Happy Halloween!

Have a safe and fun Halloween!

You can see the rest of our Halloween Carnival here.

We will be back tomorrow with some more fun.

It's Monday - Are you ready for some football?

I use to live in Dallas Texas. I use to watch Cowboy Football. I was very little then. And I remember getting very bored during the games. It's not that I didn't like football, it's just that the game was a little long for a young kid to handle without anything fun to do.

Well, don't let that happen to the young football fans in your life! I put together some fun activities over at One Charming Party for kids to do at any football or tailgating party.

DIY #1 Fan Foam Finger

Football Jersey Cookies

Football Tic Tac Bingo Game

fall baking party : DIY

Hooray for Friday! I hope you've enjoyed my little baking party on the blog. I sure enjoyed hosting it! I am going to leave you with two easy DIYs that fit in perfectly with a baking party, but, in reality, could be used in just about any party.

First, is this cute little wax paper cup. This is what I served up my apple pie samples in, and also served as some of my decoration. I love it when you can do one project, and have it be so useful. These little cups would also be adorable little favor or treat cups.

Cut a basket liner sheet into fourths (6 inch by 6 inch squares). Wrap one of the 6 inch squares over a pint sized mason jar. Tape on top of the basket liner around the mason jar with washi tape. Slide the basket liner cup off the mason jar! Easy peasy..

The other easy DIY that I did for this party was a ruffled table runner. You can see the whole table decorations here. I think it look gorgeous, and it is shamefully easy to put together. The hardest part? Getting my heavy sewing machine onto the table. Yup.

All you need to do for this DIY, is take a roll of crepe paper and sew a stitch down the middle. It play with how much it gathers, add some tension to your spool of thread by holding on to it with one hand. 

I hope you enjoyed the party! Come again soon!

fall baking party : pies and cinnamon crisps

Being a fall baking party, and all, I thought it was only fitting to bake up pies. Who doesn't like fresh apple pie? I decided to offer little handheld pies, instead of full size. That way each guest could make and take home multiple pies.

For my party, I just stuck with what I knew how to do really well - apple pie. It's our family favorite. It's actually the only type of pie I have ever made. Yes, as in ever. We've done variations on apple pie, but we always do apple.

I put together a little animated picture showing you just how easy these handheld pies are to put together. First, you cut your dough into circles. I used a bowl as a guide. Then you put your precooked pie filling on one side, and cut out a stem hole on the other. Little hearts make it extra special (even if you can't tell it's a heart once it's cooked!) Then fold over your pie and pinch it closed! I baked mine at 400 degrees until the crust was done.

They are lovely to look at, and delicious to eat! My daughter and I made the mistake of making these right before dinner. It was a long and hard for a 4 year old to wait until after dinner before eating one of these pies.

Another great idea for the pie crust is to make them into little cookie crisps. I actually made these a head of time for us to snack on while making the pies. But you could wait until after the pie making, these are a great way to use up your extra pie crust.

Roll out your pie crust. Using a pizza cutter, cut them into strips. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake according to pie crust directions. I baked mine at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes.

Serve your cinnamon crisps with fresh apples as an apple pie tasting for your guests! 

Fall Baking Party : DIY Decorations

The decorations for my baking party were very simple, yet classic. I wanted a really pretty table, so I started with a nice color palette - pear green, dusty blue, and red. I did have a few pops of pumpkin orange and autumn yellow, but it helped bring the whole autumn color palette together.

I was able to pick up the white wire baskets at my local dollar store (hooray!). Run and get some today  if you can. They are always sold out at my local store.

The ruffled cake stands (my new favorite!) were a cheap find at pier 1. I'd recommend picking those up too. White ruffles never go out of style if you have daughters.

I accented the table with the ingredients needed for making our pies - apples and pears! It was very pretty, and also convenient to have them at arms length.  

For placesettings, I hand stamped names onto glassine bags. Then I filled the baggies up with some color coordinating candies and sealed the bags with washi tape. Simple, yet fun - that's usually the way to go!

Fall Baking Party : Invitation download

I love the baking theme that I've been seeing around the web. I know it's not a new thing, but it's still one of my favorites. I've always enjoyed the creativity that came from baking. So, to put a new spin on an old favorite, we are having a fall inspired baking party on the blog this week!

