Crepe Paper Dessert Table

So what's a girl to do when she has a dessert table to design and needs a background that will make a statement but she set a limit of $100 for the party?!  Crepe paper of course!

 

Here's how easy it is.  You just need 2 pieces of trim (they'll even cut it for you at Home Depot if you wonder around looking especially desperate in the trim aisle).  I used a 4 ft table for the icecream sandwich bar, so I had them cut two pieces of trim - a 6 ft piece and a 4 ft piece.  Once you cram the pieces of trim into your husband's Sonata and make it home, you'll tape lengths of crepe paper side-by-side in an orderly fashion all along the trim.

 

If you're lucky enough to have a giant framed print hanging precisely where you want the crepe paper wall, you'll just use the hooks that you hung the print from to hold the pieces of trim.  If you're not quite so lucky, you'll need to use 3M tape to attach the trim to the wall.

 

Then it's just a matter of twist twist twist tape, the next piece just tape, then twist twist twist tape, just tape etc. on and on until you have this:

 

Next I covered the table with a plastic tablecloth and strung a piece of clear packing tape between the bottom of the front two table legs sticky side out.  Repeat the lengths of crepe paper taped side-by-side application on the 2nd piece of trim and attach it to the front of the table with 3M tape. Then twist twist stick to the packing tape, next piece just stick to the packing tape, twist twist stick, just stick etc. etc. etc.

 

What do you think?

Halloween + Birthday = This Awesome Party!

I love planning holiday parties because everywhere you go there's inspiration for your theme and party supplies galore! I worked with Dawn (my fabulous photographer!) on this awesome Halloween birthday party for her 4 year old, Ginger. We combined lots of fun Halloween goodies with even more creative ideas.

There were so many fun elements and special details to this party, but this is my blog, so we're gonna start with the make-your-own caramel apple bar I put together ;) There were 4 "stations" on the table... first the kids picked an apple from the stand, then I helped them dip it in the caramel (super easy recipe for crock pot caramel here... just be sure to watch it when it gets near the end & stir as necessary), then they chose one of four toppings to roll their apple in: crushed peanuts, heath bar bits, sprinkles, & mini chocolate chips, lastly we put it on wax paper to dry. Once they were dry we placed them in Halloweeny cello bags and the kids got to take them home. It was fun & entertaining for the kids and doubled as a yummy take home treat!

Putting the table together was so easy using the Halloween Glam printables collection from Tom Kat Studio! I just used double sided tape to attach the flags to the apple sticks and a little spider web stretched over some candle sticks trapped the "dip" "roll" & "dry" signs. The candle sticks held funkins I picked up at Michaels and spray painted spooky black. The hall where the party was held had historic photos and memorabilia on the walls that we couldn't take down or really alter... so adding some spider webs and spiders provided a fun backdrop that fit the theme.

Check out this amazing dessert table! There were so many treats to choose from - sugar rolled marshmallows, chocolate dipped pretzel "witch wands", chocolate covered jack-o-lantern Oreos, cupcakes with adorable Ginger in a witch hat cupcake picks, chocolate dipped rice crispy treats, & a cutesy ghost sucker tree. A stone head with black glittery twigs and ominous crows pulled it all together.

Can't forget the poison! Water bottle labels are so easy and a really fun detail. Dawn took them to the next level with these bigger labels for the bottles of soda! And while we're at it, I may as well mention that no guests' taste was left uncatored to... there was salsa, fresh guacamole & chips, Sangria, beer, jello shots, cookies & pizza from a tasty local shop.

The hall was decorated with so much Halloween fun! Ghosts that flew across the ceiling, rats that raced along the floor, spider webs, candelabras, & steaming caldrons. The table that greeted you at the front of the hall was the centerpiece. Bedecked in cheesecloth, it showcased beautiful photos of the birthday girl (the handiwork of her very talented Mommy of course!)

Last but not least was a handmade life... or is it death??... sized coffin that served as the gift spot. Throw a fun party and you're sure to make out like this!

Oh and I have to show you my Halloweeny hair accessory!! Clearly I'm exhausted in this picture... but that's justifiable after dipping 40 caramel apples for 40 screaming, costumed, sugar filled children right?! I had to post this though because I reconnected with a friend I went to high school with on Facebook and she just opened her own Etsy shop, Pinks Parlor. I love the unique style of her pieces and she did a great job putting this one together! I found 4 excuses to wear it during the past week & got a ridiculous number of compliments!

Okay, that's it for this Halloween. I hope you got some good ideas for your parties next year... may as well start planning now!

