Photo Thank You Cards for a Puppy Paw-ty

I once read that thank you notes should be sent within three months of the event. I think for busy folks, the sooner the better, so my goal was to get them done within three weeks. We just celebrated Mia's 7th birthday with a puppy paw-ty on the first, so I am going to meet that goal with these photo thank you cards. As a bonus, they serve as a fun and inexpensive souvenir from the party.

{Front of Card}

Materials:

• card stock weight kraft paper (mine was 8 1/2" x 11")
• paper trimmer
• photos from dog house photo prop
• scrapbooking adhesive
• scalloped scissors
• black ink pad
• date stamp
• "Wonderful Times" stamp
• computer and printer

Directions:
1.  During the party, I took pictures of the guests wearing puppy ears and posing in the dog house photo prop. Then, I had them printed at Meijer. For family members who sent gifts, or for kids who didn't want to pose, I used pictures of Mia, so I had extras printed for this reason.

2.  Next, I folded a piece of kraft paper in half, width wise, and cut along the fold. Then I folded each piece in half again, width wise, to create two cards.

3.  In Microsoft Word, I created a fill-in-the-blank template for the inside of the cards. This fit four to a page in landscape setting and I used this free font. It read:

Dear ___________________________,                     

Thanks for helping make my 7^th birthday                           

a doggone good time! Thanks also for the                     

______________________________­_    

______________________________­

______________________. It’s paw-fect!

Your friend,                                                                

At the bottom right corner of each, I included a red paw print clip art. I used scalloped scissors to trim these to size and then adhered them on the inside of the cards, on the right.

4.  I trimmed the photos to fit inside the cards and then adhered them to the inside, left of the fill-in-the-blank template.

{Inside of Card}

5.  For the front of the cards, I printed off several of this cute puppy holding a cupcake clip art. Again, I cut these out with my scalloped scissors and adhered them to the center of the cards. Then, I added the date of the party and the phrase "Wonderful Times" with stamps and a black ink pad. Tip: If you don't have this sort of thing (both are the dial type of stamp that you see at libraries), you can type anything into your computer and print it out. This would give you more choices of font style, size, and color.

6.  Last but not least, I had Mia fill in the cards with the recipient's name, description of the gift (mostly donations for the local Humane Society!), and, of course, her signature.

Puppy Paw-ty Invites

{Front of Invitations}

Mia decided that her upcoming birthday party will have a puppy theme, which is fun. One nice thing about this theme is that it's not a specific character so that gives me plenty of flexibility for creating the menu, decorations, and party activities. First, I made the invitations using kraft paper card stock and my computer.

Materials:

• 8 1/2" x 11" kraft paper card stock (1 piece makes 2 cards)
• paper trimmer/scissors
• circle punch
• adhesive
• red and yellow card stock scraps
• scalloped scissors
• scrapbooking marker (with calligraphy tip)
• gold eyelets
• eyelet setting tool

Directions:

1.  I folded a piece of card stock in half (width-wise) and cut along the fold. Then I folded each piece in half again to make two cards. I did this a total of four times.

2.  For the wording, I used a free font called Puppy Bellies. It includes the bone and paw print icons that I used. The front of the card reads, "Come. Sit. Stay. Mia is turning 7 and you're invited to a puppy paw-ty!" (Yes, I used a punny spelling. Couldn't resist. Also, the i's are dotted with paw prints which is an adorable feature of this font.) This was done in Microsoft Word so that I got 4 per page in landscape format.

{Inside of Invitation}

The inside of the invitation features the party details on the right side. The row of doggie silhouettes was created using another free font called Can Dog TFB. I did this in Microsoft Word in portrait format, yielding 4 per page. On the left, we are asking for donations to the local humane society in place of presents. (I'll let you know whether or not that works out. Last year, I wrote "your presence is your present" but we still wound up with way more Barbie dolls than one little girl possibly needs. I am hoping that this new idea leads to useful stuff for charity. When I presented the idea to Mia, she was enthusiastic.) Again, I formatted this in Microsoft Word. Using the landscape setting, I was able to fit 2 per page.

3.  After printing off all the necessary pages, I trimmed them down with my paper trimmer and then gave all the pieces a decorative edge with scalloped scissors. Then, I adhered everything with scrapbooking adhesive squares.

4.  The cards looked a bit plain with just brown, white, and black, so I decided to dress them up a bit by adding paper collars using some red card stock scraps. I cut them to fit the paper but waited to adhere them until after the next step.

