Parties – Page 4

Let Them Have Cake! A Wedding Cake Surprise for my Brother

July 30, 2014 chantelledoll

Back in June my little brother tied the knot. He is the last of all our siblings to make the step, but has managed to beat us all to the alter in terms of age. I was a little surprised when I first found out his plans to get married so quickly, but he couldn’t have picked a lovelier wife and just seeing the two of them together I know they are the perfect match.

When I first found out he was engaged, my brother had mentioned maybe having me help with doing some cupcakes for the dessert. Since I had done a massive cake for my older sister’s wedding, it seemed fitting that he would ask and was something I was more then willing to tackle. Then he spent some time in the daily chaos that is my life and I think he got scared of burdening me with one more task. He and his wife looked at buying a cake from a local bakery but I think it ended up being one of those additional wedding details that they just didn’t feel was worth the cost when they already were paying for other desserts with their catered meal.

Whatever the reasons, I decided that I still wanted him to have a cake. I have enjoyed gifting my time and talents making cakes and creating candy buffets for our other siblings wedding’s, so it just felt wrong not to do something equally special for him. I know that he enjoys my baking and was confident enough in my baking skills that I could surprise him with something he and his guests could both enjoy.

The planning process for the cake ended up being a lot more challenging then I would have expected. The bride had a pinterest board of cake ideas, but browsing through the many different cakes just confused me more. I know the couple themselves struggled when they were still planning a cake and looking for the perfect cake topper so I was stressed to find something they would really like. I also was up against the clock a little because up until a few weeks before the wedding I thought they were still ordering themselves a small cutting cake.

One thing I did know is that I wanted to incorporate my dad’s favorite cake. Our dad passed during my second year of university and sadly has not been there to see any of his four children get married. For my older sisters S’mores themed wedding cake, I incorporated the cake base of my dad’s favorite chocolate cake. One cake just didn’t seem impressive enough so, for my brother, I decided to make two cakes – one being Dad’s Chocolate Cake and the second a Wildberry and Almond swirl to match the purple in the wedding colors.

For the toppers, I ended up cutting out the wedding graphic from the invitation and attached it to skewers to stick into the cake. The bride had designed it herself so I knew it was an image she liked and decided it would look cute atop the cake. To compliment the owl image, I recreated the flower graphics also used on the invite and printed off several of them to glue to toothpicks and stick throughout the two cakes. On the second cake, I saw a cute banner as one of the ideas on her pinterest board, so I decided to go with that and use the phrase “Better Together”. I knew they didn’t like lovey-dovey sayings, so this seemed perfect. I think paper cut-outs looked cute on the cakes and it was a very inexpensive option for the toppers.

I kept the icing finishes simple, with a more rustic buttercream technique on the wildberry cake and a simple swirl pattern on the chocolate cake.

To go with my gift of cake, I came across Green Apple Danglers on Etsy that makes these adorable personalized forks. I had a pair done with “Mr” and “Mrs” and added their wedding date at the end of each fork.

To cut the cakes, I knew the wedding couple didn’t really want the traditional “pretty” wedding knife and server set that they would not know what to do with after the wedding. My older sister was struggling to come up with a good gift idea and I know my brother has always wanted a really good kitchen knife, so I made the suggestion and that became the cake cutting knife. I think that knife it has to be one of the sharpest knives ever used to cut a wedding cake!

Both cakes turned out delicious and I was glad I was able to pull it off as a surprise for the happy couple. The bride happened to tag along to Costco on the day I went to buy the supplies and I was so happy she didn’t question my need for 4 pounds of butter and 4 bags of icing sugar!

One other great detail on their wedding day was these adorable candy packet’s my mom made for the favors. She used her Cricut to cut each of the pieces and then stamped and assembled each by hand. Tucked inside the final sleeves were a couple York Peppermint Patties (yum!). I think this clearly shows where I get my craftiness from and I look forward to sharing more of her card creations in future blog posts.

