OK…while hubby watched the Super Bowl, I got a little
“Pin Happy” over at Pinterest and stumbled on some of the cutest and clever party ideas. So I thought I’d share a few with you. First up is this adorable Party Invitation
that looks like an apron. CUTE…!!!

Next is this beautiful luscious cluster of Paper Party Poms. What a pretty POP of Surprise…No centerpiece needed…

This beautiful CAKE and me doing the Peppermint Twist..
Simply stunning…!!!

And these TEA TIME treats were irresistible. So dainty and sweet…!!! 

And THIS…..!!! Well there are just no words
Oh..oh…oh…!!!

And as usual, I’m always stumbling on more creative uses for our pretty paper straws. LOVE these Marshmallow Pops perched on our Pink Dot Straws.

Go here for instructions on how to make these pretty treats.
Perfect for Valentine’s Day….!!
And one last CUTE Baby Shower Idea.
Cake Pop Baby Rattle using our sweet Pink striped paper straws for the stick…How adorable…!!!

T

How charming and romantic…

The picture above came from Country Living Magazine

Don’t you love it when you see something that makes your heart say “ Oooohhhhhh”…..Well that’s what happened when I saw the beautiful PARTY TRUCK And look at the details…. So beautiful. Please, I want to DO THIS…!!!!
And look at these yummy “Sugared Pears”….

Aaaaaahhhhh..!!!!! I need a truck…How romantic. Pictures were found HERE: at Margaria’s Party Inspirations. Stop in to visit her.

Ok, I’m on the hunt for a TRUCK…!!

Cheers,

Your Creative Party Girl,

Dianne

I am sure many of you are planning your own parties as well… Halloween is just so much fun! Here are some pics from last years party, with a sweet treats theme! Hopefully you can pull some planning inspiration of your own from these photos! Afterall, Halloween is all about the sweets!

You can find more party details here, within my feature on HWTM!

Have a great rest of your week… the Fall weather is on it’s way, I can just feel it!

Ok, how stinkin’ cute is the red and white polkadot diaper that wraps around the invitation?  So clever!  And those paper baby shoes are the perfect compliment.

Enjoy this baby shower….

I actually saw the words of encouragement cards on the baby gardner website and decided to make my own version. I think they turned out pretty cute!

I found this GREAT party over at Stephmodo:

Photo: Ian MacPherson.

I found this fun lego cupcake idea over at Lemon Pencil:

And this lego cake from Novelty Birthday Cakes is pretty stinkin’ cool:

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I’m lovin’ this party.  You have to check out the picture where they put a HUGE rocket going up the stairs to make it look like it was blasting off!  What a fantabulous idea!  There are just so many cute details.  Love the rocket pop cookies too!

Enjoy Brittany’s Rocket Party…..

My boo is two!  I can hardly believe it! I thought this party was never going to happen! I had to reschedule it from his actual birthday until two weeks later because we were moving in the midst of all this fun!  The theme was inspired by this cute Michael Miller fabric, “Rocket Rascals” fabric. It had a fun, retro-vibe to it. I got the fabric off Etsy, from BellePepper Couture.

Isn’t he the cutest boy?

His shirt was custom monogrammed from my friend Mollie, who runs an embroidery business out of her house.

I need a big impact item for the front entrance of our house, since it is all stairs, so I went with a rocket blasting up the stairs. This picture does not do the size justice. I cut the shape out of a huge cardboard box and then covered it with butcher paper and painted it . The “flames” are cellophane.

Since it was an afternoon party, I went with a sweets display. We had candy, cookies, cupcakes, etc. To say that I have tons left over is an understatement!

I found the rocket birdhouses on either side of the buffet at Michael’s and hand painted them to match the theme.

The adorable cupcake toppers are from the lovely CiaoBambino on Etsy! She also did the favor tags for me.

A close-up of the tags. They had little astronauts and rockets and said “Greyson’s 2nd Birthday.”

I handmade all the cupcakes and icing from Martha Stewart’s recipe for buttercream and dyed the icing myself. I am a control freak to the nth degree.

