jello play dough

Instead of having a Halloween party the children are each having some school friends over next week for a Halloween play date.  For my son's pre school friends we made some orange jello play dough.  I used this recipe.  We packaged it in little Tupperware containers which we topped with some polka dot fabric.  Each child will also get a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter.  This would be a cute idea for classroom favors or to give out to trick or treaters. 

that's a wrap

There are some disadvantages to having your birthday right after Christmas.  But, there are also some great advantages like the fact that everything goes on sale!  Almost all of the decorations I used for the party were at least 50% off of their original price.  One of my favorite deals were the tins of cocoa we gave out as party favors.  I found these at Crate and Barrel after Christmas.  Since the tins had pictures of elves on them I decided to wrap some scrapbook paper around them and voilà - they were the perfect color for the party.  I know I have discussed repackaging before and this was a great example of using it to your advantage. 

that's a wrap

I found these cute little hopscotch kits at the dollar store.  Inside was some sidewalk chalk, tiny bean bags and directions on how to play the game.  I decided to give them to all of the girls in my daughter's pre school class on the last day of school.  The boys got some rocket balloons which were a big hit at my daughter's birthday party.  My wrapping tip for today is to repackage something to make it look even cuter.  I didn't love the original tag on the hopscotch kits so I simply took them off and used some fun patterned paper and stickers instead.  It didn't take me long and I loved the way they came out.  This is an easy way to take something and make it look even more fabulous!  It also shows that you took the time to personalize something for the recipient.  This would be a great favor for a summer birthday party too.  This would also be a great favor for a summer birthday party too. 

the favors

We gave our guests CARS m&m's and pajamas.  I packaged the m&m's in some red tins and put a picture of the birthday boy inside.  The pajamas were placed inside the red paper bags that I tied with some CARS ribbon.  I put both into a red tin picnic basket and wrote "sweet" dreams with white stickers.  So that's the party- a little bit Disney and a whole lot of homemade for my sweet little man on his third birthday.  I hope you enjoyed it!

mud

In honor of Earth Day today I thought I would share a cute idea for a party favor.  This would be fun for as a birthday party favor too.  I put some instant pudding mix, mini Oreos, and gummy worms inside a mason jar  (You could also use a recycled pasta sauce jar).  I attached a tag and on the back wrote the directions for making edible dirt:
Empty contents of jar.
Open pudding mix and pour powder into the jar.  Add 2 cups of cold milk and put the lid back on tightly. 
Shake like crazy!  (the directions on the box say whisk for 2 minutes- but shaking is more fun)
Pour the pudding into 4 serving cups.  I would use mini terra cotta pots!
Crumble the Oreo cookies on top and put sprinkle with some gummy worms.
Enjoy!

balloon party favors

The favors were one of my favorite details from this party.  Since my daughter turned five I put five special objects in a bag with a poem. (Special thanks to my friend Katy who helped me with the wording)

Thank you for coming to celebrate my day!

Here are 5 things to take on your way:

I think you are sweet, so here is some candy



You're worth more than gold, so a nickel is dandy

Balloons are so fun, like us when we play

And a sticker can mean that we never part ways

 You're a great friend, this I always knew-

So blow out your candle and may YOUR wishes come true!



I put all five objects and the poem in a green paper bag that I decorated with the personalized sticker and some polka dot ribbon!



bubble fun

One of my clients asked me to make party favors for her daughter's summer themed birthday party. I found these giant bubble wands and attached some bubble gum to them with pretty ribbon. I displayed them in a clear glass bowl that I filled with the left over gumballs. While doing some research I found this fun bubble themed birthday party from Family Fun. A perfect theme for summer and who doesn't love bubbles?

party favors

After many discussions with my husband about how he wanted to celebrate his big day - it was decided that we go to an upscale pizza place and enjoy dinner and drinks with good friends.
Easy enough.....Trying to think of favors to go with the party, not so easy. I kept getting stuck on the "pizza" thing and couldn't think of anything to go with it. One night while I was at dinner with a good friend we started brainstorming ideas and she said "what about beer.?" Beer and pizza go together and my husband loves Guinness- so I went with it. I ordered customized pint glasses and was very happy with how they turned out. I bought plain white cocktail napkins and stamped them with my husbands initials. I also found green and white striped straws that I thought were festive and would work well with the glasses. At the last minute I also decided to make little tins of green m&m's that I decorated with a shamrock. My husband loved all of the little Irish touches and his friends loved having a new pint glass to take home with them.

farm birthday party

I have been so busy with planning my husbands 40th birthday (which is this Friday) and making the out of town bags for a wedding that is next year that I have not had a chance to add anything new to my blog. I decided that I would share some pictures from my son's first birthday last year that was a farm theme. For young children I like to have activities out and let them explore at their own pace rather than having more formal and directed activities. Some of the things I put out were a farm stand and a duck pond (just some rubber duckies floating in a water table.) As I have mentioned before I am much better at adding things to cupcakes to "decorate" them. In this case I found a small picket fence at the craft store and perched some small plastic farm animals on top. I think they came out very cute! For the cow cookies I made sugar cookie dough and put small balls of chocolate cookie dough on top. When I rolled the dough together the vanilla and chocolate combined to make a marble effect. We served lemonade in mason jars and used bales of hay to decorate. For the favors I put petite white piggy banks into red and white gingham take out containers and also included some chocolate pennies. I tied some raffia and a wooden pig to the handle.

