Pink Peppermint Blogger

My friend Lauren is expecting her third boy, Baby Jack! We recently surprised her with a small, informal gathering of friends at a local restaurant. I wanted to do something to make it special but with the timing and limitations of a restaurant setting we had to keep it simple. I planned each element so it could be done beforehand since we only had 30 minutes before guests began to arrive.

The guest of honor’s place was set with a copy of the invitation since it was a surprise to her. We invited friends for “dinner and a little potty talk.” C’mon. Funny.

We had a decorative beveled paper mat with a ribbon accent that coordinated with the invitations at each place setting. Each mentioned her older two boys by name and welcomed Baby Jack to make three! Not your traditional use of the phrase, but he will make three boys! Wallace, party of five.

Simple vases brought from home were filled with blue hydrangeas.

They stretched down the length of the table and were interspersed with these over-sized jacks I already had from this Sip and See for Lauren’s second son. Seriously. How perfect!

We surprised Lauren good, had a a great night of food, funny conversations and opened a few gifts in celebration of baby no. 3, who is scheduled to make his debut this week!

Here are the coordinating thank yous I gave her as part of my gift.

And each guest left with a little something sweet.

I think his would be pretty for a bridal shower as well, sweet to change colors to match the honoree’s color scheme and easy for anyone to recreate using store-bought paper and a circle punch to bevel the edges of a square page.

I’ve been waiting for Easter to roll around again to share this adorable Egg Hunt First Birthday that Lauren and family hosted for her youngest son.

Here’s the invitation I designed with a custom bunny die cut. Lauren added a tiny blue bow. She does love some detailed hand work. “Hippity Hoppity, there’s a birthday on its way.”

There are lots of sweet little details sure to make everybunny weak in the knees.

Lauren took a class and learned to make these deco mesh wreaths, to which she attached bunnies in the center. I’m impressed.

There was signage letting guests know which way to go.

The festivities were around back so guests were pointed in the right direction with this giant carrot pointer and Egg Hunt signage.

Lauren made these great yarn eggs and hung them from the trees. I love what great visual impact they had for relatively little cost. Except time, that is. I recall that they took a while to make!

Sweet white child-size tables covered in burlap and topped with these white egg trees planted in candy were set up on the back porch. Love.

I’m pretty sure this is the cutest place setting I’ve ever seen. I love the addition of flowers and mini eggs to the grass mats. And don’t get me started on the bunny napkins. I am TOTALLY stealing that.

Each guest chair had a yarn pom bunny tail—blue for the boy bunnies and pink for the girls. Swoon.

The hungry little bunnies munched on sliders, carrots in flower cups with ranch dip, cheese, mini cream puffs, Annie’s bunny cereal dry in flower muffin liners, and assortment of fresh fruit, cheese, bunny pops, and plastic eggs for the littlest bunnies were filled with puffs and yogurt melts.

Thirsty rabbits drank from these lidded cups with bunny straws.

There were sippy cups on hand for the little ones.

Adults even got in on the fun with these cottontail drink cups.

The kids all brought their baskets and took turns hunting eggs, letting the crawlers and new walkers get in on the fun too!

There was a surprise visit from the Easter Bunny! The birthday boy was a little unsure.

Then it was time for cake.

And a sweet little Easter smash cupcake for the birthday boy!

This is one of my favorite photos. Look at the delight in his face!

I love the birthday banner too, made from kraft letters affixed to egg-shaped doilies. “Hippity Hoppy Birthday!”

Inside the house, there were more sweet decorations to be found.

Complete with a play space for baby, no less.

When it was time to pack up their eggs and go home, guests each left with a keepsake egg hand-painted by a local artist who donates proceeds to a local not-for-profit.

As we’ve come to expect, Lauren did an amazing job. Her attention to detail is unparalleled, and what a special day it made for her baby boy’s first birthday!