5.  The last step was personalization. I continued the collar idea by making dog tags out of yellow card stock scraps. I used a circle punch to make them round. Then, I used gold eyelets and my eyelet setting tool to attach the tags to the paper collars. Next, I adhered the collars and tags with my adhesive squares. For a final touch, I took my calligraphy-tipped scrapbooking pen and wrote the name of each invitee on a tag. I made 8 invitations using materials I already had which meant that I didn't have to spend any money!

A "Tweet" Mother's Day Gift

I love when I discover that I can do something new. Don't you? I'd had seen this kit for making birds nest earrings (so cute!) in the Oriental Trading Company catalog a handful of times and each time I thought I really like those. I wonder if I could make them? But, why would I buy a kit to make 6 pairs? Then, I decided they would be perfect for Mother's Day gifts, so I went for it!

I'm glad I decided to give it a go. These were not at all expensive and both my mom and mother-in-law were impressed by them, saying, "You made those!?" Yep. That's me. I can make earrings, apparently. (I'm smiling while I type this because I am so pleased.) Each pair only took between 20 and 30 minutes to make, I think, and it took less time as I went along because I got the hang of it. All I needed to make them was a wire bending tool-thingy, which I already owned for some reason. (In case you couldn't tell from my lack of proper terminology for the tool, this is my first attempt at jewelry making -- outside of the little "class" I took at our library in the fall -- where I made a couple of necklaces that are sort of falling apart.) I'm pretty sure I bought this tool some years back when I was making beaded wire flower pot decorations in the shapes of butterflies.

How will I use all 6 pairs of earrings? Well, I made one pair as a gift for myself. Remember, I mentioned that Mother's Day this year also happened to be my birthday? So, of course, I needed a little something special for myself. The remaining three pairs will be perfect for end-of-the-school-year teacher gifts for Mia's kindergarten teacher, para-pro, and her tap teacher. Yay for advanced planning and having that taken care of! (I'm mentally patting myself on the back, here.)

I think the card turned out cute, too. I used some pre-made beige card stock cards. Ordinarily, I just make my cards from scratch, because I am cheap resourceful, but I found these on clearance and put them aside for when I needed a quick card. (Since this month is sort of kicking my butt with exhaustive things that I trying my best to keep up with, I was thankful for that foresight!) Next, I found a pretty bird-themed clear stamp in my collection and used my scrapbooking markers to ink the bird in teal, the branch in brown, and the leaves in green. I gave it a quick "huff" to add some moisture back to the pigment in case it had started to dry out while I was finishing my coloring, and then stamped it in the lower right corner of the card. I used my ProvoCraft Silent Setter tool (I got this a few years ago at either Jo-Ann's or Michaels, using a coupon, of course!) to make two holes in the front, using the smallest size punch tip. First, opening the card and placing the cutting mat on the inside of the card prevented me from making the holes go all the way through when I only wanted them on the front of the card. Then, I slipped the earring through the holes and added a small piece of tape to the inside to secure them. I scrawled a quick note, and the card was finished, wishing both grandmothers a "tweet" Mother's Day. I have since made 3 more quick and easy cards for the teachers with "a note of thanks" stamped in brown below the bird in place of the words "Happy Mother's Day!"

Nature is full of elegant designs. I just love the color of the robin's egg blue paired with the twisted silver wire. It's very organic and simple. Plus, I love the symbolism of nesting, which I thought was perfect for some of our favorite nurturing women. I think this makes a nice tribute to the moms, grandmas, and teachers in our lives, who deserve to have a "tweet" day on Mother's Day. I hope that you, too, had a "tweet" and restful Mother's Day.

Thank You Cards for Care Bear Party

These are the photo thank you cards that I designed to go along with the Care Bears birthday party. The photos are the ones I took at the party using my home-made Cheer Bear photo prop. I made a simple fill-in-the-blank format so that Mia could help fill out the cards because I think that this helps teach gratitude, or at the very least, it helps with teaching social conventions associated with gratitude. My goal was not just to have her write "thanks for the gift," but also to let her know that we were thanking people for making her day special. For me, having a child's birthday party is about giving her an experience that she will remember as being a fun time spent with friends and family, and I want to pass this belief on to my children.

