paper and cake: January 2010

Cool Candelabra for Valentine's Day

>> Thursday, January 28, 2010

red crystal candelabra from Gallery

acrylic baroque-tyle candelabra from The Well Dressed Home

modern Ghost Candelabra from Majool

LOVE BITES

>> Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Cup-wrappers and Valentine's rounds

Does your vision of Valentine's Day NOT include the color pink? We've got you bitten...we mean, we've got you covered.

This "Dark Moon Valentine" collection includes:

Favor Bag Toppers
Cupcake Picks
Stickers
Cards
Favor Bags
Coffee Cup Sleeves
Full Sheets Patterned Paper

Valentine's Cards

So swoop on over to our store for our Twilight inspired Valentine's Printables...and sometimes...LOVE just BITES!

Bag-Toppers

"That's Edward. He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him." she sniffed, a clear case of sour grapes. I wondered when he'd turned her down."
excerpt from Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series.

Favor Bags and Valentine's rounds for garlands or drink-glass charms

Cupcake Picks

Love may not be eternal, but at least the printable party can be beautiful...

Coming Soon! Valentine's Day

>> Saturday, January 23, 2010

Keep those eyes peeled... This zebra print inspired Valentine's Day collection is right around the corner!

Bag Toppers
Cupcake Picks
Stickers
Cards
Favor Bags
Coffee Cup Sleeves

We will let you know when this collection is available. In the meantime, "Luv Bugs" and "Valentine's Celebration in Damask" are in the shop today!

We're Going to Alt!

>> Thursday, January 21, 2010

We're heading off to Salt Lake City for the Altitude Design Summit! brrrr... we'll fill you in on all the good design news when we get back!

Weekend Brunch Recipes

>> Tuesday, January 19, 2010

We have a pretty serious Weekend Brunch tradition in our house; sometimes its just our family, sometimes we invite friends and neighbors. One thing is consistent though: Dad makes the meal!
Here are his two favorite recipes (and mine too...to eat that is).

The recipe for Swedish Pancakes was passed along from my husband's father...try them with a squeeze of lemon and powdered sugar, or sliced strawberries; or if you're feeling super adventurous you can do them my way with peanut butter and syrup...heaven! Click here for Poppo's Swedish Pancakes Recipe.

And my husband's latest creation, Frittata a la Dad! He strongly recommends using vegetables from your own garden or your local farmer's market because there's nothing like fresh seasonal produce. Click here for Dad's Garden Frittata Recipe.

...And have a great brunch next weekend!

Party Craft

>> Friday, January 15, 2010

Try this easy, sparkly drink charm craft for your next soiree...no more pewter grapes for you!

Materials Needed:

Earring Hoops (available from the craft store)

Jewelry Pliers (or anything you can use to bend a wire...like a fork)

Sequins (you need about 100 for each drink charm...experiment with shapes and colors)

Directions:

Open earring hoop and load sequins onto it. When the hoop is about 3/4 full, bend the end of the hoop to create a "latch"...

Ta-Da...make some for your next dinner party and color coordinate!

Chinese New Year Inspiration Board

>> Wednesday, January 13, 2010

clockwise from upper left: 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, asian-inspired cupcake tower from The Beehive, tissue pom garlands via Erin.Ever.After, a gorgeous floral display from Visual Vamp, gold fortune cookie placecard holder from Beau-Coup, DIY paper lanterns via Design Sponge!

I love throwing a casual Chinese New Year's Dinner Party...its so fun to decorate and easy to put together. This year I'm thinking of red, pink and orange as the color group, making dozens of easy DIY paper lanterns, buying some gorgeous flowers from the Flower Mart and a few pre-made tissue poms for added color!

And since I love to cook, but I also like to relax when hosting a party, I generally put together a few easy-to-make but impressive dishes and buy the rest pre-made or take out.

Click here for my semi-homemade won ton soup recipe

Mailbox Craft

>> Monday, January 11, 2010

Yup, you heard it... a craft from the mailbox. We (as I'm sure you do too) get catalogs in the mail almost every day, but the Nordstrom catalogs are SO beautiful, with fabulous pictures and glossy paper - it's a shame to throw them out. The kids and I sat down one afternoon and used a catalog to make a veritable flotilla of paper boats.

