About Kim

Kim Byers, creative director & owner of The Celebration Shoppe. Her work and products have been featured in Parents magazine, Better Homes and Gardens magazine, All You magazine, Pregnancy magazine, iVillage, Huffington Post and many others. Kim is also a contributing writer for Kellogg's Snackpicks.com and Gibbs-Smith Publishing Red Barn blog.

June 14, 2013 No Comments

art party {with social artworking}

Ever heard of Social Artworking? It’s the coolest and easiest way to host an art party. {This post is sponsored, but as always, all opinions are my own. You know I’d have it no other way!}

You worry about the food, and let Social Artworking do the rest!

Just visit the shop, select a design, and tell them how many guests you will have. They will send you the most amazing, and I do mean A-MAZING, supplies!

I chose this beautiful sunflower design. It’s looks complicated, right? Well, Social Artworking is geared toward adults, but clearly kiddos (I recommend 7 and up) can do it too. You know why?

This is the best part… they send you transfer paper and the design so you can outline it on the canvas before you get started. It’s perfect and keeps everyone on the same 1-2-3 instruction as you paint.

My boys helped me set up. We brought a long table out onto the deck, laid plastic down (my hubby insisted…), covered the table in paper and set up all the supplies.

Social Artworking will send you:

16×20 canvases
Wooden easels
Wooden handle paint brushes
Palette buckets (loved these)
Paint (all the colors needed to complete your project)
Palette paper (gloss finish so that it doesn’t soak through)
Transfer paper
Design
Paint aprons

My guests included moms and kids and they both had a blast! Plus, honestly, my kiddos felt really proud of what they created. One of my friends and her daughter even went straight home and hung their sunflowers up on the wall!

If your into art, or just into hosting a really creative gathering with your girlfriends (or your girlfriends and their kiddos like I did), you won’t be disappointed with Social Artworking. From the quality of the supplies to the lovely designs, you’ll be impressed and so will your guests!

Need help selecting the products you need to host your own Social Artworking party? Use Social Artworking’s Personal Shopper tool to help you fill your cart. Just choose your design and enter the number of guests to get started. It’s simple!

You can also follow Social Artworking on Facebook and Twitter!

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate! Happy Father’s Day everyone!

{This post is sponsored by Social Artworking, but as always, all opinions are my own. You know I’d have it no other way!}

Join The Celebration Shoppe on facebook, sign-up for the daily ideas to come right to your inbox (never miss an idea, giveaway or free printable!), connect with Kim on twitter, pinterest and on instagram. And don’t forget to shop the party store for birthday, baby shower and holiday party supplies. Oh, and now you can follow the blog with Bloglovin too! Hope to see you around!

father’s day {gone fishing cupcakes}

Fathers Day Cupcakes

Father’s Day is this weekend and my hubby and the boys love nothing better than going fishing together. Worms and stinky fish… boys! {smirk} So I whipped up some “Gone Fishing” cupcakes to help us celebrate this Father’s Day!

By the way, a few days ago I shared my Father’s Day lawn mower cupcakes and how the boys listed out what they thought of when they thought of their dad. Well, behind mowing the grass {grin} was fishing!

So here’s what you’ll need to make these Father’s Day gone fishing cupcakes:

Wilton Candy Melts in blue and lime green (for chocolate transfer fish), available at craft stores
Cupcake baked in a white wrapper
Icing tinted with gel food coloring (green for grass and some blue for the water)
Resealable plastic bags
Wax paper
Lollipop sticks, 4″
White fabric covered stem wire
Optional: #233 Wilton “grass” icing tip and connector (available at craft store)
Optional: Blue pattern cupcake liners

Easy how to steps for making your own Father’s Day gone fishing cupcakes:

