{Featured Parties} A Western Cowboy Party from Sydney Australia! (A Little Polkadot)

Kirsten from Sydney, Australia submitted these amazing photos of a Western Cowboy Party that she styled and planned. She and her friend, Di, run "A Little Polkadot", and create some really stunning parties! Definitely a must see site! (I always love to see a partnership of creative mommies!)

We have had some fabulous client parties that Western Cowboy and I am really excited to show you this party! This party is a prime example of the ways to use printables to make your party "unique"!

Below is the seating area for the children. Kirsten's husband is quite a handy guy and made these super cute benches. I love the gingham table cloth and the hay stacks, too!

They took the printables that we designed and made this adorable bunting. (They trimmed off the edges of the pennants to create this super cute shape! I love how they made it their own!)

Each child had an adorable cowboy hat at their seat....

Now onto the dessert table..... AHH! I love it!
I love the burlap backdrop and how it makes everything on the table "pop".

Di made ALL of the desserts. Beautiful, right!?

I love how they used a wooden crate to raise up the cake.

Don't you LOVE the cake!? Simple and perfect.
Di created the fondant cowboy/horse to match our printables!

Check out these beautiful chocolate cowboy boot lollipops.

The cupcakes are just perfect in vanilla and chocolate with adorable wrappers and ribbon accents. (and of course, printable party logos/cupcake toppers!)

Di made S'mores pops... delish and SO cute for a cowboy party.

Beautifully packaged toffee apples.... Perfection!

Apple bobbing! I just love it - brings back memories. Such a classic party game!
They also had sack races.

We all know my favorite part of a party is the party favor!
I love how they displayed the favor bags with the printable hangtags.
Those are authentic Texan cowboy boots, too.

Beautiful job, ladies. I love the detail and amazing touches you added to make this a really spectacular party.
THANK YOU for sharing. Be sure to check out A Little Polkadot!

The Western Cowboy printable design collection and invitation are available in our shop.

{Giveaway} Winner Shiver Me Timbers Wooden Pirate Ship

Ahoy mates! Captain Carrie here to announce this week's winner of the Shiver Me Timbers Wooden Pirate Ship from Manzanita Kids. The winner (drawn via Random.org) is lucky number #26: Anonymous!

Anonymous said...
"Beautiful toys, love the Fairy Tale Play set!"

Congratulations and watch out for sneaky pirates. Anonymous, I have your email address and will email you shortly regarding claiming your prize.

A HUGE thank you again to David and Adrienne of Manzanita Kids for sponsoring this week's giveaway.

{Giveaway} Adorable Monogrammed Children's Pillow: A to Z for the Prince or Princess who has it all!

What a cutie pie!

Manuel Lira and Felix Achenbach of Southern Collection have graciously offered as a giveaway one of their custom embroidered children's pillows, a fabulous addition to your child's room or nursery. These gorgeous pillows are from the Daniel Collection, created especially for children. Felix and Manuel design from the heart and even a formal education did not hamper their creativity. These children's pillows offer just a glimpse of what these talented artists can create from fabric!

The initial on your child's pillow will be 6” to 8” tall, with a contemporary, exclusive letter embroidered in satin stitch (with a shadow in contrasting color). There is an invisible zipper in the back of the pillow and the insert is super-soft Polyfill for easy maintenance. The monogram is paired with an asterisk which adds a playful character to the letter. Each pillow is carefully sewn by hand in their home-couture workroom in sunny Miami. Ahh, Miami...(but I digress). The actual dimensions of the pillow are 14x14 with a 2” box; the colors are selected to compliment the color scheme of your child's room and are outlined by a contrasting welt. In order to make this collection more unique, fabrics vary according to the commission and different options are available. (Not part of the giveaway, but as an FYI, this collection of letters can be embroidered on any item you supply and can also be made smaller to adapt to a garment's size or bed and bath linens.)

