snow day

March 21, 2012 No Comments

winter wonderland birthday party

The fact that Spring has come early all across the United States didn’t stop this fabulous mom, Kristen, from hosting a Winter Wonderland Birthday Party for her baby girl Brooklyn.

From snowflake cookies to candy cane icicles to a tutu decorated high chair, this party was beyond lovely. Here are Kristen’s resources:

Snowflake cookies – Bobbie Dickerson (local)
Dessert tags and favor tags – Chickabug
Photography – Images Bloom Photograhy
Tutu skirt – friend
Brooklyn’s dress – Stitcheroos

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create! And a big thank you to Kristen for sharing Brooklyn’s big day with us!

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snowmouse ice cream treat

When I was a little girl my brother called me mouse… I won’t go into why… but let’s just say he said I squeaked. Ha! I guess that’s a big brother for you. {smirky grin}

This weekend I was playing around with the boys’ ice cream and instead of making the typical snowman, we came up with the snowmouse. Isn’t he cute!

We used a rainbow Twizzler for his scarf (tip: get it cold and it will stay in position), mini M&Ms for the eyes and nose, small black sprinkles for the mouth and the new Keebler Dark Chocolate Fudge Stripe Cookies for the ears.

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create. Happy Monday!

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DIY snowman cello bag treats

I’m a bit excited to share my snowman cello bag treat craft with you this morning! I’m just in love with him and he will absolutely be making an appearance at school this season, at my Snowman party in January (the kids keep wanting to have a snow related party so they can have a snowball fight off the new tree house with friends) and maybe even at my annual Christmas cookie decorating party… I plan to use my Santa collection… hmmm… {note to self: make a Santa version! Update! Made Santa version!}.

Here’s what you’ll need: white powdered donut holes, pretzel cello bags (I picked mine up at JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores), orange and black ultra thin point Sharpies, craft paper (the designs shown are from my Ice Cream Social collection) and tape.

Start by putting three donut holes in a cello to measure approximate height. Cut a strip of paper that length and insert it into your pretzel cello bag as a guide. Draw on your snowman’s carrot nose with the orange Sharpie and the eyes, mouth and buttons with the black Sharpie.

Punch a 1″ circle and a 2″ circle (my Fiskar punches came from JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores) for the hat brim and top. Cut a 1″x3.5″ strip for the hat and a 1/4″ wide strip for the scarf.

Assemble the hat with tape. (Note: Use your 1″ circle to make sure the diameter of your hat is correct. I allowed for overlap in the 1″x3.5″ strip.)

Trim fringe on the end of the scarf and attach just below the first donut with a touch of glue or tape.

And if you like my snowman cello bag treats, make sure you hop over and check out my Halloween monster cello bag treats and my Thanksgiving turkey cello bag treats for next year!

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

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snowman party ideas

I’ve been collecting some ideas to host a snowman party this January. I know… it’s not even Halloween yet, but I’m a planner. (I already have my Christmas party planning underway too with some fun new designs; more to come on that soon!)

January here in Ohio will be cold and most likely white. And by then, with the holidays over my kiddos will be getting a bit closterphobic from hibernating! Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Invitations: The Celebration Shoppe {of course!}
Favor tags: Felt snowmen from Better Homes and Gardens
Craft activity: Snowman sock folks from Family Fun
Goodies: Nutter Butter Snowman Cookies from My Pretty Purse

Snowman marshmallows (love this idea using a food coloring pen), eggnog bowl (they painted with chocolate, but I think I’ll use vinyl like I did for my monster pedestal candy dishes), pull-a-part cupcakes and milk glasses from Better Homes and Gardens.

For more Christmas party planning ideas, follow me on Pinterest. And as always, I hope you’re inspired!

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“S” is for snowman

letter-s-snowman-snack

My oldest is in Pre-K 4 this year and every week they work on a new letter of the alphabet. And along with writing the letter and learning pronunciation, there is also a letter snack. Can you guess who is responsible this week? You got it, us.

And if it isn’t obvious by now, our letter of the week is “S” and we decided to make donut snowmen inspired by Very Heatherly (who I blogged about last year with our Snow Day collection). The only difference is that I used orange Starburst candies (melted in the microwave for 8 seconds and divided in half) instead of fondant, and I attached them with white icing (not easy to get it to stick to the powder).

And as you can see on the back of the letter S tags, I couldn’t let my little guy off without putting in a little extra effort. (Not to worry, he was paid in M&Ms… I know… learning is its own reward!) He wrote the word “Snow” on the back of each tag for his classmates.

Have a great weekend everyone!

make it a snow day

snow-day_homepage

Winter birthday parties in some parts of the country can be tough. Some families even celebrate half birthdays instead so that their little bundles of energy can have an outdoor party. Well we say, embrace the weather and make it a snow day!

Our fun “snow day” invitation and decor is perfect for a brrr… birthday party. Fill the day with building snowmen, sledding or even hitting the slopes if you have trails nearby. The kids will have a blast; just make sure you’re out of the way for the snowball fight. {wink}

Once they’ve worked up an appetite, serve these cool snowman donut treats (Very Heatherly, Family Fun),

powdered-donut-snowman

or these creative snowman cakes (Family Circle… not that you could have guessed, Family Fun),

snowman-cake-ideas

and maybe end the fun with something crafty for them to take home (Parents magazine, Kaboose, Family Fun).

snowman-kid-craft-ideas

As always, I hope we’ve helped inspire your next celebration. Enjoy!

brrr… brilliant treats

These cool treats are great for the holidays and for winter birthdays. (Check out our brrr… brilliant birthday invitation.) Here’s what you’ll need:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 can vanilla frosting
1 tube black decorating frosting
1 tube orange decorating frosting
1 14-oz. bag shredded coconut, optional
16 pieces DOVE® Brand Milk Chocolate
16 pieces chocolate malted milk balls
1/2 cup M&M’S
Standard cupcake pan
Mini cupcake pan
16 standard paper cupcake liners
16 mini paper cupcake liners
Resealable plastic bag

Follow these easy steps from brightideas.com:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 16 standard cupcake cups and 16 mini cupcake cups with the paper cupcake liners.
repare the cake mix according to the package instructions. Transfer the batter into each cupcake pan and bake minis for 12-15 minutes and the standard cupcakes for 18-21 minutes.
Remove cupcakes from the oven, transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely.
Put 1/4 cup of vanilla frosting in a resealable plastic bag; set aside.
Frost all the cupcakes’ tops with the remaining vanilla frosting, and then sprinkle with the shredded coconut, if desired.
Place a frosted mini cupcake on its side on top of each frosted standard cupcake, using the vanilla frosting to attach it.
Make the hats by using the vanilla frosting to secure a DOVE® Chocolate on top of each mini cupcake. Pipe a dot of frosting on top of each chocolate and attach a malted milk ball.
Add details by using vanilla frosting to attach M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Candies as buttons. Pipe the eyes with the black decorating frosting and the noses with the orange decorating frosting.