bachelorette party favors

i recently hosted a bachelorette party for my soon-to-be sister-in-law (haha, that's a lot of hyphens.) we started off at the spa where each girl had a couple of services done and we socialized and had apps and champagne. i had a pedicure and my first facial; it was lovely, i think i will do that again. then we went back to my house and had homemade pizza and ice-cream sandwiches (complete with heart shaped sparkler for the bride-to-be) and finished the evening with a viewing of Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion (i love that movie, perfect for a girls' evening.) so the favors i put together were somewhat spa inspired and gem influenced (i also had gem shaped ice-cubes for the party.) the favor bags included: a ring pop; toe separators; OPI nail polish; acrylic "diamond" ring; almond flavored diamond cookie; and a lotion bar. i got the acrylic rings on fab.com; the ring pops from b.a. sweetie; nail polish and separators on amazon; the delicious and beautiful cookies on etsy; and i made the cherry pop lotion bars.

Carnival Party Hats

Tada! here are the party hats that i made for alex's carnival birthday. alex got the special ringmaster fabric hat while all the guests got the harlequin fabric hats. i made all the pom poms this summer while on vacation. the pom pom trim is from the fabric store and the fabric is from spoonflower - alex's party skirt was made from the same fabric. i started with some super cheap paper hats as my foundation and pattern. i took all the paper hats apart and threw away the flimsy elastic. next, with the paper hats opened flat i glued on the fabric and trimmed. i cut new pieces of elastic and stapled those onto the hats. i used a hot glue gun to form the hats back into a cone. and finally i hot glued all the pom poms and trim to the hats. i think they turned out fantastic and alex loved having the special hats for her party - she doesn't think it's a birthday party if there aren't hats!

beach birthday

alex's beach blanket birthday party is done and gone and she's already planning her next party (well, she has themes lined up for the next five i think.) i've already shown you the barrettes, my sailor outfit, the macrame bracelet, the modular origami balls, the invites, the pinwheels and her sparkly sequined shirt. here's pretty much everything else. the photos don't really do it justice - there were streamers everywhere in orange, blue and white as well as little balsa wood fish and seahorses. i had some fabulous marine bundle fabric that i used to make the napkins and the bunting. the napkins have a different fabric on each side (most of them anyways, i had more submarine fabric than all the others in the bundle) and are so vibrant and fun - they're going to be great summer napkins also. i just measured the size of other napkins we already had made a cardboard template, cut fabric like crazy, stitched right sides together, flipped rightside out and topstitched. oh, and the ironing...lots and lots of ironing. for the bunting, i used a quilters triangle to cut out all the pieces, stitched right sides together, flipped rightside out and topstitched. i then used baker's twine (divine twine in blue and white) and simply zig zag stitched the twine to each of the penants. the bunting is now hanging in alex's beach bedroom and it looks great. we also used the baker's twine to make the paper cloud garland in the photo beneath the bunting. i found a cloud shaped hole punch which made that garland super easy to make. i already had the paper and the twine and we used rice paper tape to attach the twine to the clouds. we also used the rice paper tape (which i had in a fun blue plaid, orange and orange dots) to hang all the streamers and bunting and signs since it does not peel paint off your walls. in the top left of the photo you can see how i wrapped alex's birthday presents. i took some graphics that i made for the invites and the kids party favors and made a wrapping paper graphic that i printed out and pieced together with rice paper tape - i didn't do anything to hide the seams, i like the look of the rice paper tape. i then made pinwheels to act as the bows on the gifts and topped them with paper daisies. i found all kinds of cheap plates and silverware holders and such in the right colors, i really love that teal metal silverware holder that is holding the napkins and paper straws. oh, and the anchor plate that was alex's special dinner plate - it matched so perfectly. i had matching candies and tic tacs and made labels for grolsh bottles. i even made alex a whale etched glass for the party - i actually broke the glass the next time she wanted to drink out of it so it's gone now. i also made appetizer cards and happy birthday signs to hang around the house along with the fun tin beach signs that i picked up over the course of last year. and finally the cakes...i made two bundt cakes in a castle bundt pan. i made an orange bundt cake and a chocolate bundt cake (since alex's favorite flavors according to her are chocolate and chocolate.) i made little penant flags for the towers of the castles and little starfish and shell shaped chocolates for around the base of the cakes. alex really enjoyed the chocolate bundt, which i can't really speak to that as i don't think i even tasted it, but the orange bundt was delicious.

modular origami ball decorations

i love origami but i usually feel like what's the point or what am i going to do with it once i'm done. that's why i find it so nice to use origami as an excuse to make party decorations. alex's beach birthday party this year has the blue, orange and white color scheme so i used solid origami paper in those colors for all the pieces. alex will be turning 5 this year, and there happens to be 5 arms on our dining room chandelier, so i made 5 origami balls. two of the balls require 40 pieces of folded paper while the other three only required 6, 6 and 24. if you fold a few pieces almost every night while watching tv and teaching your kid how to do beginner folds you'll be done in no time. i found some polka dot grosgrain ribbon in blue and orange that i glued into each ball to hang them from the arms of the light. i tried to keep them relatively short so that they don't interfere with people's point of view while eating at the table, but they had to be long enough to fit over and around the light in order to hang them and i wanted them to hang at different lengths as well. alex really likes them too and loves to do origami herself. she's working thru a beginner book with mostly animals and has mastered the dog and cat already.

jessica's baby shower: part 1

i hosted a shower for my lovely sister-in-law, jessica. obviously she's having a girl - i know it's hard to tell with all the pink. the theme was a "sweet baby shower" so i planned on having candy and cupcakes and sangria. the color theme was red and pink. i made the invite in photoshop, i used japanese rice paper tape to embellish the clothes pins, cut out the banner letters and shapes with my cricut, and i printed water labels on sticker paper. i did the sweet shopping at b.a. sweeties here in cleveland. the sangria was delicious. and the izze sodas even matched - made sure to only get flavors that were red or pink. and the cupcakes were red velvet with pink frosting (red velvet is jessica's favorite, but a bonus is that they are red so they matched the party as well). next week i'll show you the handcrafted gifts i made for the mother-to-be.