Blue (water/waves) icing – tint icing blue. Using a spatula or butter knife, ice the entire cupcake blue pulling the icing on one side upwards with a swiping motion to look like waves.
Green (grass) icing – tint icing green. Pipe grass with a #233 Wilton icing tip. Just snip a corner of a resealable plastic bag, add an icing connector and icing tip. Fill with green icing and pipe tall grass on half of the cupcake as shown
Make chocolate transfer fish – place 8-10 blue candy melt wafers in a resealable bag and microwave in 8 second intervals until melted (likely three times). Snip corner of bag and pipe simple fish shape on wax paper. Allow to set for 10 minutes or until solid. Place 4-6 green candy melts in a resealable bag and melt. Snip small hole in one corner and pipe scallops on each fish. Allow to set 10 minutes or until solid.
Make fishing poles – Cut four inch pieces of stem wire, wrap one end around a lollipop stick and slightly curve the “line” with your finger so that the fish will set on edge of the water/cupcake.
Attach fish to pole – place a small dollop of blue chocolate on the back of the fish and attach the line. Allow to dry.
Insert pole into cupcake – insert the lollipop stick in the grass, at the edge of the water. Place the fish at the edge of the water to give it extra stability.

Styling tip:

Cupcake liners – bake in white cupcake liners and then top with your pretty/colorful liners so that they look fresh and crisp.
Serving tray – cut strips of various hues of blue and criss-cross to line tray for the appearance of water.

gone fishing cupcakes

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate! Happy Father’s Day everyone!

monsters university {mike cupcakes}

Monsters University

Have you seen the trailer for the new Disney Pixar movie, Monsters University?! Well my sons have. And my youngest even changed his birthday party theme to a Monsters University movie viewing… After I had already bought favors for his super hero birthday party… Well, like any good mommy I took them back and we started over. Thank goodness we hadn’t gone too far down the party planning path yet. {grin}

So as we pull the party together I’ve started to craft and bake of course.

These fun little Monsters University Mike Wasowski cupcakes will likely make an appearance on the big day.

Monsters University

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own Monsters University Mike Wasowski cupcakes. (I also recommend the chocolate be Wilton Candy Melts available at your local craft store, plus you’ll need wax paper, glass bowl and resealable plastic bags.)

And here are the easy steps:

Chocolate transfer legs and arms. Draw a quick outline, stick version is fine, of bent arms and legs. (Check Mike out here for inspiration.) I suggest bent so that the arms can be connected at the top and bottom. Melt green chocolates in a resealable bag in 8 second intervals, snip the end, and pipe onto wax paper. Never done chocolate transfer before? Check out my how to video for another project.
Coat Mike’s body (aka plain donut hole) in chocolate. Melt green chocolates in glass bowl, spoon over donut holes, insert lollipop stick and allow to dry (standing is best if you have a cookie cooling tray you can use).
Chocolate transfer eye. Melt white chocolate in a resealable bag in 8 second intervals. Make a round dot for the white of his eye. While still wet add a large blue confetti candy.
Make Mike. Insert the lollipop with Mike’s body into an iced cupcake. Attach arms at mid and top of Mike with a dot of green chocolate. Attach legs at bottom of Mike with green chocolate. Bottom of legs will set in wet cupcake icing. Add Mike’s eye with another dot of green chocolate.
Add horns and mouth. With white chocolate, pipe on squiggly mouth and horns.

Monsters University

If you weren’t excited about Mike and Sully heading off to Monsters University before, I hope you are now! {grin}

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate!

ice cream {real fruit toppings + easy dipped sprinkle cones}

Love ice cream?! Us too! Today I’m going to share an easy dipped ice cream cone idea. Plus, some exciting new ice cream toppings from Breyers Ice Cream!

You would think my boys got treats constantly living in our house where there seems there is always a cupcake, cookie or cake in the oven. Actually no. It’s funny, but my boys are almost immune to the smell of things baking. They know the drill. Healthy foods everyday, treats sometimes. AND, they know mommy bakes way more than we can eat. {grin}

I’m actually very particular. And because my youngest has food allergies, I read every label!

