New Fun Patterns

I am back and with a handful of fun new patterns for my boxes.

These will be available in the shop the first full week of May!! What pattern is your favorite and which color would you choose to have it in?

Hugs,
Pam

Blogging Friend Features {Real Parties}

It is such an incredible honor when my sweet blog followers contact me and tell me how much they love my work and enjoy reading my posts. What I really love is when these sweet people share their own party creations with me.  So today I wanted to share with you two lovely parties that were sent to me by Elena Teterina.

This first party is absolutely adorable! Elena did an excellent job creating a Owl themed 1st birthday party for her daughter, Gemma

* Mini Cakes Raspberry and Mini Cakes Double Chocolate *

* Butter Cookies, decorated with sugar paste *

* Meringue cake with a Raspberry Heart *

 

 

This second party Elena wanted to share was from her daughter, Rebecca's Halloween birthday party. Such great details and fun party decor!

* Party favors (the sign reads "trick or treat?" *

* "Bloody" pop corns *

What a great photo!! Love Rebecca's expression, priceless!

Make sure you hop on over to Elena's blog "Teterina in Wonderland" to see the rest of these parties. Thank you so much Elena for sharing these with me! I am grateful and extremely inspired!

If you have a party you would like to share, please feel free to contact me through my website. 

Have a great day friends!!

Hugs,

Pam

Gracie's Vintage Carnival {What's New Friday}

As I mentioned on Wednesday's post, I had worked with Corinn Rocker of Corley Designs on another project in the past. Well here is that project, a vintage inspired birthday carnival.

Photo collage courtesy of Bushel and Peck

photo collage courtesy of Bushel and Peck

 Corinn re-created an old school carnival birthday party using a soft pink and yellow color pallet. Corinn chose traditional games like "toss the can", where cans had custom labels to celebrate the birthday girl. Every game had a special prize, which was also their party favors. Another "old school" game was the "ping pong fish bowl". Children had to throw a ping pong into a glass bowl with a real fish, but instead of sending guests home with real goldfish their prize was a custom bag of soap with a fish inside make to look like the real deal. Both parents and kids loved this! Mini Gable boxes were front and center on the dessert table and inside were miniature cookies to match the color palette of the party. Corinn had custom place mats made for tables and used rock candy and cotton candy as decorative centerpieces for the children's tables. 

photo collage courtesy of Bushel and Peck

photo courtesy of Corley Designs

 Marshmallow Pops

photo courtesy of Corley Designs

photo courtesy of Corley Designs

photo courtesy of Corley Designs

Such an adorable party,  I personally love the "old school" games and HELLO did you see those adorable drinking bottles... I want some!!

Thank you Corinn for sharing yet another one of your amazing parties with us!!

Have a fabulous weekend friends!
hugs,
Pam

Credits

• Styling and Event Planning by Corinn Rocker of Corley Designs
• Bushel and Peck Paper  
• The Cookie Jar
• CarlinaSoapLady
• LilDoodlers
• Sidewalk Sensation
•  Marshmallow Pops by Stix-N-Pops 
• Custom Mini Gable Boxes Party Starters 
• Jennifer Cookies

Polka dots & Pirouettes {Whatever Wednesday}

My girlfriend's daughter, Amelia just had her first birthday, so to celebrate I styled this little afternoon party for her. I used the Polka dots & Pirouettes party set that I created for My Grafico using Zenware Designs Ballet clipart also from My Grafico.

  

Macarons from Green Eyed Susan...Amelia loved them (so did I)

 Favor wands for the older girls, also made cute decorations. 

I used the large party circles in the collection to create these.

Glass bottles with special wrappers were available for lemonade.

 Oh yeah those macarons are really good! 

Every birthday party needs cake and these cupcakes adorned with festive cupcake toppers were just the right size for all of the little kids.

Still enjoying the macarons, every little crum!

Macarons by Green Eyed Susan

 Buffet tent cards described everything on the table. 

 Have to have a banner and I wanted to create a sweet and simple one for Amelia. 

The Polka dots & Pirouette collection contains blank banner pieces. 

All you have to do is add the letters, print, cut and assemble.

 The cupcakes were good too! 

Happy 1st Birthday Amelia!! 

Thanks to my friend Chantelle for letting me share these. Hope you enjoyed looking.

Hugs,

Pam

Aly's Milk and Cookies Birthday Party {Real Party}

I have mentioned earlier that two of my three kids have birthday right after Christmas, so we celebrate their actual birthday with my side of the family (which consists of my parents and two brothers). Then in the Summer (spreading things out a bit) we throw a large 1/2 birthday party with my husband's side of the family and our kids friends. For Aly's 6th birthday a couple of weeks ago we celebrated with a low key "Milk and Cookies" party all done up in PINK of course! 

