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!

{Customer} Superbowl Party Decor!

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?? I know some Green Bay Packers and some Steelers fans who are definitely ready! With the BIG game this weekend, I thought I'd share some cute photos a party-girl friend of mine, Melissa of Buckets of Grace, sent me using some of the Shindig Parties TO GO Superbowl Printables.

Melissa made some adorable Game-day centerpiece signs using the plain striped pennants that come in the Printables Collection and a few other supplies like small wood dowels, some ribbon and a football graphic. She added a wide piece of ribbon around the center of the jar, a 2" party circle to the front, and some color-coordinated ribbon hanging from the pennants. So cute!

Melissa also used the 8.5" x 11" sign that comes with the printables to embellish her over the mantle wreath display and cheer her team on.

Melissa, thanks so much for sharing these pictures with us -- I can't wait to see what you do with the rest of the Superbowl printables. I just love all of your creativity!



And just in case you're more "into" the black and gold, I've got a Steelers version in the shop, too. These are huge collections and specially priced at only $19 this week for the game, so hurry on over and get started today on your own fun Superbowl decorations.

And while we're talking football, how about these great football cake balls from Bakerella. The girl has mad talent, don't you think? She's got another cute idea here, too:

Visit Bakerella to get all of the how-to details on these adorable and relatively easy football field cupcakes.

This is a great idea, too. Astro-turf football coozies from Green Bean Crafterole. So simple and quick to make but such a great addition to a football party.

And how about this Chili and Grilled Cheese Footballs from Family Fun?

My kids might even eat these.

Or these game-day deviled eggs from Southern Living and My Recipes...

And if you REALLY want to go all-out, try this "Junk Food" Stadium from Holy Taco......

it might be a heart attack-waiting-to-happen,

but I'll have to give them a thumbs up for creativity!

Have a great day today -- only one more day til the weekend!

Tutorial: Thanksgiving Kid's Table Ship Centerpiece

Thanksgiving is only a week away -- time to get those menus together and decorate that pretty Thanksgiving dinner table. And we all know who usually gets the raw end of the deal at Thanksgiving -- the KIDS! While the adults are laughing it up at the "big people" table, the kids are relegated to some lonely, small, old beat up card table in a dark corner somewhere WAY away from the everyone else. Poor little things!

How are we ever going to instill that "attitude of gratitude" in them if we don't make Thanksgiving fun? Well, now we can!! I'm on a mission to change the dreaded "kids table" and make it something really special -- a place even the adults would like to sit!




How about this? Cute, don't you think? With a FREE Thanksgiving Kids' Table printable set, you can whip up a table like this for the kids this Thanksgiving in no time at all. And this week, I'll be showing you how. Today, we'll work on the centerpiece -- a little twist on the Mayflower. (Keep this one handy for a pirate party, too!)



First, the materials. Here's what you'll need to gather up. And, by the way, I didn't even go to the store before doing this table. I looked around, used what I had and just made it work. You can do the same -- be creative!

Materials:

-- 1 or 2 woven placemats from the Dollar Tree
-- Hot glue and hot glue gun
-- scissors
-- 3 small diameter dowel rods
-- 3 large ship sails from Shindig's FREE Thanksgiving Printables set
-- hole punch
-- small pieces of styrofoam or florist foam
-- small containers like terra cotta pots, pails, or boxes
-- shredded paper gift bag filler

Step 1: Making the ship base. Take a placemat and cut your 2 ship pieces from it across its length. Make the ends approximately 2 inches higher than the middle, which should be about 5 1/2" in the center, 7 1/2" high on the ends. (Ignore that pink box.... that was my first idea for what to anchor the sails on -- I changed my mind later.... I do that sometimes.)

Step 2: Glue ship pieces together. Take one ship piece and add hot glue all the way down one of it's sides. Now take your other ship piece and put it on top of the ship piece with glue. Press the pieces together to secure. (Only use the hot glue on the sides of the ship pieces)

Repeat on the other side of the ship pieces.

Step 3: Securing your ship sails. Now that your ship is glued on each side, open the ship pieces and place any small containers like pots, pails or boxes inside as shown above. Now cut a small piece of styofoam or florist foam to place inside of the pots. These will be anchors for your ship sail dowels. (If you don't have styrofoam or florist foam, playdough or clay make work as anchors, too.)

Cut 3 dowels to 20" in length. Next, print and cut 3 large ship sails from the FREE Thanksgiving kids' table set. Punch a hole in each in the center of the top and the bottom and thread a small dowel through. Insert the dowel into your styrofoam, and repeat for the other 2 ship sails.

Step 4: Making it pretty. It's coming together now...... you're almost done! One last little step..... take some shredded gift bag filler (I used yellow) and cover up all of the messy looking stuff on the inside of your boat. That's it -- wasn't that easy??

And this is what you get! Aren't you proud of yourself?

Stay tuned for tomorrow's tutorial on how to make the small ship cupcake or muffin wraps and sails. And I'll also tell you how to make that cute little pinecone turkey crayon holder.

Have a great day today!

Thanksgiving Decorating Ideas

Trolling the web recently for great fall decorating ideas, I came across a few really fantastic ones on the Better Homes and Gardens website.


What a statement this one makes! Great Wow factor here with just a couple of supplies..... a straw wreath form and lots of indian corn. This would be beautiful displayed over a mantel as well as on the front door. I can even see it as a centerpiece of your Thanksgiving table or Thanksgiving buffet lying flat on the table with a platter of food in the center.


Another way to use indian corn is to pile it on a pedestal stand and combine it with some wheat for a beautiful Thanksgiving or fall centerpiece.




I love how BHG uses gourds as vases. I found lots of examples of these on their site, but basically you cut off the top of the gourd and scoop out the flesh to create a perfect holder for your fall flower arrangements. Add a few mini pumpkins and leaves around the gourd and turn it into a beautiful centerpiece for your table.

Mum covered pumpkins is another easy way to add a little flair to your fall displays. Fresh mums are beautiful here, but finding a good quality artificial mum to use so that you could have it as a fall decoration year to year would be nice option.

This is another simple but fabulous idea -- paint your gourds gold or other metallic colors. You can find out more here on the Better Homes and Gardens website.

I hope you are all getting your tables and recipes ready for a fabulous Thanksgiving! I'll be posting a tutorial tomorrow on the corn husk and burlap runner (pictured above) that I made for my own Thanksgiving table. Stay tuned for a really simple and beautiful table runner idea. And for those of you who don't sew, there's a no-sew option, too!

Don't forget to order your personalized Thanksgiving printables set -- it's on SALE NOW for 40% OFF!