Materials:

• red card stock
• paper trimmer
• word processing software
• printer
• scissors
• scalloped scissors
• photos
• clear adhesive photo corners
• scrapbooking adhesive 
• white printer paper
• envelope template (optional)

Directions:

1. Using a paper trimmer, I cut the 8 1/2" x 11" card stock in half (hamburger fold) to get two pieces of paper. Next, I folded each one in half (hamburger fold again) so that I had two cards.
2. For the cover of the card, I found an image of Birthday Bear, copied it into Microsoft Word and adjusted the size so that I could fit 8 images on the page (in landscape format). I printed and cut out the images with scalloped scissors. Then, I affixed them to the center of the cards using scrapbooking adhesive squares.
3. For the wording on the front, I used the word art feature in Microsoft Word to type "Caring is Sharing!" for the upper arch and the date of the party on the lower arch. The font was "Care Bears Family" and it was a free download found here. I fit 9 of these upper arch over lower arch per page in landscape format. After printing, I used scissors to cut them into banners, following the curves of the text. Lastly, I cut into each end in a "v" to make the flags on the end of each banner. These were adhered to the front of the card using scrapbooking square adhesives that had first been cut in half.
4. For the inside of the card, I had the photos printed. Then, I used my paper trimmer to cut them down so that they would fit inside. I used clear scrapbooking photo corners, one per corner, to affix these to the inside of the card (on the left).
5. For the fill-in-the blank format that I put on the right side of the inside of the thank you cards, I again used the "Care Bears Family" font to type: "Dear _____________, Thanks for sharing in my 6th birthday fun! Thanks also for the ______________________________. It made me smile! Your friend, _____________" I used this image of Cheer Bear to tie it all together. (This was also used in the invitations, and of course, the photo prop.) I was able to get 4 of these fill-in-the-blank templates per page in portrait format. After printing, I trimmed them with my paper trimmer and adhered them with the scrapbooking adhesive squares.
6. The rest was up to Mia. I helped her fill in the names and the information about the gifts, and then she signed her name to each one.
7. I made some envelopes with white printer paper and my template that I bought many years ago at Michaels, wrote each child's name on the front, and sealed them with some Care Bears stickers that were a gift from my brother. You can use store bought envelopes if you don't want to make your own. I just have been making my own cards for so long that I don't typically have the right size envelope on hand, so I make those, too.

Welcome to Care-a-Lot! (A Care Bears Themed Birthday Party)

As soon as Christmas was over, Mia was asking me when we were going to start making things for her birthday party, which was last Saturday. This gave me about a month to get everything ready. She had chosen the Care Bears theme, and it didn't take me too long to discover that it wasn't something I could find in any stores. There were a few things on Amazon and eBay, but nothing that seemed worth the cost. I wasn't too concerned, though, because Mia agreed that we could do a lot of "rainbow" colors for decorations and such instead of focusing just on Care Bears.

Plus, I love a creative challenge. I think that is why I do parties in kind of a crazy-big way, not that I think it isn't important to celebrate my kids' milestones. I do, of course, or we wouldn't do it. Truly, though, this mama loves herself a good project, and doing themed birthday parties allows me to express myself creatively with quite a few of them. Thankfully, Mia's desire for advanced planning helped me pull it off without getting getting too stressed out. In fact, I feel pretty fulfilled for making her 6th birthday party a success.

The Invitations:
I designed a fairly simple invitation in Microsoft Word that would allow me to print 4 per page. At the top, I centered this "Have a Rainbow Day" image. For the wording, I used this free "Care Bear Family" font that I downloaded. (This is fun because the punctuation includes hearts.) I used different colors of the rainbow to set apart the key words: red for "What," orange for "When," yellow for "Where" (Note that the where is "Care-a-Lot" and I added our address in parentheses.), green for "RSVP," blue for "Cell," and purple for "Home." After the important information, I typed "Please help share in the birthday cheer!" emphasizing the words share and cheer because they related to the Care Bears theme. I also added "Your presence is your present," which didn't make too much difference, but it was worth a try. I included this image of Cheer Bear, which I made smaller and flipped in my word processing program. After printing, I cut them apart with my paper trimmer, used scalloped scissors to add decorative trim to the top and bottom edges, and then adhered them to red card stock.

The Decorations: 
I tied together some Dollar Tree balloons (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) and had my husband put them on the mailbox, but they must have blown away at some point during the party.

Guests were greeted at the front door by a fun "Welcome to Care-a-Lot" sign that I made from a cardboard box and acrylic paint. The wording is again done in Microsoft Word with that same free font. You can find complete directions for the sign here.

