Monday, March 18, 2024

Flipping Thru the Channels

I am the ASB Director at the school where I teach, and we just completed a super fun spirit week titled Flipping Thru the Channels.  It was so fun seeing teachers and students dressed up for the spirit days. From MTV Monday wearing band tees to Disney Channel Friday in mouse ears & Disney clothes, it was a week full of fun.  I thought it would make a fun dinner party idea, and that was this month's theme.  It did not disappoint.


Invite: 
I designed the invitation with various TV channel logos along the left hand side and an old school television in the middle.  Since the spirit week at my school was full of fun dress up days, I decided to have guests dress up to represent a channel as well.


Decorations:
I used bold and bright colors for the table as most TV channel logos are bold.  For the centerpiece, I spray painted a box black and added television decals to match the TV on my invitation.  I cut a hole in the top of the box and put a vase inside with flowers.

As a table runner, I set out black card stock and then printed various TV channel logos to spread along the runner.


For place cards, I designed small televisions using Photoshop and then cutting them with my Cricut machine.  I matched a logo that represented various guests hobbies/likes to show on the "screen."  My family travels a lot so I used the Travel channel on my place card with On the Go Carole. A friend who is currently remodeling her bathroom was HGTV with Renovating Rene.  For the antennas, I used push pins with black balls at the end and just stuck them through the card stock of the television.


For napkins, I printed the Disney Channel logo to place on bright yellow folded napkins.  I labeled the Mousekatools (fork, knife, spoon) for guests to pull in that term used on Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.


For my beverage table, I borrowed an MTV shirt to display behind the wine and party favors.


For the wine labels, I also incorporated TV channels.  The white wine was the logo for TLC (The Learning Channel).  I just switched it up to be Totally Love Chardonnay to represent the letters.  The background of this label was the same TV as the invite all the way around.  For the red wine, I chose the Red Zone channel from NFL Network. I designed the label with a glass of red wine and the NFL logo in it.


The wine charms were just various TV channel logos that I printed out and put on the glass stems.



Menu:
As a main dish, I served garlic mushroom chicken that was delicious!  I followed this recipe from Cafe Delites, except I baked the chicken in the oven instead of on the stove as I didn't want to be stuck in front of the stove and not interacting with guests.  I did do the mushroom mixture on the stove, but that didn't take long.  This is a recipe I will definitely make again.  I used an acronym for this dish to match with the AMC television channel.  Instead of American Movie Classics, I had it stand for Amazing Mushroom Chicken.



As a side dish, I made Baked Cheesy Ranch Potatoes which were also amazing and super easy to make.  I chose this "cheesy" dish to go with the Hallmark Channel.  I am a sucker for all of their cheesy holiday movies!



I also made a fruit platter and organized the fruit on a platter in the shape and colors of the NBC peacock logo.  I served pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries, purple grapes, blueberries, and honeydew.  The NBC letters I cut out on my Cricut. 



For dessert, I made a sponge cake.  My good friend did all the SpongeBob themed icing on the cake to represent the Nickelodeon channel.  I also added the top of the pineapple to the platter to add to the SpongeBob theme.  


Favor:
The party favor was easy to throw together.  I simply wrapped Hershey bars in black cardstock, and then designed an image of a remote control on Photoshop to print and glue to the front to make take home remotes.  The text read "Thank You for Tuning In."  Guests can enjoy a candy bar as the Flip Thru the Chanels at home!

I didn't take any photos of my guests at this event, but we had several channels represented.  I wore an MTV shirt, one guest wore a jersey to represent ESPN, a few guests wore Disney ears.  So many options to work with - safari gear for Discovery Channel, decade dress for History Channel, chef attire for Food Network, etc.  This was a fun party and would be great for a get together or birthday party theme.

Friday, February 9, 2024

49ers vs Swifties Super Bowl Party

I have been a 49er fan since I was little, and I am super excited about this Sunday's Super Bowl LVIII, but the achievements of these teams have been a bit overshadowed by the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce media frenzy (my opinion of course).  Instead of getting bothered by it, I decided to embrace it and celebrate my team with a fun and silly 49ers vs Swifties dinner party!


