The bride and groom are very environmentally friendly so they wanted to integrate that into the theme of the party.  They chose a color scheme of sage green, cream and brown.  They had pretty much figured out their menu so just wanted my help with some  decoration ideas, games and table set up.  I put together a custom party package for her.

Included in the customized party planning guide is an idea board.  To tie in with the environmentally friendly theme, we decided to use a lot of burlap (reusable) to make gift bags for the party favors and the table decor.  I even suggested a fun burlap banner on which they could stencil the couple’s last name!

Here is what the idea board looked like.

The Party Planning Guide includes suggestions for theme, menu, party favors and game ideas along with information on how to create them and links to recipes.

If you have an upcoming party that you would like some help with please fill out my Party form and we can chat!   I’d love to put together a personalized party planning guide for you!

What a fun way to present a bride with the towels she registered for – in the form of a cake!!

Thanks to blog reader Ellen for passing on the following links to two great sites where you can purchase a diaper cake if you don’t want to make one yourself.  Or if you want to make your own there is some great inspiration here!!

Diaper Cake Walk

Diaper Productions

Do you have a photo of a special cake you  have created?  We’d love to share it here on Your Homebased Parties.  Just email the photo as a jpeg to www.yourhomebasedparties.com.

That’s just what a couple of you have done with the candy bar cake idea we shared here on the blog!!

Thanks to Jenni for sharing her darling version of a candy bar cake.  I really like the smaller size….

and here is Carolyn from Australia’s version!!  Yes, all the way from Australia.  Love her use of ribbon and a candle on top!

And here it is all wrapped up and ready to give to someone.

The other cake idea we shared this week was that cute diaper cake.  My niece Michelle sent me a few more photos of another darling diaper cake she made – so cute!!!  Won’t someone I know please have a baby so I can make one of these!!

Do you have a picture of a fun cake you have made?  Any kind of cake?  I’d love to share them here on Your Homebased Parties.  Just send the picture in a jpeg and brief description of the event the cake was for and I’d love to highlight you and your cake here on the blog!

I must admit I’ve had so many projects going on lately I have only watched a few highlights but my husband has kept me up to date on all that is going on!

Thanks to my niece Michelle (yes the diaper cake Michelle) who shared this great idea for a fun  family Olympic Dinner Party that her sister in law, Heather,  put on.

You still have a few days to pull this together and it might be a perfect way to watch the closing ceremonies on February 28nd!

Why not enjoy a Canadian feast prior to the ceremonies.  A great way to learn a little about another country.

Here’s the menu from Michelle’s Olympic dinner party:

Salmon from British Columbia

Wheat bread from Saskatchewan

Potatoes from Prince Edward Island

Pouding Chomeur from Quebec.

So I had never heard of Pouding Chomeur and I am even half Canadian (my dad was born and raised there) so I had to google it.  Come to find out it is a dessert that comes from Quebec and actually means poor man’s pudding.

It was created by female factory workers in 1929 during the Great Depression. It consists of a mix of flour, water, brown sugar, and other cheap ingredients that were common during the era.

I found a recipe for it here.  If you try it – let me know what you think!!  It’s got maple syrup on it (which makes it even more Canadian) so it can’t be that bad!!

(Heather admits her menu was loosely Canadian and none of the food actually came from Canada )

Heather put together a pretty table complete with maple leaf place cards and used the red and white colors of the Canadian flag for her table decor.  She even ad an Olympic Torch centerpiece!

If you are looking for a few more last minute fun Olympic ideas check out The Idea Door.  Who wouldn’t want to win a chocolate chip cookie medal!  Check it out!

Thanks to Michelle and Heather for sharing this fun Olympic family dinner party!

My niece Michelle is a cake decorator extraordinaire! She recently helped host a baby shower and this is the amazing cake she made for the party.

Isn’t it darling!?  I loved the color scheme for the party – red and teal.  Do you recognize that cute little cupcake?

Here’s a close up view.   Michelle is a master with fondant!

Michelle made another cake for the shower too.  This cake didn’t taste quite as good but it was just as cute and very useful!

It’s a cake made out of diapers!

I asked Michelle to share with us how she put together the cake.  Here’s her great tutorial.  Thanks Michelle!

