Aqua and Orange Party!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of setting up a dessert table for a special 17 year old! My friend's daughter (and MY girls swimming teacher) had a birthday yesterday and I set up while she and her friends were at dinner. The only thing she asked for was cake pops, and the rest of it was pure surprise, even the color scheme. I bought this fabric after tracking it down online. It's Amy Butler fabric that Beverly's had on an apron display but had long since sold out of. I searched and searched and finally found it on fabric.com. I bought it awhile ago and couldn't wait to use it. So I knew exactly what to suggest for this party!

I had some remnant pieces of other coordinating fabrics that were aqua and the light orange, so I cut them into strips and made a fabric banner that I pinned to the front of the tablecloth.

The girls were going to stay the night so I thought it would be fun if they had a FULL dessert table to pick off of all night!

I found the perfect aqua colored rock candy at Michael's!

I made matching labels for all of the desserts. It just adds so much cuteness!

I just love using popcorn cones! This time I made White Chocolate M&M Popcorn! I popped Orville R.'s Natural popcorn and then mixed it with Wilton's white melting disks and topped it with aqua m&m's, then spread it out on wax paper to dry. I also drizzled some blue and orange melting disks on top as well.

I used my oreo molds from Spinning Leaf to make perfectly smooth chocolate covered oreos, and drizzled them with orange.

Michael's had their bags of chocolate covered sunflower seeds on clearance so I quickly grabbed the closest matching colors! :) They look cute served in my milk glass dishes.

I made cupcakes and created some toppers on my Silhouette software. She mentioned she liked the peace party I did last month, so I made a mental note. ;)

I used one of my chalkboards, and made my own tissue poms for 99 cents each! I bought the packs of tissue paper and followed the Martha Stewart tutorial online to make them. Looking back at the pictures, I wish I had propped up the chalkboard SOMEHOW to be seen better.

I asked her mom for a picture of Vanessa so I could make this pinwheel decoration. I love how it turned out!

I love this little aqua jar I bought at a thrift store and it was a perfect fit when I added white sand to it!

Here are the cake pops! This was my first time ever making them. They were a lot of steps and quite messy to make. I still haven't finished cleaning my kitchen! lol. I bought this plain white cake pop stand at JoAnns for $5.99 and put it together and added ribbons to the front with double sided tape.

I almost gave up on putting the pops in here because they kept tilting over. Finally I looked under the bottom layer of cardboard on each tier and saw they were scored to poke the stick through both layers! Problem solved!

I love putting together these group pics with my iphone apps! I had a great time creating all of this for a special girl! My daughters absolutely adore her and get so excited when it's swimming lesson day! :) I'm glad I could offer to do something special for her.

Peace Party! {Red and Turquoise!}

Today I got to set up for the beautiful red and turquoise peace party I've been planning. It turned out beautiful! Take a look...The fabric tablecloth is from Beverly's. Their fabric is SO expensive, but it's BEAUTIFUL! This fabric is what I built the whole party around!

I made the famous Cinnamon Crunch Popcorn and set it up in polka dot cones from Shop Sweet Lulu.

I ordered cookies from the fabulously talented Nandie! She even put red sugar crystals on the peace sign, not sure if you can tell from the pictures. They look PERFECT, as always! I don't know HOW she does it!

I made this sign using my Silhouette software and printing it on my regular printer. I love that feature of the Silhouette!

I think it's really cute to set the birthday girl's cupcake in it's own dome. It makes it extra special!

I made all three cake plates myself, I've had them for awhile. I also created the cupcake toppers using my Silhouette. I bought red and white polka dot cupcake liners from Shop Sweet Lulu. The homemade butter cream is dyed with Wilton's "sky blue" dye.

Here is the candy bar! The treat bags are also from Shop Sweet Lulu. I already had the tray and glass jars. I cut peace signs on my Silhouette from red vinyl and added them to the jars without the chalkboard labels.

I made these little signs too, I think the pennants are SO cute!

I was in Morro Bay this week and picked up some Carousel Salt Water Taffy in strawberry and raspberry! Perfect and delicious!