Invitation:
I decided to have a bit of fun with my invitation by incorporating an image I found of Swift photoshopped onto Kelce's body.  I used this and an image of Brock Purdy to show the rivalry.  I switched out the KC in the middle of the Chief's arrowhead with a TS for Taylor Swift.  Then I added a few of Swift's song titles into my text.


Decorations: 
Both teams have red in their uniforms, and Taylor's album was called "Red," so that color became a big focus of the party.  I purchased a red shimmery backdrop from Amazon to put up behind my table.  I added white butcher paper behind it to cover the photo collage of my family.  I also purchased the football field tablecloth from Amazon.


For a centerpiece, I purchased 3 pieces of red glitter cardstock from Michaels to use like a table runner.  On this, I had a gold vase filled with red artificial flowers and gold tissue paper.  I designed images to put on skewers inside the vase and to use as photos props for pictures.




Also in the centerpiece was a football with some red heart shaped glasses to represent Taylor Swift.  I found these in the dollar bin at Target.  I borrowed the mini 49er helmet and the black 49er hat from my neighbor.  The wooden heart is a Valentine's decoration, but I added it to give more of a Taylor Swift vibe to the centerpiece.


The red plastic plates and smaller gold paper plates I purchased at Dollar Tree.  I then printed out logos for the 49ers and the Swifties and alternated the teams around the table.



The gold napkins I also purchased at Dollar Tree.  I made mini Swiftie friendship bracelets to wrap around the napkins.  These also served as place cards, and I put letter beads with the guest's initials on the bracelet.  If I were to host this party again, I would probably keep the napkin less folded and include the guest's entire name, but for my small group, the initials were fine.



For my beverage table, I lucked out by having close friends that have great memorabilia they let me borrow for the night. One friend went to a Taylor Swift concert, and let me borrow the boxes (on the mantle) and the giant envelopes (on the table) which show Taylor's Eras Tour.  I borrowed a 49er jersey from other friend.


Another friend let me borrow his football from the 2020 Super Bowl that is signed by all the players!


I had fun creating and designing my wine labels with a Taylor Swift vibe, but words that promoted a 49er win!  Used Taylor Swift's song "Blank Space" to represent zero points on the scoreboard for Kansas City.  


For wine charms, I printed out small logos and images I found online.  Things like an Eras Tour poster with Kelse instead of Swift, a Chiefs jersey with Swift as the name on the back,  red lips, etc.


Menu: This is a dinner, rather than snacks, so I needed to create a menu that was filling, but still fit with the theme.  I decided to highlight various star players on both teams & of course Taylor Swift.  We started with an appetizer of veggies and dip.  I called this BROCK-oli with more than PURDY good dip after the 49ers quarterback, Brock Purdy.



For the main dish, I had burgers with all the fixings: cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, bacon, and avocado.  I named these burgers after Taylor Swift's song "Back to December" calling them Back to Decem-BURGERS.  Also brought Travis Kelce from the Chief's in with the TRAVIS-ty of toppings.


You've gotta have fries with cheeseburgers, right?  Named these after the 49ers star running back Christian McCaffrey calling them McCaf-fries.


Deebo Samuel is another amazing player for the 49ers.  We had boneless honey buffalo wings I renamed DEEBO-ned Chicken Wings.


I couldn't decide between two ideas for dessert, so I decided to do mini versions of both.  One was mini red velvet cupcakes with buttercream frosting & edible sugar.  My friend who works at Small Cakes bakery (yummy stuff) made these for me, and I just added pennants I designed.  These were named after Taylor Swift's song, "Red".


The second dessert I served was a mini strawberry shake to represent Taylor Swift's song, (milk)"Shake It Off"!


Activity/Game:  I had fun coming up with this fill-in-the-blank game for the party.  I looked up some of Taylor Swift's most popular songs, and tried to incorporate them into Super Bowl sentences. My favorite is, Mahomes will definitely say, "I Knew You Were Trouble" after playing against the 49er defense!  As a 49er fan, these sentences were definitely bias to my team, but the guests got a kick out of it.


Favor:  Aren't these cookies so cute?  One of my neighbors offered to make Super Bowl/Taylor Swift themed cookies for me, and she did an amazing job! From footballs, to circles with SF, to castles with "Love Story" on them, they were perfect.  Yummy too!


