Palette to Palate Dinner

As a vibrant end of summer dinner party, I decided to theme August's monthly dinner around colors.  I decided on a Palette to Palate theme where the decor would center around painting palettes and bright colors while the food would play into a colorful palate with each course.

Invitation: I designed my invitation to be bright and colorful.  I found an image of plates and dishes with bold colors, and then added a paint swatch look on the right with colors that matched the dishes.  I asked each guest to chose a color to wear from head to toe for added fun.  I had them RSVP with the color they chose, so I could match the place setting details to those colors.  The guests RSVP'd on a group text thread, so others could see what colors were already taken.

Decorations: I cut brown butcher paper to fit my table and then painted splotches to look like a paint palette.  The colors matched the specific colors my guests were going to wear for the dinner.

As a centerpiece, I used a small paint can from Michaels as a vase and purchased bright flowers to place inside.  Around it, I placed snacks in various colors for guests to nibble on - pepperjack cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheddar cheese, black olives.  My intent with this was to pull in the "palate" part of the theme. I also add the invitation on a mini easel.

For the napkins, I went to the hardware store and picked up paint swatches in the colors my guests were wearing.  I folded a napkin of their color, made a small slice in the swatch, and slid the bottom of the napkin through.

The placecards were paint palettes and brushes to match the guest's color.  I cut these out of cardstock with my Cricut machine and used a paint pen to write the names.

The place setting when it was put together for each guest...

I like my wine labels to be themed to my dinners as well, so I designed these with the theme in mind.  For the red wine (merlot), I found an image for a red wine glass and paint brushes.  I added a paint swatch of the wine colors and labeled this wine "Merlot-dramatic Palette." For the white wine (chardonnay), I used the phrase "hard to resist," but switched it to "chard" to resist the golden hues.  Again I added a color palette and an image of white wine and grapes.

For the wine charms I used a second set of the same paint swatches from the hardware store I used for the napkins and cut out a circle a little smaller than my wine glass bottom.  I then cut an inner circle and a slice to wrap them around the stem before taping the slice closed. Free and easy.

Menu: I wanted each course to be monochromatic which surprisingly wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be.  We started with an appetizer of all ORANGE.  I hollowed out an orange pepper to hold a red pepper hummus.  As dippers, I had orange peppers, carrots, and sweet potato chips.

Next, I served a GREEN salad. This was romaine lettuce, spinach, peas, cucumber, avocado, and green pumpkin seeds. I served it with an avocado lime dressing.

The main dish was RED.  I made red pepper pasta with rotisserie chicken.  It was a new recipe, and very popular with my guests and my family.  I will definitely make it again. I chose this recipe because it was low carb, not time consuming, and it was bright red! It was used chicken (that I didn't have to take time cooking by the way), so I knew the red color wouldn't be diluted like it might if I used ground beef or turkey.

Dessert did not go initially as planned, but worked out great. I found a recipe for an easy purple cheesecake, but could not find blueberry jello anywhere.  The closest I found was berry blue.  So I followed the recipe, but with berry blue jello instead.  This changed my dessert color scheme to light blue which was fine since I topped it with blue berries.

Favor: For a parting gift for my guests, I bought boxes of candy in the colors that each guest wore to the party. I designed a tag that read "Thank HUE for adding color to our Night" and attached it with matching ribbon.  For display only, I added a small bottle of the matching paint color to the display.

This was a fun theme to put together (I know I say that every month!).  It was neat to have each of the girls dressed up in their color too.  Would totally recommend this party theme. Hope you liked it!

Crazy for Crock-Pots

Thinking about a theme for my January monthly dinner, a friend of mine suggested doing a crock-pot meal.  This sounded so good and easy, I decided to theme my entire party around crock pots.  Hence came the theme Crazy for Crock-Pots!  Hope you enjoy some of the creative aspects of this party.

Invitation: I designed an invitation on PhotoShop with a simple red crock pot adding party details on the crock-pot.  Along with the invitation, I emailed guests a recipe card designed with this same crock-pot to type up a favorite crock-pot recipe to share with the guests.  My original plan was to make copies of these recipe cards for each guest and put them together in a fun mini cookbook, but I don't think I gave my friends enough time to organize themselves and type up a recipe, so not enough did it for me to really make a book.

Decorations:  I only own one crock-pot, so I borrowed crock-pots from a few ladies to make the decorations and menu happen, but it wasn't too hard to get what I needed after asking around.  For the centerpiece, I set up 4 mini crock-pots that I borrowed from friends/neighbors.  Each was a different color.

I went to the library and checked out some crock-pot cookbooks to place under each crock pot and set some child's oven mitts, play pots, and a small ladle for added decor.

My favorite decoration was my handmade place cards which were mini crock-pots with the guest's name as the brand.  I got the idea to scrapbook mini crock-pots and had fun experimenting with making them.  These did take a bit of time to make, but they were a big hit with the guests and fun to make once I figure out the logistics. I made my "pot" 4" tall and wrapped it around a tapered small plastic cup.  I chose this size because a 12" piece of scrapbook paper fit perfectly around it, and I liked the 4" height.

The details of the crock pot I designed on my Cricut - the nob using a circle and oval shape, the handles with a semi circle and rectangle shape, the lid with a large circle and two small circles.  For the clear lid, I hand cut out circles to fit the inside from page protectors. I used strong glue to add the handle on the lid.  

For the cord, I used a hole punch to punch a hole at the bottom of the back of the pot.  Then I cut a black paracord piece and hot glued a plug I made on the Cricut to the end.  I didn't fill the crock pots with anything, but you could easily use them as a party favor and put snacks or something inside the cup.