This invitation is so fun! First, print the free invitation download. 

Cut out the pieces and layer the pie on top of the invite. Poke a brad through the black dot on the pie. Be sure to poke the brad through both sheets of paper and secure in the back. I used flat white bags as envelopes for my invitations. And, as always, secured with a nice little bit of washi tape.

DIY color blocked autumn garland

I love autumn. I love the colors, the cooler air, the jackets, the fires, the leaves falling to the ground. But, sometimes I need a change of decoration. While I love the traditional autumn decor, I was wanting to do something a little different this year - so out came the idea to make a color blocked leaf garland.

It is fairly simple and very fun. The biggest factor was time - it takes a while for the leaves to dry. But I am getting ahead of myself, so, for full instructions:

fake leaves - I found the green ones worked better than red

acrylic paints

twine

tape (hooray for washi tape)

Paint over your leaves with white acrylic paint. Let dry and the repeat. Once the leaves are dry and as white as you want, you get to add different colors! I color blocked different patterns onto my leaves, but you can do whatever you want. I would look great if you did the same pattern on each leaf. Allow for the color paint to dry. I let mine sit for a few hours. Then grab your twine and tape some to the wall. You can then go and tape the back of each leaf onto the twine. You could tape them all on the twine before hanging, but I didn't. I didn't want to worry about making sure they were all facing the correct way - ha!

I am enjoying how my garland turned out. It is sitting right above my fireplace (next time I will take a picture with the fireplace..) But we are welcoming fall in our house! If you like the banner "welcome fall" it will be available soon at Confetti Sunshine.

DIY pumpkin banner

If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you will know that I love banners and garlands. So why not make a cute pumpkin banner for the autumn holidays?

foam/carve-able pumpkin (I picked up mine at the dollar store)

modge podge

glitter

American Craft thickers alphabet stickers

twine

rock candy sticks

First, spread modge podge over your pumpkin and sprinkle with glitter. This makes a mess. A pretty glittery mess, but still a mess. Let it dry. 

String twine onto two of the rock candy sticks. Stick them into the pumpkin. Spell out your autumn sentiment onto the twine with the alphabet stickers.

I love how this looks, and the arrangement (above) was intended for a fall party, but is now my autumn table centerpiece!

Tues Tip : decorate store bought treats

Sometimes... well, most of the time, there are not enough hours in the day. Especially when planning a party for children, and you happen to have a few running around your house. I wish I could give a tip on how to get it all done easily and within a few minutes. Eh, not going to happen.

So when you are faced with only a few minutes left to get your party put together, run to the grocery store for your dessert table. 

A fun and easy way to make your store bought treats special is to add sprinkles. For the store bought doughnuts, I mixed together a little glaze. The glaze is milk and powder sugar mixed together to form a glue like consistency. Then I dipped the doughnuts into the glaze and then into the sprinkles.

You can see the finished result on my Halloween Carnival dessert table here.

What I'd have at a Witch's party

1 - Black Damask Cupcake Liner

2 - Steampunk hat in black and ivory lace

3 - Dreadful Candy Jar labels

4 - Apothecary Shop chalkboard

5 - Haunted Wine labels

6 - Black Stripe Paper Straws

Halloween Carnival : Dessert table and FREE party printables

I am so excited to be featured today on the one and only Amy Atlas Blog!

Click here to see the rest of my Halloween Carnival dessert table on her blog.

And be sure to read the rest of my blog to get the free party printables!

Thanks for joining me this week while I shared our Halloween Carnival! Today, we are sharing the dessert table and printables. I mixed some classic carnival food with yummy dessert that couldn't be passed up. I served up cupcakes (always a must, right?), brownies, rootbeer, butter popcorn, cotton candy, and doughnuts!

Here are the links to the items used in the dessert table: stripe paper straws, cupcake liners, food boat trays, ice cream cups, dome lids, popcorn bags.

