Frog Party

My bestie's birthday was coming and I was thrilled when her hubby asked me to help plan a froggy birthday party for her.  Have a look.

 

 

To make these lily pad cookies, I cut a wedge out of round, green sugar cookies before baking them.  They were inspired by these.

 

Oh, yum.  Just thinking about this delicious Strawberry Puppy Chow makes my mouth water.  As a matter of fact, I think I'll go make some right now....

 

Ok... I'm back.  The jars are filled with green malted milk balls and Canada Mints.  The small plates have Peppermint Patties, drizzled with green and pink chocolate, to match the theme.  The pink cookies are chocolate chip cookies, tinted with pink food coloring.

Our Frogs on Logs are Little Debbie Swiss Rolls, drizzled with melted chocolate and topped with Gummy Frogs.  They were inspired by Gourmet Mom on the Go.

To drink, we enjoyed pink lemonade and green Hawaiian Punch.  The frogs on the front of the dispensers were cut on my Cricut.  Feel free to use them for yourself.  Frog.svg

 

 

These adorable pudding cups were inspired by Bird's Party.  I cut the lily pad on my Cricut.  The cups are 5oz tumblers.  The frog stickers came from Michaels.

 

  

 I found this adorable frog planter at Michaels, in their summer clearance.  His bucket is filled with pink and green rock candy.

 

  

 Mmm, cake!  The cake was frosted with an ombre style and topped with fondant lily pads and cattails.  It was inspired by Building Butter Cream.  The cake pops were topped with Wilton candy eyes and 1/2 a Wilton candy heart used at the tongue.  They were inspired by pops I saw on Cakepops.org.

 

 

just for fun

 

We had a blast playing with the party blowouts made to look like frog tongues.  Want to make your own?

 

If you have a Cricut, you can use this file Frog Blowouts.svg.  Be sure to add a 1/2" circle for the blowout before cutting.

 

If you don't have a Cricut, print this frog face 5" wide.  Once printed, cut out and use a 1/2" hole punch in the center of the smile for the blowout.  Add 2 large google eyes.

 

 Guests brought her a copy of their favorite book, as a gift.  Check it out here.

Sew Sweet Lalaloopsy Birthday

 

These adorable "rag dolls" are my Sami's favorite little toys.  Her collection started on her 3rd birthday with an original Blossom Flowerpot, but has now grown into double, possible triple, digits.  We incorporated many of them, and their "buttons", into her 5th birthday party this year.

the invitation

 

 The inviation is made of 3 layers of card stock.  A paterned layer (measuring 5.25" square), a solid layer and the printed layer.  Buttons in the corners, yarn hair and bows were glued on after the layers were double-sided taped together.  I've seen a few of these sorts of Lalaloopsy inviations online.  One that inspired mine was from my sweet little family.

 

 the cake

 

 How gorgeous is *this* cake?!  I found a tutorial for the petal design at Bird on a Cake.  She's right, it's easier than it looks!  Not that I want to downgrade all the hard work I put into it.  *wink* 

I also made cupcakes to go along with the cake, since they can be easier to serve (and easier for little hands to eat!).

 

To add the swirl-color effect to the frosting, I added the food coloring to the edges of the piping bag, then added white frosting.  As you pipe, the color incorporates.

 

 

These adorable Lala toppers came from etsy seller Party in a Box.

the food

 Table skirt, inspired by this photo on Catch My Party.  The button are trees made from actual tree limbs, felt and buttons. I got my inspiration for these from this photo on Pinterest. Sorry to say that it has no credit linked, so if you who made them, let me know! I'd be happy to give credit where credit's due!

 

 

  (L) Pinwheel sandwiches. (R) Chocolate button pops were made using molds from Fancy Flours.  The yarn on the jars was inspired by this party, over on Catch My Party.

 

Balls of yarn used to decorate the table were actually foam balls with yarn wrapped around them. I got this idea from the Cute as a Button party over at Kiss Me Kate.

 Spool Cake Pops. Fantastic tutorial by Pure Joy Events

 

I cut quilt patterned scrapbooking paper to line these 5oz cups before filling them with treats.  These have white chocolate covered pretzels.  The liners were cut using my Cricut.  This is the svg file: Cup Liner.  Or the jpg file for those cutting by hand: Cup Liner.

 Button number frames, inspired by Style Me Pretty.  Be sure to add the paper, then glue the buttons on if using these top-loading frames.

The holes in the button sugar cookies were added after the cookies baked.  Poke holes in them with a straw while they're still warm.

