DIY Pirate Cupcake Stands

If you read my blog, it's no secret how much I ADORE Kate Petronis from And Everything Sweet. Kate is a whirlwind of great ideas, amazing parties, possibly even more amazing fondant cakes and other divine confections. I've come to believe that there's nothing this girl can't do! And did I mention she's the mom of two little ones??

Kate contacted me last week and asked to use my Pirate Printables for a tutorial she was posting on her blog. Well, of course I said "YES!" And I'm so glad I did..... just take a look at these simply ADORABLE CUPCAKE STANDS that she made.

With a few easy to find materials from your craft store like these wooden candlestick holders and pre-finished and painted wooden pirate decorations below, Kate shows us how to make these cute stands in no time at all.

Cuteness, right? I mean that in the best sort of piratey-swashbuckling "cuteness"!

My favorite thing (besides the low cost of this project) is that these could be used for virtually any party theme and in any color. Just think of all of the possibilities!!

If you'd like a step-by-step tutorial of this project,  head on over to And Everything Sweet and be prepared to find many more great ideas from Kate's blog. She's really a marvel of creativity!

And, of course, if you need some cutie-pie pirate printables for your little captain's next party, be sure to check out all of my Pirate Printables in my shop. Have a great day everyone!

Linking up to: Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Keeping it Simple, Craftomaniac, Tater Tots and Jello,Skip to my Lou, Under the Table and Dreaming, Blue Cricket Design, Someday Crafts,Fireflies and Jelly Beans, House of Hepworths, Somewhat Simple, Tidy Mom,Romantic Home,Shabby Nest, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Finding Fabulous, The Girl Creative,Tater Tots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors,Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, The Idea Room, C.R.A.F.T., Today's Creative Blog, Between Naps on the Porch,Thrifty Decor Chick, Making the World Cuter, Tea Rose Home, The Shabby Chic Cottage,The Trendy Treehouse, The DIY Showoff, Whipperberry,Gluesticks,Beyond the Picket Fence, Mad in Crafts, Sugar Bee Crafts, All Things Related, Savvy Southern Style, The Thrifty Home, Passionately Artistic, Nifty Thrifty, 733 Blog

DIY Fabric Letters

What a great DIY project this is!

I love using monograms and large initials for decorating and for parties. Everyone seems to love seeing their "special letter" as a focal point, although sometimes it's difficult to find "your" specific letter. The stores always seem to be sold out of the very one you need. Or sometimes I want something really large, especially for a great party feature or centerpiece, but those large letters are not only hard to find, they are expensive, too.

That's where this little project comes in.

When I came across this cute idea for fabric letters from Lindsay over at Artsy Fartsy Mama, I knew I wanted to share it with all of you. Make them as large or as small as you wish.... hang them on the wall.... use them for party table backdrops or even banners.... give your toddler a new tactile play toy.... the possibilities are numerous. And the part that I like best is the fabric -- I'm kind of a fabric junkie anyway. No painting.... no decoupaging.... just pick out a few of your favorite fabrics and wah-lah! You've got a perfectly coordinated bedroom or party decoration.

Here's what you will need:

Fabric for front and back of letters
Quilt batting
Sewing machine
Scissors, pin, etc.
Letter templates

And Lindsay is sweet enough to share a step-by-step tutorial for all of us newbies, too.

Cute and textured, too. I love these!

Lindsay was inspired to make letters to decorate her daughter's bedroom after seeing these adorable alphabet toy creations from Oh So Happy Together. If you take a look there, she's even got some great templates for the letters. Here's the download link for the uppercase ones.

How much fun is that?

I just have to say how glad I am that it's Friday...... our last Friday of the school year!

Only two more school days left.... yippee!!

Great Teacher Appreciation Gift Ideas

There is one thing for sure about starting your own business..... it creates a kind of warp speed in your life where things are passing by so quickly that it's almost too hard to believe. Case in point.... it's already the end of the school year! Didn't I just buy new backpacks and lunch boxes a couple of months ago? Right?

Nope, not right. It's here, SUMMER! Especially in Alabama! And the end of the year for my three kids always means a mad dash to find something wonderful to give to their teachers to show them how much we appreciate all that they do. Really... teachers have just about the most important jobs on earth..... training and teaching and molding our kids. So a sweet gift of appreciation is always appropriate this time of year. And I don't know about your kids, but mine are so excited to bring something special into the classroom for their teacher.

