Painting Party

My girlfriends and I have gotten together recently to paint canvases together, so when I was stuck on a monthly dinner theme for this month, one of my friends suggested a Painting Party.  With only a day and half to prep for this dinner, I immediately got working.  I wanted to make sure I didn't repeat ideas from my daughter's art themed birthday party (see post here), so I tried to come up with all new ideas.

Invite:  I had a bit of a challenge with the wording of my invite because we weren't actually going to paint at this painting party!  I decided on the phrase, "Come wet your palette" since this was specifically a dinner party.

Decor:  I set up an easel outside with a canvas I painted with the title of our party (sorry, no photo). Inside I used a white tablecloth, colorful plates, mason jars, and various other paint inspired items.  I cut paint splatters out of colorful card stock and set them in between the centerpieces.

My main centerpiece was a vase I made using paintbrushes and a bouquet of colorful flowers.  I bought the vase at the Dollar Tree and the brushes at Michaels.  I painted the wooden handles to add a pop of color and hot glued them to the vase. 

I also bought mini paint cans at Lowes and filled them with paintbrushes and sponges. I cut card stock to look like paint on the can.  From the ceiling and on my side table, I strung rainbow circle garlands made of felt and stitched together.

On a side table I set these wooden drawing figures.  I borrowed these from the art teacher at school.

To hold the silverware, I cut slits in paint swatches from Home Depot (the ones at Lowes were not big enough).  Simple and FREE!

As place cards, I bought mini canvases and easels from a local art store.  On each canvas I painted wooden alphabet letters that matched the first initial of each guest. I thought about having the girls paint these canvases as they waited for the food to be ready, but decided against it in favor of just letting the guests relax and chat.

I created painting themed wine labels on Photo Shop calling the wine "Creative Juices."  I put a red paintbrush on the red wine label and a gold one on the chardonnay.

Menu: I like my menu to match the theme as well, but this was a challenge with this theme.  At first, I thought about finding famous paintings with food in them and crafting my menu that way.  I decided instead to focus on colors and the artist's palette.

I started with a green salad with colorful veggies...red tomatoes, orange peppers, yellow corn, green cucumbers, and purple cabbage.

The main course was homemade pizza.  I shaped the dough and placed the toppings in ramekins to look like an artist's palette. I did two big pizzas, but you could do individual pizzas if you have room in your oven to cook them all.  I made my dough from scratch, but you could use a store-bought dough.

For dessert, I made cake pops and placed them on plastic palettes I purchased at an art supply store. I made 4 cake pops for each guest. I had these set out on my wine/favor table, so it also added themed decor to the party.

Favor:  I created a fun tag using the phrase "Thank HUE from the bottom of my heART".  I designed it in PhotoShop and adhered it to swatches from Lowes. I didn't have time to order a paint brush cookie cutter online and the local cake shops didn't have one, so I ended up free handing the cookie using a image from Google as a template. I used a toothpick to create the lines on the grey frosting of the brush to make it look more like a paintbrush.

The Painting Party was another great time with friends.  It makes me anticipate the next time we get together to actually paint.

 If you like any of these ideas, please comment below!  Would love to hear from my readers.  If you would like any of the templates, let me know.

The Kiddos Valentine's 2014

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day snuck up on me this year.  I was not prepared when my daycare called to let me know the kids would be exchanging Valentines on Thursday.  If you know me, it is not in my nature to run to the store and purchase store-bought Valentines, so I quickly jumped on the computer and designed my kids' Valentines. I think they turned out fine considering they were done the day before...

 

I always try to make a card that displays what my kids are into at the time.  This year, John asked Santa for a red motorcycle, and of course Santa delivered (he is definitely a good boy).  John rides it all around the house, so I snapped a photo complete with a Harley Davidson jacket someone gave us as a hand-me-down.Then, a little bit of Photoshop, and his card was done.

This is the finished product with the Rolos attached as wheels.

My daugher loves Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so I decided the create her card with that theme.  I used one of the photos of my daughter at her pirate themed birthday party to use for her Valentine.  I found the Izzy/boat image and added the parrot, the pirate X, and the text.

For "treasure" I added gold chocolate coins to the Valentine.