Congratulations again Dylan and Jodi! Wishing you a lifetime of love, happiness and all things sweet.

And, if you want to learn more about my lovely new sister-in-law Jodi, hop on over to her beauty and lifestyle blog Up the Rollercoaster.

Celebrations, Parties, Recipes, Sweet

Giant Peanut Butter Cups and Birthday Banners

July 1, 2014July 9, 2014 chantelledoll

We celebrated my husband’s birthday over the weekend. He says he doesn’t really care whether or not I do anything for it, but I do like to try and make it special. It is especially hard since I go all out for the kids birthdays and that leaves them expecting something spectacular every time there is a birthday in the house to celebrate.

I have tried planning parties/get togethers for him in the past and it has always been a big bust. This year it was just our family of four and my brother and new sister in law who joined us for one final dinner before they head off across the country for school in Halifax. My original plan was to try go-karting, but the weather wasn’t very cooperative and my silly husband preferred to spend the day hauling rock, raking out sand and laying the patio in our backyard. We ended up just having a really nice barbeque dinner and I surprised him by making a giant cake version of his favorite chocolate bar:

Inside the chocolate shell of his giant peanut butter cups were layers of chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream frosting and chocolate ganache. With that combo I knew it was going to be good, but I was still surprised how delicious the final result actually was!

I didn’t really follow a recipe.

The cake layer was a boxed mix, baked in the bottom section of my giant cupcake pan to give me the right shape.

The peanut butter frosting was actually some leftover buttercream I had frozen from doing my brother’s wedding cake at the beginning of the month. Once thawed, I whipped it in my stand mixer with a couple giant spoonfuls of peanut butter.

The outer shells were simply melted milk chocolate chips I spread with a spatula into the cupcake base section of the same giant cupcake tin. I did it in two layers and once hardened in the fridge they were fairly easy to pop out of the pan in one solid piece. This is a method I had done before for my daughters giant cupcake birthday cake so I was fairly confident it would work out.

The chocolate ganache layer on top was a basic ganache recipe made by melting the same milk chocolate chips with some whipping cream. I did mine in the microwave to keep it easy.

I had the basic idea in my head and was very happy to discover this great instructional video on youtube. I could post a recipe and directions, but MyCupcakeAddiction does such a great job that you might as well just check out her Make a GIANT Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup video! Hers is prettier then mine, but in the end I was pretty happy with my results.

I don’t decorate for my husband’s birthday as I would for the kids, but I do like to throw up a birthday banner to recognize the day and add a festive feel to the house for the kids. I ended up finding some baseball themed paper plates and napkins at Michaels, so my 4 year old and I decided to go with a bit of a baseball theme since lately daddy has been really into watching the Toronto Blue Jays play.

Do you recognize the letters in the birthday banner? It is repurposed from Keira’s Snow White Picnic Party we had back in May.

I loved the simplicity of this birch birthday banner I came across from scoutmob.com and was looking for an easy, inexpensive way to replicate it for her party.

As with most of my projects, the solution was found within the aisles of Dollarama. I came across these wooden letters in the craft section and grabbed a few bags to give me the letters I needed to spell out “Happy Birthday Keira”. I needed a way to attach the letters to my twine, so I picked up a bag of mini clothespins at Michaels and decided to hot glue those to each of the letters. As I was doing this I had a bit of an AHA! moment and realized that the clothespins would make the letters totally reuseable and reconfigurable.

For the Snow White themed banner I picked up some apple wooden shapes at Micheals to fit in between the words. I loved the little extra touch they added so I decided to add baseball’s to daddy’s birthday banner. They have all kinds of great painted and unpainted wooden shapes at Michaels (pirate ships, puppies, lady bugs, cupcakes) so it wasn’t hard to find something that worked with my theme. To attach them, I hot glued the same mini clothespins on that I had used for the letters.

And just to show how versatile this idea is, here are the same letters strung across the cake table I did at my brother’s wedding. (Which I still need to do a full post on!)