I’m excited to have gotten my amazing photos back from my sweet friend, Rachel, and to have finally gotten through all of them so that I can share my daughter’s Barbie: The Princess and The Popstar birthday party with you all. The movie is a classic “grass is greener” tale of a princess and a popstar who each think the other’s life is so fantastic that they trade places for a day and learn some valuable lessons along the way. Hey, I could write DVD sleeve copy. My Sweet Caroline was introduced to the movie by some neighborhood friends and quickly became obsessed with being “Keira,” the popstar.

Here’s the invitation and the envelope in which it was delivered. We kept the guest list to a few girlfriends and invited them to come in costume for an on-stage performance.

Most of them were hand-delivered in the neighborhood so we were able to embellish them a bit.

We kept things simple with the party entrance this time, opting for a sparkly door sign and some backstage credentials.

Backstage passes hung from a guitar stand on the front porch. I wasn’t happy with the materials I found for ID badges at the local office store, so I printed 4×6 cards and had them hard laminated, adding a lanyard to each.

When guests entered, our Stage Moms were directed to the left into the “Green Room.” We had earplugs on hand just to be silly. Purple, of course.

Our “Talent” was directed through the lit doorway to the concert stage.

We also had directional signage for the “Green Room,” “Wardrobe” and this one for the bathroom.

C’mon. That’s funny.

There are my kiddos “tuning” the inflatable guitar before the party started. This is the only photo I have of my son at the party because he hightailed it down to the neighbor’s house when he heard he’d be outnumbered.

We built the stage with a piece of plywood and some scrap wood from our playset.

I painted it purple and added a short shimmery curtain to hide the legs. It fit right over the fireplace hearth, and gave the girls a few square feet of room to get their popstar on.

We covered the fireplace and mantel with pink and purple goodness and lit it up with Christmas lights.

Overhead was an over-sized tree ornament we used as a disco ball. It even had a pink tiara on its head.

Guests passed from the stage area to the “Green Room” through this sparkly pink curtain, which was a source of great entertainment for the girls.

(Read: they ran back and forth through it until it bit the dust.)

We kept the food light with items you might find in a real Green Room.

Maria from Love & Sugar Kisses made these AMAZING fondant topped Oreos for us. I swear to you that they were so perfect, people felt bad biting into them. Ha!

The pink Princess versions featured crowns and magic hairbrushes and the purple Popstar versions had guitars and magic microphones.

Since most everyone walked to the party, we offered mimosas to our stage moms. In keeping with our color scheme (and because I don’t really love a classic mimosa) we mixed 1 part champagne or sparkling juice, 1 part orange juice and 1 part V8 Fusion Pomegranate Blueberry juice. The concoction was a beautiful pink color, and the sweetness of the different juice really cut the usual bite of the drink. Two thumbs up.

The girls drank regular juice out of these easier to handle cups.

I made this centerpiece for around $10, wrapping boxes with matching table coverings and using inexpensive princess and popstar props from a party store.

I told the birthday girl she could eat when her guests arrived, so five minutes in, she was ready to chow down.

The girls ate and then took their time warming up to the stage. We had a small craft area where they could make “rock band” bracelets using stickers, rhinestones and leather wrist bands.

I was sure if the parents made themselves scarce, the girls would be fighting tooth and nail for a turn so I made these names to draw from to see who was next. As it turned out, they were pretty shy about getting up there. Who knew? We had a karaoke machine with songs from Barbie: The Princess and The Popstar movie and other faves the girls could choose from like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Call Me Maybe.”

Everyone wanted to be on stage, but very few wanted to sing alone. Safety in numbers. That’s my girl at the mic rockin’ and rulin’.

They had cake, the birthday girl made her wish and everyone took the stage again.

When it was time to head home, everyone left with one of these light-up wands, which I thought looked a lot like microphones.

I hoped they would sing into them in the mirror like we used to do as kids!

The tags said, “You royally ROCKED it, girl. You really did your thing. Take home this magic mic, look in the mirror and SING!”

