Carni Baby!!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of throwing a baby shower (with the help of my SIL, Lia) in honor of my other SIL, Emily. :) We had a great time...right up until a HUMUNGO windstorm showed up and started ripping everything down including huge branches from the tree. And even then...we had a blast running around trying to take everything down and go inside. It was the quickest clean-up in the history of baby showers, I'm sure. :) The theme was "Vintage carnival" and I wish I had a never-ending party budget but alas...all good things must come to an end. :) I wish that I could have bought that cool vintage-looking popcorn machine and rented that Cotton Candy maker and then added that cool golden raffle-spinner to the tab.  Arial Dancers and Flame eaters would've been great too...ya know...IF there was no budget.
These pictures are in no particular order...because I hate  am not fond of Blogger's picture-loading method and I find it extremely frustrating to put them all in order. :)
Let's start with the invites, shall we?? These were done by my wonderfully gracious and super-oober talented sister, Crystal Carlson with http://www.crystalruby.com/. This is the the version that I sent to the photo shop in a 5x7 then cut in half and mailed as "tickets" for the carnival. So fun.




Black Forest Cupcakes



My Kiddos loved the Photo Booth. I found this amazingly perfect red & creme ticking stripe fabric at Wal-Mart of all places. I just got 2 yards of fabric, stretched it over and staple-gunned it to some extra plywood that my hubby had...in fact...my hubby is so awesome that he actually stretched and tapled it FOR me. Aren't you jelous of my hubby??







Black Forest Cake. I went rustic because I wanted that 'Vintage' feel. The sign was made by digging this piece of wood that I already had from an earlier craft that never got finished out of my craft stuff. It was actually already painted the colors that I wanted so I simply printed a font off my computer, cut them out and glued them to the sign. I also grabbed some gold paint that I had in my craft stash and roughly outlined the letters then added flourishes around the edges.



This is my SIL's backyard. it was a great size and location. We used lots of ladder-back chairs and the photo booth is just around the corner. It's hard to see all of the mason jars in the picture but they really did make an impact in person.




Bubble Gum everywhere. I loved the color that they provided. They were put in baby jars because...well...it's a baby shower. :)




I was so thrilled when I found these popcorn bags at my local Kitchen supply store.




Me with the Lady of the Hour. Love her. K, so this is NOT a flattering picture of me but it was so fun taking it! :)





The 'BIG BROTHER"!!






Photo Booth Props: Hats, clown noses, paper mustaches & bow ties on skewers, chalkboard, chalk.

 


"Guess the Girth" booth. A new twist on an age-old baby shower game. The same process for the "Tickets" sign at the Dessert Table was basically repeated for this sign except that I had to start from scratch. I had my hubby cut the sign out of MDF then I found leftover paint in the colors that I needed (just a lucky coincidence) and painted away.  Then I attatched the paper letters and added some gold detail.

 


I wanted the games to be baby-inspired. My Lizzy came up with this one. It was a hoot. I got these beautiful wooden spools from my local Electrical Supply store. I offered to pay for them but they just gave them to me. :)





Aaaaand...back to the food. Caramel Apples...need I say more? It's been way too long since I've had one. I picked the smallest apples that I could find then found these corn skewers in the produce section at Wal-Mart. They were so cute. I made them simple and rustic to go with the vintage theme. 




Loved the dark glass bottles. In retrospect, this would've been a good opportunity to put a lovely little clever message to the little peanut on here instead of just the boring "Old Fashioned Root Beer".  Everything is better in retrospect. :)




The dessert table minus the Churros. They were still in the oven.




Again with no Churros but now you can see the banner. ;)





Can't do "Carnival" without doing Nachos. I know it's not "dessert" but it is "yummy". ;)





Oh look the Churros made it. :) They should have been put in a cute container but oh well. The guests were eating by now and the light was getting bad.




Makes you hungry, huh? I totally want another Churro right now.




"Ambiance Lighting" :) Just Mason Jars that I wired and hung from the fence with tea lights from the dollar store!