I made these super simple and very inexpensive zig zag streamers following the directions I found on this blog. My only change that I would suggest is to specify that I used construction paper that was first trimmed in half (like a hot dog). Then, I saved myself some time by cutting several pieces at once. They don't need to look perfect. I used Scotch tape to hang them from the entryway to the dining room, three of each color: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. I had one extra streamer per color, so I hung them at the end of the hallway going into the kitchen, so that when people came in the front door, they saw the same rainbow: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

The buntings on the ceiling were probably the most annoying thing for me to do for this entire party. I am not sure I even would have done this if Mia hadn't caught me looking at the picture online (which did not include any directions, by the way) and announced that she really wanted it for a decoration. I knew it would be inexpensive, so I decided to give it a try. I purchased some 97 cent table cloths from the party aisle at Wal-mart (red, orange, yellow, and green -- plus I already had the blue one that I had found at a garage sale over the summer -- for 10 cents). I cut the table cloths in half, and then folded each one in half again, length-wise, so that they were not as transparent. I used pieces of double stick adhesive that I had cut prior to getting started. They were about 1" squares, and I used at least 3 or 4 per section. (And then, I was climbing up again the following day to apply a bit more since some were falling down...) The white balloon cloud came from that same Dollar Tree bag of balloons (There were really quite a few in there, maybe about 45, so it was a pretty good deal.) and is tied together with light blue curling ribbon (also purchased from Dollar Tree two years ago). I also had a purple table cover from Wal-mart that I trimmed to fit our dining room table and our card table, taping down the ends so it didn't slip.

The Food:
Since we were having a party with the most of the girls from the kindergarten class, and then having some family afterward, I wanted to keep the food simpler than I have in the past. (Basically, I told myself I am not serving a full meal, and I made myself stick to it.) I didn't even make a "fancy" themed drink; I just offered milk, apple juice, or water. I am kind of proud of myself for this. And they ate and drank from our regular kids' plates and cups from IKEA, because I hate buying stuff that would just get thrown away. For food, I offered crackers and heart shaped cheese. I took some sliced deli cheese that I already had and then used my little metal heart cookie cutter (actually, I think it's meant for fondant, but you get what I mean). I thought about doing a rainbow veggie platter, but my kids are not huge fans of peppers so I just did red grape tomatoes, orange carrots, and green cucumber slices so it wasn't truly a rainbow.

One of my only big to-dos for food was making the rainbow fruit kabobs, which were inspired by this photo. I used bamboo skewers, which I broke about in half. On each one, I threaded a whole strawberry, an orange slice, 3 canned pineapple pieces (note for future reference: buy something larger than tidbits), a slice of kiwi, a couple of blueberries, and a couple of purple grapes. Then, I cut off the sharp end of the skewers, and arranged them on my tray.

My other kind-of-a-big-deal food was 6 layered rainbow Jell-O cups, which were inspired by this blog. I used 5 ounce clear plastic cups that were left over from my failed chocolate business (waste not, right?). I did this as inexpensively as possible by getting Kroger brand gelatin for as many layers as possible, and I also bought as many sugar free varieties as I could get since the kids wouldn't likely know the difference, and why give them more sugar if I didn't need to? I bought the small 3 ounce boxes (0.3 ounces for sugar-free varieties). I used the quick-set method involving ice cubes, so each layer set up for about 20 minutes before I was adding the next layer on top. (I actually had this almost down to a science by the end: put Jell-o in refrigerator, set timer for 15 minutes, wash bowl and spoons, put water on to boil around when timer went off, repeat...) I guesstimated that 2 tablespoons of each flavor would be about right, and it was nearly perfect for making 16 cups. (I had determined that 16 cups was the max amount that would fit in my cake pan, and I planned to put the Jell-o cups in the pan to make it easier for all the in-and-out of the refrigerator. It was a great tip I had picked up here.) My layers from bottom to top were: Grape Jell-O, Berry Blue Jell-O, Kroger Sugar-free Lime Gelatin, Sugar-free Lemon Jell-O, Kroger Sugar-free Orange Gelatin, and Kroger Sugar-free Cherry Gelatin. I topped the rainbow cups with Cool Whip "clouds" and served them with the cake in lieu of ice cream. One good thing about this was that I didn't have to dish up any ice cream.

The Cake:

I promised Mia a Care Bear cake, and I used this photo for my inspiration. I used my favorite white cake recipe and tinted the batter pink with Wilton icing color, purchased from Jo-Ann with my coupon. The head is a 9" round and the body is a 10" round. Plenty of cooking spray and waxed paper cut to fit the cake pans helped ensure that the cakes came out without breaking apart. I also used my cake knife to trim them so that they were flat before frosting them. The neck looked a bit skinny, and my cake, overall, was quite short since I should have doubled my recipe. I made 6 (short) cupcakes. One is the muzzle. One is cut in half and used for the ears. The other four are the paws. All are covered with plenty of frosting to keep them glued together.

