Pink Peppermint Blogger

I’m happy to report that despite the two weeks I had to put this party together, my daughter’s 4^th birthday was a smashing success! We invited some friends over to decorate candy houses.  Here’s the invitation.

I decorated the doors with paper medallions turned wrapped candy and made lollipops out of twisty balloons for the planters.

Inside, we set the scene with a candy house village made from cardboard gift boxes and decorated with candy.

I made the banner using scrapbook paper backed with felt and strung on candy necklaces. It read, “Happy 4^th Sweet Caroline.”

I used these cupcake wrappers topped off with peppermints to hide the hooks we hung it with! It turned out to be one of my favorite little details!

Now, goodness knows I am inclined to try some ridiculous things for party’s sake, but I know my limits. There was no way I was going to attempt to make 20 some odd gingerbread or graham cracker houses to decorate. No. Way. That is precisely the sort of effort that would have me in tears at 2 a.m. and wanting to pull my hair out.  Not gonna do it.

I bought these gable boxes from the bakery section at Michael’s, added a roof and lined the window with yellow tissue paper. Lauren put them together for me, God bless her. She adhered them to 10 inch cake bases decorated with Washi tape in our party colors—radish red, pale pink, lime green and sky blue–and she added silver pipe cleaner trim to the cardboard base. I thought they looked pretty cute even without the candy!  Having never worked with Washi tape before, I was thrilled with its ability to be repositioned and the ease of use. I can’t wait to figure out other party applications!  I ordered mine from leboxboutique on Etsy.

Each kiddo got their own bottle of royal icing, or as we called it Sugar cement.

There was an assortment of candy on each table. I tried to avoid overuse of Christmas colors because my daughter was born on Dec 27, so I try to be sure and make her birthday feel like a separate event. Given the time of year, I was able to find lots of candy in red and green. I added some pink and blue to the mix. We used M&Ms, holiday Lifesavers, pastel Starlight mints, pink and green peppermint sticks, spice drops, sugar wafers in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate, milk chocolate rocks, fruit loops, mini Nilla wafers, marshmallow ropes, lollipops, Hershey bars, gingerbread snowmen and trees, and even some gummy penguins!

Here’s the birthday girl hard at work on her candy house masterpiece!

If I ever host this event again, I’d either buy mini gumdrops or skip them altogether. They were heavy and wanted to slide off before the icing set. I’d also buy more sugar wafers. Lots more! The kids were funny. They’d each chosen their materials and then it was madness if they couldn’t finish that wall, door or rooftop like they’d started it. Here’s some of the kids’ handiwork.

They were all very proud of their work!

After they’d finished their masterpieces (and eaten way too much candy), we put the candy house aside to give them time to set up before our guests left. Then, we broke out the real food.

I am a fool for brunch foods, and since it was early on a Saturday, we did ChicFila chicken minis, sausage balls, pinwheels, mini cinnamon rolls, yogurt covered snowflake pretzels, sweet breads, and fresh fruit. We served coffee and, for the kids, a frothy pink punch made with raspberry sorbet, cranberry juice and gingerale.

Candy bracelet napkin rings!

These cups are my new go-to for beverage service.

Nothing Earth-shattering, but I think they are versatile for any theme, easy to dress up with straws like these I used from Shop Sweet Lulu or a themed cup wrap, and the lids makes them great for kids. It’s also fun to do a straw flag for guests to write their names on so drinks don’t get mixed up.

And then it was time for cupcakes! I ordered half chocolate and half vanilla from a local bakery, Cakes and Candles, and added these adorable fondant toppers from Edible Details. Brittany did an assortment of color combinations based on our party scheme. Love!

It was a great time! Everyone really did seem to have fun, and it made me smile to see how tickled each child was with his/her candy house creation! If you’ve always wanted to host a gingerbread house party but were hesitant to bake or buy all those houses, I highly recommend this fun and easy alternative. Happy 4th Sweet Caroline!

My silly girl’s 4th birthday is coming up on December 27th. Last year I thought I’d be all smart at wait ’til late January to throw her a party. Then, I was sad because I missed out on that lovely January lull with the fresh starts and the getting things accomplished. This year, I’ve decided to go a little early and try to squeeze one in before Christmas. Crazy, I know. We are going to have a candy house party though so pre-holidays seems right. Notice I said “candy house” and not “gingerbread house”. What’s the difference, you ask?

