i must start off this post by asking for a show of hands:

who knows what a dala horse is?

well, i confess i didn’t until my very dear friend asked me a while back to make her sweet baby girl’s banner for her first birthday party. a party which just happened to have a dala horse theme. enter my good friend google, and voila! i knew what a dala horse is! (just in case you’re curious, you can learn more about them here!)

let’s get back to the party goodness….so, this is one of those projects that i heart so much that i can hardly stand it. my dear friend basically told me “i trust you…go do your thing.” and, so i did.

it was a great thing that my mama-friend already had invites designed + printed, because that meant we had a color scheme + palette that i could play off of for designing this sweet banner. and what an awesome color palette it was: bright pink, orange, white, and a french blue. and in looking at a dala horse, there’s just so much possibility there to pull in other subtle patterns!

i started sketching + searching for materials. instead of going with a straight paper art banner, i decided to mix this one up a bit and add in some felt + fabric to soften it up a bit. mix in some paper elements + some perfect white heart-shaped brads that i had on hand, and a pretty lovely little banner came out of the sketching, planning + creating! 

here’s to a fantastic first birthday for this sweet little girl! and, a huge thank you to her mama for asking me to make such a special piece for her special day!