Pink Peppermint Blogger

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

This past weekend my sister and her family threw their 6th Annual Neighborhood Halloween party. The more they do it, the more awesome the party gets. This year’s get-together (and Halloween costumes) were inspired by a spring trip they made to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. For starters, let’s catch the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9 3/4. I love the brick element they added to the storm door. Excellent.

Oh, good! They’ve been BOOed. Wonder where they got that cute sign…

I am loving the garland and cool arrangements in the planters on the porch.

I made these reusable pumpkins for their kiddos last year using Funkins and a templates found here. Sort of gives new meaning to the word “Jack-O-Lantern.” Sorry. I couldn’t resist.

Look! There’s Prof. McGonagall now.

Here’s their party invitation–a daily dose of The Prophet inviting Hogwarts alums to attend the annual Halloween Feast. Other articles featured the kids, their daughter as a witch wanted for questioning about a Honeydukes break-in and their son as the champion seeker for the Gryffindor team.

There was a Quidditch field set up on the lawn. Brooms for everyone! The kids had a blast.

The spectators and players alike enjoyed a taste of Butterbeer straight from The Three Broomsticks.

There’s a thirsty player now. Watch out! She’s got her wand ready to strike.

Inside, there were all sorts of appropriately creepy details.

How much do I love this Ministry of Magic decal? I have a feeling it’s going to stay for a while.

And look, there’s Hedwig in the Owlery.

Watch out! The Whomping Willow lies in wait in the living room. He doesn’t look so menacing here as in the movie.

And what a spread Hogwarts puts out for their Halloween Feast! There were lots of yummy treats. Love Ollivander’s Wands made from chocolate-dipped pretzel rods.

Firebolts and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans

Sorting Hats and Cauldron Cakes

Wizard Hats

Slytherin Sandwiches for Prof. Snape and his cohorts

Nimbus 2000s

And let’s not forget the Chocolate Frogs!

And if that wasn’t enough, how about a stroll through Honeydukes Sweetshop, which they recreated using these printables from Bakingdom.

And here’s a little Liquid Luck to wash it all down with.

What a fun way to change things up for your annual Halloween party!

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

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!

A Star Wars- and Lego-loving boy I know just turned six! As you might guess, there are a wealth of parties out there to draw from, many with free printables. Yea! After several months of collaborative Pinterest board building, we had quite a selection of ideas to choose from–some Lego, some Star Wars, some Lego Star Wars.

As you may know, I do NOT do licensed character/themed parties. Yes, I made these invitations because the birthday boy is my nephew. No, I do not sell them, so please don’t ask, mmmK?

Thanks for your understanding!

They featured a Lego lightsaber handle and a pull-out folded saber with the invitation text printed right on.

It read, “Lightsabers, Minifigures and Lego Bricks. Jedi Jack is turning six! Celebrate we must! (Party date, time and location)

Attend will you? Do or do not. There is no try. Respond you must to the Jedi Council at (contact info).”

Now, onto the festivities of the day! Even though the pool was a bit too cool, there was still plenty of fun in the sun to be had.

This No. 6 sign made from Legos hung on the back gate to welcome guests to the party area.

The playhouse camouflaged in green branches was transformed into an Ewok Village. Look who the birthday boy found hiding up there!

There were epic noodle lightsaber battles, some bouncy house fun and even a Darth Vader pinata.

They paused for a walk on the Dark Side with this Darth Vader photo opp. Luke was there too!

The fun didn’t stop when it was time to eat.

This cute name banner is from BellyTickles on Etsy.

I’m loving these simple lightsaber napkin treatments Amanda made using this tutorial from Catch My Party.

And how cute are the drink boxes wrapped like Lego bricks? Here’s a link to the free printable file she used from Delia Creates.

There was also R2D2 water, mini bottles which were easily transformed with a geometric design printed and trimmed to size, and what else, but green Yoda Soda!

Download the free printable water bottle labels here.

droid water bottle labels

There was plenty of themed food to choose from too.

Lego Brick Oven Pizza

Leia Buns

Ewok Grahams

Chewie Granola Bars (you know you want to laugh)

Lego Spuds

Buildable candy bricks, pretzel lightsabers and more, including some awesome lightsaber freezer pop cozies from HandcraftingHarmony on Etsy. Brilliant!

And these fun candy lightsabers from extramoneyformommy also on Etsy. Sorry I don’t have any photos of those to share!

After all that food, and a lot more play, it was time for cake complete with lots of crazy cool fondant minifigures. I’m sure the birthday boy was in Lego Star Wars heaven.

Happy 6th Jedi Jack!

I’ve got quite a few parties that I’ve been meaning to share with you. Since we are getting into the thick of wedding season, first up is this beautiful summertime 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration my sister and her family threw for her in-laws.

When we first began discussing the party, and looking around for supplies, I’d have to say we were both underwhelmed by the product offerings specific to the Golden Anniversary. There is, what I would call, a big opening in the marketplace for tasteful 50th anniversary party goods and accessories. Martha, if you’re reading this, we’d love to see what you can do with bringing some gorgeous options to a store near you. Or me.

No worries, though. We knew we’d have to get a little more creative with the decorations and the use of the color gold throughout. Both of my sister’s in-laws are retired educators. Her father-in-law was an administrator and taught biology, and her mother-in-law is a local historian. History lending itself ever so slightly more toward this kind of party in a small historic New England town, we decided on a “50 years of history” theme. The party was held at a local historic mansion designed in the 1850s with lovely details and beautiful grounds.

Isn’t this a great location to celebrate a couple’s history? Here’s a look at the invitation I created.