Who doesn't love milk and cookies, especially when you can glam up the way you serve your ice cold milk. I used inexpensive plastic margarita glasses adorned with a party circles tied on with the Twinery's "Cappuccino" twine. I then topped off the glass with a scalloped shaped gingersnap cookie.  I carefully sawed 1/3 of the way through each cookie so that they would sit on the rim. NOT and easy task as they snap easily, so if you try this make lots of extras!!! I think I went through half a box to get 8 cookies...although it was worth it, cause DANG they turned out cute if I do say so myself. LOL!

I was so lucky to have my little brother in town from California for the holidays. He is a baker, and a good one! So he took Aly one afternoon and baked cookies for the party. Aly of course loved all of the attention and even used her new Martha Stewart baking set she got for Christmas! SO sweet!! We also included "Wafers" which come in the perfect coordinating colors for this collection, pink, cream and brown as well as Sugar, Peppermint and Pirourette cookies.

Just because this is a Milk and Cookies party doesn't mean we could leave out the cake. I used mini cupcakes, so that we would have something to stick the birthday candle into and to show off the cupcake toppers!

 Using recycled Starbucks Frappuccino bottles I wrapped the bottles with a label then filled each bottle with milk.  I taped a banner piece to a lollipop stick then with a glue dot adhered it to the inside of each bottle. A unique way to display a sentiment or in this case, the birthday girl's name.

I think the item I love most on this table have to be the "Milk Carton" favor boxes filled with small cookies. These will be a new item showing up in my Etsy shop SOON!! 

Here is Aly posing again, she made sure her outfit matched her decor! Thanks Aunt Nana for the perfect birthday outfit!!

This party would work out perfect for a baby shower, toddler birthday or heck why not Valentine's Day!

I hope you had fun looking today. I am SO excited about tomorrow's "Tasty Treats Thursday" blog post...one word...ok two words...Dougnuts and GIVEAWAY!! Oh yeah Dough-A-Deer will be here with a fabulous Surprise!!

Thanks for stopping in today.
Hugs,
Pam

*I created the "Milk and Cookie Pink" printable party collection for Sanqunetti Design using Judy Sanqunetti's artwork which you can purchase HERE

**COMING SOON to Party Starters' Etsy Shop, finished product from Milk and Cookies the pink collection!** If you have any questions or you are interested in this set please feel free to contact me!

Owl Party

It is hard to believe another year is about over. Where does the time go? My kids are growing up so fast! My son Tyler said to me yesterday that he can't believe he is 14 years old already. My response, "I can't believe I am 38 already".  Now some of you might be thinking didn't Pam just have a party for her son, well yes 6 months ago. Since Tyler's birthday is 3 days after Christmas we celebrate a 1/2 birthday in the Summer with my husbands side of the family and his friends. On his real birthday we celebrate with just my side of the family, keeping it small. Although the party is much smaller I don't want to down grade the importance of his special day. Like I said in an earlier post Tyler has enjoyed reading the Guardians of Ga'hoole series, which is about Owls, hence the Owl themed party. So without further ado..

There were only 9 of us, 5 of which actually eat cake and other sweets, so there was no need for plates upon plates of goodies. The party was held after dinner, so no need for appetizers or beverages on the table. Like I said this was a small party and the only thing we needed was the birthday cake, although some blue cake pops managed to make their way onto the table.

This is my sad sorry attempt at creating an owl cake, although Tyler seemed to enjoy it quite a lot.
It had 5 layers of homemade chocolate cake & buttercream frosting. SO delicious, not so attractive and could have fed about 20 more people. We will be eating cake for a while!

Every birthday cake needs candles, so this bird got a flaming mohawk!

After creating this display it reminded me of making dioramas in Elementary school. I always loved creating scenes within shoe boxes to tell a story. Its fun to do the same thing only on a much larger scale as an adult! YEAH for letting my inner child out!!

Thanks for stopping in!
Hugs,
Pam

Bring On The Cake!

Today's post should pretty much cover it all when it comes to cakey goodness.  A great Vegan cake recipe, cupcake favors and cupcake decorations!

First up, this fun printable Cupcake Party collection created by Zboooh Design Studio. I love the gingham pattern used in this set and thought it would look adorable displayed on my daughter's play kitchen. I love using my kids favorite toys as props and this worked out perfectly.

