Craft Party

Twilight Bridal Shower

2010-07-02T09:27:00.011-04:00

We had a Visitor when it was time for the cake. We lucked out that the bride to be had an Edward cutout that we conveniently borrowed just minutes before the party.

This sign welcomed guest on the front porch and let the bride get a taste of what the "suprise theme" was going to be for her bridal shower.

Red and Black umbrellas welcomed guests to the "SHOWER" and created a fun look in the yard of the house that we were having the shower at.

The entry table was decked out with red and white roses. In fact, one of the bridesmaids bought 4 dozen roses to place all around the house for the shower. They were beautiful.

My soon to be sister in law loves twilight so we decided to throw a twilight themed bridal shower for her. In the process, me and the other hostess decided we should read the twilight books as well. I'm so glad we did they were sooooo good! We created twilight themed decor, had twilight themed decorations, and had the twilight songs on the ipod for mood during the party. Here are some details from the party:

1.) We setup several tables. At each table we decorated with one of the twilight books and the icons from the front of the book. On the cake table we decorated with the first book. We had the book on the table along with some candles and apples. The cake was decorated in a checkerboard patern with red roses.

2.) I also setup a red/white/black candy buffet. That table was setup with the last book. It had a dollar store chess board and chess pieces scattered about, some felt black and white checked pieces under the candy containers and the book. I also created twilight labels with jacob, edward, and bella's pictures on them to identify the candy. I bought red twizzlers, black twizzlers, boston baked beans, white and black m&m's, red hots, twizzler bites, cinnamon disks, peppermint disks, root beer floats, red airheads, black and white gum packs.

3.) The food table was setup witht he Eclipse book cover in mind. We covered the table in black fabric and used a piece of red fabric to weave through the dishes. some of the food was propped up with boxes. We just layered the same black fabric on top of the boxes to make it look more seamless. We used all white dishes to pop against the black fabric. We took red beads and scattered them around the table. We also had the Eclipse book on this table.

4.) The last book theme table was the gift table. We used the same black fabric for this table and used quotes from the new moon book for this table. We printed these quotes from the hostess with the mostess website. We also used printables from this website for the drink labels.

A couple other things we did was take quotes from the movies and books and created posters to hang up around the party. We printed pictures of Edward and Bella and Ricky and Kristen that sort of matched.

We also had a fun drink bar setup. We had red bottled drinks with great labels(found at hostess with the mostess) and some mini coke bottles, iced tea, margaritas, and of course bloody mary's to drink.

For favors we gave umbrellas to everyone. I told everyone it always rains in Forks so please take an umbrella. Everyone seemed to like them and I got them at the dollar store for $1.00 each.

For the games we played twilight/bride and groom trivia. I matched up questions for example. What is Forks High School Mascot. And What was the bride and grooms high school mascots.

When everyone came in the door I had them draw a name tag out of a hat. On the nametags they received either a team edward or team jacob tag. Both teams were split and asked to answer the twilight and bride and groom trivia questions. Whichever team got the most questions right won eclipse gum. I made labels for the eclipse gum that said "twilight eclipse".

We also plaid twilight bridal bingo and the clothespin game wehre you couldn't say Kristen, Ricky, Edward or Bella.

All in all it turned out to be a great shower and the bride really loved it.

Kids Party Idea - Building Kits

2010-04-29T11:19:00.008-04:00

Last weekend I was walking around Lowe's and I noticed a sign that said Kid's workshop - build a bird feeder. I've seen the sign before but my daughter was always too young so I have sort of blocked it out for years. Well my daughter is seven now and that sign screamed our name..so we went for it. We packed up last weekend and went to Lowe's to build a bird feeder. It was a great time. It took about 30 minutes to complete and she was given a little patch that said bird feeder to put on an apron. Apparently they give a patch for every project (such a cool idea). We have already signed up for the next 2 projects online. I highly recommend this fun free activity. Although I can tell you the thought of my daughter hitting her finger with the little hammers they provided did cross my mind...but she did it all herself and didn't get hurt or anything. I guess I must admit that she is growing up :). While we were there a group of scouts came in. What a great activity for them to do together...did I mention it's free...How cool is that! Here is the link where you can sign up for the Lowe's build and grow clinics yourself: http://lowesbuildandgrow.com/ . Next week we are building a school house and the week after we are building a garden trellis. They also have a few kits you can buy online and here is the link to that: http://www.lowes.com/pl_Kid%27s+Building+Kits_4294825296_4294937087_ So which brings me to my point on how this could be a kids party idea. I went to the home depot website and searched for kids workshops and it brought up a link that has bulk kits that you can buy (12 sets in each kit and a little home depot apron for each child). How fun would it be to have these kits at a construction party as an activity or even a garden party (for a bird house). The price is $95.00 for 12 kits which did I mention contains the cutest litttle orange home depot aprons. The price seems a little steep until you figure out these are the favors for your party too. So you would get a great activity and a favor all in one that isn't junk(I just hate giving junky favors that will end up in the trash). I think it's fabulous! To find the kits just go to http://www.homedepot.com/ and search for kids workshops. They are having one this weekend. I'm not sure if we will have time for both but it looks like a great project. Even if you don't do this for a party I hope you will get to go to a workshop and have a great time! Happy building and partying! Please let me know if you know of any other places that offer free workshops and things like this for kids - we've got the bug now.

Faux Bubble Gum Machine

2010-01-09T09:48:00.006-05:00

While trying to find ideas for crafts for Valentine's Day for Natalie's class I stumbled up on this great "faux" Bubble Gum Machine. If you were having a Candy Themed Party I think you could make this as a craft, or make them a little bigger and use them as centerpieces or just make a bunch for take home favors. Since you can buy flower pots and glass fish bowl type pieces in so many sizes you could have a lot of fun with these.

