Project: Card Swap

A friend recently invited me into a Card Swap.

Card Swap: A group of X amount of people, who make 2 cards for every person in the group according to the theme chosen. (I was confused about this: 2 designs, not a different card for every person.) You are given a deadline, and then set free to unleash your creative possibilities in a card.

This card swap had 11 ladies in it, the theme was 1 Birthday card and 1 Blank card. We had two weeks to finish before the swap.

Above is my 22 cards I got back! It was like Christmas! I love all of them, and I think I am set for the rest of the year! 

This one was my favorite... 

Surprise!

Cute, huh! 

I made this one... 

This is your day!

Shake your Tail Feather.

Hop-Pea Birthday!

Seriously creative. 

My friend, Megan that invited me to this swap made this one. Love the baby clothespin.

So many great ideas. 

Love the ribbon on this one. 

I really had so many favorites, but you get the idea. Set up a Card Swap with your friends! You get so much back from such a small sacrifice of time. 

Project: Easter Carrot Cupcakes

These cupcakes go perfectly along with any bunny or easter themed party!

I found the idea somewhere in the vast reaches of the internet last year.  I cannot for the life of me figure out where I got it.  So to whomever posted the idea originally - thank you!!

Here's how:

I just used a regular chocolate cake mix to make the cupcakes.  Frost them with chocolate frosting and I think it would be cute to add brown sprinkles.  

For the carrots just stick a marshmallow with a toothpick, then dip them in orange chocolate (wilton brand chocolate melts is what I used) and dip the tip of the marshmallow in orange sugar sprinkles.  When they had hardened I just stuck the toothpick down in the cupcake to stick them on.

For the green tops - I think the original poster had used cut up green fruit roll ups or something.  But I didn't have that so I used the green paper easter basket filler stuff.  I just piped some of the melted orange chocolate around the bottom to stick them on the carrot.

They turned out so cute!  And the kids all loved the chocolate covered marshmallows,

Another fun thing we added to this party was this:

I picked up this idea over at Hostess with the Mostest.

Some of the other things we served were jelly bean jello jigglers, orange soda, cheezit crackers.....a little healthy, a little not.  We weren't serving a meal - just providing a few fun snacks.

Project: Game Board Themed Birthday Party

My daughter woke up one morning so excited!  She had had a dream about her birthday party and they had played all her favorite board games.  Now THAT I could do!

"Twister" Invitations

 Her invitation was based off of the game Twister.  I just pulled out our do-a-dot markers

 and let her go to town!  She loved that she got to help me with the invitations.  I just picked out green, red, yellow and blue cardstock (8.5 x11) and cut them in half - so they were 8.5 x 5.5 and then folded them in half.  She created the twister mat on white cardstock rectangles and I printed the party details on another the same size - both slightly smaller than the folded card.  One was pasted on the front and the other on the inside.  Then I added the "Game Time" to the front and it was done!!  Easy peasy!

"Candyland" Cake

 The cake took a bit longer than the invitations, but it was so much fun!  I decided not to start entirely from scratch and just grabbed a cake at Costco and remade it.

 I used the Wilton color spray for the green.  Then I cut starbursts in quarters for the path.  I wish I had grabbed some of the tropical flavored ones so I would have had blue and green too. 

 I crushed up candy canes and mint circles for the "Peppermint Forest".  For all of the white/snowy lands I sprinkled coconut over the white frosting

 Gumdrops for "Gumdrop Pass" and Dum-Dums for "Lollipop Woods"

 Cut up Twizzlers for the "Licorice Forest"

 Leftover peanut brittle from Christmas and some almonds (Shhh - don't tell!) for "Peanut Acres"

 Coconut and Marshmallows with some blue sprinkles for "Snow Flake Lake"

 Mini Reeses Cups, chocolate chips and Shell topping for the "Chocolate Swamp".  This cake had to be refrigerated so the shell topping worked great.  If you don't need to refrigerate it though, I would recommend melted chocolate instead.

I made the "Candy Castle" out of waffle cones and skittles.  I'm sure you could probably make this much cuter than I did.  Just use your imagination!!  