Well, instead of pulling my hair our making my own gingerbread/graham cracker forms or spending a small fortune on store bought ones, we’re making our candy houses using these.

This is a standard gable box with an oval window from your craft store’s cake section. I added the window square and the roof, and ta-da! A naked little house just waiting for a 4-year old to smear it with icing and candy. We are going to mount them on cake boards for the party and for easy transport.

I went to a party years ago where we used cardboard forms, which I found odd at the time. Now, it makes perfect sense to me. It will sit on the counter for two weeks while the kids pick the candy off, and then chunk. Into the trash. Anyhoo, I’ve been busily amassing an assortment of candy and honestly, I’d better get busy on the rest of the party. T-minus five days and counting!

Before I go, I’d love to share a little inspiration with you. Over the Thanksgiving holiday I closed up shop, and my husband and I snuck away for a few days sans kiddos to The Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC. We recently celebrated our 10th anniversary, and the GPI is where we went on our honeymoon. It is absolutely amazing–this huge stone mass overlooking the most beautiful mountains, enormous stone fireplaces, a state-of-the-art spa. Here was our view from the restaurant on their terrace.

When we last visited it was early November, so we missed the GPI’s Annual National Gingerbread House Competition and Display, now in its 19th year. What luck that we’d timed it right this time!  I was excited about the chance to get some inspiration for materials to use on our own houses. Here are a few of my favorites.

OK. After I saw this one, I had to know what the contest rules were. Entries had to be 75% gingerbread and entirely edible, I believe. Participants were encouraged to get creative with their interpretations.

I loved the Ritz cracker roof on this one. Sweet little birdies!

This tree lot entry was pretty stinking cute, too. There were DOZENS more to see including some pretty amazing entries in the Teen category–an Eiffel Tower and the Despicable Me house. Too cute, and so artful! This year the Grove Park Inn is adding a Grove “Bark” Inn Gingerbread Dog House competition, which is on display now! Just wanted to share this fun with you before you see our house artwork. I am so in awe of bakers and their mad engineering and decorating skills.

If you’re even in that area during the holidays, you should check it out!

Was this card your favorite? If so, you may have been the winner of the $50 store credit! If you haven’t yet, go check out all of our photo cards, holiday gift tags and stickers here. Heck, we’ll even do coordinating return address labels. They are $10 for the first sheet of 20 and $5 for each additional sheet of the same design. They typically come in squares, but I CAN do circles as long as you don’t mind peeling the backing off before adhering them. Just shoot me an email at info@pinkpeppermintpaper.com or you can leave any special requests in the comment section during checkout.

Also, please note that I will be offering custom color changes for FREE through Sunday, December 4, 2011. So if you have a unique color scheme or are having a hard time matching your photo to a card, I can help!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway! Congrats to Carol Alford, the winner of a $50 store credit for her comment: “Christmas Plaid is my favorite! Classic, beautiful, and it says “Merry Christmas!”This was her favorite card. At least, I think this was the one Carol meant. I’m sleep-deprived.

At long last, the new Christmas designs are up! Here are a few of my new faves, and it has nothing to do with my adorable kids. Wink, wink. They are your adorable kids too! Some of the beautiful shots were submitted by you for the holiday card photo contest!

These first two are by Sweet Magnolia Photography in the Jackson area.

This next one is by Ashley Warren Studios in Birmingham. Love!

So, which one’s your favorite? This is just a VERY small sampling of what’s in store now. Go here and check out all our card designs. Come back here, tell us which one is your fave, and we’ll enter you to win! That’s right. In the giving spirit of the Season, one lucky winner will be drawn at random to win a $50 store credit to Pink Peppermint Paper! One comment per person ON THE BLOG only {feel free to comment all over the place but this is the only place I’m counting} before midnight CST November 30, 2011. The BIG winner will be announced later this week!  Good luck, and Happy Holidays!

Last weekend some friends and I threw a sip and see for our neighbor, Christy, and her new baby boy, Bennett. Fall is her favorite time of year and since they both share October as their birthday month, I thought a Little Pumpkin theme would be fun! Here’s a sample of the invitation.

I whipped up this quick letter “b” wreath for baby Bennett’s debut. It was super easy to make with a letter form, a hot glue gun and some Spanish moss.

We had the party at our neighbor Sherry’s house. She made this fabulous diaper cake to be used as the centerpiece on the main buffet table. We used burlap and orange throughout.