If I can find enough glass vases I might put together a craft for Natalie's class....or maybe I'll just make an extra big one for the classroom and fill it with goodies for the goodie box to give to the teacher for Valentine's Day.

This example was found at the following URL: http://www.ehow.com/how_5085500_make-machine-out-flower-pot.html and it has instructions on how to create your own.

This example was found at http://twopeasinabucket.com/ after I searched the Gallery for Valentine's Projects.

Valentine Class Party treats

2010-01-08T16:14:00.001-05:00

Now that Christmas is over I have been brainstorming Valentines Day ideas. I will use some of these ideas for my daughter's 1st grade class valentine exchange, some for snack days at School, and some will be filed for later years but I wanted to document them on the old handy dandy blog so I didn't lose them.

After searching the net for Valentine's ideas I highly recommend the following website with lots of pics and great Valentine ideas - http://skiptomylou.org/ I particularly love skiptomylou's "Bomb" Valentine and intend to make some this year but instead of bath bombs I will most likely filll with candy for my nephews class. Example and Pic created by Skip to My Lou website.

Below I have some more ideas for Valentine's fun and I will post pics as I make them. If you decide to make some of these ideas I would love to see your pics.

"You Rock Valentine" - Gather Rocks, paint them, and write "You Rock" on the rock with a sharpie. I think this one would be great for a boy valentine exchange. Could also use this saying with pop rocks candy as well.

"Your Dynamite Valentine" - Make some dynamite with pretzel rods, red chocolate and red twizzlers and create a tag that says "Your Dynamite Valentine. Wrap 3 pretzel sticks together with string twizzlers and place in ziploc with the tag. Make sure you make a wick for the dynamite.

"Stick with me Valentine" - Get some valentine stickers and put them in a little baggie and attach a label that says "Stick with me Valentine" or you could do sticks of gum.

"Your my main squeeze Valentine" - Lemonade caprisun with a tag that says "Your my main squeeze" - or for teacher a stress ball with a tag that says "Your my main squeeze"

"You color my world valentine" - A bag or box of crayons and a coloring page of a globe with a tag.

"Your a blast valentine" - A rocket ship made out of lifesavers

"You complete me Valentine" - A picture of your child cut into 4 or 5 puzzle pieces in a bag with a tag. Example created by me.

"You have a heart of Gold Valentine" - Gold foil wrapped chocolate hearts in a baggie with a tag.

"You warm my heart Valentine" - A paper or fabric pocket with a packet of hot chocolate. Example created by me :)

"You Rule Valentine" - A small ruler with a tag. Idea and pic from Family Fun Magazine website.

"You suit me to a TEA Valentine" - Tea bag in jewelry sized baggie with a tag.

"Poppin by to say Happy Valentine's Day - Microwave Popcorn with tag.

"I dig you" - Shovel with Candy - idea and pic from Family Fun Magazine website.

"I'm banana's over you Valentine - Banana with tag.

"You make me float Valentine - Balloon with tag.

"I'm nuts for your Valentine" - Individual bag of nuts with tag. Example created by me.

"I'm a sucker for your Valentine" Sucker with tag.

"We connect Valentine" - Individual connect 4 candy favors(found at Toys R Us) with tag.

We attract each other Valentine. magnets with a tag.

"Valentine, your all that and a bag of chips" - Bag of Chips with Tag

For Teacher:

"You shape me Valentine" - Cookie Cutter with tag

"I'm lucky to have you as a Teacher Valentine" - Lucky Charms or Rabbits Foot

"Glad to BEE your student" - Honey with tag attached.

"Your an un-frog-gettable teacher" - stuffed frog with tag

"There is only one thing that could make you a cooler Valentine - Ice Cream GC with this tag.

Please let me know if you like these ideas or can think of any others. If you create some of these items I would love to see them. Once I get out of the house, I'm snowed in at the moment, I will be creating some of these so check back for pics.

Monkey Birthday Party

2009-12-17T09:07:00.007-05:00

Yeah...I finally have another party to post about....Last weekend we had a monkey birthday party for my 7 year old daughter. We had a great time and did lots of Monkeying around. The birthday invitations started at school with a snack and and an invite. I used the containers I bought for the party banana split party and packed in a banana and the invite. Super cute and easy invitation. The little "fake" bananas were sent to those that were not in Natalie's class. We decorated with lots of banana and monkey themed items. I created fake palm trees out of wrapping paper rolls, balloons, and green posterboard. I stuck dowell rods down in some round flat foam pieces and placed the wrapping paper rolls over them. I then placed monkeys around the trees and placed bananas around the table. I found a few fake plants to tie the yellow and brown balloons too and used green, yellow, and brown for tablecloths and accent colors. I bought green, brown, and monkey printed fleece when it was on sale and created simple scarfs for one of the take home goodies. The looked great around each of the chairs and even the adults liked them and took one home. It was a great alternative to the tulle seat decorations and it was something usuable. The best part is I made 30 of them in about an hour and it only costs me around $10.00. We also had a banana split bar. I used an old crate I had laying around to place the bananas on and some baskets as well. It turned out very cute and it was the hit of the party. I found some monkey sucker molds and lots of fun stuff from oriental trading to dress up the tables and the kids...lol. We had a monkey coloring page out on the activity table when the kids got there they could start coloring. After they were done we hung them up on a clothesline with clothespins to display and for more festive monkey decorations. The goody bags were just plain brown lunch bags with welcome to the jungle wrote on them. I think they looked really cute lined up together. I also saved up toilet paper rolls for months so the kids could create binoculars at the party. We had a monkey dance contest with some songs my friend downloaded for me from madagascar 2 soundtrack. We also played bingo. It turned out to be a great party. I hope you enjoy the pics and are inspired for your next party.

