. It is so important that professional photographers set up artificial lighting to achieve a small glimmer. Next time you’re visiting Carter’s website or store, check out their models, they do an exceptional job.

There are a few easy ways to achieve catch light in your photos. The easiest would be to have a natural light source. For my son Jack, I propped him up facing a large window that receives indirect sunlight and then get between him and the window. The light from the window illuminates his face, avoiding harsh shadows and provides that extra sparkle that sets the photo apart; see the sample photo of my son.

An alternative would be to use the flash on your camera. Even in a well lit room, a flash may be helpful. By turning down the power of the flash using the manual setting of the camera, you can create catch light and have the added benefit of eliminating some harsh shadows. If you have ventured into the realm of the external flash, you can really get creative; many have a bounce and/or swivel feature that allows you to aim the flash away from your subject. This allows the light to bounce and scatter throughout the room, creating a more natural effect.

I hope you have found some of this information useful. We really enjoy seeing your baby pictures improve with practice and technique!

If you are planning a birthday party for your little one, you may not know where to begin. Picking a theme always makes it fun and does help with your planning. Once you choose a theme, picking out things like invitations and paper goods are a lot easier since everything should follow that theme.

A lot of little girls that I know love everything princess. How about having a princess birthday theme complete with outfits her and her friends can play dress up in and a crown for her to wear? There are tons of paper supplies with princess designs on them from napkins to plates. Pottery Barn for kids has an adorable Garden Princess party themed collection. An activity that might be fun is to have everyone make their own princess jewelry that they can take home as favors. Kara’s cupcakes also offers a cupcake decorating kit that kids can have fun with.

Here’s a few of our newest princess inspired invitations that is sure to delight the birthday girl and her friends.

Summer is getting closer and closer! Today, where I live it’s in the 90’s. For me, this means packing up my winter clothes and taking out all the summer ones. It also explains why I had a sudden urge to splurge and eat an ice cream cone.

Well in honor of one of my favorite seasons, I’ve gathered a bunch of summery designs, ripe and ready for the picking. Enjoy!

If you’re looking for something to give the mommy-to-be, here are a few ideas that go beyond the typical baby bottle and diaper cake gift. One thing you could do is create a bag of goodies for the new family. Include address labels with the family’s name, cute gift tags for the new family to use on future gifts, and matching thank you cards. Put them in a cellophane bag facing out so all of her goodies can be seen.

These can be personalized, comes in different colors, and is a thoughtful way to make the mom to be feel special that’s a little out of the ordinary, and so very extraordinary!