Disney Car's Birthday Party

Hello All!
This morning, there was a challenge to do a scrapbook layout about celebrations and I immediately thought about the fun party that I threw for my 3 year old.  He was in love with Disney Cars (and so were we!).  I worked to transform my house into Cars Land! I scoured the internet for inspiration. Check out my Pinterest Board for more: http://pinterest.com/meagan43/disney-cars-party/

To start - you need a starting line!  I made my own with fabric in red and black/white racing checked.  I cut out the letters of black felt and sewed them onto a rectangle of more of the black and white checked.

Then, I designated areas like in Cars Land.  You fuel up at Flo's (lunch), you get surplus at Sarge's (presents), you stop in at the Cozy Cone for treats (desserts), and play at Luigi's & Mater's.  I think everything came together!  Without further ado, here is the photos

We enlarged (a lot) a photo that we took of the real Flo's sign in Disneyland's Cars Land, backed with foam core and cut it out.  It still hangs in my kitchen 4 months later ;)

Easy decor - found the image for Dinoco online, added it to a blue background (digitally) and then added to empty cans.  Just a fun little element.  Although, they would also make a good bowling game.

I took great pains, to make all the food "theme" related.  I served: Luigi's Pizza Tires, Mack's Cheesy Wheels, Lizzie's Nuts & Bolts (snack mix - I had to search to find one that seemed most like nuts and bolts), Ramone's Fruit Cars (apples & grapes - easy & fun), and Lightning McQueen & Francesco Bernoiulli's Chocolate Dipsticks (I took the basic Wilton race car pretzel rod candy and added eyes and the right coloring to look like the iconic cars characters).  Another fun thing that we did was to make a road table cloth.  I enlisted the help of my mom who sews faster and better than I to sew a black felt strip in the center to the black & white check and then to sew yellow ribbon road lines down the middle.  Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of just it.  We made 2 roads, one for the main Flo's Table and then just a road strip for the Cozy Cone table on top of an orange base.  They turned out so great!

BTW - the kit that I used to make the Flo's food labels is a retro kit called retrO from Oscraps.

I loved this idea that I found to have Fillmore's Organic Fuel.  I emptied 2 water jugs and filled one with "Anti-Freeze" (aka lemon-lime Kool-aid) and the other with "Motor Oil" (aka iced tea).  Then I found racing checked duct tape and covered the labels of water bottles.  Fun and easy!

I had plans to make these things more 'fleshed' out.  I was actually going to make specific game areas for Luigi's & Tow Maters.  I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how the Mater sign turned out.  It was really easy to cut out a tan foam core board, age it with brown, and then add the white paint outline.  The tires are just black foam.  Luigi's Leaning Tower of Tires was a last minute addition and a HUGE hit to the party itself.  I found these blow-up tires are Dollar Tree and bought 12.  The kids had such a blast just stacking, rolling, jumping on and every other way of playing with blow-up tires.  WAY worth the $12!  I sent each of the kids home with one, too ;)

For the treat table, I had a blast.  My kiddos helped me to transform out Cone drink holders into Cozy Cone hotel rooms.  I found instructions on the Disney site to do it to regular cones and adjusted to what I already had on hand.  They were the perfect decorations to set the mood for this table.  

I saw this cute idea to take terra cotta pots painted orange to serve treats on and just knew that I needed to do it.  This took 3 coats of orange spray paint.  I tried gluing the tiers together, but they did not stay glued. Obviously, I used the wrong adhesive, but I didn't have any problems with the server.  For the cupcakes, I found this scrumptious recipe for Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes and wanted to serve them (keeping the orange cone theme) .  I made the little cones for the top easily with orange marshmallow fondant.

Every time, we are in Disneyland, my husband eats his weight in popcorn and of course, they added a special Cone location for "Popcone", so I wanted to include it.  I found this antique Pepsi crate and wanted to use it to hold my cones.  I made the cones from orange construction paper and filled with popcorn.  I sort of mis-judged the size of the cones and the are a little too wide - oh well.  

I also wanted to include a more traditional flavor, so I made my Bavarian Bliss cupcakes (Bavarian Cream-filled white Cupcake with Buttercream Icing).  I made Route 66 fondant toppers and some Speed Limit 3 paper signs to top them.  I added an extra couple of flags on my white cupcake stand that looks retro, so it fits perfectly for the theme. 

It all looked great.  I had wanted to make the Cozy Cone sign for over it, but ran out of time.

Last, but not least, the favors were pretty simple.  I collected inexpensive cars, stickers, and small logo items.  Included an extra chocolate dipped pretzel rod and they got to take home an inflatable tire.

