Posted on November 6, 2012 by Kara

Barbie Ice Cream Shop 4th Birthday Party

This BARBIE ICE CREAM SHOP FOURTH BIRTHDAY PARTY submitted by Mariana Zago of Mariana Zago Party Design is absolutely adorable! What a fun twist on your regular ice cream party- add Barbie to the mix! Love it!

Mariana said this about planning the party- “When my client asked for a Barbie themed party for her 4 year old, she wanted me to do the same dessert table I had done a month ago for her best friend’s daughter. I felt that the little birthday girl deserved something completely original and custom made just for her! That’s why I had to come up with different Barbie themed alternatives. The theme she most liked was the “Barbie Ice Cream Shop”. I loved the opportunity to create a french-style shop, adding a Barbie glamourous look to it! Our chef, Riki Carolei, and I made and decorated all the sweets making them ice cream shaped. The party favors were these cute cupcake/ice-cream jars, filled with m&ms for the kids.”

Photography: Adriana Carolina

Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
Mini Plastic Pedestal Cups
Bendy Straws
Rock Candy Swizzle Sticks
Ribbon
Chinese Favor Boxes
Sprinkles, Colored Sugars

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Kara

Colorful Lalaloopsy 6th Birthday Party

This COLORFUL LALALOOPSY 6TH BIRTHDAY PARTY, submitted by Alexis Turner (from Brisbane, Australia) of Sugar Sweet Buffets, will definitely brighten your day! All the hours of planning definitely paid off! So many cute party ideas!

Alexis said- “I styled this dessert table for a little girl, Lily’s, 6th birthday party. Lily LOVES Lalaloopsy dolls and wanted lots of bright colours! Some of the desserts I made were creaming soda flavoured jellies, oreo cookie pops, custard pots with crushed oreos and sprinkles on top, mars bar slice and sweet and salty popcorn cups. There was little personalized chocolate bars and also lots of lollies for guests to fill their favour bags with to take home.

I found some cute Lalaloopsy party printables on Etsy from Print Sparkle and went from there!

I also styled another smaller table, a drinks station to match and had the favour bags on here.”

Vendors and Credits:

Party Styling- Sugar Sweet Buffets

Printables- Print Sparkle

Items available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
Balloons
Ribbon
Apothecary Jars
Striped Paper Straws
Rock Candy
Gumballs
Glass Milk Bottles
White Double-Sided Frame

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Kara

Retro 70′s Camping Barbie 6th Birthday Party

This RETRO 70′S BARBIE CAMPING 6TH BIRTHDAY PARTY submitted by Maria Davis of Love & Sugar Kisses is absolutely darling! What a creative twist on your regular camping themed celebration! I adore the vintage barbie touches…take a look at the darling barbie camper van cookies & boxes, for example!

Maria said- “My party theme was a 70′s Vintage Barbie Camping Party! The inspiration for the party was the 1971 Barbie Camper, which I found on ebay. I wanted to evoke the spirit of the 70′s by using colorful and girly fabrics throughout the party and used bright pink, aquas green, yellow & orange as my colors. I used feathers in several of my decorations and made 70′s style feather hair clips for all the girls. I used some touches of nature like twigs for the frames, pine cones and a tree stump cake stand. But I added some Barbie sparkle to them as well!

Piggy Bank Parties created all the beautiful printable products including the amazing favor boxes which were detailed replicas of the Barbie Camper! Inside each camper were Barbie stickers & bottlecap necklaces.

We had several party activities. We began with a nature walk and each girl was given a decorated clipboard with items to look for, an embellished canteen, and backpack. After lunch we sat around our faux fire and sang campfire songs. Then we went back outside for a s’mores relay race. The girls were divided into teams and had to assemble s’mores using large pillows and graham crackers & chocolate bars made from foam board. It was a hilarious site and they had a blast!

The dessert table included cake, designer Oreos & s’mores on a stick all made by me. Beautiful cookies designed to look like the Barbie camper were made by Bambella Cookie Boutique. Delicious cake pops in the bright party colors and decorated with feathers were made by Cuter than Cake. We served camp-style hot dogs & chips for lunch along with a 70s favorite soda, Nehi! In addition to their camping supplies, each guest received a bag of trail mix & bubbles along with their camper favor box!

The pictures were taken by my amazingly talented friend Wendy of Wendy Updegraff Photography whose photos are always gorgeous!”

Vendors and Credits:
Photographer: Wendy Updegraff Photography
Custom printables: Piggy Bank Parties
Happy Camping Banner: Stampin’ Fanatic
Glittery mini cake bunting: The Purple Pug
Camper cookies: Bambella Cookie Boutique
Cake Pops: Cuter than Cake
Cake & designer Oreos: Love & Sugar Kisses
Straws: The Sugar Diva
Wooden pencils: Sandra Downie

Items used in this party that are available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
Lollipop Sticks
Ribbon & Fabric
Decorative Shred
Baker’s Twine
Striped Paper Straws
Clear Cellophane Bags

Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
Lollipop Sticks
Ribbon & Fabric
Decorative Shred
Baker’s Twine
Striped Paper Straws
Clear Cellophane Bags

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Kara

Babushka 2nd Birthday Party – Stackable Russian Doll

I am in love with this BABUSHKA 2ND BIRTHDAY PARTY by Jennifer Bishop Design! I simply adore the ice cube trays filled with toddler foods! Genius! This whole party has so many fun ideas. Too, too cute.

