Inspiration Board: Dia de Los Muertos

While I love Halloween, I really REALLY love the holiday that follows most closely on its heels ~ Dia de Los Muertos. I know that may sound morbid, but, seeing as its my birthday (hello, triple scorpio), and my favorite band of all time is Oingo Boingo (of Dead Man's Party fame), I can't help but love this bright, festive holiday that celebrates death and rebirth.

I love honoring my ancestors with an altar filled with flowers (usually marigolds), pan de muerto, and mementos. I love feasting on Mexican fare, creating sugar skulls, and dancing the night away. 

Here's a mood board to get you started on your own Day of the Dead Celebration. I usually do this party with a large buffet so people can mingle, lots of upbeat music and of course a pinata.

Check out AZCentral for a great history of the holiday. And click mexonline for a wonderful pan de muerto recipe. Here's page of Mexican Appetizer recipes to get your kitchen going and a place to order sugar skulls or try here if you want to make your own!

top row: sugar skull apron, papel picado, fun skull art

second row: Paper & Cake's perfect Dia de Los Muertos Party Kit, cool Dia invite, sweet felt skulls

bottom row: more papel, gorgeous skull charm (great favors? si?), and yes, more sugar skulls

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Party Recipe: Warm Sangria

I know, its a little bit early for a nice winter sangria, but its been chilly here and I've been craving my cousin's excellent warmed sangria for these brisk nights.

I'm thinking about serving it with a Spanish-Style Halloween menu...maybe? Anyhoo, we'll see; but in the meantime, I think we should all taste test some of this recipe. mmmm....

Ingredients:

•  1 bottles of dry red wine (like a nice dry pinot)
•  1 bottle of dry white wine (I used a dry reisling)
•  1 cup of white rum
•  1 cup brown sugar
•  2 cinnamon sticks
•  2 pears, cored and cubed
•  5 mandarin oranges, divided (you can also use 2 navel oranges or 2 blood oranges ~ leave the peels on)
• 1 lime, divided
  1 meyer lemon, divided
  (optional): handful of raisins or dried cranberries or figs

• In a large punch bowl or pitcher combine wines, rum, sugar and cinnamon stick. Stir in fruit. Refrigerate overnight (or at least 2 hours if your thirsty). Add to a heavy stock pot. Heat over a very low flame until just warmed through.
  
  
  To serve, ladle, making sure to add some fruit to each glass. (Make sure the glasses are at room temperature first so they can take the warmed sangria).
  
  
  And don't worry, I won't tempt you with my family's grappa tradition!

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Halloween Craft: Kid's Spooky Spinning Wheel (Free Download!)

Here's a fun little take on Spin-the-Wheel for kids that you can download for FREE. Why not add it to the activities for your Halloween Party this year.

Do you speak zombie?

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What's Going On?

Want to see a photo of Kira's new fabulous home office?

Did I mention she is still unpacking?



Oh, and did you have a chance to stop by Hostess with the Mostess? or Amy Nichols Special Events blog? Fab photos of our Bouncy Ball printable party in action.

Other than that, we are SUPER busy getting ready for Thanksgiving. It's our anniversary you know. I looked it up and apparently, the official third anniversary gift is "leather". Don't panic! There is still plenty of time to buy us a gift.


Hope you have a GREAT weekend!

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P&C Real Life Party: Lemonade Dinner Party

I was actually a little surprised when Amber at A Little Bit Biased threw this FABULOUS dinner party. How did she find the time, what with all quilting she does? Here is what she had to say...

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Labor Day Festivities

Yesterday we had a lemonade stand at my house. Well, actually, it was a dinner with a lemonade stand theme. My mom loves to entertain and really wanted to try out this theme by Paper & Cake Printable Partyware. We first saw it over at karaspartyideas.blogspot.com and if you have not poked around on either of these two blogs then you are in for a treat.  Stop by (and be prepared to be amazed ~ the creative minds featured on there are high class!)

Anyways, my mom got the printable party kit online and went to town!

This was our dessert table, minus the lemonade ice-cream cones. The lemonade ice-cream I like to make is so simple!!! It's just one container of vanilla ice-cream (softened) and one container of thawed lemonade concentrate. Refreeze in (two) graham cracker crusts or back in the ice-cream container for cones. You can't see the delicious Carmel brownies that my brother & sister-in law brought or the darling containers that held the lemon zest popcorn very well, but trust me when I say that we had quite the assortment of goodies.

Dinner was great too, but somehow we got side-tracked and forgot to take pictures of the food (it's easy how that happens huh?)

