Crazy for Coloring - for Adults!

One of the new crazes right now is Mandala art and adult coloring books.  Stores like Michaels and Target have devoted entire end-cap sections to adult coloring books, and many adults are enjoying the relaxation of coloring right alongside their young children (I know I am!). When one of my regular monthly dinner gals asked if she could bring an out-of-town friend to our June monthly dinner, I asked my friend for some of her guest's loves hoping it might provide some inspiration for the month's theme.  Two of her friend's likes were coloring and Mexican food - she moved from California to Georgia, so the Mexican food selection in not quite what it is here! I decided to incorporate both of these likes into our June theme.

Invite:  I designed the invite on Photoshop using free images I found on Google.  While there are a lot of art party invites out there to choose from, I wanted this dinner to focus on Mandala art and colored pencils (rather than crayon, paint, etc), so I created my own invite specific to that.

Entry Decor:  I made an entry sign with my Cricut Explore.  I found a Mandala art piece of an owl and cut that image out with the Cricut.  Because it was so large, it was actually difficult to do.  It didn't turn out perfectly, but it did the trick. I added color pencils a dollar store basket to elevate the sign. 

Inside Decor: I set my table with a red tablecloth and then a huge strip of white butcher paper on top. I printed out large images of Mandala art and glued them on the butcher paper.  I colored in a few parts of each image, and guests added to each as the night progressed.

For a centerpiece, I bought a colorful bouquet and cut out a Mandala image my daughter had already colored to adhere to the front of the vase.  She loved helping out with the party!

Also on the table, I made large colored pencils out of Pringles cans. First, I cut colored card stock to wrap around the can and attach with scrap book tape.  Next, I cut a beige circle and smaller colored circle for the bottom.  The top is a beige half circle with a 7 1/4" diameter.  I hot glued the half circle around the lid of the Pringles can and then colored the top in marker.  I added pails I found in the dollar section at Target and filled them with markers and colored pencils. The little rainbow cups I found at Dollar Tree.

The rainbow napkins I also found at the Dollar Tree.

The colorful plates my family uses for BBQ gatherings and camping, so we already had them.  Love the color they added to the table. I created 6" mandala art coloring pages to match each of my guests.  Shown above are a pregnant woman for my friend who is pregnant with her first baby, Star Wars, and a Harry Potter tribute.

A couple more:  Mickey Mouse and Hunger Games.  I created all of these on Photoshop combining images I found free online.

For place cards, I wrapped four colored pencils in twine and added a mandala art piece with the guest's name.

I sawed the tops off of colored pencils and added a mini eye hook to make wine charms.  They were really cute in person and easy to make.

I created the wine labels on Photoshop after finding a mandala piece with red wine glasses.

Menu:  I wanted food with a lot of colors.  I started with this recipe for Rainbow Salsa I found on Gimme Some Oven.  It was a win-win -- delicious AND healthy!

For the main meal, I created a tostada bar with grilled carne asada and chicken, refried beans, and cilantro lime rice. For colorful fixings, I had tomatoes, cheese, lettuce, olives, guacamole, sour cream, and pico de gallo. 

For dessert, I made this rainbow cake with Mandala art on top.  My good friend came over and helped me with the Mandala art to place on top.  I made a stencil with my Cricut, and she used the stencil to carve the mandala out of fondant.  The cakes I made with 2 boxes of white cake mix.  I divided each mix evenly into 3 bowls and used gel food color to dye the mix the desired colors.  After baking, I leveled the cakes and stacked them with homemade buttercream icing in between. 

Favor:  I wanted to do something with Skittles candy because they are colorful and their "Taste the Rainbow" slogan went with my overall theme.  I found a template for pencil boxes here.  I took that template and resized it to my liking in Photoshop.  I also added color to make it a colored pencil rather than a regular pencil, and I added the "You Color My World Thanks for Coming" note.  After folding each pencil (I used glue and tape), I place and bag of Skittles inside.

I really love how everything turned out, and we had a great time coloring. Hope you enjoyed this post, and let me know what you liked best!

