Posted on June 9th, 2011 by Brenda | Comments Off
Recently we hosted a baby shower for a dear friend. Since the baby was adopted from India, we thought it would be fun to incorporate a Bollywood theme, full of bright & cheerful colors. To make it even more fun, we had a menu of cookies and milk.
Gold elephants flanked each side of the dessert buffet and were spruced up with little blankets.
A Wishing Well greeted guests as they arrived and the table provided a spot to place gifts. Glass vases filled with Cookie Crisp cereal (ties in with cookie theme) and daisies were scattered throughout the party.
The table centerpiece was created with painted branches, tissue pom poms and butterflies.
Guests were able to write a message to the family on colorful elephant and monkey die-cuts and then hang the message on the tree.
Beverages included coffee and three flavors of milk: white, chocolate and caramel.
The cookie buffet consisted of lots of yummy cookies displayed on pedestals and in varying sized jars tied with ribbon.
It was a lovely afternoon to welcome a new baby to the family!
Posted on April 25th, 2010 by Brenda | Comments Off
How fun would these be at the
Old Fogey Potluck Bingo? A paper & plastic place setting becomes more dynamic with just a few print-outs from your computer.
These little treats are doughnut holes dipped in white chocolate with piped on letters and numbers.
Posted on March 31st, 2010 by Brenda | Comments Off
Sponsor food recipes
Velveeta Cheesy Bacon Hash Brown Bake
Maxwell House
Mocha Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Velveeta
Peanut Butter Cheese Fudge &
Chocolate Cheese Fudge
Decorations were kept simple and budget-friendly with Spring paper goods from Dollar Tree.
I set out crayons and an Easter coloring book to occupy the kids during breakfast.
Party Girls!
An
easy spring craft we did after breakfast.
Favors for the kids were Wilton disposable icing bags filled with cheese crackers & tied with green ribbons - looks like carrots! I found this cute idea somewhere online, but I lost the link, so thank you to the creative gal that came up with this!
Adult favors were Easter tin buckets from Dollar Tree, a can of Maxwell House coffee and Velveeta spatula, recipes and coupons.
We all had a fun time just hanging out and eating yummy food!
Posted on March 21st, 2010 by Brenda | Comments Off
Recently I had the pleasure of co-hosting a baby shower for my friend Tamara. Since the baby is a girl, we chose a pink and brown color scheme.
The invitation:
The day of the shower brought lovely weather and we were able to have the party on one of the host's lanai. Since the buffet was so pretty and the outdoors were all around, we kept decorations to a minimum.
One the wall of the lanai we strung a pink clothesline held by 2 sequined butterflies. On the clothesline we used pink clothespins to hang an assortment of baby outfits, which were later given to the mother-to-be as a gift (forgot to take picture).
The buffet table was divided into savory foods, beverages & the candy and dessert buffet.
The savory menu included cheese & crackers, vegetables and dip, fruit and dip and chips & salsa.
In keeping with the color scheme, all of the candy and desserts were picked in pink or brown.
Here is pink cotton candy in customized cups. I pleated and glued pink crepe streamers to Wilton nut cups. Around the middle I glued a strip of scrapbook paper. The tags are brown cardstock circles with Martha Stewart "It's A Girl" transfers.
Hershey Bars wrapped in scrapbook paper:
An assortment of yummy candy:
These little favor boxes were used for guests to hold candy. They were purchased plain 12/$1 at Dollar Tree. They are decorated with ribbons and plastic baby carriages charms.
The water bottles were decorated with scrapbook paper, ribbon and plastic pacifier charms.
One of my favorite drinks is Sonic's Diet Cherry Limeade. I tried to recreate this with Sprite Zero, maraschino cherry flavoring (found in ice cream topping aisle of the grocery store), lime juice and lime slices for color. We also had a yummy punch made with Sprite, pineapple juice and pink sherbet.
Chinet cups were rimmed with lime juice and pink sanding sugar.
We played 3 games at the shower. One was the traditional "How Big is Mother's Belly." A second game played was "The Price Is Right."
Guests had to guess the price of 8 baby items. The guest with the most correct won a prize and all of the baby items were given to the Mother-To-Be.