Halloween Party

2009-10-31T09:09:00.005-04:00

I have to say it.........I'm glad Halloween is almost over. I'm worn out. We had a big halloween party last weekend and Natalie is on her 5th costume tonight (2 of which I made). We had a great time at the halloween party though. The kids all looked so cute and we had lots of goodies, games, hay rides, picture spots, and food. Although at the end of the party everyone decided that Jumping on the trampoline and playing in the leaves at the same time was a good idea. I asked my dd what her favorite part was...I knew it had to be the games I worked tirelessly on or all the goodies I put together for the dessert buffet or the great hay ride the neighbor put together for everyone....but guess what she said. Jumping on the trampoline. Can you believe it? That wasn't even on my plan for 2 months ahead of time. Just goes to show you sometimes fun just happens without being planned :) Who would have thought. I could have just invited them got my pictures, picked up some pizza and threw them in the trampoline. Oh Well...I'll put that on my plan for next year.

So without further ado here are some pictures of my carefully planned out halloween party that hopefully someone who reads this blog will appreciate :)

I saw Amy Atlas halloween dessert buffet in a magazine and it went straight on my list of fabulous things to do for the halloween party. I realized mine would not look as glamorous but I think it turned out darn cute and if I could have found a wall that would have given me a seamless background in the house it would have even looked better. Although I did get reprimanded by my dh for putting thumbtacks in the ceiling after the party(I told him that's why I did the setup at midnight the night before when he was fast asleep..hehe) To setup the dessert buffet I took my buffet cabinet and another lower cabinet I have and placed them one in front of the other. This made the dessert buffet wider and it varied the height slightly. I then took boxes and wrapped them in black and white polka dot paper and pulled out all my white dishes for the orange, black, and white foods. I collected candies and items that were in the orange, black, and white color family all during September and October when I was out shopping. For the centerpiece I sprayed some branches black and placed them in a white vase. I also took some flower cones and painted them orange and placed black paper mache dots all around them and put some black pipe cleaners in the top of them. The balloons were from oriental trading. They are the pumpkin punch balloons. For the actual food I only made a couple of the items and the rest I purchased. The homemade items were the coconut balls, chocolate covered pretzel sticks, and the caramel apple(well my sister in law made those! Thanks Amy!) The rest of the items were purchased...the white donut and peeps ghost skewers, reece cups, m&m's, pumpkin suckers, smal pumpkin pies, and chocolate cream with orange icing cupcakes. All in all I think it turned out great and everyone loved it. I'm already dreaming up my christmas buffet idea.

Next, since I feared it was going to rain the day of the party I took all the games and placed them in my husband's basketball dome(don't ask). The dome actually came in very handy and I think we will have the games in there from now on. I had them lined up against the walls and instead of pumpkin bowling(since I didn't think the pumpkin and the concrete floor would cooperate) we used a basketball to knock down the bottles. We also had a small baskeball hoop for a hoop shoot, a tub full of sand and bones for a dig for bone game(small children love this one), and a duck pond. The other games we had was plinko(oriental trading), spider ring toss(oriental trading), bottle toss(oriental trading), punch out, and a bean bag toss. I used the same bean bag board that I had painted last year. My mom graciously made 4 bean bags for each person and the party and I found halloween buckets at Michael's for $.79 cents so everyone would get a bean bag game to take home with them. Each game had individual goody bags or tickets you could win. And of course we had a pinata. It took forever to get that thing to bust. After everyone played the games we took pictures in my homemade spooky picture frame wall. I think the parents enjoyed this just as much as the kids. After all the excitement of the games was over I led the children with their tickets to my makeshift ticket table. I set it up sort of like chucky cheese and they got to pick their prizes. They seemed to like this and it was funny the things they picked out. We then ate goodies, went on a fabulous hayride, and then we took a group picture and they jumped on the trampoline while playing in the leaves. Overall it was a big success. Natalie dressed up as a bee, my dh dressed up as a Buzz the beekeeper, and I dressed up as a Vampire. I'm always looking for something to put on 20 minutes before everyone arrives. This year it was throw on some face paint, rip up a white shirt, and put blood all over me. Maybe next year I will actually plan for me an outfit :) I hope you enjoy my party details and can use some of these ideas for your parties. Let me know what you think and let me know if you have any ideas for next year.

I'm having a Halloween Party this Saturday

2009-10-20T10:43:00.004-04:00

I've been busy planning and making things for our annual Halloween Party this Saturday. I'm praying it doesn't rain and get really cold because I love to do the activities outside. I've been a really busy girl coming up with ideas for this party. Here is a sneak peek of a few ideas that I have been working on(some not completely finished but will give you a general idea).

Check back next week for action pictures and lots of ideas. I have posted more details about some of these projects on my other blog - http://getsboredeasily.blogspot.com

School Snack Idea

2009-09-20T19:29:00.003-04:00

It's our turn for school lunch this week. We usually do a fruit because most people do a starch like peanut butter crackers and baked chips. While Natalie really likes pb crackers and chips she gets bored with them. In the past I have done strawberries with ff cool whip and mini bananas, ff vanilla pudding, and vanilla wafers. So this time we came up with oranges. Since 1st graders can't usually peel oranges I got that job. If I never have to peel another orange it will be too soon. :) I have to admit even for me I went a little overboard this time around. I made bag toppers for the oranges with a knock knock joke, sewed wet one packs for the wet ones(you can't give kids oranges and not have wet ones can you? I didn't think so). And the thing that put it over the top...when Natalie told me she gets to hand out her treats ...what did I do you ask? Yep, I made her a orange shirt to wear to school and a hair scrunchie on snack day to match her snacks. I told you,,,over the top. But hey, let the other mom's talk about how I must not have a job, etc(BTW, I do have a job)..... I had fun making the stuff and Natalie said she loved it...so yeah! Hope you enjoy the pics and let me know if you have any other ideas for snacks.

