a little break with peaches 'n cream

We are not talking parties today here at Confetti Sunshine. On this pretty little friday I am peeling, slicing, freezing and canning peaches. We recently received 50lbs of peaches, so I will be busy for the rest of the day! But I love the fresh peaches, sweet jam and frozen peaches that we have and will enjoy until next August.

One of my favorite things to do with peaches is make a little peaches 'n cream... enjoy...

PEACHES 'N CREAM

Ingredients

5 peaches

1/2 cup sugar

1 T. cinnamon

Vanilla ice cream

Peel and slice all 5 peaches. Place them in a pan on the stove on medium. Add sugar and cinnamon to the peaches. Cook until the sugar is dissolved and the peaches are soft. Remove from heat and let it cool until warm. Layer the peaches with ice cream in a bowl. 

DIY : pom pom cupcake topper

Remember these little pom poms here? Easily turn them into cupcake or dessert toppers! Just follow the instructions on how to make the yarn pom poms. Once you get to the end, before you fluff them, simply stick in a lollipop stick . Fluff the pom pom around the stick, and top them on your favorite treat! Viola!

have you heard? party decor at Minted...

I love minted. The whole idea is genius. They have design challenges where the public gets to vote and decide what is sold. It is the way life should be run, isn't it? Anyways.. They are having a "Suprise! Party Decor Challenge". 

I am so excited! 

Party designs at minted? What could get better?

So.. be sure and head over there to vote for your favorite designs. There are a lot to choose from, but here are a few of my favorite (yes.. I did look at every single one)

Summer Punch Floral by Amanda Heard

fractions by Kayla King

retro recipe by Smudge Design

vintage reindeer by Griffinbell Studio

over the hill by Brianne Larsen

wooded blooms by 2BSquared Designs

sea chart too by Susan

color inspiration : floral

Colors are a huge part of any party design! I believe that a good color palette is like cooking with fresh good ingredients - it is just a must if you want your party to feel complete. I usually try to use a limited color palette when planning parties. But, every once in a while it is fun to have a bold splash of color. When I do this, I also like to throw in a splash of different patterns and textures!

Color inspiration picture : Anthropology wallpaper

1 : Confetti Sunshine navy stripe paper straws

2 : The Flair Exchange tissue tassel garland

3 : The Gilded Bee tiny tassel trim

4 : Rifle Paper Co. circus party invitations

5 : Confetti Sunshine mini red with white dot gable favor box

6 : Mr Wonderful Shop party sign

Pow Wow : free party printables

To finish off our week, here are the free pow wow party printables I promised! Just click on the image above to download the pdfs. 

The free pdfs include:

5x7in Invitation with text

5x7in Invitation blank

2 in circle cupcake toppers

drum favor topper

doughnut arrow feathers

food label

Pow Wow : Drum favor

No party is complete without a fun favor. And... no pow wow is complete without a drum or two! Complete both requirements with this fun drum favor for your little indians to take home.

All you need to do is stuff an ice cream cup full of your favor treats. Print the drum top printable and punch holes in all of the corners. Top your ice cream cup favor with the printable. Thread twine through the holes in a drum fashion. I found that the twine kept slipping off the ice cream cup, so I pinched it together in the middle with my left hand while I used my right hand to thread the twine through the holes. Use both the start and end to tie all the strings (that you are pinching together) in the middle of the ice cream cup. I used a thick 16ply twine, but feel free to use any sort of string/rope.

I also added a few rock candy sticks (aka. lollipop sticks) to each drum for the kids to beat the drum with. The kids were very excited to receive their own little drum full of goodies!

Find the printables here: Pow Wow Printables

Pow Wow : DIY arrowhead necklace

Aside from the usual pow wow activities, let your guest make their own Indian arrowhead. These are perfect to string on a little leather string for a necklace. These little polymer clay arrowheads are simple and fun to make. My 4 year old daughter just was introduced to polymer clay this week.. and has fast become best friends with the stuff.

Start with a small ball of polymer clay. Probably close to a quarter size. Form it into an arrowhead by following the simple steps above. (A picture, or pictures, is worth a thousand words). After the arrowhead is shaped, just bake it according to the directions on the polymer package.