Finally, I want to share the layout that I did today of all the Flo's details

It is a simple layout using Britt-ish Design's Nothing But Pictures 3 template and her Cars Rule kit

All the kids had a great time and I just loved all the little details, I wanted to leave it all up forever ;)

I hope I have given you some inspiration to pull off your own Cars party!

Meagan

Luau inspiration

I wanted to stop in and show off a little.  My husband asked me to do the decorations for his boss' retirement party.  It was to be a Luau for a group of mostly men and their wives.  My husband kept telling me that it was a "guy's party" - I think that meant no fufu ;) There was 150 originally expected, although the numbers ended up being around 110.
I searched the web, having an idea of what I wanted and gathered pictures on Pinterest.  I wanted to stay away from plastic lobsters and like.  I was looking to make it look more like being on the islands.
Here is what I came up with.

What do you think?  I got lots of compliments that night.  Even from the servers, who stopped me to say that they looked better than many floral arrangements they had seen there.  I was even asked if I did this for a living.  I guess that is a pretty good compliment!  

Details?  The Birds of Paradise were silk bought on-line for about $3-4/each.  The tropical leaves were found via ebay.  The tabletop Tiki torches were from Oriental Trading ($6.50/2) as were the leis (about $65).  I also bought all fresh fruit - pineapple, coconuts, bananas, mango, papaya, kiwi, lemon and limes.  The fruit ended up being just under $100 (about $7 per table) if you are looking to replicate this in your backyard.  The big flowers were found at JoAnn on sale for about $4 for a huge bunch of 7 hibiscus.  Also, at JoAnn's were extra Birds of Paradise at about $6/each, on sale buy 1, get 1 50% off.  I borrowed the shells from my Aunt Becky since she had done a luau herself.  The total for 15-20 tables was about $350.  Some of the cost was due to buying for the higher original number.  I later saw the torches at a local party store for $2-2.50 each.  It was such a striking table and mostly edible - saw many guests nibbling away!

How to Make a Fun Adult Mickey Birthday Party

Like I said, it has been a whirlwind of Disney things these last few months.  I guess that it started in February with my birthday.  I decided to have a Disney Birthday (at the young age of 39).  It started because my girls had innocently asked what theme my party was going to be, and I told them there wasn't one.  Their answer to that was that THEY would always have a themed party.  And I realized that I wanted one, too.  I had seen so many fun things and didn't want to wait for a kid's party to do them.

Here is my pinterest board of Disney stuff.  Check it out.

First thing in the morning, my dear hubby made me breakfast with Mickey-Head shaped pancakes!  How sweet.  Love that man-o-mine :)

We had a full day, but I made time while breakfast was being made to paint my toes to look like Minnie Mouse.  Really easy - just paint red and add white spots with a french manicure polish.  It wasn't perfect, but I loved it.

I had my friend with a Cri-cut cut out some big black Mickey-Heads and I hid them all over the house for my own Hidden Mickey Hunt.  Do you see the hidden Mickey on our fish tank?

I made a Mickey Head out of red tissue paper flowers.  I used it as decoration with other items.  

Plus, I added other fun Mickey elements all around the house.

I made Mickey Head Oreo suckers.  It was really easy (more on the how to's later).

I also made my own version of a Dole Whip - which didn't really turn out like a real Dole Whip.  I am going to have to work on this one some more.  Don't get me wrong, they were still yummy, but . . .

Then, to top it all off, I made Peanut Butter Cupcakes to look like Mickey Mouse.  My favorite thing.  These even had peanut butter cups sunk in the middle.

There were a few other things that I thought about making, but ran out of time.

The best part was that all my friends came, we had a yummy dinner made by my husband.  We all sat and chatted (a lot of talk about Disney :) of course) and had a great time.  What a great birthday.

So, just goes to show that you are never too old for a themed party and certainly never to old for Mickey!!

How to Throw an Award Party

In doing my Oscar blog, it got me thinking more and more about the party that I planned for my Mom's Club a few years ago.  It was such a cool party and much needed.

I started it off purchasing theses cute Award invites from my local party store.  I like that they mimic an award and you seal them with a star.  I printed yellow spots with info about the party onto sticker paper and then punched them out with my star punch. They said things like, "Gifts", "Board Installation", "Award Ceremony", Cost info, "Fabulous Lunch", "Circle of Friendship", RSVP info, "Thanks Yous", and "Raffle Prizes". I also added an additional separate slip with more info on the raffles and who it benefits (since we are a non-profit, our raffles helped the Make-A-Wish foundation) .