The supplies are simple, all you need for the boat is paper, and if you want to add a flag or sail to the boat, you will also need; scissors, hole punch, skewers and tape.

tip: do not use cardstock weight paper for this project

Boats:

Take a rectangular sheet of paper and fold in half, horizontally
Turn down corners of folded edge down, so edges meet at the center and crease
Fold to the outside the open long edge of the remaining rectangle for a cuff
Fold down the corners of both cuffs, following the angle of the triangle's sides
Pull long sides out so the bottom corners come together to create a diamond shape and crease
Fold up one bottom corner, making a triangle and crease. Repeat for other side
At the diamond's top, pull flaps out and away from center tip in a single smooth motion
Pinch boat's bottom edges and pull out so it stands

Flags/Sails:

Cut paper into flag or sail shapes
Tape onto skewer
Hole punch a very small hole at top point of boat
Insert skewer (tape underneath if necessary)
Take pictures!

Have fun! And let us know which catalog you recycled into paper boats.

P&C Real Life Parties ~ Fairy Wonderland

>> Friday, January 8, 2010

As it turns out, Cara, over at "Livin' the Yeh Life", is a friend of my sister Sarah. My sister told her all about our printable partyware and Cara was hooked!

She recently threw a party for her daughter's 3rd birthday using our Fairy Wonderland collection. Here is what she had to say:

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Fairy Wonderland!

For Natalie's 3rd birthday, she decided on a fairy theme. My friend's sister runs a great business called Paper & Cake, from which you can download pdf files for almost any themed birthday you like. You then print whichever items you like... (I printed a banner, invitations, thank-you's, and all the other things you see pictured below!)

This turned out to be a very frugal birthday party! Other than the goodies from Paper & Cake, I bought everything I needed from the Dollar Tree. For our first "craft," we colored fairy pages from a dollar store fairy coloring book.

Our second craft was a big hit... I bought giant pixy stix, pipe cleaners, and one package of foam butterflies. I had my mom sew 2 butterflies together, along with some tulle, and slid them onto the pixy stix. The girls decorated their wands by sprinkling "fairy dust" (glitter) on the wings, and putting beads on the antennas.

Our games were "Princess, princess, fairy," and "Fairy says." I'll let you guess what classics those were! Both were a little difficult for our crowd, but made for some good laughs for the adults!

Presents!

Cupcakes!

Our sweet 3 year old!

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Thanks so much for sharing Cara!

Cake Plates

>> Thursday, January 7, 2010

I am shamlessly reposting a craft from my previous blog adventure, but I just really love it, and wanted to share all things party...particularly these easy, lovely and inexpensive cake stands perfect for cupcakes and other sweet treats...

Step 1: Find charming plates and items to use as bases (such as candlesticks, tea cups, vases, etc..) I thrifted from my local Food Finders and spent all of $5.00 for 3 charming cake stands. Its a good idea to stick to a basic color group (I did amber and gold with touches of robin's egg blue)

Step 2: Fit plates to bases, playing with height, but making sure that the plates sit stably on the bases.

Step 3: Measure the diameter of the plate to determine its center (or you can just eyeball it if you're feeling like living on the edge!)

Step 4: Using an epoxy that's appropriate for glass and ceramics, adhere the base to the plate and let dry overnight. (Remember, epoxy is caustic stuff, so use outside or a very well-ventilated room.)

Step 5: Make tiny cakes and cookies and impress your guests!

Real Parties: Baby Shower Cookies!

>> Tuesday, January 5, 2010

A dear friend of mine hosted a sweet 1st Birthday for her son using our Paper&Cake French Circus Baby's 1st Birthday Collection. She took the images to her local bakery and had them transferred to cookies to give out as favors...brilliant! Here's a link to a DIY cookie picture transfer tutorial so you can do it yourself!

bag toppers from Paper&Cake with picture transfer cookies

How much do you love that for a DIY party on a penny?

Rainy Day Activity

>> Monday, January 4, 2010

What do you get when you cross a brand new "Cakelet" cake pan from Williams Sonoma, and a Cookie and Cupcake Decorating set from Kuhn Rikon with an entire day spent inside because of rain?

Well obviously, you get 4 super happy and super SUGAR energized kids!

The cake pan was a Christmas gift, and I used spray Pam with flour to ensure my box-of-cake mix didn't stick. One box would have made a pan's worth (6 cakelets) plus at least one single cake (had I not thrown out the rest of the batter). The spray Pam with flour is a DREAM and made those cakes just glide out of the pan.

For frosting, I made a double batch of royal icing - and separated it into 4 smaller batches to color with neon food coloring. I am still trying to figure out the "trick" to getting the icing into the little squeeze bottles - let me know if you have any tips for me - it is just plain messy getting them filled.

And lastly, have the vacuum cleaner nearby and plugged in, those sprinkles get everywhere!