I've really enjoyed learning about Emily Ley and her business--what an inspiring lady and such cute goodies in her shop!

They are currently giving away a spot to her Making Brands Happen webinar.  This is an exciting opportunity for any small business--go enter!

If you follow me on any other forms of social media, you probably saw previews of the big MONSTER BASH we threw a few weeks ago. We were waiting to post pictures because the party was going to featured on a popular party planning site... and the post went up yesterday! We were so thrilled to be featured with Kara's Party Ideas again and were so honored they chose us.







My friend Jenn's little boy was turning three and we sweetly convinced him he needed a monster party. And eventually he gave in. Jenn is a fabulous photographer and I was lucky she was willing to throw and even crazier party than I could have dreamed up. And then make it look so lovely through her lens! And her BFF Mandie made the prettiest cake I've ever seen... and cupcakes... and cruffle pops. Just gorgeous.









The problem with this party is that Jenn and I couldn't really tell each other no. Custom printed fabric? Yes. Googly eyes on everything? Sure thing. Large vinyl backdrop? Of course. Thousands of monster silhouettes for confetti and garlands? Obviously.





The favor table had so many of my favorite parts--I loved the silhouette banner with cut out letters so much!  We grabbed some cheap white frames from Ikea and stuck more monster silhouettes in them, obviously with googly eyes. The favor table had little jars of Gobstoppers, hand dyed monsters and a darling little monster gumball machine.







And my other favorite part (well, looks like the whole party was my favorite part...) was the fun photobooth. Braden really liked the the props. :)





And my final favorite part--the coloring wall.  Did you know you can print engineer prints at Staples for practically free?  Well not free, but less than $10.  Such a fun way to add some decor to a room and give the kids a fun activity to do.  Braden could color until the end of time, so he was in HEAVEN.



All printables are available here.  And stay tuned for a few tutorials about making some of the tissue paper decorations! Hope you enjoyed the party--we had a blast planning and throwing it!

These boy party ideas were also featured on Spaceships and Laser Beams.
- See more at: http://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/blog/2013/02/party-central/boy-party-ideas-add-yours-to-our-linky#sthash.T9DBSrWk.dpuf

This Gingerbread Party was a blast! Jenn and I had so much fun planning it and pulling it all together. Printables are available here.



This Gingerbread Party Playdate was a GREAT holiday activity for preschoolers. Aside from it being tons of fun, it's easy to throw together an impressive party with Christmas decorations you already have and our FREE printables. We hosted a group of 2 and 3 year olds, but it could easily be adapted to an older crew.



We started off the event by having kiddos press pre-made dough into these great molds.  (You could also roll it out and let them cut it!)The kids came over to watch (from a distance!) as we slid the trays into the oven to bake.



All the kids reconvened around the table to listen to the story of the Gingerbread Man! There are lots of versions out there, but this one was one of Amazon's 3 for 4 deals, so I was able to stock up so all the kids could take one home!



After we finished the story we went to check on the cookies--but they were all gone! Just like in the story, the Gingerbread men had all run away.  The kiddos searched around the house for them--under the tree, in the toy bins around the kitchen... but couldn't find them! (For an older crew, you could have a grown up read clues to lead them to different rooms to search for the cookies--and even have the Gingerbread men cause some "Elf on the Shelf" type mayhem in each room!)



The kids found their way back to the decorating room and were so happy to see their treats.



They quickly got straight to decorating--and even quicker to eating.  The cookies were delicious.  We used mini squirt bottles so that the kids could apply icing in the least messy way possible and lined up bright colored sprinkles for the kids to scoop on.









And here's the finished product!  Guests took their cookies and an assortment of other treats home in these chevron treat bags.



How cute are our little chefs in the aprons and chef hats? We swooned over the embroidery that matched our little gingerbread man perfectly. Such little cuties.



Now on to the goodies! We joked that the theme of the party was sugar... dipped in sugar... topped with sugar.  But it's the holidays, so it's all fair game!



The treats are easy to keep relatively simple--plain white cupcakes, boxed Pepperidge Farm cookies, and Gingerbread Man Peeps, make for a darling table! If you want to make it a little fancier, dipped pretzels, oreos, marshmallows, cake balls and cake pops add a little extra to the party.  Aren't the Gingerbread Man Cake Pops PERFECT? Our fantastic vendors are listed below--all items are available for purchase if you aren't up for making your own sweets!









I could not handle how cute these fondant toppers were! Such a perfect way to make a simple cupcake match the party.  And I want to make these accordion folded cupcake toppers for EVERYTHING.  Tutorial coming soon!





Setting a table has become one of my favorite parts of party planning--glass Frappuccino bottles are cute with labels and straws and these glass plates from IKEA were perfect for catching stray sprinkles!













In addition to more sweets than any child could possible need, our little chefs took home the Gingerbread Man book, a coloring book (available as part of the free printable pack!) and the most darling cookies I've ever seen from J&J Bakeshop. It broke my heart a little to eat them!









YUM!

Printables, Chefs Hats and Party Styling: RV Parties
Photography: Peanut Butter and Jenny Photography
Gingerbread Man Illustration: Paper Tree House Studio
Gingerbread Man and House Sugar Cookies: J&J Bakeshop
Embroidery for Aprons: Elegant Embroidery by Lisa
Straws, Favor Bags and Twine: Fine and Dandy Party Shop

Printables are available here.  It comes with pdf files to make an 8 page coloring book, cupcake toppers and wrappers, straw flags, water bottle labels, treat bag toppers, mini candy wrappers, food labels, banner and coordinating paper.

Vic has already blogged about it, but I need to throw my two cents in too... we threw a rainbow baby shower for our good friend Vicki this weekend.  We had a blast picking out cute rainbow ideas on Pinterest... and nicely reining each other in when we started to go over the top.  Here's Vic and I with the mama-to-be.



I held myself back from designing eight zillion things for this party--I just made an invite, thank you cards and some favor tags.  I'll eventually make more to sell on Etsy but in the meantime you can buy the invitation here.  Did you know I love chevron-ny things?  I do.



Our most fun feat was baking rainbow colored treats.  They turned out MUCH better than I anticipated and were a lot of fun to make.  Although somehow we were convinced that we should take a shot of tequila in the middle of our baking.  The best part is that Sol and I bought the tequila at a Walmart in Mexico several years ago.  And even better is that our credit card was declined when we tried to buy it, so we had to take a cab back to our hotel, then back to Walmart to buy our Mexican loot.  Oh, Mexico.  Please don't judge me for any of that.  I think I only confessed that because I've had half a beer as I type this.  Please don't judge me for that either.  Anyways, a rainbow cake and some rainbow skewers.  Also the cute cookies in the picture above, painstakingly rolled and stacked by Vic.



Chevron Rainbow Shower!  It's a cute one, you know you want to buy all our stuff and throw one yourself...