After the party, I snapped a pic of Caroline in her purple Keira wig and we used the photo on these hilarious thank you notes, designed to look like autographed headshots.

Every time I look at them, I laugh all over again.

My baby is five. Wow. When did that happen?

Special thanks to Caroline’s Nana and Mrs. Lauren, as usual, for their hands-on help and party inspiration, and a special thanks to Mrs. Stacy for taking me in her giant truck to the home improvement store and staring blankly with me at a wall of plywood varieties. How could there be so many?!

Photography: Sweet Magnolia Photography

Cake: For Heaven’s Cakes

Oreos: Love & Sugar Kisses

Invitations, Paper Goods and Party Planning: www.pinkpeppermintpaper.com

My team is playing in the National Championship Game tonight! I couldn’t let today go by without sharing two pieces I designed over the Fall for some friends and neighbors who share my love for my alma mater, The University of Alabama.

My friend Jolie and I talked months out about a football tie-in to the plans she had for a 40th birthday surprise for her husband Mike. Since everyone’s Fall schedules fill up so quickly around here with football games and kids’ activities, there was a little pressure to get on everyone’s calendars as far in advance as possible. We knew it would be a road game in NOLA on a certain weekend, but time, location, etc. were all still TBD, so I created this playful Save the Date card to mail out while she and her Mother-in-Law worked out the specifics.

Here’s a look at the more detailed invitation that followed several weeks later. This one was a little bit hard for me, because I LOVED the way the Save the Date turned out and wanted the two pieces to coordinate without being too matchy matchy.

I had fun playing with all the football terminology, referring to the surprise as a “game plan” or “trick play,” the party start time as “kick-off” and the outdoor setting as a “back yard scrimmage.”

Here’s a better look at both pieces together. I was very pleased with the way they turned out, and we had a blast in NOLA for the weekend!

More importantly, {he swears} we got the birthday boy good! Roll Tide.

I’m excited to share the details of my son’s 7th birthday party with you. Seven. Wow. Not sure how that happened. He is all about the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and loves Jack Sparrow. That’s CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow. I set out to throw him a sort of creepy and realistic pirate party, and we must have done pretty well because it got the birthday boy’s pirate seal of approval. I am crazy excited to tell you that I hired a photographer for the first time, so you will not be subjected to my mediocre photog skills (and the blogging world breathes a collective sigh of relief). Here we go…

We set the tone with this parchment colored map themed invitation. I used a sort of messy ink pen font that read, “If it be adventure you seek, yer compass need look no further…Captain Reese be expectin’ the service of his regular crew as he sails the 7 seas in search of treasures.” It was delivered in a kraft colored envelope printed with map elements and sealed with a blood red wax “X.” Everyone said the kids would freak over the wax seal, and that absolutely held true from the feedback that I received.

We had rain in the forecast that day, so our backyard activities sort of flew out the window. I repurposed our props, using them to greet all those scurvy dogs.

I made the ship mast for about $10 using PVC pipe (which is crazy cheap–who knew?) , a bushel basket from Michael’s, a mini skeleton and some creepy fabric swags, both from Dollar Tree. I borrowed the tattered Jolly Roger flag from my partner, Lauren, who had ordered it from Oriental Trading.

We already owned this awesome chest, which has been in my family since I can remember. It used to be green and yellow and live in my parents’ room. Ahhh…the seventies. I got ahold of it in grad school and painted it black. It lives like this in my guest room, minus the bones and stuff. I had already purchased and made another treasure chest before I even thought about this one, but it’s huge and would’ve been difficult to hide for our treasure hunt.

Dead Men Tell No Tales…

This guy is one of my very favorite details of the whole party. His name is Jolly Roger, and he narrates the DVD menus on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. He’s got quite a bit of personality and inspired a lot of the invitation wording. His Captain Jack goatee makes me giggle.

Inside, we were all decked out in fine pirate style!

This year, I did a little birthday retrospective of my boy from past years. You know, afore he was captain.