Fun Fruit flower pot kabobs

2009-07-17T13:44:00.002-04:00

I went to my neice's birthday party and her grandma had made these cute flower pot fruit kabobs. I had to take a picture because they were so cute! She took a grapefruit and stuck the flower shaped fruit kabobs down in them. She wrapped the pots in silver paper and tied a cute ribbon around them. She placed them on a tray and put the fruit dip in the middle. So cute and so yummy. ENJOY!!!

Fishing Birthday party

2009-07-12T11:30:00.003-04:00

We had a fishing birthday party for my nephew at a local fishing lake. We held the birthday party on a Thursday afternoon because the Lake gets crowded on the weekend. We got lucky and had the place to ourselves and the weather was perfect. We had lots of goldfish crackers and gummy worms on skewers. We used the goldfish cracker boxes for the goodie bags at the party. They turned out really cute. This was a great way to recycle and keep within the theme for the goodie bags. There is some great packaging out there just keep your eyes open. I made a huge fish out of fabric and stuffing and a sign that said I caught the big one at Hunter's Birthday party. I had each person fishing hold it up and took a picture for the Birthday scrapbook. I found a chipboard fish shaped book at Michaels that I took apart and ran ribbon through to make a banner for the party as well. I made big red/white fishing bobbers out of white bowls I found at dollar general. To make these you will need two bowls the same size. I spray painted one of them red and flipped it on top of the other. I drilled two tiny holes in the red bowl and strung a ribbon through it so I could hang the bobber. Then I took white duck tape and taped the bowls together. This turned out really cute. I also made several smaller versions with smaller bowls I found marked down at Walmart after the 4th of July. All in all this was a great party for an 8 year old and we caught lots of fish. ENJOY!

Happy 4th of July - Casual Dinner

2009-07-04T08:21:00.004-04:00

We had a casual 4th of July Dinner party last night and I wanted to share a few ideas we(me and my dd age 6 threw together). First we set the table with a white table cloth and took a piece of blue and white polka dot fabric for the table runner. I took the base of the white plastic birdbath and placed a fiestware red pitcher on it with fresh white snowball bush flowers. We then layered white and red plates and put some 4th or July poppers on each place setting. We are actually going to take these to the neighbors house tomorrow for his barbecue and 4th of July fireworks but it looked cute so we left them. The poppers were placed in plastic baggies that are normally used for jewelry supplies and a topper was made that said "Just poppin by to say Happy 4th of July". If you were having them as favors for your own barbecue you could say "Thanks for Poppin by for 4th of July". After that was done the table still needed something and I looked around the house and spotted my red apron collection. I tied the aprons to the back of each chair. A bonus is the had pockets so we were able to make some red twizzler treats to go in the pockets of the aprons for a take home gift for the guests(my immediate family..lol). We also jazzed up the 2 liters by wrapping with a piece of felt, ribbon, and a tag that said Happy 4th of July. The cups also got a ribbon and we used a pen to write the person's name and Happy 4th of July. The storebought flag cookies got a quick sucker stick and were put into the oven. We threw this together in about an hour. Enjoy and Happy 4th of July!

Thursday Brainstorm Party - Perennial Exchange Party

2009-06-25T08:45:00.005-04:00

I thought I would devote Thursday's to a party brainstorm session. A dreaming session per say...If I were to have a party this is what I would do. Then whenever I get a chance to actually do this type of party I will be armed and ready...And unlike my idea notebook I will be able to find my ideas easily :). I hope you enjoy these ideas. If you have any ideas that could make my party even better please leave me a comment. Thanks and have a great Thursday!

For my first Thursday Brainstorm Party Idea this is actually a party I'm planning for end of July. I will be creating invitations next week and have already started gathering my supplies.

PERENNIAL EXCHANGE PARTY

THE GIST OF IT:
The party is all about the love of gardening and getting some new perennial flowers for your yard. Everyone will be asked to bring 6 starts of their favorite perennial flowers. If they do not have perennial flowers they will be encouraged to bring seeds for perennial flowers so they can participate. At the end of the party everyone will take 6 new starts of flowers. In my invitation I will include instructions on how to properly separate flowers from an online expert. For my flower starts... I plan to put them in a small pot, wrap them with burlap, make a pretty tag(From the garden of: Hope) and wrap them with a green or yellow ribbon.

THE TIME:
This party will be a lunchtime party for approx 10 people. Very casual and relaxed but with special touches.

THE FOOD:
I will be creating a salad bar and either sandwiches or lasagna for this lunch. I bought a salad bar blow up contraption from LTD commodities. It is very cute and I haven't had a chance to use it yet. It looks like a blow up long pool that has a cover. I will use my green glass bowl collection to put the salad ingredients in down in the ice. It should look nice I think. FOR DESSERT i haven't quite figured it out yet...Maybe some flower cupcakes and a fresh berry trifle. I have already bought some cans of yellow and green drinks to match the colors and I plan on buying some mountain dew and lemonade as well. I will probably make labels that says perennial exchange party or something to that effect. For the drinks I will either put them in my turtle pool from the cookout that I had or I would love to find a wheelbarrow to fill with ice and place them in there.

