Parties – Page 6

A Farm Fresh Candy Stand

September 2, 2013July 29, 2014 chantelledoll

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was when my brother in law agreed to let me take over the candy buffet for his wedding! I did a small candy buffet for my son’s 3rd birthday party, but it was small peanuts compared to having to plan something for 250 wedding guests. I was happy to have a creative project this summer, and judging by the happy faces at the wedding I think it was well worth all the effort and planning.

The bride and groom both grew up on farms so there was definite country vibe to their wedding. I originally toyed with doing a bright, colourful candy buffet, but decided on more of a farm stand inspiration because it seemed to suit the couple better. Sunflowers, bright red bandana’s, burlap and mason jars were easy décor choices and fit in with the red, black and white color scheme of the wedding.

The couple had some fantastic engagement photos that were taken on the farm and I really wanted to find a way to incorporate some of them into the décor. I had a photo frame sitting in my basement so I strung some twine across, printed the photos in Polaroid format and strung them up with mini clothespins. It was an inexpensive element and I love that it added a personal touch for the couple.

Signage for the buffet was designed and assembled by myself. Printed elements included candy bags, chalkboard inspired candy labels, vintage style farm signs with the bride and Groom’s favorites, and a large “Candy Stand” sign.

The same M&M and Skittles inspired logo was printed in black and white on small brown paper candy bags. These were a labour of love and involved a lot of cursing and paper jamming in my home printer.

The basket stand was my big showpiece and a bit of a DIY project. I found inexpensive wicker baskets at the dollar store and was originally going to have my husband build something out of wood to hold them. I ended up coming across a metal shoe rack for $10 and wouldn’t you know, the baskets fit perfect. To make it more rustic, I simply covered the metal rods in brown paper lunch bags and twine. It is not exactly what I envisioned, but I am still very happy with the result.

Another fun idea I came across in my pinterest searches was to use berry baskets to hold sweet treats. I was looking for alternative ways to display my candy besides the standard glass bowls and apothecary jars and these ended up being both cheap and unique. My “Berry Patch” was created by displaying various berry candy in the cardboard berry baskets.

The Groom’s favourite candy was gummi coke bottles so I decided the best way to display those would be an actual Coca-Cola bottle case. I trimmed out the bottle dividers and lined it in checkered paper to make it look a bit prettier and then used a coke bottle as decoration.

The bride really likes cows so I decided there needed to be a dairy section. I found old fashioned glass milk bottles and filled them with chocolate covered raisins and scotch mints to look like white and chocolate milk. The small glass containers that held the rest of the candies and the bride’s favourite, Chocolate Macaroons, were an IKEA find.

Fresh Eggs are a pretty common product at farm stands, so the natural choice was to include some Kinder Surprise eggs for the kids. I found this great egg basket at a thrift store and also set some out in egg cartons to finish the look.

A variety of old fashioned candy sticks were set out in mason jars and displayed in small stands I made out of small dollar store crates I glued together with wood glue. The most difficult part of this project was definitely narrowing down and deciding on only 8 candy stick flavors!

Once the party gets going at a wedding, I always find the reception venue to get so hot. I decided to add small freezies onto my candy buffet as a cool treat for the kids and adults. I provided scissors to cut them open and people were free to take the sealed ones home with them if they so chose.

As I’ve gathered the supplies and then slowly started buying the candy over the past couple months, my three year old has grown more and more excited. I am pretty sure he ate his weight in candy at the wedding and he has now been introduced to freezies.

All the elements came together better then I could have expected and I am so happy with the final result. It was a fun project for me to tackle and I am glad I could use my creativity and skills to play a part in the Bride and Groom’s special day.

Congratulations again to one of the sweetest couples I know!

Candy Buffet Sneak Preview (dolledupdesign.wordpress.com)
Love is Sweet (dolledupdesign.wordpress.com)

Celebrations, Everyday Life, Four Legged Fun, Parties

Happy Birthday Hound Dog! Plus a doggie cake recipe

August 20, 2013October 10, 2013 chantelledoll

I border on the edge of crazy when it comes to my dogs. They are dressed in themed costumes at Halloween, they each have their own stocking that gets filled at Christmas and birthdays are always celebrated with gifts and treats. Nova’s 5th birthday on August 19 was no exception. I baked her a homemade birthday cake using this recipe and made some vanilla raspberry cupcakes for the human members of our family to help celebrate.

Bassanova is a half basset hound and half English bulldog mix. She came into our lives as a total impulse purchase after I spotted her behind the glass at the pet store. I tried to walk away. I really did. She was just such an adorably unique mix that, before even consulting my husband, I found myself turning around and offering up my credit card to make her part of our family.

