Birthday Party Planning!

Birthday craziness is in full effect!!! I have so much to do, all the little details seem to take forever but it is totally worth it!!!! I love detail! Until after our daughters party which is March 2nd, I will mainly be posting free printables here and there. Photoshop stuff is what I have been working on like crazy these past few days!

My little sweetie is having a puppy themed party :) She is obsessed with puppies and it has only gotten worse since my husband gave her one as an early birthday present (sigh). I have tried to make her birthday party gender friendly since she has a lot of little friends that are boys but o my we do love pink!!!! I CANNOT WAIT TO POST ALL I HAVE DONE!!!! I am so excited for it all to come together and I am sure I will be posting a peek or two!!! Have a wonderful day, week, month!!!! Enjoy!!

Chocolate Strawberry Chews

O so sweet then tangy!!! These are scrumptious and easy homemade filled chocolates! I used two items! Semi sweet melting chocolate and strawberries! Don't forget to check out the cute and easy construction paper boxes I made to give these yummy sweets away in!

Preheat oven to 210 (doesn't take long) remove the green tops on strawberries and place on cookie sheet in a single layer.

Baked in the over for 4 hours (I actually had to bake mine about 4 and half, it might vary for you also)

I then placed the strawberries in the refrigerator overnight.

This morning I melted semisweet chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave and dipped the entire strawberry.

There you are, chocolate strawberry chews!

Why o Why do Holidays have to be so sugary addicting!!!!

Valentine's Day Celebration Table!!!

IT'S HERE! LOVE DAY!!! I stayed up late putting together our family Valentine's Day table and making some last minute sweets!!!

 

 

****If you see something you like that didn't make it to the blog , let me know! I didn't make a tutorial on everything I made but if you want one I'll do it!

 

My daughter was so excited she started singing Happy Birthday, she just melts my heart! She clapped jumped up and down yelling "happy!" Aw she makes it all worth it :) Thank you for taking a peek at our set up. We have invited friends and family to stop by for amazing sweets and Valentine's gifts! Share the love!

 

 

 

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Spoons (bottom right)

DIY Dessert Plates (bottom middle right)

Scrap paper wrapped candy bars (bottom middle left)

Chocolate Strawberry Chews (bottom left)

DIY Paper Boxes (above the Chocolate Strawberry Chews)

DIY Metallic Heart Candle Holder (above DIY paper boxes)

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries (middle middle :)

Chalkboard painted platter (top left)

Greek Yogurt Chocolate Mocha Mousse in Chocolate Tuxedo Cups (top middle)

DIY Paper Rose Bouquet (very top middle)

Burlap Push Pin Board (in the back)

LOVE Push Pin Holders (on the board in the back)

Pebble Strand Garland (middle wall)

Heart Felt Garland (top of wall)

 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Make quick and easy Valentine dishes

 

 

I have a couple of plain white dish sets to use throughout the year, they are so handy for holidays and family themed meals!

 

This is great for kids also, let them pick the theme!

 

All I did was take stickers! Yep that's it stickers!!! I placed them on the outside rim of my dishes for the girls heart french toast breakfast this morning!!

 

How cute and easy!

Give your kiddos the stickers and dish sets so they can decorate while your cooking!! Keeps them busy while your slaving away :)

 

Saves on having many different sets for the holidays or events for family time.

 

When your done remove the stickers, wash and your ready for next time!

A Valentine for the man in your life (kids too)

Metallic Magnet Cars!!!! These are great for a guy (little guy or big guy) In the garage or kids bedroom! I made this one for the hubby for his garage :)

 

All you need is ....... paint (love this stuff) some cars (mine are plastic) magnets (I used strip magnets and cut small squares) and a place to put them (I made a magnetic board)

 

I painted the cars in a box,*uses less spray paint if you don't know how to properly use spray paint like me :)

 

Let them dry.

Glue magnets on the bottom.

 

Give him them on a **magnetic board for Valentine's day with some cute love coupons, notes, movie tickets or anything you like.

**I will post how to make different magnetic boards in the future :)
 

Then you can hang cute little hunny do's for him throughout the year or he can remind himself of things he needs to get done (ah-em)

 

Aw....a gift with an ulterior motive :)

Spooky Forest in the house!!!!