THE THEME:
Of course gardening will be the theme of this party. I have picked the colors yellow/green to tie everything together. I will use gardening containers to decorate with. I'm thinking burlap down the center of the table with tin cans of varying sizes down the center with fresh flowers. I scored some white lanterns with lights from big lots for $2.00 so I'm sure I'll hang them up everywhere and probably add some green and yellow birds, butterflies, or polka dots to them to match the theme. If I can find some flower picks I will use them in the salad bar to name all the things(green pepper, onions, bacon, carrots, etc) I also may cut out some flowers from cardboard boxes and decoupage them with scrapbook paper for the back wall of the deck if we end up putting the table up there.

FAVORS:
Gardening Gloves stuffed with tissue paper at each place setting and a seed packet wrapped with a ribbon around them. I possibly might make some flower pens with my dd too. She loves to give things out to people. I bought a couple of butterfly knee cushions that will be the children's gifts if they come to the party. I will probably use them for the children's table on the back of their chairs. They are yellow and should look really good with everything else.

ACTIVITY:
Since my mother-in-law is a master gardener I have asked her to do a container garden demonstration for everyone at the party. We will use this container garden as the door prize for everyone that attends. I'll probably just pull the name out of a hat or maybe before then I'll come up with something more creative. If we have several children show up I would like to have an activity for them as well. I'm thinking of finding some large rocks and cleaning them up so they can paint them for their mom's flower garden. If I do this I'll have to make/buy some painting smocks so they don't get paint all over them. Still thinking on that.

Look for pictures from this party near the end of July.

Comments Welcomed

Hope XOXO

Casual Cookout

2009-06-22T10:15:00.004-04:00

My dh wanted to have a casual get together for work. He said upfront I couldn't make cutesy stuff or mess up the house making things for the party. So I went on a hunt for some cute things to put the food in...we had to eat right? I found a plastic bird bath that was great for the relish tray. I also found the flower pot saucers for the chips and dip. But my favorite of all was the turtle kiddie pool that we filled with ice and put all the drinks in. It was $10 bucks at Walmart and they had a hippo too but I thought the turtle went better with the outdoor/cookout party we were having. I also plan to reuse all of these containers at a garden themed party I'm having later in the month. Have you found any unique containers for food that you just loved?

Hope XOXO

Party Idea Notebook

2009-06-18T10:26:00.004-04:00

I have 3 parties coming up in July so I'm really busy with the planning phases right now. I just wanted to share how I keep track of all my crazy ideas. I keep a notebook with me at all times to sketch out ideas and write down anything that pops in my head about parties. It never fails when I'm trying to go to sleep at night a party idea springs in my head and I need my idea notebook. Here is the page I have started for a fishing birthday party for my 8 year old nephew in July. I like to sketch ideas and brainstorm anything I can think of. Some of it gets used and others ideas get scratched but I always have it to look back on after the party is over. I plan on using bobbers as the main feature of this party. I'm going to try to make large red/white bobbers to hang from the picnic shelter. I might use plastic bowls glued together or make them out of fabric, or use the throw away plastic bowls to try and work them out. I'm also going to try and make fake fishing poles out of pretzel rods, life savers, twizzlers, and swedish fish. Check back soon to see if they turn out :)

How does everyone else keep track of their ideas?

Banner Ideas

2009-06-15T21:03:00.005-04:00

For fathers day why not make a tie banner. I plan on adding some letters to each tie to spell out FATHER and hanging it up on father's day. Here's how you do it:

1.) place two ties side by side and set your sewing machine on zig zag stitch.

2.) sew approximately 15 inches up from the bottom of the ties.

3.) make 6 of these 2 tie sets

4.) use rotary cutter to cut 14 inch tie banners

5.) cut off small area of remaining tie pieces to use as the banner base.

6.) sew small pieces right sides together to make long piece

7.) place tie side by side pieces right side together with small tie long piece to create banner.

8.) flip over small piece and sew again to make the tie banner pieces lay flat.

9.)Add letters or just tie up to decorate for Father's Day.

ENJOY!!!!

XOXO....Hope

Another idea to use for a banner is discontinued upholstery swatches. Since they are already bound you would just need to put them together with some ribbon and add some letters and they are usually in the same color family.

Chalkcloth Drink Tags

2009-06-14T20:40:00.004-04:00

I think these are called wine tags but around here we drink more water than wine so I'll just call them Drink Tags. Here's how you make it:

1.) Find a round object and trace onto the chalkcloth. Then cut it out.
2.) Cut out 2 pieces of tablecloth slightly larger than the chalkcloth round piece.
3.) Place 2 round tablecloth pieces right sides together and sew around leaving an opening to turn.
4.) Turn and top stitch the opening.
5.) Place chalkcloth round piece in the middle of tablecloth front and zig zag stitch around it.
6.) Punch a hole in the tablecloth piece near where you closed the opening and feed ribbon through it.
7.) Tie onto glass, write name or initial on the chalkcoth and always know which glass is yours :)

ENJOY!

XOXO....Hope

Thank You Creative Parties and Showers

2009-06-12T13:05:00.003-04:00

I am so excited to be featured over at one of the COOLEST PARTY BLOG's around today. Run over there and check out all the amazing parties and give her a comment to let her know we love her blog!!!

http://creativepartiesandshowers.blogspot.com

Hope XOXOXO

Chalkcloth Mini Flag

2009-06-10T20:38:00.008-04:00

I created this chalkcloth mini flag for my front entrance. I took an existing flag and laid it on top of the chalkcloth to get a template. I left enough fabric to fold down and sew a pocket to slide onto the flag pole. I then took pre-made double fold binding tape and sewed it around the edges so the chalkcloth didn't curl up. Now I can use this flag to announce all my upcoming parties and everyday events. I took pictures of a few examples.

