Pink Peppermint Blogger

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!

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

What a wild and crazy year for Pink Peppermint Paper! We finished our first full year of blogging and celebrated our fourth year in the stationery business both in late October. I worked with lots of great folks who make me feel so appreciated and creative even when I don’t always see those things in myself. Somewhere in there, Lauren and I started a party planning gig–Pink Peppermint Parties. Bought a house. Sold a house, and my family and I relocated to Mississippi. Well, all except for that “sold a house” part. Ugh. No worries. 2011 is the year. I can FEEL it!

I was taking a look back at all we’ve shared with you this year. Here are some of my faves (for one reason or another) with links back to the full posts if you’re new or just missed them the first go round.

Little Girl’s Birthday Brunch – silhouette artwork and party favors inspired by my favorite little girl

High-Flying Birthday Adventure - L.O.V.E. working this super creative mom (and my former boss). Airsick bags to hold party favors. “We’re sick to see you go”!?! Yes, we did.

Hole-in-One First Birthday – The cake. The activities. THE WHEAT GRASS. Seriously.

All in Due Time Couples Baby Shower – Eight or so hostesses all living in different cities. This had no real hope of working, but it did anyway! I love it when a plan comes together.

Backyard Birthday Carnival – Fun colors. Games. Carnival food. Yum! This post gets a LOT of hits. I think it’s because of this awesome ceiling drape!

Feather Her Nest Baby Shower – Lauren hosted this for a dear friend. Love the elements from nature as well as the pops of color inspired by the baby’s nursery. RicRac, how do I love thee?

ARTy Party Lots of colors. Fun invitation. All-time favorite themed regrets line. You’re welcome.

Lifesaver Party – Our first Pink Peppermint Parties customer celebrating a big grant for a small not-for-profit, StopSMA.org. Someone wants to pay us for this?! Yea!

Hungry for more? The bugs were too at this Bug Out Birthday – the fabulous Lauren schools us on throwing an uber creative venue birthday. Where to begin…

Heroes and Villains – I’m still tired from this party in early October–my boy’s 5th.

Setting the stage for a battle of good versus evil.

Good guys and bad stand defiant atop cupcakes, capes whipping in the wind. The industrial cupcake stand was made of dampers and such from Lowe’s gutter/roofing section. Score!

Some of the good guys watching carefully from above.

I like to include elements of fun for the adults, too. C’mon now. That’s good stuff.

Neighborhood Halloween Bash – a great mix of spooky and fun at my sister’s house!

Another Fab Golf ParTee – Here’s another fun golf-themed birthday with lots of creative touches including the sought-after Sippy Cup Trophy! Man, I love a pennant banner. And argyle. Don’t get me started.

And last are these recent bottle labels. Whip a few up for NYE!

In 2010, I also saw my business double, which is due, in no small part, to those of you who follow me, leave comments and share links with friends. Many thanks! I am truly blessed to do something I love. So looking forward to new and exciting things in the coming year! Happy New Year!

Eleanor

I can think of no other thought, spoken or unspoken, that gets me into more trouble than this one:

“Oh, wouldn’t it be cute…”

Oh, wouldn’t it be cute to tape off and paint a tone-on-tone diamond pattern in the phone booth-sized portion of the bathroom?

Oh, wouldn’t it be cute to make this 36 step recipe that I’ve never tried to take to the party tomorrow?

Oh, wouldn’t it be cute to put those pink sponge rollers in my not yet two-year-old’s hair for Halloween and paint her face with mud mask?

OK, that was cute, but still. That was a year ago, and I’ve just in the last few days gotten her to consent to a clip to keep her hair out of her eyes. Post traumatic stress? Who can really say?

Hello, room mother? What’s that? You say I signed up to help with the Harvest Party? Yes, I’d be happy to contribute. I’ll take the craft and cupcakes!

Oh, wouldn’t it be cute to scour the universe to come up with a super cute craft, one that’s unique AND easy for a bunch of four- and five-yr-olds to complete in 15 minutes time?

And cupcakes. I can totally make those. Nay, BUY those. AND make super festive toppers as an excuse to play with my new cutting apparatus. Drumrolllllllllll, please…

Pardon the picture {because my photos are usually so stellar}. As I mentioned, I have to pick up the cupcakes from the bakery! Halloween/Harvest toppers using the letters they’ve covered so far this year. It’s a sickness, really.

Happy Halloween!

Can you believe Halloween is already upon us? Seriously. I don’t know where 2010 has gone. How could it be time already for my sister’s 4th Annual Neighborhood Halloween Party? She touched base with me several weeks back, and we used this Trick-or-Treaters invitation.

Little did I know at the time that I’d get to attend this year! I live outside of Jackson, Mississippi and my sister, Amanda, is waaaaaaaaay up north outside of Boston. Seems even more waaaaaaaay after air travel with two kiddos, but our Mother came too, and we had a great time!