Sneak Peek! Here is a little bit of the Spooky Forest Halloween Party I did for my daughter (2012) I will eventually come back to this post and add more pictures and how I did it tips:) I place large 12'-14' dead trees in the house decorated. It was a blast! I loved the candles (here) I am still using them!
 

Goodies Station! On the left in the Halloween cups I made "microwave cupcakes' I found the recipe on a blog.....FAIL! They were so cute but that was it.

 

 Caramel Apples to go!

 

Spoons with white chocolate and candy pressed in

 

There's those PB & J sand-WITCHES

  

Drink Station

I used cut wood to display food items

Oreos dipped in white chocolate and black icing writing

Vials filled with skull and crossbones candies topped with a cork

Yo Gabba Gabba!

My daughter was so in love with Yo Gabba that her first Birthday party was appropriately, Yo Gabba to the extreme! Yo Gabba was the only show/DVD that she enjoyed. The signing and dancing would get her going! Since I'm a bit extreme I sent save the dates and invitations for her first birthday (which was not the first party for her :) we already had a half birthday party, a dedication party, a welcome home party, you get the idea). I created the invitations in Photoshop which I just love! Would you all be interested in a free personalized printable giveaway and or a free printable that I created? Here's a peek at the skillzzzzzzz......


Save the Date :)



Front

Back



This was one of her favorite decorations at her party! This wreath was heavy! I pinned balloons onto a straw wreath (plastic on) and then glued scrapbook paper on the letter N, trimmed the paper with a sharp knife painted the edges and the number one red and then glued the 1 on the letter N. I looped ribbon at on the top for the bow. This little welcome decor got a lot of attention, it was a great welcoming to her guest!

 

Her high chair all ready for her first birthday cake smash!

 

Banner over the fire place (no string, just glue dots)

For this large banner I used 12"x12" card stock and ribbon for the letters and to connect.        Above the cake table I

painted the frames with the Yo Gabba coordinating colors and then placed each characters face I created inside, they are still hanging in her play room:)

I punched out polka dots using all my leftover paper for around the walls.

I filled glass containers on each side of the cake with matching candy, wrapped in ribbon and characters.

The utensils were so cute! I wrapped them with a napkin and curling ribbon, the spoon, fork, and knife were different colors in each set. This was a colorful party!

I covered animal cracker boxes with a DJ Lance boom box I printed out. I used wrapping paper for the table cover.

For my followers
if you would like these DJ
Lance boom box animal
cracker covers, let me know!
I will email you the file!!

For the cake stand I wrapped my orange cupcake carrier in wrapping paper. Easy and it looked so cute!

Inside the goodie bags were huge sugar cookies that I hard iced with white frosting. For the kids activity I had edible markers for them to color their cookies with. It was a hit!!! They loved their edible art!

*on the right side of the picture I customized Yo Gabba plates with my daughters picture and a message :)

It's not a party without tissue paper poms!!!

 

Paper Flowers, Book Pages??!!! What??? NO!!!

So once upon a time there was this craze, it was crafting with book pages. Ok so that statement kind of hurts my ears. Tearing pages out of a book??!!! Not that I haven't seen parties and gathering with really creative decorations and ideas all using book pages but I just didn't think I could do it, until......... My Grandmas house. I found a book in their shed under a skyscraper of spiders and their webs, laying in a stale puddle of water, torn in half. There it was that book that I just might be able to craft with. Wait though not until I tried every possible technique to salvage this book. I was unsuccessful in saving the book. Out of the over 500 pages I was able to sentence about 50 pages to doom for my use. After lots of thought and consideration of how I was going to use these precious pages I decided paper flowers. Beautiful paper flowers that the words on these pages could live forever.....aw so sentimental. After the first agonizing scissor cut through the page I became desensitized and in my own world of creation I cut, rolled, shaped and glued all the pages into my lively flowers. (saving every scrap for future use) I had a leftover branch from our Halloween party that I had about 20 visions for prior to this idea but this time I was going to use it! This was its purpose :)

 

I messy cut in a circle all the way in a circle to the middle you can also cut in a spiral with no mess. The one on the left is the clean edge spiral cut the one on the right is a messy cut. I did all mine free hand with scissors :) I put an X on what I refer to as the glue tab (you can barely see the X but it's there :) 

 

Book pages measuring approximately 6"x10"

 

Some pages I cut in half and made two flowers per a page other pages I got one flower out of it.
 

Here's how I did it..............
 