Color me cozy as we share with you some examples from the Daniel Collection (I made up the names to correspond with the initial...just for fun!):

"N" is for Nell

"Z" is for Zachary

"M" is for Maude or Mitchell

As I mentioned, Manuel and Felix are fabulous designers and I wanted to share with you some of their other work with fabrics (please note that the items shown below are not part of the giveaway but may be purchased from their Etsy shops):

"Red Cat" pillow

"Romantic and Tipsy Bluebird" pillow

Beautiful fabric...drapes anyone?

I would love a duvet cover in this!

Giveaway Description:

One children's monogrammed pillow including your choice of initial and color scheme (example below):

"C" is for Carrie (that's me!)

First Way To Enter

• Visit Embroidery Collection on Etsy and leave us a comment (here) telling us which initial you will have embroidered on your child's pillow if you win!

For Additional Entries* (Not required, but may increase your chance of winning!)

• “Like” Anders Ruff Custom Designs on Facebook

• Add Embroidery Collection as a favorite on Etsy

• Add Anders Ruff as a favorite on Etsy

• Add Pillows Collection as a favorite on Etsy

• Add Fabric Collection as a favorite on Etsy

In addition to their Etsy shops, Felix and Manuel also have a shop on eBay called
"sell-e-bratefabrics"

{*For each additional entry, please leave a comment below indicating which additional step(s) you completed. We will check if you win!}

Winner will be chosen via random.org, on Friday, February 4th at 1:00 PM ET

Please note: International shipping charges are the responsibility of the winner (if applicable).

{FREE PRINTABLE} Anders Ruff is One Year Old & We Heart You! 4 Free Printable Valentine's Day Cards!

Anders Ruff Custom Designs was born ALMOST 1 year ago!

It has been an amazing year and we are SO grateful.

Because WE HEART YOU! (fans, clients, sponsors, contributors, blogging friends, promoters,...)
We created 4 free printable Valentine's Day Cards perfect for you or your little ones.
(download link at the bottom of this post)

A great part about this - all of these cards coordinate perfectly with our "I Heart Valentine's Day" printable design collection. Package these valentines up and you can use your printable collection to add stickers / logos, and more to make your card even cuter!

Design 1: "Cute As A Button" - Everyone loves adorable heart shaped buttons! Cute stitching around the trim with some fun diagonal stripe patterns from our "I Heart Valentine's Day" printable collection.

Design 2: "Turtle-y Awesome" - Something fun to give little boys!? Cute little heart patterned shell enclosed in a cropped heart border.
This is as masculine as it comes from us this year ;-)

Design 3: "Hello Valentine" Alphabet Soup - scattered modern letters with a bold "Hello Valentine" statement in red. Space to write to and from in a simple red heart.

Design 4: "Ice Cream You Are Sweet" (get it!?) You could say it two ways --
I-Scream "You are sweet"!
or... Ice cream - you sure are sweet
Adorable argyle patterns with sweet ice cream with a red heart cherry on top.

Download your
FREE printable Valentine's Day Cards
by Anders Ruff
HERE.

The full printable collection available in the shop AND we love you so much that
we extended the sale for 25% off until Valentine's Day!

{Straight from the Studio} I Heart Valentine's Day Collection Photo Shoot

Well, it seems as though our "I Heart Valentine's Day" shoot has been seen by many of you (THANK YOU to all of the featuring blogs for your support!).... however, we still need to share it on our OWN site! Becca Bond Photography did such an awesome job, and I can't wait to share all the photos...

This is by far one of our favorite projects that we've done. We included LIVE subjects this time (mostly our children ;)) to show off some fabulous clothing by MiniMooh. That posed a whole new aspect of styling, but it was SO much fun.

This post is image heavy...
but a nice sale surprise at the BOTTOM of the post!

We had major inspiration to do something different for the hanging decor. The paper plate polyhedrons are SO easy to make and we were pretty excited to create something unique.
You can find the tutorial on Disney Family Fun....

We used the printable logos as hanging detail on all of the apothecary glass jars.

