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

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.

Well, I finally did it. I threw one of the MANY non-birthday related parties that I dream up.

Yea me!

This time, we were celebrating the addition of sweet Miss Buttercup to our family. Seemed like as good an excuse as any to have friends over and eat junky food, no?

I felt a bit of urgency to have the party quickly before we got swallowed up by fall commitments and she didn’t look like a puppy anymore.

She is gaining three lbs a week, and is already quite the hoss.

Anyhoo, I just bit the bullet and distributed invitations one Tuesday to force myself to kick things into gear. We had it on a Friday after school but before dinner time.

Here’s the invitation if you missed it.

Guests were invited to come “smooch our new pooch” and to please respond to “the alpha female”. (That’s me.)

Note: when folks at Milk Bones say, “Mini” they mean it. Are those the cutest, tiniest things you’ve ever seen?

Door sign: because our doorbell is pitiful and things were loud.

We had several small pawty tables set up on the back patio.

The kids used frisbees as plates and drank from these cute bone straw sippers.

I made these little tags for everyone’s cup so we could keep up with whose drink was whose. I think they kind of look like dog tags! Must be my subconscious keeping tightly to theme.

Inside we had all the pawty food set up. Here’s the doggy-themed topiary I made for the table. My husband balked at the use of the word “topiary” here, but you see it don’t you?

Never question the alpha female.

You know I love a thematic food selection, and our puppy is a yellow lab named Buttercup (who we sometimes call “Butter” because, let’s face it, “Buttercup” is a mouthful when you’re pleading for mercy with a puppy to let go of the very last pair of yoga pants you own that she hasn’t already bitten holes in).

We served Butterscotch Blondies and Puppy Chow, that yummy mix with Crispex, chocolate, PB and powdered sugar.

For a little something salty we had Cheese Nips and Buttered Popcorn. I made this super sweet and completely addictive Lemon Bark.

We also had Butter Cookies, which make me smile. As kids, we used to eat them off our pinky fingers in Sunday School. Anyone else?

Since my son is named Reese, and we sometimes use the word “peanut” around here as a term of endearment, I set out a bowl of Reese’s Peanut Buttercups! I wonder if I can make that her registered name. Hmmm…

Any finally, drumroll please…

My very first (and probably last) attempt at cake pops.

Or as we called them, “cake pups.” Not too shabby if I do say so myself. The kids really liked them, and my boy immediately requested I make some for his birthday. Whoa, there tiger!

The stand, if you can call it that, was a Wilton cardboard number that you can use to hold them during the dipping and drying process.

I reinforced it with some hot glue and dressed it up with a large lime green paw print cutout.

Confession time: I don’t care for the taste of a cake pop. Gasp! This is why I will likely never make them again. That and the sizable PITA it is to bake, cool, crumble, mix, cool, roll, cool, stick, cool, dip, cool and so on. And these were just regular plain ol’ balls of cake. I am in complete awe of all of you cake pop making phenoms out there even more so than I was before! I am very pleased with the fab tips from my FB fans on how to avoid cake pop disaster. Thanks, y’all!

Back to the pawty…

We served sparkling lemonade. I dressed up the drink dispenser with a ribbon and some D-rings to mimic a dog collar and threw on the new tag for Buttercup that we haven’t put on her yet.

And what’s a pawty without music? Not much of a pawty at all, if you ask me. Among other songs, we played:

George Clinton – Atomic Dog

Baja Men – Who Let the Dogs Out?

Rufus Thomas – Walkin’ the Dog

The Foundations – Build Me Up, Buttercup

George Thorogood – Bad to the Bone

Arrested Development – Wag Your Tail

Widespread Panic – Walkin’ (For Your Love)

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse – Hot Dog!

Here’s our girl on the prowl. Estimated number of Milk Bones consumed that day: 752.

I know that furrowed look on her brow. It can only mean one of two things:

1) I don’t like this at all.

2) You should run. I am going to eat you now.

This particular time, it was No. 2. Lucky me.

When guests left, they each took home a frisbee plate, bone cup, an XL bone cookie and a doggie bag of assorted goodies for their S, M or L pooches–a sWAG bag, if you will.

Terrorizing all those kids makes a pooch bone tired.

Welcome to the family little girl!

As you may know, my family and I moved recently. And when I say recently, I mean right at a year ago. Why am I thinking about it now? Because after a mere 377 days on the market, we just sold our old house! WOO HOO! I know a lot of folks are in the same boat. Hang in there!

Lots of us are on the move during the summer months and scurrying to get settled in before school starts. Thought I’d share a few custom moving announcements I’ve done over the last year or so.

For a friend moving to a new home in their golf community, I combined some existing artwork to create this moving announcement.

This is one of my favorites. It was created in a round of options for another friend moving to a new ‘hood in Nashville. Not the announcement she picked for those keeping score. That’s OK, though. Totally need to add this one to the online store.

This is the one she picked. Bungalow style.

**Technical note** I’m crossing my fingers that these images look more crisp to you than they do to me. I’ve tried jpgs, pngs, various size compressions. Blurry images. It’s a mystery. If you have a clue as to the problem, help a girl out. When you click to enlarge, BTW they are crystal clear. Even more vexing.

