Elf Holiday Party

Christmas movies are so fun and get me into the holiday season.  Three years ago, I had a ton of fun planning A Christmas Story themed dinner (see post here), so this year, I decided to have an Elf movie dinner.  Can't wait to show you the details!

Invite:  The invitation was made on PhotoShop with the iconic pose of Will Farrell's character.  I used Christmas colors for the invite, but I also pulled in a bright blue for some added fun.  Two popular lines from the movie made it onto the invite -- "The best way to spread holiday cheer is by singing loud for all to hear" and "cotton-headed ninny-muggins!"

Decor:  I stayed fairly simple with my decor and didn't spend much money.  I started with a red tablecloth and red square paper plates.  I added a piece of bright green cardstock under each of the plates just to give it a pop of color.  One thing I didn't do, but you could do is make these square plates into Etch-a-Sketches as these make several appearances in the movie.

For the centerpiece, I designed some signs using quotes from the movie and added items that are Elf-related.  One of Buddy's famous lines in the movie talks about the 4 Main Food groups for elves: Candy, Candy Canes, Candy Corn, and Syrup.  Next to the DVD case for the movie I had candy corns and candy canes.  Next to this, I created a label for a bottle of syrup.  For candy, I had a vase with red and green M&Ms.

For laughs, I added a small vase of cotton balls next to the "I'm a cotton headed ninny muggins" sign.  Buddy also chugs a whole bottle of Coca-Cola, so I added that to the centerpiece.

How cute are these elf place cards?  Can't take credit for this idea as I found the template on Pinterest, but I just love them! It takes come time to cut them out but once they are cut, they are easy to assemble.  I made the faces larger just to make them more silly, but you could make them whatever size you want.

I folded the napkins to look like Buddy's elf hat.  The yellow stripe and red feather I used my Cricut to cut out of cardstock. I didn't glue them on.  I just set them on top.

I always have a lot of fun coming up with creative labels for my wine.  I wanted to incorporate the Etch-a-Sketch somewhere in my decor for the party, so I decided to put one on my white wine label.  I found a line-drawing image of a wine bottle and glass and used Photoshop to remove the background so that it was only the lines. I used a sketch font to make it look like it could have been done on an etch a sketch.  The label for the red wine, I just took a Buddy's quote about smiling and just switching it to wine.

For wine charms, I used these present tags and shrunk them down a bit.  They all have sayings from the movie.

Menu: I had a good time creating the menu for this dinner.  I basically tried to take quotes from the movie and pair them with something that was tasty.  I started with an appetizer that was SO EASY and SO AMAZING! The quote is when Buddy first meets the mall Santa Claus and chastises him for smelling like beef and cheese and not like Santa. The appetizer had very simple ingredients: sliced baguette, thinly sliced roast beef, Garlic & Herb Allouette Cheese spread, and cut chives. Yum!

Next we had a spinach salad.  This was a simple spinach salad with shaved Parmesan cheese and toasted pine nuts.  A homemade lemon/olive oil dressing topped it off.  I chose to make a salad with nuts to go along with Buddy's "Son of a Nut-cracker!" quote.

For the main dish, we had my grandmother's recipe for spaghetti. Serve it with a side of maple syrup to fit even more with the movie.

I loved these candy candy bread sticks.  They weren't too difficult to make, but they can't be made ahead so only plan to do them if you don't mind being in the kitchen for a small part of your party.  You can find the recipe here.  I did not use Asiago cheese, but chose to use Parmesan cheese instead.  They were tasty and so festive.

One of my favorite lines in the movie Elf is when Buddy sees the sign on the coffee shop that says "World's Best Cup of Coffee" and proceeds to go inside to congratulate them.  I had to find a way to incorporate that line, so I decided to have a coffee themed dessert.  And why not serve it in a coffee cup for added fun!  The dessert was a no bake coffee cheesecake.  They take almost no time to make and have a lot of flavor.  I found the recipe here.

Added Decor:  Just for fun, I made other signs with quotes from the movie. "So Good News.  I saw a Dog today" went next to the window my dogs always look through during dinner parties.  The "Have you seen these toilets?  They're Ginormous!" went in the guest bathroom!

