Shopping Queen Party

I am excited to finally share my daughter's Shopping Queen Party! There are so many details that went into creating a mini mall in our backyard.....so be ready for a lot of photos in this post!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My daughter loves shopping and her favorite mall is Fashion Island--an outdoor mall in Newport Beach. We decided to create a mini outdoor mall in our own backyard! I created awnings and little booths for five shops. We also had a bakery where my son served the girls drinks and sweets. I had a cake designer create two shopping bag cakes and we also had cupcakes, chocolate covered Oreos and sugar cookies decorated with the 'Shopping Queen' theme. I purchased a retro toy cash register where the girls 'paid' for their items. We also had an ATM machine for the girls to get their shopping money! I ordered custom pretend credit cards with the girls photos on them as well. I made invitations with little pop up awnings and my Mom made a cute banner for the 'entrance of the mall'. The girls really felt like they were shopping!   The Shops   The Jewelry Shop The girls had a variety of bracelets, rings, necklaces to choose from. I purchased velvet neckline displays and had special boxes and bags ready to wrap up their purchases.   The Candy Shop We chose navy blue and pink for the main colors in the party and I found the perfect HWTM printables for our candy store! I labeled clear jars filled with pink and navy blue colored candy. This store was a favorite--of course!   The Toy Shop The toy shop was filled with plush animals, dolls and puppets. We even placed mini shopping bags on the plush dolls to match the shopping queen theme!   The Beach Shop We live near the beach so we thought it would be fun to have a shop filled with 'beach gear'! The beach shop included flip flops, bathing suit covers, tank tops, sunglasses and bags. I embellished many of the items with Lilly Pulitzer fabric to add fun vibrant prints to the beach store items!   The Beauty Shop The beauty shop was the most popular store! We created a makeup counter filled with a variety of cosmetics including lip gloss, nail polish and nail decals. I found a retro hair dryer that was placed in the beauty shop--the girls loved it. There were many hair products including foam curlers, head band hair extensions, colored hair strips, and headbands. The girls had a blast getting 'fabulous' in the beauty shop!   The Shopping Queen party was a hit and I loved watching the girls have so much fun on their shopping adventure!          SugardollBakeShop  Shopping cupcake toppers   HWTM  Candy label custom printables   ohdanigirlboutique  Pretend Credit Cards   DeepSouth2013  Designer inspired ribbon   Henri Bendel  Food toppers made with Henri Bendil post paper--Things I Want   Shawna Brockmeier Styled Events  Party styling, fabric crowns, table runner, Shopping Queen Shirts and photography   Shopping Bag cakes by Aimee Bolen   Cookies by Mrs. Peasley's Cookies

Valentine Cards

We always make our own Valentine cards......the kids love creating them! My son is getting older and last year he requested 'cool' Valentine's cards. He loves surfing so we came up with the idea to make a surfboard--the card had a heart shaped lollipop in it and read 'eat your heart out'....we then decided it would be fun to use jagged scissors to create a bite mark--to look like a shark took a bite out of the surf board! The kids loved it.

My daughter wanted to make hot air balloon cards last year......our old house was not too far from Napa and we were able to view beautiful hot air balloons going over our house! We found cute hot air balloon stickers and placed blow pops in the cards. The hot air balloon cards read 'I hope this special day has you blown away!'

We had a lot of fun making Valentine cards last year! The kids were excited to come up with new fun ideas  this year.........
My son really wanted to somehow include surfing in his cards again this year....we visited Hawaii in the Fall and he loved the hang loose/shaka gesture associated with Hawaii and the surfer culture.
We traced his hand onto card-stock paper and glued the finger portion down 'holding' a Pixi Stick. The cards read 'Hang loose Valentine'. He is so excited to 'hand' them out haha!

My husband and I visited Paris this past summer and my daughter has become obsessed with Paris and the Eiffel Tower! I found the most adorable miniature cut out Paris activity on Made By Joel  http://madebyjoel.com/2012/01/travel-size-paper-city-paris.html
I love this site--so many amazing activities for kids.

We decided to do her Valentine cards on a bag to include the Paris cut out activity and conversation hearts. We took a photo of my daughter sitting next to 'the Eiffel Tower'......we then edited it using a drawing application. I love her Mona Lisa like smirk in the pic--perfect for the Paris theme!
The cards read..... Eiffel (I fell) for you Valentine--so fun!!

We had so much fun making the kid's cards this year! Happy card making everyone! I hope you have a LOVELY Valentine's Day!!

Valentine Baking Party

My daughter has been really into baking these days.....so I thought that it would be fun to have a Valentine baking party! I made the girls personalized baking aprons and cupcake wrapper headbands to wear during the party!

Instead of setting up a dessert table, I set up a baking supply table! The table had a variety of baking goods--including a lot of frosting and sprinkles. We baked some items ahead of time to have a selection of baked goods to decorate. I found these cute little rolling pins at the 99 cent store--so perfect for our party!!

My daughter got this adorable cloth bakery booth for Christmas a couple of years ago....It was the perfect place to display all of the beautiful baked goods created by the kids.

I had a few tables set up with different activities ...Including Valentine card making and their FAVORITE activity...working with fondant! The kids had a great time and created some beautiful and yummy treats!

We have been working on some DIY class Valentines that I plan on sharing soon!

Happy Valentine crafting everyone!!

 I have been celebrating New Year's eve with my kids for a few years now--I think it is a great way to discuss and understand time and the calendar as well as remissness about the year and discuss the year to come!

We decided to use pink and gold as our color scheme for the party and I wanted it to be a DIY party and share some fun ideas that hopefully you would be able to use in 2013!

Dessert Table

I made items for the dessert table as well purchased items from our local grocery store. I love the look of the three tiered cakes but they are not always budget friendly or practical with a smaller group. I found this new trick that I hope to perfect in the coming year....The only 'real' cake is the center cake that I baked. The top and bottom layers are floral foam that I frosted!! For the record--it is much easier frosting foam than cake! 

Activities

The kids frosted their own mini tiered cakes and decorated them with pink and gold sprinkles and candy. We also had fun playing with confetti and took photos in a large gold frame that had an embroidered 2013 on it! I am sending all of these photos to the kids to have as an end of the year keepsake. We also played a 'pinata' type game. I created a large New Years 'cracker' that I filled with confetti and treats for the kids. I made the cracker out of a piece of poster board--I placed the treats and confetti inside the poster board, rolled it up ans secured it with tape. I then wrapped it up with a plastic table cloth and tied the ends with ribbon--so easy!! The kids tossed the cracker around while a song was playing and who ever was holding it at the end of the song got to crack it open and dump out the treats! The kids loved this game and it is a great alternative to a pinata!

Decor

I wanted to create a NYE feel with lots of glamour and glitter! I found these adorable pink pillows with gold stars from Pottery Barn Kids that matched the decor perfectly! We also had a lot of noise makes, confetti and balloons. The kids made their own balloon wands with a balloon on a stick--they added stars and glittery ribbon that they used as they danced around the party! I love the look of the over sized balloons with glittery flowing streamers....I was concerned about finding helium with the current helium shortage and the cost to fill the balloons! I decided to blow them up and secure them to a stick that I secured to a chair. I used a New Years party cone hat that I attached to the stick to keep the balloon sitting upright. I then used shiny streamers and embellishments to hide the sticks!! The looked just like helium balloons and added so much flair to the party--I will defiantly be using this trick again!

We all had a great time celebrating NYE and I plan on making this a new tradition! I hope everyone has a happy New Year!