Spa Party Fun!

It's party time....oh, it's party time!

My Silhouette blogging buddies and I are at it again with this month's challenge -- Parties!  Not just birthday parties, any kind of party.  If you want to celebrate it, then it qualifies for this month's challenge.  18 participating bloggers let their imaginations run wild with decor, invitations, favors...you name it, we've done it.  The creativity is endless.

But before you get to the clickable link {below} to see the other projects, check out the great Spa Party birthday celebration my best customer threw for her sweet daughter's 7th birthday.

The party was held at a local spa party salon.  My customer loves to add a few extra special touches to her parties so she asked me to recreate a backdrop she found online.

Using foam core board as a base, I covered it with fabric and hot glued the flowers on top.  Each flower was made with cardstock paper {three 12x12 sheets per flower}, curled using a spatula {yup, a kitchen utensil} and glued together.  Lots of work, but worth it in the end, it really turned out beautiful!

Next on the list -- a birthday banner to cover a very large wall in the salon.  I found coordinating black and white stripe scrapbook paper and cut them into banners.  I then cut out the words in hot pink, lime green and lavender. Cute, right!?!

I made a few smaller flowers to create the party table centerpiece.  I really nailed the colors perfectly {smile}!

Birthday bundt cake from a local bakery.

Monogrammed cookies...yummy!

The girls wearing their party gift {personalized spa robes} and sitting at the nail bar.  They were so excited!

What fun!  Thanks so much to the Glenn family for allowing me to assist them in making this party so great and for taking all of the pictures as well.

Click your way to more inspiration below

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!


1. Two Purple Couches // 2. Practically Functional // 3. Crafty Bonds // 4. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 5. From Whine to Whine // 6. Simply Kelly Designs // 7. unOriginal Mom // 8. MamaSonshine // 9. Get Silvered // 10. Made in a Day // 11. Weekend Craft // 12. Little Blue's Room // 13. The Stamp Doc // 14. The Thinking Closet // 15. Cupcakes&Crowbars // 16. Where The Smiles Have Been // 17. DIYJustCuz // 18. My Paper Craze

Shake it Up

My best customer is back at it again!  Her darling daughter turned six and she
pulled out all the stops to bring her dream to reality.

The birthday girl told her mom this year she wanted her party to be Shake it Up.  Don't know what that is?  It's a Disney show.  Oh wait, let me rephrase that - a cancelled Disney show.  Why mention the cancelled part, you ask?  Well because when a show is cancelled it becomes next to impossible to find the licensed products for it and that's what happened here.  Thank heavens for Ebay!  A search on the site and she found what she was looking for to make this party the awesome affair her daughter has become accustomed to.  She enlisted my help to put together a few little touches and she was on her way.

Thanks to a local kids party establishment, she was able to have a rockin' dance party -- Shake it Up style!

First things first, she wanted a cake topper.  She found one she liked and asked if I could recreate it for her.  She was able to find a few photos online of the main characters of the show for me to choose from.  After choosing the best ones, I headed off to the UPS store to have them enlarged.  Using the foam core board that I purchased from Hobby Lobby, I traced and cut out the two shapes.

After gluing the photos to the foam core and using sandwich toothpicks, I secured the characters to the styrofoam base.  Things were coming together well, but this was just the beginning - I needed to also cut her name out in foam core and paint the base orange.

Using floral wire, I was able to attach the 'Shake it Up' sign behind the characters.  Perfect!

Added on a few more decorative touches and one cake topper is finished.  Now it's time to work on the party favors.

The original party plans included a pinata but unfortunately the establishment did not allow things to be hung from the ceiling so that meant plan B.  Using the drink cups she received as part of her party pack, I created these candy cups (again, based on something she found elsewhere) that each of her guests received.

A late RSVP meant that the birthday girl would either have to forgo her candy cup or we'd have to come up with another idea.  Enter the birthday girls candy favor!  I found this cup at Michael's and after sending a few pictures of various cups to her mom for her approval, she liked this one the best.  What a time saver smart phone technology is!

Using my Oracal 651 outdoor vinyl (works best if you plan to wash the item), I personalized the cup first.

A trip to Party City and I picked up a variety of candy to add to the cup, being careful not to pick any peanut products as the birthday girl is highly allergic.  Talk about "WOW" factor!!

The day arrived and it was party time!  All pictures shown were given to me by my customer as I was unable to attend the party myself.  The birthday girl had a blast!

Party favors for the guests

Music CD's with personalized CD covers.  The back of this even had her picture on it -- too cute!

Another close-up

Photo op with the stars (and their choice of photo prop)

Birthday with flare!  Yes, I even made the cupcake toppers you see here too. :-)

Once again, I want to thank the Glenn family for allowing me to help make their baby girl's
birthday everything she wanted.  Until next year....

Happy Birthday Party Favors

Birthday parties.  Do these two little words make you a stress ridden, anxiety laced mess when you hear them?  Well, if you've spent anytime on the internet they might.  Especially if you feel like your party needs to look like all the swanky affairs that are posted on blog after blog or can be found by the thousands on Pinterest.

Confession.  I fell into that trap.  Yes, that trap that says you need to have a big party complete with the magnificent dessert table with coordinating backdrop.  I've given these parties my best effort.  Though they would never make their way into any party magazines, I was quite pleased with my son's All Aboard 4th birthday party and even the fun Hoppin' Easter Egg Hunt I threw last year.  The reality that I was stressing myself out for nothing came when my sweet boy said to me that he wasn't interested in having a 'backyard party' this year, that these parties were "boring".  Say what???  He told me he would just like to go to the pool with a few friends.  Is that it!?!  Your wish is my command!