The possibilities really are endless for spelling out everything from Happy Birthday to Merry Christmas or Happy Easter. The ribbon or twine can easily be switched out to match your party theme and the inexpensive wooden shapes help add that little extra touch. This is a great item to have in the party cupboard and mine has already gotten great use just in the two months since I made them.

Celebrations, Parties, Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday – Jones Soda Baby Shower Favors

May 29, 2014 chantelledoll

My old coworker and friend is expecting a baby any day now and recently posted facebook pictures of the adorable Jones Soda bottle favors her sister made for her baby shower. It reminded me of the Jones Soda favors I had created for my own shower and prompted me to have my own Throwback Thursdays on Dolled Up Design to feature some of my older projects.

My baby shower was less of a shower and more of a meet-and-greet, taking place a month or so after Camden was born. My sister was kind enough to come up to my house to host it, but I wanted to be involved so I ended up making the cupcakes, cookies and favors for it. I think this was the first glimpse into my insane party planning that was to come!

The theme was a Boy Shower, playing off the classic poem “What are little boys made of? Snips, and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails”. It was co-ed and my sister served up boy-friendly foods such as chicken wings and sliders. There was also plenty of beer for the male (and female) guests!

For the favor bottles, I incorporated the rhyme as the ingredients portion of the Soda bottle labels and used the nutritional information section to include my little guys birth stats. Once the template was done, it was pretty quick to edit so I ended up doing 3 versions for the 3 different flavors of Soda I had.

To create the labels I simply printed them onto photo paper using my home printer, and then attached them to the bottles with strong double sided tape.

This is such a fun and versatile idea! I have seen it used for everything from weddings to first birthday parties. Since her baby isn’t here yet, my co-worker’s featured pictures of her husband and herself as babies. Really, the sky is the limit when it comes to picking images and changing label information and even choosing a soda type that color coordinates with your event!

Celebrations, Parties

Keira’s Snow White Picnic Party

May 26, 2014March 27, 2017 chantelledoll

This party was so much fun to plan and execute! I love planning parties for my son, but there’s just something about the opportunity to use ruffles and bows that is that much more exciting for me.

The inspiration for her second birthday party came from some of Keira’s favorite toys – her Fisher Price Disney Princesses and Playsets. I am not a huge fan of a lot of the Disney Princess merchandise out there, but I love the Little People versions because they are just so cute! Santa brought her the Disney Little People Castle for her first Christmas and her auntie Erin ended up buying her the adorable set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to go with it. This past Christmas they came out with a Dwarves cottage and Ariel playset so she ended up getting the cottage for Christmas and she was excited to get the Ariel set from her brother for her 2nd birthday.

Continue reading “Keira’s Snow White Picnic Party” →

Celebrations, Parties, Recipes, Savory, Sweet

Recipes for a Harry Potter Feast

May 16, 2014May 16, 2014 chantelledoll

In my opinion, food is the most important element at a party. I love picking menu items that reflect my party theme and are something a little out of the ordinary for my guests to try.

For my Harry Potter party, I wanted foods that were reflective of the great feasts described in the books and shown in the movies. I kept it to finger foods, but chose items with a British twist. My menu included mini chicken pub pies, mini beef wellington’s, barbequed chicken wings, individual spinach salads, a Kahlua baked brie with toasted baguette and grapes, warm crab dip with tortilla chips, stuffed mushroom caps, guacamole devilled eggs, a mashed potato bar and a variety of pastries and cake.