Pretty happy with how they turned out considering I made them in one day!  Hope you all have a very happy Valentine's Day today!

Snow and SKIdazzle

Invite:  I wanted the invite for this dinner to be a snowboard with some info on the front of it and the details on the back.  However, this concept changed when I ran out of room to add my cheesy ski and snowboarding "lingo".  If you know me, you know I love cheeseball sayings!  So I changed the invite a bit to be able to add the snow background and wording.

I made the invite so the front of the snowboard folds over to reveal the party details on the back.  To do this, I used an exacto knife to cut around all edges of the snowboard except the middle left.  Then, I cut out the snowboard with the party details and adhered it to the back with glue. This was easier for me than trying to line up the boards to print back to back.  Finally, I backed the invite on card stock so there was not a hole when the snowboard was folded back. 

I also asked each guest to dress in winter attire.  Some of the girls even did ski and snowboard attire. Oh yes...we love clowning around...

Entry Decor:  I placed my husband's skis at the entry along with a sign I cut out of form board and made to look like a snowboard. I originally planned to have the skis cross and guests walk under them to enter, but I couldn't find a way to really make sure it secure and safe.

Decor: I made a chairlift across the dining table and room using fishing line and chairlifts cut with my Cricut.  The chairlift cutout was on the Cricut Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge. I also hung "snow" from the ceiling for added fun.  These I made with cotton balls and fishing line.  I used a needle and thread to string these and looped each one once to make it stay.

Table Decor:  I used a white tablecloth, white Christmas lights, and cotton balls to decorate along the center of the table.  As a centerpiece, I placed a snowboard and boots with chocolate candy suckers placed inside.  The suckers represented the various levels of runs when you go skiing: green circle for easy, blue square for intermediate, and black diamond for advanced. I made the suckers with skewers instead of popsicle sticks because I needed them to be longer.

You could also place the suckers in mason jars and wrap a scarf around the jar.  This is what I did on my side table.

For the napkin rings, I found images of skis on Google and made them the size of popsicle sticks.  I cut them out and used Mod Podge to adhere them to the sticks which gave it a "waxy" look like actual skis.

For place cards, I made ski lift tickets personalized for each guest. I added a small zip tie at the top just like they do at ski resorts.

For wine charms, I again used my Cricut to make skis and snowboards in various colors/patterns.

I placed two pieces of charcoal and a carrot on the table in front of the water pitcher.  This Melted Snowman was a fun way to serve water.

Menu:  I again used the ski and snowboard run levels in deciding my menu.  I crafted the menu card to represent the map of runs on ski slopes telling skiers which way to go to each run.

As the appetizer, I served Cheese Dip with Carrot Skis.  To make this look like a bunny slope, I placed a small bowl under the dip and shaped the slope around it.  I added a Bunny Slope tag and placed my carrot skis on one side and crackers shaped like snowboards on the other.  This dip was SUPER easy with only two main ingredients:  cream cheese and an Italian Dressing Packet.  A bit of milk was also added.  It was very tasty.

For the main meal, I served tri-tip steak, green peas, and mashed potatoes.  The steak I cut in the shape of a diamond to represent a black diamond ski run.  The peas represented the easy green circle runs.  I softened a stick of butter, died it blue, reshaped it, and then let it harden in the refrigerator. I cut a square of the block to place on top of each mound of mashed potatoes.  This represented the blue square for intermediate ski runs. 

For dessert, I made snow cupcakes with ski and snowboards on top.  The skis and snowboards are just melted chocolate that I shaped using a paint brush.

Favor:  For the favor, I had guests take home the chocolate candy suckers in the centerpiece.  I also made a tag which they added once they had placed their suckers in the bags.

Another super fun night with the girls!  Just love hanging out with them, and especially love that they cater to my crazy themes!

New Year's BALL Party

For a little twist on the typical New Year's celebration, I decide to host a New Year's BALL Party.  No...not the Cinderella-kind of ball, but a party where everything was round like a ball. From the menu to the decor, I tried to incorporate as many round items as possible.  This would be a great birthday party for the guy/girl who is really into sports as well. It was a lot of fun.

Invite: I wanted to create a round invitation like I made for our summer pool party (see it here), but I ran out of time, so I created just a simple invite.  The text was...