Funny, no? Thought it was better than a pirate’s wench costume, which I also have. Kidding.

We screened the first POTC movie in the living room. The kids were totally captivated (and some of the adults too). If you haven’t seen the movies, I highly recommend although you may want to pre-screen them before letting your kids watch. Johnny Depp is amazing.

Since the party was mid-afternoon, we wanted to keep the food on the light side, but after all the plundering, those kiddos had worked up an appetite!

We served chicken, fruit and these hilarious little crab sammies, which were my favorite! They look to me like they’re pleading not to be eaten.

I pinned these from familyfun.go.com and substituted mozzarella balls for the eyes and red apples for the pincers. We made them into turkey and ham sammies.

Here’s a closer look at the cupcakes I made for reasons which were totally logical at the time. Then I was kicking myself at the 11th hour for not hiring it out. They were yummy though!

I had this raw cupcake stand from Pick Your Plum. I looked really Piratesque to me already with the burned edges so we just left it plain. For now.

I made an XL cupcake for the birthday boy and topped it with this weird little candelabra I found at WalMart. There was one. It was $1. Random. And oddly perfect for the occasion.

Here’s the birthday boy making his wish. It was for Skylanders. Trust.

The kids drank juice poured from these plain bottles which I corked and labeled with art I created from The Graphics Fairy blog.

There are six different designs to choose from. Download them and print your own for free here:

Pink Peppermint Printables Rum Labels

For the adults, we taste tested grog, mostly because I had a curiosity about it myself and thought others might like to taste it too. It’s a rum drink with lime juice (fer tha scurvy), sugar, mint and water. Not bad.

For a fun activity, we did a twenty clue treasure hunt. It was a bit chaotic having to move it inside, but we managed. If you ever do one, plan on having an adult read the clues aloud. I would also have devised some way to let everyone find at least one clue. They had a blast searching though!

We cordoned off certain areas of the house to the treasure hunt by hanging these signs on the door knobs of rooms that were off limits.

We hid the clues in the common areas of the house and in both kids’ room. They were hidden inside the birthday boy’s pirate boots, by the PlayStation, under the TV remote, in his school backpack, inside a prop compass and on and on. The clue that led them to the timer said this: “Set the time and push to start. I beep when done. That is my part.” I used a great little program called RiddleMe, that allows you to enter an inventory of things and places you have in and outside your home, and it will help you to generate clues. I had to redo all of my clues for inside use at the last minute since we had rain, and although I reworked them all to rhyme and be more pirate-like, it was a huge help to have a place to start.

We even hid a clue next to some skeleton keys by the dog’s crate. In the POTC movies, there’s a dog that carries the keys to the prison cells, and all the pirates are always calling him to come closer so they can grab them. We ALMOST got a photo of our Buttercup carrying them. Proof positive she will put anything in her mouth! The clue read, “I guard the keys to the prison gate. When I’m not working, I’ll be in my crate.”

Well, who would’ve thought they’d find the treasure buried in the gas grill. We took the tank out and hid the chest underneath. It held treasures for pirates and mermaids because we had a few little sisters and a dear classmate too, and hey, there are mermaids in the POTC movies. Even if they are mostly evil. Details…

We made the boys Captain Jack head wraps, complete with beaded dread.

And the kids and I made the mermaids each a beaded bracelet.

When guests left, everyone took home a small bag of chocolate pirate’s gold with a compass to lead them to the thing they want most. Spoiler alert: It’s chocolate.

A week or so later, we sent these message in a bottle thank you notes out, which I thought would be a little different and fun. We placed them in mailboxes mostly around the neighborhood. I printed them on 1/4 letter sheets of parchment with silly notes that would speak to the kids’ imaginations and make Captain Jack Sparrow proud.

One note read,

“Dearest cousins,

From the bottom of my tiny Pirate heart, a sincere thank you for the Skylanders.

It helps with me boredom while marooned on this deserted island.