The new Breyers Toppings line is exciting. There are three REAL fruit toppings: Strawberry Fruit Topping, Mixed Berry Fruit Topping an Cherry Fruit Topping. Not too sweet and very yummy. Plus, there is a hot fudge sauce that is dairy-free and AMAZING! {swoon}

I also have to tell you that my kids don’t really like sprinkles. They can be pretty and colorful, but they don’t always taste yummy. That said, both of my boys LOVED the new Breyers sprinkles. They’re not too crunchy or overly sweet. The chocolate sprinkles are their favorite! Again, dairy-free!

But the absolute BEST part about Breyers new ice cream topping line… NO High-Fructose Corn Syrup! {applaud}

My little one, the one with the food allergies, doesn’t always get treats when we’re out and about, so I like to make sure if I’m hosting or if we’re just at home having a snack, he feels just as special as everyone else.

Here’s how you make simple “regular” dipped sprinkle cones and “dairy-free” dipped sprinkle cones!

“Regular” chocolate dipped sprinkle cones:

Dip a sugar cone in white chocolate (melted in 8 second intervals in a glass bowl),
Allow it to drip,
Dip the cone in sprinkles

“Dairy-free dipped sprinkle cones:

Dip a sugar cone in white icing (melted for 6 seconds in a glass bowl; it will be melted but not soupy),
Allow it to drip,
Dip the cone in sprinkles

It’s just Over The Top Goodness! {wink}

And guess what!? Breyers is looking for 25 – 30 Sundae Savvy Moms to be selected between May 15 and June 30, 2013. {woo hoo}

Think you have what it takes? Tell them why you are the perfect Savvy Mom! Select Savvy Moms will receive a bunch of our Breyers® Toppings to sample and to share. Then, they can post recipes, suggestions and more to their social media pages — which they’ll also feature on the Breyers website!

We’d love to have you on board! And as always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate!

father’s day {lawn mower cupcakes}

Fathers Day

Father’s Day is this weekend and I’ve whipped up a fun cupcake idea. Lawn mowers!

When I asked my boys about their dad and what they thought of when they thought of him, I got a ton of loving sweet words! Unfortunately there were only a few I could imagine as a cupcake. {grin}

One of my favorite was his lawn mower. You have to understand. My hubby LOVES his grass. Where I find crafting, baking, gardening…etc. therapeutic, for their father, it’s his lawn. He’s constantly working around the yard. We only have an acre, but it is amazing that he can always find something to do. Trimming trees, edging the sidewalk, mowing the grass, pulling weeds out of the flower beds, working in our little vegetable garden (tucked next to the deck in the backyard). Something. Always.

Fathers Day

So here’s what you’ll need to make these Father’s Day lawn mower cupcakes:

Mini Hershey’s candy bars for mower
M&Ms for engines (variety if you want them to be colorful)
Chocolate sixlets for wheels (again, variety if you want them to be colorful)
Wilton Candy Melts (for chocolate transfer handles), available at craft or baking store
Cupcake
Icing (tinted green for grass)
Resealable plastic bags
Wax paper
Optional: #233 Wilton “grass” icing tip and connector (available at craft store)
Optional: Green or green pattern cupcake liners

Easy how to steps for making your own Father’s Day lawn mower cupcakes:

Icing – tint green and ice top of cupcake (will be base and look like mown grass).
Make handles – place six candy melt wafers in a resealable bag and microwave in 8 second intervals until melted (likely three times). Snip corner of bag and pipe handle on wax paper (be careful to make sure your handles will fit on the mini candy bar). Allow to set for 10 minutes.
Add wheels – place four sixlets on grass/icing
Attach mower – pipe a dollop of candy melt (same bag that you used to pipe handles) on the top of the four sixlets, add mini candy bar and hold for five seconds.
Add engine – pipe a dollop of candy melt on the center of the candy bar and top with an M&M
Attach handles – pipe a dot of candy melt on the edge of the candy bar and attach the chocolate transfer handles (holding for five seconds until they set)
Optional tall grass – I made my cupcakes look only partially mown {grin} by piping taller grass with a #233 Wilton icing tip. Just snip a corner of a resealable plastic bag, add an icing connector and icing tip. Fill with green icing and pipe tall grass on half of the cupcake as shown

Styling tip:

Cupcake liners - bake in white cupcake liners and then top with your pretty/colorful liners so that they look fresh and crisp.