Supplies you will need:

*2 big packages of Pampers Swaddlers- it needs to be Swaddlers for a few reasons:
1. They are all white.
2. They seem to be a little bit stiffer and hold shape better than other diapers when you roll them (I used 117 diapers for this cake, you may need more or less depending on how tall you make it, and if you have other fillers in the middle)
I recommend using a size 2 diaper instead of a newborn or size 1. That way, the mother doesn’t need to take it apart right away to use it before the baby grows out of that size diaper.
*4-5 yards ribbon (I used two colors, but I didn’t do any bows. Had this been for a girl, I would have used more to make some big bows)
*Cans of formula, or bottles for the center (Or more diapers to fill it in)
*Baby socks
*Other baby supplies like pacifiers, small clothing, etc. almost anything for baby can be added to the cake.
*Card with poem (you can get that off my blog)
*Card board circle or something sturdy to put it on. I used my kitchen lazy susan, but a big Pizza Pan works well, and it’s only about $3 at Walmart (and is best if you are transporting the cake somewhere- they can get heavy)
*Rubber Bands
*Wooden dowel- this will go through all the layers to hold it all together. The circle decor thing (I don’t know what you’d call it- I found it in the floral section at Hobby Lobby) was all attached to it’s own dowel, so I just used that.
I also like a cute kind of topper. I used the stork and baby (it’s a topper for a real cake) but I have seen signs made from paper that say “Welcome ________” (baby’s name) I have an embroidery machine, so I actually had that embroidered right on the ribbon that I was using around the tiers. Sometimes a baby item, like a little pair of shoes also makes a great topper.

Assemble:
Once you have the supplies, take a diaper, roll it from the end to where it folds, put it inside a rubber band (I use the big ones that my mail comes in) as you roll more diapers, keep adding them to the inside of the rubber band until you get the base the size you want. If you are including a can of formula, that would actually go in the middle, with the rubber band around it, and you would keep adding the diapers around the can. Bottles work well, too, if they are the same height as the diapers.

Do the same for the next layer, making it smaller that the base by 1 row of diapers. Make as many tiers/layers as you would like. I did 4 layers, but 2 or 3 look just as nice.

Take your widest ribbon and cover the rubber band with it. It works best to safety pin the ribbon closed in the back. You can cover the pin with something, or even use diaper pins (if you can find them- I couldn’t) to secure it. I alternated the ribbon, you can do that or use the same- just use your creativity!

When all the layers are made and the ribbons attaches, stack the cake and insert the wooden dowel through the, placing it as close to the middle of the layers as you can.

Now the fun part: Decorating the “cake”

To make the sock roses, unroll a sock. Starting at the toe, roll it back to form a rosette. If they are lacy socks, the lace will look great turned back up a little around the base of the rosette. You can use some extra ribbon to be the leaves. I also used a wash cloth around a group of socks. Secure the rosettes individually with a small rubber band. These can then be inserted in between the diapers, or laid on top, however you think it looks best.

Add other baby items. You can use floral wire and sticks, or double stick tape, or even tie things on with ribbon. You can add as few or as many other items as you would like. Blankets can even be folded the width of the diapers and wrapped around one of the layers.

Michelle display the cake along with this cute poem:

Here is a cake made with love

Though I wouldn’t call it yummy

For the ingredients used go on the baby

Not inside your tummy.

Flour, sugar, milk, and eggs

will make a cake so sweet

But diapers, formula, and baby socks

make a handy treat.

Photos courtesy of Little Starling Photography.

Thanks Michelle for sharing your amazing talent with us.  Please let us know if you have a fun cake – edible or not that you have created.  We’d love to share it here on Your Homebased Parties!

A cake made out of your favorite candy bars – who wouldn’t love one!

I think it is the perfect gift for just about any chocolate/candy loving person in your life.  I know a few college age boys who would love one!!

Here’s what Laurie has to say about her idea:

Here is an idea that I’ve used for years for our parties and gift-giving… Candy Cakes! It’s been so much fun making them for family and friends. The “cakes” usually end up being the hit of the party. My daughters like making them for their friends and I love seeing their variations.

These Candy Cakes usually cost less than $10 to make and can be customized for any event. They can be made up well in advance since they don’t get stale like real cakes. They can be assembled anywhere (even in a hotel room if you’re traveling). I usually use round tins with solid colored sides (I discard the lids) but as you can see in my photo, other shapes work well too.

For the cake shown below Laurie found a 25-bar variety pack of candy bars at Target for $6.99 (did not use them all) plus a few smaller bars for the top tier. The tins were 50 cents at her local thrift shop (she runs them through the dishwasher first and I bet you could find some at the dollar store too).

 Thanks to Laurie for the great step by step tutorial!

Step One:  Gather supplies.  candy bars, tins without lids, cardboard circle, foil, double sided tape, paper shred.

Step Two:  Cover cardboard circle with foil.  Attach several strips of tape to top edge of largest tin.

Step Three:  Place tin upside down (i.e. taped side down) in center of cardboard circle.

