Welcome Spring Picnic

We had  a small picnic to celebrate Spring! The girls were on Spring Break last week and the weather was just gorgeous for a picnic!

 The picnic was very simple and layedback. For the backdrop, I used a wall accent on a foam board that I purchased from Hobby Lobby for $10. The Wall accent is now on my daughter's bedroom wall. ;) 

I also made a balloon banner to dress up the table. Balloons are an inexpensive way to bring colors to your party. For the cupcake toppers, I used scrapbook flowers that I found at Michael's for 50cents!!! Crazy, insane cheap right? I also found the plastic candy container with mini scoops at Michaels for 50 cents, too!!Don't you just love when you find a good bargain? ;)

I purchased the mini paper cupcake stands at the brand new and fabulous Petite Party Studio. What a cute store!! Love it!!

For snacks and treats, we had whole wheat turkey flower sandwiches, pigs in the blanket, chocolate covered strawberries, ants on a log(celery sticks with raisins), carrots, homemade red velvet cupcakes, M&Ms, chocolate kisses and cupcake pizzas. The kids played card games, climbed trees, blew bubbles, played in the playground, blew dandelions and also rested on the blankets.

 The picnic was a wonderful way to celebrate Spring! 

The girls really enjoyed spending the afternnon outside. One of my daughter's girlfriends said that the last time that she had a picnic was when she was four and that we need to do this more often! I couldn't agree more!!

I love when I can pull together a simple and affordable get together for my children and their friends!

Free spring/picnic labels from Sew Craft Create.

St. Patrick's Day - Ombre Style

I love seeing ombre styled parties, so when time came to plan our St. Patrick's Day celebration, I new it was a perfect chance to use different shades of green to celebrate our Irish heritage! I contacted my very talented friend, Bird from Bird's Party  to design the St' Patrick's Day printable.

For the backdrop, I used different shades of shamrock cut outs that I purchased at the Dollar Store. I used my wine cabinet to display all the goodies. All the sweets were in different shades of green, we had marshmallow pops, shamrock pops, homemade meringues, cupcakes and green apple licorice twist. We also had St. Patty's sliders,  green shots{vegetables} and shamrock shake. 

Each girl received a princess green tiara and the boys green hats and bow ties.  The children painted shamrocks using their thumbs and painted their own lucky gold rock. It was a very fun green afternoon!

Party styling, food and photograph: Crissy's Crafts

Printable: Bird's Party

Oscars {last minute party}

I wasn't going to do anything for the Oscars but after seeing the free printable from HWTM my hands started to itch! So I gathered some party props from my daughter's movie night party and made some treats for my family to enjoy while watching the big show!

The "guests" arrived in a limo and had VIP treatment! 

We had pizza cupcakes, red velvet cupcakes, veggies, red hot candy,  popcorn and a cold cut platter. 

It was a fun night, too bad that the "guests" didn't stay awake for the whole show! ;)

Free Oscars printable: HWTM

Styling, food and photography - Crissy's Crafts

Cupcake Wars Party

My daughter loves the Cupcake Wars show on the Food Network so when the time came to plan her 13th's birthday,  she new exactly what theme her party was going to be: Cupcake Wars! She planned  the party to be just like the real show, with teams competing against each other on the cupcake taste and presentation. Since the party was the same weekend as Mardi Grass, the teams had to create cupcakes for the Mardi Gras event that was going to take place the next day at our house(We celebrated a Brazilian Carnaval the day after her party). Each team received their own t-shirts and they made cupcakes pins to adorn them. They also received all the supplies they needed to make 24 cupcakes, like cake mix, sprinkles, cupcake liners, spatula, bowl and mixer to name a few. 

I made  tissue poms and used the fun printable from Bird's party to decorate the table.

For the sweet table, we had marshmallow cupcakes, gum ball cupcakes, cinnamon kettle corn, cupcake cookies, brigadeiro(chocolate fudge), Girl Scout Thin mints cookies (my daughter's favorite) and chocolate cupcake pops. To display the sweets, I used baking trays and cooling racks from the dollar store. Before they hit the sweets, they had tacos and chips and dip. 

Girls were divided in 2 teams and each team received the supplies to bake, decorate  and display 24 cupcakes. Both teams received the same supplies to make a Mardi Gras cupcake display.  They also came up with their team name, Crazy Bananas(yellow team) and Green Ninjas(green team). They had 2 hours to complete the task. My younger daughter, son, husband and I were the judges. At the end, we tasted their cupcakes and watched their presentation. Crazy Bananas won for presentation and Green Ninjas for best cupcakes. 

 I was so pleased to see that the girls really had a lot of fun and they used team work to accomplish they task.

Party Favors:

Girls took home some cupcakes and goodies from the sweet table in a cute paper bag with a label that said: "Thanks for baking with me".

 I was so pleased to see that the girls really had a lot of fun and they used team work to accomplish they task.

Styling, food and photography - Crissy's Crafts

Printables - Bird's Party 

Mardi Grass cupcake toppers for the challenge from The TomKat Studio