I just added this picture because it was funny. ;) Don't worry...it's just root beer.





 


My sweet niece made these plus a pretty blue on for me. Super fun.




We invited these boys to the party to help us eat the food and to provide us some entertainment. ;)




This was what the party looked like after we all ran for cover from the wind storm. :)



Rustic Wedding Cake Trio

"Charlotte Cake". Cheesecake topped w. fresh berries and wrapped in Lady Fingers.

10", 8" & 6" tiers.

My wonderful, handsome hubby built me my cake stand and even stopped by my cake supply store to get my supplies! Thank you, honey for eating hotdogs and pizza for dinner for the past 3 nights! ;)

Chocolate Fudge cake w. Rassberry filling and Amaretto Buttercream. Garnished w. white chocolate 'Petals'.

4-layer 10" and 2-layer 7" tiers.

Red Velvet w. Cream Cheese Buttercream. Garnished w. fresh berries and red Gumpaste Leaves.
8", 6" and 4" tiers

Gumpaste Flower Tutorial

As promised in the "Soft Vintage Pink and White 1st Birthday Party" post, here is your

Gumpaste Tutorial:

{Here are a couple of other examples of other cakes that I have done using this fabulous flower.}

Gumpaste Tutorial:

Here's what you need:

1.A set of round cutters (close-up shown below) {or you can find concentric circular shapes around your house and use those as a template, cutting them out with an Exacto knife} 2.Cornstarch 3.Wilton Ready-to-Use Gumpaste {or mix} 4. 2 sizes of silver, metallic Dragees - close-up also shown below. (For the smaller size, I used the tiniest dragges that I could find!) 5.Wilton Piping Gel 6.Small rolling pin (again, from Wilton) 7.Tweezers 8.A fondant and gumpaste ball tool (2 are shown but you only need 1) 9. Thin foam pad (Wilton) 10.Wilton Practice board OR a ziploc baggie. 11. Small parchment paper bag filled with the said Piping gel. ;) Tutorial here {In the video, she cuts her triangle in half. I make mine even smaller by cutting it in half AGAIN to have more control of the bag}. *Food coloring is optional depending on what color you want your flowers. You just add it to your gumpaste and kneed it before beginning. ;)

To Begin:

*Select the size cutters that you want. {I used every other size in my set and you can make this flower with as many layers as you want!!}

*Get a boulder-sized {'boulder' as in way back in the day of playing marbles} ball of gumpaste.

*With a super-thin coat of cornstarch on your mat (or surface; you really don't need the mat) and rolling pin, roll out your gumpaste as THIN as you can get it. I'm talking, PAPER THIN.

* Cut out your circles and place them under the practice board (or ziploc baggie) to keep them from drying out.

*Kneed the excess gumpaste and place it back in it's original bag.

*Place the largest circle on your thin foam pad and place your ball tool half-way onto the foam and half-way onto the gumpaste.

*Make sure you have a thin layer of cornstarch on your ball tool and with a fluid motion, rub tool around your gumpaste's edge to create the ruffled edge.

*As you finish each circle, use your piping bag to adhere each circle to the next.

*To make the Dragge center, place a (very small) pea-sized drop of piping gel in the center of your smallest flower.

*With your tweezers, place a large dragge in the center of the piping gel drop.

* Through trial and error, I have found that the easiest way to place the teeny-tiny dragess in place is to pour a few around the center dragee...

*...then sort them with your tweezers.

*Let the flower dry at least 8 hours before assembling them on the cake {or cupcake! They make SUPER cute cupcake toppers!}.

Happy baking, everyone!

Soft Vintage Pink and White 1st Birthday Party

We had a WONDERFUL time! We ate lots of cake..

{To see the Birthday Girl's 1st Birthday photo shoot, complete with smash cake, go here.}

...and Cupcakes... ...We sang Happy Songs... ...opened lots of fun presents... ...played with our friends...



...had some belly laughs...

... and read pretty books. {Just LOOK at that little pointer finger!}

The Dessert Table.