Pow Wow : Decorations

I liked to keep this party feeling very natural and relaxed. I didn't stress too much about decorations. I tried to make sure and only do things that would help the kids have fun - like making a teepee. It was very simple and only cost around $10 bucks. Well worth the effort. I looked around pinterest for ideas, and have pinned the DIY tee pee instructions I looked at here.

I then made a garland with feathers (found at a local craft store) and strung it around the teepee. Like I said yesterday, I just arranged our desserts on the ground - true pow wow style. And, just like native Indians had to, we had to watch out for ants!

The biggest delight was the teepee. Kids love a place to run, hide and just pretend. Let their imagination run wild with this fun hideout. No adults allowed!

Pow Wow : Menu

This pow wow doesn't need a lot of fancy food, or a fancy table dressed up. It is a pow wow, after all. I grabbed some empty baskets and wooden bowls to serve up these sought after Indian treats. And, we just set them on the ground for a hands on, pow wow feast.

FRESHLY CAUGHT DOUGHNUTS 

These doughnuts were a pretty tough catch. We were lucky to have them at our feast. The only sure way to catch these little critters is to have a good trusty arrow. We made ours with candy apple sticks, printable feathers (available for free on friday). Cut and glue is the best method. We then decorated our arrows with food-friendly markers.

TRIBAL CUPCAKES

Your guests will know for sure that they are at the right place when they see your tribal cupcake toppers. Adorned with a feather on top, these cupcake toppers add the right amount of color for a triple chocolate cupcake (aka. chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, topped with chocolate sprinkles).

POPCORN ON THE COB

Corn is a must at any pow wow. These popcorn on the cob are a great treat. Mix it up by having kettle corn on the cob, or white chocolate popcorn on the cob. Add any mixture your party children are sure the enjoy! To make your cobs, simply stuff a plastic clear bag with popcorn. Tape the top into a knob. Cut 1 sheet of tissue paper into 4ths. Take one of the cut sheets and fold it almost in half. Wrap the folded edge around your popcorn knob. Tie with some natural twine.

Find the printables here: Pow Wow Printables

Pow Wow : Invitation

The end of summer always brings a few nice warm and long evenings. It is the perfect time to plan a native pow wow party for your little ones.

I am really excited about this party. I grew up in the southwest (hello... texas, new mexico, & arizona), so I have seen my share of native american artwork. I've always loved what I've seen, so I am so happy to turn it into a fun and nature filled party - perfect for a party, or any reason to celebrate!

This week I am going to cover how to host your own little pow wow for your little indians! We will cover decorations, games, food and a favor. Be sure to check back every day for more inspiration.

Find the printables here: Pow Wow Printables

say Thank You with strawberry shortcake cookies

I've been kind of grateful this week. Things are going very well for me, and it makes me happy - especially considering all the things that could be going wrong. We've spent a nice hot week at the beach (as evident here). What started off as being a week of showing you how is the best way to express your gratitude, ended up being a week of me spending time with those I am most grateful for. 

Excuse the lack of blogging please.

But, to end the week, I thought I would share my favorite way of expressing gratitude - giving good food. (That might be because it is my favorite way of receiving a thank you as well.) But, either way, you can't go wrong with a pretty little berry basket filled with cookies! 

To keep with the berry basket theme, I made these adorable little strawberry shortcake cookies. I used this easy shortcake cookie recipe and the cream cheese recipe from the same lovely blogger. I then filled mine with a homemade strawberry freezer jam and sandwiched it with another cookie on top. I also lined my berry baskets with these ever so useful basket liners.

.lovely.

Say Thank You with Snail Mail

I still love to get snail mail. There isn't many things better than getting a little package in the mail with a sweet note that is meant just for you. Take some time to write a little thank you note to your special someone. I wanted to design a thank you card for you - but I couldn't decide on just one design. So I have two different pretty free printable designs below.

Click here to download the Thank You Banner card

Click here to download the Thank You Ombre card

Party Trend : thank you notes

This week on the blog we are talking all about thank you notes and different ways to go about appreciating the friends and loved ones in your life! Today I rounded up a few of my more recent favorite thank you notes (isn't #5 adorable?!?!)

1 - bespoke letterpress

2 - smitten on paper

3 - minted by olive and violet

4 - snow & graham

5 - rifle paper co.

6 - minted by kate johnson

Back to School : Favor

End your Back to School party with an armful of beautiful new school supplies. It was always my favorite part of back to school. This time of year is the time to pick up supplies for cheap, so it makes a great favor - and one the mom's will appreciate too! I decided to add a little custom colorful clipboard as my means of holding all my favor goodness. 