I thought I'd share a few cute ideas I've seen around the web.... some are super easy and some might require a bit more time, but all are do-able and adorable.



3 Four and Under makes amazing apple cookies using a cookie cutter that she found at Joann's Craft store. I love this twist on the apple for your teacher.



This one is pretty cute, too. Mini Oreo apples from The Crafting Chicks as seen on Skip To My Lou, one of my favorite websites.



Brooke from The Crafting Chicks uses mini Oreos, Airheads candy for the leaves, pretzels sticks, and red candy coating to make these adorable little treats, perfect for teacher gifts.


How Does She makes very useful gifts for teachers, personalized hand sanitizers. Teachers are always asking for this stuff by the bucketfuls!




Our Best Bites makes those super easy turtles using Rolos candies, pretzels and some nuts. These are one my personal favorite treats. So yummy!


And another version for your M&M loving teachers.

This is such a great idea for a gift display from the whole class. Family Fun shows us how to make a paper flower arrangement using the flowers as gift card holders. Love this!

Gift in a jar are always a hit. This one is a Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Quickbread from Sunset.

These fabric bookmarks are beautiful and functional and not too hard to make either. Just follow the tutorial from Little Birdies Secrets as seen on Skip To My Lou - not too hard at all.

I hope you are inspired to create something wonderful for your own kids' teachers.

They deserve the best.... who else can handle 25 kids all day long and

actually teach them something to! Kudos to teachers!

{FREE} Printables for Operation Shower

I'm so excited to reveal a project that I've been working on for a great cause, Operation Shower. What's Operations Shower, you say? Here's a great description from the source!

Operation Shower is about celebrating and honoring military families. Operation Shower is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides joyful baby showers for military families to ease the burden of deployment.

For military families who are expecting a new baby and are experiencing or have recently experienced deployment, we accomplish our mission through:

• hosting amazing baby showers
• providing baby showers-in-a-box
• delivering high-quality products and parties
• creating a shared experience
• partnering with organizations to provide value-added services, such as health-related information

To help achieve their mission, Operation Shower started Operation Give Thanks, a nation-wide fundraising campaign to support these wonderful parties. So in an effort to raise money for this worthy cause and to support those who do so much for our country, Shindig Parties TO GO is providing a FREE full Easter Printables Collection. And it's a big one! Cupcake toppers, bunny silhouettes, cross silhouettes, water bottle wraps, napkin wraps, tent cards, favor tags, candy bar wrappers, Easter signs, flags, a banner and more!

I hope that once you download the FREE printables, you'll be sure to

1. Check out Operation Shower’s website to find ways to donate or volunteer.

2. Tell your friends, family, and neighbors about Operation Shower and the Give Thanks project.

3. Facebook/Tweet/Blog about this FREE EASTER DOWNLOAD to help spread the word Operation Shower.

4. Donate to Operation Shower here.

Would you like to see what's included in the set? There are lots of really cute printables for lots of Easter fun from brunches to Easter egg hunts, Sunday School parties and sweet favor tags for friends and teachers, too!

We are asking people across the nation to host a party between now and the end of the year to raise money for Operation Shower. What a wonderful way to express your gratitude and thanks at this special time of year.

Our long-term goal is to reach every military base in the nation. Our short-term goal is to raise $50,000 through Operation Give Thanks to enable us to shower over 200 more moms-to-be ! That’s right, if you raise $250 for Operation Shower, that enables us to throw a full amazing baby shower with gifts for a military mom to be whose spouse is deployed!

If you decide to host a party, please email us at lena@operationshower.org or amy@operationshower.org and we will help guide you as well and provide more information!

Thanks everyone for supporting our military families!

Linking up to: Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Skip to My Lou, Craftomaniac, Tater Tots and Jello, Skip to my Lou, Under the Table and Dreaming, Blue Cricket Design, Someday Crafts, Fireflies and Jelly Beans, House of Hepworths, Somewhat Simple, Tidy Mom, Romantic Home,Shabby Nest, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Finding Fabulous, The Girl Creative,Tater Tots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors, Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, The Idea Room, C.R.A.F.T., Today's Creative Blog, Between Naps on the Porch

FABULOUS Cupcake Tree

When I came across this fabulous idea for a cupcake display from Icing Designs, I knew I had to share with my readers. This is such a quick project and makes quite a creative statement, too. How impressed would your party guests be if this were the centerpiece of your dessert table!