And now for a couple that are more whimsical…

I laugh at this next one every time I see it.  My friend “Rose” (names have been changed to protect the innocent) had a vision of this one when she contacted me.

How hilarious is the dog? Boston Terrier. His name was not changed. Hello, Norbert!

We have moved three times in ten years, and only once have we avoided having to move in the heat of summer. July in Mississippi is like “fry your face off hot.” And don’t forget the humidity. But it’s the South. It’s where we come from, and we love it. Mostly. This last one is the announcement I designed when we moved last year.

It’s hard to believe we’ve been here a year! We’ve just now gotten some paint on the walls and still have no furniture in the entry way. Man, we’ve got some WORK to do!

If you’re on the move, here are some free printable moving announcements for you. Print single-sided as a 4×6 and add your personal info on the flip side or print double-sided and mail as a postcard! Three colors to choose from: chocolate, melon and lime. The font is cheap pine. Download below.

Enjoy and remember to lift with the legs.

Printable Moving Announcement Chocolate

Printable Moving Announcement Lime

Printable Moving Announcement Melon

Chocolate Back

Lime Back

Melon Back

Lauren and I recently gave our friend Sarah a little inspiration for her son’s first birthday. Her youngest boy, Caleb, just turned one, and mama had a sweet and simple clutter cutting celebration on the brain. Sarah introduced us to the Milk + Bookies Birthday Party, a concept that has party goers bring new books in lieu of gifts to donate to the charity of the host’s choice. I, for one, have always had a hard time choosing gifts for kiddos with older same gender siblings.

Sarah used a color scheme of brown, white and red and used children’s books throughout the party areas to tie in the Milk+Bookies element.

Look at these cutie pies in their milk and cookies shirts from the kizart Etsy shop.

Here’s the cute table she did using coordinating fabrics and featuring the main course–COOKIES! Chocolate chip, sugar, OREOS, animal crackers and more. What kiddo wouldn’t love a party full of cookies?

Next to the cookies, there were plastic “pints for your half pint” in 2% and chocolate from the local University dairy. And in a separate area, the milk bar had carafes of plain, strawberry and chocolate milk on ice.

Also hanging out at this station were the most fab drinking straw ’stache sippers–one of my most fave things I’ve seen in a long time! These cuties were spotted over at It’s Toile Good, and Lauren had the idea to use them as {swoon} milk mustaches for this event! So what’s it gonna be? Plain white milk mustache or chocolate milk mustache?

A purist, I see. An excellent choice! I beg your pardon, sir, but you seem to have a little something on your chin. Too funny!

There were cookies all over!

And even a few bookworms.

And here’s Caleb, the birthday boy, enjoying his smash cake, which was made by a local cake shop to look like a giant chocolate chip cookie.

Happy 1st Birthday Caleb!

We have a winner! Actually several. The masses have spoken. Or at least 15 of you have!

You liked all of the invitation choices, but by majority vote the Easter invitation fave is No. 6 – Brown Bunny. It’s the pom pom tail, isn’t it?

No. 3 – Peeking Bunny was a close second.

These two were my favorites as well, and I think they are different enough in style to warrant adding BOTH to the online store.

For wording, you liked No. 6.

Hippity hoppity!
Shake your bunny tail,
Then hop on down
the bunny trail.

Anna’s 2nd Birthday’s
on its way!

Saturday, April 23
3 to 5

12530 Silver Tree Place,
Rockford

Bring your basket
for the Egg Hunt

RSVP to Ginger
at 555-123-4567 or
gingb543@vmail.com

and No. 3.

Somebunny sweet is turning two,
and she’d love to celebrate with you!

Saturday, April 23
3 to 5 pm

12530 Silver Tree Place
Rockford

Bring your Easter basket
for some Egg Hunt fun!

Will you be hopping by?
RSVP to Ginger at
555-123-4567
or gingb543@vmail.com

But quite a few of you join me in loving these little guys.

I mean, come on. Who doesn’t love a bunch of party chicks? I like it because it’s springy without being overly Eastery. It works for a variety of ages from baby chicks to a play on being “no spring chicken.” Plus, I think it’s just different and hilarious. So I’ll be adding this one to the store as well!

So there were three winners! Four if you count Melissa from buckets-of-grace.blogspot.com/ who won a $15 gift certificate to our online store for her comment about her wording faves! Go check out her blog. I’m in love with those personalized Easter buckets (and reminded that I need to try my own cutter on some vinyl decals).

Congrats Melissa, and thanks to everyone for your input! So, what do you think? Would you like to see this become a regular feature on the blog?

Totally need your help here! I recently did a round of custom invitations for an egg hunt birthday party. I know which version the birthday mom picked. And I think I know which is my fave.

Seldom are the client’s pick and mine one and the same. It’s funny to me how often someone picks an invitation different from the one I think they’ll go for. It happens a lot, and there really is no right answer. I guess we are all right as long as we pick the one that makes us most happy! Actually, I have two favorites among these Easter party invitations plus a third that just makes me extra giddy so I’m torn.