The third game was "Bun In The Oven." I made felt dresses with a small slit cut into the back which allowed a cotton ball to be inserted into the dress (looks like a baby bump!). Guests were asked to take one dress. When everyone had a dress, they pulled out the cotton ball looking for the "bun" (made from my daughter's playdough and painted with white icing and glitter). The person who found the bun won a prize.
These favors were these little paper Mary Janes (
find pattern here) filled with Dove chocolate eggs. The extra shoes were filled with raffia grass and flowers and used as decorations on the buffet table.
Here is the Mother-To-Be opening her gifts:
It was a wonderful shower spent with good friends!
Posted on March 17th, 2010 by Brenda | Comments Off
I stumbled upon these little beauties while surfing the web today. I want to incorporate a craft into the
Mom's Spring Into Brunch House Party I am hosting next week and these are going to be just perfect!
You can find complete instructions over at
Stitched Together With Love. They seem pretty easy to make and the estimated cost for each is under $1.50! Cute AND budget-friendly...LOVE IT!
Posted on March 8th, 2010 by Brenda | Comments Off
For my son's 10th birthday, we had a movie party. To keep costs down, the party was held at our house, the decorations were kept simple and I used lots of coupons to buy the food and goodies.
The front door was decorated with C7 Christmas lights to resemble a movie theater and a sign I made using 1/2 a foam board from Dollar Tree, scrap cardstock, paint & ribbon from my craft stash & the Cricut die-cut machine. The only cost was $1.07 for the foam board.
I painted a scalloped border with red craft paint and used Cricut cartridge
Cuttin' Up for lettering and
Mickey & Friends for the filmstrips.
Borrowed camp chairs made for the perfect theater seating - they were comfy, portable & each had their own cup holder.
My son cut a plastic tablecloth in half and hung it on either side of the TV to look like a theater.
The kitchen table became the theater's concession stand.
The other half of the foam board was used for the concession sign (Cricut
Cuttin' Up cartridge lettering). The kids had a ball ordering all of the different foods.
The local GFS Supermarket has tons of empty boxes they let you take. Nathan & I found the right shaped boxes for the Popcorn Concession and Candy Counter.
I used a utility knife to cut "windows" from the four sides. Here is the Popcorn Concession box before:
I spray painted the box grey, taped clear cellophane to the cut-outs, leaving the back window open. I glued extra popcorn bags (from Michael's) to the front, added lettering and striped paper to the bottom. The plastic popcorn containers were 2/$1 from Dollar Tree.
The candy concession stand was made the same way as the popcorn, but I hot glued a cardboard shelf to the middle of the box.
The candy box was spray painted a glossy black and placed on an empty box wrapped in extra black tablecloth. The clear cellophane gave the appearance of glass and kept the boys from grabbing the candy. The only cost for the boxes was $1.07 for a roll of clear cellophane at Dollar Tree and $2.14 for 2 cans of spray paint from WalMart.
More party treats were placed on the desk in the kitchen. To get that fresh popped tasty popcorn, I purchased a few bags from the Publix deli.
Instead of cake, I served popcorn cupcakes. These were the hit of the party and so easy to make. The popcorn is actually mini marshmallows with the tops cut into an "X" with kitchen scissors. The frosting holds the marshmallows in place. A little Wilton yellow color spray gives the look of butter.
The holders are Wilton large nut cups colored with a red Sharpie and a popcorn label cut from extra popcorn bags.
The food was served in shirt-sized gift boxes. The boxes became lap trays for the kids to hold their food.
The happy movie watchers.
There wasn't much fancy about this party, but the kids had a great time! You can see the Movie Party invitations here and the favors here.
Posted on February 11th, 2010 by Brenda | Comments Off
Emma celebrated her 6
th birthday with a fairy party. Here is Emma posing at the front door:
The tissue flowers lining the walkway are from
Oriental Trading Company. The garland framing the door was easy to make with tulle, pink lights & decorations from Dollar Tree. All of the signs were made using the
Cricut Tinkerbell cartridge.
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Wings and tutus all lined up and waiting for the fairies to arrive. The outfits were ordered from
Halo Heaven - great quality & customer service with low prices.
