My baby shower favors

We had our baby shower last week.  It was wonderful!  My sister asked me what theme I wanted for the shower and I didn't have a preference but I knew I wanted pumpkin pie, pecan pie and other autumn desserts.  The shower ended up just being decorated like it was Thanksgiving.  It was beautiful and so delicious.

I made the favors for the guests.  Nothing new, it was pretty much the same favor I've given at many other parties.  I already had some little boxes (from papermart.com) and I used one of  my favorite chocolates: Lindt Truffles.  Costco used to carry bags of the milk chocolate truffles all year long but in the last couple years or so, they only carry them just before and during the Christmas season.  The bag they carry now has assorted truffles:  milk, white, dark, peanut butter and 60% dark.  Oh So Good!!

 Here, my daughter and nephew were helping me fill the boxes.  Three truffles per box.

 

I made labels with MS Publisher and instead of using ribbon, I printed out orange and white checkers and cut them in strips to use on the favors.  

Shaun the Sheep favor bag labels

I made favor bags for my daughter's birthday that had chocolate and cookies it them. I wish I could have afforded to put a little Wallace and Gromit or Shaun toy in it, but I had to make 30 bags and couldn't afford to buy that many.

I was hoping to get light pink or light green favor bags. They cost approximately $4 for 12 at a few different stores. But then I found some plain white lunch bags that I bought instead. I got 50 bags for less than $3. But you (usually) get what you pay for. They bags were poorly made, the glue that was used at the bottom of the bag sometimes stuck to the sides of the bag and when I opened them up some were torn a bit or got wrinkled. They also were thin, so you could see some of the contents of the bag. Not a big deal though...I don't think the kids cared and these bags ended up in the trash anyway.

I used Microsoft Publisher to design a personalized label for each child that RSVP'd to the party. I cut them with my paper cutter.

A year ago, a friend gave me this thing. I don't even know what it is called. She is a scrapbooking master and she has all sorts of REALLY COOL paper punches and die cutters (I don't even know if that's what they are called! hahaha!) Well this little contraption, trims the corners of a piece of paper to round them out. I used this on the square favor tags.

I folded the bag and glued on the tag. And that's it!

My baby shower favors

I wanted to make the favors for my baby shower (which was last Sunday). The shower was a luau and I made the favors to match.

I borrowed my friend's Sizzix die cut. I've never used one of these, but I would love one!!! My friend also has a computerized one that makes the die cuts in any size you want and automatically cuts the number of die cuts you need. Someday after saving up, i'll get one of these because they are expensive!!

I glued the 2 pieces together to make the hibiscus. And i used regular paper and cut them in strips on my Fiskars paper cutter with a squiggly blade.

I made little thank you notes to put into the box with the chocolates.

I bought the chocolate from Costco.

mmmm yum. there were 4 flavors: milk, hazelnut, almond and crisp.

I put in 3 pieces of chocolate in the box with the note.

I made 50 favors

Some other things I made before I had this blog

i started a Flickr account and was posting some of my pictures there. i found i have a few pictures that i haven't posted here because they were taken before i started this blog. here they are:

i made these cupcakes last Christmas. They are chocolate cupcakes, covered with vanilla frosting and decorated with pieces of chocolate and a royal icing "carrot." I really liked these. I'll make them again this Christmas. by the way, it's only 6 months til Christmas, yay!!!!!!!

The next few pictures are from my sister's baby shower a year ago. This is the dessert table

my sister in law made these cute little ducky cupcakes

the favors were 2 inch boxes with chocolate inside. the ribbon was from Michael's and the ducks were from Wal-Mart. They were really cute fuzzy stickers

i filled the duck with miniature M&M's

mini lemon cupakes

This was the first cake I've decorated (a year ago). it's kind of messy. i still haven't taken a cake decorating class....i would really like to this summer

My nephews football themed, 1st birthday party

One of my nephews turned one yesterday!! we had a wonderful football/San Diego Chargers themed party.

i made the mini footballs from the cake ball recipe from Bakerella.

i left out the stripes on the edges of the football just to make it easier on myself. since i have trouble "drawing" with white chocolate, i just used white icing for the laces.

do you like our dessert table, table cloth? jane let us borrow this astro turf and gave us this idea (of making it look like part of a football field by using masking tape) which she used at her superbowl party this year.

3X3X2 box from Papermart filled with chocolate
football ribbon from Michaels

tiny smash cake for the birthday boy. i was pretty happy about this as this is only the 3rd cake i've decorated.

the green cupcakes are supposed to be a football on the football field. it doesn't look a good as i wanted. i've seen this type of cupcake before where it actually looks like grass. i don't have that particular tip, so i used a star shape instead.

i ordered the cupcakes with the Charger helmet on it from Ralphs grocery store.

spring birthday party

we had a very pretty birthday party for one of my nieces yesterday. she just turned 2 years old. it was a simple party with cake/dessert/ice cream. i volunteered to make the cake. it was hard decorating the cake as this is only the 2nd cake i've decorated before but i was happy with the results. i also made some chocolate covered strawberries in addition to the chocolate's in my previous post. here are some pictures

i love runnunculus (sp?)

i made party favors with 2 inch square boxes from papermart.com and used ribbon from michael's. the party favors had chocolate inside

i use trader joe's milk chocolate to cover the strawberries.

i found really cute tulip cups and fulled them with milk duds and m&m's

originally the cake had yellow beads around the top of the cake but i made the mistake of putting the cake next to a hot pasta dish in the car on the way to the party so the icing on the sides of the cake fell down. i scraped off the sides and redid it but didn't have time to add the beads at the top.

Wedding favors

125 favors

I made the wedding favors for my husband's cousin in Bulgaria. She is getting married next month. We aren't able to make it to the wedding by my in-laws will be going and they will bring the favors. a couple years ago I made similar favors for my parent's 40th wedding anniversary celebration. I bought the boxes from papermart.com, the truffles from Costco, and the ribbon from Michaels. My husband helped me with the writing the names in Bulgarian.

Easter treats

This Easter, instead of buying a bunch of plastic eggs and filling them with candy, i just bought Jelly Bellies and filled little bags to give away to some kids. i was trying to help the environment by not buying a bunch of plastic eggs that will just be thrown away. but i guess when the kids are done eating the jelly beans, they will throw away the packaging which is the same things. my sister was telling me that she took her kids to an easter party and there was a huge abundance of eggs for all the kids there. at the end of the party, the host asked the kids to take all the candy but to return the plastic eggs so they could reuse them next year. i think that's a great idea.