I also made a hat out of felt for our Elf on the Shelf.  The kids look for him every morning, so I left him a hat so he could fit into the decor!

This isn't a very good photo, but my daughter cut out a ton of snowflakes and a paper chain to decorate just like Buddy does to the house in the movie.  These snowflakes were over the dinner table.  Others, along with the paper chain, were at the entry door.

Favor:  I wanted to purchase Etch-a-Sketch key chains for my guests, but they were a bit out of my price range, so went with something simple.  I bought cute glass jars with lids at Michaels and filled them with maple syrup.  I added a candy cane and a simple tag.  The guests got two of the 4 food groups!  For the tag, I used another quote from the movie.

All in all, another fun monthly dinner with friends! 

Happy Holidays!

F.A.L.L Game Night

With the arrival of September and Fall weather, I decided to theme my last monthly dinner after the season.  Just a plain Fall theme wouldn't have really been my style, so I decided to pull in some fun with a F.A.L.L (Fun and Laughing Ladies) Game Night!  I used simple games from Hollywood Game Night, and they were so much fun.

Invite: Simple Fall colors for this invite and party decor. 

Our family just purchased a new table, so I decided to show it off for this dinner.  With the leaf in, it fits all 10 guests, which enabled me not to use a card table like I typically do.  I'm sure it won't be too long before our kids get marker stains and scratches on it, but for today I decided not to use a tablecloth, and it looked gorgeous!

For the table, I used a burlap table runner and scattered some fake Fall leaves.  I used some Fall decor I found at Michael's Craft store as well as some items we had in our general holiday decor.

Inside the wagon pail, I painted two mason jars and tied some holiday ribbon around the lip. A few fake flowers were placed inside the mason jars.

The fake squash I bought from Target in their dollar bins, and the pumpkin and candles I borrowed from my parents.

For the place card, I purchased mini fake pumpkins and painted them a rose gold/copper metallic color.  I used my Cricut cutter to cut out the guest's name in vinyl and place it on the front. 

The beverage table decor was easy to put together.  I made a banner with twine and attached fake Fall leaves to the twine with mini clothespins.  On the mantle I used decor I already had.  

 

The mini pumpkins are the same pumpkins I used for the place cards, I just didn't paint them.  The vases are from the dollar store.  I filled them a bit with kernels of popcorn and used twine to tie a leaf and a cardstock letter to the front.  The leaves my daughters and I picked up at a local park after soccer practice, and we scattered them on the steps as guests entered the house.

I made the wine labels on Photoshop modeled after my invitation.  I just tried to think of some Fall sayings and then reworked them to fit with wine.

I used my Cricut cutter to make simple Fall leaves as wine charms.  I used a bit of scrapbook glue to adhere them to the base of each glass.

Menu:  For an appetizer, I made this pumpkin-shaped cheeseball.  It was delicious and super easy to make.  I found the recipe here.  We nibbled on this appetizer as guests arrived and through our first two games.

This was a game night, so I wanted part of the meal to be eaten while we played.  For this reason, I served my soup in a mug.  The butternut squash soup I purchased from Trader Joes and just added shredded Parmesan cheese to the top before serving.  It was tasty and guests could drink it easily without needing a spoon.

We then moved to the table for our main dish.  I decided to make a roast beef in the crock pot so I could participate in the games and wouldn't be stuck in the kitchen over the stove.  This was such a good idea, and I totally recommend using your crock pot if you plan to host a game night for this very reason.  The roast was very good and well-liked by the guests.

Sticking with the easy dishes, I also had rolls that I heated up in the oven briefly and served with a honey butter whipped up prior to the party.

For dessert, I went with another Fall food...apples.  I had a mini caramel apple bar.  I sliced the apples and put them on short skewers.  For toppings, I had mini M&Ms, mini chocolate chips, crushed Vanilla Wafers, chopped nuts, rainbow sprinkles, and white sprinkles.