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Martha pompoms and tissue flowers from
OTC hung from the ceiling. The table was set up for the girls to decorate handle bags.
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The Pixie Dust station where the girls could mix up their very own fairy dust. The pixie dust ingredients were colored sand, Tinkerbell glitter and
iridescent crystal glitter. The little plastic containers were from Dollar Tree (6/$1) and I hot glued a flower to the lid.
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The Fairy Garden station where the girls made little terrariums using recycled baby food jars. Get instructions
here.
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Slider doors decorated with paper butterflies and a custom banner.
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More Martha pompoms.
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Glittery
Tinkerbell tied to children's folding chairs (rented from local party supplier).
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The pictures just don't do justice to the
centerpieces my mom made - they were so glittery & sparkly!
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To keep things fairy-sized, each place setting had a
small petal placemat and mini tea set from Home Goods. I had tasting spoons, but they just weren't practical for the girls to eat with, so I opted for the regular-sized party spoons.
More fairy party pictures tomorrow!
Posted on September 28th, 2009 by Brenda | Comments Off
My Mom & I have been working like mad trying to get everything done for Emma's Fairy Birthday Party. Even though the party isn't for a few more weeks, I have so much going on in October that I really just wanted to at least have the fairy party prep complete.
I absolutely fell in love with these
artificial grass & flower
placemats from
Butterfly Craze. The $6.99 price tag? I didn't love so much!
So, I then considered
astro turf
placemats.
Astro Turf is reasonably priced,
available at Home Depot and I could make 20
placemats for under $5.00 (you can find a tutorial
here for making them). While budget friendly, the
astro turf just didn't have the look I wanted.
Then I remembered these pretty petal
placemats I saw from
Party Wishes...
and
Design Dazzle...
I searched for these online & locally, but turned up zilch. So, I thought, "I can make these!" I cut out the size
placemat I wanted from cardboard gift boxes I had, purchased 4 bags of pink rose petals from the local Dollar Tree & got out my trusty hot glue gun.
Starting at the bottom of the
placemat, I ran a single line of hot glue
horizontally across the cardboard. Then, I just put down petals one by one, overlapping slightly. I continued this method until the entire cardboard was covered.
I'm thrilled with the way they turned out! Would I like the grass
placemats instead?
Ofcourse! But $5.00 for 20
placemats for a 6 year
old's party makes so much more sense to me (& my wallet!) than $140! And besides, what would I do with all those grass
placemats after the party?
Posted on September 8th, 2009 by Brenda | Comments Off
I love these easy-to-make place cards/favors. Aren't they sweet?
Posted on August 24th, 2009 by Brenda | Comments Off
Back To School Bunco with my Moms group was a lot of fun. There are so many ways to celebrate the Back To School theme and all of them can be incorporated into a small celebration with your family to a big party with friends.
I made the wreath with items from the craft store and a hot glue gun. It is a wreath I can leave up all month and will take out year after year.
Each table had a
school bus centerpiece with mini chalkboard, a colorful bowl of M&M's & a school themed piece of scrapbook paper.
Food was served on divided Styrofoam trays that resemble cafeteria trays. To stay on budget, I purchased the trays 10 for $1 at Dollar Tree. An alternative would be colorful re-usable hard plastic trays, but the least expensive ones I found were $1.27 each.
Water bottles were covered in school themed scrapbook paper.
My husband wrote out the menu board for me.
Mini Club Sandwiches topped with
decorative picks.
Mini bags of chips.
Pretzel crayons served in a pencil box. I found this idea at
Gourmet Mom On The Go.
I fell in love with these
hamburger cupcakes & sugar cookie fries from Bakerella & knew they would be perfect for the Back To School theme! I served the cookie fries with a side of strawberry "ketchup" (strawberry jam).
For the Bunco prize I assembled a gift bag of grown-up school supplies (forgot to take a picture). I filled a school themed gift bag from Dollar Tree with decorative plaid pencils, notepad & mini notebook from the dollar section of Michaels & made a kitchen chalkboard with a silver tray & silver easel from Dollar Tree & chalkboard spray paint from Home Depot (
directions here).