Lawn Mower Cupcake

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate! Happy Father’s Day everyone!

Linked up to Craft-O-Maniac

cotton candy {treats}

Cotton Candy

My boys always beg for cotton candy and honestly it’s one of those treats that I try to avoid because the bags are too big and the sugar rush is even bigger!

So in the baking isle I spied the Duncan Hines Frosting Creations icing. All the cotton candy taste… in small portions… so I decided to give them a whirl!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

To make them a bit more fun than regular cupcakes AND to give the boys the illusion of a cotton candy paper cone {grin}, I baked them in sugar cones with chocolate chips in the batter. Admittedly I’m not much on tons of icing, but the cake in the sugar cones, with a little icing, was super yummy! My oldest loved them just as they are. My youngest, like me, wanted more of just the cake in the cone.

Here’s what you’ll need to make chocolate chip batter cupcakes with cotton candy frosting:

Duncan Hines Golden Butter Cake Mix (+ ingredients)
Mini chocolate chips
Duncan Hines Frosting Creations with Cotton Candy flavor packet
Sugar cones
Aluminum foil
Deep baking dish
Dairy-Free Option: replace butter in batter with 5 tsp Smart Balance Light and Enjoy Life chocolate chips

And the simple instructions:

Prep batter as box directs (substituting the options above if you want dairy free)
Cover baking dish in aluminum foil, cut “X” every 2.5 inches
Insert cones upright
Spoon one tsp of batter in cone, add five to six mini chocolate chips, repeat until 3/4″ from top of cone
Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes
Allow to cool
Mix icing as directed, spoon into resealable bag, cut an “X” in one corner of the bag and pipe icing on in circular motion.

Cotton Candy

A little fun treat to kick off the summer. Also perfect for a circus themed birthday party. By the way, the stands are actually icie cone stands from Target. I use them all the time in the summer!

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate!

chevron birthday party {princess style}

Chevron

Love chevron?! Have a little princess?! Well I have the perfect party idea for you. Michelle of I Do Invitations By Michelle celebrated her daughter Cami’s birthday with beautiful chevron party details, but made it all about her little princess and the Disney princesses too of course! {grin}

Michelle linked up to our monthly link party and today I’m sharing her party as my feature favorite. My co-host Bird of Bird’s Party, is sharing her link party favorite today too so make sure you hop over and see what inspired her from our last link party. I’ll give you a hint… strawberries!

Have ideas that you’d like to share and possibly get featured? This month Chris of Celebrations At Home joined us too so now you share your link once and get seen on three blogs! Share your party, craft or baking idea now!

And hop over to visit Michelle for tons more pictures and inspiration from her little Cami’s big day!

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate!

Photography credit: Ellie of Photography Studio 37

Oz The Great And Powerful {DIY bags}

Oz The Great And Powerful

We had the opportunity to preview the new Disney movie Oz The Great And Powerful that is coming out in a Blu-Ray Combo Pack next week, June 11.

For the big night I made these super easy printed popcorn bags to get the boys excited.

Here’s all you’ll need to make your own printed popcorn bags:

White lunch bags
Tape
Coloring page download (a centered design is best, this one is perfect with no resizing needed)

And these are the simple steps:

Download a design to your computer.
Open Word document (or Photoshop, whatever you prefer) and resize background document to the size of your bag, typically 4″x7″ (but measure!)
Right click and copy design to new document. Make sure it’s centered.
Tape bag bottom to the bag so that it doesn’t catch in your printer.
Print!

Want to know more about Oz The Great And Powerful? You can follow Disney and this movie specifically on facebook, twitter and pinterest.

But I’m not done! I have another very fun food tutorial too, a candy version of Glinda The Good Witch’s wand!

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate!