And, if you haven't seen the rest of our party, be sure to go and visit:

Halloween Carnival : Invitation

Halloween Carnival : Party Games

Halloween Carnival : Jack-O-Lantern Party Favor

Halloween Carnival : DIY Backdrop and Decorations

And, if you want to download the Halloween Carnival Free Party Printables, simply click here or click on the image below.

Halloween Carnival : DIY backdrop and decorations

For the Halloween Carnival decorations, I did a couple of different things. I printed the welcome sign, and dressed it up with some gathered crepe paper along the bottom. I hung that at the front door along with some spiderwebs.

I also decorated a small table with the carnival prizes. The corresponding number on the jar is how many tickets you need to pay to get one. I based my prize numbers off of how much the actual prize cost. I had 1 ticket for the cheapest items, 3-5 for the more expensive ones. 

I decorated the prize table with a roll of brown paper and black netting found at the dollar store. I also used boxes to raise the second layer of prizes and had my DIY diamond backdrop behind it.

DIY DIAMOND BACKDROP

I am in love with how this backdrop turned out. It was perfect for my party, and I can't wait to use this technique again. I bought three poster-boards from the dollar store and taped them together. The poster-boards from the dollar store are a little different, they didn't have a gloss finish on them, so I think it actually worked better for my project.

Then, I cut out a large diamond shape from craft foam. I mounted the diamond shaped foam onto a thick piece of cardboard to help stabilize it. It's my cheap-one-time-use-stamp. I actually make my own stamps with craft foam quite often. It's fun. 

Anyways, after I made my ghetto stamp, I painted it with orange paint and stamped it onto my foam poster-boards (the non-taped sides). And then I stamped, and stamped, and stamped. It seems like a lot of stamping, probably because it was, but it didn't take me very long to complete. 

At first, I was a little disappointed with the uneven stamping, but then I got over it and actually like how it all turned out. I think the distressed look gave it more of a Halloween vibe.

So, now that I've done diamonds, what other shape should I stamp next? Maybe a fun chevron backdrop? Oh.. the wheels are spinning..

Halloween Carnival : Mr. Jack O Lantern

So, figuring out a fun favor for this party was the most difficult part. It took a lot of thinking before I figured out something I thought was a good fit. I knew that I didn't want to just pass out candy or cupcakes as favors, since the kids were getting enough sugar at the party itself.

I really enjoy Jack-O-Lanterns, and so does my daughter. So that was my inspiration for a party favor - a take hope pumpkin with face stickers to decorate like a Mr. Jack O.

It actually ended up being a lot easier than I thought. I designed some face shapes and printed them out (the free printable will be available Friday, along with the rest of the party printables). I then cut out each of the shapes and rolled them through my Xyron 1.5" create-a-sticker. 

I stuffed all the shapes inside of a black and white striped favor bag and sealed it with a printable sticker. I have a pie pumpkin and a bag of stickers for each of the children to take home as a favor!

Halloween Carnival : Games

You can't have a carnival party without some carnival games, now can you? That is one reason why a carnival themed party is so great.. it's really easy to come up with games to play!

I picked out a few of my favorite carnival games, and dressed them up to be Halloweenish. All of these games you can make harder or easier depending upon the age of your party goers.

CAULDRON TOSS

I picked these fun Halloween cauldrons up at the dollar store. I have a label on each cauldron, showing the children how many tickets will be won by tossing a bean bag into the cauldron. I let the children have three tries to win as many tickets as possible.

GLOW-STICK RING

aka. Horseshoes. I've filled little mason jars with tickets. Fewer tickets near the front and more as you work your way towards the back. I then snapped together two bracelet glow-sticks to use as horse shoes. 

CUPCAKE WALK

A carnival isn't a carnival without a cake walk. I've included printable circles (available for free on Friday) to help you set up your own cakewalk. All you need to do is print, cut and tape to the floor. Then turn on some music and let the kids walk to the beat. Stop the music, choose a number randomly. What ever lucky kid is on the number you've chosen, wins a prize or... a cupcake!

GRAVEYARD BASH

I found these tombstones at the dollar store and knew I wanted to use them somehow in the party. So I came up with the graveyard bash. Line up your tombstones. Give the lucky kid a few lightweight balls/beanbags to toss. They have three tries to knock down the tombstones to win some tickets.