Party Hat Tutorial

Sweet Jillian of the fab party site Catch My Party asked me to put together a little tutorial on the party hats I made for Peyton's Sweet Shoppe Party.  I thought you might enjoy it too! Jillian was also so sweet and had Peyton's party as one of the parties of the day!  It's wonderful site to get ideas, definitely check it out!  There are other examples HERE that I made if you want more inspiration!

  To make these hats, you will need:


a couple sheets of coordinating scrap book paper 12 x 12
cardstock
matching cupcake wrapper (optional)
glue gun and glue
embellishments
chipboard monogram
matching ribbon
matching festooning      available at Bake It Pretty and Party Cheap


First go through your scrap paper and see what you have that might go together well and look for matching embellishments. Oh and by the way don't look at my horribly dry hands in these photos! ;-) THANKS!

I love the funky colorful pattern on this paper



black, white and pink is so graphic and cool



I love pink and orange, I think it has something to do with Dunkin Donuts!

I love pink and green



I chose this one because I love the cherry blossoms and the vintage feel of the paper



I used an antique crochet millenry flower, a hat pin and cream colored paper pima flowers and a few gems

Pretty EASY and so PRETTY!

If you make a party hat, PLEASE let me know, I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE for you to share it with me!

Out On A Whim: DESIGN MOM

The enchanting exterior of La Cressonniere

Those DORMERS!

Like ducks in a row

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that periodically I wanted to feature a new place on the web that I've become enamored with.  I obviously have been living under a rock because I never came across the fabulous blog I'm about to share with you.  It's called DESIGN MOM and it's this gorgeous jewel box of anecdotes, stories, PHOTOS and just plain old mommy goodness.  Gabrielle Blair is the shining star behind all of the fabulousness that is DESIGN MOM.  Her site has been recognized by too many people/publications to name including TIME MAGAZINE and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL!  Her moniker is "where design meets motherhood", and it IS that and oh so much more! 

A marvelous detailed knocker on THE BATHROOM DOOR

The gorgeous photos are what captured my attention about a month ago.  I began to read her blog and found out that Gabby and Ben Blair (she delightfully refers to her husband with his first and last name) moved their little family of 8 to Normandy France on February 1st for a year!  I was enthralled.  Sometimes getting my little family of 5 ready and together to go to the movies is a monumental and exhausting task.

The Blair family has children ranging from middle school to diapers.  They packed them all up and moved across the big pond to an incredibly gorgeous French home that is called La Cressonniere.  The house actually has a NAME, not an address. How COOL is that?  Gabby has me on the edge of my seat waiting for each photo installment of the tour of La Cressonniere.  Each room is almost more beautiful and charming than the next!  The house was built in 2 seperate segments, one in the 17th century and the other in the 18th century.  I'm in awe just typing that!

Those FLOORS...and that DOOR!

Hand painted walls

A fabulous headboard

Everything about Gabby's blog is engaging.  You feel like she's a sophisticated, very cool friend that is down to earth and elegant at the very same time.  The type of friend that has fabulous adventures and it's exciting just to know her but at the same time she's REAL.

If you don't already read Design Mom, check it out, you won't be sorry!  Gabby also contributes to several other sites including Babble and she is the founder of the social media community called Kirtsy.



Something as mundane as grocery shopping seems to be an impressive adventure



Restoration Hardware Crush

I did a little selfish dreaming today.  Sometimes I like to pretend that I've been given a HUGE gift certificate to a company that I love, and I "shop" as though money is no option.  Gosh, I hope I don't sound like a freak!  Today, the object of my affection was Restoration Hardware.  There isn't a whole lot in that store that I wouldn't love to have!  If you like, follow me on my little faux spending spree...

I'd first order this awesome table for my kitchen!

I'd love to have these funky industrial cool stools for the island



Ohhh, I'd love to add 3 different of these gears to my fireplace mantle



I'd also like a few of these for my fireplace mantle so that I could switch it up when I got bored!

I totally want this ultra cool mirror above my sink in the powder room

I'd love to get my husband this fabulous chair to watch football in!

I really can't stand my foyer light and think this one would work great!

I love this table!  Actually I have this coffee table but got it at a flea market instead!  It was a TON cheaper!

Do you have any stores that you like to pretend to shop?

Garnish and a fabulous give away over at 2805

I came across this cool site the other day.  I'll be the first to admit, I am a total geek over packaging.  Unique and cool packaging gets me every time!  So when I saw the goodies on this site I went a little gaga.  (not lady gaga-ish or anything...I'd never ever ever ever wear a dress made of meat!)  This sunny weather we've been having lately just screams PICNIC and so does this first photo!  How fun with this little box lunch be to share with a friend?  Check out GARNISH, you won't be sorry!  The site not only sells cool packaging but has awesome ideas how to use it!  BTW, this is NOT a sponsered post, I just think it's a cool site and love how most everything is so GREEN!