Polka dot paper pumpkin lanterns hung above the table,

and a double-sided burlap banner reading “Welcome Bennett” hung in the archway.

The silverware came right out of the pumpkin patch!

In keeping with our Fall theme, we went mostly with warm and savory dishes. There were lots of hot dips on hand. We also had a great hot apple cider.

There were some tasty sweets on hand too like these pumpkin-themed petit fours and some crazy good pumpkin pie dip from Pinterest served with apple slices and graham crackers. Look it up. Seriously.

There’s the little pumpkin now! Sweet baby. So glad you’re here, Baby Bennett!

Thought I’d share some inspiration for Halloween this year. I think I shared these, but maybe not on the blog so here goes. First up was a sweet and simple kid’s party craft found here. I was in charge of a craft for my son’s classroom “harvest” party last year. We made these with 4- and 5-year olds, but I really think it works for anywhere from age 2 and up.

Aren’t they cute?

Then, I decided to try carving personalized pumpkins for the kiddos. Here’s how they turned out!

Want to make your own templates? Download a happy face pumpkin name stencil or a  creepy face pumpkin name stencil here.

You can use a pencil to draw your own kiddo’s name into the smile. Just make sure you don’t transfer the lines that attach the letters to the smile. Here’s what my template looked like.

I’m attempting some this weekend for my sister’s kids using reusable craft pumpkins. Wish me luck!

Back in late summer when football season was threatening, a group of my pledge sisters started working on a game date for us too rendezvous in Tuscaloosa. We thought it might be fun to have a little tailgate reunion and cheer on The University of Alabama Crimson Tide. It had been FAR too long since we’d all seen one another. We picked a few dates, polled everyone on Facebook and went with the weekend that the most people could come. It just so happened to be Homecoming Week at the Capstone!

I designed these invitations, which were emailed out to help us get a count for the tailgate tent we rented, as well as for food and drink.

The girls asked me to whip up some quick decorations for game day. I knew I wanted to try some paper pennants, but I was stuck on what to put them in that would be tall and skinny enough to support the sticks without tipping over. They had to be inexpensive, easy to carry, easy to toss and kid-friendly. Here’s what I came up with!

You will laugh when I tell you what these are. Last week I had to make a batch of HUGE oatmeal cookies for a fundraiser at my husband’s office. I had two small oatmeal containers left over. I wrapped them in houndstooth wrapping paper, added a pop of red with some leftover satin ribbon, and finished them off with some red thumbtacks I had lying around. Not bad, huh?

To give each arrangement some weight {and to keep everyone from having dragon breath}, I filled the containers with red and white peppermints. It really helped to keep the pennants in place, which was good because it was so windy out there! Which brings me to why these photos are taken on my back patio and not at the tailgate tent. We got stuck in game day traffic and were running late. In addition to the wind, it was hot, I was flustered, in need of beverage,  and I had my kids with me. Need I say more?

Here’s the finished product.

I made the pennants with scrapbook paper that I cut with my plotter and glued on super inexpensive dowels that I bought long and cut to varying lengths.

I added these paper mache elephants from the Michael’s dollar bin that I was hoarding for a rainy day.

Here’s an actual photo from the day of. I found a TON of different team-related downloadable coloring pages for the kids. There were even versions with practice handwriting lines where the kids could write “Roll Tide” over and over. I think they are readily available via Google search for any team and you can customize the wording on many of them. If I had it to do over again, I’d have brought clip boards or something hard they could each have colored on as surface area was at a minimum.I also made some little stickers for the kids to wear.

RTR! That’s “Roll Tide Roll” for the uninitiated.

We had a great time visiting and catching up, seeing each other children, many for the first time. I was struck by how much and how little everything had changed. Parts of campus and other places I spent so many hours all those years ago were virtually unrecognizable. And then I met up with a great group of friends who were all just as I had remembered them.

That’s me in the middle with two of them!

Do your friends and neighbors BOO one another during the month of October? You know where you sneak around and tag someone by leaving a treat on their doorstep? Then, they turn around and tag two others, and it spreads throughout the ‘hood until Halloween. My sister mentioned that she’d like to have a BOO sign printable, so I whipped up a couple.

I did two versions, a cutesy one and a spooky one. Each one has a BOO sign and a matching sheet with instructions.

Here’s the cutesy one.

And here’s the spooky one.