On the menu was:

Spiced Chicken & Grape Skewers,

Fried Smashed Potatoes with Lemons,

Asparagus,

Watermelon,

(and unfortunately, we omitted our tweaked version of the  

Nordstrom Cafe Carmelized Walnut and Pear Salad

due to time, but everything was delicious!)

We had a great time playing Kooky Croquet and just being together as a family...

(Gigi and Grandpa)

(The three little munchkins...)

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Fall Recipe: Pumpkin Bread

I LOVE pumpkin! Pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, stuffed mini pumpkins... but my favorite of all is pumpkin BREAD. Here's my recipe for Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Bread.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups cake flour flour
• 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups canned pure pumpkin (about 24 ounces)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup raisins
• sea salt or kosher salt
• 1 cup toasted pepitas

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a mini loaf pan with nonstick spray. Spread seeds out on rimmed baking sheet. 

Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in medium bowl. In a a large bowl, beat pumpkin and both sugars. Gradually beat in oil, then eggs 1 at a time. Stir in dry ingredients, alternating with buttermilk. Add batter to pan. Sprinkle top with brown sugar and pepitas.

Bake about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool. Sprinkle tops with the smallest dash of sea salt. (The salt really makes this bread, but don't over do it)

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Operation Give Thanks

Ah, and now the moment you have been patiently waiting for... it's time to give back!

Let me back up. A little while ago, Amy from Stem Parties asked if we would design and donate a printable party for "Operation Give Thanks".  OGT is a nation-wide fundraising event that will financially support Operation Shower so that they can continue the mission: to throw amazing baby showers for military families to ease the burden of deployment.

What are we going to say, no? (Have you met Amy?) So here is the deal. They are asking everyone across the nation to host a Fundraising Party (between now and the end of the year) using our printable partyware to raise money for Operation Shower.

Why? Because... "Our long-term goal is to reach every military base in the nation. Our short-term goal is to raise $50,000 through Operation Give Thanks to enable us to shower over 200 more moms-to-be! That’s right, if you raise $250 for Operation Shower, that enables us to throw a full amazing baby shower with gifts for a military mom to be whose spouse is deployed!"

So, download our FREE (yup free) printable party and host a fundraising event like:

    •    a small get-together with friends
    •    a moms night out
    •    a fundraising baby shower
    •    a wine-tasting party
    •    a craft party with kids
    •    a full-blown gala

If you decide to host a party, please email Lena or Amy (lena@operationshower.org or amy@operationshower.org) or visit the Operation Give Thanks website for more information!

Let's do it party people!

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New Party! Dinosaur Dig Printable Birthday

And the parties just keep coming!

How about the perfect Birthday for your little paleontologist? This ultra adorable Dinosaur Dig Party Collection just needs a couple kids, a dozen cupcakes, some 250 million year old bones, and bam! You've got the makings for a great bash of Prehistoric proportions!

What's new in this collection? How about these mini-popcorn boxes!

In this Dinosaur Printable Party set...

Invitation (fits A2 envelope) +
2" Cupcake Picks / Party Food Labels +
Cupcake Wrappers +
Treat Bag Toppers +
Pennant Banner +
Door Sign +
Water Bottle / Juice box / Milk Carton Wraps
Thank You and Envelope
Party Cone Hat
Gift Log
Mini Popcorn Box
Birthday Crown +

+ Customizable item: Did you know that the items with a + sign can be easily personalized using Acrobat Reader, a free download from Adobe.com?

party cone hats!

water bottle / juice box / milk carton labels

favor bag toppers

What else is new for this collection? Á la Carte! You can purchase just:

the printable Dinosaur invitation

or the printable Dinosaur Cupcake Picks 

which can be used as party food labels, favor tags, name tags or decorative garland

or the printable Dinosaur Pennant Banner

- can also be used as lawn dots!

 Let us know what you think.... and keep sending in your printable party photos!

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P&C Real Life Party: Fairy Wonderland Birthday

Katie, of Katie's Nesting Spot, continues to AMAZE as she throws yet another super crafty, super CUTE birthday party. This time, celebrating her daughter's 4th birthday, Katie uses our Fairy Wonderland printable party - and really takes it beyond our expectations! Here is just some of what she wrote...

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A Fairy Wonderland Birthday: Part 1, the Decorations

  

On Sunday ER celebrated her 4th birthday with the family and some close friends, this time with a Fairy Wonderland Party! I used the second printable party I won from Paper & Cake to make it memorable.

 

Guests were greeted with this sign. It's customizable and would also make a great place mat. If you replaced the "Welcome" with a little guest's name and erased the rest of the printing, the kids could draw on it. Each could create their own little fairy drawing, while waiting for food.

