Summer Splash Birthday Party

My youngest son's birthday is in the summer where as my oldest son is in the winter. I have been a lot more creative with my youngest since we can be outside and spread out rather then renting the local bounce house like we have done for my oldest. For Ben's 2nd Birthday I went with a Summer Splash theme. we brought back out the sprinklers and blow up pools, bubbles and water toys for the kids to run around with.

My biggest feat for this party was the 3D Fish cake I decided to make on my own. I describe it as gaudy cute, ha ha! The fin of the fish kept breaking and would not stay in form so in an irrational moment I ate part of the tail like I was getting even with the fish. I made rice krispie treats instead to form and freeze the tail so it had a better chance of keeping form. I got carried away with the Reece's pieces a bit trying to cover up any cracks, etc. The fish is actually sitting on top of a pizza stone I outlined in blue icing then mixed sugar and blue food coloring to look like water around it. I was so happy to be done this!

Cupcakes were also made with blue icing and Swedish fish standing up on them because I was not sure how many people the fish cake would actually feed given it was also made with the rice krisipie treats. I took a big shovel and pale I purchased from the $1 bin at Target and made "Sand" (Vanilla pudding and crumbled vanilla wafers).

The favors were mini  pales with shovels and rakes from Oriental Trading, also inside were sunglasses and mini bubbles with plastic fish on the top. All of this came in handy when we went to the beach the month after.

Girly Baseball Baby Shower

The first time my mother and I collaborated on planning an event was for my Sister In Law, Amy's, Baby Shower in 2009. I  just had my second child less then 2 months before this party and it still turned out great! Both my older brother and sister in law loved baseball. But how to make that girly.....

Both of the parents-to-be had baseball cards of themselves from youth baseball leagues (remember those, I still have mine too). We decided to make the colors pink and white. pink roses in small pink painted ceramic vases were part of the table decor and also the favors. Also on the table were white carnations in the shape of a circle with pink pipe cleaner shaped over the top to look like the threading of a baseball. Underneath the carnation baseballs was a peice of pink foam we cut out to the shape of a baseball glove outlined in black permanent marker for detail. Baseball in the glove, get it! haha.

 We printed stripes and a silouette of a pregnant woman with the saying "About to POP" onto card stock then cut and shaped them in the form of popcorn bags. Even took out my scrapbooking scissors to create the jagged edges of the bag.

The dessert was white cupcakes with pink lacing.
I wish I took more pictures of the shower and of the invitations that went out. This was from so long ago (over 3 years ago) I did not think to.

Art inspired Baby Shower

My Sister in law Lisa is a teacher and very artistic and my brother Ric is a talented painter so when they because pregnant the "crew" got together to plan this extravaganza. This party consisted of the largest group of people I have ever planned a party with, 5 people. Everyone came to the table with awesome ideas, suggestions and samples. It was the ultimate creative brainstorming session. Everyone stepped up and the event rolled out beautifully!

When guests entered there was displayed an enlarged framed copy of the baby shower invitation I created, mini easels with the parents-to-be baby pictures taped onto the mini canvases. A stack of cards with colorful painted hand prints as a boarder (same as invitation) were left for the guests words of wisdom that was put into a large paint can to be collected.

OntoTHE FOOD...

The dining room table was covered with brightly colored food selections (prepared by Lisa's mother and sister). Little easels purchased at local craft store labeled the foods around the table. The center pieces were colored carnations in glass cylinder vases with crayon wrappers created by my mother.

THE DESSERTS...

Cork board was used to make paint palettes and paint brushes to be created into cupcake stands. All cupcakes were colorful and tasted delicious. (cork boards made by my mother, and cupcakes made by Lisa's mother and sister).

More munchies and the candy favor table. I found colorful mini paint cans at Michaels craft store and created labels with the same image of a baby playing in paint as was on her invitation. The fun part was to see how much candy you could shove into those cans to take home. The crayola crayons box was painted entirely by my mother from a plain wood box found at the craft store. Inside were colorful chocolate covered pretzel rods with the faux crayola wrappings around the pretzels, similar to the centerpieces. (my mommy is amazingly creative!) Also, baby hand sugar cookies were made by Lisa's mom and sister. The cookie cutter,  Lisas sister found online, what a great find that was.

Another Crafty touch was the ultrasound banner Lisa's sister made and the colorful balloon archway my mother made over Lisa's chair. 

(This party was a huge success thanks to Cheryl Holmes, Jen Straub, Leslie Morgan and Sandy Dorward)

Mickey Mouse Carnival Birthday Party

For my son Ben's 1st birthday party I wanted to do something creative and fun! He loved Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so the theme was a no brainer, but what else to do with it... I am not great at graphic art/design so I enlisted my mother to create the invitation. I told her I wanted it to look like a carnival/circus ticket and the theme was mickey mouse. What she came up with was AMAZING!

Throughout the party we had themed activities which included a mickey mouse moon bounce, slip-n-slide, baby pool, face painting and a bubble station.

For desserts I had made ice cream cone cupcakes with brightly colored icing on top (best part of this was even if i put too much batter into a cone and it runs down it looks like the "ice cream" is melting when you icing it), rice krisipie treats in the shapes of circles, triangles and squares on large craft sticks (mouse-ka-tools).

For the favors I used plain white and black tall gift bags from AC Moore and used a template of mickey mouses head, tracing it onto stock card for the front of the bag. Inside I stashed mouse ears from oriental trading, mickey mouse stickers, brightly colored noise makers and small bubbles. I had all the kids wear their mouse ears when we sang happy birthday to ben.

Thanks to my Sister in law Tiana for doing the facepainting and my Mother Sandy for creating the invitiations.

Halloween Birthday Party

My neice Lana's 4th Birthday Party was Halloween themed. This party was a labor of love. Lots of planning, website searches and hard work lead to this great party!

 

The banner was hand-made using my cricut.

The food consisted of chocolate covered oreo ghosts and pumpkins, chocolate covered mini pretzel rods into witch brooms, (the chocolate maker from michaels crafts my sister in law ran out to by came in handy for this one). The cupcakes were ordered from Wegmans grocery store, pumpkin was cut and gutted to become a dip bowl, jelly sandwiches made with ghost and pumpkin cookie cutters and lots of candy corn. The outside was so windy, not to mention the bees prevented us from putting the cupcakes on the stand in the center. (which used to be a brass candle holder with lots of handing foe crystals that I took apart and spray painted black. Now it is a chic cupcake stand). The scary sippers were alot of fun to make. We used white streamers to wrap them and hot glued the colored google eyes and (lana helped with this part which she loved!) the mouths (made with my cricut). The cards were made from card stock and printed a free banner I found online.

Additional activities we had during the party was a halloween moon bounce, pumpkin pinata and a decoration station. The decoration station consisted of decorating mini pumpkins and small tote bags. The tote bags also held all the candy from the pinata, additional favors and the mini pumpkins.

Welcome!

Whenever a celebration is approaching, my first instinct is to jump online and gather some creative suggestions and ideas for a theme. There are alot of ideas online but not so many pictures to go along with them. I have loved throwing parties for my family members (birthday parties, baby showers, etc.) My cricut, scrapbooking supplies and glue have served a large part in many of the things created. My purpose here is to share my home-made (and sometimes store bought) decorations and best stitch efforts in creating some crafty and fun celebrations for all to enjoy!