After Friday I will start sharing some of the details from my husbands birthday.....

a sweet "tweet" for you

The party favors for the bird themed shower were blue "J" shaped sugar cookies....A sweet take on a blue jay and the first initial from the baby boy. I used the same scrapbook paper and whole punch to embellish the cellophane bags. We put them under a white feather tree for guests to take home after the party.

every teddy bear who's been good, is sure of a treat today

For party favors we gave out petite picnic baskets and chocolate (bear shaped) lollipops. In the baskets were all sorts of tiny treasures including treat size bags of gummy bears, picnic themed stickers, miniature magnifying glasses to look for bugs and erasers shaped like ladybugs and watermelon.

"tea"rrific teacher

The teachers from my daughter's school threw a mother/child tea party last week. To thank them for all of their effort I made them these petite sugar cookies. I have had these tea themed cookie cutters for ages and have always wanted to use them for something. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. I originally made five cookies- the spoon, teapot, cup, cream pitcher and sugar bowl- but, then couldn't figure out a way to package all of them in a cute way. So, I used these three cookies and put them in a clear pillow box with purple shred and polka dot ribbon. I attached a tag that said "I think you are a "tea"rrific teacher!" This would also make a darling favor for a tea party or a fun gift idea for teacher appreciation week.

paint cans

Since the children would have a few items to take home at the end of the party I stamped some plain white bags with an Eiffel Tower and attached tags with each child's initials. In each paint can I put two chocolate crayons, clay, paint, mini crayons, play doh, and (since they all were covered in paint by the end of the party) some bath gel in the shape of a crayon.

don't forget to brush

(photo courtesy of AlmaderAlley)

Last week a friend of mine asked me for suggestions for favors for an Easter party that she was hosting. One of the ideas that she loved was to give each guest a toothbrush and attach a gift certificate to a candy shop. I think this would be adorable for a child or an adult and would look darling at each guests place setting. I found this perfect jelly bean toothbrush here. A favorite source for candy and sweet gifts is Dylan's Candy Bar. But, if you are lucky to have a local candy store nearby it would be even better!

some bunny loves you

Look at the adorable petite bunny boxes I found. They remind me of little french casserole dishes. I filled these with mini eggs- because they are delicious and they matched the colors of the bunnies perfectly! I wrapped them in cellophane and added cards that read " to some bunny I think is really great" and gave them to my daughters pre-school teachers. Since I once was a teacher, I know how much effort goes into each day and I remember receiving little gifts here and there from my students that always used to brighten my day. I hope this little gesture did too.

I couldn't believe how cute these clear bunny boxes were when I found them. They resemble chocolate bunnies (at 8 inches tall) with all of the details and the possibilities for filling them are endless! They can be tucked inside an Easter Basket, given as prizes for an Egg Hunt, used as a fun centerpiece for the kids table, filled with someones favorite candy as a gift, even as an adorable holder for a gift certificate. They would also make perfect favors for an Easter themed Birthday Party. If only I had seen them last year. I filled this one with a spring mix of m&m's - my daughter's favorite! The best part about these cute boxes is that they were only $1! After purchasing a handful I had to go back and buy more. I'm totally smitten. Please share how you would use these little gems.

easter egg hunt

I had planned to do an Easter Egg Hunt outside....But, it was April in New England and it rained.
Instead, I hid the eggs in our living room and let the children choose what color they wanted to look for. I gave each child a metal pail filled with paper shred and decorated with ribbon in the same color as the eggs they were searching for and pointed them towards our living room. The kids enjoyed looking for their eggs and since they only had to find one color it made it a lot easier for everyone involved. Since Easter was the day after the party (and I knew that the kids would be getting a ton of candy the next day) I decided to fill the eggs with craft supplies instead. I found mini craft punches for a dollar at Michael's, stickers, confetti, tiny rubber stamps, etc. I did include one small bag of jelly beans with a note attached that read "thanks for "bean" here today to celebrate my birthday. " If you are hosting a large gathering for an Easter Egg hunt this year you might think about using this idea of color coding the eggs to ensure that everyone gets the same amount.

shamrock cookies

I made these cookies for my daughter to take to pre-school tomorrow. I think you can tell from my sons face that they probably taste better than they look!

irish coffee

"Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat." ~ Alex Levin

I made these individual Irish Coffee's as gifts. In each cellophane bag there is an Irish coffee glass and a petite bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream. Traditional Irish coffee's are made with whisky, but I prefer Bailey's. However, you could certainly include a small bottles of Irish Whisky instead. On each tag I included the quote from above. I think these would make darling gifts for your Irish friends or as favors for people attending a St. Patrick's Day dinner or party at your house. Slàinte!

Traditional Recipe for Irish Coffee from the Food Network:

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 jigger Irish whiskey (1 1/2 ounces or 3 tablespoons)

Heavy cream, slightly whipped

Fill footed mug with hot water to preheat it, then empty. Pour piping hot coffee into warmed glass until it is about 3/4 full. Add the brown sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Blend in Irish whiskey. Top with a collar of the whipped heavy cream by pouring gently over back of spoon. Serve hot.

Style me Pretty!

I just found out that one of the weddings I did favors for was featured on Style me Pretty today! Check it out here..... I am beyond thrilled! You can see my previous post on the favors here.