So here’s where I need your help. I typically only put one version of each invitation up for purchase in my online store. I guess I started that to avoid having a million options, many of which were just slight variations from the one before.

I’d love to hear which is your favorite design and which is your favorite wording option. Everybunny who participates will be entered to win a $15 gift certificate to our new online store! Details below. Here are the contestants:

Number 1 – Gingham Bunny

Number 2 – Party Chicks

Number 3 – Peeking Bunny

Number 4 – Bright Basket

Number 5 – Egg Polka Dots

Number 6 – Brown Bunny

So, which design will it be?

Two entries per person:

1) One comment on which are your top two fave designs {feel free to say why}

2) One comment on which is your fave wording

Leave your comments on this post before midnight CST on Wednesday, April 6th. The winner will be drawn at random and announced on Friday, April 8th. Hey, I might even tell you which one the birthday mom chose.

Thanks, as always, for your input and good luck!

My Caroline is the princess-loving tough as nails variety of little girl. A sweet jumble of contradictions. The kind of girl you only get from having an older brother in the house. It’s hard to predict what she’ll come up with next, but when it came to her 3rd birthday celebration, she and I decided we’d combine two of her current faves–princesses and snow!

In case you missed it, here’s the invitation. We handed out the majority of them so I got a little playful with addressing them. There were Ladies, Dukes and even Barons on the invitation list.

Here’s the glitter embellishment on the envelope.

Guests were welcomed to Castle Touchet with these grapevine wreaths spray painted silver and flocked with snow.

Inside where it was warm, the royal banquet table stretched out underneath a sky of falling snow.

We had snowflake crowns for the boys and tiaras for the girls.

Princess Caroline’s birthday throne at the head of the table was all wrapped up in a bow and set off with her royal portrait.

Laid out on a blanket of snow down the center of the table were snow globes filled with a different royal and snowy scenes.

A royal crown, a snowy church, a silver slipper, and a Victorian ice skate among others.

The princess one turned out to be my favorite!

After everyone checked out our stash of toys, it was time to eat!

Our centerpiece was made up of sparkly winter branches embedded in a vase of snow.

We had simple breakfast foods like sausage balls, mini muffins, pigs in a blanket and fresh fruit on these snowflake skewers.

The crowd favorites were these donut snowmen.

And look. There’s our dainty little princess enjoying one now!

The kids also really went for these marshmallow pops.

They had juice from these sweet little cups that come with snap on lids so they don’t spill.

I decked them out in royal fashion with some ribbon and scrapbooking embellishments.

And for the adults we had hot chocolate and coffee.

The mantle was decorated with a glittery snow village and castle.

And since it was a surprisingly mild January day {naturally}, we set up a play table of snow outside.

We had a few scoops and buckets and those kiddos went to town!

Then everyone headed back inside for cake. The birthday girl was feeling unusually shy as everyone sang.

Then there was more playing in the snow before everyone said their goodbyes.

As party favors, everyone got snow powder so they could make their own snow at home.

We had a great time celebrating with the birthday girl and a sweet group of friends for her first big girl party. Happy third birthday sweet Caroline!

Sources:

Large/Small Ripple Cups, Clear Favor Boxes – Think Garnish

Invitations, Paper Crowns, Cup Wraps, Favor Tags – Pink Peppermint Paper

Cake – Dream Cakes

Merry Christmas to you and yours! We are enjoying a lazy afternoon of doing nothing much productive for a change. YEA! Hope you all are having a wonderful day too. I wanted to share a few of the custom cards I did this year.

This last one is the card my family sent out last year. The way the photo session went, I wasn’t super hopeful. I find that happens a lot, and then these fantastic photographers seem to somehow capture the essence of my kiddos. Thanks goodness for that! Enjoy the rest of the holiday season with your family and friends. I’ll see you next year, recharged and ready for some more fun! – Eleanor

Eleanor

Thought I might start to share some little snipits of parties I’ve helped with along the way. I don’t have a ton of pictures, but I’ll at least be able to give you a little taste. So here goes…

Last spring, some ladies and I threw a shower for my friend, Gina, when she was expecting her daughter, Ava. Naturally, I jumped on the invitations. She selected some beautiful lime green damask bedding with pink accents for the nursery–Serena and Lily’s Kate Collection, I believe. Beyond that, I knew she had a thing for bunnies so working with her color scheme, and taking some style cues from her bedding selection I created this Classic Bunny Polka shower invitation.

I used playful type and wording to sweeten things up a little more. We also decided on a coordinating card with directions to the shower. The envelopes were lined with a coordinating paisley print.

We visited with friends, old and new, had some wonderful food in a beautiful home, played Baby Mad Libs and Name that Celebrity Baby, watched Gina open gifts and enjoyed some delish cake.

When it was time to say goodbye, we sent each guest home with a little pink matchbox filled with lime green M&Ms.

Each favor box was wrapped in a pink and green paisley belly band and topped with the baby’s name and expected date–a sweet end to a sweet day!