May 20, 2016
Ok, moms…it’s time to breathe.
It’s the end of the year. You are done packing countless lunches, checking math homework, and working on spelling lists. I just added it up, and I have packed 564 school lunches so far this year, and I’m ready for a break!
Download our free “last day of school” printables and snap a quick photo of each of your kids to commemorate the day. The free download has a page for every grade from Kindergarten to Senior in high school.
Files are sized at 8×10 inches and are laid out on an 8.5 by 11 inch print sheet. You can go the easy route and just trim down the page for a sign for them to hold, or step up your game and put it in a cute 8×10 frame!
We’d love to see your pics! Please feel free to share on instagram with the hashtag #swankyshare. (Oh, yeah…did we mention that we give free stuff at random to our clients who share photos? Free stuff is good!)
September 03, 2015
3, 2, 1… Blast off! Everyone loves a good space party, and this astronaut theme covers all the bases! I’ve gathered up some of my favorite ideas here, and included links to all of these wonderful sites below the photo. Check out my Pinterest astronaut party idea board for new ideas as I keep adding them.
TIP: Check back later this week because we’ll be offering a free printable Space Party item!
1. Invitations by Swanky Press (printed and DIY are both available).
2. Jet Pack DIY Craft (using recycled 2-liter bottles!) – found on DoodleCraft.
3. Moon Cake from AllForTheBoys.
4. Moon Rocks (chocolates in scrunched up aluminum foil) from Mondocherry.
5. Astronaut Cookies from SugarySweetThings.
6. Planet Mobiles from The Sweetest Occasion.
7. Space Shuttle Place Cards from Babble.
8. Favor tags (or stickers) from Swanky Press, of course!
8. Rocket Ship Straw Toppers (DIY & Printable!) from Buggy and Buddy.
9. DIY Rocket Favors from Youaremyfave.com.
10. Planet cupcake wrappers from Your Little Cupcake.
11. DIY Star Garland from PiggyBankParties.
July 10, 2015
Keeping with our Strawberry theme this week, we have made a fee printable Strawberry Party Welcome Sign. The 8×10 inch sign is editable, so you can type in any wording you want!
To use, download the sign by clicking here or on the image above. Then download the latest version of Adobe Reader for free. Open the sign PDF in Reader, and type in any text you want.
July 07, 2015
Strawberry season is here – which makes a wonderful theme for a birthday party! I’ve gathered up some of my favorite ideas here, and included links to all of these wonderful sites below the photo. Check out my Pinterest strawberry party idea board for new ideas as I keep adding them.
TIP: Check back later this week because we’ll be offering a free printable Strawberry item!
1. Invitations by Swanky Press (printed and DIY are both available).
2. DIY tutorial for a tissue paper strawberry from TheHouseThatLarsBuilt.com.
3. Amazing Strawberry Cake – found on EverythingFab and cake was made by GloriousTreats.
4. DIY Strawberry Garland from StudioDIY.com.
5. Strawberry Beanbag Game from HelloBee.com.
6. Embroidered Strawberry Tank from ModernFrills. (BTW…I love Modern Frills. She’s made shirts for my girls and they are always amazing quality!)
7. Strawberry Balloons (red polka dot balloons embellished with green construction paper stems)
8. Strawberry Shortcake Skewers from Verjaardaghapjes.
9. Strawberry party favors from CatchMyParty and TwinkleTwinkleLittleParty.
10. Strawberry Mason Jar from ReclaimedCulture.
11. Strawberry Sugar Cookies from MunchinMuncies.com.
June 21, 2015
One of my favorite party themes for summer is a Popsicle Party. You can throw it at home, in the neighborhood park, or at a pool. It’s simple, inexpensive, and with a bit of inspiration (below!) can really be a pulled-together event your little girl will always remember. You can follow my popsicle party board on Pinterest – I’ll be adding new pins as I get ideas.
1. Popsicle Birthday Invitation: I designed this invitation in one of my favorite summer color schemes. The invitation will make the girls smile, but is still sophisticated enough to please mom. The 2 sided print adds a pop of color – and we can add your daughter’s photo to the back for a personal touch. (Fun! – we just added a DIY version of this invitation to our etsy shop)
2. Popsicle Piñata: Oh Happy Day has an AMAZING tutorial for a giant popsicle piñata. While your learning how to make this, be sure to check out their party shop. They’ve got great party supplies in just about every color… (and I’m drooling over their 3-tier wooden cake stand, too!).