French Onion Stuffed Mushroom Caps

These were a bit of a last minute addition and one of the biggest hits on the food table. I normally do mushroom caps stuffed with a breadcrumb mixture, but I was looking for a good option for my party guests with gluten issues. The Pioneer Woman uses grated gruyere in her original recipe, but I kept it simple by using pre-sliced swiss cheese.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp butter
2 large onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup beef broth
7 dashes Worcestershire sauce
Splash of red wine
3 sandwich sized slices of swiss cheese
24 whole white mushrooms
minced parsley (optional)

Directions

In a medium skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Saute onions in the melted butter, 15-20 minutes until soft. Add in the wine, beef broth and Worcestershire sauce and cook for another 5 minutes. Once liquid is cooked down, set aside.
Clean mushrooms and remve stems, then spread on a cookie sheet. Fill each mushroom with some of the cooled onion mixture and top with a small piece of the swiss cheese.
Bake 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees. If desired, place under a broiler for the final minutes to brown the cheese slightly.
Sprinkle with minced parsley and serve warm.

Kahlua & Pecan Baked Brie

Melty, gooey and oh so tasty! This was my favorite and is definitely a recipe I will be repeating. It is only 4 ingredients but the end result is both impressive and delicious. The original recipe, with much prettier pictures then my lopsided mess, can be found at My Life as a Mrs.

Ingredients

1 large wheel of Brie (13.2 oz)
2/3 cup toasted pecans, chopped
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 Tablespoons Kahlua
Choice of dippers – crackers, apple slices, toasted baguette

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Use a sharp knife to score around the top edge of the brie and remove the entire top circle of rind. Place in brie baker or center of an oven safe platter.
Mix the pecans, brown sugar and Kahlua in a bowl. Spread mixture over the top of your prepared brie.
Bake in preheated oven for 8 – 15 minutes. The brown sugar mixture should begin to bubble, but the cheese should still be holding its shape when done.
Serve warm with your dippers.

Guacamole Devilled (Dragon) Eggs

This was my least favorite recipe to prepare due to the fact that I still haven’t found the perfect way to take the shells off a boiled egg. The guacamole filling was a prettier green a couple hours before the party when I prepared them and put them in the fridge, so I would recommend making these up last minute to serve to guests. They were a nice change from the traditional devilled egg and the color worked with the Dragon Eggs label I gave them. The original recipe was found on Simply Recipes.

Ingredients

6 hard boiled eggs
2 ripe avacados
1 Tbsp lime (or lemon) juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sour cream
1 Tbsp cilantro, plus several leaves for garnish
1/2 jalapeno pepper, minced finely
1 Tbsp green onion (or chives)

Directions

Peel the hardboiled eggs and slice in half lengthwise. Carefully coop out the cooked yolks and arrange the egg whites nicely on a platter.
Cut the avocado in half, removing the pit and scooping out the flesh. Place in a bowl and roughly mash with a fork. Mash in 2-4 halves of cooked egg yolk into the avocado.
Sprinkle with lime juice and salt. Stir in the sour cream, chopped cilantro, jalapeno pepper and green onion.
Fill the egg whites with the avocado mixture, using a spoon or piping bag. Garnish each with a cilantro leaf.

Mini Spinach Salads with Strawberries, Candied Almonds and Homemade Poppyseed Dressing

In the past I have always just bought bottled poppyseed dressing for my spinach salad because it seemed like something that would be complicated to make. Because of my guests with gluten issues, I opted to make my own this time just to ensure all ingredients were gluten friendly. I was shocked how easily this dressing recipe from Dine & Dish came together and how delicious it was. I don’t think I will be buying bottled poppyseed dressing again!

Salad Ingredients

1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds
1 bag of fresh baby spinach
1 medium red onion, sliced thinly
1 carton of fresh strawberries, diced

Dressing Ingredients

1/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp poppy seeds

Directions

For the candied almonds: On the stovetop, pour 1/4 cup sugar into a heavy skillet and slowly melt over low heat. Once it has liquefied, add almonds and stir to coat. Spread the coated almond mixture onto a foil sheet to cool and then break apart if necessary.
To make the dressing: Whisk together the vinegar, sugar, finely chopped onion, dijon mustard, and salt. Once thoroughly combined, gradually add in the canola oil and then stir in the poppyseeds.
To make the salad: Layer the baby spinach, chopped strawberries and sliced onions in a large bowl or individual dishes. Top with a small handful of candied almonds and pour on the poppyseed dressing to taste.