Ready for another ROUND of Monthly Dinners with 2014?
BOUNCE on in and get ready to
have a BALL this Monday
at our

New Year's Ball

We'll celebrate the BALL dropping on another year of great Monthly Dinners.
Everything will be round at this party, so dress with pocadots or beads or whatever you can find that is circular.

Entry Decor: I bought punch balls from the Dollar Tree (they come 3 to a pack).  The punch balls already have a rubber band on one side, so I used it to attach each one to the next and weights to keep them down.  Since there is no helium, I used strings to keep them up.  I thought about using beach balls to create the arch, but it wasn't cost effective for me.  This was cheap and all I had to do was untie them for my kids to play with after the party. (= super cost effective AND super happy kids!)

As each guest entered, they drew a card from a round bowl for the night's activity.  These are just some of the examples of charade-type movements.  This was meant to add another bit of humor to the party!

Decor: I wanted bright/fun colors, so I used a bright yellow tablecloth. I hung a few more punch balls from the ceiling over the table.  My centerpiece was a vase with a collection of my kids' rubber balls.  Inside this vase, I painted a dowel rod white and used the disco ball from my Dancing with the Stars monthly dinner to be like the New Year's Eve New York ball drop. On both sides of this I filled tall vases with colorful marbles and bright flowers.

As place cards, I tried to think of a ball that represented each guest. The ones shown above are:
Soccer ball - for my friend that loves playing soccer; Disco Ball - for my friend that loves to dance; text from Pride and Prejudice - for my friend that loves to read (especially this book); Chocolate Chip dough ball - for my friend who loves to cook. Other balls I made were a yarn ball, 8 ball, and beach ball.  I bought the wooden balls at Michaels and hand painted the soccer, beach, and 8 ball.  I used Mod Podge to do the Pride and Prejudice ball and Playdough/mini chocolate chips to make the cookie ball.

I matched the napkin rings to the place cards. 

I set up my wine glasses in a triangle like in the balls at the start of a game of pool.  The wine charms were numbered pool balls surrounded by a triangle like you use in pool.

I spray painted the wine bottles for my party white and used red electrical tape to make them look like bowling pins. I set a plastic black bowling party next to them.

Menu:  I wrote the menu on mini beach balls I found at Party City. I used a small piece of tape adhere the ball to the plate so it didn't roll around.

The appetizer was goat cheese balls coated in various items - toasted sesame seeds, poppy seeds and chives, mixed nuts and paprika.  These were served with Ritz crackers.  

Goat Cheese Balls

8 ounces goat cheese

16 ounces cream cheese

3 T chives, chopped

1/2 t lemon juice

1/2 t worcestershire

1 t black pepper

1 T dried minced garlic

1 t Italian seasoning

*Tablespoon and teaspoon measurements are approximate as we seasoned to taste.

For the main dish, I wanted to do a chicken meatball rather than the typical ground beef one.  I found a recipe online and altered it just a bit.  It was very tasty and kid-friendly if you are looking for that.

Chicken and Apple Meatballs

1 onion, finely chopped

1 apple, peeled and grated (or cut into chunks for the food processor)

2 large chicken breasts

1/2 T fresh parsley

3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs 

Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Plain flour for coating (if you are cooking them on the stove)

Saute the finely chopped onion for 3 minutes until cooked but not brown.

Put into the food processor the chicken, apple, onion, parsley and breadcrumbs and pulse until the chicken is minced and all well combined. 

Roll into small balls and coat in the flour. 

Shallow fry until lightly golden and cooked through.

*I needed stove top space, so I baked them at 375 degrees instead of frying them. 

As side dishes, I served Parisian carrots (bought at Trader Joe's) and couscous (also TJ) with peas. It was a yummy meal, and one I will definitely make again.

For dessert, a friend and I made Chocolate Truffles in three flavors - coffee, orange, and chocolate/peanut butter.  These are super rich, but definitely delicious.