For frosting, I made the Wilton buttercream recipe, which I again, tinted pink, and applied with an angled spatula. The center of the ears, the belly, and the mouth/nose area of Cheer Bear are all done with plain white buttercream that I had set aside.

It is fortunate that Valentine's Day is around the corner because that meant that seasonal heart-shaped candies were easy to find. Cheer Bear's nose is a red cinnamon jelly candy, which came in a bag for $1 at Kroger. The foot pads are pink marshmallow Peep hearts. I cut one in half, and placed the sticky sides down on the frosting. The eyes are a regular marshmallow, which I cut in half, and again, placed the sticky sides down. Then, I used black decorating gel to make the pupils. The freckles are red non-pareils (which I got for $1 at Target last Christmas). I used red decorating gel for the mouth and eyebrows. The most important part of Cheer Bear is her rainbow belly badge, which I made using red, orange, yellow, green, and blue mini M&Ms. (Note: The leftovers made delicious cookies, and I think I will buy the mini size for baking from now on.)

My cake display was a piece of cardboard that I cut to the size I wanted. Then, I took some colored tissue paper from Dollar tree, and folded it so that the 5 bands of color: pink, red, yellow, green, and blue all fit in approximately equal amounts. I used Scotch tape to affix the tissue paper to the back side. I used more wax paper circles on top of the tissue paper to try to avoid having the buttercream completely soak the tissue paper. It didn't work perfectly, but I am sure it didn't hurt either. I found these tall rainbow colored candles at Wal-mart for about $1.50 and the birthday girl was quite happy with the whole cake presentation overall.

The Activities:
When guests arrived, they each got a party had that I made from colored cardstock using this template and directions. I made 2 hats of each color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Brett helped me assemble them, since I was struggling with getting the tabs into the slots correctly. Then, I found images of Care Bears online, put them in Microsoft Word, adjusted them so that they were all the same size, and printed them. I cut them out, leaving about a narrow white border. Then, I applied them to the hats with Mod Podge and a foam paint brush. After they dried, I added the ribbon ties. The directions didn't say how much ribbon to use, or even what kind of ribbon to use. I used narrow ribbons, about 1/8" wide, most of which I already had at home. I needed to buy orange and blue, so I got those at Wal-mart for about 50 cents each. (I actually got more of a turquoise shade because I planned to use it as hangers for the sun catchers they were going to paint.) It turned out that this project was kind of a waste because the hats wouldn't stay on the girls' heads, and when they were all leaving, there were some disagreements on who had which hat since I had used a different Care Bear for each, and apparently some are more desirable than others. Anyway, they looked great, but I am not sure I would take the time to make my own hats again, unless I used elastic cord, perhaps.

After they got their hats, I took their photos with my Cheer Bear photo prop, which was placed in front of yet another Wal-mart plastic table cloth. This one was a turquoise, which I thought would make a nice "sky" backdrop. It was doubled over and taped to our fake fire place.

Another party activity that we had was painting rainbow sun catchers that I had found in the craft aisle at Wal-mart for 53 cents each. To prepare before the party, I tied a narrow turquoise ribbon hanger to each one. I attached a piece of masking tape to each ribbon and folded it over to make a flag, which I wrote each child's name on. Then, I poured small amounts of sun catcher paint (which I borrowed, but you can get it from Oriental Trading) into small plastic cups with lids. These were also left over from my failed chocolate business so I didn't have to go out and buy them. I used 2 cups per color so they would have enough to share without having to wait for a color, or at least that is what I figured. Each kid got a paper towel and a small paint brush to use. This worked fine. The girls were very neat and put the lids back on without even being asked. We just left them on the paper towels on the counter to dry during the party and sent them home flat at the end. The most interesting thing, to me, was that none of them looked anything alike even though they started with the same sun catchers.

The home-made rainbow pinata was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I don't have any useable pictures of the game itself seeing as how it takes 3 hours to make something and it ends in about 5 seconds. The good news is that it was a pull-string, so it was not destroyed in that 5 seconds. My plan is to hang it in Mia's room.

Another game that I created was "Pin the Cupcake on Birthday Bear." I taped Birthday Bear to the same table cloth we had used for our photo back drop. This one lasted a bit longer than the pinata, and everyone was anxious to have their turn. We used Mia's winter scarf for a blindfold and that was very effective.