Mashed Potato Bar

This is not really a recipe, but I am sharing because it went over so well at the party. My co-host was kind enough to prepare a large batch of mashed potatoes and I provided a variety of toppings for guests to use to dress up their potatoes. We served the potatoes from a large plastic cauldron and small plastic bowls from Dollar Tree worked perfect for the individual servings of potatoes. Our toppings included gravy, sour cream, cheddar cheese, green onions and bacon bits but I have seen other more elaborate examples of potato bars that include items such as grilled shrimp and sautéed mushrooms.

Desserts

Of course there were also plenty of desserts. My co-host brought delicious pumpkin pasties and cauldron cakes, while I baked up Pumpkin Fudge and the Treacle Tarts. We also had “Hogwarts Cookies” which were simply the Celebration brand cookies that come nicely imprinted with a castle image right in the chocolate!

Treacle Tarts

My treacle tarts recipe comes from the Kitchen Magpie. There are many different treacle tart recipes out there, but I knew I needed to try this one when I saw she was another local Edmonton blogger. She also has some other great Harry Potter party ideas, so be sure to check her out.

I was expecting something close to a buttertart, but they have more of a creamy lemon flavor. I didn’t make it to the British import store to buy the actual treacle and corn syrup recommended in the recipe, but I think they were still authentic enough to pass for my Harry Potter party.

Ingredients

1/2 cup of golden corn syrup (Lyle’s golden syrup is recommended)
1/4 cup half and half cream
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp fancy molasses
1 tbsp. melted butter
1 egg
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
24 mini tart shells (2 inch)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large bowl, combine the corn syrup, half and half, lemon zest, lemon juice, molasses, melted butter,egg and bread crumbs. Mix thoroughly.
Place the tart shells on a cookie sheet and fill each to the brim with the syrup mixture.
Bake in the oven for 13-15 minutes, until the tarts shells are lightly browned and the mixture is bubbling.
Enjoy either warm or cold, with or without whipped cream on top.

These, and other Harry Potter food ideas, can all be found on my Pinterest planning board.

And if you haven’t already seen all the details of my Harry Potter Wedding shower, please click here.

Celebrations, Parties

Honeydukes at Home

May 14, 2014 chantelledoll

I have already mentioned that I know very little when it comes to Harry Potter. To create a Harry Potter themed couple’s wedding shower required a lot of browsing on pinterest and “borrowing” of other people’s ideas to nail down my theme.

One of the first items I came across in my pinterest searches was the iconic Chocolate Frog and I knew instantly this was something we had to have at the party. As I continued to search ideas, I quickly realized the Chocolate Frogs were just one of the many magical candies in the Harry Potter realm and got excited that it was the perfect opportunity for a candy buffet.

I love candy buffets – the beautifully displayed candy adds a lot of visual appeal to the party and it is hard to find a party guests who doesn’t get just a little bit excited about candy! It also didn’t hurt that after seeing the candy buffet at my son’s third birthday, my brother hinted that he would love his own candy buffet. With him and his wife-to-be as my guests of honor at this party, I decided to seize the opportunity.

My candy stand was put together on a lightweight metal shelf we picked up from Ikea during Black Friday. My husband tried to argue we didn’t need it, but it was on sale and I knew it would come in handy for parties. I then Dolled it up by building a top valence out of dollar store foam core and gluing on some beautiful aqua and white chevron gift wrap. To finish off the look, I printed of a Honeydukes logo I found online, mounted it to foamcore and attached it to my valance with a lot of hot glue and patience. The 3D effect of the sign was partly a design decision, but more so a result of the size restrictions of my home printer and having to print the logo in two parts!

I found most of the candy at our local Bulk Barn and then labelled it with a Harry Potter spin. Gummy Frogs became “Swamp Frogs”, gummy mice were “Ice Mice”, chocolate covered nuts were “Cockroach Clusters” and my rock candy suckers were called “Rock Candy Wands”. We also had Choco Balls, Lemon Drops, Bertie Bott’s Beans, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, gummy Slytherin snakes, gummy Butterfly Wings and Chocolate Snitches.