The spooky one is more my style.  I printed it out on some white paper that I dyed with tea. This was the first time I’d tried tea-dying paper. I just smeared a wet tea bag on the page, let dry and pressed flat under a book so it would still run through the printer. I liked the look of the sign as a square so I trimmed the bottom off at 8.5″ and hung it by some black ribbon I had on hand. Here’s how it turned out!

Like what you see? You can download them below! Happy haunting!

spooky boo signage

cutesy boo signage

Once again, it’s time for me to start working on a few new holiday card designs! I blinked and Halloween is upon us, which means the holidays are right around the corner. How DOES that happen? Since I had such a great response to the holiday card photo contest last year, I decided to host another contest this year. I need some more sweet faces to inspire some new card designs.

For all of you photographers, aspiring photographers or folks with a camera, mostly willing subjects and a good eye, here’s your chance to have your photos featured in card designs in our online store, www.pinkpeppermintpaper.com. “What’s in it for me?” you ask. Submit your pictures for a chance to win one of two $50 gift certificate to Pink Peppermint Paper. Use it for your own cards or for any of our other paper items–invitations, announcements, paper cuts, or custom work. Heck, we might even be sweet-talked into working on a party for you.

Here’s the deal: Email your high resolution photos (300dpi) to eleanor@pinkpeppermintpaper.com. If you want your real names to be used, please include those as well, just as you would on your own cards, e.g. “…from the Schminkles–Danny, Lanny, Annie and Lou”. If you do not include names, we’ll just make some up. Each separate usable photo (read: not blurry, overly dated, or otherwise questionable) that you submit will get you another entry for a new chance to win. Send in as many photos as you like. Couples, singles, group shots, with our without adults. By submitting photos, you are certifying that you have the rights to use/distribute these photos and that you are not infringing on anyone’s copyright to those images. If you’re not sure, PLEASE ask. We don’t like to break the rules.

Photographers, please include a link to your website or Facebook page, so that we can feature it at the bottom of that card design page on our website. If you submit photos of subjects who are not members of your immediate family, you must also have their permission. If they agree to participate, we’ll also submit their names to enter the drawing–that’s one for you, one for them per picture ’cause we’re just that nice! The contest ends at midnight CST on Tuesday, September 27, 2011. Two winners will be drawn at random after that time and announced both on the blog and on our Facebook page. Follow us there to see some of the great images we receive as they come in!

You have two weeks to pick through your files! If you are a photographer and are interested in offering your clients a discount to use your images in their Pink Peppermint holiday cards, please email me at eleanor@pinkpeppermintpaper.com, and we’ll get you set up. Questions? Don’t be afraid to ask. Email me at info@pinkpeppermintpaper.com or post your query on our Facebook page.

Take a look at some of the amazing shots from last year!

You can view the rest of our current holiday collections here. So what are you waiting for? Get started digging through those images! Two weeks. Go!

I whipped up a little Easter party for my daughter’s class yesterday. The kids are two and three years old, so I tried to keep things fun, simple and inexpensive. Here are a few ideas for quick and easy food and decorations.

Here’s one of the tables. The plates were all ears. Super quick, cheap and easy to make. You can download the template here.

I found some fun and springy plaid napkins and thought it would be sweet to pleat them into bows. Hair bows for the girls’ bunnies and bowties for the boys’.

I secured the center with a small piece of white pipe cleaner.

I used inexpensive plastic tablecloths–lavender layered on top of green with ruffled edges as seen here on Cupcakes & Cutlery.

I found some cute little plain spring trees in the dollar bins at Target and used them as centerpieces. I stuck jellybeans on the tips of the branches to make them a little more colorful and fun.

The kids couldn’t help but snack on them while they enjoyed their other food. I made my bird’s nest brownies, and served baby carrots and ranch dressing and some snack mix with juice boxes.

A customer of mine asked me for some treat tags for Peeps last week with the message “You’re one of my favorite Peeps,” so I whipped some up for her and they turned out so cute that I decided to make some for myself and leave those in the kids’ cubby holes from the big man – the Easter Bunny.

After they all had a belly full, it was time to head outside for the egg hunt!

They sure did find all those eggs a lot faster than we hid them! Go figure. I was really pleased with the way everything turned out. With just a few simple ideas that were easily executable, we had a cute and memorable party. Just goes to show you don’t have to spend weeks of time and lots of money to do something fun for your little ones! Note to self.