Krista's 17 Birthday Party

This year we had a Peace, Love and Smore's Party theme for our daughter Krista's 17th Birthday. It was supposed to be a surprise party, but one of her friends told her about it.

I purchased a printable party from Party On Digital  on ETSY and dressed it up for the Hippie Chick party items.

This banner was on the table:

And I made this banner for the fireplace with some embellishments from my Slice die cuts.

I spelled Krista's name out in the wooden letters on the photo frames.

The night before the party she tells me that she wants a "Cake Boss" style cake with fondant butterflies on it.  Sure thing...oh yea and she want's "Whippy" frosting.  I have a great butter-cream recipe, and have decided I really don't like whipped cream frosting.  I used a whole 1/2 gallon of whipping cream too.

But, I remembered that I have an awesome Nordicware butterfly pan I have never used.  The picture is a little fuzzy - but here is the cake:

And then I made cupcakes and cut out little fondant butterflies for the tops...guess I need to learn how to use fondant better!

The best part of these cupcakes that I love - check out the Tie Dye cupcakes!!!

Other treats I made were these great peace sign cookie pops.  

Also on the dessert table were the party favors - I love these paint buckets and I dressed these up with ribbons and stickers.  In each one was some lotion, a peace sign ornament (sometimes it is OK that Hobby Lobby has Christmas decorations out in August) and a candle and votive.  

For food we tried to think of what teenagers like to eat, so we ordered Big Mouth burgers and Southwest eggrolls from Chilis, the kids are always going there to eat.  The party trays were nothing special, and I wasn't overly impressed...but the kids ate them.  We also had sodas and chips, guacamole and salsa.  And my favorite part - I was trying to come up with some cool ideas of what teens like - teens like coffee!  So without any copyright infringements on you know who...I set up a coffee bar with chocolate, caramel, coconut, toppings, different flavored coffee creamers, whipped cream, etc...and made all of the kids "blended frozen coffee drinks."  You could have caramel, creme brulee, mocha, chocolate chip, etc.

The girls could not believe how good they tasted made at home!

After coffee, soda and cake...what else could teens want?  Krista loves Smore's and I love Smore's Bars.  I bought another printable party from ETSY from ampersandink and set-up this great smore's bar.   Only we are in the middle of a drought and can not have fires. But the Smore's Bar looked really good!

Another great way to use my apothecary jars for the candy and marshmallows.  

Dressed up candy bars for making Smores:

Grab and Go marshmallow pops:

Happy Birthday Krista!  

How to use leftover party goods

As mentioned earlier, I usually go overboard.  There were a lot of brighter color fairy items I had bought/made for Madeline's party that never made it to the party.  I had this grand idea of having a photo booth with these, or having them in the area for the face painter...and as time crunched they never made it out.  So what to do now??

Have a tea party of course!

I had bought these great fairy ornaments at Michael's for only $0.20 each and made these mobiles out of them with leftover ribbons from the fairy costumes.  

I had a bunch of little girls who had a great tea party!  And the decorations were put to good use!

Enchanted Forest Birthday

This will be my first party post, we have had three parties in the past four weeks, it has been a busy month.

I started planning this party back in June and had three months to work on it.  It all started with some great inspiration from the internet.  Originally I decided fairies was the theme, but then really liked the woodland aspect to the parties.  My daughters friends include boys and girls, and we could never have an all girl party that would not include the boys too.  Toadstools and a red, green and white template quickly were everywhere!

I started with this great invitation from Paper and Pigtails on Etsy:
Invitation

A do it yourself person, and slightly new to the paper craft world, I bought a Slice die cut machine and started crafting.

I made these custom designed favor bags for the party as my first project.

Next was costumes - I made fairy costumes for each girl at the party.  I started with a four color pallet of the wings, and on about my 9th costume I made a red/ green and white set.  Had I realized how good this would look I may have made them all the same.  But we had 12 costumes that were all different.

We set them up for the girls to choose from as they arrived.  For the boys I made Robin Hood style outfits with hats.

Each fairy costume came with a skirt, wings, wand and headband.

There was LOTS of tulle in the skirts!  This picture shows how full each skirt was.

I had seen the names done in wood - so I painted Madeline's name in the party theme colors - this looks good for short names...this name went across the whole table.

There was so much other planning, but in the end, the party was a success!

The dessert table included several treats.  Yes, I did all of my own baking.  In review I know why having vendors is a great idea.

My sister helped decorate these cookies:

This was the first time I had ever made a cake pop!

I love Marshmallow Pops - much easier to make than cake pops!

There was a candy buffet in these great jars:

We made cupcakes, I made the toppers.  I saw the idea for the cupcake platter on another site.  My husband thought I was crazy, but he made them anyway.

We really did not get any good photos of the food.  We served cut fruit, veggie sticks with ranch, potato chips in paper cones and toasted cheese sandwiches for the kids.  The adults got most of the same, with an adult sandwich station.  We served lemonade, tea and water to drink.

We have had the hottest Summer on record ever here in the Houston area and we are still in a serious drought.  I planned the party for the evening, hoping it would be cooler.  It was 101 during the party.  I decorated the patio, and we set up a parent area outside, only it was so hot, the kids barely even ate outside.

More pictures of the patio:

Even under the awning it was very hot!

This was the place-setting.  Polka dots with a brown dinner plate.

The kids played a lot - this is a photo of the Birthday Girl.

For entertainment we hired Daisy of Curly and Daisy to paint faces - this was so worth it and the hit of the party.  She does the most amazing fairy faces - and the boys got some really cool artwork too!  The kids all stood in line and could not wait!  If you are anywhere in the Houston area - I highly recommend her!
Curly and Daisy

Look at the great fairy details the Birthday Girl got! (Not sure why she made this face)

We also had a pinata - I tried making my own, which did not go so well at all.  I think modern day pinatas are way too small, but I found both a fairy and a toadstool on the internet, so we sat the fairy on top of the toadstool, unfortunately I only have a picture after the kids had been trying to get the candy out!

Overall, for a real party, it was a lot of work, planning and time - but so worth it.  Everyone had a blast!

What's in A Name?

As I was deciding that I wanted to start this new venture, I knew it would need a name.  Upon doing Google searches, many names I thought of were already taken.  So I began to think of things my daughter loves.  There is a restaurant we go to that includes a paper umbrella in their drinks - she loves going there, just to get the paper umbrella.  So simple, yet so fun...a paper umbrella in your drink can turn any moment into a party.

So there was the name - Paper Umbrella Parties.
Life's A Party...Get Your Umbrella!

Welcome!

It all started when I searched a party theme for ideas for a Bunco night.  That is when I discovered the modern parties of today - and was in awe of these "New" ideas and fabulous web-sites hosted by amazing party stylists.  My youngest daughter's birthday was at the end of Summer and that is when I started planning.  With two older daughters as well we have been having Birthday Parties for years - always fairly elaborate - I have always been an entertainer - and I always go overboard as my husband would say.  But in years past - it has always been the traditional party store commercialized party theme.  So when I discovered this new - unique style of party design...well it is now my favorite pastime.  

My mom owned a flower shop when I was growing up and we would always enter these table-scape design competitions combining elaborate flowers with completely themed props and table settings, so I guess you could say I started young.  

A friends and family designer, I mostly have designed the flowers for my friends weddings over the years.  Now, I am a real working mom - hosting real parties.  

I was inspired by so many ideas from the never ending internet, I hope I can inspire others as well.