I printed all the people off of the internet and laminated them.  Then I taped them to toothpicks to stick them in the cake.  This cake was a huge hit!  The kids loved picking which land they wanted their piece from.

Goodie Bags

 The party attendees were all girls, so I threw together some flower clips for the goodie bags.  For a tutorial on how I made them click here.  There was also squiggly straws, bouncy balls, candy from each of the candy land places....it was a little random.  A little deck of cards or a travel game would be cute to go along with the theme as well.  I just put them in brown paper bags tied with ribbon (forgot to take a picture!).  Any kind of bag works though!

Extras

I put some jars filled with candy in the middle of the playing tables and the winners got a bottle of bubbles from the dollar store.  If they had already won one, they had the option to share with a friend who didn't have one.  I'm proud to say that they ALWAYS chose to share over getting another one.

The girls ranged from 6 -8 years old and two of the favorite games were Jenga and Twister.  It was so much fun to hear their squeals and laughter as they played the games. It was also interesting to see how many of them had never really played board games before!  So sad that such a treasure is being lost to so many kids.  It was a fun night full of good old fashioned fun.  And pizza then games, cake and ice cream, and presents made the perfect 2 hour party.

Project: Party supplies from the Dollar Store

My daughter just turned 4 today, and told me she would love an Ariel themed birthday party...not in those exact words...but I got it. :0) After googling a few birthday cake sights for ideas, this is my cake I came up with. My daughter had the flounder and Ariel doll, and I found the shells at the dollar store! I also split one frosting container in half, mixed one half turquoise and one half peach. Then I crushed some Graham Crackers for a 'sandy look'. 

The Ariel themed birthday is stuck here and there, but really it turned into a Princess party. :0) I found the foam crowns, ribbon and foam glitter stickers at the dollar store as well! 

 

Matching Princess decor? Another Dollar Store find. :0) 

Pin the Crown on the Princess game= ONE dolla. 

Had the glitter craft string on hand, but the beads were another find...score!

The velvet coloring Ariel's were found at the--what?...yes...the Dollar Store.

The grab bags I made from some scrap fabric, and they were filled with some of my daughters most favorite things. :0)

Nail polish, chapstick, play doh and Junior Mints. :0) ...and candy canes...not really her favorite, but I had them already...

Everything altogether cost a whopping 25 bucks. Not bad in trade of some fabulous memories. :0)

Project: Caramel Apples and Autumn Leaves

My first grader went on a field trip to an apple orchard.  She came home with all kinds of stories to tell and uber excited about how we could make apples with caramel and chocolate and nuts and sprinkles with little sticks and.......  :0)

Much to her dismay there was no caramel to be had in the house and I suggested we make them for our party Friday.  Party!!  What party!?  I love it when I do that.  Come up with something quick and have to think through it later.  SO!  We had a party to decorate for Halloween.

 We, of course started with the carameled apples.  I convinced them to wait a week or two for the chocolate/sprinkled/nutty ones.  We don't know enough people to give the extras away yet!  They are SOOOO easy!  And they really are super yummy.  What you need?

Apples

Sticks

Caramel

I recommend getting small apples.   I got the smallest I could see and not a single one of my kids finished the whole apple.  You can buy caramels, or just get the caramel bits (like me) and melt them.  

Put the sticks in the apple, cover the apple with caramel, scrape the bottom and set them on a cookie sheet covered with greased parchment paper (or tin foil!).

 Put them in the refrigerator for at least an hour and......

 Ta Dah!!!  Caramel apples!  My husband marched around singing "Carameled apples, they are so yummy!  I ate them all and filled my tummy!"  Haha - love that guy :)  I think he was as grateful for the field trip as my 6 year old!

During the days leading up to said party the kids were all kinds of busy planning.  One afternoon we took a walk and collected piles of pretty leaves.

 While we were waiting for the apples to harden we strung them on some string and hung them on the fireplace!

Nothing like bringing the outside in!  And if you've got thread and a needle its completely free!  I wish the oak trees weren't still green.  Those big bright leaves would be beautiful!!  But these little ones work for now.  And it was amazing how quietly the kids worked as they focused on keeping the leaves intact as they strung them.  I'm sure they wouldn't mind making me another one once the rest of the leaves turn :)

More Halloween decorations to come......