{Photos by Elemental Image}

One Year Old in a Flash - The Dessert Table

This dessert table I put together for Liv's One Year Old in a Flash birthday party is the first one I’ve ever done… I had so much fun with it, but was totally surprised at how much planning and preparation it took! From top to bottom here’s all the nitty gritty. I started by finding some fabric in just the right color teal. I hemmed the edges to make the tablecloth and took it into a Sherwin Williams store. They popped it into a little machine they have & told me which of their colors was the closest match… and it was a really really close match! I bought a $4 sample size jug of paint in that color (Tempo Teal if you’re curious). I loved using Sherwin Williams’ color match system not only because I now had the perfect color paint to match my scheme, but also because I grabbed a few Tempo Teal paint chips and picked out the right shade of pink to coordinate with it and now I had pink and teal paint chips to carry around with me to match any of the party stuff I purchased to. And if that weren’t cool enough, Sherwin Williams has a pallet for Photoshop and a color match app you can use on your iPhone… I’ll get into the Photoshop thing when I do the post about Ink Bloom.

Okay, so once I had decided on the exact colors and made the tablecloth, I needed a backdrop. I’ve looked through about a billion photos of dessert tables and if I had to pick one thing that separates the good from the not as good, it would be the backdrop. The food and things on the table are the stars of this production, but you have to give them a stage! I cut lengths of trim at the hardware store, mitered the corners, screwed them together with L brackets, and painted it with the Sherwin Williams sample paint. The morning of the party, I stapled white paper to the back of the frame (it’s the paper that comes on a roll that teachers use on the bulletin boards they decorate for their classrooms) and stuck the whole thing to the wall with 3M hook and loop. It took me a bit of research to track down bigger than average balloons, but Rick at Balloon Productions came through for me and supplied me with the 17” round balloons. I measured and stuck 3M hooks (3M is my secret weapon for nearly everything!) to the floor spaced equally apart, then tied the balloons to the hooks.

Serving pieces next. I found the flat rectangle dishes at Marshalls for pretty cheap. The pink risers are one pink shirt box that I had in my gift wrapping stash forever. One side is the top of the box, the other the bottom of the box, I just flipped them over and cut Styrofoam to fit in the inside so it would have the stability it needed to hold the cake domes and popcorn boxes. The cake domes were definitely my favorite find! I picked up the domes, the bases (I’m not even sure those bases actually go with the domes… they look like those plates with little feet that you melt a big pillar candle on) and a pair of teal candle sticks at the Goodwill store. They were $1.19 ea. and $.50 for the candle sticks. My Doug found some super grippy industrial tape at the hardware store and we just taped the candlesticks to the dome bases. I had those two big glasses from centerpieces from a friend’s wedding & I’ve had the tiered stand for years… I definitely recommend investing in one; you’ll be surprised at how often you’ll use it.

The little decorative touches and printed goods add so much to a table! I made the little bunting for the tiered stand by cutting tiny triangles out of fabric with pinking shears, hot gluing them to a ribbon, and attached the bunting to the stand with glue dots. I made liners for the rectangle dishes and the cake domes in the exact colors of the party by using Ink Bloom printable designs and the Sherwin William’s Photoshop color pallet. I printed the papers at home, cut them the right size for the dishes, and had them laminated at an office supply store. Beyond Designs designed the water bottle labels. I pulled the labels off some water bottles, printed the fancy labels, put clear packing tape over them to give them a finished look & shine, cut them out and stuck them on the bottles. The popcorn boxes are just a repeat of the little saying that was on the invitation (“My oh my how the time does fly! How could one year have already gone by?”), in the same font as was used in the invitation, printed on cardstock. I shrunk down a popcorn box template so that I could fit two to a page, printed the template on the back of the paper printed with the saying, cut them out and assembled the boxes with tape and a line of hot glue. My Dad is a graphic designer and I always coerce him into helping me out with my latest projects (love ya Dad!). He added the party hat graphic from the invitation to a picture of my Liv with pink icing on her face, I printed it off, cut the heads out of photo paper & hot glued them to lollipop sticks to use for the cupcake picks. You can buy this design featuring your little birthday cutie so you can make these picks yourself in my Etsy shop.  Little doodle frames with the name of the food added a finishing touch to the cake domes and glasses.

Last, but certainly not least, the food! I made the marshmallows, chocolate dipped Oreos, and white chocolate coated popcorn (read about those by clicking on the names). I ordered the adorable rose flavored pink macarons from Sparkles Kitchen on Etsy, and a local bakery made the cupcakes. I wanted the cupcakes to look a little more “special” than the typical birthday party cupcakes, so I asked them to ice them with a plain round tip instead of the star tip that makes the “ruffly” edges you usually see on cupcake icing. The wrappers on Hershey’s Bliss raspberry chocolates were just the right shade of pink, and dumping those in the glasses was easy enough… I just made sure that none of the silver from the inside of the wrapper was showing… I’m just crazy enough to stand there flipping them all over!

Photography by Elemental Image

There are a couple small things I would change about the table… nothing that I’ll share though ;)… but for the most part I’m really happy with the way it turned out & it got raves from the guests! I’m already looking forward to giving the whole dessert table thing another try, I’m pretty sure it’ll be a part of all my future parties!