Oz The Great And Powerful {DIY wand}

Oz The Great And Powerful

Oz The Great And Powerful Blu-Ray Combo Pack releases in a few short days, on June 11. If you didn’t catch it at the theaters, you simply must see it now. It’s all about how Oz made it to Oz! {grin} Oh, and there is a bit about the witches too. All three of them! {shudder}

I have to say, Disney really did a beautiful job. The colors and characters were amazing… and THE witch had my youngest peeking out from under his blanket. He made his dad come sit next to him. I was there, but I wasn’t enough. {smirk}

The girly in me though was struck by Glinda The Good Witch. Her dress, her crown, oh… and her wand! It was so simple, yet so beautiful!

Oz The Great And Powerful

I mean what girl doesn’t want a wand?! So I thought, why not make a few. Here’s what you’ll need to make an easy DIY candy wand:

Marshmallows
Pepperidge Farms Pirouette Rolled Wafers (these are French Vanilla!)
Pure Cane Sugar
White Icing
Kitchen Scissors

And the simple how to for making your wands:

Trim your marshmallows. Using kitchen scissors, cut each of the corners off your marshmallow so that it looks like a diamond. (TIP: Wash your scissors between each marshmallow or they’ll start to stick.)
Add shine. Dip each edge (sticky sides) in pure cane sugar.
Attach handle. Dip the end of the wafer in white icing and attach the wand tip. Allow to set for at least 10 minutes before you display.

Rather watch how I made these? Well you’re in luck because I made a little video. And while you’re there, I’d love for you to subscribe to my youtube channel. By the way, my eight year old was my camera man on this one because I couldn’t find the stand. That’s cute though… right?! {grin}

By the way, if you’re having a party, I would display in a 4″ or so tall clear (square if you have it) vase filled half way with more pure cane sugar. Once the wands are dry, just place them in, handle first, so all the good little witches at your party can grab them easily!

Want to know more about Oz The Great And Powerful? You can follow Disney and this movie specifically on facebook, twitter and pinterest. And you can see what some of my blogging friends are creating to celebrate the new movie too!

But I’m not done! I have another very fun tutorial for Oz The Great And Powerful.

When I was prepping for our “at home” movie viewing we made some adorable and easy Oz The Great And Powerful popcorn bags. Come see how to make these easy bags for this movie, or any Disney movie premier! {grin}

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate!

This post is brought to you by Disney and Blue Print Social, but all opinions are 100% mine. You know I’d have it no other way! Original idea created by Kim Byers and seen here on TheCelebrationShoppe.com first.

show off your party and craft ideas!

Good morning! I’ve teamed up with Bird’s Party and Chris of Celebrations At Home for a link party!

What does that mean? That means when you link up an idea on my blog, it shows up on theirs too! {woo hoo!}

Plus, we’re going to pin and feature some of our favorite ideas shared (last month’s favorites will be featured this Thursday)! We’ve set up a team Pinterest board, Party Ideas & Trends, with over 33K followers!

We’d love for you to follow the board, and follow us: Party Ideas and Trends, Kim {The Celebration Shoppe}, Bird’s Party and Chris {Celebrations At Home}.

Okay, a bit of a tech lesson on SEO. Let me tell you a secret. Link Parties are a fabulous way to improve your blog’s SEO! Yep. If you’ve been blogging for while, you’re bound to have been told or read about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how crucial it is to getting your site/blog noticed by search engines such a Google. And having quality links in other blogs or sites that are similar to your own (parties, food, crafts blogs…), is vital to improving your rank, which mean your blog has more chances of being found in a search!

Plus, link parties offer you the chance to get your blog posts noticed and shared by others! Let’s all be good to each other ladies. If you love what you see, share it. It’s a great way to build relationships and show your appreciation for other bloggers.

Okay, so let’s get linky! {grin}

As always, we hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate!

About Kim

father’s day {gone fishing cupcakes}

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monsters university {mike cupcakes}

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father’s day {lawn mower cupcakes}

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cotton candy {treats}

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chevron birthday party {princess style}

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Oz The Great And Powerful {DIY bags}

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Oz The Great And Powerful {DIY wand}

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