My Party File - blog

Yesterday at Tuesday featured these adorable personalised beach buckets, complete with tutorial.  What a wonderful party favour or “goodie bag” for a beach party.  To make them you will need to use masking tape to mark off a rectangle on the bucket.  Apply chalkboard paint in the rectangle area  - you may need to do about 4 layers (letting each layer dry before applying another one) to get a consistent chalkboard colour.  Add a design and name onto the chalkboard area using Deco Color markers.  Then carefully remove the masking tape to reveal your masterpiece!

Here’s a fab idea for a craft/arrival activity for a beach or mermaid party. You will find a great tutorial on how to make these sea shell balls at Keen Inspirations.  For a mermaid party, you could use coloured sea shells, or embellish them with small coloured star fish, or add some glitter!

Inspiration for a party theme can come from anywhere… My youngest daughter has a favourite nightie that is covered in big colourful spots.  She loves this nightie so much she has decided she would like a “spotty” party for her fourth birthday!  So the planning for a spotty (aka polka dot) party has begun.  Here is one of the first ideas we tried out - a polka dot drink.  This was made by cutting marshmallows in half, and sticking the cut side to the inside of the glass.  Then we added milk.

You can use a variety of coloured marshmallows to suit your party theme, and use strawberry, chocolate or any flavoured milk.  Just ensure you press the marshmallows firmly onto the glass.

I recommend using normal or larger sized marshmallows.  I tried the little mini mallows, but most of them came unstuck from the side of the glass when I poured the milk in.

Can you believe these are sugar cubes??  They would be such a ’sweet’ touch at a kids’  Tea Party - or even an adults’ High Tea!  I found them at Such Pretty Things.

To make these shaped sugar cubes, you will need:

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• food colouring of your choice (liquid or powdered)
• 4 teaspoons water or 4 teaspoons reconstituted powdered egg whites
• mould or small biscuit cutter

Thoroughly mix the sugar with the food colouring.

Add the water or powdered egg whites into your sugar.  Water works just fine, but your sugar hearts will be much stronger if you use the egg whites.

Firmly push the sugar mixture into a mould of your choice, making it as compact as possible.  If you are going to use biscuit cutters, you will need to pour your sugar mixture out onto a smooth, non-stick surface (parchment paper on the counter top works well) and press it down firmly with your hands, a rolling pin, or the bottom of a plate, until the sugar is as compact as possible. The thickness will depend on the depth of your biscuit cutters, but about 1.5cm works quite well.  Press the cutters straight down into the sugar and carefully release the shapes onto a parchment lined Biscuit sheet. If the sugar isn’t holding it’s shape well, try adding a bit more water or egg white - but be careful not to overdo it or you’ll just get mushy sugar!

Harden the sugar by air drying for a day or two (or you can speed up the process by placing them in a 200 degree oven for about ten minutes).  Once they cool, they will become really hard - just like sugar cubes.

Alternative:  You can add whole vanilla beans or used vanilla bean pods to your sugar a day or two before you make your “cubes” - this will give them a hint of vanilla flavour and an incredible fragrance.

This looks just like a soft serve icecream, but it is actually a cupcake. Pretty cool, hey?  This fabulous cupcake was made by Jayne Harrison, and she claims they are easy to make.

How to make icecream cone cupcakes

Use a cake batter of your choice, and pour it into flat-bottomed cones - filling no more than halfway.  Then cook according to your cake recipe or packet instructions.   You may need to keep checking the cakes with a skewer to ensure the cake batter is cooked through until you’ve worked out the perfect cooking time (afterall, it will depend on the size of the cones you use).  When the cake is cooled, trim any excess (you can see she has scooped a little of the cake out before adding the icing), then pipe vanilla buttercream on top, and then push a Cadbury flake into the icing.  No more effort than normal cupcakes!

Alternative:  For some extra scrumptiousness, use a bismarck piping nozzle to pipe some jam or chocolate spread into the middle of the cake before icing it.