Games:  I used Hollywood Game Night games to play in two teams, and these were easy and so fun.  All I had to do ahead of time was create cards with words on them.  I unfortunately don't have any photos because I was busy playing the games and laughing my head off!  Here are the games we played:

1.  How Do You Doo? Each team has 90 seconds to guess as many songs as possible.  The player hums the song using only the word “doo”. Once a teammate guesses a song, they exchange places with the hummer, and they must perform the next one.  Players can pass on songs they don’t know or if their team is having a hard time guessing.  Here are some songs we used for this game: Pretty Woman, Stop in the Name of Love, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, U Can’t Touch This, Row Row Row Your Boat, YMCA, We Didn’t Start the Fire, Hit the Road Jack, I’m Bringing Sexy Back, Sweet Caroline, I Just Call To Say I Love You, Born to be Wild, Lean on Me, Like a Virgin, Stayin’ Alive, Heard it Through the Grapevine, I Love Rock-n-Roll, LaBamba,  The Lion Sleeps Tonight, I’m Coming Out, Thriller, Celebrate Good Times, Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, We are Family,  She Works Hard for Her Money

2.  Take the Hint: Select one player from your team to do the guessing while the other players need to give one word clues to get them to guess the word.   The host holds the cards up so only the team members giving hints can see them.  For example if the word is Popcorn…. the first team member might say – MOVIE, the next team member – KERNEL, the next – REDENBACHER and so on until they guess the right answer.  The guesser only gets only one guess per answer and each correct answer scores a point.  This round lasts 90 seconds.  Here are some words we used for this game: popcorn, E.T., Rome, Diet Coke, pitbull, Empire State Building, Abe Lincoln, Starbucks, Superman, volcano, tattoo, Texas, Snoopy, parrot, U2, blender, Christopher Columbus, Snow White, microwave, Rolling Stones, Victoria’s Secret, dragon, daffodil, Nutella

3.  I Love a Charade: I Love a Charade is pretty much charades with a movie theme. This game is a 90 second tag team round and all subjects in this round fit under a specific category.  Once a teammate guesses a correct answer, they must perform the next charade.  Players can pass if they don’t know it or if their team is having a hard time guessing. We chose movies by Tom Cruise for one team and movies by Tom Hanks for the other.  Here are some Tom Hanks movies you could use for this game: Turner & Hooch,  The Money Pit, Castaway, You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump, Toy Story, Polar Express, Splash, Apollo 13, Catch Me if You Can, A League of Their Own, Davinci Code, Big, Green Mile.  Here are some Tom Cruise movies you could use for this game: Last Samurai, Rock of Ages, War of the Worlds, Eyes Wide Shut, Rain Main, Top Gun, Risky Business, Interview with a Vampire, Cocktail, Mission Impossible, A Few Good Men, Jerry Maguire, Days of Thunder, Color of Money

4..  Celebrity Name Game: In the show this is considered a bonus round, but we played this one as an entire group at the dinner table. The goal is to get your team to guess as many celebrities as possible in 90 seconds.  The chosen player describes a different celebrity as best they can until the team guesses correctly.  Player can pass if they don’t know or if their team is having a hard time guessing. Here are some celebrities you could use for this game:  John Mayer, Selena Gomez, Mark Zuckerberg, John Hamm, Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, Betty White, Demi Moore, Lady GaGa,  Tiger Woods, Honey Boo Boo, Tom Cruise, Tina Fey, Paula Abdul, Tyra Banks, Kevin Bacon, Mike Tyson, Molly Ringwald, Will Smith, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Angelina Jolie, Kayne West, Simon Cowell, Paul Rudd, Lindsay Lohan, Beyonce, Denzel Washington, Katy Perry, Jimmy Fallon, Ellen, Cameron Diaz, John Stewart, Justin Timberlake.

Favor:  The party favors were easy and perfect for a Fall theme.  Walmart sells these mini pies for 50 cents!  I bought pumpkin, apple, and pecan pie.  I wrapped a gingham ribbon around them and placed a tag I made.  The tag read, "You're a sweetie PIE.  Thanks for celebrating F.A.L.L."

This was an easy party and so much fun.  The girls and I laughed so much.  Our favorite game was How Do You Doo?  Have a great FALL everyone!

Kickoff to Kindergarten

My youngest daughter started kindergarten this past Monday.  She was so excited to start the year, and we are excited to see her grow and learn.  With all the back to school supplies in stores, I decided to make this milestone the theme of my monthly dinner.  Even though these dinners are for my girlfriends, I had my kindergartner help with some aspects of the party. So fun!