3. Embroidered Birthday T-shirt: SweetPeaStitches on etsy makes an adorable birthday popsicle t-shirt. The birthday girl will be sure to wear this long after the party has ended – it will be a cute top all summer long!
4. Popsicle Cake Pops: Ella at OneCakeADay.com made this wonderful DIY tutorial for popsicle cake pops for us. She makes it look so easy!
5. Yum Popsicle Sticks: These adorable “yum” popsicle sticks are from Sucre Shop on etsy.
6. Popsicle Favor Boxes: Claudine Hellmuth came up with a wonderful idea for popsicle favor boxes – and even put together a video so you can see exactly how to make them. Thanks, Claudine! Please check out her etsy shop, too. I think I’m going to be getting some other favor box themes from her!
7. Sidewalk Chalk ‘Popsicles’: The brilliant folks over at Hello, Wonderful came up with this tutorial for sidewalk chalk popsicles. These will be so fun to use at the party, plus will make great decorations!
8. Popsicle Tote Bags: The Creature Comforts Blog gives a great tutorial on making popsicle tote bags!
9. Popsicle Garland: Another brilliant idea by OhHappyDay.com – using foam pool noodles to make giant popsicle garland! This is perfect for the dessert table backdrop.
December 22, 2014
My kids and I have been busy baking this weekend, and we are getting ready to hand out cookies to our friends and neighbors. (Sorry for the spoiler to those of you that read my blog!) I made some gift tags to put on our cookies, and thought I’d share. You can download the free printable here, or by click on the image above. Enjoy!
November 22, 2014
Happy Thanksgiving! I thought I’d share the food tents that I will be using on my table setting this week. They are designed on a chalkboard background, with a hand drawn turkey and a classic chalk font.
Simply download the Word Document for the printable files. Make sure you have the font, Chalk Hand Lettering” installed on your computer. You can download the font for free here. Or, if you prefer, you can use any font installed on your computer. Then simply open the Word document, add your own wording in the text fields, and print out as many as you like.
Note: I designed these to work as either folded “tents” or flat place cards. There is a thin grey line on the print sheet. You can either score along that line for tents, or cut along that line to make flat place cards.
You can use these for more than food, too! Put the names of each guest on a card, and use at their place setting. You can also fill out the text field with things you are thankful for, and make a thoughtful centerpiece.
October 20, 2014
Today I have a guest post from the very talented Naera from Cake Dutchess. She has taken adorable little teddy bears and turned them into zombies for Halloween. These fondant toppers would look great on a cake in a group, or individually on halloween cupcakes.
Sugarpaste
Needle/Scriber-tool
Ball tool
August 27, 2014
It’s boiling hot in Nashville this week, which got us in the mood for a popsicle party! It’s an easy party to throw, whether it’s for a birthday or just an end of summer bash.
I asked Ella at Ella Sugar Boutique to help out with an idea for the popsicle party, and she came up with an easy-to-follow diy tutorial for popsicle cake pops! We’ll post more party inspiration ideas later this week, but I wanted to get you started with this adorable tutorial. (Here’s how to find Ella on Facebook and Etsy.)
To get started, you’ll need to make a basic cake pop recipe. Make a cake from cake mix using the directions on the box. Then, after it has cooled, crumble it in a bowl and add buttercream frosting until it is a doughy consistency.
Ella did such an amazing job making these popsicles…they are a perfect match for our Swanky Press Popsicle Party Invitation!
Fun Side Note: Both Ella and I are engineers who have taken a creative turn. We hit it off when we first met, but only later realized that we each have two very technical degrees Ella: software engineering and a masters in IT (from Harvard, no less); Me: nuclear engineering and a masters in environmental engineering. We both took our technical backgrounds and ended up with creative careers. I just love the tech+creative mashup, and can’t wait to work on more projects with Ella!
June 29, 2014
Summer is one of my favorite party seasons – and it’s the time of year I need to decide on the party for my youngest child. There are just so many fun summer themes to choose from: tiki party, flamingos, share party, popsicles…you name it! Here’s the roundup of the latest summer party designs from Swanky Press.
