Daily Party Dish

St. Patrick’s Day Kids Craft: Perler Bead Bowls

My kids and I discovered this fun craft the other day and decided it would be great for St. Patrick’s Day, or any holiday.  We created these great bowls out of Perler beads.  You can find them at any craft store.

All we needed was an oven proof bowl, the beads and cooking spray.  The project is simple.

Start by spraying the inside of your bowl with cooking spray.  This will keep the beads from sticking to the bowl.  Then put in a handful of beads in at a time.  We chose a mixture of greens for St. Patrick’s Day.  As you push the beads down, they will naturally rise up the sides of the bowl.

When you’ve filled your bowl with one layer of beads, put the bowl in the oven or toaster oven for 10-15 minutes at 400°.  We only did 10 minutes each but you can bake longer for a more melted look on your bowl.

After “cooking”, take the bowl out and let the beads cool in the bowl for a few minutes.  Don’t forget oven mitts when you take it out of the oven!  When it’s cooled, put the bowl in the sink and run cold water over the beads.  Then your bowl can easily be pulled out of the baking bowl.  They are great fun to make and a fun party decoration.  And, of course, they look great in any colors you can imagine!

Happy melting, and make sure to check out some of our other great St. Pat's party ideas:

• St. Patrick's Day Party Ideas
• St. Patrick's Theme Invitations and Party Favors
• St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl

Angry Birds Theme Party Ideas

My five year old came home one from school about 6 months ago and said, “Mom, there’s this game called Angry Birds.  Can we get it?”  It seemed like an innocent request at the time.  Little did I know that our family was about to become Angry Birds Obsessed. (The kids even got their grandmothers hooked.)  So what do I do when we become hooked on something at our house?  Well, I plan a party!

My 3 year old was thrilled with the idea of having an Angry Birds theme party for his upcoming birthday party.  We’ve been planning for a while (picture an invitation with him in the middle of an Angry Birds scene, flying across the page) and trying to come up with creative Kids Birthday Party Ideas.

Then one day I hopped onto our site and saw it… Angry Birds party supplies.  Stop the presses.  These are fantastic! 

 

I almost ran home from work to show my kids.  Then a few days later, these fantastic balloons appeared online:

 
I’m sold.  We’ll mix the fantastic Angry Birds Mylar balloons with bright primary latex balloons and the bright paper goods and the party is practically all planned.  On to favors...  There are tons of great Angry Birds toys available.  These Angry Birds backpack keychains are super fun as are these Angry Birds stickers.  I have a feeling more will be online soon now that the paper goods and balloons are available.  I’ll keep you posted.

We’re also thinking Angry Bird (and pig) masks for the kids.  We did something similar for my older son’s Star Wars party and it was a hit.  This site has a great free Angry Birds eps that can be used to create masks or favor tags. 

Grandma has of course been recruited to make an Angry Birds cake. (You remember her great cakes are, right?)  We’ve found some great ones online!  Check out this cake topper set from Etsy.  

 

 I think our Angry Birds party is going to be great.  I’ll be sure to post pictures when we’re done!

 

Sam’s Mom

Don’t Let the Pigeon Go to the Birthday Party

This year for my son’s 6^th birthday, we decided to go with a totally different theme for his party.  He loves the author Mo Willems and his pigeon theme books.  (We love “Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus!)  So, we decided to have a “Don’t Let the Pigeon go to the Birthday Party” Mo Willems birthday party. 

We started with a book for an invitation!  I scanned pictures from the book and changed the wording to work for a party.  The kids and parents loved the invitation!  Here are a few sample pages:

For décor at the party, we went with a blue and orange theme to coordinate with the book.  Here’s what I created:

• Mo Willems theme confetti with small punched out pictures of the characters from all his books
• Pigeon’s on a stick cutouts for the kids to play with – a big hit!
• A small cutout (thank you Party411.com!) of the pigeon wishing Sam a happy birthday

My Mom, of course, made one of her fantastic cakes.  It was great!  You can see the tabletop cutout in the back.

For favors, I found art kits (on super sale before Christmas) and created themed work books.  Mo Willems offers great free pdfs for parents and teachers planning Mo Willems teaching events, so I was able to use his art and puzzles for the books.

 

I have to say, this was my favorite birthday party yet.  The kids have read so much Mo Willems in school that they were all thrilled to see the décor and loved the favors.  I love planning a birthday party my kids will love and that will make them feel special.  This one certainly fit the bill.

My younger son’s birthday is next month.  Another bird theme – this time Angry Birds.  Stay tuned.

• Kid's Birthday Party Ideas from Party411
• Kid's Birthday Party Invitations
• Kid's Birthday Party Games

Leap Day Printable

Leap Day is quickly approaching!  Are you ready to celebrate your extra day?  I love the idea of a special day that only takes place once every 4 years.  I’m going to use these fun Leap Day theme resolution cards at our party.  I’ll let my friends fill out where they hope to be in 4 years and I’ll save them to mail out to them before Leap Day 2016.  I hope you’ll print out a batch for your friends this Leap Year.