I really wanted to do an "Amy Atlas" inspired dessert table. {http://amyatlas.com/ PLEASE don't compare my work to hers. She is AMAZING.) I just LOVE her work! While I am not a fan of contemporary design, I love her clean, symetrical, repetitive lines. She does a wonderful job of softening her contemporary lines and making a theme look fantastic. I went for a very soft, very feminine, vintage style with a tiny modern twist on it in a pallate of pinks, whites and creams.

Most of this wonderful serving-ware is from the thrift store! I think I REALLY lucked out that day and found some great pieces!

Great tissue Pom-pom tutorial from Martha Stewart here.

Party Favors {Ali's "kisses"}

These were strung on a White picture frame. Sorry for the lame picture. ;)

Cookies 'N Cream & Milk Chocolate Hershey Bars that read:

"Alice Rebecca, April 21st, One year filled with pure, SWEET joy."

FANTASTIC paper from Hobby Lobby. I cut the medalions with fancy scissors then took a stamp-pad to the edges.

Super cute marshmallows that I found at Wal-mart (of all places). They were really gross. But they were pretty. ;)


Meringues

{Recipie here. I just made mine fancy by piping them out of a piping bag with a fancy tip (Wilton 1M) }

Another Cake Stand made from Thrift-Store finds! 6 Layer Chocolate Fudge Cake
w. Whipped Ganache filling {Tutorial here. To make my life easier, I used Ghiradelli chocolate chips instead of chopping my own chocolate.} & Amaretto Swiss Meringue Buttercream {Tutorial here.}I followed this buttercream ruffle tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHYX0qXDVy0

My Gumpaste Flower tutorial here.

This Cake Stand was made from two FABULOUS pieces that I found at the Thrift Store!! I think it cost me a total of $2.75.

White Rassberry cupcakes w. edible feathers and "pearls"

{White cake (Box mix!!)w. Rassberry filling {from Orson Gygi's} and Fresh Rassberry American Buttercream

*The 'Pearls' were made by rolling white fondant in a ball, then rolling it around in 'Pearl dust' from Wilton. The 'Feathers' were actually made from rice paper! I found the rice paper at my favorite local kitchen supply store Orson Gygi's. I just cut it into the shape of a feather, then took my scissors and made the slits on the sides.
This Cupcake Stand was made from placing two glass stands from Wal-mart. They were on sale and cost me $9.00 total!

Cupcake wrappers were made from {Grease-proof} paper doilies!! Tutorial here from Intimateweddings.com.

Beaded Chandelier tutorial here from Dollar Store Crafts!

For more peeks at the photos hanging here, click here. Beverage dispenser: $6.00 from Wal-mart! Carrot Cake Cake Pops
Tutorial from Bakerell here.
My hubby from Tomseth Construction made this Barnwood flooring that I used as a photo prop in Ali's 1-year Photo Shoot. It was AMAZING in the photos. I ran to Hobby Lobby and grabbed 4.5 yards of their ruffled material from the spool [instead of making it myslef] and it saved me SO much time.

This lovely cream and sugar set were also a thrift-store find!

{Pssst, here's a secret. I made this Pink Lemonade (Crystal Light!) look extra fancy by adding the lemon slices!}

The nametags just added that extra fancy, put-together touch. ;)

The "Guess how old I am" game. You had to guess which month of her life each of these pics were taken in. Super hard! Lemme tell ya!

We had some wonderful family and friends come up! My brother, Scott and his awesome family came all the way from Payson. Our good friend, Mark ('Uncle Mark' to my kids) drove up from Saratoga Springs, my good friend, Sara and her kidlets came. GUESS WHO else came?!! My In-Laws!! It was such a {WONDERFUL} suprise! They came all the way from Cali JUST for Ali's 1st birthday!! What amazing parents and grandparents. I am so lucky to have them as family. ;) We had a great time eating, talking, laughing, eating and playing.

*A BIG 'Thank-You" to the lovely Jen from Tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com for the wonderful Mother's Day spotlight!*