Posted on November 15, 2012 by Kara

Dr. Seuss 1st Birthday Party

This darling DR SEUSS THEMED FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY was submitted by Nikka Morell of Triple M Good Parties! I just love all the clever ideas & decor! Nikka did such a good job on every detail!

Nikka said this about planning the party- “When my youngest of three kids turned one this summer, I knew it had to be fun. He is my only summer baby, so I finally got to plan a party outside. My 2 older kids were Thing 1 & Thing 2, and the birthday boy was Cat in the Hat.

I made all the decorations and food. It was fun to make things not so perfect, like an off centered cupcake stand and tall skinny candy jars.

I fell in love with the red, white and teal combination of colors. The ‘real’ Cat in the Hat came to read a book and the kids loved playing all the games, including pin the tail on Horton.”

Vendors and Credits-
Photography: Cassie Pepper Photography
Homemade Decorations: Triple M Good Parties
Printables & Cupcake Wrappers: Bellas N Fellas
Thing 1 & Thing 2 and Miles Shirt: *golden*
Directional Sign: Kute Kardz
Fondant Cupcake Toppers: Miss Sweet Sends

Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
Balloons
Candles
Popcorn Boxes
Clear Cellophane Bags
Whirly Pops

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Kara

Airplane 2nd Birthday Party

This darling AIRPLANE THEMED 2ND BIRTHDAY PARTY was submitted by Paula Marie of Vens’ Paperie. I love the propeller airplane pops made out of marshmallows and chocolate candy melts! Such a cute party… Paula said– “For the backdrop behind the dessert table I hung a large white canvas. I created an airplane trail with 1 inch cardstock circles cut with a 1-inch punch. I made the marshmallow propeller pops with fondant and candy melts. I dipped the marshmallow in the candy melts and shaped the fondant to look like propellers. Vendor Credits: DIY printables and styling- Vens’ Paperie Paper straws- Hey Yo Yo

&nsps;

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Kara

Train 4th Birthday Party

CHOO! CHOO! Birthday train coming through! The next feature goes to this adorable 4TH BIRTHDAY TRAIN PARTY submitted by Jennifer Carver of Banner Events. Jennifer is SO talented. Her parties are always so fun to look at. No one says it better than Jennifer, so here are all the party details from her- “When my son Landon begged us for a train-themed party to celebrate his 4th Birthday in December, I immediately contacted Maureen of Anders Ruff, knowing she would design the perfect choo choo train themed printable package to tie the various elements of our event together. I was right! Maureen delivered in a big way! I am thrilled to share with you the resulting party, photographed by my friend and talented photographer, Rebecca Pierce of Mi Vida Photography.

Another talented friend, Karina Rigtrup, of A Fresh Take Photography offered to take pictures of my little train-loving boy to use on the invitations and as part of the party décor. I knew the stars had aligned when we showed up to the photo shoot and the old vintage train matched the colors in the printable package Maureen was customizing for us! It was such a special day for him getting to board a REAL train.

All Aboard/The Invitation: The darling invitation choo choo’d it’s way to each guest’s home inviting them to join us at Carver Station and hop aboard the Carver Express for an unbelievable party.

Guest Arrival/Train Departure: When each of our little ‘train engineers-in-the-making’ arrived at Platform 4 of Carver Station, they were whisked away on a little make-shift train car and taken for a ride on our life-sized train track. (My husband is a miracle worker with black electrical tape!)

Engineer Outfits: The kids loved the train ride that dropped them off at the dining car, where the Chief Engineer (me!) helped get them outfitted to properly ride the rail. A striped engineer hat & red bandana were adjusted to fit each little guest.

Landon had a special shirt designed for him by Lisa of Bella Bean Gifts. Her custom appliqué work was fabulous, and she is so great to work with. Lots of fun designs can be found in her Etsy store.

Party Activities: After being properly outfitted, party guests had a number of fun activities to choose from.

They could put together oversized train puzzles on the floor. (Thank you Anders Ruff for creating these upon my request!) I made the puzzles by printing them out on glossy 11×17″ sized paper at Staples, cutting them into puzzle pieces and then running them through my laminator. There were several puzzles so that many children could do this activity at the same time.

Other little engineers got busy coloring custom designed Carver Express coloring pages with crayons from their coordinating crayon boxes. (I absolutely LOVE how cute these turned out from Anders Ruff! It was a custom request, and once again, they delivered! You can find them as part of the printable package here.)