Sources:
Little Surfer Dude Baby Shower Invitation
Camping Party Invitation
May 22, 2014
I thew a mermaid party for my youngest daughter, which you can read about in an earlier blog post, and I’ve gotten a ton of questions about the mermaid potion. (And thousands of repins on Pinterest.) You can read below how the game worked, how we made the potion, and most importantly, download the sign for free!
When we were getting ready for the party, at the last minute another daughter and I decide to make up an imagination game where the girls would think they had mermaid tails when they were in the pool, but that the “humans” wouldn’t be able to see them.
The girls had to drink a magic potion, and then sign “a contract” that they were willing to become mermaids. Once they did this, they all ran and jumped into the pool, and grew imaginary tails. The mermaid potion was simply 7-up with food coloring. I bought 2 bottles of sparkling water at the grocery store that morning, we drank the water and used the empty glass jars to fill with our potion. Because they had screw-top lids, it kept the potion nice and fizzy until we were ready for the girls to sign the contract.
The sign is sized at 8×10 inches. You can just download it, print it out on cardstock, and it’s ready to use. Make sure you save it as a keepsake after the party. Those precious little signatures will be fun to look at a few years down the road when the girls grow up!
If you download the sign, I’d love you to leave a comment letting me know! And of course, if you need mermaid invitations or printable food tents, Swanky Press has those, too.
May 05, 2014
My 7 year old is busy planning her birthday party (she’s like her mom and loves all the details). She has a few different ideas, so I’m putting together some party inspiration boards for her to choose between. The party isn’t until late summer, so she has time to decide which theme she wants.
The first idea she wants to explore is a pink flamingo party at the pool. I’m envisioning a mass of plastic pink flamingos at the entrance, and then these details as you enter the party.You can follow my flamingo party board on Pinterest – I’ll be adding new pins as I get ideas.
Flamingo Birthday Invitation: I designed the invitation with this party in mind. We usually invite 20 or so girls, so I loved the visual of a flock of flamingos in the water. The invitation will make the girls smile, but is still sophisticated enough to please mom. The 2 sided print adds a pop of color – and we can add your daughter’s photo to the back for a personal touch.
Flamingo Cupcake Stand: I just adore this flamingo cupcake stand! I wouldn’t just use it for this party, though – it would be great at all sorts of summer gatherings.
Flamingo Swim Suit: This aqua flamingo swim suit from Garnet Hill was the inspiration behind the party. We got it as a gift from Grandma this year, and it’s just adorable. {Thanks again, Grandma!}
Blue and Pink Macarons: I found this photo on Tumbler, but can’t locate the original source for it. If anyone knows, please let me know in the comments so I can give credit. Martha Stewart has a good recipe if you want to try making macarons yourself.
Pink Flamingo Cookies: I found this image on Pinterest, and it doesn’t link to the original source. Again, leave a comment if you have any idea who should get credit. The cookies are adorable, and the perfect shade of pink. Another idea would be to make a cookie with the flamingo body, and then use a striped paper straw for the legs. Cookies on a stick are always a hit at parties.
Flamingo Lollipops: These white chocolate flamingo lollipops are adorable. I found them on Chasing Pink Fireflies on Etsy. You should check out her full shop – the cake pops are adorable, and she’s got something for just about every party theme.
Flamingo Straw Toppers: I found the flamingo straw toppers at Oriental Trading Company. They come with ugly pink straws, so I just did a small diy hack and opened the straw toppers and put in a cute paper straw that matched my party decor. The straw toppers are only $2.50 for a dozen, and they really add a nice touch to the party.
Coral/Watermelon Sun Dress: This easy sundress for mom is perfect for the party. You do realize that her party is a reason for you to get a new dress, right? ??
Tissue Poms: I found these poms on ebay (under $10 for 3). That’s a great deal, or if you have the inclination, you can make some yourself – see my diy tutorial here.
Paper Goods: I’m in love with the striped aqua square paper plates and pink polka dot napkins from Smash Cake & Company. This shop has all sorts of darling party goods – it’s definitely worth checking them out.
Chalkboard Sign: I think this is my favorite idea for the party – this awesome chalkboard frame is from Shugabee Lane on etsy. She does lots of bold frame colors and has a lot of different sizes. I’d put a chalkboard frame at the pool entrance to welcome the guests – and then, of course, I can use it later in the Swanky Press office. It’s that cute!