Leap Day Printable PDF

Leap Day Theme Party

Leap Day Party Ideas

I’m a sucker for a good holiday party.  And to me, Leap Day is one of the coolest holidays out there.  (Is it technically a holiday?  I’m not sure, but it is to me!)  I mean, it only happen once every 4 years.  It’s an extra day to use however you like. So, I say, it’s a great day to host a party and the good news is, no matter how great the party is, no one will expect you to host it every year. 

I’ve hosted two Leap Day parties so far and my theme is always the same – Leaping frogs and lizards.  I’ve used inflatable frogs (who are coming out of storage soon for this year), plastic frogs and lizards and frog theme paper goods.  Check out the cute Leap Day party invitations we have for this year:

My approach has always been to have a fun and slightly silly party for Leap Day. But you could certainly play up the theme of “what could you do with an extra day?” and make the party more meaningful and serious.

My last party was a brunch since Leap Day was kind enough to land on a Sunday.  This year we’ll be having a dinner since it is on a Wednesday.  I love these cute frog cupcakes and will certainly try them at the party. 

I think it’s such a great holiday, that I wrote up an entire party plan.  Check out our Leap Day party ideas for more fun ways to make this Leap Day special!

Cupcake Family Tree

This past weekend we celebrated my husband’s grandfather’s 90^th birthday!  When coming up with Milestone Birthday Party Ideas, we decided to try something a bit more creative than a traditional cake to celebrate this important event.  My Mom, cake baker and decorator extraordinaire, created a cupcake family tree with all of this children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  

She started with vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and frosted them all with white frosting.  Then she added a mini vanilla wafer each cookie.

Next, she frosted everyone’s names on the cupcakes. 

Finally, everyone was given hair and a cute face!  She even matched up hair colors and styles. 

The cupcakes (along with plenty extra!) we displayed on a cupcake tree and organized by family.  To say it was a hit is an understatement.  People were raving about the cupcakes.  And, we all tasted delicious!  I think it turned out great and I think they are fantastic for a family reunion, milestone birthday or even a kid’s birthday party.

• Birthday Party Ideas
• Vi-Vi-Vi-vacious 95th Birthday Theme for Violet Spevack
• Camp Theme Party
• Surprise Birthday Party Ideas
• Fun Party Ideas from Party411.com

How to Choose Linens for Your Party

I have to admit that I have a fascination with table linens. To some this may seem strange, but as a party planner, this makes perfect sense to me. I think the right linens make a table pop and even allow you to have less décor in the room. I love walking into a room with bright linens covering all the tables. A few helpful hints when choosing linens:

• Use color if you can! You can almost always get solid color linen for the same or slightly more than white linen. If you’re stuck with white, then try a fun topper in a color.
• Make sure you use the right size. A 120” round linen will hit the floor (fantastic!) on a 60” round. A 156” round looks perfect on a 72” round. Any linen company can tell you the exact length you’ll need for each table.
• Mix it up! You can use a different color on each table, or choose 3-5 colors and spread them out around the room.
• Don’t forget the napkins – if you’re tables are 3 different colors, use the same 3 colors for napkins. Make sure not to put the same color napkin and table cloth together. Here are some of my favorite parties I’ve planned with great linens!

 

My favorite linen – rainbow fuzzy – perfect for a 60s party

Lots of pink!

Stretch linens and chair covers are unusual and very cool!

Simple linens for a Harry Potter party in house colors.

Silver linens over chocolate brown linens for a chocolate theme.

Happy planning!  (And don’t forget great linens!)

Amy

Boo Mitzvah! A Halloween Theme Bar Mitzvah

Happy Halloween from everyone here at Party411.com!  We love a great Halloween party and were thrilled to see our friends over at Mitzvah Market featuring a Halloween theme Bar Mitzvah today.  What a fun and unusual theme!  We hope you enjoy it as much as we did -

See all the pictures from the Boo Mitzvah!

Cupcake Cakes: A Sam's Mom Favorite

Here are some fun Kids Birthday Party Ideas – cakes made out of cupcakes! I’ve seen a ton at birthday parties in the last year, and I think they’re a great alternative to a traditional cake. You get all the fun and excitement of a big cake, but it’s easy to serve and has LOTS of frosting. What could be better? Here are a few:

This cake had over 100 cupcakes for a huge crowd!

And a smaller crocodile cupcake cake for a Neverland theme party

And a cute snake and turtle for a jungle theme party.

Maddie, with a traditional “cake” made of cupcakes

These cupcakes were made to look like a big bowl of popcorn!

Why stop at traditional cupcakes? These cupcakes are angel food cupcakes with fruit. Yum!

The possibilities are endless and the cupcakes delicious! If you’re going to have a cupcake cake, please send me one. Thanks! Sam’s Mom

Mitzvah Market - The Mitzvah Song

Our friends over at Mitzvah Market created this great video about Bar and Bat Mitzvah planning.  We think it’s just great!  Well done!