{CHIC ORGANIZING} Stylish & Affordable Desk Organizing

{PARTY SWEETS} Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, and even though I am not hosting a party, my sons preschool is certainly having one!  Of course, as a good mommy I plan on contributing a little something. So I set out for inspiration on what to bake and found no shortage of it! Here are a few favorites:

 

The Dream Cake:  If you happen to be in charge of a bigger Valentine's event and have lots of time to invest, I absolutely love this wedding cake from Brides.com. Flowers, Hugs and kisses.. and of course, it's all about love! What says Valentine's Day more than that!?

DIY tip: Not a cake expert? Visit Cake Central for everything you ever wanted to learn about cake decorating!

Sweet and Simple:  If you are like me and have a smaller event in mind, I found these delicious and adorable looking cupcakes from the Confessions of a Bakeaholic. Cupcakes are quick and easily served when you have 8 little preschoolers bouncing off the walls! And she has even listed a version of the recipe using a cake mix to cut down on time - great for us busy moms!

Cute Cookies:  If Red Velvet is your flavor, and a big elaborate cake is out of the questions, these cookies from Sand & Sisal look both adorable and delicious! And who doesn't love sprinkles? See the step by step instructions and they are sure to be a big hit on the dessert table!

Finally i will leave you with this peak at the dessert table I created for our Valentine's Spa Party!

Lil' Super Heros Party!

I have to admit when my son informed me that he wanted a super hero themed 4th birthday party, I was less than excited at first. Images of the same old commercialized Spider Man party plates, bags and decor filled my head. Instead of panicking, I turned to Etsy! The many adorable designs I found inspired me to design my own version of the popular super heros to give his party that special touch!

For the invitations I illustrated these cute cartoon kids dressed as their favorite heros. Of course Jackson dressed as Spider Man took front and center with a J on the chest of his Spidy suit!  Add some fun fonts and colors.. and of course the adorable photo of the birthday boy and voila! The matching printable party circle was perfect to use as an envelope sealer and let the recipient know that this piece of mail held a little something special.

The party circles also served as favor tags for the goodie bags, cupcake toppers, and decorations!   Coordinating scrapbook paper created the flags and banners.

DIY: I printed the topper and favor designs on letter size paper, cut into columns, and punched using  2" circle and 2" scallop punches. Lollipop sticks complete the cupcake toppers. 

 For the flags I traced the triangles backed along a single line and cut using my Fiskar Paper Trimmer.  For the banner I simple taped the flags to ribbon. The flags, which double as favors for the kids and decoration, were made with bamboo skewers that I cut the sharp end off of. 

Affordable tip: to save money over a pricey cupcake stand that I would then have to store somewhere I purchased a disposable cupcake stand.

I wanted each child to have a chance to be a lil' super hero, so in each goodie bag was their very own super hero mask. I created a paper template to trace onto various scrapbook papers. Cut out using scissors, punched holes and added elastic purchased in the jewelery section of my local craft store. The kids looked adorable!

Jackson wore his Spider Man Halloween costume which saved some money.  Little sister however had no such costume, and with no time and no money I had to get creative. Some left over red and white felt cut to shape served as her Super Anna cape! I quickly sewed on some ribbon to tie it on and the result was a fun inexpensive little cape to match her party dress that took less than 5 minutes to create.  I wish I had thought of this cute cape idea sooner and had made them for all the kids!

Altogether, this party on a budget was a huge success with all the kids going home sufficiently sugared up!

Happy Planning!

Christy

A Pink Love Bug Birthday!

When it came time to planning my daughter Annabelle's first birthday I knew it had to be as cute as she is! (Indulge a proud mom). She is so girly and sassy I knew she needed something with just a little spunk. So what could be more perfect than a lady bug that's gone PINK! Just a little bored with the same old red and black, this little lady took it up a notch and added a little sass to a simple lady bug birthday theme.

I started by designing the Pink Love Bug invitation. If I was going to make the lady bug pink, why not make the dots white!  It wouldn't be a Love Bug without hearts, and of course I had to add an adorable photo of the birthday girl!   (*The beautiful photo of Annabelle was taken by the incredibly talented Amber of ambershereephotography.com)

Affordable tip: If you are a Costco member their photo lab does a great job with photo cards - you can get 50 photo invitations for only $14.99 and the matching silver lined envelopes are included!

Instead of baking and decorating a huge 4 tier cake to serve all the guests I decided to scale down my cake plans and add cupcakes to make up the servings. I created matching pink lady bug cupcake toppers to tie it all together (the DIY printables are available in my shop). Next I went shopping for some scrapbook paper to create a banner for her highchair and created a custom birthday hat. Find the free template here!. I embellished the pink paper hat with feather trim and cardboard cutouts purchased at my local craft store.  The result was a perfectly spunky one-of-a-kind hat comparable to fabric ones sold in boutiques... but all for under $10!

Once upon a time I saw the cutest scalloped table cloth at a craft show. After searching relentlessly for one to match the party, I decided I had to create my own. Of course cost and sewing were obstacles. Accordingly, I created this magenta scalloped table topper using felt! At under $4 a yard, and no sewing required this darling touch added much bang for my buck.  I simply used a cake round (a small plate would work) to trace the scallops with sewing chalk, and then cut!

Of course, last but not least, the birthday girl herself had to match the theme! My mother-in-law, and awesome seamstress, Denice of Green Tulip made this adorable pillow case dress for Annabelle to wear on her big day.

(*You can find a step-by-step guide with photos to create your own pillow case dress by Susan Petersen for FreshlyPicked.)