I ended up ordering a frog chocolate mold off ebay and melted my own chocolate down to create the iconic Chocolate Frogs. It was my first time making molded chocolate and I was surprised how easy the process was! I already had the leaf shaped platters from hosting a Gnome themed wedding shower for my sister so those worked well to display the frogs, snakes and snitches.

My sister kindly offered to help with the party so I put her to work making the chocolate snitches. They were simply a Ferrero Rocher chocolate with cut-out wings taped to it. They were displayed alongside gummy “Ice Mice” and gummy “Sugared Butterfly Wings”.

One of the biggest hits was the ridiculously long “Slytherin snakes” I found at the bulk foods store. I had them coiled up in a leaf shaped dish so it was a surprise everytime someone would grab one from the dish only to end up with a massive gummy reptile. My little guy was with me when we picked them up and begged me for two weeks to try one, but they were so big I only ended up buying six or so for the party and needed them all. He finally got one at the party so he was happy little muggle.

I already had most of the glass containers for my display and the remainder I used were found at Dollar Tree. The plastic cauldrons, cardboard Spell Books and Harry Potter glasses were all from orientaltrading.com and I found the small pink and white chevron bags in the party aisle at Target. The Honeydukes labels on the bags were simply printed onto label paper on my home laser printer and then stuck to the bag.

After the candy was bought, the whole thing came together pretty easily and I couldn’t have been happier with the final look. It looked amazing as part of my Harry Potter Couple’s Wedding Shower, and the guests all seemed happy to go home with bags full of delicious candy.

For other examples of great Honeydukes candy displays, please visit my pinterest board!

Celebrations, Parties

A Very Harry Potter Couple’s Wedding Shower

May 13, 2014November 19, 2015 chantelledoll

I love the idea of a couple’s wedding shower! I’ll admit that I was a bit confused and unsure when my brother first suggested that is what he and his wife-to-be would like, but now that it is done and over with I think it is a wonderful idea. The couple gets to celebrate their upcoming marriage together with family and friends – because isn’t being together really what an engagement is all about? They will each have their separate stag and stagette parties, but I love that this gave them the opportunity to celebrate with their collective friends.

The Harry Potter theme was something the bride-to-be requested and, even though I have never read a Harry Potter book, I was happy to oblige. I love me a good themed party and my lack of Harry Potter knowledge just gave me a little extra challenge in creating the perfect party. There is no shortage of Potter party ideas on pinterest so it proved fairly easy to pull things together and the hardest part became figuring out when to stop!

I, of course, began with the invites. You can see the full details on the invites here.

I loved the way the invites turned out, so I decided to carry the imagery across to my party décor and designed these large banners to hang behind the food table.

I used the same graphic style for a sign which greeted guests at the front door. I always dislike not knowing if I am in the location for a party so I like to have some sort of wreath or sign on my front door indicating to people that they are in the right place.

Inside, I transformed my front foyer into Platform 9 3/4 with the help of some wrapped cardboard boxes, a dollar store owl, a Harry Potter Scarf and glasses, a broom and a lovely birdcage borrowed from my sister.

The drink of choice was Butterbeer and it was served out of a barrel my sister crafted from some plastic dollar store plant pots and ribbon. The actual butterbeer was made following this great recipe from Just Sweet & Simple that included a delightful whipped topping.

There were also alcoholic choices at our Three Broomsticks stand including a couple varieties of Elf Made Wine, Ogden’s Old Firewhiskey, and a bottle of Butterscotch Schnapps, which made a delicious addition to the Butterbeer.

Drinks were served out of adorable “Magic Potion” paper cups I found on Oriental Trading. They have a whole line of Wizard Realm products so I ended up ordering the cups along with napkins, paper dessert plates, spellbook treat boxes, mini cauldrons and plastic Harry Potter glasses. They were well suited to the party and I carried their color scheme throughout my labels and pintable’s. It just so happens that the wedding colors are also blue and purple so I don’t think it could have worked out more perfectly!