Mutiny is no laughing matter. “

And was signed, “Pillage and Plunder, Captain Reese”

Happy 7th to my devilishly handsome boy!

…………..

Photography by Kirk Giessinger

There’s a weird thing that happens once a year when I’m about to host a birthday party at our house. It’s typically only in September when we’re prepping for my son’s birthday party. I look around my house, and things that I have lived with for a year (often more) become totally unacceptable. And I have to do something. Right. Now. Scuffed up walls, temporary paper blinds, an empty spot where some furniture should live, lamps? Why do we have no lamps? I could go on.  This year, it’s the Naked Wall.

Here she is. In all her naked glory. I’m not even gonna tidy up because I’m keepin’ it real, and honestly, the playroom looks pretty good right now. She’s a tricky wall. She’s off center from the furniture in our playroom/keeping room. She’s adjacent to our kitchen and both a plastic kitchen and a leather sofa with botanical prints hanging above. She’s been au naturale for over two years since we moved in. We painted her. We looked at her. We didn’t know what to do. She doesn’t have a thing to wear. Play clothes? Fancy threads? I wanted something playful but not juvenile. Something that went with the damn plaid chair. You know. The one I thought was so “fun” back in 2000 when I was just out of grad school and needed furniture for my new big girl apartment. The chair that has dictated the color scheme of the last three houses we’ve had. The one that will some day serve as fuel for a party-related bonfire. Yeah. That one.

A while back, I bought one of those value packs of seven canvases from Michael’s thinking I could figure something out. Then, I saw a cool family rules print at Home Goods. It didn’t match though, and it was totally off scale-wise. It would have been like hanging a spoon on that big naked wall. Nevertheless, it served as some inspiration for a way to tie the pieces together with the wording. I found some cool backgrounds online and altered the colors in PhotoShop to match “the chair.” I printed and tiled them. You can see the seams a little, but it’s the playroom so we’ll deal.

After some trial and error with puckering while adhering them to the canvas (I finally used rubber cement around the edges of both surfaces, let dry and adhered), I’m pleased with the way they turned out. I like that my early reader can read them himself and understand their message. He read them all to me the other day and smiled–especially over the one about the Wii.

I kind of like that we have his party at the house most years. It’s the only thing that lights a fire in me to turn my attention to the house and things that really need to be done. What about you? Do you have naked walls or other party triggers?

I’m sitting here writing this instead of working on the party that’s in less than a month, but surely I’ll get them hung before then. Did I mention I HATE to hang things? H.A.T.E. I’ll be sure to share a finished look–seven prints, 27 holes and one can of spackle later.

I was nosing around in some old files the other day looking to create a favor tag to go along with this bug party invitation in my online store.

I had all but forgotten about the other bug party invitation designs I did as a party of some custom design offering for this awesome bug party.

This is a hot theme this time of year, so I thought I’d show you what else I had for you to choose from.

For whatever reason, several of these are looking a bit neon on my display. They are all actually the green shown in the last invitation below–the “latest buzzz” version.

The gingham makes this version a little more preppy and playful and less, “ooh, gross. bugs!”

I think this next “Busy Bees” version works well for a bug themed party as well as Spring or Summertime soirees.

This smaller 4 x 6  inch”Latest Buzzz” version is a little less busy and works well for boys and girls.

I am working on loading my designs into a new online store, so I’m trying not to spend too much time adding items to the old store. Please know that you can ask for any design you see on the blog, whether you find it in the online store or not!

On that note, here are some bug-themed favor tags I just finished up! The fonts can easily be changed to match any of the existing invitation designs above. These are available in sets of nine. They are $10 for the first set of 9 and $5 for each additional page of the same design. So $15 for 18, $20 for 27 and so on…

All items are available with hand-punched bug munches, cut to look like bugs have been snacking on the edges of the invitation or favor tag. You can see a sample of the munching here.

Have fun buggin’ out!