They have a season there called “Fall.” Just the quaint sort of thing you’d expect from a small New England town. It was breezy and in low 60s. Sweet! {Please note that as I write this, now back at home it’s going to be 88 degrees. The Reese’s cup I just stole from my Halloween pantry stash was melted in the middle.}

You can imagine after three years of Halloween parties, that one would have amassed quite an assortment of spooky fun. Amanda had the house all decked out with ghoulish delights. Touches of Halloween were everywhere. This was one of the first things my five year old spotted.

This was the second. How fun!

And I was in love with the jack-o-lantern chandelier shades. Awesome.

We got to work stretching cobwebs over anything that would stay still and on planning the menu.

We made Bleeding Heart Brie, a delish dip with brie cheese and cherry preserves baked inside a crescent roll crust.

Also served were these adorable Crunchy Mummies made with celery, cream cheese mix and ham, and some adorable mummies on a stick–hotdogs wrapped in dough to look like mummies with mustard and ketchup eyes.

Amanda also served an assortment of dips including a yummy Cajun corn dip. Soooo good!

Amanda filled her cauldron punch bowl with Brew Ha Ha punch, complete with eyeballs and for the adults, there were soft drinks and Blood Orange Sangria!

It’s no wonder everyone asks for directions to the bathroom! Just follow the bloody footsteps!

And what Halloween party is complete without sweets?

There were witch hat cookies, ghosts in the graveyard–a tasty pudding dish decorated with ghost Peeps–brownies, candy, and a fantastic three-tier cake!

Lots of the neighbors brought goodies. One even whipped up this awesomely spooky candy house. How fab is that?

The kids had a blast in their costumes eating and playing in the Pirate-themed bouncy house. The neighbors had a chance to socialize while the kids were otherwise engaged, and enjoyed a sunny, but blustery Fall day. Amanda had just the right mix of spooky and fun.

Horror highlight of the party? Power goes out 30 minutes before the start time. Three dozen raw wieners on a stick and one deflated bouncy. We thought the bouncy had blown the whole house. Turns out it was the neighborhood, and power was restored a few minutes into the party. Good thing it was during daylight hours! Great job A on another fab year of Halloween fun!

Be a deary and leave a little comment, my pretties. I’ve got my eye on you.

My kids are both preschool age or younger so there are quite a few occasions to give classroom goodies. We got candy last year. Lots. Starting with Halloween and keeping steady pace straight on through to Easter. So much candy that I ended up having to throw some out. And I love candy. My oldest was saying things like “Mom, I finished my breakfast. Now what can I have?” expecting me to reward him with candy at 7:30 a.m. Nice.

It’s even trickier when you have really young ones on your list because, let’s face it, none of us needs any more little trinkets in our house, and it’s hard to find age-appropriate and inexpensive gifts. I personally like to go for consumables–paper, food, things that get used up. Recently, I was discussing options for Halloween with my friend. She reminded me of some pastel chocolate candy carrots that we made for Easter treats using cone-shaped cello bags and of another mom who made carrots the same way out of cheese balls–genius! She mentioned candy corn and voila! We had our fun idea for edible but mildly nutritious Halloween goodies. Just add super festive Pink Peppermint gift enclosures or stickers to taste.

I tried recreating the look of both traditional and chocolate candy corn layers, mostly just because I had to work some chocolate in there. These use yogurt-covered raisins, Kix TM cereal and Goldfish TM crackers–both cheddar and chocolate graham. My kids are foaming at the mouth for me to fork them over. The trick, I found, is to twist, flip up and tape the bottom inch or so of the bag–the very tip end of the cone–or it still just looks like a carrot. Be sure there is enough color differentiation between your white and yellow layers too. Yes, I do realize I sound disturbed. Promise I’m not. OK, maybe a little, but only about stuff like this.

What You Need:
Cone bags: I searched online for “cone-shaped cello bags” and found them sold in quantities as low as ten.

Gift Tags: You gotta let people know who they’re from, right? I designed the ones shown.

Good Eats: Some thoughts for the different layers

White: Yogurt-covered raisins, Yogurt Burst Cheerios TM, mini marshmallows, M&Ms TM or other white candy

Yellow: Original Goldfish TM, Kix TM, Corn Pops TM or other cereal (aside: for some reason King Vitamin TM just popped into my head. Anyone? No? OK.)

Orange: Cheddar Goldfish TM, Cheese Balls, Cheez-Its TM, M&Ms TM or pumpkin candy corns

Brown: Chocolate Graham Goldfish TM, Whoppers TM, M&Ms TM or chocolate-covered raisins

This is a fun project for including kids preschool aged and up. If there’s one thing my son likes almost as much as getting a goody bag, it’s making a goody bag. Seriously.

My other bright idea was individually wrapped store-bought popcorn balls tied up in orange tissue paper with green curly ribbon.

Cut and paste a jack-o-lantern face or if you’re good draw one on with a marker. I myself cut and pasted after attempting to draw. This would be cute for candied or caramel apples too.

Halloween? Check.