Planning a Dinosaur Party for a Girl!

It is that time of year again, time to start planning my daughter's summer birthday party. For those of you who have followed along the past few years know that two of my kids have birthdays right after the holidays in December and January. So when they were very little we decided we would have a family only party on their real birthday with dinner and cake, then in the summer throw a party with their friends.
This year, Aly has decided she wants a dinosaur themed party. She loves the thoughts of being a paleontologist, she wants to search for fossils and figure out what they are and where they came from. I love it!  This is going to be fun, leave it to my Aly to choose a theme out of the ordinary, well at least when it comes to your typical girls party themes!

We have decided on a color scheme (which is above, apple green, aqua, lilac and violet), a few patterns and have the invitations printed. OH and Aly has decided we must have Push Up Pops! Now the real work begins...putting it all together! You better believe I have my copy of "Push-up Pops" book by Courtney Dial Whitmore and my Amy Atlas' "Sweet Designs" book  on hand for inspiration!!

Stay tuned as I share my party planning experience, list of vendors, fun products and recipes over the next couple of weeks. It's going to be DINO-RIFFIC!! ha!!
Hugs,
Pam

Toot Your Horn Tuesday {Bellenza}

photos courtesy of Bellenza 2012

I have a very special holiday "Toot Your Horn" feature today from Bellenza! Beautiful Valentine themed dessert and drinks table inspiration. 

Here is what Bellenza shared with us :

If you’re surprising a dear bride-friend with a Valentine’s-themed bridal shower with a chic and modern slant, what decorating tips and tricks might you use for the desserts and drinks display?

Our first “must” would be location! Find a spot at the venue where the display is sure to be noticed, and position your table there. 

Then, our second “must” would be lighting! You could opt for dramatic side illumination, as in our example, an overhead chandelier or spotlight, or even glowing candles. Anything to showcase your display.

Then, the rest depends on the styling details. Here, we kept our color focus throughout—a chic red and white motif from the sweet treats to the floral accents, even to the pink champagne!
But don’t forget, guests have to be just as delighted with how your desserts taste as how pretty they look. So, while you may select goodies for their color, shape, and decorations, think of those with delectable flavors as well.

A big thank you to Lissa from Bellenza for sharing such beautiful photos and information with us. Bellenza, "toot your horn"!  Be sure to hop on over to Bellenza for even more tips and tricks on how to wow your guests HERE.

If you would like to share a party related event, favor, or recipe with us so that we can feature you on our "Toot Your Horn" segment, feel free to email us here with your information and photos.

Hugs,
Pam

Hanging with my Witches, a Bewitching Hour party

A seriously fun tradition, as soon as the Halloween decorations come out (which we used to complain about) a small group of my girlies and I get together to celebrate Fall (even if it is 2 months before the holiday). Any ol' excuse will do to get the girls together and eat cupcakes and share a cocktail!

A few weeks back I decorated the front porch to greet my girlies and this is how it turned out.

{The Decorations}

The first saying that came to me for the "Bewitching Hour" collection was "Hanging with my Witches" and literally I giggled out loud. What can I say,  I am dorky like that! 

While my intentions were to go more modern with this set, I couldn't help but decorate on the Shabby Chic side. The decorations I already had on hand played a big part in that as well. 

A tutorial on these fun paper medallions along with a free download of the "Spooky" paper I used will be coming next week so stay tuned for that!

The 8" x 10" PS Harvey digital prints have been selling like hot cakes! I can't wait to see how everyone is decorating with this one as well as the matching party shapes! 

{The Sweets}

These coffin boxes are an exclusive to Creative Cuts and More and as you can image a popular favor box for Halloween. I got them in silver for a more glamorous look! The cauldron, spiders and bat die cuts are also from Creative Cuts and More and come in a huge selection of colors. The are great for unique place cards! 

 Originally I had a patterned background behind my party shapes  and kept going back and forth between modern and a vintage look. SO what I decided in the end was to keep it blank for YOU to decide which styling direction you wanted to go.  For my cupcake toppers I really wanted to add some Chevron to match my Party Starters Petal Boxes, (as you can see in the background, perfect for sending home those little cupcakes and cookies!) so I punch out a piece of Chevron paper with a scalloped punch and attached the Bewitching Party Shapes to the front center with a piece of foam tape. Pops the center up a bit and gives the toppers a bit more dimension! You can do this with ANY patterned paper to match your decor style and color scheme. These party shapes will work with a beautiful baroque pattern or a whimsical polka dots pattern...the choice is yours. 

The absolutely adorable mini sugar cookies were from Cookies Are My Canvas. I was lucky enough to get on the waiting list to have these bright green, black and white cookies sent to me. Truly beautiful cookies by Christina, be sure to check out her work and keep her in mind for future events.

These little babies are Tickled Pink cocktails. Mix champagne and X-Rated Fusion liqueur, which is a blood orange, mango and passion fruit blend. Tasty! I adorned each glass with a shimmery silver bat, for an extra touch of spookiness.