The kids absolutely adore her and she is one of the sweetest, most sensitive dogs I have ever met. At 70 lbs, she is way too big to be a lap dog but that doesn’t stop her from trying to find her way up for a snuggle.

Happy Birthday sweet girl! Thank you for bringing such joy to our lives.

Celebrations, Parties

Cupcakes by the Dozen: Keira’s First Birthday

August 17, 2013October 3, 2013 chantelledoll

We celebrated my little girl’s first birthday at the end of May with a pink, blue and green extravaganza of cupcakes. When I was first pregnant with Keira, I told my sister I would prefer to have a second boy, but I am so happy we ended up with one of each. Girls parties are a lot of fun!

Invitation

I started by designing the invitation with a cute cupcake graphic and a pink, green and blue chevron print to match a pennant banner I had ordered several months earlier.

Décor

I carried the same cupcake image from the card onto the drink and cup labels. You can also see the chevron banner below that I dolled up with cupcakes I cut from scrapbook paper.

The fireplace was decorated with a banner of giant cupcakes I crafted from coffee liners, and small paper lanterns I glued a crepe paper icing swirl to. Her name was cut out of poster paper in my color scheme and strung along the same line as the cupcakes. Above the fireplace was a framed image of her monthly shots and some chalkboard art.

I also found cheap photo mobiles at the dollar store so I decided to use those to display photo’s of all her “firsts” – first solids, first car ride, first Halloween, etc. The flower bouquet was a last minute addition, but were in my party colors and too perfect not to pass up at Costco.

Cupcake Buffet

I considered the cupcakes part of the party décor and chose icing colors and cupcake liners that coordinated.

I wanted a cupcake buffet, so I made 4 different types of mini cupcakes to give a good variety. Flavors included mint chocolate, cotton candy, neapolitan and cherry lime. Small egg carton containers were also provided to allow guests to take mini cupcakes home with them.

Birthday Cake

I already had a giant cupcake pan from my son’s first birthday so making a giant cupcake cake was an obvious choice. Even though I hate working with chocolate, I decided to attempt a chocolate liner for this one and was surprised how simple it ended up being. White buttercream was swirled on the top of the cake and I finished it off with tropical flavoured Mike’N’Ikes for the sprinkles.

Food

My original thought was to serve nothing but cupcake shaped food and I had a whole board of savoury cupcake ideas planned. I finally realized that this was a little overly ambitious and went with more of a barbeque theme menu that included just a couple cupcake shaped items.

I think the favorite food item by far was the twice baked potato cupcakes with sour cream icing and bacon bit sprinkles. We also served pulled pork filled cornbread cupcakes and I made the tortilla chips for the mango salsa cupcake shaped.

Favors

I wanted to give something useful as a favor so I came up with the idea of doing bleach pen shirts with each of the kids initials. They didn’t turn out quite as I expected, but they were still cute. To finish them off, I wrapped them around a cherry sucker and put them in a bowl to look like cupcakes. I also had some leftover stickers from the drink cups so those went on bottles of bubbles for the kids to play with at the party.

It was so much fun planning this party and I am thrilled with the way my first girly party turned out. There are tons of cupcake theme ideas out there and it was hard narrowing my ideas down – especially when it came to choosing the cupcake flavors! To see some of my inspiration and other great cupcake ideas and recipes, please visit my pinterest board here.

Celebrations, Parties

Happy National S’mores Day!

August 10, 2013October 10, 2013 chantelledoll

August 10 is National S’mores Day. I know this because it was included as part of the info on the wedding invite I designed for my sister’s camping weekend wedding last summer. At this time last year I was up to my elbows in marshmallow, graham crumbs and chocolate buttercream working to create the perfect wedding cake to fit in with the S’mores bar at her wedding.

For my first attempt at a tiered wedding cake, I’d say it turned out pretty darn good!

The inside of the cake was made up of graham cake, chocolate cake and a layer of homemade marshmallow. The outside was coated with buttercream as per the bride’s request and gave a bit more of a rustic feel. I have still never worked with fondant so I was happy to fulfill the buttercream request – homemade marshmallows and stacking cakes was enough new stuff for me to figure out with this project.

The decoration was fairly simple. I used a mixture of plain and toasted marshmallow’s and had them cascade down the side of the cake. Some twigs of decorative pearls finished off the look and added that little bit of sparkle.

As much fun as a 3 layered wedding cake was, I think I will keep things simple this S’mores day and attempt these S’mores cookie bars from Chocolate, Chocolate and More. For these and other great S’mores recipes, check out my pinterest board.