 These 5oz tumblers are filled with Cupcake Puppy Chow.

 

I just loved how And Everything Sweet decorated their water bottles with fabric for this baby shower. I was inspired to do the same, only I replaced the pin with a button, of course!  In addition to water, we enjoyed strawberry milk and Golden Wedding Punch.

activities

This adorable Pin the Bow on Crumbs Sugar Cookies game is available to purchase from etsy seller One Love Designs.  For prizes the kids got Lalaloopsy coloring books I'd found at Dollar Tree.
 

"Decorate your own Crown with Jewel Sparkles"

 

Paper crowns on headbands, decorated with glitter glue pens.

 

Jewel Sign                            Crown Template

 

 

"Make a Hat with Pete R. Canfly"

 

Green posterboard, red feathers. (elastics and tape optional)

 

Pete Sign                             Hat Directions

 

 

 "Make an Eye Patch with Patch Treasurechest"

 

Black eye patches, assorted stickers

 

Patch Sign

 

 

"Sewing Cards with Blossom Flowerpot"

 

I got some adorable sewing cards from etsy seller Lemon Tree Studio.  Those, yarn and child safe needles made up this fun activity spot.

 

Blossom Sign

 

 

Hanging over the gift table.

 

 

What boys do at a Lalaloopsy party. *wink*

 

  

 Happy 5th birthday to my little princess!!
 

 

These are only some of the great Lalaloopsy party ideas I found online.  I couldn't possiblly use all of them.  If you'd like to see more, please visit My Pinterest page.

Star Wars Birthday Party

Seven.  How did *that* happen?  My "baby" is seven. *sigh*

 

Ok, thoughts of baby blankets, soft fuzzy baby hair, tiny baby clothes aside, it's time for my boy to grow up (if he insists.  Which he does.). And this "big" boy is into what most "big" boys (and lots of actual big boys) are into... Star Wars!  So today we'll celebrate in a galaxy far, far away

 

welcome, padawan

  I was inspired by Jennifer S on Catch My Party to make these.  Who wouldn't love to get their very own lightsaber in the mail?  I love how the party info is printed right on the back.  I made mine simpler in front, as I had a LOT to make.  Want to make your own?

eat, you must

For lunch we enjoyed hot dogs from the "Hutt Dog" station.  Snacks included Wookie Cookies, Carbonite Jell-O and more.

The Hutt Dog station!  Not only were our guests given lots of toppings to choose from, we also gave some Star Wars themed ideas on how to prepare their dogs.  Feel free to print the Clone Dogs, "Solo" Dog, "Chilly" Dog and Swamp Dog signs for yourself!  My signs are displayed in Ikea frames.

The water bottles are covered with glitter paper (it's from a roll of wrapping paper I got at Michaels).  Then I got printable Storm Trooper labels from Clean & Scentsible for them.

The Padawan Popcorn boxes can also be printed here.  It's a great versitle little favor box!  You can print it on any color paper to match your party.  If you own a personal cutter like the Cricut, here's an SVG file of the box.

My large "Hutt Dogs" sign was cut with my Cricut but the small food signs can be printed here.

We enjoyed some Bow-Ba Fett Pasta (Ree Drummond's Kid-Friendly Pasta Salad made with bow-tie pasta).  The pasta is in cups purchased from TomKat Studios.  I chose them because they're lined with plastic so the dressing wouldn't leak through.  We also had Princess Lays (potato chips) and more hot dog toppings.

Stephen's cake and cupcakes were inspired by Takes the Cake.  The letters, stars and lightsabers were made from fondant.  The silver was all touched up with silver Pearl Dust to give them some sparkle.

The Vader-Ade is simply red Gatorade.  The Yoda Soda is green Hawaiian Punch and 7up with some green sherbert on top.  I made ice cubes from both the Gatorade and Hawaiian Punch to keep the drinks cold without watering them down.

Those fantastic C3PO Oreos pops were inspired by Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons.  They were a big hit!  The Cloud City Pops are simply marshmallows on lollipop sticks, dipped in a milk/confections sugar mixture then into blue Pearl Nonpareils.  The sticks are actually paper straws purchase, again, from TomKat Studio.

Carbonite Jell-O.  How awesome is that?  I've seen it in a few places online but I'm going to give the credit to the first person I saw use it.  Carli from Dimple Prints.  Just fabulous!  She also inspired the Death Star Krispies we'll see next...

....made with Cocoa Krispies, these things were SO yummy!  I tried to add a little "sparkle" to them with edible glitter, but it just doesn't really show up. 