All in all, this was a great party. Things went smoothly. We had a nice turn-out. Everyone had a great time. Most of the things I planned came together almost exactly the way I imagined them. It didn't cost me very much. And most importantly, there was one very happy little girl. That's enough to validate all the time and energy I spent pulling this off.

Ka-Chow! A "Cars" Birthday Party

It's been about a month since Logan's third birthday party, so I really need to finish these posts. This will be the last one of a series of five posts. If you missed the first four, they were about the hand painted birthday candle, the DIY pull-string pinata that looked like Lightning McQueen, the "Pit Stop" game, and the Pit Passes.

I love coming up with themed parties, and I was very happy with how Logan's Cars themed 3rd birthday party turned out, especially since he was thrilled with it. I consider myself to be creative and it is lots of fun for me to come up with decorations, food, activities, and other things to fit with the theme of the party. I started planning ideas several weeks beforehand, and then I began creating the bigger items about two and half weeks prior to the party. Yes, this took time, but again, it was fun for me. I am not suggesting that every mom needs to do this sort of thing, and my goal is not to make other people feel bad if they don't throw elaborate themed birthday parties. However, if you are the type of person who really LOVES making things and you have the time and the ability, I say go for it. (Since I am home full time, I like to say that I have more time than money, forcing me to come up with less expensive ways to do something. This is really good incentive to be creative.) This is my gift, and I would not do this sort of thing if it was "work" for me. (There are lots of other "cool mom" things that I do not excel at, so everyone has their niche area.) I hope you enjoy seeing the ideas.

The Invitations:
In the interest of keeping it simple, I used this cute animated race track evite. I titled the party, "Welcome Race Fans!" and added this text, "Rev up your engines and race over to {Our Last Name} Speedway because Lightning Logan is turning 3! We will have Cars themed food and fun activities in the fast lane. Be sure to pre-register with the Pit Chief by 8/21 to reserve your pit pass, and don't forget to bring your own pit crew! (No presents are necessary.) 
~ Pit Chief Meg

The Food:
This food for this party was fun to make and it was well received by both kids and adults. The main dish was "Mack's Cheesy Wheels" or homemade macaroni and cheese using wagon wheel pasta (which is surprisingly hard to find) and for some reason I do not have a photo to share. I borrowed the idea from this blog and gave it my own name.

{"McQueen's Fruit Racers" were a big hit. I definitely recommend that you soak the apple slices in water with lemon juice since Red Delicious turn brown quite easily, but I soaked mine and they stayed nice looking. The wheels are made from halved green grapes and they're held on with toothpicks so you will want to watch kids with sharp edges. I found the idea for this snack here.}

{These were my weird brain child and not as popular as other food items. I had seen stoplights made from Rice Krispie treats with frosting and M&Ms and wanted to make a healthier version. So, I bought rectangular crackers, spread them with cheddar cheese spread, used a pretzel stick for the base, and put on slices of grape tomato, baby carrot, and green grape for the colors of "Sheriff's Stop Lights."}

{"Sally's Cozy Cones" are just Nacho Cheese Bugles in a bowl.}

{"Doc Hudson's Chocolate Dip Sticks" are pretzel rods dipped in melted Dove Chocolate Discoveries milk chocolate, because I couldn't bear to use bad chocolate.}

{"Luigi's Spare Tires" are store bought mini chocolate doughnuts stacked up high. I got the idea from here.}

{Please excuse the blurry photo. "Fillmore's Organic Fuel" is really Country Time Lemonade mix with about 5 or six drops of neon green food coloring added.}

Many of the food ideas came from this fun blog. The labels for the food were made in Microsoft Word using this checkered flag border clip art. I used the Magneto font in red for the lettering since it was the closest match I could find for the Cars logo font. For clip art images, I used the following: Lightning McQueen, Sheriff, Sally, Mack, Doc Hudson, Luigi, and Fillmore. I printed these all off on one page, trimmed them down with my paper trimmer, and adhered them to red card stock (first folded over into a card) using clear Con-tact paper. (For "Fillmore's Organic Fuel" I skipped the card stock and just affixed my sticker to the pitcher.)

The Cake:
A few months ago, I found this silicone race car cake pan on clearance at Marshall's for $3, and decided it was perfect for having a Cars themed birthday cake. 
 