Be sure to grab your PS Harvey "Bewitching Hour" prints and party shapes this Halloween season. An inexpensive and easy way to decorate for what is always needed, A GIRL'S NIGHT OUT!

Hugs,
Pam

What is in store for this week.

I am SO excited to celebrate this Wednesday with the Grand Opening of PS Harvey and the grand reopening of Party Starters!! All of this will take place HERE on my new site Pamela Smerker Designs.com YIPPEE!!

Here is a sneak peek of what's in store for you all!!

Stay tuned... lots of sweets, inspiration and prizes to come this week. 

Happy Monday!!

Baby Shower Treats {Tasty Treats Thursday}

Dawn rounded up some fabulous Tasty Treat inspiration for us this week. Check out the following blogs for all of the details on these adorable baby shower ideas! 

Monkey Baby Welcome Cake

"Ready To Pop" box and Popcorn Recipe

Baby Christening Cakepops (work perfectly for a baby shower too)

Ducky Baby Shower Punch

Have a wonderful day!! 

For A Special Teacher

I love designing my party favor boxes, especially with amazing designer labels created by my dear friends. So you can image how excited I was when I saw that my dear blogging friend Rebekah of A Blissful Nest had created a free collection of teacher notes and matching party circles. These adorable free printables have the warm feeling of fall, yet are perfect all year long!

My kids start back to school this week, so what better gift for my daughter to give her new 1st grade teacher then a set of cute note cards and a Petal Box full of tasty little treats!

I was seriously thrilled when I saw that Rebekah had incorporated a Houndstooth pattern into her design. I just recently picked up a collection of different colors in Houndstooth for Fall and Winter to use for my boxes. As you can see they matched up perfectly and really gave my little Petal Boxes some texture.

Pam's DIY TIP: First print out a sheet of party circles. Cut one party circle out with your regular 2" circle or scalloped circle punch. Then using a 1" circle punch (or whichever size matches) cut out the inner party circle design. Apply foam tape or dots to the back of your inner circle and attach it right over the top of your larger circle in the center. This really give your tags, cupcake toppers or labels an extra pop! Try mixing and matching your inner and outer circles as well, they don't have to be matchy matchy!!

A big thank you to Rebekah for sharing her amazing talent with all of us. I hope you find a use for these fabulous note cards and party circles. The apple designed note cards would work great for a Thanksgiving Hostess gift along with one of my coordinating Petal boxes with a votive candle inside!! Always thinking people always thinking!! :)

Come on back tomorrow for a Christmas Party Blog Hop!!
Hugs,
Pam

Weird Science

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you probably know that I have been teaching myself how to use Illustrator. I have used this program for the past two years, but only in the past 4 months have I really started to USE this program. My first real project was the redesign of the Party Starters' logo, as you can see in the new blog banner here. After accomplishing this project I decided it was time to revamp some of my old party printables and create... Party Starters' "Party Shapes". Since I have had so many requests for a printable version of my son's "Hazardous Teen" party collection, this seemed to be the perfect set to start with.  Here they are...

For purchase click HERE

I added a few new "Warning" labels to the set as the original only had one. I might add that putting these together to take photos was a great excuse to make some cupcakes on Sunday. ;)

I will be selling these as finished product as well as "printables" for you to download and DIY. For now "Party Shapes" will be the only printables I will be creating as they work great not only as cupcake toppers, but they make fantastic tags for my favor boxes!

So the fun didn't stop with this set which is called "Weird Science". I worked nearly 16 hours straight on Saturday creating an additional 5 sets of "Party Shapes". Stay tuned, because I will be showing those off the rest of this week. SO, are there any themes you are in need of? I wonder if one of these will be on your list???

Hugs,
Pam

Party Starters Birthday Bash Finale!

While another birthday bash  is coming to an end, I am going to keep on celebrating and dreaming big in 2011. Again thank you all for making this year's party so special.

Custom Ruffled Favor Cake by Party Starters

 Your continued support of this SAH Mama is SO extremely appreciated, so to end our party with a bang I am doing something a bit crazy...I am giving you a coupon code for 50% off anything in the shop for the next 24 hours! Hurry... run... Will you pick up a ruffled cake favor set? How about some petal boxes? It is up to you! 

Your coupon code is: BDAYBASH

(This offer ends 7/9/11 at 12:30PM MST or G-7)

Land of Sweets cupcake toppers by Party Starters

Rainbow Chevron Petal Boxes by Party Starters

Last but not least....the winner of one dozen "Rainbow Chevron Petal Boxes" is Melissa who wrote:
 melismama said...

OMGosh these are amazing...So many ideas running thru my head. I would LOVE TO win a doz. of these fab boxes!
Thank you all for the birthday love this week...you guys are the best!! Have a wonderful weekend!! 

Hugs, Pam

Party Starters' Birthday Bash Day 3

I am completely humbled by the response I received from all of you on our Rainbow Chevron Petal Boxes!! I am thrilled to know that Rainbows are HOT this summer and that many of you could use this box. With that in mind I thought maybe a lot of you who are planning rainbow or art parties this summer and early fall could use these...