The jarred snacks up top include, Hans Rollos, Ewok Snacks (Teddy Grahams), Thermal Detonators (Whoppers) and Lightsabers (Pixy Stix).

Ah, the Wookie Cookies.  How can you not love that face?  The brilliant mind that brought up C3PO Oreos, also brought us these fantstic cookies!  Thanks Jill over at Kitchen Fun with My 3 Son!

The Obi-Wan Kabob-ies were inspired by these from Sweet Cakes Crafts.  The Tie Fighters were inspired by Clean & Scentsible (who also brought us the free Storm Trooper water bottle printables!).  They're made from Oreo Crisps (the 100 calorie packs) and mini marshmallows.  Another huge hit!

padawan entertainment
Even Padawan need some down-time!  Ours had lots of fun activities to choose from.
 
Make Your Own Lightsaber: Papertowel tubes, foam stickers, markers and balloon-animal style balloons made up this station.  It was the BIGGEST hit!  After decorating their papertowel tube, a grown-up slid a deflated balloon in and blew it up.  Instant lightsaber!  I got this idea from Jennifer S over at Catch My Party.  (You'll remember, she also inspired my invitation.)

Stellar Play Dough:  Homemade play dough, with some added glitter (for that stellar effect), rollers and cutters made up this crafty station.  This fantastic idea came from Tradewind Tiara (as do a few addition ideas you'll see coming up!). 

I used these jars for the play dough.  And a word of advice on making the play dough, don't add the glitter too far in advance. I made the play dough about 2 weeks before the party and the glitter all dissolved! We tossed more in just before the festivities.

Make Your Own R2 Unit:  Cut almost entirely with my Cricut, we had blank R2 units with an assortment of cardstock shapes to add.  I made one for display to help as inspiration.  Feel free to download the PNG or SVG of the R2 unit for yourself!  Thanks to Sweet Craft Cakes for this great idea!  They're also to thank for our "Clone Army" idea below.

The young Jedi Apprentice practiced their blaster training (aka: Nerf guns) on these poor, unexpecting "Clones".  That'll teach them for crashing our party!

what's a jedi apprentice to wear?

Our dress-up station had it all!  Character masks, Leia headbands and, (of course!) Jedi robes. 

Those absolutely fantastic masks were made by etsy seller BessiePooh.  You can see all of her wonderful creations here.

The Leia headbands were inspired by Tradewind Tiara (see, I told you you'd see them mentioned again!)  She gives great step-by-step instructions on how to make them.  The glue gun burns these babies gave me were totally worth it!

Lastly, the Jedi robes.  I made mine from "chocolate" broadcloth.  I cut strips measuring about 16" wide by 48" long (adjust your length based on the size of your attendees).  Then I cut a hole in the center for the kids heads.  I then cut 44" strips of tan broadcloth for the belts.  The ream was 44" wide, which is why I chose that number.  *wink*

Cute, aren't they?

 

become a jedi, you will

Having attended training himself this past summer, Stephen, now a Jedi, wanted to train his Padawan in the Jedi arts.  (How cool is this photo!?  Hubby took it with his new iPhone 5.)  You never know when the dark side will try to tempt you, best be prepared. *wink*  He stood before his friends, now dressed in their Jedi robes and armed with... you guessed it, lightsabers!

 

These foam lightsabers can be found all over the internet at just about every Star Wars party out there.  Their origin, impossible to find.  Made from foam pool noodles, cut in half, mine are wrapped with 3 rows of silver duct tape and topped off with strips of black electrical tape.  The original creator of these things: a genius.  7 year old boys LOVE to beat on each other.  And believe you me, they did just that!  Some double-fisted.  Best idea ever.

 

After their training, each new Jedi received a "graduate" badge.  I put them into vertical badge holders hung from lanyards.  The kids loved that they were each personalized.  Here's a blank one for you to work with.

 

All that practice (and Jedi training) paid off, because we *were* visited by Mr. Dark Side himself, Darth Vader!

 

After a demonstration from Stephen, each new Jedi "battled" Darth Vader. 

 

He was a gracious loser, as he posed for this fantastic photo with them all afterwards.

 

 

smile and say "chewy"

What's a party without a photo booth?  And who wouldn't want their photo with the infamous Darth Vader!?!  (maybe a newly minted 7 year old, unaware that it's just his Papa in costume, that's who)

 Set against a black paper backdrop, covered with silver stars, party-goers had a board full of favorite quotes from the movie, along with their favorite masks to pose with.

 

Happy birthday, big guy.  <3