Remembering Prince

With the passing of musical icon Prince this past month, the radio stations have been playing a lot of his music.  Hearing it brings me back to lip sync contests, dance team performances, and other fond memories from my junior high and high school days. I decided, Remembering Prince, would make a fun monthly dinner theme as well.

Invite:  A quick invitation I crafted on Photoshop.  I just learned how to make my font in glitter, so that made me super excited!  The Prince font is "Chunk Five Ex", and the Purple Rain font is called "Still Time".  Both are available for free download.

Decor: I initially  made this giant sign for my entry door, but decided instead to place it on my beverage table.  The metallic purple background is wrapping paper I found at the Dollar Tree.  The gold glitter letters and the purple Prince symbol I cut using my Cricut. The text is the opening lyrics to "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince.

For the main table, I used a purple tablecloth with some old-school records I borrowed from my dad spread along the center to act as a table runner. Some wooden music notes and the Prince symbol were the centerpieces.

The music notes actually belong to my dad who has used them with the Community Concerts Association for years, but my talented (and helpful) husband made me the Prince symbol.  I traced it onto a piece of wood, and he cut it out!  I then spray-painted it purple.  After the second coat of paint, I added the purple glitter to make it really sparkle.

I added bright yellow napkins for color and used my Cricut to cut out the Prince symbol to place on top.

For place cards, I found images of Prince album covers online and added each guest's name as "background vocals" or "guest artist".  After printing the covers out, I backed them in purple card stock and placed them in CD cases. Add a burned CD of some great Prince songs inside to be a fun parting gift for guests.  Here's some of the other fun covers I used...

For wine charms, I again used the Prince symbol cut out of card stock.  I used various shades of purple for the symbols to distinguish the glasses.

I made wine labels on Photoshop.  Prince doesn't have any popular songs with White in the title, but he did have a song called "The Gold Experience", so I used that as inspiration for the white wine label.  Then "Little Red Corvette" for the red wine.

Not all my guests are drinking wine at this time (yeah for babies and soon to arrive babies!), so I also made purple Kool-Aid to drink.

Menu:  To decide my menu, I pulled up a list of Prince songs and tried to find ways to creatively craft my menu around them. I started with an alphabet soup after Prince's song "Alphabet Street."  I found the recipe for this healthy soup at Food.com here.  I made some variations to the recipe (on accident mostly), so mine did not come out with as much broth as the original recipe which made it thicker.  Sometime I'd like to try the recipe again exactly the way it is written.  For the breadstick, I bought Crazy Bread from Little Caesars Pizza (no prep for me!).  This went with Prince's song, "Let's Go Crazy."

I grilled BBQ chicken for my main dish, but instead of using a normal BBQ sauce, I found a recipe for Raspberry BBQ sauce on SmokingPit.com. It was super sweet with our first taste test, so my friend added some extra spices which made it taste perfect. This represented the song "Raspberry Beret."

I dyed mashed potatoes purple for "Purple Rain."  We shaped them into rain drops for added fun.

For dessert, I bought Dove ice cream bars for the song "When Doves Cry."  I don't know that I have ever had a Dove ice cream bar before, but those things are tasty!  I feel a bit guilty not hand-making the dessert, but it definitely was easy just purchasing them at the store and having dessert taken care of!

Favor:  I made Hershey Kiss cookies for a parting gift.  These are one of my favorite cookies, so it worked out perfectly that it went with Prince's song "Kiss."  I wrapped 4 cookies in a baggie and designed a tag using the lyrics from the song (with only minor alterations).

Hope you enjoyed this Prince-inspired party!

Baseball - Opening Day Party!

Believe it or not, in nine and a half years of monthly dinners, I have never done a baseball theme!  This month's dinner fell on Opening Day, so it made baseball the perfect theme.  There are a ton of ideas out there on the internet, but as usual I wanted to make up some of my own.  Check them out and let me know what you think!

Invite:  I created the invite on PhotoShop.  The fonts I used were BOSOX font, Candy Inc., and Marcelle font/Marcelle swatches.  These fonts are available for free online.

