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BLANKETS & CRIB SHEETS
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ONESIES®
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BIRTHDAY
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MUGS
Pantone just announced it’s color of the year for 2013: Emerald Green. All you brides, party planners, and handmade artists – you’ll be sure to see lots of this gorgeous green in all the trends for the new year. We’ve rounded up a few of our handmade favorites from etsy. (shopping links below)
1) Leather Jourals, The Orange Windmill; 2). Chevron Ombre Necklace, Grete Botamidi; 3) Felted Stones, FeltJar; 4) Washi Tape, Back to Zero; 5) Fabulous Rough Emerald Twin Ring, Metalmorphoz
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today I am sharing some free printable Thanksgiving food labels or name cards.
You can use them to assign seats at the dining table, or simply to label “Aunt Gilda’s Giblet Gravy”. The cards are available with both a chevron and quatrefoil pattern, and in a range of traditional Thanksgiving colors. To download printable file, click here or click on the photos below. Please feel free to leave a comment – I’d love to hear your feedback!
I posted last Friday about my current design obsession, mason jars. To keep with the theme, I just created a new line of mason jar inspired holiday cards and gift tags. The famous “Ball” logo has been replaced with “Joy and Peace” and a vintage, distressed chevron pattern. I created several styles of gift tags, and they are my holiday gift to you. (I guess it’s obvious from these, but I’m using a non-traditional holiday color scheme this year, focusing on aqua, peacock, grey, and smoke!)
The gift tags are perfect to tie with ribbon (or twine) onto a mason jar filled with a dessert, or ready to make recipe. I filled mine with my favorite homemade hot chocolate ingredients. It’s a simple gesture, but would be so nice to hand out to the neighbors during the holidays.
We would normally sell a printable file with these tags for $10, but I decided I’m much rather give them out for free if you’d be willing to give us your feedback on our new website. We just relaunched this month, and I’d love to know your favorite products or any suggestions for things you’d like to see. If you’ll answer our simple 2-question survey, we’ll email you the printable tags for free.
Mason Jar Hot Chocolate Recipe:
1 cup of non-fat dry milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup non-sweetened cocoa
1/2 cup marshmallows
2 crumbled candy canes
Layer the ingredients in the mason jar. Your gift recipient can just fill with hot water and mix for a yummy treat.
If anyone has other mason jar recipes for holiday giving that they’d like to share, please leave a comment below. I’m always looking for new ideas!
I love mason jars. I have no idea why they have such a hold over me. Perhaps it’s remembering the cellar filled with canned vegetables on my great grandparents’ farm in Nebraska. Perhaps it’s watching my kids (& hubby) grab them for juice cups each morning. They are equally hip yet vintage – affordable but elegant. I hope you enjoy some of my favorite…
Mason Jars For Drinks
SOURCES: 1) Strawberry party by The Amber Image; 2) waiter and tray The Jetset Prepster; 3) lime slices and paper straws The Estate of Things; 4) Baby Bird Sprinkle Kara’s Party Ideas; 5) Make-ahead frozen mason jar margaritas The Yummy Life; 6) Iced tub lemonade Yummy Wedding Food. And the common theme: vintage-style paper straws!
Mason Jars for Desserts
SOURCES: 1) Fruit Pies by Heather Bullard | Lifestyle; 2) s’mores Life of a Vintage Lover; 3) cupcake in a jar The Antique Door; 4) Mixed Berry Cheesecase My Baking Addiction; 5) birthday cake in a jar The Family Kitchen; 6) Coffee scented cake in a mini mason jar The Formal Fringe.
Mason Jars for Party Decor
SOURCES: 1) Candle by Heather Bullard | Lifestyle; 2) burlap flower vase Life of a Vintage Lover; 3) mason jar chandelier The Antique Door; 4) painted mason jar vase Faux Cakery on etsy; 5) breath-taking lantern table-scape Urban Times.
***Stay tuned, because I’ll be posting some free printable Mason Jar Gift tags in the next day or two!***
Happy Halloween everyone! We are heading out to a Halloween party tonight, and I was in need of a hostess gift. I sent my hubby to the wine store and he found two great bottles of wine, Spanish Demon and Freakshow. Both are perfect Halloween-themed hostess gifts. However, they needed a little “costume”.
I went with the “eat, drink, and be merry” Christmas theme, but switched it to “eat, drink and be scary” Halloween theme. I loved these labels so much, I also created a printable wine bottle label to match. You can either print out the gift tags (and print on cardstock /attach with ribbon) or the wine bottle labels (print on paper / attach with double sided tape). Either way, happy haunting!
Click the images below to download your free printables.
Today I am so excited to have a guest post by Amy of Amy’s Party Ideas. She has made a wonderful tutorial for you showing how to make a spiderweb garland – just in time for Halloween! If you don’t know Amy yet, you need to check out her blog. She has the most amazing, creative ideas for parties!
You can buy the spider web charger at several places online. Here’s a link to it on Birthday Direct. You can get the glitter cardstock at most local craft shops.
If you notice in the photo above, there are the cutest tree “sticks” in the candy apples! Head over to Amy’s blog to find out how to make them. They would be a perfect touch for your Halloween party!
Check out this adorable elephant party thrown by the super talented, Althea Heussner of Bakermama, for her daughter Ayla’s first birthday…
The pink and chocolate brown banner announces her very special day.
We think that the table looks especially delicious. Filled with sweet treats like iced elephant cookies, cotton candy meringues and hand-made chocolate peanuts.
And the cake pops…well, who doesn’t love cake pops?
But the piece de resistance is this gorgeous cake. We love the soft pink polka dots and matching stripes. Simple, but elegant….
With a sweet grey elephant on top who says, “Happy Birthday sweet Ayla!”
