Blast Back To School with FREE Printables!

Starting a new school year is always such an exciting time! I don't know if your child is like mine, but Dashell's been begging to go back to school all summer. And with his new school year just around the corner, it's definitely the perfect time to mark this milestone with a little celebration! 

I wanted this party to capture the pure excitement that Dashell has for returning to school so I decided that "Blast Back To School" was the perfect theme. Full of rocket ships and space fun to throw his imagination and inquisitive spirit into high gear! 

Since every great school day begins with a great breakfast, I thought that a cereal bar party would be fun... and so did the kids!!

(They bypassed the bowls and just went straight for the scoops!)

Keeping with the theme we had "Space Rocks", "Asteroids", "Saturn's Rings" and "Mini Planets" in abundance. 

I used cereal bowls to give the "Rocket Fuel" (orange juice boxes) a little lift...

Of course cereal is always better with a little milk, so I found these super cute bottles of milk (from Alta Dena) at my local grocery store and decorated them to look like rocket ships...

And no balanced breakfast is complete without some fruit. A few embellished Clementines made adorable "Suns on a stick" (I just love things on sticks!)...

The party didn't end there. As I'm sure you know, when you purchase a lot cereal you are left with a lot of boxes so why not turn them into jet packs! (The tutorial will be on my blog this week.)

Dashell couldn't have been more excited about getting his own jet pack (or about helping me make them!)

If you have followed me for a while you know, I just love to find fun activities for my parties. And what better activity for a space party than Stomp Rockets! 

TONS of fun and a great opportunity to talk about power of air pressure! 

And because every child should be able to Blast Back to School in style, I am giving away my full collection!! 

The set includes the following items:

- Large "Welcome Back - Let's Blast Into A New Year" Rocket Ship cut out

- Alphabet Banner

- 2" Party Circles (Countdown 5-1, "Blast Off", "Welcome Back", Rocket Graphic)

- Table Labels ("Space Rocks", "Asteroids", "Saturn's Rings", "Mini Planets", "Suns on a stick", "Destination Milky Way")

- Table Labels (blank)

- Photo Op Labels for Jet Packs ("Blasting into..." Pre-K through 6th)

- Juice Box Wraps ("Rocket Fuel" )

- Milk Bottle Wraps ("Creativity", "Knowledge", "Learning")

- Book Plates ("This Book Belongs To...")

- Notecards

Please click HERE to download your free Back To School Printables! (Go under "File" in the upper left hand corner. Activate the drop down menu and choose "Download".) And I hope that your little one has a BLAST at school this year!!

This give away HAS ENDED.

{Party In A Pinch} 4th of July Cake Pops

I am SOOO excited to have Emily from Emmy's Events as a guest blogger today! From the moment that Emily told me about her SUPER EASY Semi-Homemade Cake Pops, I just knew that I had to try them out and have her give you all the inside scoop on how whip up some fabulous cake pops if you are pulling together a Party In A Pinch! 


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Hi there! Emily Clinton from Emmy’s Events here to give you a super easy, NO BAKE cake pop tutorial. Give these a try at your Fourth of July party, I know you’ll absolutely love them!

You Will Need: 

- Entenmann’s Glazed Pop’ems

- Wilton Candy Melts

- Canned Frosting (any brand is fine just don’t buy “whipped”) 

- Lollipop Sticks or Paper Drinking Straws Food Coloring & Sprinkles

- Wax Paper or Styrofoam (depending on whether you prefer them stick up or stick down)

1. Melt a handful of Wilton Candy Melts in the microwave. Dip the lollipop stick or paper straw into the melted candy and insert it about half way in to the donut. Set the pop on a plate and refrigerate until the candy hardens.

2. Put a scoop of canned frosting in a microwave safe container and tint with food coloring if desired. Microwave the frosting for 5-10 seconds. The frosting will be slightly warm and completely liquified. Stir to mix in the food coloring

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3. Dip the refrigerated pop into the melted frosting and quickly pull it out, allowing the excess to dip back into the cup. Set the wet cake pop on a tray lined with a sheet of wax paper. You may need to hold it upright for a second or two until it dries enough to stand by itself.

Note: If your frosting begins to harden simply warm in the microwave again until it becomes liquid.

4. Add sprinkles, if desired, while the frosting is still wet. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or until the outer coating is completely set.

5. Serve in mini cupcake liners or arranged on a plate! Enjoy!!

 Click here for more Tips and Hints for your upcoming 4th of July celebration!

{Give Away} Free July 4th Printables - Party In A Pinch

July 4th is such a fun holiday, there is no reason why anyone should stress about entertaining. So here's a few fun Printables and some tips to help you throw together a stress free party in pinch!! 

For this table, I made some easy peesy cake pops. No bake style. Gotta love it!! Emily from Emmy's Events will pop in on Monday to give you the low down on how to make these delicious little mouthfuls!

I pulled out a couple drink dispensers and filled one with juice...