Some other ideas.....I think this would be great for a realtor to use at Open House events. How about using this to announce your upcoming yard sale in your front yard? I think this would also be a great teacher's present as well. Can you think of any other ideas? I would love to hear them.

Kindergarten Graduation Party

2009-06-08T14:03:00.009-04:00

My daughter graduated from Kindergarten this year. After the ceremony I planned a little party for my daughter and her classmates. We set the tables with red tablecloths and put a 12X12 piece of white cardstock down so the plates I created would show up on the tablecloths.

The graduation hat plates were created by placing a square red plate on an upside down red bowl. I glued them together and placed a soup can on the top so it would stick. Once the plates and bowls were glued together I punched a hole in the corner of one the plates using a hand held hole punch and then I created a tassle with white embroidery floss and gold ribbon to tie through the hole in the plate.

I went to the party store and found smiley face pics with graduation hats to use for the cupcakes. I scanned in the yearbook pics and cut the children's faces in circles to use on the pics(NOTE: place these on the cupcakes right before the party so the icing doesn't get on the pics) The kids really enjoyed looking at themselves on the cupcakes.

I also created a centerpiece for the punch table titled "SMARTIES". I took wooden skewers, glue dots, smarties, and ribbon and made smartie pics. On each smartie pic I placed the childrens pics. I also bought a couple of the larger smartie packages for the teachers pics. It turned out really cute. I used a wallpaper tray painted in school colors and floral foam as the base of my Smartie centerpiece.

For the goodie 'bags' I bought to-go containers from Sam's warehouse to hold all the goodies. The goody containers each had a small chalkboard with the child's name written in chalk on the top. They include a small box of chalk, a diploma made out of fruit rollups, white paper, and ribbon, goldfish crackers(adapted this idea from ReneeDezember on 2peas), a button that I made out of paper and ribbon that said I graduated from Kindergarten Today, and a single kool-aid pack that said "Have a Kool Summer".

I also had to make some adorable graduation pops from Bakerella.

I hope you enjoyed these ideas and I hope that you can use some for your next graduation party.

Bridal Shower Collage - Sarah and Evan

2009-06-01T10:34:00.003-04:00

I just learned how to do collages so I put together one for the bridal shower I threw a couple weeks ago for my cousin Sarah.

Field Trip Picnic

2009-05-26T09:11:00.011-04:00

Natalie's class had their end of year field trip/picnic last week. It was a lot of fun and I was asked a week ahead of time to organize and plan the picnic :). With only a week to spare I thought of ideas that I could make quickly for 43 children and have a big impact. Here is what I came up with in a week's notice: MIDWAY SIGN(in previous post) cut out of boxes, spray painted and put in the ground with sticks and skewers to take pictures in front of and to lead them to the right shelter. Some quick paper banners to decorate the shelter area. Open up a document editor make your letters big and print one on each page. Take you hole punch and string the letters through the holes, tape them on the back so they don't move around on the string. If you want polka dots like mine just use a circle punch or cut them free hand and glue to the sign to customize a bit. The other banner I cut a pendant shape out of and then printed the letters smaller in squares and glued on. It says field trip. I also made straw surrounds for the drinks and put the name of the school on them. They also have their mascot stamped on them. For the napkins I took a white napkin rolled it up and tied it around the red napkin. I figured it would be better to have two napkins then have a ribbon that would be hard to take off for the kindergarten children.

For the food we had pizza, chips, cookies(in cellophane bag tied with ribbon-my dd idea), and mini doughnuts from krispy kreme(Did you know Krispy Kreme had mini doughnuts? They are so cute!!!)

And finally, since the kids were going to the pond after they ate to feed the ducks I packaged a couple pieces of bread for each child to feed the ducks. They were individually labeled: Duck and Geese Food. One trick I have learned this year for kindergarten children they all want identical things. If one gets something they all want it so ziploc baggies have been my friend.

I hope you enjoyed our field trip picnic and hope you can use some of these ideas in your future picnics.

Halloween Party

2009-05-25T12:48:00.002-04:00

We always have a halloween party for all the neighborhood children. The invitations always set the mood for our party. This year I opted for googly eyes in a box sent to everyone in a spooky envelope. I would have loved to see their faces when they opened the boxes :). Last year we played boo ball, bean bag toss, bobbed for apples, and pumpkin bowling. I made the bean bag board by downloading a halloween coloring book page and projecting it onto a piece of playwood to outline and paint it. DH cut out the circles for the bean bags to go through with his jigsaw. I also sewed the bean bags. The boo ball just needed a ghost cut out of foam board. Each game had a goodie bag the children won after they played.

Halloween Party Food

2009-05-23T12:47:00.000-04:00

Our halloween party wouldn't be complete without lots of fun halloween sweets. The witch hat cookies were made by taking shortbread striped cookies upside down, orange icing, and a hershey kiss. The can of worms is just that...gummy worms in a tin can. The ice cubes were made by putting gummy worms in water and freezing. It's fun to name all the food at the halloween party.

I hope you enjoy some of these ideas.

Christmas Party Favors or Gift Tags

2009-05-19T13:42:00.004-04:00

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I love felt. It's cheap and you can make so many things out of it. In these examples I used felt to create a penguin and snowman ornament. The could be used as favors at a christmas party or as gift tie ons. Wouldn't it be cute to have a penguin themed party in december and use these little guys to dress up the food table, favors, christmas tree? I think so. Use your imagination and come up with some felt designs for your next party. These cost about $3.00 for about 25 of them. You can't beat that for favors for 25 people.

