A {LOVE} Day Celebration

A SWEET Valentine’s Day printable package + SWEET treats + the SWEETEST kids around (well, most of the time) = one pretty SWEET {LOVE} Day celebration.

I’m not gonna lie.   Some parties are for the kids.  And some parties are for me.  I pretended this party was for the kids, and spent a few hours trying to convince myself it was for the kids, but in actuality I think it might have really been for me. (GASP!  I know, how selfish!)  There’s just something about pink + red + hearts + sparkles that speaks to me, not to mention all of the adorable sweet{LOVE} Day treats.  (I’m pretty sure those sweet treats really were speaking to me too–as in calling my name and saying, ‘eat me’.  Before.  After.  And during the party.)

Truth be told, the kids probably would have been fine if I had just dumped a bunch of candy & treats in the middle of the table and let them go at it!  But, they are quickly learning that EVERYTHING tastes better when it’s cutened up with Anders Ruff printables and decor!

I’m pretty good at fooling my kids (I’m admittedly not as good at fooling my husband), so fortunately, they still thought the party was for them.  After all, the little details were planned with them in mind (kind of, ha!).

Take these cute customized shirts, for instance–first name initials on hearts for the little girls and red/white polka dotted tie t-shirts for the boys.  The darling shirts were custom made by my talented friend, Vivian, of Kerr Kreations.  We knew the girls would love the oversized coordinating hair accessories, and we were right!  A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!

Every great party starts with an amazing graphic printable package (or should, in my opinion!).  I fell in love with Anders Ruff’s Sweet Valentine’s Day collection the moment I saw it.  I love the ‘sweet shoppe’ feel with the pink and white stripes and the darling dessert graphics. From the sweet invitation, to the pages and pages of printable party accessories (cupcake toppers, drink flags, banner, placemats, party favors & more, Anders Ruff knows how to do Valentine’s Day right!

Immediately after seeing AR’s Valentine’s graphic package, I began pinning ideas for an awning on Pinterest (Do you need an invite?  Leave me a comment and I’ll send you one!) Again, my amazing friend Viv and her husband set to work making my dreams of a sweet shoppe awning a reality.  (Maybe I can convince them to share a tutorial on building it?)  They were so sweet to let me borrow it for the party!  We picked out coordinating pink & white striped fabric to tie into the printables.  Vivian also sewed a coordinating runner to tie the kid’s table to the dessert table.

Filling the dessert table with yummy treats was the easy part.  Along with a few sweet treats I picked up at the store, I recruited the talents of Lynlee, of Lynlee’s Petite Cakes , Christina, of Cookies Are My Canvas, Johanna, of Pop.O.Licious Cake Pops and Jessica of Vita Dolce Chocolates.  I am always amazed to see the end products of talented dessert designers.

I had lots of fun products to display these beautiful desserts in, thanks to Amanda Graff of Hey Yo Yo!  Amanda sent adorable pink trimmed berry baskets, red striped ice cream cups, cupcake liners & more!  I added a little coordinating paper shred, some ribbon, a few of the sweet printables from Anders Ruff’s package to add some pizzazz, and what I like to refer to as ‘dessert heaven’ was created.

Lynlee’s fondant work (Lynlee’s Petite Cakes) was gorgeous!  She was able to perfectly recreate the sweet cupcakes, sundaes, ice cream cones & fountain drinks from Anders Ruff’s printable package!  Christina’s cookies (Cookies Are My Canvas)were also exceptional!  She added edible glitter/luster dust which made the cookies have a beautiful sparkle in just the right places!  I’ve been a long time fan of Johanna’s cake pops (Pop.O.Licious Cake Pops)!  I’m fortunate to live close to her, but even if I didn’t, I’d still be choosing her for my cake pop needs!  See those cute waffle cone  and cupcake pops?!!  Yum! Jessica (Vita Dolce Chocolates) sent a variety of yummy artisan chocolates, including truffles, heart shaped chocolates and ice cream cone chocolate suckers.  I displayed them in ice cream glasses filled with pink & red M&Ms, topped off with a red glittered heart shaped cherry and striped straw!

My dining table was overflowing with Valentine’s goodies too.  Glittered heart topiaries and apothecary jars filled with colorful candies served as centerpieces.  Each place setting included an adorable heart cut out placemat, cute Anders Ruff printable wrapped napkins, ramekins filled with cute candy bars with fun AR Valentine wrappers, a raspberry milkshake and gourmet cupcake.  Of course, each little sweetheart needed his/her own mailbox for storing sweet treats, take home favors & letters & cards too.  I dressed the mailboxes up with 2″ circle toppers and Hershey’s Kiss labels from the Sweet Valentine’s Day printable package.    (That’s the great thing about Anders Ruff’s printables, there are endless uses for the different designs included in each package!)  My quick & inexpensive DIY idea for dressing up the chair backs involved gluing red heart paper plates to leftover strips of coordinating fabric.  It added a fun pop of color to each seat.