The rocket cookies were custom designed and baked for me by Laurie at Whimsy Cookie Co. She is local in Memphis, but she ships!  Check her out, she was awesome to work with and she can do anything!

The marshmallow pops were the world’s easiest thing to make and the kids LOVED them. They had red all over their faces.

I made all the food tags on my printer with paint.net and photo paper. I thought they turned out super cute!  We also had Airheads as well. I got almost all the candy at Wayne’s Candy Company in downtown Memphis. We have one of the best bulk candy stores right in our backyard!

I don’t normally like working with fondant, but I took a chance this time and tried to make his cake myself. I accidentally put flour in the blue fondant instead of cornstartch and it looked crazy!  But, he didn’t care!

The beverage station was a combination of bottled water with custom tags, “Rocket Fuel” (Crystal Light), and soft drinks.

I got this cute dispenser at Target after mine sprung a leak at my last party!

The cute galvanized pail is from the Etsy seller, BrodyandMa. I didn’t even have her do this custom!  She already offered it in the fabric that I loved!

Since we just moved in, we don’t have a lot of stuff on the walls, so I painted this banner to put alongside the food table.

The favors were PopRocks and Milky Ways for the Adults, and Elmo Rocket books ($1 spot at Target) and the candy for the kiddos.

Again, the favor tags were from CiaoBambino.

I got this rocket tent on walmart.com for $20!!!!  Insane deal. This was also his present from us.

My sweet birthday boy!

He did NOT cooperate for presents!

Keepin’ it real.

It’s been awhile since I’ve featured a carnival themed party. When I saw this one and all the games I just had to share. They did such a great job with all of the game booths. Very inspiring!

Enjoy the carnival……….

Please bear with me as I have one more party to share! {that is until this years celebration} I am anxious to get back to some craft and decorating projects and promise to do so shortly! But first I’d like to show you my son’s second birthday; a Carnival Extraordinaire. This was my favorite party thus far to put together. It took me a little more than six months of planning to coordinate everything however, despite the long hours put in and loads of work it was very well worth it in the end. The invitations were printed on cardstock and actual tickets were attached for each guest to bring to the party for admission.

Included with each invitation was a photo card which had twelve photos, a photo for each month of the past year. It was so cute to see all of the photos together and how much his adorable expressions had changed!

The admission gate was manned by a fabulous clown and carnival barker. They collected the admission tickets and gave each child a wristband to enter. I wanted to create as much of a classic fairground feel as possible for the kiddies to enjoy the full carnival experience!

As each child arrived and checked in, they were given helium filled balloons and thier own personalized game bag.

The game bags were given out to easily hold the prizes that were won at each game. They were simply made from kraft gift bags which were decorated with a printed carnival theme tag including each child’s name {with 52 kiddies in attendance it was important to have each bag labeled so each kiddie knew which bag was theirs} The tags were glued to the front and ribbons attached to the handles to add a little color.

The decorations were kept pretty simple with everything else going on. Fun pinwheels tucked in mason jars, shelled peanuts in brown bags and oversized paper fortune tellers made up the centerpieces for each table.

I made several easy no sew pendant banners to hang around the pavillion as well. A carnival music cd played in the background to set mood and was the perfect touch.

There were a total of ten game stations set up for everyone to enjoy. I handmade the signs for each booth and my wonderful hubby helped with the construction of the games. I could not have pulled this off without the help of some great friends who volunteered to work booths! Each child won a prize at every game {and everyone was a winner}. The kiddies loved carrying the game bags around to collect their goodies!

We had a Classic Ring Toss Game

The prize: A commemorative printed Birthday Dollar Bill for each child

Pick a Duck

The Prize: Homemade Chocolate duck candies.

Hungry Clown Bean Bag Toss

The Prize: Hotdog Shaped Marshmallow Treats

A Fish Bowl Game

The Prize: Real Live Goldfish. {The parents loved this one ~ not really ~ but the kids sure did} Our local pet store was kind enough to bag each fish separately for us – I just had to call ahead and order a lot more than we needed to account for any sad fatalities. It was important that every kiddie went home with a live fishy!

