Sprinkles Of Charm

DIY Wheel Wall Tutorial (How to make Paper Rosettes)

Making a wall of wheels, or paper rosettes, is a great way to make a HUGE impact at a party without a lot of fuss or cost.  I bought a pack of paper and some doilies - that's it!  Here's a basic tutorial on how to make this great back drop.

You'll need;
scrapbook paper or card stock, doilies, a stapler and a glue gun

1. To make a large wheel; fold 3 sheets of paper accordion or fan style,

2. Fold each fan in half and staple edges together.

3. Next, staple all three folded fans to each other to complete your wheel.

4. For a smaller wheel you fold 1 sheet of paper into a fan. Cut it in half.

5. Fold those halves in half again and staple. You only need 2 sections to make a circle for this smaller wheel.

6. You can leave the large and small wheels plain or stack them with a doilie for added effect. I hot glued all the layers for the stacked rosettes.

7. I added my wheels to my wall by poking them through with nails. If you can't put nails in your wall, I've seen it done by using hot glue to attach them to a large poster board or foam core board.

8. Add as many as you want to the wall and layer with different sizes and papers.

I hope this helps! I'm sure I'll use this party backdrop trick again and again.

Gray & Yellow "NUTTY" Party Part 2

Ahhhh....dessert! The second batch of pictures comes from the second half of the evening. After some great laughs at the improv - we came home to these yummy treats.  I'm not much of a baker yet, but I'm always trying and attempting new things. Some were hits and some were misses, but overall we ate too much sugar!

I LOVED the huge balloons Amy Atlas used in one of her sweet tables so I bought two darling balloons from here. I thought they added just the right touch. The framed squirrel is another design from my sister enlarged to 16x20 and placed in a Hobby Lobby frame I spray painted glossy white. Find all the party printables at this store.  The darling grey squirrels were ordered here and I simply sewed them together using white thread to create some more detail to the backdrop. Inspiration for this came from Kara, here.

Lastly, just a little touch added to the mantel because I had a bit of tissue paper leftover from the tissue poms and I really wanted to try this. Not super impressive - but a fun touch!

Pumpkin Triffle Recipe from Paula Deen, here.

Nutty Butter Bars from The Cookin' Cowgirl, here.

Gray & Yellow "NUTTY" Party Part 1

I have an amazing group of ladies that I do a dinner group with once a month. For 5 years now we have been getting together one Friday a month and taking turns throwing a party. It's been an incredible experience to put something like this together and make friends I'll cherish forever.

We've done almost everything it seems! Roller skating, movies, plays, spa night/massages, beauty night, 80's night, cake decorating, tons of games and plenty of wonderful evenings spent eating great food and enjoying one anothers company. It was my turn to throw the party this month and I tried to think outside the box...what would be fun and new?  Some friends and Nolan and I have been to some improv clubs and laughed our cheeks off - voila! I based my party around an evening of NUTTY fun...what better to do with friends than laugh?

I chose a color scheme that I love - gray and yellow - and added a squirrel - appropriate for the fall season.  My inspiration came from a professional sweet table done here.  The result was a fun party that I completely had a ball putting together. We met for dinner and laughs, then headed to this improv club and came back for the dessert bar (Part 2 Pictures coming soon)!

My incredible sister is a Graphic Designer and a pro at Photoshop. Find all the party printables at this store.  She helped with all the design and graphics for the paper portion of the party. Here are the darling invitations. I attached them to a can of "pop-up" snake peanuts.

 

I love the pom-pom trimmed sign that greeted guests at the front door. I just sent the design to Costco and ordered a 16x20 print. I mounted it to a blank stretched canvas and glued on the trim.

For the dining room, I started by making tissue poms and punch paper garlands for the ceiling. I ordered my tissue paper from this source.

Honestly - there are few things I enjoy more than setting a fun dining table. I was lucky to find these gorgeous tableclothes and candles at Target. I ordered the squirrel placecard holders that came ugly brown and I spray painted them glossy white. The zig zag bags held jokes for each guest to read aloud at dinner - it was a fun touch. The straws and bags were ordered here. 

 

One of my new favorite tricks is to spray paint white paper doilies ANY color you wish. I thought they added a great pop of color under the dinner plates.

 

The mustaches, glasses and lips made great props for candid pictures of the ladies.

 

All the acorns and nuts were purchased from Hobby Lobby and spray painted in the party colors.

For the dining room wall I made a few dozen paper wheels with scrapbook paper. It's an incredible and inexpensive way to decorate a party wall and make a big impact. I still haven't had the heart to take it down! The party favors were a fun edition to the buffet table.









 My bakers rack housed the drinks...raspberry lemonade and citrus water.







Here are few extra pictures of the room lit at night right before the party.

And a few of the gorgous ladies.

Part 2 post coming soon...the Dessert Table!