Upon arrival, the guests walked the red carpet which had the Walk of Fame.  One of our members had the "red carpet" from a previous award party and the Oscar stand, so we borrowed it.  Really, you could have your own red carpet using a remnant or fabric swatch.  The best fabric, would probably be something like felt that is inexpensive and wouldn't move as much under foot.
Each star was easily made using an individual sticky-back linoleum tile.  To that, I added a clear address label with each mom's name printed on it and our logo underneath.

As we waited for guests to arrive, everyone found their seats and checked out the raffles.  The raffle prizes were each wrapped in black, gold, and white.  We had received a ton of donations to help the Make-A-Wish foundation.  It was very exciting.

After everyone arrived, we played an ice breaker game, called Purse Scavenger Hunt that I had pre-printed earlier.  You got points for each thing that you had in your purse.  You would have thought that I would have done better since I knew what you should have in your purse.  If I did this right now, I would have gotten a much better score!


 A month before, I e-mailed a voting ballot to each Mom asking for her to vote for her fellow Mom's in each category.  They were things like the Martha Stewart Award, The Mother Teresa, The Welcome Wagon, etc.  I gathered all the votes and got the awards prepared ahead of time.  I made sure that each mom in attendance received an award.  The envelopes with the winner were sealed with a gold star sticker and I opened them to hand out the award trophy.  Each trophy had the name of the award printed on a clear label.  Some Mom's were very surprised by the awards that they received.

I must mention the restaurant was selected since it such a great local restaurant.  It was open only for us, so we had it all to ourselves.  It is called Boulevard Bistro and they actually created a special menu just for us.  The food was fabulous and was perfect for our theme.



At each person's seat was their "swag".  I put together a gift for each person that included "pearls", dinner certificates, Victoria Secret samples, 100 Grand bars, movie certificate, popcorn and a popcorn bucket.

Everyone had a fabulous time and went home with cool stuff.
Lots of fun!
Meagan

How to Throw a Sparling Tea Party - the cake

I thought that I would give you some more information on how I made the tea pot cake.  While it may look difficult, it was very easy.  As 3-D cakes go, this one is much easier than others that I have worked one.

This is my Handle and this is my Spout. . .
One of the first things that I started with was the handle and spout.  I hand formed them out of store bought fondant.  As I have said before, I have since learned how to make Marshmallow Fondant which knocks the store bought out of the water.  Also, if I were to redo this cake, I might try to either make this out of gumpaste or even shape it out of styrofoam and just cover in fondant.  Two problems that I encountered with them were that they were so heavy, it was hard to keep them attached to the cake, and while they dried, the backside flattened.  After I formed the pieces, I dried them in a pan.  It would have been better on a soft surface, so that they didn't flatten, but I reshaped a little.  I attached them to the cake with skewers.

The bottom cake is a basic 8" round with a light pink fondant "tablecloth". 
The round cake was made using the Wilton Sports Ball Pan:

There are so many uses for this pan.  You simply fill each half with your chosen cake batter (I used white) and bake in the oven using the little round "feet".  After baking and cooling, I placed buttercream between the halves and a little buttercream where you place it to stick it in place.  At this point, you would crumb coat it.  Crumb coating is where you place a thin layer of icing, usually buttercream, all over the cake,  This seals the crumbs so that your top layer looks nice without crumbs.  It also smooths the surface for the fondant.  Probably the only hard part of this process was getting the fondant smooth on a round object.
I added all the elements together.  I used flower fondant cutters and colored pink fondant to make the flowers and a leaf cutter and green fondant for the leaves.  You can attach the embellishments with water, but it can run easier.  Clear vanilla extract is a better thing to use.
The lid is a small piece of the round cake that I cut off the cake top and covered in fondant and then used a gumdrop for the lid handle.

All in all, pretty easy and simple.

I hope you can use my information to throw your own fabulous tea party!
Meagan
btw - feel free to send me any questions as always or any suggestions for future how tos.

How to Throw a Sparkling Tea Party (part 1, set-up)

Have you ever thought about planning a tea party and not known how to go about it?  It isn't as hard as it seems. 

I love to throw a parties!  I have even thought about making a business of planning parties for people.  I however, realize that I would be a VERY expensive party planner.  I love to keep adding more and more cool elements.  On the plus side, the party turns out really awesome, on the down side, it's a little crazy trying to fit it all in.

Since my daughter is such a girly-girl, I suggested a tea party.  I had never thrown one, been to one, or even drink tea regularly, so I did a lot of research.  One resource that I always check when planning a kid's party is this Birthday Party Ideas website.  This has a ton of ideas that can be searched easily by topic.  Maybe one has a cool game, but another had great food served.  What I do is read through them and pick out my favorite parts of each one.

Here is what I came up with.