There was a Three Strike Baseball Game with Homemade Baseball Rice Krispie Treat Prizes.

A Tattoo Booth…

…don’t worry they were temporary!

A Face Painting Booth

I did have to hire two face painters as no one wanted this job.

A Kissing Booth {with a little twist} There was a jar filled with Hershey Kisses and everyone had a chance to guess the amount. The closest guess won the entire jar which we gave out during our cake cutting.

For the Fortune Teller I made fun fabric fortune cookies that held cute little sayings. Each child got to pick their fortune from the crystal bowl.

The Last stop was a ‘Say Cheese’ Photo Booth. My talented hubby painted the photo prop of a strong man and clown in which we cut out the faces with a jig saw.

We had a photographer on site that manned the booth and took pictures of each family which we later printed and mailed out with our thank you cards.

While the games were being played three clowns walked our fairgrounds and entertained everyone.

No carnival is complete without lots and lots of sweet yummy goodness! Among the treats were Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Pops, Chocolate Covered cookies, Caramel Apples, Confetti Rice Krispie Treats, Popcorn Cupcakes, Popcorn Boxes, and of course Packaged Cotton Candy to name a few.

We had an onsite caterer for the main food – again another easy way out of doing the cooking myself. It alleviates so much stress not having to run around and cook on top of everything else especially for that many guests.

The food topped off the carnival feel with Hot Sliced Pit Beef Sandwiches, Fresh Fried Chicken, and Hotdogs

The main cake was a four tired vanilla cake with red and white fondant stripes, dots and stars. Another homemade creation which isn’t professional but was fun to put together.

For CJ’s personal cake I made a Jeep ready to hit the trails.

We love Jeeps and this one was made to match our real life recreational toy!

In addition to all the booth goodies and game prizes each child received a Goody Bag to remember this special day. There was a wide age range of kids at the party so I came up with three different bags filled with age appropriate treats. Kraft sacks were used adorned with a vintage carnival photo and secured with a polka dot ribbon and name tag. {I blurred the images as they were found and printed from Google so I’m not sure of the copy write} I had so much fun making all the goodies and putting these together.

The bag toppers were made with a Carnival Sideshow theme in mind ~ Tiniest Animals on Earth {Animal Crackers}, Clown Droppings {Colored Gumballs}, and Most Colorful Fish {Rainbow Goldfish Crackers}. The kids got a kick out of these!

The 6yr and older bag consisted of a Rainbow Crayon Pattie and Coloring Sheets, Carnival Sideshow ‘Tiniest Animals on Earth’, a Fleece Freeze Pop Holder w/ Freeze Pop, a Set of Juggler Balls and Instructions on How to Juggle, The Worlds Best Play Dough Mix, Matchbook Tic Tac Toe on the Go w/ Colored Pencils, and Carnival Sideshow ‘Clown Droppings’.

The 3yr to 5yr bag consisted of Matchbook Tic Tac Toe on the Go w/ Colored Pencils, The Worlds Best Play Dough Mix, Carnival Sideshow ‘Tiniest Animals on Earth’, Carnival Sideshow ‘Most Colorful Fish’, a Fleece Freeze Pop Holder w/ Freeze Pop, an I Spy Bottle (filled with little trinkets and a search list), and a Rainbow Crayon Pattie and Coloring Sheets.

The 2yr and younger bag consisted of Carnival Sideshow ‘ Most Colorful Fish’, Carnival Sideshow ‘Tiniest Animals on Earth’, a Fleece Freeze Pop Holder w/ Freeze Pop (so your hands don’t get cold when your eating a freeze pop!), Matchbook Drawing Pad w/ Colored Pencils, The Worlds Best Play Dough Mix, a Rainbow Crayon Pattie and Coloring Sheets, and a Backyardigans CD.