 

For our kitchen table we used the pinwheels, I created ahead of time, as our centerpiece and spread out a few of the fairy standees. Cupcake picks also make great table confetti, and mini drink coasters as ER figured out. You can customize several of the picks on the page before printing. ER's name was added to them, which she loved.

 

Here is a close up of the fairy standees, I plan on using these as scrapbook embellishments when I do the layouts for ER's birthday. They were printed on acid free cardstock and are ready to go! The favor baskets, without the handles, were turned into little candy dishes that held pretty chocolate mints.

 

I double printed the papers to made the favor baskets and pinwheels. So as not to waste anything, leftover scraps became paper napkin rings.

 

The rest of the full patterned paper scraps were used to make food labels for our buffet, along with more cupcake picks. We had grilled burgers, chicken apple Gouda sausages, fruit salad, and baked beans. Plus my friend Margaret brought her fabulous bean dip for us to munch on ahead of time. I'll share that recipe soon!

 

It was a pretty simple menu with old family favorites like my mom's pasta salad and new ones, like strawberry spinach salad with lemon poppy seed dressing. I'm still bugging her to give me so I can share it with all of you!

 

ER requested party straws for her birthday so I turned the cupcake picks into straw decorations. They served the dual purposes of making the party fairy-licious AND more importantly, helping everyone keep track their cup. I put them out in a photo mug made with pictures of the birthday girl. We made those last Christmas as gifts and for once I even ordered one for myself. I love mine and high recommend you make one for yourself, pronto!

  

The last thing I made for ER's birthday was this fairy banner. ER really liked the fairy illustrations and along with the happy birthday pennant banner were some with just the fairies. I used them with some favorite photos of ER playing dress up and in her dance recital costume to make a banner for our fireplace mantle.

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Giving Back

Abigail here. I'm not sure if you can tell the difference between our writing styles? or maybe you just know it's Kira writing when it's a craft or (especially) a recipe. I was just feeling like sharing something personal today...

Kira and I decided long ago, that if this crazy business of ours ever made any money that we would be sure to donate a percentage of it. We decided on 5% (for now anyway) to split between two causes that are near and dear to our hearts.

In 2002 - the same year my daughter was born - my friend of over 25 years was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. You have probably heard me mention a time or two (or one hundred thousand) that for the past 7 years I personally have raised money to participate in the Southern California MS Challenge Walk (50 miles!). The event requires each walker to raise a minimum of $2500 - but this year, with the help of Paper & Cake, I raised $4255. The 2010 MS Walk took place at the end of September - and we had a great time! And we had a tough time. And we will do it again next year. 

Kira has a cousin with a little boy named Oliver. Oliver is vivacious, intelligent playful boy of four. He has the most persistent form of CF, but thankfully has not been to the hospital for more than his regular barrage of appointments this year. 

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide). A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections and obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.

Aside from the annual donations we make (toward curing these horribly depressing diseases), we have created a Pink Plaid Printable Party that when sold, we will donate 50% of the proceeds to Susan G. Koman for a cure foundation. Haven't we all had enough with Breast Cancer?

Thanks for all your support :) Okay, enough with the serious stuff... real life parties on tomorrow's blog!

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Sneak Peek: Printables for Operation Shower

We were so thrilled when our dear friend Amy at Stem Parties asked us to create a printable baby shower collection for Operation Shower.

Here is just a peek at what we came up with... a design that reflects a little bit of military tradition, but still sweet and soft. With three colors to choose from, blue, pink and green, every mom-to-be will feel like the decor was tailor-made for them.

Stay tuned for more news from Amy, and information how you too can get involved with Operation Shower!

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New Party! Creepy Chic Printable Halloween Party

What do you get when you cross art deco and spiderwebs? Well, Creepy Chic of course. Celebrate Halloween with some serious style using this eclectic deco inspired collection - that includes a printable Chandelier!

Creepy Chic Printable Halloween

Favor Box Labels

2” Rounds

(can be used as; cupcake toppers, party food labels, favor tags, name tags, garland)

Chandelier

Bag Toppers

Paper Doilies

cupcake picks and doilies

May we suggest carrot cupcakes for this party? I have the BEST recipe!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 pound carrots, grated medium fine

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

1. in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment, beat the eggs at high speed until light and frothy, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to medium and add the oil, sugar, and salt, and mix until just combined. Decrease the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

3. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the carrots.

4. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners.

5. For cupcakes, bake 20-24 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

And for party favors... these clear plastic boxes make any gift look SPOOKTACULAR! Just type in your label information, print on cardstock, and add a little glitter (of course). Whether you fill them with popcorn or cotton candy, you have super Chic Halloween favors.

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