 

On a completely different topic, have you met Honey over at 2805?  She's a SWEET (pun intended) blogger from Texas with gorgeous photos!  Go meet honey and enter her RAMSIGN giveaway!  It's open to worldwide bloggers, how cool?

Sweet Shoppe Party

REMEMBER, you can click any photo to make it larger. ;-)

There is a tuturial for the party hats here... PARTY HATS

Finally, I'm going to share Peyton's Sweet Shoppe Party with you!  I don't think I've had this much fun planning a party in a really long time! Maybe since the twins were 4 or 5.  At the beginning of January, Peyton wanted to start talking about and planning her party.  We checked out a few party blogs and she really like the sweet shoppe theme but she wanted to mix ballet and tutus with it.  Since I couldn't find any rules against that, we thought it would work just fine.  You know, like a ballet class took a field trip to a candy store.  I brought Delilah down out of my room and she donned her tutu and stood at attention next to the table to try to tie in the tutu theme. Or something like that!

There are so many things here to share that I'm not sure where to begin!  If you've been following my blog a bit, I've already given you a few glimpses into the party decor.  For example, I bought some ugly plastic frames at
Goodwill and gussied them up here. There is a bit more detail infor here as well.   I did a lot of DIY for this party to not only keep the cost down but it was a totally fun process!  I sewed the buntings, the pink polka dot table runner and the sweet little cake bunting.  I also made Peyton and my niece Grace party hats but then decided the other girls might want one too.  I didn't have enough festooning to go around the edges of the extra party hats so I bought a 1/4 yard of fabric and ruched strips of it in my machine and hot glued it on the other hats I made. You can read about the cake bunting and the other buntings here.

I felt like the table was a little too crowded but I really didn't have room to add my leaf.  I think it would have been prettier if I could have spread everything out a bit, but I'm still happy with how the table turned out.

If you are anything like me, then you probably want to know about the SWEETS!  I put lollipop sticks into Oreo Cakesters and dipped them in white chocolate.  YUM! I love how they look in the white hobnail milk glass!  I made fun chocolate mustaches and puffy lips for the girls to hold up at the photo booth and to EAT!  My mother in law was sweet and made these lovely little ballet chocolate lollies for Peyton.

chocolate covered oreo cakesters



ballet slipper pops

 Let's talk CAKE!  The cupcakes are an extremely yummy coconut cake with seven minute frosting dusted with more coconut.  A great trick to keeping your cupcakes (or cakes) moist is to brush them with a buttermilk glaze, (it's a Southern Living recipe) it also adds a really yummy flavor.  The cake itself was the vanilla cake off of the back of the Soft As Silk cake flour box.  I was a bit dissappointed in the recipe because even with the buttermilk glaze, I felt the cake was on the dry side.  It did have delicious frosting.  I love Swiss meringue buttercream and I found one that used strawberries in the recipe.  Perfect!  It's not the easiest frosting to decorate with but it's so yummy you won't care.  Those little cheesecakes are delish!  It's a Martha Stewart recipe and I think it's the best mini cheesecake I've ever had!


dancing retro ballerinas on coconut cupcakes





fun striped straws from bake it pretty in recycled starbucks bottles    I LOVE THESE STRAWS



All of the girls had so much fun with the "photo booth" which is actually just a sheet covering a window! A basket of dollar store props like crazy glasses and wigs kept the girls amused for a long time.  I'll definitely do THAT again!  I'd also have Karioki at a girls party too, they LOVED singing and dancing!



Kara and Callie



my sweet niece Gracie

love her hair do    or is that a don't?



beverage station



These little Martha Stewart flags helped the girls know their own drinks.

my little poser

me and my sister Brandy

Even some of us moms got into the photo booth mood!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.  I could go on and on but I don't want to bore you!  I really had a blast planning this party and Peyton really loved it.  She's still talking about it!


Sources:  Bake It Pretty and Layer Cake Shop plus my local candy store, Stephanie's Sweets. The fabulous vintage vibe invites shown here are from Etsy seller B. Nute

my dear friend stephanie and me

singing AND dancing

make a wish!



twirl baby twirl




twirl twirl twirl





party hat cake topper




Peyton's blingified, vintage look party hat




party hats



birthday bouquet in antique ironstone



bunting and poufs

Well, that's the party.  Now my little one is a whole year older, it's her last year in the single digits!  I wish I could slow down the clock for all of my children and make the years go a bit slower.  Well, a lot slower actually!

I joined several parties, please check out all the lovies on the right under parties!