Winter "One"derland Party

As I said in my previous post, my littlest princess turned one in November and we celebrated with a Winter "One"derland Party.  I really thought I took TONS of photos to share with you all, out it turns out, I did not ... sorry!  I do have some which is better than none I guess! 

First up, the table centrepiece...

I found a little metal tray in my Mother-in-laws collection of things, I have no idea where it came from but it was a nice size and fit my colours so I grabbed it!  I placed five mason jars filled with bunches of baby's breath on top and filled the rest of the tray with silver jingle bells and clear snowflakes (both from Dollar Giant).  SUPER simple to make!

I decorated the Christmas Tree with silver garland, purple snowflake ornaments (from WalMart) and snowflake ornaments crocheted for the party by my amazing Mom!  Each one is beautiful and truly are beautiful, this picture does NOT do any justice at all!

I crocheted a little Bunting to decorate the fire place (again bad picture), I wanted to decorate for the party and Christmas in one shot, hence "Let it Snow" versus "Happy Birthday".  I followed the instructions from Attic 24 (she seriously has some great projects!) for the triangles, from Moogly for the letters and I'm not sure where the snowflakes came from ... I made soooooo many different ones for the party from so many different places (however I only blocked these ones so I have a bag full of limp snowflakes for next Christmas!!!!), I'm sure you can find some patterns you love with a quick google search!  

I'm actually quite happy with this little bunting and look forward to using it again and again!

Here are the little Cornstarch dough ornaments made by me decorated by the kiddos and adorned with the tags from my last post!

If you haven't tried Cornstarch Dough, you really should!  It does need to be cooked, but it really is simple and is nice to work with!  Want to make some?  Check out The Imagination Tree for instructions.  I gave the kiddies silver and purple sparkle paint and let them go to it!  It was fun to see the differences between the ornaments and they were sooooo excited to help our guests pick out one to take home.

The "Goodie Bags" were very simple, I used to Cornstarch Dough recipe from the Imagination Tree and added about a Tablespoon of Cream of Tarter (it acts as a preservative), a bit of peppermint oil (I just dumped it in, sorry!) and a bunch of glitter.  After kneading it out I popped a little "snow" ball into a small container (Dollar Tree), topped with an ornament (Dollar Tree)

Somehow I missed taking pictures of the Hot Chocolate bar, but did get one of the delicious concoctions whipped up!

Doesn't it look scrumptious!  I made Crock Pot Hot Chocolate topped with Whipped Cream and your choice of toppings including: Crushed Candy Canes, Chopped Score Bars, Gingerbread Oreo crumbs, M&M's, Chocolate Sauce, Butterscotch Sauce, and of course Marshmallows!

All around we had a fun day and enjoyed celebrating the amazing, beautiful, cuddly, happy, precious little Missy we are blessed to call ours!

Thanks for joining me!

~ jenn

Gift Tags

My littlest princess has recently turned one!  We are celebrating this coming Saturday at her "Winter Onederland" party (I know its not actually winter yet, just go with me) and I am planning on sending everyone home with their own little snowflake that I have made out of cornstarch dough (seriously great stuff!) and the kiddies will be painting them in the next few days to make them extra special.  I know they will be beautiful little favors on their own, but I decided to make up some quick little tags to make the gifts more, gift like.

Aren't they cute!?!?!?  These little ditties are very quick to make and would make a wonderful handmade touch to your Christmas (or with a little tweaking birthday) gifts this year!  Want to make some simple tags yourself?  Comm'on you KNOW you want to!  I promise, you'll be so proud delivering your gifts with your own handmade tags!

First you'll need a few things: Heavy Cardstock, Ribbon or String, a Hole Punch or Crop-A-Dile, a Snowflake punch (mine is an old one from Martha Stewart), a Scallop Edge punch (mine is from Stampin' Up!) and a pair of Scissors or a Paper Trimmer.

First, you need to trim down your paper, I cut mine into 2" by 3" rectangles.

Next, trim off the top corners, I didn't actually measure, I just eyeballed the top 1/3 of the rectangle and cut toward the middle on an angle.

Now use your hole punch or Crop-A-Dile to punch a hole in the top

Then, I trimmed the bottom edge with my scallop punch.

Next, punch out a little snowflake (I liked it a little further from the edge then this one shows, but you get the picture)

Finally, thread your ribbon or string through the hole!

That's it!  Six simple steps to wonderful, handmade, tags that will knock the socks off of everyone!  Seriously!  No one expects handmade things anymore so spread some extra cheer this year (enjoy a few complements too!) by adding that special touch!

Thanks for reading!  

~ Jenn