I thought it would be fun to have the cord run to a wall socket, so I used the Cricut to create a wall socket out of card stock and lightly glued it to a napkin.

I made an extra paper crock-pot before a guest had to cancel, so I used this one to decorate the mantle above my beverage table along with some crock-pot cookbooks.

I designed my wine labels on PhotoShop to go along with the theme.  Sippin' & Simmerin' was the slogan on one of the labels.  The red wine was Cabernet & Crock-Pots.  I incorporated the same crockpot as the invitation and other images of crock-pots, so it tied all the decor together.

For wine charms,  I used clipart images of various colors of crock-pots and added a silly saying like "I Can Handle the Heat, "Slow and Steady," and "Too Hot to Handle" among others.

Menu: Crock-pot cooking made the dinner party super easy.  I got to visit with my friends rather than be stuck in the kitchen prepping food.  We started with two appetizers.  The first was a Spinach Artichoke Dip.  This was a recipe designed for a mini crock pot (maybe even more mini than the one I used). It was tasty.  I served it with french bread for dipping.

The second appetizer was Cranberry Meatballs.  These were easy to make and delicious.  I used regular size Trader Joe Italian meatballs because I had them already and the grocery did not have mini meatballs.

For the main dish, I made Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie. I wanted to pick something that used only one dish to limit how many crock pots I needed, so this was perfect because it had chicken and veggies in it.  It was tasty and filling.  I don't think our stomachs could have handled much more.

I served it with a roll for guests to dip in it since it didn't have the normal pot pie crust on top.

For dessert, we had Crock Pot Lemon Blueberry Dump Cake.  If you've never made a dump cake out camping or in your house, you are missing out.  They are always so easy and a big hit.

Favor:  For a parting gift, I purchased McCormick packets of Slow Cooker spices (Pot Roast and BBQ Pulled Pork was what they had at the grocery I went to).  I added a crock pot liner behind the packet and secured them with a yellow ribbon.  I made a favor tag that read, "Here's to Cookin' Up Memories & Not a Mess!"

This turned out to be really fun theme to do, and since I borrowed almost all the crock pots, it was easy to make the theme come alive. You could even have a potluck and have your guests sign up to bring an appetizer, main dish, or dessert if you didn't want to make it all yourself.  If you are crafty, definitely make the crock-pot place cards with the cord because they were a super cute addition!  Hope you enjoyed my party!

Uno Party

Who doesn't love the card game UNO? I grew up playing this game, and still love playing it with my family today.  I decided it might be a fun theme to have at our November monthly dinner, and it did not disappoint.  From decorations to food, the colorful theme was easy and fun to put together.

Invite: I designed the invitation around the Uno logo and all the colors used in the game.  I tried to incorporate words from the game into the wording of the invite as well.  I kept it simple, but an additional idea that you could incorporate with this theme might be to ask guests to dress head to toe in one of the colors.

Decorations: Of course, I tried to incorporate UNO cards wherever I could.  On the mantle above the side table, I added Uno cards to the Thanksgiving turkey in my HOME display for added fun.  

I borrowed giant Uno cards from a neighbor, and used red mini clothespins to hang them for a festive banner display.

I also used these giant Uno cards to create a small runner on the dining table on top of a black tablecloth. 

For the centerpiece, I used an Uno Attack shooter that launches cards at you in that Uno game.  I also designed an image with various Uno cards that I printed and wrapped around a vase.  I purchased a bouquet of red roses to put in the top (any excuse to buy myself flowers!).

For the place settings, I purchased paper plates and napkins from the Dollar Tree in the 4 Uno colors.  I put them on top of my white plates so they popped a bit more on the black tablecloth.

For place cards, I designed Uno wild cards with a photo of each guest in the middle.

For the napkins, I just placed an Uno card on the center of a colorful folded napkin.  They were real playing cards, so I didn't glue them or anything.

Had some fun as usual with designing wine labels.  I played off specific Uno cards.  The red wine was a WILD card that I designed to say "Wild about Red Wine."  I used a colorful Uno card wallpaper behind the center image. For the white wine, I used a yellow Draw Two card and photoshopped two white wine glasses into the center squares.  The wallpaper on this label was the same black burst that I used on the invitation with the Uno logo also from the invitation.

For wine charms I printed out mini Uno cards to tape to the front of the glasses.

As added fun, I had guests draw an Uno card to see which glass they used for the evening.

Menu:  There are plenty of colorful foods that could go along with this theme.  I used some color, but mainly used Uno cards as inspiration for my menu.  We started with a 7-Layer Dip and tortilla chips to go with the Green 7 card.

Next was Draw 2 Tacos with all the fixings.  I served TWO options (shredded chicken or ground beef) and each guest started with TWO tacos.  On the side guests could add cheese, tomato, lettuce, guacamole, salsa, and sour cream.

I served WILD rice and black beans inside a red, yellow, and green bell peppers that I called WILD CARD stuffed peppers.

For dessert, I made individual raspberry cheesecakes, but I made them upside down to represent the REVERSE card in Uno. This recipe was very easy to make, and was the perfect amount of cheesecake after we were so full.  

Favor:  As a party favor for guests, I filled a favor bag with M&M's.  I pulled out the orange M&Ms to keep them with the traditional Uno colors.  I probably should have taken out the brown ones so they looked more festive (hindsight).  I designed a tag that said "Hope UNO (you know) how amazing you are!" 

A super fun theme & a super fun game to play. Hope you are inspired to host an Uno party for your next gathering!