Thanks for sharing, Bakermama!
SOURCES:
cake- Bakermama
notecards – Swanky Press
Pantone, the color company, today released it’s top picks for fashion color trends for Spring 2013. The list is culled from fashion designer’s planned Spring 2013 releases. Many of these colors will make the leap from the runways into stationery and invitation design, and should remain strong throughout Summer 2013. If you’re planning a major event for 2013, be sure to take note.
A wonderful client of Swanky Press just thew a karate themed party for her son, Jonathan. It was a karate theme, she pulled off the details wonderfully. Kathy started with our Karate Invitation, and added tons of fun details.
You can read about all the party elements on Kathy’s blog, Here on Hartland. I really like the detail of the broken board on the cake. She also had us create a printable file for her fruit punch bottles – cleverly named “hai ya punch!”
As you know, I’m a big fan of having a homemade touch at every party. Kathy took simple karate candy mold and made a chocolate bar for each guest to take home. The candy mold is only $1.75, so this is a very economical way to add a special touch to the party.
Kathy had custom fortune cookies made at kcfortunecookiefactory.com.
If you ae having a karate party, feel free to check out Swanky Press’ karate Pinterest board. And if you have some fun ideas of your own, please leave a comment and share!
I spent the last 2 nights watching the swimming Olympic trials with my husband and kids. It’s always such a great time…the build up to the Olympics and then the actual games themselves. Of course, the 4th of July is next week, too. There are just so many reasons to celebrate with a patriotic flair!
I’ve created a set of free printable party circles for anyone who’s going to be celebrating either the 4th or the Olympics. There are 4 fresh designs, and they all print out on one 8.5 by 11 sheet. You can use them for all sorts of things – cupcake toppers, napkin rings, favor bags, table decor…you name it. If you decide you want to use these as circles, I highly recommend my favorite 2-inch paper punch. These are sized perfectly to work with it.
To download, you can click on this link or on the image above. If you use the circles, I’d love it if you leave a comment below and let me know. Thanks!
Almost every little girl dreams of being a ballerina at one point or another, so a ballet-themed birthday party is sure to be a crowd pleaser. One of our most popular birthday invitations is our ballet birthday invite, so I thought I’d pull together some party ideas to make your planning a little simpler.
I’ll keep adding ideas to my Pinterest ballerina party board over time, so if you like what you see, make sure to follow my boards. Keep reading after the inspiration board to find the sources for these cute finds!
1. The Tutu
Needless to say it wouldn’t be a ballerina party if the guest of honor didn’t show up in a tutu! My favorite tutus are handmade by Kristal at Atutudes. (Yes, these are the same tutus that my kindergartner wears and loves.) The great photo is by Jitter Bug Pics.
2. The Invitation
This simple, modern invitation uses chevron stripes and a hand-drawn ballerina silhouette. Colors can be changed to match your theme, but the shades of “ballet slipper pink” are always in style. You can this invitation at Swanky Press or on Etsy. This invite looks especially nice when printed two-sided with the chevron stripes extending across the back.
3. The Cake
I love the idea of the classic ruffle cake – but Rachel at Fondant Finger really took it to the next level by adding ombre coloring. This cake is just too pretty for words! Check out Fondant Finger’s Facebook page for photos of all of Rachel’s amazing cakes.
4. Favor Bags
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you already know I’m a big fan of the personalized favor bags over at Paper Nook. You really can’t get anything cuter – and they are only $2.50 each.
5. Marshmallow Pops
Marshmallow pops are a fun new twist on the cake pop trend – and WAY easier to pull off. Deanna over at the Mommy Gaga blog has a wonderful tutorial for marshmallow pops. She came up with the diy tutorial for Valentine’s day, but I think these would work great for a Ballet party (or a princess party)! The Mommy Gaga blog and her Facebook page are definitely worth checking out – Deanna’s constantly adding fun new ideas for moms.
6. Ballerina Doll Craft
Every party needs an activity, and these yarn pom-pom ballerina dolls (made from clothespins) are great for the 5 to 8 year old crowd. You can ready the full tutorial here.
7. Ruffled Table Skirt
I found this photo of a wedding cake table on Pinterest, and I just fell in love with it. The ruffled table skirt on a round table simply completes the ballerina look with pure elegance. I love, love, love this idea!
I’ve not been able to track down whose wedding it was, but it appears the photo was taken by the talented Janet Howard at JanetHowardStudios. Janet’s website is great visual inspiration. She’s photographed some really beautiful weddings, and the ideas she’s captured can translate well into baby showers, bridal parties, or even kid’s birthday parties.
8. Ballet Slipper Cookies
These ballet shoe cookies are just darling – and sure to be the hit of the party! Lori at Lori’s Place on etsy sells them – and I just adore the little ribbon detail she added. Lori also has cute tutu cookies for sale.
9. Tutu Cupcake Stand
This tutu cupcake stand would be wonderful for the party -and could be used for lots of other girl or pink parties in the future. It would also look great for a girl baby shower or sip and see. You can find it at Oh So Sweet Stands on etsy (and they’ve got square cupcake stands, too).
10. Ruffled Crepe Paper
I’m a big fan of ruffled crepe paper – it can be used for traditional decorating, but could also be used to dress up all sorts of other party items to give them that “tutu feel”. Consider adding it to party hats, cups, or thank you cards. The Red Robin on etsy has a good selection of colors and great prices, too.
11. Vintage-Style Ballerina Cupcake Toppers
These vintage inspired ballerina cupcake toppers can really add a sweet touch to the party. Obviously, they’d be darling on cupcakes, but there are so many other ways you could incorporate them into the party decor. You can get them at Abby Place on etsy, and she’ll even hand paint them a special color to match your party decor for a small extra fee.