It was obvious the kids enjoyed themselves.  Smiles were big and laughs were loud! 

They ate….and ate.

They decorated Valentine’s Day cards, made cootie catchers (yes, even the boys…who loved them!), colored their activity placemats & played games (from Anders Ruff’s printable Valentine’s package).

I may have to throw my kids and their friends myself a Valentine’s Day party every year!

Credits:

Event Styling:  Jen Carver, Banner Events

Printable Graphic Designs:  Anders Ruff Custom Designs

Invitation here:

Party printables here: 

Photography:  Karina Rigtrup, A Fresh Take Photography

Custom sewing (custom awning & shirts):  Vivian Kerr, Kerr Kreations

Party goods/decor (striped straws, cupcake liners, plastic ice cream bowls, Divine twine, berry baskets):  Hey Yo Yo

Custom Fondant (3-D Cake topper & cupcake toppers):  Lynlee’s Petite Cakes

Cake Pops:  Pop.O.Licious Cake Pops

Custom Cookies:  Cookies Are My Canvas

Gourmet Artisan Chocolates:  Vita Dolce Chocolates

Resources:

Target:  Valentine mailboxes, napkins, plates, Valentine stickers/cards/envelopes

Michaels:  Glitter heart topiaries, glitter heart ornaments, glitter heart wreath

Pier 1:  tasting spoons (for brownie bites), ramekins

DIY: Valentine’s Day Cookies

A sweet client of ours sent us photos of cookies and treat bags she made using our “I Heart Valentine’s Day” printable package. (Still 25% off in the shop)

I just had to share!

Check out her tutorial with recipes here!

Thanks!
Maureen

Peace, Love & Flowers – A Very Special 15th Birthday Party!

Happy 15th Birthday Julie! Peace, Love & Flowers…

The location for the party was a no brainer! Julie’s father Howard is a professional photographer who specializes in B.F.F. Photo Shoots (check out his website). Julie asked each of her friends to bring three outfits: pajamas, camp shirts (they know each other from summer camp) and jeans with a dressy top. The girls were models for a night and had a blast in the studio dancing to music and posing with props. After the shoot, the girls were treated to dinner, a movie and a sleepover with a special dessert party.

Take #2: Dressy

Paula’s peace signs, hearts and flowers themed dessert table drew inspiration from a blog post by Pamela Smerker of Party Starters. We created for Paula some custom printables for the table (the food tents, labels and the birthday banner) which kept everyone feeling groovy! Take a peek:

Each girl brought home her candy from the pinata in these cute keepsake hearts

Julie, Paula & Howard, thank you for sharing with us this extemely unique and fun idea for a birthday party. It certainly had all of the girls jumping for joy!

“I Heart Valentine’s Day” Collection Photo Shoot

This is by far one of our favorite projects that we’ve done. We included LIVE subjects this time (mostly our children ) to show off some fabulous clothing by MiniMooh.

This post is image heavy…

We had major inspiration to do something different for the hanging decor. The paper plate polyhedrons are SO easy to make and we were pretty excited to create something unique.
You can find the tutorial on Disney Family Fun….

We used the printable logos as hanging detail on all of the apothecary glass jars.

Cotton candy made a GREAT filler display in the tall glass jars. The cookies from Allyson Jane were strung with ribbon and hung over these fabulous glass apothecary jars…. Don’t you just LOVE the cookies!?

Here are some more of the beautiful cookies from Allyson Jane. She baked them with a hole in them so we could embellish with a ribbon. I love adding another texture to the cookies!

This cake was from a regular plain-old bakery (seriously – $8 at Target!) and we dressed it up with fancy and beautiful fondant from Sweet Petal Bakery. We love this option to decorate our own cake with professional decor/fondant!

Lollipops with the printable lollipop covers were stuck into the fun layered jello (SO easy to make!)

Patterned papers were used with heart craft punches to create this super fun garland that hung on the front of the table.

How cute and simple are these awesome fabric layered flowers….
the beauty is – they never die!

These adorable lollis were from This Charming Candy…
They were GREAT props for the kids, too!How cute is the dress from Mini Mooh!?

…and the bow tie on my son, Jeffrey! (Mini Mooh)

Here is my little Peanut (Pierson)….

Are you smiling yet?

This is funny. The first photo Becca took of (my son) Pierson and Arden was this…
… the second shot….
It just took Arden’s mom coming into the room and doing something cute to light up their faces!

Arden and Grayce showing off their MiniMooh dresses….

Playin a little xx0
Jeffrey LOVED the macarons from Sparkles Kitchen.…

So did Grayce!

Printable valentines with a folding pocket envelope to put around the valentine…

Patterned papers, again, being used! Aren’t these little bottles so cute!?

Beautiful macarons from Sparkles Kitchen…