Step Four: Attach a smaller tin on top if desired using tape.

Step Five:  Using strips of double sided tape, attach candy bars around bottom tin.

Step Six:  Use several strips on each candy bar to make sure they adhere well.

Step Seven: Keep adding candy bars around tin.  Try not to eat any!

Step Eight: Finished with bottom tin.

Step Nine: Repeat on top tin with smaller candy bars.

Step Ten:  Add paper shred if desired.

Step Eleven:  Add a paper strip on top…

or a bow….

or a fun toy or even a tiny blue pail filled with even more candy.

Perfect for any occasion!

Wrap in cellophane for the finishing touch and easy transport.

Who are you going to make your first candy cake for??

The theme of the event was preparedness and food storage – the event was called “Stockin’ Up!”  There was a great guest speaker from Arizona who shared with us her method for storing food and being prepared.

Since we were unsure how many people would attend we decided to go with a dessert bar.  We did bar cookies because those would be easy to cut into smaller pieces if we had more people than we expected.  We planned on 200 and had over 350 people there so we quickly cut all the bar cookies in half and it worked great.

For a list of the bar cookies served and the recipes go here.

Of course we had a budget to work with for the event and bar cookies are great way to stretch your budget because you can cut them big or small. 

I also came up with a few fun ways to stretch that budget with the table decor.

One of my favorite things to use on a serving table is cake plates.  Not only are they pretty but they create nice height on the table.  So using the theme of the event – food storage  and stocking up I created my own cake plates out of canned food and other items found at the dollar store!

I used a combination of clear plastic and silver serving plates from the dollar store along with some canned food I bought there.  Our color scheme for the night was green and pink so I found some canned fruit with pink, green and yellow labels – perfect!

Because the plates were fairly lightweight we used some duct tape to attach the plates to the cans so they didn’t topple over when people reached to get a bar cookie  – thanks to my husband and friend Jeannena for figuring all that out for me!!

I always like to lay out the serving table with all of its serving pieces beforehand – to make sure that it looks good and the table is well balanced.

Of course a centerpiece of flowers in a large can added the perfect touch!  The flowers and the pink and green ribbon came from Costco and helped tie everything together along with the pink and green sheer pieces of fabric we already had from another event.

I also created little place cards in my Creative Memories Storybook Creator software that sat on little stands I found at the dollar store!!  I like to know what I’m eating!

The total spent on table decor was very little and was created mainly out of things from the dollar store!

Of course the table always looks prettier when it is full of food!

What’s your best budget saving table decor ideas?

Please excuse my lack of posting here at Homebased Parties.  A combination of technical problems due to a mean old blog hacker and a case of tennis elbow have slowed me up a bit!  I’m getting back into the swing of things here though and have lots of fun party ideas to share with you.  If you have a fun party idea to share I’d love to hear about – send me pictures!  You could be a Party Guest here on the blog!!

As you may remember I celebrated a pretty big birthday earlier this month!!  In fact I turned 5 decades old.

My friend Sherra who lives in Atlanta wasn’t able to be at the party but she sent me the most amazing gift.  I wanted to share it with you because it is the perfect gift idea for someone celebrating one of those milestone birthdays – the ones that end in zero!

She helped me take a trip down memory lane, through the 5 decades of my life.

Of course, who doesn’t love to receive packages in the mail?!  Especially when they are filled with lots of other packages!

In fact there was a present and a picture  for each decade of my life!
 
I was so cute back in the 60’s!

Sherra found this amazing vintage – yes I guess I am old enough for something from my childhood to be called vintage – party book.  It was perfect and I absolutely love it.  It reminds me of a Betty Crocker Children’s cookbook I had as a child!

And then the 70’s, not such a great look with my long straggly hair.

But I actually squealed when I opened the 70’s gift – it was a coaster made from an old 45 of Donny Osmond singing “Go Away Little Girl” and an entire CD of Donny!  I love it!!  Yes, I was one of those teenage girls with posters of Donny all over my bedroom!

And then the 80’s  complete with my nice permed hair and my first baby.

What a better gift for the 80’s than a collection of great 80’s hits!  Remember Wake Me Up Before You Go – Go by Wham and Change of Heart by Cyndi Lauper?!

And then there was my business look of the 1990’s

I love the Southern Living magazine so was excited to get their collection of  their best recipes from the 1990’s!

  
Think I’m looking a little better in the 2,000’s!

One of my dreams was to travel to Italy with some girlfriends to celebrate our 50th birthdays together and take cooking classes.  Unfortunately that dream isn’t going to come true this year (I’m going to England instead!!) but Sherra sent me another cookbook with lots of yummy Italian recipes so I can teach myself!