Party - Favor Ideas

2009-05-19T13:32:00.002-04:00

Here are some ideas for some fun favors. The first is a tissue cozy for your purse. I found a tutorial for this particular version on www.craftster.org but you can do a search for tissue cozy tutorial and several versions can be found. These take very little fabric and can be sewn in approx 10 minutes. I gave these as gifts at Christmas for people that I wanted to pick up a little something for. I have one in my purse now and it comes in handy. The second pic is a crayon roll. I think this would be great for a birthday party favor. These take a little longer to make but are very useful. I love useful favors :). I found this tutorial on www.skiptomylou.org . I made 24 of these for my daughters class for Christmas. If you have an assembly line it takes about 15 to 20 minutes each to make these. These are great on road trips also because the crayons don't keep falling in the floor. The last pic would be a great favor for a teenage birthday party. It's colorful and who doesn't like gum? I love to take candy and decorate it for favors. If you were having a bird theme, a candy theme, even a luau this would ge cute. What ideas do you have for favors?

Party Decor - Use Free Stuff

2009-05-18T22:20:00.001-04:00

What can you make with a couple of old boxes, some tree limbs, tape, and a can of spray paint? Yard Signs for your next party. They look impressive and cost almost nothing. Why go pay for a sign when in an hour or two you could have a unique piece ready for a party. Wouldn't this look cute for a Birthday party for you child with their name. How about a big number with how old they are to take pictures beside of every year?

My daughter is going to have a field trip/picnic day at school. I got my scissors out and started cutting some free boxes I found laying around at work that were destined for the dumpster. You can usually obtain free boxes at grocery stores as well. Aldi's and Save a lot love for you to take them off their hands. I then went on a nature hunt to pick up sturdy sticks. Taped them on the back and stuck them in the ground to spray paint. Midway is the name of my daughters school. I think this will look very cute for an end of year class picture as well.

Here are some other things you can modify for fun party decor, favors, etc.

paint chip samples - Use them as bag toppers for your favors, thread them together to use them as a garland, make place cards for food with them.

drink carriers at fast food restaurants - cover the carriers in paper and put paper cups in them filled with candy. Wrap in cellophane and tie with a big bow.

laminate samples - use these as tags for gifts

travel pamplets - great to use for a travel theme party as decor, favors, etc.

plastic cutlery - glue to a card for a fun barbecue or picnic invite, glue together to makea fork stand to hold food place cards

Nacho Trays

2009-05-07T13:04:00.004-04:00

Did you know how useful Nacho trays are when you are planning parties? They are really cheap at the warehouse clubs. I have used them for a halloween party for Nachos and cheese but I have also used them for 2 kindergarten class parties this year to help divide up food items for the children. For Christmas we decorated sugar cookies with the works. We had icing, sprinkles, m&m's, etc. I used the nacho trays to easily divide up the sprinkles. I also found some great liners in the candy section at Michael's to further divide the sprinkles and pre measure the icing so everyone would receive the same amount. Since the party is only 45 minutes at our school it is essential to have everything organized so we can get the party started. These containers help us out!!!

For the Valentine's Party we used the nacho containers to hold the fruit and fruit dip for our fruit pizzza ingredients. This was a little healthier alternative(ok..lol, not much healthier but still :) ) to the all sugar cookie and icing at Christmas. We had strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and bananas(cut these while the kids are decorating their pizzas or they will go brown and not look pretty).

So run to the store and buy you some nacho containers for your next party. I still have my first pack and have used them for 3 parties and they were only $5 bucks. That's a deal!

Fourth of July Cookout

2009-05-07T12:50:00.004-04:00

Last year we had a fourth of July cookout with a few good friends. I used the red crush container to hold our utensils and so our drink container would go with the color theme..lol. I also created some cascading plants and a banner for a festive look. I hope you enjoy these ideas. Check back after the fourth for more ideas for Fourth of July 2009.

Party Favors - Baked goods - Unique

2009-05-07T10:28:00.003-04:00

I love to plan and attend parties. Among my favorite type of favors is something unique and tasty. When I plan parties I try to come up with ideas that won't break the bank, are unique, and are useful or tasty. At this particular party it was for a young couple and the only thing they gave me was their wedding would be in purple. I saw a version of this idea a long time ago and have been wanting to try it a long time so I went for it. Another thing was it had to be pretty cheap to make because my dh throws a fit if I spend too much on these types of things :) So I went to Big Lots to look for my supplies...yes I said Big Lots. They have great stuff at cheap prices. I found the blank white cd cases 100 in a pack for $4.00. Wow! What a bargain. I figured I would need approx 60 favors for this event...so it's perfect I now have plenty of cases for my cd's as well. I bought two spools of purple ribbon for $.50 each and thank you charms for $4.00 at Michael's(in the bridal aisle). I asked the couple for a picture, printed it out on my computer and used my punches. I did back the cases with scrapbook paper that I had on hand. You could also use wrapping paper. I also used labels that I bought at Walmart for $3.00 and used my printer to print a thank you sentiment. You could handwrite the sentiment on the cd case but my handwriting stinks to say the least :). I bought the cookies to fill the cases at Krogers for $8.00. So there you have it 60 personalized favors for approximately $20.00 and very little effort.

Food Fun

2009-05-06T15:13:00.001-04:00

There is nothing better than pretty food at a party. It makes everything seem more special and unique. I recruited my mom, aunt, and sister and law to help with the food since it's not one of my strong points. HEY ya gotta know your limits when your pulling off a party :)

We used my white dishes to show off the great food. I did do the fruit kabobs and they turned out very pretty. I'm thinking I could have stuck them in a watermelon or added them to a fruit tray in a circular manner with the dip in the middle. You can usually find the kabob sticks at the dollar store and in the kitchen utensil aisle at Wal-Mart. You can probably pick up a pamphlet for later ideas also. I keep a food notebook that I staple pics of ideas for later use in it. This comes in handy and I have piles of notebooks instead of piles of individual pictures.