Another amazing year gone by and a fabulous celebration down in the books. This party was a lot of work and preparation however; it was totally worth every bit of it just to see the delight on the kids faces, mainly the joy in our little guys eyes!

You may wonder why all the party talk lately…well I have six months until our next party and I still do not have a theme for this year yet! I am hoping the Celebration Inspiration Party will give me the spark I need!

Thanks for letting me share this special day! The Celebration Party is still running so be sure to stop by and check out the fabulous links that have joined up here {or add your own special day to the mix} Enjoy!

Linked to One Crafty Mommy, Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots and Jello, Making the World Cuter, The Girl Creative, Skip to My Lou, Lucky Star Lane, All Thingz Related, Me and My Bucket, Someday Crafts, Roots & Wings Co, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Somewhat Simple, Just a Girl, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Poppies at Play

Read more: http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2010/04/second-birthday-carnival-extraordinaire.html#ixzz0luFkut00
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

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An asian theme is one I see too often, so I was excited to see this party listed.  It’s always fun to see new ideas and give people some inspiration for theme ideas.  I love the strong colors of the red, gold, and black.  And who wouldn’t love those dipped fortune cookies?  Too cute!  Thanks for listing this party Heather.

Enjoy this asian inspired birthday…..

The Party Table

Kim chose to use a red, black and gold colour scheme. This would be perfect for a Chinese New Year gathering as well!

Fortune Cookies

Table Decor
Sometimes you luck out when it comes to decorating for a party – this gold table runner was compliments of the host!

Party Favours
Kim found these amazing fabric bags filled with gold chocolates. We dumped the chocolates… well we saved them for guests to eat later of course… and filled them with favours!

Cake Balls
Chocolate coated doghnut holes – another party staple!

Table Decor

Fab Finds

More Decor

Party Favour Table

Sour Cream Containers

Thanks for checking out Kim’s fabulous party! Please leave a comment so that I may pass on the feedback to her. Kim – it was a blast – I love sharing our passion for parties!

Hey there! Eleanor from Pink Peppermint Paper here. Many thanks to Shannon for inviting me to do a guest post! I’ve done quite a few childrens’ parties recently, so I thought I’d share something a bit different. Hope you enjoy this coed baby shower some friends and I recently threw!

Our friends are expecting a little girl, so I was on the hunt for something feminine but not so much so that the guys would feel squirmy. I decided that using mod printed papers and due date-themed elements would be a nice middle ground. If my math is right, the mom- and dad-to-be will be celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary this summer, and since this is their first baby I thought “All in Due Time” was a theme that worked well.

Here’s the shower invitation!

I found a great grouping of coordinating scrapbook papers. I liked them because of their use of pink and green and the concentric circles–both themes in the baby’s nursery bedding. Plus, there was a number element that worked well with the due date theme. They mailed in a strawberry colored envelope lined with numbers.

When guests arrived, they were greeted with this paper loop wreath also made from patterned papers.

In the foyer was the perfect place to sort of introduce our theme with some due date numbers. I painted them and distressed them a bit. I then hot glued them to some inexpensive craft boxes, which were covered with more decorative paper.

I also found this small craft figure, which I made preggars with half an Easter egg cut the long way. I dressed her in cut paper to match the numbers.

And here’s the full affect for the entry way complete with those beautiful pink flowering branches. I love Spring!

We are in that funny time of year – some days it’s snowing and feels very much “winter” – and other days, it’s hitting 60 degrees, the sun is shining and my Spring fever is definitely blooming!  I start to crave fresh flowers, and colorful decorations – and I look for creative ways to make my house look festive (even if there is still snow on the ground!).

Today, I am going to show you a darling do-it-yourself project from The Purl Bee.  These colorful garlands are simple to make, easy to customize to any party theme/color palette, and are a fresh addition to any party!

Head over to The Purl Bee for the full instructions on how to create these colorful garlands.  It’s amazing how some colorful circles can end up looking like this:

Darling, right?!  And here’s a thought…..instead of using felt circles, you could cut out ovals and make the garland look like colorful eggs for an upcoming Easter brunch!