As guest's departed, I also gave them this Super Bowl Bingo sheet Swiftie Edition to play during the game this Sunday.  I had fun making this and coming up with some of the things that were funny with the Taylor Swift obsession.  This card is definitely more geared to both teams.  I tried to be fair (for the most part).  You may catch my one addition that isn't equally represented!

This was such a fun party, and one you can totally throw together for this weekend's game.  GO NINERS!

Monday, January 15, 2024

Wigs & Wine Party

Looking for a little fun for your next party?  Then host a Wigs and Wine Party & see what your guest's come up with!  This was such a fun theme to host, and the girls and I were laughing at the variety of wigs each guest wore to the party.


Invite:  I designed the party invitation on PhotoShop.  Kept it simple with a few images with wigs and the party details.  I asked my guests to wear a wig (I provided the wine).  Make sure you send out the invite with enough time for guests to get a wig if they don't have one already.


Check out some of our fun wigs!


Decorations:
Due to our family Halloween costumes through the years, I have several wigs that I used to decorate the table.  Everything from Princess Lea, to the charcters of Inside Out, to a normal ombre wig.  I purchased styrofoam heads from Michaels Craft Store and placed them on the table with the various wigs I already owned as the centerpiece.  A piece of cardstock under each head brought in the colors of the invitation.


In coming up with ideas for this theme, I looked up various hair styles that are often made into wigs.  I tried to incorporate some of these into the food and decor for the party.  On top of each napkin I created a card having fun with the "pixie" style of wig.  The message was "I WIG always PIX you!"  Only problem with this was, after I created the tag, I discovered that the company that makes Pixie Sticks no longer sells them!  They are discontinued!!  I decided to make them myself.  I got a paper straw and hot glued one end.  Then I mixed a half a cup of sugar with one packet or Kool-Aid mix. I poured it into the straw and hot glued the other end.  Done (and tasty too).


I usually have place cards set on my table with my monthly dinners, but this time, I decided to let the guests design their own place card and choose their spot at the table.  I bought 4" wooden circles from Michaels, painted them a generic skin color, and drew on eyes and lips.  I purchased play dough from the Dollar Tree for guests to craft their own wig on top.  




Some of the guests matched their play dough creation to the wig they were wearing at the party.  Others created just a fun wig for their wooden piece.


I designed my wine labels playing with the word WIG.  For the red wine, it was "Care for a S-WIG of red wine?" and the white wine read, "Wiggin' Out?  Let your hair down and have some white wine."  I designed this second label to have a white wine glass with a wig on it.


For wine charms, I printed out the same wig images I used on the invitation plus other matching images. I used my Cricut machine to cut these out.


Menu:
We started the meal with a 7-layer salad which was delicious and fairly easy to make.  I made it the morning of the party before I went to work, so it was one less thing to worry about.  To fit with the wig theme, I called this the "layered" salad with an image of a layered wig.  I followed this recipe, but I switched out the celery and green onions and swapped in orange bell pepper to substitute.  I wasn't sure if my guests would be okay with all of these ingredients, but it was very popular.


For the main dish, I served Garlic Herb Spaghetti with Baked Chicken Meatballs.  The only substitution I made to this recipe was to serve it with angel hair pasta instead of spaghetti.  I switched this to match with the theme: "angel hair" pasta and "mullet" meatballs.  This was very good, and I would definitely make it again with spaghetti or any type of pasta.


Along with the pasta, I made a Garlic and Herb bread that was "braided" to match with the theme.  I followed this recipe. The bread was tasty, and if you are willing to make bread from scratch, this recipe was not too difficult.


For dessert, I made a chocolate fondue with fruit, pound cake, and Nilla Wafers.  I used one of the styrofoam heads and used a Sharpie to add punk makeup to it.  Then I used skewers with fruit on them to push into the head like a Mohawk.  It looked so good and definitely added some decor to the festive party.


Favor:
I played off the "beehive" wig for my party favor and gave guest's a Burt's Bees lip balm.  I created a tag that read, "Even if we all lose our hair...Our friendship WIG always be BEE-utiful!

This was a really fun theme and it was so great to have this fun WIG my close friends! Totally recommend you try this theme for a future party!