We just finished up the spring youth baseball season here. One of the team members invited us all out to swim yesterday, and the boys (and a gaggle of 4-year-old sisters) had a blast! I asked what I could bring, realized the food was well taken care of and decided instead to focus my efforts on a little something for the coaches who have spent so much time and effort over these last few months working with the boys.

I thought about what would be meaningful to the coaches and wanted something each player could leave his mark on. I debated between a frame and a miniature wooden bat they could all sign. I went on a scouting trip to Michael’s and scored some small 9×9 shadowbox frames in the graduation section.  They had a small opening in the center for a photo and a wide matte that all the boys could sign. Our team was the Reds this year, so I used my cutter to make a replica of the team logo and mounted it in the center. If you don’t have access to a cutter (or have a really complicated team logo), I think a logo patch would also look pretty awesome. I used some dimensional glue dots to make the logo stand out a little.

We grabbed each kiddo on the sly at batting practice before the last game on Saturday and had them sign with their name and number. I think they turned out pretty cool. Both coaches will have boys playing ball for many years (they were both exceptional players), and I hope they will look back on their little 6- and 7-year-old signatures and remember 2012 ball fondly.

We wrapped them up Reds-style and presented them to each coach after the boys got their trophies. I think everyone was really pleased with the way they turned out!

We had SUCH a fantastic experience this year. I wish we could stay with this team and coaches every season, but if we don’t I guess I can use this idea again next season.

Who are we? REDS!

Most people don’t think of a wild party when throwing a first birthday, but the one I am sharing with you today totally fits the bill. In just a few weeks’ time I helped my friend, Gina, pull together a celebration for her little boy, Davis. I think you’ll agree it came together great! Here’s the invitation.

It read, “Want to hear something WILD? Our little tiger is having a birthday. Please join us as we celebrate…”

Here’s the welcome sign, which I confess makes me giggle. Every. Time. For those of you who weren’t feeling old enough today, that song was released a quarter century ago. Sigh.

I digress. Back to the party! When guests arrived, they received these pith helmets for later backyard exploration.

Here’s mom and Davis, the birthday boy now! Cutie pie.

They had the snack plan all mapped out with wild safari goodies. I am loving that grass table skirt!

They served Monkey Munch (banana chips), Tiger Tails (Cheetos), Chocolate-Covered Ants (Chocolate Raisins), Jungle Juice and more!

Big sister is keeping a watchful eye over the Zebra Cakes. Smart girl!

Here’s a closer look at the cupcakes and toppers–monkeys and tigers with giraffe and zebra prints.

Party goers snacked and played. They enjoyed a round of jungle golf and played Elefun, a silly game where butterflies flutter out of an elephant’s trunk and the kids try to catch them with nets. They later threw on their pith helmets, and the party dads led them on a nature walk.

Then, it was time for cake! How totally adorable is this smash cake?

Friends went home with these appropriately-themed reusable bags filled with goodies–the tiger and elephant motifs a subtle nod to the two teams of the household. Inside were animal masks and tails, animal paddle ball sets, temporary tattoos and animal crackers!

The favor tags read, “No lion, that was WILD!”

Thanks to Gina for sharing these beautiful pictures from her family’s special day. Happy birthday big boy!

Here’s a look at the custom safari collection I created with Gina for Davis’ party.

This includes invitations and favor tags, a party banner, write-in menu cards, double-sided cupcake toppers, welcome sign and party hat.

Watch for this collection to be added to the online store soon!

Today, I thought I’d share this custom piece I just finished a few weeks ago for a sweet little paper boy who’s turning one! His mom is going with a sort of vintage newspaper theme and asked if I could come up with some invitation options. She supplied this totally adorable picture of her little man, complete with paper boy cap. Swoon. Isn’t he a doll?

I seriously want to eat him up. I played around with several invitation options, some more design-driven and less newspaperesque than others. In the end, it was this straight-laced, traditional layout and journalistic style of copy that won out. I think it’s playful and unexpected, which sort of makes the whole invitation a bit more whimsical, no? What do you think?