While at the coast, I also spotted these rock candy sticks! I'm so glad I thought to buy them! They look so cute! The two skinny jars got a pretty matching ribbon.

The big jars wouldn't fit a big wide ribbon so I added twine in both colors and tied a bow around the lids. Yeah....I pretty much never leave "well enough" alone. Ha ha. Everything has to have bows and labels.

The tissue balls also came from Shop Sweet Lulu. Told ya she's my secret weapon!

Hope you like it!

Linking up to Inspiration for Celebration's link party!

Black and White Party!

Exactly a week ago a friend hired me to plan her daughter's 11th birthday party! If you know me at all, you know there are few things I like more than party planning! Actually sometimes the planning is even more exciting to me than the party, does that make me weird? Guess that means I belong behind the scenes! Take a little black and white walk with me to see what I came up with in only a week's time!It is a slumber party so the girls were gonna need LOTS of snacks. I made these popcorn cones out of pretty scrapbook paper and double sided tape. The stand is actually called "dress me up plate" from Southern Living at Home. I've had it for years, and usually I weave ribbon matching the theme, through the holes. I went rummaging through my cabinets trying to figure out how I was going to hold the cones UP...I came up with this! The bowl is Ikea, I've had it for a couple of years too! It fit perfect! The cones stood up great!

It really is ALL in the details! I designed this little label for the gourmet popcorn I made with my Silhouette software and just printed it on my printer instead of the cutting machine. {font -LD Dainty $2.99 at the Silhouette online store}

My friend had some black and white fabric tablecloths from previous parties so I went ahead and used one on the table.

I also designed and printed this Happy Birthday sign and put it in one of my frames this morning. These two prints took me about 10 minutes to design, print and cut! Only a small amount of work will sometimes give you great details.

I made both of the cake stands last year, I love them! The plates are from HomeGoods and Marshalls, and candlesticks from thrift stores.

I bought the "lace" cupcake cutout wrappers from Hobby Lobby. They are kind of a pain in the butt because they're so tedious to wrap and they get caught on each other, but they sure do add great detail! I made the cupcake toppers myself! I was kind of proud that I can now make my own! I just downloaded a free sheet of Easter toppers and then opened it with Photoshop and edited it to look the way I wanted. Obviously I changed EVERYTHING about the file, I just used it to already have the squares perfect size.

I originally wanted to use white gable boxes for the gift bags, but since I only had a week, it didn't leave any time to order online {cheaper}! SO, I used my white paper bags. I bought a stamp at Hobby Lobby, and the stamps came out SO crisp and perfect! It looks like the bags came with the damask emblem already on them!

The matching tags were also from Hobby Lobby. Next, after I got the girls' names that were attending, I cut them out of black adhesive vinyl and put them on each bag! I think this makes it so personal! My silhouette did most of the work, I just had to peel and stick! I just simply folded the tops down, hole punched and tied with ribbon! Inside the bags: See's candy sucker, Bath and Body Works mini hand sanitizer with the purse/backpack rubber hanging case, handmade

rosette headbands, and a nail polish.

Here is a sample of the headbands I made. Each one is different.

She wanted to do smores with a fire pit in the backyard, so this is the smores tray!

When we settled on the black and white theme I had just received a package of treat bags from one of my online party stores. They were perfect for the girls to fill with candies for their movie night!

I made two fabric bunting banners and they turned out great! I made them out of stuff I already had. I used white lace that is flat on one edge, and scalloped on the other. I already had that too!

Here is a close up of the four patterns.

Another view of the table.

I removed the labels from water bottles, and replaced it with strips of black and white scrapbook paper and double sided tape!

Here is the second banner!

I hope you enjoyed our little black and white walk through the party pictures! I am honored that people trust me enough to allow me {and pay me!} to do what I love- plan their parties! It's a big responsibility and I don't take it lightly, I am very grateful!

Linking up to Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up Party AND Bird's Party Blog AND The DIY Home Sweet Home Project: More Merrier Link Party