The tags in this collection reminded me of old time jelly jar labels, which got me inspired...Cupcake In A Jar! I love sending home favors and this one is just so fun. Who wouldn't want to go home with a cupcake or two to enjoy later. I used a pint size mason jar, which fits two cupcakes with plenty of frosting. Take off the cupcake wrappers, place one cupcake in the bottom, pipe on some frosting, add some sprinkles and repeat each step a second time. Print out the label, cut and adhere to the front of the mason jar, SUPER EASY! I spruced it up a bit by adding a cupcake topper printable to the lid along with some gingham ribbon in three different colors along with a cupcake pick for decoration.

You can read more about this collection over at MG Party Impressions, where I have posted all of the details. This collection will also be available in my Etsy shop on January 10, 2011, customized, printed and assembled just for you!!

Now for the best chocolate cake recipe I have ever made...tasted...ok...drooling over here! My Mom made this cake for me growing up and I never realized the whole time that is was Vegan...which has been a nice little bonus for all of my friends with food allergies or of course who are Vegan. This cake is super easy to make, dense and moist.

Quick Chocolate Cake
Combine in large bowl

• 3 C flour
• 2 C sugar
• 6 tbls cocoa (either milk chocolate or dark, both are delicious)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Add

• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbls vinegar
• 2/3 C + 1 tbls vegetable oil
• 2 C + 1 tbls warm water

Beat well and pour into greased 9"x 13" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

For my son's birthday yesterday I used this recipe to make his 5 layer cake (2 batches). Here you can only see 4 of the layers. OH and of course I ruined the Vegan-ness of this cake by adding buttercream frosting.
The recipe for buttercream is the most amazing I have made which came from Brandi of Tweedle Dee Designs. I could literally eat a bowl of this frosting with a spoon. I would most likely feel like crap after, but yes it is that good!

Buttercream Frosting
Beat together

• 1 C butter
• 3 C powdered sugar
• 2 Tbls Heavy Cream
• 1 tsp vanilla 

I added about 1- 2 Tbls Hershey Syrup to get the brown I wanted for this cake, plus it added a hint of chocolatey goodness to the recipe. SO GOOD!!

Alright, hope you have been inspired to think out side of the box with your favors, displays and a new recipe...I am off to eat some cake! WHAT...its lunch time...

Hugs,
Pam

Tomorrow...Tyler's Owl Party, here's another sneak peak...

Owl's Make One HOOT Of A Party Theme!

Just wanted to pop in quick and give you a little sneak peak of the party I am working on today. It is my son, Tyler's birthday and he is a big fan of the book series "Guardians of Ga'hoole". So guess what the party theme is...Owls of course. This photo is the beginning of my backdrop. We are having a small celebration tonight, so a table display will be perfect.
I will be back later with my favorite cake and icing recipe along with photos from the party later this week!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday/long weekend!
Back to work...Hugs,
Pam

Diary of a MOMpreneur {December 2010}

WOW it has been a while since I have done a Diary entry...can you say craziness??? Of course I couldn't be more happy with how things are moving along and how Party Starters is evolving. I will just keep swimming and see where the future takes me.


I am sure you have all heard that I was asked to be the lead Party Planner. There are NO words to describe how much I am loving this new position and a part of such a great group of designers! I get to set up party after party every month...LOVE IT!! Here are photos from the first party I created for the My Grafico party blog called MG Party Impressions. A Jungle themed birthday, which would also be super cute for a baby shower!

This party collection was created by Blackleaf Studio, you can purchase the DIY printable collection HERE. Starting in January I will be selling this collection already printed, assembled AND I will customize the invitations, place cards and party favor toppers for you! So excited about this!!!

Another fun perk of this job is that I am also creating party printables using the amazing artwork created by the My Grafico designers. Here is my very first printable collection that I designed using clipart and pattern papers from Sanqunetti Designs. This Milk and Cookies party printable collection is not just for Christmas though, it has a ton of Birthday pieces as well as blank pieces that you can customize yourself! YES, this collection will also be available in my store in January 2011, printed, fully assembled and of course customizable! SO EXCITED!! You can find this DIY printable collection as well as the clipart and digital pattern paper HERE.

 I have lots more parties themes in the works, with my oldest son's (real) birthday on the 28th of this month, then my daughter's (real) birthday on January 6th. LOTS to do this month!! OH yes and I am officially my daughter's Daisy Troop's "Cookie Mom", so I will be starting all of that here real soon too!! Just not enough hours in the day...seriously!!

Anyway just wanted to share a tiny little portion of what I have been up to. See you on Monday with Day 9 of my 12 Days of Christmas Crafts and Party Favors!

Hugs,
Pam