So last week was nothing short of crazy AMAZING! On Tuesday I had my launch party for my newly released book PLAYFUL: Fun Projects to Make With + Kids and it was soooo sooo fun! The turn out was incredible – 322 people showed up to craft, purchase books (we sold out in the first hour!), enjoy snacks, be a Playful cover model for a night and more. I’m so thankful to all of you! SO thankful that so many of you waited in line for 30-45 min. to come in (it was at max capacity most of the time – we needed a bigger room!) so I sincerely hope you and your little ones had a good time. And big thank you to my party sponsors Scotch Duct Tape, Astrobrights Paper and Nicole’s Classes for making such an amazing party possible!

I tried to have fun little touches at the party such as these adorable tiger and lion cookies made by Dolce Bella by Erin to look like some of the crafts from the book. They were given to anyone who bought a book (and they were sooo tasty too!).

Meta, one of my amazing stylists on the book, came to help out along with so many others such as Brittany, Amy, Hillary and Melissa (whom you might recognize as some of House that Lars Built’s cutest interns) who set up dessert table.

We had cake bites from My Sweet Toothfairy, macaroons from Dolce Bella by Erin, cupcakes by the Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe and the sweetest vintage candy selection by my favorite local kids toy store, Blickenstaff’s. All of it was devored and enjoyed quite thoroughly. (i only wish I was able to get a taste of one of those scrumptious looking macaroons!).

I had three craft tables set up for kids to create paper puppets, plaper plate masks and finger print stamed art from the book. You can see Ashley setting up the birds at the paper puppet table below.

It was so cute to see the personlized variations guests made to each craft. Nicole’s classes, whose founder is none other than our Playful photographer extraordinaire, Nicole Gerulat, put on a super fun photobooth for guests to be a Playful “cover model” for a night. I died seeing all of you and your beautiful little ones and their creations in this booth!

My kids had a blast at the party and I was told by Little O that he’s been wanting to make the bear all this time and now he finally got to. Who knew I was holding out on him?

These cuties are some of the first guests to enter. And you guys, I’m seriously flabergasted because there was an insane line! The first 35-40 guests recieved a fun filled swag bag with lots of really good stuff like dry erase scotch duct tape , a handful of Yoobi supplies, and the sweetest prints from Ez’s new shop Petit Pippen. I’ll be blogging more about the bag, as well as giving one more away!, later but you can see a peek at it here on Instagram.

Victoria, an acquaintance from my Knoxville days so long ago as well as one of Brittany’s interns, came and did the cutest clown face paint on the kiddos. I just about died every time I saw another little sweetie pop up in the book signing line with their make up.  I loved it so!

It was so hard for me to narrow down my favorite photo booth photos, so I just decided that I had to share, oh a TON of them with you! I mean how stickin’ cute are these girls above?!

And Pearl (below), our duct tape brownstone model from the book, came with her mom Abby. Cutie patootie! So many of our Playful models came to the launch party and I’m was sooo happy to see them again.

And how sweet are these photos of Eva and Sarah with their girl’s. I’m in love.

In addition to the swag bags we had a few raffle prizes that were given away throughout the night. Freshly Picked  gave a BAG and a slew of moccs to a number of lucky winners, Jordan gave away one of her Bright Lab strand of lights (I secretly wanted to take that one home ;)), Meta’s shared one of her soon to be released book’s, Cutlivate a Creative Life and I gave away a colorful stack of Scotch Duct Tape to finish decorating your very own cardboard brown stone! Blickenstaffs also donated some of their new Traditions-in-a-box which is up on Kickstarter right now. I Love the idea of these so much!

 

I really enjoyed seeing/meeting so many of  you and signing your books. I honestly felt a bit odd signing at first as so as I sort of feel unqualified to do so. Especially because I truly feel like this book was such a huge collaborative effort. It’s still sinking in that I made a book, and that people like you actually seem to like it! It’s such an amazing feeling.

I do hope you and your families/friends love Playful and enjoy making the projects from the book. Oh and be sure to tag your crafts with #playfullymade if you make something from the book so we can all see and be inspired.

 x

We of course had to get a photo of Playful’s dream team, Meta, Brittany and Nicole! I’ve become good friends with these gals and love working with them. I really respect their work and taste so much.

It was also so great to catch up with other friends such as Sarah and Kristen (who came early with flowers to help set up! I love her!).

Oh and and I had to throw in a few tattoos for the party as well.

    

I’m pretty sure that Baby M thought she was the star of it all.

It was fun to have an event that family could be at and enjoy. Especially because they were all such a huge part of making this book happen. Jon seriously helped with everything non stop.

A big thank you again to my party sponsores Scotch Duct Tape, Astrobrights Paper and Nicole’s Classes for making such an amazing party possible!

 

And THANK YOU again to all who made it out! If you’re in town and couldn’t make it to this signing, not to worry as I’ll be singning more books at the GAP this Saturday as well as putting on another craft for you kids! See more here.

 

Playful party photos by Trisha Zemp

Playful photobooth photos by Nicole Gerulat