Cotton candy made a GREAT filler display in the tall glass jars. The cookies from Allyson Jane were strung with ribbon and hung over these fabulous glass apothecary jars.... Don't you just LOVE the cookies!?

Here are some more of the beautiful cookies from Allyson Jane. She baked them with a hole in them so we could embellish with a ribbon. I love adding another texture to the cookies!

This cake was from a regular plain-old bakery (seriously - $8 at Target!) and we dressed it up with fancy and beautiful fondant from Sweet Petal Bakery. We love this option to decorate our own cake with professional decor/fondant!

Lollipops with the printable lollipop covers were stuck into the fun layered jello (SO easy to make!)

Patterned papers were used with heart craft punches to create this super fun garland that hung on the front of the table.

How cute and simple are these awesome fabric layered flowers....
the beauty is - they never die! ;-)

Don't you love the mini chocolate bars with the printable wrappers?
Also, the hershey kisses labels!?

These adorable lollis were from This Charming Candy...
They were GREAT props for the kids, too!How cute is the dress from Mini Mooh!?

...and the bow tie on my son, Jeffrey! (Mini Mooh)

We got this chalkboard at the Dollar store near us... what a fun prop it made for the kiddos....

Printable folding labels...

The cupcakes from Cupcrazed Cakery in Baxter....
Heather does such an amazing job making the most
unique flavors of cupcakes! These were scrumptious!

We love party flags - they looked really cute on top of the paper straws (from Bake It Pretty). Drink wrap wrapped around the Jones Soda....

Here is my little Peanut (Pierson)....

Are you smiling yet?

This is funny. The first photo Becca took of (my son) Pierson and Arden was this...
... the second shot....
It just took Arden's mom coming into the room and doing something cute to light up their faces!

Arden and Grayce showing off their MiniMooh dresses....

Here is Adria's adorable daughter, Grayce.... so cute!

Jeffrey (Anders) and Grayce (Ruff)... best of buddies!

Playin a little xx0 ;-)
Jeffrey LOVED the macarons from Sparkles Kitchen....

So did Grayce!

We used the patterned papers to make these hearts that

we topped the oreo truffles with....I just love all of the patterns!
(PS. I made these oreo truffles with my cookie girls - we get together every Christmas to make cookies and this year we made these! So fun, right?!)

We included some new design accessories in this package. Favor hangtag, and a template for a box with heart closure.... and a COOTIE catcher / fortune teller.... (bringing back memories yet?)
We used the twine from The Cupcake Social to create a sweet little pom on top.

Printable valentines with a folding pocket envelope to put around the valentine...

Patterned papers, again, being used! Aren't these little bottles so cute!?

Beautiful macarons from Sparkles Kitchen...

I'll leave you with this sweet shot....

Thank you to ALL of our fabulous contributors!

The 50% off sale has ended.... BUT....
We have so much LOVE for all of our fans, followers and clients - we are going to offer the printable design collection for 25% off through Valentine's day!
Get yours HERE....

Credits and Sources
- Styling and Printable Graphic Designs Package by Anders Ruff Custom Designs (www.andersruff.etsy.com or www.andersruff.blogspot.com)
- Photography by Becca Bond Photography (www.beccabondphotography.com)

Talented Contributors:
- Handmade Dresses and Bow Ties by Mini Mooh (www.minimooh.etsy.com)
- Cupcakes by Cupcrazed Cakery in Baxter (www.cupcrazed.com)
- Lollipops by This Charming Candy (www.thischarmingcandy.etsy.com)
- Fondant Decor by Sweet Petal Bakery (www.sweetpetalbakery.etsy.com)
- Macarons by Sparkles Kitchen (www.sparkleskitchen.etsy.com)
- Sugar Cookies by Allyson Jane (www.allysonjane.com)
- Cupcake Liners and Twine from The Cupcake Social (www.thecupcakesocial.com)
- Paper Straws from Bake It Pretty (www.bakeitpretty.com)