Entry Decor:  I made a sign for the front door using foam board and scrapbook letters cut using my Cricut.  I borrowed a plastic Angels helmet from a neighbor and the blow up bats from another friend.  My PE teacher husband already had the giant baseball, so I added it to the decor as well.

Inside Decor:  I set the table with a green tablecloth, and put a home plate base in the center.  On top of that, I had a vase filled with small baseballs.  I borrowed the Angel helmets to place on both sides.

On the table, I also filled small vases with peanuts and added a baseball to the top. 

I know that you can buy paper plates that look like baseballs, but I decided to create my own using my nicer dinner plates for a more formal look.  I used my Cricut machine to cut red card stock to make the lacing.  I used a dab of scrapbook glue on each end to adhere it to the plate so it wouldn't fall off.  We just pulled the paper off when it came time to serve the food.

I also borrowed mini plastic baseball helmets from friends to place next to each plate. My original plan was to serve a salad, ice cream, or some part of the menu in each hat, but instead I just used them for more fun visual decor.

I created a baseball card of each guest for my place card.  These were intended for laughs.  Some of my favorites were me as Pitcher holding a "pitcher" of juice and my friend Maria as the "Designated Reader" (instead of hitter) since her photo is of her reading a book at an Angel game. Other funny ones...my friend and her boyfriend kissing as "First Base", another friend doing a yoga pose as "Center(ing) Field", and another with a dazed look as "(out in) Left Field"!

I used scissors and cut my napkins to look like home plate bases.  I bought mini foam fingers off of Amazon to use with my silverware.  If you buy these, take them out of the package as soon as you get them to air them out.  They were kinda stinky, but super cute!

For wine charms, I printed off the logos of various MLB teams.  I used a circle punch to cut them and then attached them to the wine stems.

I created wine labels which played off team names to distinguish the red (Cinncinati Reds) from the white (White Sox) wines.

Here's what the entire label looked like.  If you want either of these images, just comment below, and I will email them to you.

Menu: At first I was planning to have a hot dog bar as my main course, but if you know me, you know that that would be too simple!  I always try to come up with something a little more creative.  Here's what I came up with...

Slider = one of the more popular pitches in baseball, so why not have sliders to eat!  I made mini cheeseburger sliders in the oven...didn't even have to slave over a grill = super easy!

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground beef (I used 80/20)
• 1 Tablespoon dried minced onion
• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 6 slices american cheese
• 12 dinner rolls

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375° F.  In a large bowl combine hamburger meat, onion, seasoning salt and pepper. Mix to combine. Press mixture evenly in the bottom of an un-greased 9x13 inch baking dish.  Bake, uncovered for 25 minutes or until meat is no longer pink in center (the meat to shrink a little).  Remove from oven and then carefully pour out the grease in the pan. Place cheese slices over the top of meat. Place back in oven for 2 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Cut meat into 12 equal size squares. Place each square of meat in the center of dinner roll. Serve with your favorite cheeseburger toppings! (Ketchup, mustard, pickles, etc).

Foul ball = "Fowl" ball chicken wings!  These were Asian BBQ chicken wings I made mostly in the slow cooker.  These were AMAZING! I found the recipe at Valerie's Kitchen.

Spitball = another pitch.  For me, this was Spitball Veggies, I cooked over a spit fire. I chose red and orange peppers, red onion, yellow squash, and zucchini to give it color.

Bunt = when a batter gently taps the ball with the bat, so it is difficult for the infield to get to it.  I decided to make red velvet Bundt Cakes!  These were super yummy.  The photo isn't very good of these (sorry), but they had a cream cheese frosting.  I added a white chocolate baseball in the center.  The lacing was drawn with a red food coloring pen.

Favor:  As a parting gift, I packaged some peanuts with a box of Cracker Jacks - the typically "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" gift. I displayed them in another Angels helmet next to my Angel gnome!

I designed the tag on Photoshop using some typical baseball terms.  They came out pretty cute!

All in all, another fun party!  Hope you enjoyed my post and can use some of these ideas on your next baseball bash!