{Product} Cars Birthday Line

I've been super behind on both posting to this blog and also adding all my new lines to my Etsy shop! Today's post is accomplishing both of these items! I've recently created a "Cars" themed birthday design by request from one of my customers. Her son is in love with Lightning McQueen and wanted this theme for his 3rd birthday. Here is what I came up with!



I think he liked it!

All the items pictured are now available in my Etsy shop as printables and ready made!

{Guest Feature} The Party that Etsy Built: Beauty Queen Birthday

Recently I was asked to collaborate on a party being styled and thrown by Tiffany Reese of Lookie Boo. I sent some of my gem-ed up diamond toothpicks her way to help with some of the beauty queen party glam. Now that the party is done and the pictures are in, I get to share some of them with all of you!

The dessert table

Diamond Toothpicks with Gems

Diamond cookies to match!

Personalized Beauty Queen crowns

More yumminess

Miss Ruby Mae ... how could you say no to this adorable face?

If you'd like to read and see more about the party hop on over to Lookie Boo's blog post: The PARTY That Etsy Built: Ruby Mae's Pink & Gold "Beauty Queen" Themed Birthday Party!! There's a complete list of all the vendors who collaborated on the event at the bottom of the post.

{Event Recap} Mermaid Princess Birthday

My daughter was turning 5 and she loves water and princesses! I knew I had to throw her a party under the sea with lots of mermaid princesses.


For inspiration I scoured the internet and dollar stores for budget friendly ideas! I then searched through her room and the rest of the house looking for anything resembling a water theme. And I scored big!!! At the dollar store grabbed a bunch of pink, green and blue oval rubber place mats and layered them down the tables as runners so they resembled fish scales.


I also found all the favors for the party at the dollar store. I set out a few options for kids to choose from since we had an array of ages.

There were amazing water shooters (watch out parents)

Mermaid puzzles

Glowing rubber "Sea Anemones"

I decorated the inside of my husbands giant (and forever empty) fish tank with a fun water scene. To help decorate the dinning area where we were serving all of the adult drinks ("Mer"garitas and Bottled Bilge Water).

I found some great jelly fish tutorials online at Paper and Ink and Scrapbooks etc. These were time consuming but lots of fun to see spread throughout the party. I hung lots of them along the canopies which were also decorated with fish nets filled with color coordinated balloons.

Under the canopies all of the tables were set with appetizers.

Goldfish crackers

"Sushi" roll-up sandwiches

Chicken salad

I also set up a table filled with pictures of my daughter from her first five years. In the center was a giant brass ship that was rescued from a garage sale. I spray painted it in shades of pink and added a few princesses on board to enjoy the voyage!

Of course we also had a dessert table.

I really tried to focus on some healthier options this year and not go overboard with too much sugar. There were a few sea creature cookies "swimming" around the table.



A mermaid cake

Lots of fruit

A blue candy melt fountain with pink luster tiara skewers
For activities all the kids made sea shell bracelets at a craft table. The big kids then went crazy on the giant water slide we had set up, while the smaller ones enjoyed a homemade water slide down a small hill.


Vendor Credits
Party Styling & Design: Enchanted Events & Design
Printables & Graphic Design: Enchanted Events & Design
Photography: Sarah Vinson Photography
Cookies: Denise's Creations
Cake: Fenella Higgins
Cake Topper: Parker’s Flour Patch

{Event Recap} Board Game Birthday

Okay, now that my husband is 34 I should probably get around to sharing his 33rd birthday! Inspired by table top game day (Saturday, March 30, 2013) I decided to get off my butt and write the post already!


One of my best friends and my husband have birthdays just 3 days apart so we typically celebrate them together. This year they both requested a board game party.


Over the last few years we've discovered the world of Euro games and turned into some serious board game geeks.


We're anxiously awaiting our children to get old enough so we can have some serious family board game nights. We're very excited that at four our oldest is slowly being trained in some of the simpler games.

But back to the party! The colors had to be green and orange, because those are the birthday boy's and girl's color of choice when picking playing pieces. We threw in white accents since another board game addict friend's birthday was a few weeks previously and he likes playing white! I grabbed a cheap Ikea rug from my kids' room and hung it up as a backdrop for the table. The rug reminded me of a whimsical children's game board; and it had all the right colors to match the party theme.


I broke the table up between appetizers and desserts. I didn't want to have separate tables since most of the rooms were going to be full of empty tables on which to play games.


There are so many games we enjoy, but I tried to focus on some of the favorites of the birthday boy and girl, and ones I could easily replicate in food form! All of the food signs were designed to imitate cards from the Munchkin card game. This was especially fun to design since the cards are all humorous and silly. For appetizers we served chicken salad, pigs in a blanket,

On a Roll Ham Sandwiches

and Seafood Stuffed Mushrooms
For the desserts I got some help from the wonderful Jessy of Fairytale Frosting, who created amazing "tile" cookies to replicate pieces from the game Carcassonne.



Eating Carcassonne cookies while playing the game
And Jenny of Parker's Flour Patch, who, once again, created some fabulous cupcake toppers with lots of different game pieces



Game pieces from Tobaggo

Pow Wow head piece

Guests playing Pow Wow

Meeple (game piece)

Age of the birthday boy and girl

Fondant Guillotine Cards also by Parker's Flour Patch
A few more of the birthday boy's favorite desserts I had to include on the table:

Brownie Bite Checkers

Reeses Pieces
Vendors
Party styling & design: Enchanted Events & Design
Printables & graphic design: Enchanted Events & Design
Carcassonne cookies: Fairytale Frosting
Cupcake Toppers: Parker’s Flour Patch