Jennifer said- “When I was growing up, I always remembered playing with a set of Russian stack-able dolls. The itty bitty one in the center was my favorite! I always thought the set was mine but just recently I discovered it was my Mom’s! Well now Sydney is adopting it as her own and she’ll probably grow up thinking the same as I did…that it’s hers. She certainly loves the “ladies” as much as I did and that is where I came up with the theme for her 2nd birthday party. The starting point for my design was the fabric pattern I used for the table runner. I loved the colors and it just felt right for the theme without having actual dolls on the print. And what the heck is up with the red horse? Well, I had a lot of people asking me that and I’ll explain now. When fabric shopping, I kept coming across these stallions in the patterns. Since I chose not to use any of those patterns, I decided to bring in my own stallion as well as my own version of a Russian Tower that I spray painted red. Now, let’s talk food. For the big kids…aka Mommies and 1 Daddy, we had Turkey and fresh mozzarella sandwiches on my favorite Anderson bakery bread. Don’t you all agree that the bread really makes the sandwich? For our sides we had potato chips and watermelon. I also found a fun Jello idea to make Wiggly Watermelon which is basically Jello poured into a hollowed out watermelon. Mini Chocolate chips become the “seeds”. They turned out cute and our guests got a kick out of them. Toddlers can be so picky with their eating. So many times, I go places where my kid won’t eat anything. I really wanted there to be something that every child would eat and have the majority of it be healthy. And of course…it had to be displayed in an appealing way! Ice cube trays were just the ticket. The kids LOVED them and I think the Mommies really appreciated them too. Russian doll cake-pops and good old fashion cupcakes were our dessert options. Both tasty treats and a great way to finish off our party! For the favors I made a snack mix that I poured into vase shaped cello bags. The faces were a digital file I purchased from ETSY. I LOVED how they turned out and I could not believe that the heads lined up perfect with the shape of the bags. A special thanks to my bff Jennifer Skog for photography, my resident baker Toni Skog for making cupcakes and the Segundo family for opening up their gorgeous home to a whirlwind of toddlers!”

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Kara

Shabby Chic Bridal Shower

This gorgeous SHABBY CHIC BRIDAL SHOWER was submitted by Laura Murphy of Live Smile Celebrate. What a beautiful celebration! There are a ton of ideas that could be used for a birthday party or baby shower, too! Laura said- “I recently hosted a bridal shower for my childhood best friend. I knew I wanted to give her a shabby chic/vintage theme because it fit her personality. I started planning ideas months ago. All I wanted was to give her a day she would truly remember. She is so special to me and I treasure all my memories with her. For the eating table, I used three 8ft tables with white garden chairs. I used an assortment of different size vases to fill flowers with. The table was set with with a large pink plate layered with a doily and a green plate and topped with a menu. I wrapped each napkin with a printable holder. For the dessert table I wanted to keep it pretty simple. The weather was 90 degrees outside, so I was cautious as to what would hold up in the heat. I made the cake myself and added some fresh flowers to it. It was simple and sweet. We also had mini fruit cups, mini strawberry shortcake treats, chocolate parfaits, meringue cookies, pink whoppers, lemon cupcakes and butter cream cupcakes. For the drink area, we had lemonade, sangria, & waters. I used mason jars as our glasses, wrapping each of them with laced ribbon. Pink striped straws were used in each of the glasses. The Sangria was made by my friend Noelle. It was so yummy! For the favors, I made homemade salt bath scrub {Recipe Below} in half pint sized mason jars. After I sealed them, I topped them with a piece of ribbon and twine. For the display, I painted and sanded a piece of shelf and added some lace ribbon to give it a rustic feel.” Vendors and Credits: Styling & Printables- Live Smile Celebrate Photography- Bethany Sieman Items used in this party that are available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Honeycomb Tissue Flowers Hanging Lanterns Clear Plastic Dessert Cups Mason Jars Lace Clear Pedestal Cups Miniature Clear Spoons Pink Striped Paper Straws Twine Standing Party Frame

Purchase the above Clear Pedestal Cups here.

Purchase the above Dessert Goblets here.

Lemon Bath Salt Scrub 4 cups of kosher salt 1 cup of oil {Vegetable or Olive} 2 tablespoons of lemon extract 3 drops of yellow food coloring few squeezes of fresh lemon juice Mix all together in a bowl. You may need to add more oil. You want to make sure you coat all the salt with a good amount of oil. Make as many batches as needed to fill your jars.