I started at the outside of the circle I cut where the point was and rolled the paper until I got to the center

 

 

 

I gently let go of the rolled paper holding it in place with my hand until I liked the shape 

I put a dot of glue on the "tab" that was the center of the circle 

 

 

And wham my paper flowers.......from a book :)

When I glued the flowers onto the branch I used that same glue tab to wrap the flower on the branch to hold the paper flower in place

*TIP I used my high temperature glue gun, going back I would have used a low temperature one to keep the glue from dripping 

 

It's going in my stair well when I'm done!!! (to hang out with Casper)

How To Make Spooky Halloween Candles

Candles.......another obsession actually it's more of a candle holder obsession. Take a peek below. For my daughters Halloween par-tay I needed candles with the I'm so scary with the wax dripping everywhere look. I don't burn candles like that normally, so I created it! I spray painted with some leftover paint I had in our garage 8 bottles white and 8 bottles black. I collected the bottles from friends over the week, I used wine, beer, soda and salsa bottles. I had a teensy bit of gold paint left in a can so I randomly sprayed it on the bottles untill it was gone. They didn't take long to dry. They were pretty, a little to pretty not that I'm so scary with the wax dripping everywhere look. I went to my candle bin and fished out a broken white candle. I melted the candle on the stove while I placed all the bottles on foil because I knew it was about to be game on! While holdin the bottle over the pan of melted wax at a slight tilt , I used a spoon to "drip" wax down the bottles. I used the white wax on the black bottles and then I added black dye to the rest of the wax and dripped the black wax onto the white painted bottles. I repeated the drip on each one until I achieved my desired effect. Not to shabby, just the right about of spookiness I was going for :)

 

Halloween Candles (side note I have been using them ever since the Halloweeen party changing the candles and I just love it!)

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Food Ideas For Kids

Don't play with your food right? I mean it's rude....... or is it? I guess it depends on who you are!!! I love fruits and vegetables and a lot of what we (I) create comes from food! Aren't you inspired by the shapes the colors the textures? Well here are a few times that I have played with food, it's usually for my daughter but sometimes I build a mashed potato castle just for me :)

 

Rainbow of yumminess!!!

 

When my daughter was starting to eat lots of different solid foods I was obsessed with getting all the amazing colors of different food in her diet. I wanted her to have a well rounded palate for different flavors and most of all be healthy! Here is one of the ways I encouraged her to eat a variety of food. This particular picture was taken before she had a friend over for a play date and snack :)

Found a pic I ddn't use for Instagram :)

 

I used dark chocolate chips, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, chicken, salba nuts, avocado, lettuce, bananas, blackberries, strawberries, carrots, cheddar bunny crackers, hummus, sour cream and onion bunny crackers and cucumbers! My daughter loved it, I still love making my rainbow taster trays for her!!! O by the way I use ice cube trays for this over the rainbow flavor :)

 

So on another play date my friend packed her son this pre-made peanut butter and jelly round sandwich with no crust in a plastic packet, did I mention it was white bread???!!!!

 

*Side note, I am a little weird about food, I like my food items fresh and we eat primarily organic. I choose not to eat meat and the only sugar in our house is the packets you find at restaurants for our guest when I am serving coffee.

 

As I stared at the packet debating whether to actually give them this food item a picture flashed through my thoughts of those awesome bento boxes that are amazingly designed to be animals and depict scenes and then it came..... (side note....I served these sandwiches my daughters Halloween party te-he-he)

 

My little under the sea, fish food creation!!! The kids loved it!!! I had a blast putting the plates together and even a more amazing time seeing the look on their faces when I gave them their snack!

So lesson learned........

Just because I won't eat it, doesn't mean I can't make it cute for others to eat :)

 

Chocolate stuffed orange slash jack o lantern yumminess!!!!

I love to make these! They are time consuming to "prep" but so worth it!!!

Here's what I do.....

Cut the top off the orange

Hollow it out (takes a little work) but don't take the pulp out to the rind inside (adds flavor)

Now use your favorite brownie recipe

(I used my triple chocolate recipe)

Fill the hollowed orange

Baked in the oven

Let the orange cool completely

Pipe a face on with chocolate!

Ooooo La La

Delish and Creative!!!!!!!

 

Hope you all enjoyed this post and I can't wait to hear if any of you try out these fun foods!!!

NOW GO PLAY WITH SOME FOOD :)