...and one with sangria!!

Then I made a cake...

Now I'll be honest, originally I was going to make a trifle but then I saw this cake from Bakingdom and fell in love! Mind you, I have NO business using a piping bag. In fact I don't believe I have EVER used one, but this cake is actually really easy to make. (Just time consuming. It took about 2 hours to ice.) And although Darla's cake is a masterpiece, even a beginner can get a pretty good result because the busy pattern is SUPER forgiving. 

And now for the fun part....

CLICK HERE and you can download the following 4th of July Printable Party Package for FREE!!! (Go under "File" in the upper left hand corner. Activate the drop down menu and choose "Download".)

It contains the following items so that you too can create a stress-free holiday party in pinch!!

- 2" Party Circles for various uses (3 designs)

- 2" Party Circles for Drink (3 designs)

- 6" Cake Topper

- Cupcake Wrappers

- Table Labels (with featured text)

- Table Labels (blank)

- "Happy 4th of July" Banner

- Decorative Stars (2 sizes)

- Decorative Paper (2 designs)

I hope that your 4th of July celebration is relaxing, fabulous and most of all fun!!

This Give Away has ENDED.

{Tips & Hints} Giant Tissue Paper Flower Tutorial

If you are looking to get A LOT of WOW for very little money these Giant Tissue Paper Flowers are definitely the way to go! To make these you will need the following...

- Tissue Paper in 2 coordinating colors (I used 1 1/2 packs of 20x20" paper with 8 sheets per flower)

- Crinkle Cut Tissue Paper

- Cardboard or thick Card Stock

- Scissors

- Pencil

- Tape

- Hot Glue Gun or Craft Glue

1. Using some thin cardboard or thick card stock create a petal design of your choice and cut out patterns in 3 graduated sizes. (My sizes were as follows: Large - 14.5x12", Medium 12x10.5", and Small 10.5x8")

2. Using your patterns, trace the petals designs onto the tissue paper and cut them out. (If you are careful in the way you arrange your patterns you will only need about 1 1/2 packs of tissue per flower) I used approximately 4 small, 6 medium and 8-10 large petals per flower.

3. Start with the smallest petals and overlap them to form the inner most ring of your flower.

4. Bunch the "stems" together and make sure you are happy with the look of your center.

5. Turn the flower over and bind the ends with tape.

6. Keeping the flower upside down. Add the medium sizes petals and tape into place.

7. Repeat Step 6 for the large sized petals.

8. Turn your flower over and you should have lovely arrangement of petals.

9. Take some of your coordinating paper and cut two circles. (They don't need to be perfect.)

10. Layer them on top of each other and crumple them into a ball.

11. Gently open the crumpled ball and put it aside.

12. Next take your crinkle cut paper and roll it into a ball and glue it in the center of your crumpled circles.

13. Then a dab of glue to the bottom of you crumple circles and add them to your petals. And there you have it... A Giant Tissue Paper Flower!! 

You can find more ideas from my Posies and Paisley Party here.

Garden Party: Posies, Paisleys and WOW on a Budget

I've spent the last couple years helping people design all kinds of different parties, but the one thing that people ask about time and time again is how can I stay on budget and still get the "Wow" factor? Let's be honest, we all want to throw gorgeous parties without regretting it when our credit card statement arrives the next month in the mail, right?!  So, I decided to give myself a challenge... create a fun, colorful party that has tons of "Wow" factor without breaking the bank. Possible? You bet!!!

I've been swirling with Spring Fever lately, so Garden Party seemed like the perfect theme! What's more fun then the combination of Posies and Paisley?! I started with the backdrop, and rummaged through my fabric stacks and old table cloths to see what I had that might work for my theme. I came up with a leftover table cloth from last year's Pirate and Fairies Party and a couple from our Easter Egg Hunt. 

Then I set about figuring out how to dress up my backdrop and sweets, as well as pull in my Garden Party theme without breaking the bank. I decided on Tissue Paper Flowers, all types and sizes... bright, colorful, inexpensive and oh SOOO much fun!! I only needed about 10 packs of 20x20" tissue paper and one pack of crinkle cut paper from Party City to pull off all the decorations. 

For the backdrop I created Giant Tissue Paper Flowers...

Then to bring the flower theme to the table top, I created Pom Pom Flowers for the Cake Pop "Garden"...

And Tissue Paper Fan Flowers for the Cupcakes...

I also created Large Tissue Paper Flowers to help my macarons really pop...

And to top it all off, I made a small double layer, fondant covered cake and decorated it with Marshmallow Flowers inspired by "What's New Cupcake?", small Icing Flowers and a bit of ribbon...

So there you have it... a fun, fresh, modern Garden Party on a budget! Perfect for a birthday party or even a Mother's Day brunch!

Stay tuned to my blog as tutorials for all the decorations are coming soon, so that you, too, can create your own summer Posies and Paisley Garden Party!