#1 Mouseketeer

As I continue to reflect on 2013, I continue to realize just how many special events there really were. My family has always had a special kind of closeness. The older I get, the more I realize how rare and incredible our bond actually is. My parents were born and raised on Long Island, NY, but after graduating medical school, they decided to make their way down to Philly. After moving to the 'burbs almost 30 years ago, we're now just a quick 2.5 hour trip from the island. A trip we make on the reg. We see each other as often as we can as are closer than most families who live in the same town.

One of my favorite people in this world, who happens to be married to one of my cousins on the island, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in 2012. He celebrated his first birthday this year with an awesome Mickey party! Below are a few of the pictures I took during his first birthday shoot, along with the gift we gave him.

Isn't he the cutest little kid you've ever seen!? On the left is a board I made for his birthday gift (inspired by a combination of this idea and this idea), something he can treasure always....well maybe not when he gets to be "too cool" for Disney, but hey- I'm almost 30 and still completely obsessed, so you never know. I know his parents will always treasure it though!

Creative Ingredients:

1. The board is just from Michaels, you can use any shape/size you want. I wanted to use 8.5 x 11 stock card, so I got a board just big enough to fit around

2. I downloaded some Disney fonts from my favorite font site then put it together in Photoshop

3. I printed it on thicker cardstock to make sure the colors popped out, but you could always print it on regular copy paper. Step by step instructions can be found here on how to get them together, but its super simple. 

4. I painted the board white, with red trim around the edge, then mod-podged it, stuck the card stock on top and mod podged the top to give it a nice finish (NOTE: make sure the ink is completely dry or it will bleed with the glue, it took me 3 times to get it right). You could always sand paper the edges if you wanted, but I wanted it to stand out a little from the background. 

Here are more pictures from the photo shoot...Such a happy kid. Always smiling and laughing, spreading happiness everywhere he goes! I love this kid, and his family holds such a special place in my heart so I'm always looking for an excuse to hang out with them! What a fun day it was.

Live Zen.

xo
Jen