And then there was the Here & Now.

This present was some of my favorite things!  Pretty notebooks and some great motivational art!
 

Wasn’t that an amazing gift!  Sherra did all of her shopping on Etsy.

In fact, it’s been a lot of years since someone gave a party for me….

But that all changed this weekend when my sweet family and dear Beach Babe friends (a group of women I have known for over 20 years)threw a surprise party for my 50th birthday. I know, it’s hard to believe, but I am 50!!!

I have a couple of other girlfriends that also turn 50 this year. For years we talked about celebrating our fiftieth birthdays together, in Italy, taking cooking classes. Well, over the years life happens and things change and we knew that the dream was no longer a reality, at least not right now. When my Beach Babe friends heard about the lost dream they knew that the party they were throwing for me needed to have an Italian theme!

We were greeted at the door by this lifesize menu!

There was lots of yummy Italian food to enjoy.

I have some friends that are very good cooks!
 

My family had done a great job of compiling a guest lists and so many of my friends from different parts of my life were all there!

And my sweet parents were there to celebrate with me too.

My family put on an entertaining program complete with a printed program.  Thanks to my good friend Julie who is the queen of organization who put together the invite, program, menu etc.

Logan and Cali did the 12 hours of mom’s day sung to the 12 Days of Christmas – it was hilarious and their actions were even more entertaining!

On the first hour of mom’s day her to do list said….

One ten mile walk in a weighted vest

Two Webinars

Three Scrapbooks

Four care packages

Five diet cokes

Six grocery store visits

Seven trips to Anthropologie

Eight million pictures

Nine books to read

Ten recipes to cook

Eleven phone calls to kids

Twelve new blog posts

Next on the agenda was a song by my friend Merrill set to The Impossible Dream.  Part of it went like this…

“To write the unwritable blog, to bake the unbakeable bread, to live in the Garden of Eden…..

Clark and Tessa helped out with the entertainment too.  They put on a skit about Jim and I in another 50 years!  They were hilarious and pretty much nailed us!!  Complete with Jim’s plaid shirt and baseball cap and my multiple pairs of glasses!

Then Logan sang a sweet song from Fiddler on the Roof called  “Mama, a Rainbow.”  The words start out, “What do you give to the lady who has given all her life and love to you?  …..What can I give you, what will your present be? Mama young and beautiful, always young and beautiful.  That’s the Mama I’ll always see.  That’s for Mama with love from me.”

Of course it made me and just about everyone else in the room cry!

The program finished up with a few funny things from Jim and my Mom, or at least they thought they were funny!

The program concluded when Jim presented me with my birthday gift.  To read more about it check out my post over at Your Homebased Mom.  Of course I loved it and it made me cry too!

,

After the program we had birthday cake, my favorite – lemon poppyseed creamcheese from Beaverton Bakery! 

And my husband made a sweet toast.

Thanks to my amazing friends the Beach Babes….

and my wonderful family for making this a birthday I will never forget!

Turning 50, just the beginning of a great new era in my life.  Maybe I’ll go to Italy for my 60th!!

Her darling daughter Addy recently turned two and Meg created a fun and magical family celebration for her daughter.

Balloons always add a fun and colorful touch to any party and are the quickest and easy way to establish a color theme.

Meg used her creative abilities to create this easy and inexpensive but darling banner to celebrate Addy’s big day!

The banner is made out of pink paper plates from Target- how cute is that!
 

Meg added some letters to spell Addy’s name and the number 2 which she cut out of paper along with some other cute embellishments and ribbon. Meg’s creativity didn’t stop there, she made a darling little apron for Addy too. (Simplicity Pattern 3802)

Addy looks so cute in her cupcake apron and is perfectly attired to serve tea with this darling tea set  her mother made out of felt for her.

Since little Addy is definitely the princess at her house who better to grace the top of her birthday cake then  Cinderella! (cake from Safeway)

Here’s what Meg had to say about the special day she created for her daughter:

For my daughter’s second birthday I wanted to keep things relatively low key and thought a tea party day with mom would be a memorable way to celebrate her special day. I spent the weeks prior crafting her a little felt tea set and sewing a darling hostess apron out of her favorite fabric! We spent most of her birthday morning picking up the cake and prepping for our little party. She chose a Cinderella cake and a variety of pink and green balloons. Then we dressed up and played with our treasures. It was a wonderful day, filled with meaningful make believe and a magic that we both enjoyed.

What a lucky little two year old.  Thanks to Meg and Addy for sharing their special party with us here at Your Homebased Parties!