The main food table was layered with purple and blue plastic table cloths and then decorated with candelabras, cardboard books, and fresh cut flowers displayed in upcycled blue glass beer bottles. The brick background was also bought off Oriental Trading and DIY floating candles created from battery operated tealights and paper were hung on fishing line above the table to add the finishing touch to my “great hall”.

I served a variety of British inspired finger foods, worthy of the finest feast in the Great Hall at Hogwart’s. The food included individual chicken pub pies, mini beef wellington, barbequed chicken wings, spinach salad, guacamole devilled eggs, Kahlua and pecan baked brie, warm crab dip and a mashed potato bar.

We also couldn’t forget all the great Harry Potter sweets, so platters were filled with treacle tarts, pumpkin fudge, cauldron cakes, pumpkin pasties and Hogwart’s biscuits.

And just in case that wasn’t enough sweets, we had our very own Honeyduke’s stand right off the main food table.

I love creating candy displays so I was very excited to learn about Honeyduke’s in my research and come up with all the different candy I could incorporate into a display. Party guests were invited to fill their small Honeydukes branded paper bags with everything from Bertie Bott’s Beans, Drooble’s best blowing gum and chocolate frogs to long gummy Slytherin snakes, rock candy wands and golden snitches.

Speaking of snitches, the one shower game we did have was Quidditch Pong. The Maid of Honor did a wonderful job creating the hoops and balls that we displayed on a folding table covered in an artificial turf tablecloth.

Their wasn’t much drinking happening at the shower, but I do know the kids sure had a fun time trying to get the balls in the cups!

It turned out to be an amazing, laid back day celebrating my brother and my soon to be sister-in-law. I got to meet their lovely friends, we all got to eat some great food and I was excited that all my close family members were able to come share in the happy occasion.

I will be sharing more detailed photos of the Honeydukes candy display and a food post with recipes in the upcoming days so please be sure to check back!

And if you’re still looking for more Harry Potter party ideas? Visit my pinterest board to see some other great parties and inspiration.

Celebrations, Parties

Snow White 2nd Birthday Invites

May 8, 2014May 16, 2014 chantelledoll

In a few short weeks my baby will be turning two. I am a wee bit sad to be officially moving out of the baby stage, but excited to see the little lady she is blossoming into. The invites are out so I am excited to share what I have come up with for her birthday invitations and party theme!

I love having a little girl because it means I can go all out with the bows and frills for the party. Princesses are a pretty common theme for little girls so I wanted to take a stab at it, but wanted something a little less common. Keira has a Fisher Price Little People Castle with all the Disney princesses that she loves and for Christmas she got the matching Snow White’s cottage. We have the full set of Dwarves to accompany Snow White and I always thought they were adorable so I decided that Snow White would be the perfect inspiration for her party.

I drew up a graphic of the Little People version of Snow White to use on the invites and will be incorporating it on the cupcake toppers and throughout the party.

The only thing cuter then the Little People Snow White is my own Snow White! Seriously, how sweet and adorable is she? (I may be a bit biased!) I picked up this Snow White costume at clearance after Halloween and was happy that she was cooperative enough to let me get a good shot for the invite. I got a few other good shots that I think I will print and use in frames on the party tables.

My original thought was to have her wear the Snow White dress for the party, but I don’t think that is very practical for our playground venue. I ended up ordering this adorable custom shirt and can’t wait to have Keira wear it!

Be sure to check out MissDelaneyShop on Etsy to find this and other great princess or superhero shirts and dresses!

I still have lots to do for the party, but I am excited to see the details coming together. The party will have a picnic spin with picnic type foods and, of course, lots of apples! I can’t wait to share everything with you in a few weeks.

Be sure to check out my Snow White Party pinterest board for more ideas!