{Here is the batter before it went into the oven. Logan asked for "swirl" cake. I found the cake mix at the store and then discovered it is just a yellow or white cake mix and you add in a packet of cocoa powder to some of the batter. I will keep that in mind for the future. Note: I accidentally overfilled the compartments and had to trim the pieces down after baking.}

{Here is the finished cake plus six cupcakes that I made with the extra batter. The cake display is just a piece of cardboard box covered with aluminum foil. I made buttercream frosting and dyed it red using the Wilton no-taste icing color, which I found at Jo-Ann. My biggest concern was getting a true red since I didn't think Logan would be pleased with a pink Lightning McQueen. I am glad I found the no-taste version, though, because I heard that red food coloring can be pretty yucky. Since I forgot to leave some frosting plain white for the eye, I added half a marshmallow with a blue M&M and black decorating gel to finish it. I used black McCormick food coloring from Walmart to do the tires and added red M&Ms to the centers. The lightning bolt is yellow decorating icing and the number 95 was a mix of that along with the red buttercream, I think. Since the cake was actually 12 separate pieces, I had to frost each one individually on all sides (I used an angled spatula, which is very handy) and then push them together to make the car look like one whole cake. This was a little extra effort, but it was worth it when I went to serve cake and didn't need a knife. I just pulled it apart with my hands. This is not the nicest looking cake I have ever made, but I had one very happy little boy, so that was all that mattered to me.}

{A decent pastry bag is nice to have. I used my Dove Chocolate Discoveries one for the cupcakes. The checkered flags I made with free downloadable scrapbooking paper, trimmed into 1" x 3" strips. I folded the paper over itself on a toothpick and secured it with a piece of double sided scrapbooking adhesive.}

{See my directions for making the birthday candle.}

The Decorations:

{My inspiration for this welcome sign that I taped to our front door came from this poster. I decided to skip hand lettering and go with word processing to make it easier for myself. The words "welcome to" and "gateway to Logan's party" are in Brush Script and "RADIATOR SPRINGS" is in Showcard Gothic. I used the word art feature to make all the lettering in outline format. Then I printed it on blue paper and colored in the letters with dark blue and red scrapbooking pens. I "laminated" my sign with two pieces of clear Con-tact paper.}

{To make this sign, I printed this image in Microsoft Word as large as I could and still have it fit on a single piece of paper. Then, I used tracing paper and went over the design with a pencil. I put my traced copy on top of a piece of plain white card stock and then traced over the pencil marks to leave an impression on the white paper. Finally, I went over the impressions with pink and turquoise scrapbooking pens. A ruler was helpful for this. I "laminated" my Flo's V8 Cafe sign with two pieces of clear Con-tact paper and then taped it to a kitchen cupboard so that it was near the food.}

{Making this 3D paper Tow Mater should have earned me a black belt in origami! I will warn you that by the time you cut out all the pieces, fold them, and glue them together, you will have invested about an hour and a half. It was super cute, though, and now he is living in Logan's bedroom on a shelf. Also, if you don't read directions all the way through before starting, I'll give you a tip: you will need brown string of some sort (luckily, I had embroidery thread on hand) for the tow cable, and something to make a hole with (I used a push pin).}

{You may remember this road sign from Logan's construction themed 2nd birthday party.}

{After 3 coats of white paint, I added some black Sharpie, and transformed it into...}

{... this new age-appropriate decoration. In retrospect, it makes less sense for a racing theme, but whatever. I wanted to re-use something, and I did.}

{I also made some hanging decorations for the chandelier with clip art images, clear Con-tact paper, and fishing line. Mostly, I used rectangular images because it was easy to match them up for making them two sided. One that wasn't a rectangle, but did line up well was the Cars logo. Another was the Sarge's Surplus Hut sign, because I actually found images for both sides!}

The Activities:

All of the kids received a "Pit Pass" with their name and photo on it. My husband got one, too, since he asked nicely only his said "Pit Crew." So, naturally I needed to make one for myself, which identified me as the "Pit Chief." My inspiration for this came from here.

I used our plastic bowling set to create a game I called "Tractor Tipping." (I was kind of proud of myself for coming up with this. My original idea was to paint aluminum cans and make it more of a bean-bag toss type carnival game, and then I realized this would be so simple and easier for the kids to play without help setting up.) I printed off several of this clip art image and then cut them out and used clear packaging tape to affix them to the plastic bowling pins. Easy peasy.

The "Pit Stop" game turned out pretty cool. I made it with one side of a dishwasher box, paint, black Sharpie, and some clip art images. See my previous post for more detailed directions.