The girls from Icing Designs made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and found these bendable branches in the floral department. After securing them in an urn filled with styrofoam, they bended them into a "tree form." Next, they needed something to rest each cupcake on and found some round wooden disks on the unfinished wood aisle of Hobby Lobby. They painted them brown and strategically hot glued them around the "tree" branches to balance the design.

How easy is that!

A sweet glittery owl is the perfect addition to this "Owl Always Love You" party theme.

For more details on this project and the party is was created for, visit Icing Designs blog. These girls rock, my friends! Such cute and creative ideas!

DIY St. Patrick's Day Table

With St. Patrick's Day just a few days away, I thought it was a good time to share this adorable table from Sarah at Sheek Shindigs. Sarah is a master at creating a fabulous party table on a budget. With her DIY tricks and projects, simple recipes and great tutorials, she makes it easy for us all to recreate her fun ideas in just a matter of hours.

Sarah uses what she has lying around the house and a few easy, DIY projects to make a super fun holiday table that people of all ages can enjoy. Starting with a white tablecloth and some green dishes her grandmother gave her a few years back, Sarah sets the stage for some Leprechaun fun. I love the use of colorful gumballs in glass jars and all of the rainbow printables she used from a FREE download at Love the Day. Sarah also used some shamrock printables she designed (and in her Etsy shop) for the cute, jello picks.

And speaking of jello..... don't you just love this? So easy and quick and inexpensive, too! Sarah has a tutorial at Sheek Shindigs if you'd like to try this one yourself.

Simple clementines with rainbow flags propped up on snow cone holders add an easy and colorful element to the table. This is a great idea for a placecard holder as well.

Sarah makes her own adorable napkin rings using strips of ribbon in rainbow colors

and shows us all how to do it in a few simple steps.

Wrapping the ribbons around a green and white dot napkin and adding a printable shamrock topper completes the festive look.

Sarah also makes an easy favor bag using a green paper sack (found at a local craft store),

some ribbon and a shamrock printable circle.

These snack bags are another great idea from Sarah's table. No more dipping your own pretzels in melted chocolate.... Sarah makes good use of the pre-dipped white chocolate pretzels that can be found just about everywhere these days and adding a little holiday color with some green candy coating melted and drizzled on top. Put them in a cello bag, tie a little ribbon on top, and in minutes you've got a sweet St. Patrick's Day treat.

Be sure to visit Sheek Shindigs for all of the details and quick tutorials from Sarah's holiday table, and you, too, can put together a fun table in just a few hours.

Paper Crafting Week - Part 5: Party Hats

For the last day of my week-long paper crafting round up,

I wanted to show these fabulous ideas for Custom Party Hats.

Isn't this the most adorable thing? Doesn't it make you want to say, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Every little girl would feel like a princess with her very own, made-just-for-her party hat.

The fabulously creative mind of Lil' Luna deserves the credit for this one. She has a tutorial on Oopsey Daisy that shows all of us how easy it is to create a one of a kind party hat using pre-made hats and a few embellishments. Here are the basics:

Step One: Gather your materials including circular stickers such as vinyl dots or

scrapbook paper dots or even office supply colored circles, some pre-made party hats,

crepe paper, glitter, glue, hot glue, etc.

Step Two: Add the circular stickers to your party hats.

Step Three: Ruffle your crepe paper fringe with a sewing machine.

Step Four: Add some fringe to the top of your hat as well.

Step 5: Make a paper rosette from scrapbook paper.

Step 6: Add a glittery birthday girl number and that's it! Ca-ute!!

Birthday Girl has another tutorial for a simplified version of a party hat.

She uses 12"x12" scrapbook paper for the hats which is perfect for matching any party theme.

This one involves a little sewing like the first example, but if you don't have a machine, I think you could cut the crepe paper into fringe and glue a few layers to the bottom of the hat, too.

Materials: 12x12 scrapbook paper, cone hat for a pattern,

1 roll of crepe paper, double-sided tape and elastic cord.

She shows us how tocut a pattern for the hat, and then ruffle and fringe the crepe paper edge.

Just a few simple steps to fabulous!

And before I go, I had to show another adorable version by Art Glitter Blog.

This one has me swooningand wishing my girls were little again.

Can you believe how cute this is?

What a fabulous week of ideas! I'm so inspired now to go into the weekend

and craft with paper -- I hope you are, too. Happy Friday Everyone!