{Give Away Winner} Sew Tacky Party Printables and Gift Card

The WINNER of the Set of Sew Tacky Party Printables and $50 Michaels Gift Certificate is:

Kelsey Johnson who entered on the Design Dazzle post and said:

Kelsy Johnson says:
November 12, 2013

Wow! What a great activity for the kids! (I can see a variation on this being fun for the adults, too!) Adorable!

Congratulations Kelsey!! Please email me at GwynnWassonDesigns@gmail.com before midnight December 3rd to claim your prize.

{Give Away} Sew Tacky Ugly Sweater Holiday Party - $50 Gift Card and Printables

This year the kids are finally to old enough to where having an organized activity at a party, isn't just chaos, it's fun! So I got a little "crafty" with our holiday party and turned it into a "Let's Be Sew Tacky" party. Get it...?? SEW. TACKY (you know... like glue?!)  I know, I know, bad puns... but with a little twist on the Ugly Sweater party it turned out to be a really GREAT theme! 

I found super inexpensive thermal shirts for all the kids so that each child could make their own "ugly sweater". 

And then I pulled together tons crafts supplies from my kid's art drawer, Michaels and the Dollar Store: pom poms, tinsel, glitter, googly eyes, mini presents, christmas trees, gingerbread men, buttons, bows and bells just to name a few.

I laid everything out on a big table and let them go town! 

And what they ended up was Sew Tacky, it was cute!

The kids had a blast making their own sweaters!

And to reward their valiant artistic efforts, I put together a tacky little dessert table laden with yummy treats.

Tacky Sweater Cookies...

Rudolph Cake Balls...

And lots of craft, sewing and holiday themed cake pops...

Then I added in a few delicious cupcakes sprinkled with buttons...

And let the kids go to town!

They devoured the dessert table and had sew, SEW much fun that I think we will probably be doing this again next year. I can't wait!

And so that you can have your very own Sew Tacky Holiday Party, I will be giving away a Free Set of Sew Tacky Holiday Party Printables PLUS a $50 Gift Card to Michaels! Here's how to enter...

1 - Leave a comment on this post (do not do it anonymously) - it will be your entry in the contest

2 - Stop by my blog on Monday, December 2nd when I announce the winner. If it's you, you will have 24 hours to contact me to claim your prize.

Good luck and may your upcoming holiday season be crafty and oh, SEW TACKY!

Vendor Credits:

Party Styling or Printable Decor - Gwynn Wasson Designs

Sweater Cookies - Queen of Tart Cakes

Sewing Themed Cake Pops - Macabee's Sweets

Fondant Buttons & Sewing Needles - Clementine's Cupcakes

Rudolf Cake Balls - Pop Estela

Christmas Tree Cake Pops - The Pop Cakery

{GWD Parties} Bright Modern Construction Party

When my son Dashell was closing in on 4, he came out of his room one day adorned with all of his toy tools and declared that he would like a Construction Party! 

This was the first time that he had ever had a strong opinion about his birthday party theme and so I was thrilled to be able to embrace his enthusiasm for all things tools and construction and help bring his dream to life.

The Entryway

Over here we are big on making sure that our guests are swept up in the magic of our theme the moment they arrive. For this party, I created giant sign declaring the space "Dashell's Construction Site" and hung it at the entrance to the party. 

On the ground below, were a few saw horses I had built and then outfitted with fun signage: "Entering Construction Zone"...

...and "Hard Hat Area Ahead". 

And Dashell had a blast decorating the driveway with tons of construction cones!

Party Attire

The sign at the entrance, "Hard Hat Area Ahead", gave the guests a small hint as to what was to come next. As they drew nearer to the party, they were met with a large sign "Grab Your Gear and Let's Build" which was hanging over rows and rows of personalized tools belts and toy hard hats decorated with party circle stickers stating that they were about to be part of "Crew 4". 

Each little guest was thrilled to put on their very own construction gear emblazoned with their name and packed with toy tools!

Party Central

After appropriately suiting up...

 

...the guests gleefully entered the official party area and the fun times were on! Once past the custom saw horse declaring "Authorized Crew Members Only", 

they were face to face with the "Dig Zone"! 

A huge box we constructed and filled with sand, wood chips, tons of shovels and construction vehicles. The kids loved it!

Completely inspired by the cardboard bulldozer masterpiece originally created by Pure Joy Events, we set out to create our own bulldozer which the kids loved climbing on...

...as well as a cardboard wrecking ball which ended up being the hit of the party! 

I wrapped large empty boxes in seamless paper with brick wall detailing and then Dashell brought out all of our cardboard blocks and the kids simply could not build and wreck enough "walls"!

And just in case any of our little workers needed to take a "break", I made sure to continue our construction theme inside as well!

The Dessert Table

Every party needs a dessert table to help capture the magic of the theme. 

For Dashell's construction party, I baked a chocolate sheet cake and then crumbled it up and arranged all the beautiful construction vehicle cookies (masterfully created by Angela at Oh Sugar! Events based on my designs) to look as through they were really going to town on a mound of dirt! 

For the cupcakes, I crushed up a chocolate cookies and rolled the chocolate icing that topped the cupcakes in the cookie crumbs to make them look like dirt mounds and then decorated each one with a fun cupcake topper and construction themed cupcake wrapper. I then arranged all of them around a pile chocolate doughnut hole "boulders" and placed one the vehicle cookies on top to complete the feeling of an actual construction site.

The perfect miniature cement truck and dump truck cake pops, created by Entirely Sweet, were displayed in aluminum lunch pails and their arrangement was punctuated by adorable fondant construction cones, made by Brittany at Edible Details. 

The center piece of the table was a two tier cake that I designed, and was beautifully executed by A Sweet Design. 

Cranes lifting giant number 4's, dump trucks spilling their loads and bulldozers digging were all part of this cake "under construction". 

Each one of the vehicles was painstakingly hand sculpted by Brittany of Edible Details and Dashell (as well as all the children) couldn't have been more entranced!

Favors

When the time for the party to end drew near, each child left with their personalized tool belt packed with toy tools, their own hard hat and a fun construction themed puzzle. 

And, of course, so many fun memories! I still have parents come up to me (of both boys and girls) and tell me that their child continues to enjoy putting on their tools belt fixing everything around the house. It's those kind of stories that remind me that when we design these parties we are helping to create a little bit of the magic that is part of childhood.

Vendors

Party Styling and Cake Design - Gwynn Wasson Designs

Party Decor Design - Gwynn Wasson Designs

Fondant Construction Cones and Fondant Vehicles - Edible Details

Cookies - Oh Sugar! Events

Cake Pops - Entirely Sweet

Cake - A Sweet Design

Aluminum Lunch Boxes - LunchBoxes.com