 Dark Chocolate Truffles

1 lb. dark chocolate (I used bags of dark chocolate chips)

1/2 lb. unsalted butter

8 oz. heavy cream

Cocoa powder, powdered sugar, tempered chocolate (optional)

For Flavorings:

1 large orange

2 T coffee

Chunky peanut butter

Chop chocolate and butter into small pieces and place in a large metal bowl.  Bring cream to boil.  Immediately pour over chocolate/butter.  Stir until completely melted.  Place bowl in the refrigerator to set up/harden.  Pipe or scoop ganache into uniform circles and drop each ball into a pan of sifted cocoa powder or powdered sugar, rolling it around to coat completely.  Truffles can be stored in the refrigerator 7-10 days. Allow them to soften slightly at room temperature before serving.

For the coffee and orange truffles:

Bring cream to boil.  Add 2 T ground coffee/zest of one orange.  Cover pot with plastic wrap.  Steep for 10 minutes.  Reheat quickly and pour over butter/chocolate.  Stir until smooth.

Favor: I bought gumballs from the Dollar Tree to fill a tennis ball as my favor. To cut the tennis ball, I used a shot glass to draw a circle on the top of the ball.  Then, I carefully cut out the circle using an exact-o knife.  I wiped the inside to clean it, placed a little tissue paper in the bottom, and added the gumballs.  To help it stand up, I used a bottle cap. I created my tag after the ball/round theme, but you could also use tennis phrases like "glad you could RALLY" and sign it "Love/Love".

If you like any of my ideas for this party, please comment below.  Also, I would be happy to share the templates for any of the items if you would like them.  Just include your email address in your comment.

Happy New Year!

Holiday Cards Galore!

One thing I love about the holidays is receiving cards from friends and family in the mail. It's so nice to get photos and letters instead of just bills!!  Throughout December I display the cards on a string along my windows, but after the holidays are over, the cards are often placed in the trash bucket...so sad.  This year, I decided to try something different...

I made this simple coffee table display book and placed all my holiday cards inside. I absolutely love it because it can be added to each year as a scrapbook of how ours and others families have grown throughout the years.

To make this album, I used a chipboard kit I found at Michaels.  This kit had several boards included as well as the binding rings.  I couldn't find a kit in the size I wanted, so I used an Exact-o knife to cut the chipboard to be a smaller size.  I cut mine 6.5 x 8.5 because this fit my largest photo cards with just a bit extra on the sides.

I used Mod Podge to adhere the scrapbook paper to the chipboard, added my embellishments, and sealed it all with a couple layers of Mod Podge.  The scrapbook paper wrinkled at bit with the Mod Podge, but it doesn't bother me.  If it bothers you, you may want to try something different.

The thing I like about this project is that I made the book to be able to hold multiple years.  I made divider pages for the two years of holiday cards I have so far. Next Christmas time, I will set this book out on my coffee table.  Then in January, I will make another divider page to add my cards from 2014.

I hope you had a great holiday.  We sure loved celebrating Jenna's first Christmas.  Here's our Christmas card for those that haven't seen it!

DIY Christmas Decor Part II

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!  Here is the follow up to Part I of my holiday mantle makeover. Sorry to post this a day AFTER Christmas, but the holidays are a busy time.  I love that these decorations are inexpensive and easy crafts that have made a HUGE difference in the look of my house.  They've even added to my holiday spirit in that I finally have some Christmas decorations that I love. Note: The photos don't do them justice as they are much more vibrant in person.

First is an idea I found on Pinterest and decided to copy.  I loved the idea of spelling Noel with a wreath and different sizes/fonts for the remaining letters.  To make this, I purchased the wreath at Michaels Craft Store and the letters at both Michaels and Joanns.  I bought red, green, and white spray paint with primer included from Lowes.  This the same spray paint I used to paint my stocking holders (see that post here) and all the other projects for my mantle, so I really got use out of the 3 bottles of spray paint.

The final project for my mantle was inspired by Liz at Naptime Decorator. I saved 3 wine bottles from our monthly dinners and spray painted them in the same paint used in the Noel project. 

When they were completely dry, I wrapped yarn tightly around the bottle.  I used only a dab of hot glue at the beginning and another at the end. Then more glue to adhere a snowflake/tree foam piece that I bought at Michaels.

This is my completed mantle with all my holiday projects.  There is a lot going on, but I absolutely love it especially since all the items match in color scheme.

Merry Christmas!