Lunch for Girlfriends

There is really nothing I LOVE more than throwing parties - it's how I show my love for people. Plus it's a creative outlet and gets out a few ideas circulating in my head. I put together an intimate lunch for a couple of my best girlfriends.  Pulled pork, sweet potoatoe fries and a triple layer carrot cake were in order. Plus, the great cupcake liner garland I made was super easy and fun! Love you girls!

A Sweet Pea Baby Shower

A sweet lady I know just had her first baby a few days ago. She doesn't have family here and so I thought to give her a baby shower a few weeks ago. I chose a "Sweet Pea" theme because I LOVE the graphics and colors. My amazing sister, Molly, designed the Sweet Pea labels and banner. I decorated with things I had off my walls... an antique mirror, a vintage ceiling tile and made a quick tablecloth with some darling Amy Butler fabric I had in the right color. The food was simple but delicious. The cupcakes were lemon and spice. The favors were "Sweet Pea" candles:) I LOVE baby showers, especially when I get to design the party!

 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 

Anthropologie Party Part 2

Too much time as passed, as is expected with summer home with the kiddos, since my last post. I wanted to finish up the Anthropologie Party post.  I did a dessert bar with lemon cupcakes, oreo truffles, fresh sugar cookies and other sweets.

 


 
I had a wonderful cake decorator come teach us the basics in cake decor. We each got to decorate our own mini-cake..we learned to make roses, pipe lattice and make bows!  I also got the girls the most adorable aprons from these incredible ladies on Etsy. Each one was made unique for each friend, I think they turned out SO darling!!  The rest of the evening we spent eating, socializing and laughing....such a fun night:)

 
 

A word on Friendship...and...Anthropologie Inspired Un-Birthday Party! Part 1

First, let me say how much I heart my friends.  Once a month a group of us get together to celebrate friendship.  This dinner group started four years ago and hasn't stopped since.  It all started with a desire to strengthen and expand my friendships. I saw a need in my own life to make more time for my girlfriends and to get to know ladies that I loved, but didn't feel I really "knew".  I really wished I could involve every amazing lady I knew, but one can only seat so many around the table:)  A few friends and I asked around to our friends to see who might be interested.  Some had room in their life, some didn't.  Some ladies I had known for years, and some for only months.  One sweet friend had just lost her dear husband, another had just moved here and really needed to build some connections.  What blossomed from this simple idea was close-knit girlfriends that I will treasure forever! We are old friends now...and I know we all continue to make new friends and build those relationships.  My advice to anyone looking for strength in friendship...start a dinner group! Take turns planning a party and making dinner for your sweet friends. If you can round up 12 ladies - you each take a month and you're only throwing the party one time a year.  It's the best!!

So, my turn came last month...April!  My theme was inspired from the best store ever...ANTHROPOLOGIE!!  I just wanted the evening to feel vintage, homemade and relaxing. I started with a cute homemade invitation with help from my creative sis. She digitally put all the cute designs together and then I sewed buttons and ribbon onto the hard copy. I sewed envelopes out of the Anthropologie catalog pages (easy and cheap).

I began making homemade decorations out of trash...ya know - that store has the most amazing way with trash.  These flower garlands are made out of coffee filters, tissue paper, old patters, old music sheets and cupcake liners.

This chandelier and bicycle wheel wreath were made from empty plastic water/soda/juice bottles. You just cut off the tops, cut petal shapes and spray paint.  This is BEFORE...

And AFTER...

The table decoration is always my favorite. I got all mis-matched plates and dishes at Good Will for 50 cents each. I used old music sheets as place mats. The glasses are mason jars and the place cards are knobs turned into flowers.  I just sewed different color pom-pom trim onto simple white napkins to add some fun color.

 


The centerpiece was a collection of old bottles I usually have in my kitchen. I put fresh dahlias and other greenery in them. I had a friendly old owl (courtesy Good Will) and some cute bird candles close by.

 
 
I had the food on the blue side table (no food yet when I took the pics). I served chicken/berry green salad, homemade rolls, berry cups, stuffed mushrooms, chicken fig pinwheels, and fresh squeezed lemonade.

Next post will be filled with details about the favors, activities and dessert table!

Now go out and plan a party for your girlfriends!!

Chipmunk Movie Night and Easter

Last night was Alvin & the Chipmunks - the Squeakel. Kids LOVE these movies - it cracks me up. It was actually pretty cute and we loved that the girl Chipmunks had a blonde, brunette and red-head - just like our 3 little ladies.  They thought that was pretty funny. The treat was last minute with red frosting on Sugar Cookies with Alvin's "A" made out of Yellow Fruit Roll Ups. I used the spy glasses from Bella's Nancy Drew party and cut off the fuzzy eyebrows and took off the noses. They made perfect Simon glasses.  We had to have some nuts for snacking in true Chipmunk fashion:)

Our Easter was wonderfully spent in Utah at Temple Square with Grandma and Grandpa Polson. We walked around, shopped and ate out a lot. It was nice to spend time with Mary and Doug and just our little family. We had adjoining hotel rooms and the kids just loved that!  The Easter Bunny even found us and delivered baskets and hid eggs all over our 2 hotel rooms! It was a short trip - but well worth it and very memorable for the kids.