My budget for this party was almost non-existent {we were saving for a Disney cruise} so I needed to find party favors that fit a pool theme and that parents wouldn't chuck straight into the trash.  A trip to the Dollar Tree and I found the most perfect and functional party favor and best of all everything was $1!

I searched the store not knowing what I would get, but the party gods were on my side because sitting on an end cap were these great water bottles.  SOLD!  A sturdy bottle that the kids could bring back to the pool time after time over the summer - what could be better than that?  Now what to put inside?  A little more searching and I found Angry Bird freezer pops and Singles to Go drink packets -- everything that said 'summer time' and 'pool fun'.  I was as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning.  I knew that I wanted six items in the bottles {six for turning 6...smart, huh?} so that meant I needed something else.  I decided I wanted re-freezable ice cubes which I had to get from Walmart because my wonderful dollar store hadn't stocked these this summer season.  Now that I had everything for the inside of the bottles, I needed to figure out how to personalize them.

Back in April, my best customer sent me a link that she thought I would love and she was right.  A water bottle drink holder tag from Blue Eyed Blessings.  I took this idea and used it for the bottles, with a few tweaks of course.

Using a piece of poster board from the dollar store, I measured and cut out each tag that I needed for the bottles.

Each tag measured 3" x 8"
I scored them 3 inches on one end
Using the bottom of the bottle, I traced a circle on the scored end
Using a straight razor, I cut out each circle which fit over the mouth of the bottle

Now to create the tag itself.  I searched Google for a 'pool' picture and found this one - wonderful!  Once I downloaded it and resized it to fit the tag, it was time to personalize each one.  Using Microsoft Word I added their name and our 'thanks' message along with another smaller tag that told what each bottle contained.

Of course the birthday boy's bottle was slightly different.

Each completed bottle ready to be handed out pool side.  In the end, each one costs roughly $1.80.  An awesomely inexpensive and thoughtful party favor...what can we say, that's the way we roll! {big cheesy smile}

Happy 5th Birthday Little Prince!

My little guy is FIVE!!! Wow, where DID the time go??? He's such a cool kid and I enjoy making his birthday as special as I possibly can. This year I decided that he wouldn't have the large birthday party that he's had in the past but instead something a little more intimate. He was only told that we were inviting his buddy Jack and his family over for cake, which I think bothered him on some level because he kept asking why we weren't having a party in our backyard {oh sweetie, there will be something in the backyard I'm just not telling you about it (snicker)}.

A few months back he asked if he could go camping. Seriously kid, have you met me?? I only like nature from my window, not being out in it! But the request gave me an idea. Why not offer him a simple "camping" experience for his birthday. So I set out to put together an awesome camping adventure and I'm happy to say I succeeded.








Are you wondering about the shark cake and how that ties into a 'camping' theme? He decided that he just didn't want cupcakes for his birthday this year {I knew it would come to an end sooner or later (smile)} and asked me to make him a shark cake. Once again, have you met me? I know that I craft but I have absolutely no baking skills outside of the "unwanted cupcakes" I usually make, so my good friend has a neighbor who is amazing in a kitchen with a cake pan and she graciously fit me into her busy schedule to create this for my little guy -- she did an awesome job.

Happy Birthday our sweet prince ~ Mommy and Daddy love you!!

{Special Feature} ~ Drive-In Movie Party

Welcome to Annabella and Bryan's drive-in movie party!



What a cute party! Thanks to a wonderful family for letting the little prince and I share in the celebration.

Pizza Boxes

My friend Tiffany is the mother of 3 wonderful little people - her oldest daughter Annabella, her middle son Jack and the newest member of the family baby Bryan. I recently helped her with her son Jack's pirate party and now she is planning Annabella's 6th and Bryan's 1st birthday.

The story of these two is one of the sweetest things I've ever heard. Annabella wanted another baby, but not just any baby - a baby brother (she didn't consider Jack as a "baby brother"...lol). Each night before she went to sleep she would pray that God would give her a baby brother and to the complete surprise of her parents, He did just that (something her mom is still amazed by)!


So this year they will be sharing their birthday party ~ Pizza and Cupcakes! And how do I fit into this beautiful story you may ask? Well, she has asked for my crafting help. She asked me if I could make some pizza boxes that she could use as "gift bags" for the guests. The concept of a pizza box was pretty simple - square box with a top. What wasn't as simple was trying to find a material that would be strong enough to hold a CD, necklace and some tattoos.

I took a trip to Hobby Lobby (I just love that place!) to check out my options and found some great colored cardboard that I thought would be useful. But during a morning playdate with my mommy friend Brooke, I mentioned what my new craft project was and she had a much simpler and more brilliant idea that I instantly fell in love with! She had a bunch of old DVD cases that she was getting rid of and she suggested that instead of taking the time to actually "create" boxes, why not use those cases. Since they are DVD cases, the CD's would fit perfectly without sliding around or falling out and we could use the other side (now the top) to secure both the necklaces and the tattoos. What in the world would I do without my crafty friends and their magnificent ideas!?!



After a few hours of using Microsoft Powerpoint (and eating almost an entire bag of apple candy twists...lol) this is what I designed for the pizza boxes:



A little trimming and let's see if it will fit into the case:



A finished pizza box:



I would have never thought to use an old DVD case for this craft project. I simply adore this because it not only is cute but kept the budget to "free". I think it looks great and should work well for what Tiffany needs it for. Let's just hope she thinks so too!