This one is probably my all-time favorite. I have wanted to do a pinata for awhile, but never wanted to spend the money. I know am I tooting my own horn, but this Lightning McQueen pull-string pinata (formerly a cardboard box and some curling ribbon) turned out so well, that I really, truly amazed even myself. It was really one of those things that I pictured in my head and thought it would either be a spectacular success or a huge failure, and fortunately, it was the former.

Other activities were just having out the car mat and toy cars to play with plus the twisty race car track toy where the two cars spiral down. And, of course, they played outside. The nice thing about planning parties for little ones is that they can easily entertain themselves with very little.

The Thank You Cards:  
Even though the party was over, the Cars theme continued with the thank you cards.
 

{For the thank you cards, I took a picture of the birthday boy with all of his Cars gear and had several copies printed. I used red card stock for the cards and made two per 8 1/2" x 11" sheet. The photos are inserted into clear adhesive photo corners.}

{I made a fill-in-the-blank template for the cards once again using this checkered flag border. The wording says, "Dear ______________, Ka-Chow! Thank you for helping me to celebrate my 3rd birthday! Thanks also for the ______________________________________. I love it! Sincerely, Logan" and it is in the Magneto font. I also added this image of Lightning McQueen.}

{For the front of the thank you cards, I used this image. When I printed in in Microsoft Word, it was almost the perfect size for the card. I only had to trim it slightly.}

Cherry on Top Cupcake Craft

Oooh... I must have really been in the zone, creatively speaking, when I came up with this idea for a Mother's Day card (or gift). I think these cupcakes could also be used for Valentines or for a birthday gift for a special little girl or even as a gift for sweet teacher.

{Cupcake by Mia, Age 5}

Materials:

• white paper (We used 8" x 8" scrapbooking paper.)
• colored cardstock
• paper crimping tool
• scissors
• glue
• shaving cream
• food coloring
• tray/plate/bowl to hold paint
• paintbrush
• red pom pom
• green pipe cleaner 
• picture frame (optional)
• black marker (optional)

Directions:
1) Take your cardstock and run it through the paper crimper to get texture like a cupcake wrapper. Cut into a trapezoid shape. I found this template that should work if you don't want to cut the shapes freehand. Have your child glue the paper trapezoid "cupcake wrapper" to the paper, making sure to leave enough room for painting the top of the cupcake.

2) On your tray (We re-used a Styrofoam meat tray), squirt a small amount of shaving cream. Add a few drops of food coloring (We used neon pink) and mix with a paintbrush to get the desired color. Have your child paint "frosting" above the paper trapezoid. Set aside to dry. This takes awhile, and varies depending upon how thick your painting is. Ours was still a bit tacky after 24 hours, so this isn't ideal for last minute gifts.

3) Once paint is dry, glue a red pom pom onto the top of the "frosting" to make the "cherry."

4) Cut a short length of green pipe cleaner, shape as desired, and then glue by the top of the pom pom to make the cherry "stem." (I realize that cherry stems really are more of a brown color, but green seemed prettier.)

{Another Finished Cupcake by Mia, Age 5}

5) Once the cupcake is finished, you can turn it into a card by writing a message with a black marker. My ideas are along the lines of "Hope Your Mother's Day is Extra Special with a Cherry on Top," "Happy Birthday to a Sweet Girl," or "Thanks for Being a Sweet Teacher." Or, you can write your message and then place the finished project in a frame and then give it as a gift. (Michael's has 8" x" 8 frames for $4.99 that are perfect for this.)

Other Ideas:

• Mix paint with the shaving cream in place of food coloring. (If you are worried about stains, have your child wear old clothing or a paint smock. You might also wish to protect the work area with newspaper before starting.)
• Add sequins or beads to make "sprinkles" for your cupcake.
• Add a flower embellishment in place of the cherry on top. (Try felt or silk flowers since paper may not hold up the best on top of the shaving cream paint.)
• In place of colored cardstock, consider decorative scrapbooking paper for cute cupcake wrappers.
• Or, you could try using actual cupcake wrappers if you wish. (I felt that once you flattened them they lost the proper shape of the cupcake, which is why I decided to make ours from cardstock.)
• If you don't have red pom poms, buttons would make cute cherries, too. (They just won't have the same 3-D effect.)
• If you don't have green pipe cleaners, try short lengths of ribbon or yarn to make the cherry stems. (The nice thing about pipe cleaners is that you can bend them the way you want and they retain that shape.)
• I think this would be cute for things other than cupcakes. I am imagining a triple decker ice cream cone with 3 different colors of shaving cream paint... or an ice cream sundae ... or maybe even a whole cake. There are lots of sweet possibilities.