Here’s an eggscellent idea for adding a little fun at a slumber party breakfast.  Draw silly faces on some eggs with a fine permanent marker.  The kids will get a real giggle when you open up the egg carton and ask them to choose their egg(s) for brekky.  Or let the kids draw on the eggs themselves before you fry them up or boil them (the eggs, that is - not the kids!).

Alternative:

Send kids home from your farm party with a funny faced egg.

Linking to:

Making the World Cuter

The Persimmon Perch

It’s so Very Cheri

The Girl Creative

Blue Cricket Design

The kids will enjoy making an “ocean in a bottle” at your Under the Sea, Mermaid or Pirate party.

To make an “ocean in a bottle”, you will need:

• 350 ml (12 ounce) plastic bottles with screw on caps (1 per child)  - clean and label free
• 175 mls (6 ounces) of cooking oil per child
• 175 mls (6 ounces) of vinegar per child
• Blue Food colouring
• Tiny Shells, plastic seawood, glitter, plastic confetti, tiny plastic toys, sea themed beads
• A funnel
• Rubber cement or strong glue

Instructions
Use the funnel to pour the cooking oil into each child’s bottle, followed by the vinegar. The oil will go to the top and the vinegar to the bottom. Allow the kids to watch this, before pouring several drops of blue food colouring into the bottles. Again, let the kids watch the fluids interacting.

Close the caps tightly and let the kids shake the bottles to make waves. Let them then put some shells, glitter, confetti and toys into the bottle so that they can float in the “ocean”. Seal the caps shut with rubber cement or glue to prevent it leaking.

Although the ingredients are non-toxic, warn the kids that they shouldn’t drink the liquid in the bottle.

TIP:  I used small cosmetic bottles that you buy for travelling.

Linking to:

The Girl Creative

Its So Very Cheri

Delicious Ambiguity

Blue Cricket Design

Fireflies and Jellybeans

You don’t won’t to be sent “quackers” when preparing food for your party - so consider this simple idea for a Rubber Ducky themed party.   Fill a punch bowl or large salad bowl with bright blue Jelly (make according to packet directions), then pop some small rubber duckies on top.  You can also place clean plastic leaves and flowers on top to resemble lily pads.

This could also be a substitute for a cake - you can even buy rubber ducky candles to place on top.

Dress up your drinks with these pretty rose petal ice cubes!  I saw these on www.brides.com and thought this would be a wonderful idea for a fairy, princess, garden or tea party.

To make petal ice cubes, you will need:

Rose petals
Ice cube tray(s)
water

1. Gently rinse the rose petals and blot dry.
2. Boil water for 2 minutes, then let the water cool until room temperature (This ensures that the cubes are crystal-clear).
3. Arrange a couple petals at the bottom of each ice cube section of the ice cube tray.
4. Fill each compartment halfway with the cooled boiled water and freeze until solid.
5. Finish filling each ice cube compartment to the top with the remaining boiled water.
6. Refreeze and allow them to remain in the freezer until you are ready to use them.

For extra effect use ice cube trays in certain shapes, such as hearts or stars.

This beary cute invitation is so easy to make!  You will need:

• brown craft fur
• light brown felt
• spray adhesive or craft glue
• black felt
• googlie eyes
• permanent black texta
• ribbon
• A4 paper or card

Download our handmade teddy bear invitation template and use the first page as a template for your fabrics.  Cut the bear head outline from your fur, and ears and face from light brown felt.  Attach felt to head using spray adhesive or craft glue.  Cut out nose from black felt and attach to face.  Draw mouth using black permanent texta.  Attach googlie eyes with craft glue.  Using ribbon colour of your choice, tie a small bow and attach with glue (or sew) to head just below face.

For the back of the invitation, use the second page of the template and customise your text.  Print on paper or card of your choice.  Simply cut around the outline and glue on the back of your teddy bear head.  Beary special!

Linking to:

Life as Lori: Get Your Craft On

Making the World Cuter

The Girl Creative