Guests were welcomed into the home by this beautiful door treatment. I love how the garland traces the shape of the door and the initial detail on the wreath.

This is one of my favorite details!

The buffet and bar were set up inside, while they took advantage of the gorgeous grounds for seating.

Muted gold and ivory linens added to the feel of this “golden” celebration and worked well with the yellow and ivory flowers in over-sized gold mint julep cups.

A note of caution. My sister had ordered pale yellow roses online in bulk from a wholesaler for the party. Without warning, they substituted yellow rose of Texas colored flowers, which clashed with the gold vases. WHAT? Many of those ended up on the kids’ table, but she was able to buy enough pale yellow and ivory roses locally to mix in with those she had ordered. I think the arrangements turned out beautifully!

Since it was a casual family affair, the kiddos had their own pint-sized table, complete with bubbles and coloring books to keep them happy and occupied.

Looks like it worked!

Inside friends and family viewed a slide show of photos from the last 50 years. Outside, they enjoyed food and drink and had a good time catching up while listening to hit music from the year the couple married. Then, they turned their attention to the main event. Cake!

But first, our historian honoree took a moment to share the historical relevance of the mansion and the grounds the guests were enjoying!

Then it was time to bring out the cake. This three-tiered beauty included one layer of her favorite, carrot cake, one layer of his favorite, chocolate, and then yellow cake for the remainder.

50 years! A golden chapter in the history book.

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?

Things have been so busy around here that I haven’t had time for my usual holiday merrymaking. I’ve always been a big fan of Easter and Springtime, probably because I’m an April baby.

While combing the seasonal aisles at Target a few weeks back, I bought one of these inexpensive bunny-shaped chocolate molds.

I rediscovered them Wednesday and decided to make some time to try them before Easter was long gone. I was so tickled with the way the first tray turned out that I made a few more sets for my daughter to share with preschool friends.

In addition to the candy mold costing less than $3, I thought it was super easy to use. I ended up going back to the store to buy three more sets of molds so I could make more than five bunnies at a time.  I also loved that the directions called for real chocolate, which I much prefer the taste of candy melts.

Here’s are list of the supplies I used:

Chocolate chips

GulfWax, optional

Squirt bottle

Lollipop sticks, 5 inches long

Lollipop cello bags and ties

Decorative ribbon

I melted one bag of chocolate chips and 1/8 of a bar of GulfWax in a double boiler, The GulfWax helped to thin the chocolate a little and also gave the finished product a bit of a glossy shine. Using a funnel, I poured the melted chocolate into a squirt bottle.  I have umpteen of them left over from Caroline’s candy house party.

I filled the molds then added the sucker sticks, covering the end of the stick with more chocolate. I gave the tray a final tap on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles and level out the chocolate. Then, I put them in the freezer to set.  I was nervous, but they popped out of the molds really easily.

Here’s another look at the finished product.

I think they turned out super adorable. We took them to the Easter party yesterday, and the kids devoured them! I started thinking about how cute it would be to play with different flavors and colors, using butterscotch, white chocolate, or maybe even peanut butter chips to create calico bunnies.

Totally adorable for a birthday party favor or as adult favors for a baby shower too.  So what are you waiting for? Get yourself to Target before they’re all gone. Just don’t go to my Target. I already cleaned them out.

So happy to finally get around to sharing these pictures from a sweet Springtime birthday party! My friend, Gina, did this adorable carnival themed party that everyone is always asking about for her daughter’s first birthday. For her second, they celebrated her birthday Easter-style with an adorable petting zoo and a good-old fashioned egg hunt.

Here’s the invitation I created for the big day.

Gina made this moss “A” for the door to greet the party goers. Love.

Here’s the beautiful buffet table filled with all sorts of adorable goodness.

Like these sweet bunny sandwiches. If you’ve ever attempted sandwiches with cookie cutters then you know this wasn’t easy. If not, it’s much harder than you might think!

And how sweet are these carrot silverware treatments? So festive!

I love the natural neutrals of the bristle bottle brush bunnies with the bright colors of Spring here.

After getting rained out the previous year, Gina was brave enough to try her luck with another outdoor party and, boy, did this one ever pay off! Loving all that green.

Here’s a close-up of the centerpiece–Spring branches hung with decorative eggs!

Gina used these natural cups with lids from Think Garnish and decorated them with these little cottontails. No spill!

I love this decorative galvanized accent too. So bright and fun!

Here’s the birthday girl, Ava, getting ready to eat. I adore those cabbage leaf chargers!

The entertainment was a traveling petting zoo. The children were able to pet the goats, ducks and bunnies too!

Ava and her dad got up close and personal with this snuggly little bunny.

Here’s a peek at the birthday girl’s little smash cake.  So sweet and simple. Love the fondant tag detail with the writing.

Guests took home their eggs and a pair of these adorable bunny britches stuffed full of goodies.

The tag read, “I’ve been on the hunt for a sweet friend like you!”

A beautiful day for a beautiful girl turning 2. Can’t wait to share pictures from another party Gina is hosting soon. It’ll be wild. Stay tuned!

Lauren and I are working up some first birthday fun for her youngest son! I swear it seems like a couple of months ago that we were throwing this sip and see for those two, and now he’s almost one! I seriously don’t know where the time goes. As always, Lauren is sure to dazzle with her adorable ideas and keen attention to the smallest detail. This year’s festivities will be centered around a backyard egg hunt.

Here’s a peek at the invitations, just delivered! I love the craft envelopes.

Being an April baby, Spring is my fave time of year, so I am a touch giddy to see how it all turns out. Stay tuned…