Invite:  I designed the invite on PhotoShop using lots of bright colors.  I used a Kindergarten font for most of the text.

Entry Decor:  My husband found this easel at a thrift store for $5 a month ago, and it made the perfect entry.  My 5th grade daughter wrote the theme in chalk to match the invitation. For the door sign, I used a Welcome sign I already owned and added "Class of 2032" and a classroom bulletin board border I grabbed from the dollar section.  By the way...can you believe my daughter is the Class of 2032? Seems like forever away, although I imagine it will be here before I am ready!

Table Decor:  I had a lot of fun decorating the table.  Lots of bright colors and fun school items made it easy to throw together.

For the centerpiece, I bought 20 rulers from Target to lay on the table as a small table runner.  On top of the rulers, I had the giant wooden pencil that I made for my Teacher Appreciation monthly dinner in 2017.  You can find the tutorial on how to make it here.

I found the crayon holder and the red box at Target.  I filled them with school supplies I already own.  The letter flashcards I also got at the dollar store and the addition flash cards I made out of cardstock.

I used a can to make this colored pencil holder.  The composition book was part of the bulletin board set I got, so I just cut it to fit around the can and glued it.

I love how cute the place settings turned out. For the placemat, I printed out an image of kindergarten lined paper as large as I could make it for an 8.5x11 piece of typing paper.  I did this twice for each place setting, and then cut and taped the papers together to make it taller than the plate on both sides. I used red paper plates from the dollar store and cut cardstock to make an apple stem and leaf.  The mini chalkboards I found at Michaels.  I used my Cricut to cut vinyl letters to match for each guest.

For the place card, I had my kindergartener write each guest's name on these bulletin board cards I bought from the dollar store.  She did such a good job, and the guests loved the personal touch!  I bought mini playdough and sliced the top of each lid to use as a holder for the place card.

The napkin ring was made from rulers I found in the same $3 bulletin board pack that had the composition books and the colored pencil border from the entry sign (and banner which you can see below).

This banner was super easy.  I found the pencils and the notebook paper already created on Pinterest, so it was a free download for the letters I needed.  The colored pencil border was from the bulletin board pack.  I just cut them apart to use for the banner.

I always have fun trying to create something clever for my wine labels.  I'm pretty happy with what I came up with this time.  Kindergartners start to learn how sounds can be made into words, so I designed my red wine after that idea. Bed, fed, and red for practicing the -ed sound.  Since kindergartners also learn to write, I crafted the wine wine to just switch out "write" for "white" and created a pencil as the background.  The menu cards I used throughout the party, this one being W is for Wine.  My older daughter helped color them.

For wine charms, I went simple and just tied crayons with ribbon around the stem of the glasses.  Simple and easy.

Menu:  You could do anything for your menu.  If I had this party for kids it would be different, but since my guests were all adults, I tried to use the alphabet letters to create a theme.  We started with A is for Apple Walnut Salad.  The salad included spring mix, sliced apples, blueberries, walnuts, and crumbled goat cheese.  I served it with a honey balsamic vinaigrette.

For the letters B and C, I served Biscuits and Carrots.

For the main dish, I made Chicken Drumsticks baked in the oven. I made a garlic-Parmesan sauce which gave them even more flavor.

F is for Fruit.  To round out the meal, I made a simple fruit salad with just watermelon and blueberries.

For dessert, I made these cute pencil cupcakes  I designed the wrapper on Photoshop and piped on the frosting.

Favor: Pencils made out of toilet paper rolls and cardstock were my favor.  I filled each with taffy.  These were a challenge to make with a bit of trial and error.  The key for me was to make the cones for the pencil part and glue them in place first.  It didn't work well to do the eraser side first.  After the tip was in place I added the taffy and glued the eraser in place.  Lastly, I glued the gold paper and wrapped the silver vinyl before adding the No.2 to the top in vinyl.

My daughter loved her first day of kindergarten, and the fact that this party was themed in her honor.  Milestones go so quickly, it was fun to capture this memory and celebrate it.  Hope you enjoyed seeing this fun party!