Click here to download place card set

Party Starters' gift to you, Rainbow Chevron place cards. Either write on or type in the wording for each goodie on your buffet table.

Don't forget to download our Chevron Thank You notes and enter for your chance to win some Rainbow Chevron Petal Boxes.

Happy Thursday!!
Hugs,
Pam

Party Starters' Birthday Bash 2011 Day 2

***This contest is now closed and our winner is melismama***

Continuing with the Chevron theme, our new Rainbow Chevron "Petal Boxes". How much fun are these boxes especially when you open them up and HELLO...a cake pop! Place a cupcake liner in the bottom of the box and put either a cakepop, cakeballs, chocolate covered oreos...or a mini cupcake inside! A fabulous favor for your guests to take home! I did this for my sons party and was able to put a cake pop and a chocolate covered oreo inside. 

So would you like to win one dozen of these new Rainbow Chevron "Petal Boxes"? 

Here is what you have to do:
Leave one comment here on this post by Friday, July 8, 2011 11:30AM MST (G-7). Make sure I have a way to contact you if you are chosen.

That's it! One winner will be chosen by random.org and announced on Friday, July 8, 2011 at noon MST.

Goodluck!

Party Starters Birthday Bash 2011

Hard to believe it has been two years, but here it is...Party Starters 2nd birthday! I am celebrating all week, and to start the festivities I have some freebies...

I am SO in love with the pattern "Chevron" and have been for the past couple of months. So I decided to go back to my roots (I started out as a greeting card designer) and create a note card set using the Chevron pattern and a simple sentiment, "Thank You".  Every party should end with a thank you card in the mail, right?!

You can download these cards for free HERE on Scribd. 

Thank you all for your continued support over the past two years, it means the world to me!!
More goodies and surprises to come this week, so make sure you stop back by!

Hugs,
Pam

Happy 2nd Birthday to Party Start Me!

Cupcake by Marlein Overakker

It is hard to believe another year is behind Party Starters. Two years ago Party Starters opened up a very small Etsy shop with only a couple of paper cake samples and. Now I am happy to offer not only paper cake favor sets, but 10 additional styles of party favor boxes as well as banners and other printed decorations.

While life has definitely thrown some curve balls at me, Party Starters has been my constant and continues to be my dream. So as a thank you to all of you who continue to follow I will have a few surprises for you next week. Look for some freebies, a giveaway and lots of inspiration! 

Party Starters 4th of July display 2010 featured on MarthaStewart.com

As for the 4th of July, are you celebrating this weekend? We will be going to our local park to watch the fireworks display over the lake tonight. Check out the 4th of July inspiration board I have put together on Pinterest to get your creative juices flowing!

4th of July Inspiration on Pinterest

Have a very happy and SAFE holiday!
Hugs,
Pam

*Did you know?

• "PartyStarters.com" was already taken so we thought "www.PartyStart.Me" was amusing and went for it! 
• "PartyStartMe" is Party Starters username on Twitter
• Our most popular blog post EVER is my daughter's "Shabby Chic Fairy Party"

"The Cake Is A Lie" Party {Real Party}

As I explained earlier our son who is 14 wanted a Portal (video game) themed party this year. Not an easy task as their aren't "party decorations" of any kind for this theme. SO everything was done from scratch! My husband chipped in by creating the t-shirt images, which I in turn used pieces of to create labels for the other party items. Without further ado...the party picts!

Since most of the video game takes place in a warehouse, I thought shelving and a brick background made for a more industrial feel. 

Since we are still living with my parents, we had the party at the park. Turned out to be a great idea so the kids could run around and drop "Propulsion Gel" everywhere! LOL

These are my Pedal boxes, which I found out work PERFECT for cake pops!! I placed a cupcake liner in the bottom of each box and set a cake pop inside. When the lid closes it allows for the stick to poke out. BRILLIANT! ALL of the adults loved taking this favor home with them. 

The fun "Candy Tubes" from Fancy That were perfect for holding orange Skittles. Yes we picked through a one pound bag just to get all of the orange ones out. 

 I found these awesome blue bottom, clear topped balls at Party City for only .99 each. The are like the plastic balls you get prices in from those gumball machines. We made t-shirts for each of the kids and put them inside these balls as party favors. Great idea for teens, since the small trinket stuff just doesn't go over well. You know...too cool for that kid stuff! LOL

Here are the cake pops all boxes up and ready to hand out at the end of the party. 

I made "Propulsion Gel" AKA Flubber. Here is the recipe, which was super easy and made just enough for 8 Glad containers full. EVERYONE even the adults had fun playing with this goo!

Repulsion Gel AKA Mountain Berry Powerade. 

Last but not least, my birthday boy with "GladO's Cake". The cake you are promised at the end of your mission in the game is a Black Forest cake, but since Ty isn't a big fan of cherries I made a three layer chocolate cake and decorated it to look like the cake in the game. I think he really liked it. 

Now onto planning birthday number 2 of the summer....Aly's surprise party!

Thanks for stopping in!
Hugs,
Pam


Flubber Recipe on Food.com