I hand-made the invitations.  I found a template on a card making website, cut it out of solid colored card stock.  I stamped a design on the cup.  Added paper, buttons, and ribbons.

One thing that I did was to scour yard sales, estate sales, and thrift stores to find real tea cups and pots.  The girls loved using the real thing.  I wish that I started earlier, to have more time to find cheaper ones.  It would have been better to find them for $1 each.  I used the extras and more fragile ones for decoration.  I borrowed these from my friend, Andi who purchased them in Russia.

I created this vignette above the doorway with her bears having their own tear party.

since I wanted to enclose the space to make it more intimate, I put up an easy-up in the living room.  I decorated it with tulle and twinkle lights.  My friend, Kara, stayed late the night before to help me stay-up

I added small details to the "gazebo".  I found this cool butterfly at Christmastime.  I think it was a package decoration.

This was found at a yard sale of bridal decorations in a 6-pack.

We added roses and ivy to the legs to make it seem more like a 

garden gazebo.

For tables, my husband took large wire spools, took off the round tops, added 2x4 legs are voila, tables perfect for little girls.  For chairs:  I begged, borrowed and bought as many little kid chairs as needed.  (I only purchased 4), then Kara covered them with fabric found at a yard sale, tied with wire ribbon that was embellished with a rose from Dollar Tree.  This way all the chairs coordinated.  My friend, Kara, was a huge help with cutting them to sized and adding them to the chairs.

I borrowed table clothes from my step-mother in coordinating colors.  Each one was slightly different, but similar.  (btw, she had so many because she threw a french bistro shower for my sister), we added this piece of fabric to each table to be the same topper for all the tables. I found these awesome real doilies at a flea market and got a great price for buying multiples.  In addition, I found the teapot shaped frames at the flea market as a gift for each girl and place marker (double use!)  At the party, my friend, C, took pictures of each girl drinking tea and I sent it with the thank you card to fit in the frame.  Each table had a tiny vase with flowers.

My friend, K, loaned me these hand-made napkin holders made from bead and wire.  I had my mother help me make these napkins.  Just white fabric with a pink surged edge and their name embroidered in pink.  Another of their favors.  Their plates were found at Big Lots for inexpensive.

When the girls first arrived, they got to decorate their own tea hat.  I found the straw hats at the flea market and bought ribbons and flowers everywhere (yard sales, dollar store, etc)  They loved their hats and got to keep them

 After their hats were made, they were to accessorize with jewelry, "furs" or boas, fans, and gloves.  Again, I mined yard sales and borrowed from friends for all this.

 

When they were seated at their table, I told them about tea party manners and they all listened politely.  They all had perfect manners.  Even our younger friends.

For food, I researched tea parties and what you would serve. For the table, I used different trays on different heights to display the little treats.  I used glass, metals, white dishes, etc.

 The Menu:
Finger Sandwiches (a must - everything should be finger food, my aunt helped cut pb&js into triangles and strips)
Cucumber Sandwiches.  (I had never had one, found a recipe, man were they good!  Mostly the adults ate them, the kids didn't want to try them.)
Cheese, Ham, and biscuit bites (my son helped cut out the Pillsbury biscuits, cheese and ham in star shapes)
Mini Quiches (from Costco - mostly adults ate these as well.  Very easy, though)
Chicken Salad - made by my Kara, very yummy
Sugared grapes (just sprinkle sugar on grapes to add that extra little sparkle)
Petit Fours
Candy Tea cups filled with chocolate mousse and whipped cream
Assorted candy, crackers & cookies

I made my own, using store bought frozen pound cake.  You make the sugared glaze, color it and pour over the top.  Add small gumdrops, sprinkles, etc before they dry.  I think they need work, but very yummy.  This recipe is very detailed with a filling - I just did mine in squares.

Yummmmy!  And I never knew.  Here is how they are made.  So cool and tasty.  Almost all the descriptions that I found of tea parties, had these.

I saw these candy molds on-line and thought how cute they would be.  I bought 2 different styles.  What a pain they were.  It took way longer than I thought and trying to get the timing right was hard.  You were supposed to fill with chocolate, let sit for a certain length, and then pour out extra to leave a hollow cup to fill with the mousse.

A note on the tea: my daughter and I tried out a few fruity ones without caffeine.  She selected a Raspberry one.  Some girls loved it and some just politely didn't finish it.  All of them tried it.

While they ate, I read them a story about tea time manners, called "Tea for Ruby"

After lunch, they opened presents and had cake.  All the moms wanted to have a tea party of their own.  The girl's all loved it and everyone had fun.  It was so much fun, I would do it again.

 I would never have been able to do it without the help of my friends!  Thanks!
Meagan