Everyday Celebrating

Printable treat bags

photo credit:  Heather at The Coterie Blog

A great tutorial on how to print graphics onto paper bags and finish it off with a cute twine handle.

 

Easy cupcake carriers

Real Simple magazine recently showed this easy way to transport cupcakes. 

Use a shirt box, cut one X per cupcake and push the corners down like pictured above. 

This is great for many reasons... don't have a fancy cupcake carrier?  don't want to lug one around?  wonder if you leave it somewhere if you'll get it back?

The box carrier is great to take to a child's party or office potluck or maybe you're donating cupcakes to a good cause or maybe you're bringing them to a tailgate.  It's lovely for the host not to have to worry about cleaning it and getting it back to you.  Just toss it when they are done!

Also, these can be used for cupcake display.  You can even cover the boxes with wrapping paper to match your decor.  Place them on a table for a uniform, modern look.

DIY: Strawberry tree in urn

Last week, I posted a picture of the strawberry tree centerpieces I had at my 2003 wedding.

This week, here's a different version of the strawberry tree.  Chocolate covered AND in an urn.  

Here's how you create it:

First, let me say that this is not a dessert that is easily transported.  This would be something you'd want to either serve at your home or assemble after you arrive at your destination.

You'll need:

 - one styrofoam cone.  Use styrofoam, not floral cone.  The floral oasis isn't as sturdy. 

 - toothpicks

 - 3 lbs of strawberries to cover a 9X4 cone

 - chocolate melt

 - a block of styrofoam

 - one urn

 - hot glue/gun

 - kale

You'll want to dip your strawberries first.  Wash and cut the green off each strawberry and dip it into melted chocolate.  Stick all the strawberries into the freezer so a) the chocolate can set and b) the strawberries get hard.  A harder strawberry is easier to work with in getting a secure fit.

Next, you'll want to fill up the urn.  You have two ways of achieving this. You can either get a larger cone that will go to the bottom of the urn (shaving off the sides to make it fit) or you can stick a piece of styrofoam in the bottom and glue the cone on top.

In the photo above, I filled the urn with styrofoam and newspaper. I then covered the entire top of the urn in kale.  I did this by using toothpicks and gluing the kale down.

From here, break toothpicks in half and start working your way up from the bottom.  You want to put your largest strawberries on the bottom and work your way up in sizes.  There may be places where the strawberries don't meet.  For those places, you can stick in a few pieces of kale or sprigs of mint to cover the styrofoam.

 

Finally, you can decorate your urn with a ribbon or other festive ornament.   Easy and makes a great centerpiece for your dessert table!

This dessert is great for other occasions too like July 4th, showers, Valentine's Day, etc.

Stamping napkins

photo credit:  Family Circle

Like the look of imprinted napkins but not the cost?
Create cute personalized napkins to fit in with your decor by simply stamping them!
Get inexpensive white napkins and stamp each one with a theme.  One of the benefits of stamping is that you can have many different kinds of napkins for just the cost of a single stamp instead of custom imprinting costs. 

These make a great hostess gift as well!

Gift idea for the entertainer

Have a friend/relative who loves to entertain?  They will love the Triple Beverage Dispenser! 

This beautiful glass dispenser holds 3 beverages in a self service fashion.  Offer 3 beverages while freeing up some space! 

Just think of the ways you could coordinate 3 beverages with your color scheme to tie the beverages in with your decor.  :)

$70 from ZGallerie

Decorate your own cupcakes!

photo credit:  Herbert Harper

Along the lines of the candy buffet, comes the decorate your own cupcake display.
This one was featured at a wedding, but the idea crosses all party lines - especially with children.

One thing to think about when planning one is the number of guests who will need to be accommodated at once.  No one wants to stand in line forever just to decorate a cupcake.  Using a round table like this, place a large stand or maybe even two at different heights at the center of the table.  Then totally surround the table with a circle of toppings.   Have two or three sets of the same toppings at the table so many more guests can be served at once.

Labor Day Watermelon Treats

Photo Credit:  The Hungry Housewife

Watermelon is ALMOST GONE!
With Labor Day this weekend, take one last opportunity to serve it up in a special way!
All you need is a cookie cutter!

Easy centerpiece too!

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TODAY is the last day to enter the SmileBooks contest! 

Learn more here!  Enter today before Midnight PST!

Easy serving pieces!

photo credit: real simple

End of the summer means... clearance summer partyware!  Pick up some plastic margarita glasses for future use as serving pieces!

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Have you entered the SmileBooks contest?  Visit this link to enter!  So easy!

Cute drink containers

Parents magazine recently featured this cute way to display and serve drinks as part of an outdoor camping type gathering.

Jelly jars filled with a juice or punch and sliced fruit!  These would be great as part of your labor day celebration (add some blue to play off the red/white lids) or with football season coming up, these would be cute for your tailgate!  Make your drinks ahead of time!

Jelly jars are easy to come by.  You can buy them by the case next to the canning supplies.  It's prime canning season right now!  Stock up on jars!

Thank you notes for floral gifts.

Have you ever sent someone flowers and given the florist specific instructions as to what you wanted sent and then always wondered what exactly WAS sent?  Or maybe you didn't tell them what you wanted, but just wondered what that $50 got you?  LOL  And who wants to ask the recipient, "hey, what DID those flowers look like, anyway?"

I heard this suggestion on the radio and thought it was a great idea and wanted to pass it along.

If you RECEIVE flowers, enclose a photo of the flowers inside the thank you note.  Sounds so common sense, doesn't it? 

If you received flowers for having a new baby, take a picture with your baby beside the flowers.  A) Everyone wants to see the baby and feel like they got a special first look at him/her and B) they get to see the flowers they purchased and C) you're taking care of a thank you note!

So easy and the receiver will love seeing the flowers that were sent in their name.

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Speaking of hearing suggestions on the radio... Celebrations.com (a member of the 1-800-Flowers family of brands) has invited me to be a guest on their radio show tomorrow. This show is hosted by the TV Host Jeanne Benedict of the DIY Network's Weekend Entertaining. I'll be talking about end of summer party centerpieces! It's a 30 minute show airing at 3pm EST on Blog Talk Radio and we'd love for you to join us.  If you're not familiar with Blog Talk Radio, it includes a chat feature where you can ask questions and meet other listeners.  Note:  you do have to log in to use this feature.