Celebrations, Parties

Quidditch Inspired Invites for a Harry Potter Themed Couples Shower

April 11, 2014March 16, 2015 chantelledoll

Confession: I have never read Harry Potter. I vaguely remember watching the first movie, but that was way back when it first came out and I couldn’t remember any of the details now if I tried. The second closest I have come to having anything to do with Harry Potter was a small exhibit we happened upon in the Marseilles train station on our Europe trip in 2009. Displayed within the different train cars were some cool props and memorabilia from the movie, but knowing very little about the series it was not much for me to get excited about.

When my brother brought up the idea of helping plan a couple’s wedding shower for his bride-to-be and hinted that she would like a Harry Potter theme, I admit I was a little daunted and less then excited. Then my Pinterest search skills took over and I quickly learned there was a lot that could be done with the theme – hello butterbeer, chocolate frogs, and a Honeydukes themed candy buffet! I could go on, but I don’t want to spoil too many of the ideas I have in store for the happy couple.

My original thought for the invite was to do something with owls, but in my Pinterest searches I came across these adorable quidditch mugs from TooLegitTooKnit on Etsy and knew right away it would work perfectly for the front of the invite.

Borrowing the idea, I split my invite down the middle and put “He’s Found a Catch” on one side with the complimentary “She’s Found a Keeper” on the other half. To add interest, I incorporated an overlapping lightening bolt down the middle which both mimicked Harry’s birth mark and served as a way to close up the invitations. They was a bit of a pain to individually cut and score with my exacto knife, but luckily I only had 14 of them to make up!

The lightening bolt closure opened up to the party details printed inside on clean white cardstock.

For the envelopes I was able to find some “Owlgram” graphics online that I printed onto the front and backs of the envelopes. I had to print addresses on anyway, so this really didn’t take much extra effort and gave it that special touch. I went with a rustic Kraft type envelope to match the paper of the invite inside.

The maid of honor also suggested we do something with a wax seal and began to hunt high and low for a wax seal kit. I did a quick search and came across Just Another Day in Paradise‘s post for her Harry Potter Birthday invitations and was excited to see she was able to get the wax seal look easily with clay. I ended up finding an owl pendant at Michael’s and used it to imprint into some purple Fimo clay. I ended up baking my clay medallions and then hot gluing onto each envelope to make sure they survived the trip through the mail.

I love the way these turned out and am excited to get going on all the other party details, even if I am a bit of a dummy when it comes to Harry Potter.

I can appreciate the magic and wonder that comes with Harry Potter and I do hope to one day eventually read the books and watch all the movies with my kids. I know many adults love the series so I can imagine it is that much better when experiencing it together through the eyes of a child!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

There have been a few requests for the artwork files for these invites so I am providing them here for your use. You can download the main cover artwork pdf here: HP Shower Invite Artwork_DolledUpDesign

I have laid it out on a legal (8.5″x14″) sized piece of paper and it is designed to be folded and fit neatly in a 5.625″ x 4.375″ envelope.

The inside details can be added to this high resolution jpeg:

Final size should be 5″x3.75″ to fit neatly inside the above cover.

The fonts I used are:

Lumos from dafont.com
Magic School from dafont.com
ParryHotter from 1001fonts.com
Witches Magic from dafont.com

And, finally, here are a few owl post seals to use on the envelopes:

I appreciate all the positive feedback on the invitations and I hope this can help some of you create your very own! Don’t forget to check out all my other Harry Potter party posts for other great food and decoration ideas.

Celebrations, Parties

Pizza and a Pinata for my Ninja Turtle Fan!

March 27, 2014March 31, 2016 chantelledoll

For the past few years, my in-laws have begun travelling south to warmer weather for 2 months out of the year. I think it is amazing for them that they are able to do this, but it unfortunately means they miss out on some of the grandkid’s birthday celebrations, including Camden’s. To make up for it, we usually have a special visit with them as soon as they are back from the States. Continue reading “Pizza and a Pinata for my Ninja Turtle Fan!” →