Add some leafy vegetables around each item and they seem to go together better. Keep the top of the pineapple to give some texture and pizzazz to a fruit tray. We used parsley to spruce up these dishes.

Here is the fruit dip my sister in law gave me to make:

EASY AND DELICIOUS FRUIT DIP

1 small jar of marshmallow creme

1 8 oz square of cream cheese

Mix together removing lumps from cream cheese and chill. This was yummy!

My mom took the sandwiches cut them in fourths and stood them up. She got this idea by looking at sandwich trays at the grocery store. A great place to look for food displays in your local Deli that makes food trays.

Package it - Bridal Shower Gifts

2009-05-06T15:12:00.003-04:00

I had a bridal shower last Saturday for my cousin. There was definitely some gift packaging that stood out from the crowd in the bunch of gifts and I wanted to share them with the blog world. Let me try and explain a couple of them so you can get the idea. The first present was wrapped with a dishtowel set complete with an oven mit bow. You can buy these sets for around $3.00 the same price you would pay for a roll of wrapping paper or a big bag at most stores. The next 3 use containers that can be used by the recipient in their home. Very thoughtful and part of the gift. I have seen laundry baskets and trash cans used before also. I loved the wooden salad bowl filled with kitchen goodies and who couldn't use some of those white storage baskets? It's always hard to wrap towels or find a bag to fit them in. This person put them in a basket and wrapped them with cellophane. I think Cellophane makes everything seem more grand and special :). The last picture wrapped their gifts in pillowcases. These were lamp shades and they didn't want them getting crushed. Great idea to use the pillowcases since the bride and groom needed those as well. I hope you enjoy these great wrapping ideas. Please let me know if you have any special ideas of your own. Hope

Some other packaging ideas include - Towel Bridal Cake, 2 liter bottle with gift card inside, money tree

Sew - Felt Banner - Cheap Party Decor

2009-05-06T15:11:00.001-04:00

Pull out the sewing machine to make something unique and customized for a party. I have created banners for several parties. They take little time, are quick to make, and are CHEAP!!! They add a little flair behind a cake table and everyone seems to enjoy them. I always use the 20 cent pieces of felt and cut them in triangles but you can cut them in any shape you want. First you decide on the words you want to spell out. Second you buy the felt, Third you cut the letters out of felt. If you wanted to be precise you could use a word editing program to blow up the letters, cut them out of paper, trace them onto felt and cut them out. I eyeball it and go with the flow. Then you sew the felt letters onto the felt pendants. Again you could use a blanket stitch to sew on the letters, or use a zig zag to go around each letter. Depending on the party I decide how up close and personal someone is going to come to the banner then I decide on sewing technique. In this example the banner was hung high, I was in a time crunch, and it was the idea that mattered more than the execution so the letters were sewn on with a straight stritch right down the middle of each letter. The last step to making a party banner is adding the string that will hold the banner together. I almost always use Ribbon...because...well I love Ribbon and happen to have a ton of it. I just lay the ribbon on the top of each banner and straight stitch down through. After this step you can do whatever else you would like to customize your banner. On this example I used silk flowers and buttons for each end of the pendant. This particular banner costs me less than $3.00 to make.

I hope you enjoy this idea and if you make your own I would love to see it.

Special Touches - decorative Water Bottles, Napkin rings

2009-05-06T15:10:00.000-04:00

Small touches at a shower make all the difference. How about decorating the water bottles with some paper and some ribbon. Easy peasy...wrap and tie...Done. It took me about 15 minutes to do these water bottles and it made the drink table look cute. I think you should have something cute and fun to look at in all areas of the party. I was going to wrap the 2 liter bottles also but I didn't have time...Pick your battles :).

I also thought the napkins were an easy target for beautification. I got a $1 worth of cheap gingham fabric at Walmart. Ripped it, rolled napkins, and tied it around. Quick and Easy...Are you getting a theme from me. Quick, Cheap, and Easy...Hey...it works!

Party Decorating: Use what you Own - Collections

2009-05-06T15:09:00.006-04:00

I'm a born collector. Are you? If you are consider using your collections to decorate for parties. At this bridal shower I pulled out all my white glassware. I used my beautiful pitchers to make felt, yo-yo, silk flower arrangements for the centerpieces. I also used my white dishware for the nuts and mints. Dishware can easily be found at goodwill, salvation army, thrift stores, antique stores, and yard sales. Keep your eyes open and maybe you can start a collection. The dishes that had scalloped edges also received a purple ribbon through them to spice them up a bit. I used the purple tablecloths from the dollar store to pop all my white platters for the food table as well. If you don't have a collection yet see if someone you know does. My sister in law had about 5 pieces I borrowed and everyone else had a couple to make sure everything coordinated.

Some other great collection ideas to use at parties are - bird houses, watering cans, anything that can be used as a container for flowers. How about putting a theme to a shower or party. Is someone a photographer? Maybe you can find some great old cameras at a thrift store to use as centerpieces. How about someone who loves trains(you can find some great toy trains at the dollar store), I could go on and on but will stop for now.

If you have any other ideas please leave a comment. I love to share ideas. Hope :)

Centerpiece Idea - Make it pop

2009-05-06T15:09:00.004-04:00

Just wanted to mention quickly a cheap way to make your centerpieces pop...I used a strip of ribbon running all the way down the table then placed a 20 cent piece of felt under the centerpiece to give it presence.

You could use a placemat, a piece of fabric, flags, ties, napkins, confetti, pot holders, aprons, dish towels, wash cloths, etc... Use your imagination and think outside the box