Celebrations, Parties

Chugga Chugga Two Two!

August 8, 2013October 3, 2013 chantelledoll

For Camden’s second birthday, I decided to go with a train theme. He had received a train set for Christmas so it seem like an easy theme to pull off between me working full time and being 6 months pregnant at the time. There are all kinds of Thomas party supplies out there, but I opted to go with a more simplistic red and blue color scheme. There are all kinds of Thomas party supplies out there, but I opted to go with a more simplistic red and blue color scheme.

I designed the invite myself and used a boarding pass for inspiration. My favourite touch was the puffs of smoke coming from the train forming 2’s.

Decorations mainly consisted of a train banner I cut out for the mantle and balloon garland I created and strung up throughout the main floor. I also had some small circular hanging decorations I created using a train graphic I designed for the invitation.

We kept the food simple with ready-to-bake pizzas, wings, fruit and veggies. Veggies were displayed in small plastic containers with paper wheels made to look like train boxcars.

My cake decorating skills are still pretty basic at this stage so I am very proud of how the cake turned out. I am still scared to attempt working with fondant so using toys as decoration is a quick and easy way to bring your kids favorite characters onto their cake. For those that didn’t want cake, I also had train shaped sugar cookies frosted with red and blue royal icing.

Please visit my pinterest planning board for more great train ideas.

Celebrations, Parties

A party! A big dog party!

August 8, 2013May 4, 2016 chantelledoll

One of my favorite books growing up was Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman. I was excited when I introduced it to my 2 year old son and he seemed to enjoy it just as much, but after reading it nightly for several months my enthusiasm for the book began to fade. It did, however, make my choice for a third birthday theme quite obvious.

I like to begin planning my parties at least a month in advance to give time to send out invites, order supplies and tackle all my DIY projects. I begin by perusing pinterest and doing a google image search to see if there are any other party ideas I can “borrow”. There is not a lot out there for Go, Dog. Go! parties so it proved to be a bit of a challenge, but ended up being a lot of fun to plan and execute.

Décor

One of my biggest DIY projects for this party was the paper fans and pennant banners. After searching online and not coming up with anything I really liked, I decided to make my own paper fans by folding and gluing scrapbook paper. I finished them off with printed images from the book and the scraps were cut down to make the pennant banners.

I found small wooden cars on orientaltrading.com that were very close to the cars the dogs ride around in in the book. I sculpted individual dogs onto each of them and used them to decorate the food table. For the door wreath, I simply glued on more images from the book.

I also had some blank canvases lying around so I decided to enlarge an image from the book and make it look like a giant book open on my fireplace.

Cupcakes

One of the first purchases I made for the party was my cupcake ferris wheel. I have always loved them and it was perfectly suited to one of the scenes in the book. To finish off the look, I scanned in photos of dog images from the book and printed and cut them out for cupcake toppers.

I also baked a second batch of cupcakes and displayed them on a tree stand I constructed from a candle holder covered in tissue paper and one of my round platters. I made dog cupcakes toppers and a ladder to finish it off to look like the big dog party scene from the end of the book.

FREE PRINTABLE
To print off your own cupcake toppers, my files are available here: Go Dog Go Cupcake Toppers Free Printable.
I printed mine on photo paper, but cardstock would work as well. I then taped the cut-out images onto paper lollipop sticks to be inserted into the cupcakes. Cut down straws or coffee stir sticks would also be a good option.

Food

Big dogs and little dogs were served with all the fixings.

Sides included veggie and dip cups, chips, potato salad, stoplight fruit and chocolate coated rice krispie bones.

Candy Buffet

I decided to attempt a candy buffet with red, blue, orange and green candy to match my theme. I used a lot of glassware I already had around the house so it was fairly cheap and simple. I think the adults enjoyed the candy more then the kids!

Favors

Favors were these cute dog shaped lunch boxes I found at Ikea and filled with a couple of cans of playdoh and a bone and dog shaped cookie cutter.

I think that covers it all – thanks for looking! To see my party planning board on pinterest, please click here.
I have already started pinning for next year’s party and I am hoping the birthday boy with be on board with the Winter Olympic theme I am planning.

Celebrations, Parties

Candy Buffet Sneak Preview

August 7, 2013October 10, 2013 chantelledoll

I have been working hard this past month gathering containers and creating signage for the Candy Buffet I am setting up for my brother-in-law’s wedding at the end of August. With each new piece I acquire from the thrift store, I am becoming more and more excited to see (and taste) the final product! Some of the things I am most excited about are the berry baskets to hold the berry shaped candies and the old fashioned candy stick holders made from small crates and mason jars