The Dining Car/Snack Time: Who knew little engineers could work up such an appetite? It’s a good thing the Carver Express was serving snacks in the dining car.

Guests enjoyed sitting down to refreshing Chugga Chugga water. I love how a simple beverage wrap can add so much pizzazz to a basic place setting. Of course, it’s way more fun drinking out of stripey straws. Polka Dot Market contributed the darling engineer blue (navy) striped straws which I adorned with cute little printable party flags from the AR collection. Knowing I needed a creative container to house fruit snacks and crackers, I had Maureen custom design a fry container for each child. Aren’t they adorable? With a little tissue paper fringe attached, the festive look was easily achieved.

I kept the dining car simple with a red/white striped runner, more DIY train cars that acted as balloon weights and framed pictures of our birthday boy riding the train. The chairs were dressed up with the red bandanas that each child claimed upon arrival. Place settings consisted of a conductor hat, train whistle, fry box filled with snacks, party straw and flavored water.

Dessert Table Highlights: Of course, the focal point of a birthday party (besides the guest of honor) is the dessert table! The color scheme of our event was navy blue, red & light blue. Red tissue paper fans & red & blue polka dot balloons from Polka Dot Market combined with the colorful striped & polka dot banner included in Anders Ruff’s printable package provided an eye-catching backdrop for the table. An inexpensive red & white striped tablerunner was created from wrapping paper! (I continually remind myself that parties don’t have to be expensive! Reduce, reuse, recycle!) And, the table was literally littered with almost a dozen scrumptious desserts.

The cake & cupcakes: Brittany, of Edible Details always does such beautiful fondant work. She customized the adorable 3-D fondant train topper and cupcake toppers to match the cute train designed by Anders Ruff on the coordinating printables. If it’s possible for something to be ‘too cute to eat’, her fondant masterpieces would definitely qualify!

The Cake: Don’t you just love the train chugging across the cake? If you aren’t a master cake decorator and hiring a bakery to make a custom cake isn’t in your budget, a less expensive alternative is ordering a plain white cake from Costco or a local grocery store and adding custom fondant designs, like those seen here from Edible Details.

The Cupcakes: One of my favorite party details is the cupcakes! I asked Anders Ruff to add a custom designed cupcake wrapper with my printable package. Paired with the darling fondant train toppers, they added so much color to the dessert table.

Custom Train Cookies: Becoming acquainted with talented dessert artists from all over the country is one of my favorite parts about styling parties. Liz, better known as” Arty McGoo“, does stunning work! Her attention to detail was amazing. Not only were the train cookie favors precious, they were equally delicious (I snuck a few nibbles!) and came individually packaged to ensure freshness & easy distributing. The little engineers had so much fun moving their cookies around, chugging them along imaginary tracks before taking their first mouth-watering bite!

Popcorn Cones: My son is a self-proclaimed popcorn addict, so it was only fitting to request that Anders Ruff design popcorn cones for this event! I just love the striped and polka dot patterned paper. Simply print the template & cut! They were so easy to assemble. Tissue paper fringe, from Polka Dot Market was added to the top for extra cuteness!

Party Favors: A custom luggage tag was attached to gift bags embellished with tissue paper rosettes, a ribbon sash and Anders Ruff party labels. The bags sat atop our ‘Luggage’ table. Each attendee took home the bag full of their train whistle, conductor hat & bandana.

In addition, goodie bags (clear white window bags from Nashville Wraps), decorated with more coordinating printables from Anders Ruff were lined up on the train track-covered table. Guests filled up their bags with sweets from the dessert table for their journey home.”

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Kara

Lil’ Monster 1st Birthday Party

If you can’t tell, It’s a monster themed weekend here at KPI! This next feature goes to this darling LIL’ MONSTER 1ST BIRTHDAY PARTY submitted by Susan Nijjar of Pink Lime Events.

It has definitely been done again… Another ADORABLE monster themed party. Monster parties are not just halloween parties, you can have them all year round. PERFECT for any child’s birthday, if you ask me!

Here is what Susan said about this special day- “Though I have been fortunate to have been a part of many small and grand events over the years, this special first birthday party was my baby…start to finish! And the theme.. So appropriate for my special lil’ monster!

Armaan’s guestbook table was the most fun for me to do. I definitely wanted a place where family and friends could leave Armaan a special first birthday wish, and what better place to do so then on his favorite story book… ‘Tickle Monster’ by Josie Bissett!

The perfect final touch to his guestbook table was this thoughtful gift given by Armaan’s Aunty, a thumb print tree! Thank you!”