HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

In honor of my birthday today (woohoo!) I'll be offering FREE SHIPPING on anything in the shop over the weekend from the 29th-May 2nd. Just make any purchase between those dates and I'll adjust the pricing so the shipping is on us!

image credit

Japanese happy tape

The Japanese couldn't make tape any cuter.

I'm glad Hawaii has their fair share of Japanese 

because I can find washi tape pretty easily, and inexpensive too. 

If you don't any sources near you, have no fear,

its all over the web.

Happy Tape for example.

I love these simple examples of using it:

mint

satsuma press

patrick ng

cumbersome 

images from oh, hello friend

scissors.paper.cake

After discovering imprintables a few weeks ago, it has led me to the creative inspiration of scissors.paper.cake. (a collaboration between hello naomi and imprintables).

Talk about "perfectly styled parties".

Everything is P.E.R.F.E.C.T.- to the T

(well, perfect in my eyes, that is)

i'm in love. party love

go here. NOW. it will make you smile.

Bumble Bee Party

I love everything about this party via imprintables. 

It's hard to pick a favorite thing about the party, but I like the smash cake and cupcakes the best. 

You'll have to see it all for yourself here.

D.I.Y. scratch off invitations

This DIY can be made for so many things: games, invitations, save the dates, thinking of you cards, etc etc etc. Basically anything you want. I thought I'd share how to make them yourself.

The concept was taken from a typical lottery ticket- scratch and win. Who doesn't like to scratch those little circles off?  These examples below are in the etsy shop. I made them to reveal the birthday boys' name.

To get started, here is what you will need:

• a print out of your invitation, lottery ticket, save the date, etc.- similar to the example above.
• coordinating acrylic paint (preferably silver- darker colors work best, or same color paint as the print will be so you can't see the "surprise word: through the paint)
• contact paper -sticky back plastic

What to do:

- Take your print out and cover the "surprise" that you want to be scratched off with contact paper. For example, if it's a date that you want to be scratched off, completely cover the date with contact paper- sticky side down. Leave a little extra room on the sides if you want to design something with the paint.
- Next, paint over the "surprise" word with acrylic paint. You can free hand it our use a stencil for a cleaner look.
- Let it dry and repeat another coat if  you can still see the "surprise" words.

Viola! Easy-peasy.

 note: you may want to make several practice runs just to scratch off for fun. They get addicting- I made a few extra just to scratch off myself.

The faster way to frost and decorate cakes or cookies

Meet Hello Frosting. They make icing decals to place atop cupcakes, brownies or cookies. It beats the time, money and frustrating of doing it yourself. 

Check out their shop. Very cute stuff.

A craft made for the kids

Every since I found out we were expecting our first child (which was almost 2 years ago) I had this desire to make a quiet book for her. Thinking that one day when she's old enough she'll say, "mom, did you make this?" and I'll proudly say, "Yes. Just for you." -All in hopes that it will inspire her to make things and be creative herself.

Well, I finally finished it last week. The best part is, she LOVES playing with it.

White with splashes of color

The table setting in these photos are genius: use plain white colors for everything and then add dabs of color accents. I love those apple name cards too. Sometimes I wish I could redo things from my wedding, not that I didn't LOVE my wedding and receptions, but there are so many NEW beautiful and elegant ideas these days- just wish I thought of it years ago.

 images via madebygirl

Can I call this a punch table?

It seems as if you don't have a candy table at your next party then it just won't make the cut.  

 I came across this beverage bar on Maddycakes Muse and fell in love. 

 It's much more practical than candy and adds the perfect amount of brightness and cheer.

Cookies

Cookies seem to be the hot take-home party-favor item lately. Who wouldn't like them either? They are cheaper than filling a bag up with toys and candy, you can easily tie them in with your party theme, they are adorable, and everyone in all ages loves eating them.

Some favorites:

Family Fun Umbrella cookies

Star cookies from Blonde-design

Easter bunny, swirl, and flower cookies from Amber Spiegel

Butterfly cookie by Neviepiecakes

Number shortbread cookies by StoneHouseOven

Rocket cookies by Sweet and Flour

Owl, mushroom, squirrel- tips with royal icing, by Sweetopia

Where the Wild Things Are Party

There is this darling blog that you can frequently catch me reading called armelle. She has an eye for simplicity and great style, she also makes nice jewelry, and has some great recipes. She's currently planning a Where the Wild Things Are party for her son. I love everything about it. Check out the invites, the favor boxes and more. 

Gable Boxes

Just to let it be known on the bloggety blog here that gable boxes are available at ::Party Accessories::.

They are great for packing snacks, lunches for parties, and any other favor or decoration.

I have used them for packing lunches at kids birthday parties and also for take home play-dough kits. 

They were adorable.

  

Happy Easter Weekend... now what to do with all those boiled eggs??

While making 3 dozen hard boiled eggs to dye over this weekend, the leftovers can be overwhelming. Here are a few ideas on what to do with them afterwards:

• cracker and egg salad
• green pea and egg salad
• classic egg sandwich
• bacon cheddar deviled eggs
• avocado egg salad
• hard boiled egg mice
• macaroni salad
• potato salad
• ham and egg spinach salad with honey mustard dressing -great to use leftover ham too
• broccoli, egg, olive salad
• tuna-stuffed eggs
• egg salad stuffed tomato
• cobb salad (pictured above)
• cookie?!?! yes, COOKIE, a hard boiled egg chocolate chip cookie recipe to be exact. I haven't tried it, but if you do let me know how it turns out.

HAPPY EASTER!