You can easily dress up your own cheap clipboards.

Clipboard

Mod podge

brush

scrapbook paper

washi tape (I used the rolls I picked up at target)

Cut down your scrapbook paper to cover most of your clipboard. I didn't want to hassle with cutting the paper to fit around the actual clip of the clipboard, so I just had the paper snuggle up as close as I could get it and still keep it in a straight line. Glue the paper onto the clipboard with mod podge.

I finished the clipboard by adding washi tape around the edges and up at the top. I like having the thicker stripe of blue at the top of the clipboard. I also liked how taping the edges made the ends of my clipboard smooth and covered. Sometimes the simple way is the nicest as well.

End by either preloading your clipboard with all your back to school supply goodness, or let the kids pick from a pile to load their own favor clipboard.

Back to School : Decorations

No back to school party would be complete without a few books and chalkboards out on the table.

I started off by using a child's size tables for my guests. I was doing this party for 4 & 5 year olds, so a smaller table worked better.

I bought each of my guests a small chalkboard at my local craft store. I found the same chalkboard online here, but the price is a lot more than what I paid for, so I would do some shopping around before buying the online one.

But I used the small chalkboards as place settings, and decorated them up a little with an A+ badge. To make the badge you just need the 2 inch circle free download, cute cupcake liners, 1 1/2 inch ribbon, and glue. All you need to do is cut the ribbon to the desired length. Punch out the A+ circle, glue it onto a cupcake liner and glue onto the ribbon. You can either glue it onto your chalkboard, or just place it there for decoration.

For the table centerpiece, I tied some books together with some ribbon and placed an apple on top. (If anyone knows what the Merck Manual is, you can probably guess what my husband is in school for.)

To finish off the decorations I hung some garland (my favorite!) over the table. I love how garland and banners really add to the drama level of a party. I used the yarn garland I showed you how to make yesterday. I also made some garland out of vintage flash card printables I made (download them here)

DIY : Pom Pom garland

I just can't pass up a good opportunity to make a fun animated picture. I am a very visual learner, so a picture is how I learn. Hopefully this will take some confusion out of making the pom poms I used in my Back to School garland.

I had seen miniature pom poms made with forks and yarn or twine, but I wanted some larger and loose  DIY pom poms for my garland. So I grabbed my trusty (clean) hair comb, my yarn and some scissors. I wrapped the yarn around the comb 40 times to make my pom poms. I originally was only making one pom pom at a time, but then figured out how I could make two with the same amount of effort (happy dance!).

To make it into a garland, I threaded some light twine onto a needle and simply strung the pom poms along. Have fun making your own pom poms!

Back to School : C is for Cookie

What's better than a cookie and milk after school? So, the perfect fit would be to have a cookie and milk bar at your back to school party! I also added some apples for a little pop of color, and a little pop of health.

This dessert table was very simple to put together. I find the easiest way to arrange a dessert table is to pull out all your serving dishes and rearrange them on the table until they look good to you. Then fill them up with your treats.

THE COOKIES

I was short on time, so I ended up purchasing all the cookies for our party. It still was a cheap table to put together (approx. $20). But you can make it even cheaper buy making your own cookies. I ended up buying alphabet cookies, chocolate chip cookies, & joe joes (trader joe's variety of oreos)

THE LABELS

You can download the free printable labels here (click here) for your dessert jars & trays as well as the apple flags and milk bottles. For the apple flags I also used Lollipop Sticks available here.

THE MILK

Kids love to have everything be their own. They are always so excited when I pull out these cute little milk bottles (available at Confetti Sunshine)! The little milk bottles work perfectly with the small 5 inch straws, so I topped them off with the adorable thin green stripe paper straws. 

As for decoration, I used...

THE CHALKBOARD

The frame is a thrifted frame that I pulled the picture and glass out of. I bought it because I liked the size and look of the frame. I then had some wood cut down at Home Depot to fit inside. Using a grey chalkboard paint, I painted two coats on the wood (according to direction). I really like how it turned out! It makes a great background display for parties. I've already used mine twice, and I only made it last week.

THE YARN GARLAND

This cute garland is very easy to put together. I am already putting together a cute little animated picture to help you see just how easy it is. Don't worry... it's coming to the blog later today!