 
 

Seriously Sweet!

Hadley's Sweet Shoppe !!

Our sweet little Hadley turned 5!  We had a little family party in the morning with a great breakfast and some presents. That night we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner where she got to ride the saddle and yell "YEEEEEHAW!". It was hilarious. Among her presents was a beautiful Madame Alexander Tinker Bell doll from Grandma and Grandpa. She felt pretty grown up with such a fragile treasure.
 
  
It took us a few weeks to decide on a theme for her friend party. She really wanted to invite boys too, so a non-gender specific theme was important to her. We went from a jungle, to outer space to western and back again. Finally we decided there is nothing better than candy...and lots of it. Especially for such a sweet little girl with curls:)  It became Hadley's Sweet Shoppe at 12345 Lollipop Lane.  The invitations were like great big lollipops delivered to each friend.

One of my best party planning tips is to always create the mood where the guests first enter.  A proper entrance is key to build excitement! I created a gumdrop wreath with candy gumdrops and a $3 piece of Styrofoam for the front door. Lollipops adorned the yard and wrapped candies made from fun papers sprinkled the door and windows.

Creating the Sweet Shoppe was my favorite part. I really wanted Hadley to be the central theme so I had a large picture of her along with "H"'s and "5"'s adorning the cupcakes and signs. We had lots of different candies and treats including cotton candy, gum-balls, gumdrops and starbursts. It turned out really bright and colorful.

 

I created HUGE pieces of candy to hang from the ceiling by wrapping up punch balls (3/$1) with cellophane and ribbon. These were great decorations and when the party was over we cut them down and sent them home with kids as favors. Cute and Cheap:)

The kids has SO much fun! We started with freeze dance to a CD of "Candy" themed songs we made. Next we played stick the lollipop in Lollipop Grove.  We also played Candy Bean Bag Toss. I made simple little candy shaped bean bags and they threw them into tin cans. We did a few rounds of CANDY bingo and then made Gummy-Bracelets for our craft. With a little extra time on our hands we did several turns at Lolli, Lolli, Lolli, POP (like duck duck goose). The kids won tickets for the games they played (extras for those that won the games) so they could buy candy at the Sweet Shoppe at the end of the party.

 
 Last we lit 5 pink candles and sang Happy Birthday to Had. She opened all her darling presents and then the kids went nuts "buying" candy at the candy shop (no pics of this - it was a feeding frenzy - hilarious).

 
   
After the candy purchases the kids went home with their favors. We had the punch balls I talked about earlier and little buckets of treasures. We included a copy of the CD with all the candy themed songs, ice cream bubbles, the hugest box of Nerds I've ever seen (Hadley's pick at the $1 store), a jack ball, candy ring and colorful pinwheel.

These are the things I love about my youngest daughter:

- She can make you smile on the hardest of days

- Her cheeks are like one of those squishy balls you can't stop squeezing

- Her curls are irresistibly bouncy

- She enjoys turkey, yogurt and carrots for lunch EVERY day

- She loves board games more than Milton Bradley himself

- Pink-a-licious is an understatement

I'm so grateful for this little ray of sunshine in my life. She's the sugar on my gumdrop and the sticky on my fingers:)

 

And, this sweet daddy of hers...it was HIS birthday that we had her friend party on! He turned 38 years young and couldn't be a better man. Some how his candles were blown out late that night in jammies with the olympics on in the background. Thanks, sweetheart, for being a good sport!

 

Let's Go To the Hop!!

My blogging always seems to suffer when life is busy! We had a great holiday season, Sawyer's first birthday, my new adventure in Jewel Kade and this really fun dance I put together for our church's adult Valentine's Dance.  Let's start with the party. It was a 50's theme and SO many people got into it with poodle skirts, greased up hair and rolled up jeans.  My color scheme was black, white, turquoise and bubblegum pink. I used lots of checkers and polka dots to get that retro vibe going. We did a false ceiling with plastic tablecloth rolls and white lights. The ice cream float centerpieces were made from fresh carnations and were probably my favorite thing;)  We had a Diner where we served burgers and fries. The Soda Shop area was stocked with different flavors of ice cream floats and plenty of sweets. We had some 50's movies playing on a big screen with popcorn and "cars" at the drive-in. We put together a GIANT 50's style Drive-In prop that people could walk under to get to the dance floor. We even had a real 1950's car parked at the entrance!!  The dj played lots of 50's music plus modern stuff for all ages.  I think we had between 400-500 people - it was incredible. It's so rewarding to have my design ideas materialize from my head to reality. Love it!!

 

This was a picture with the lights on during set up.