Friday, March 12, 2010

Cupcake Pallozza!

Today is the final day of prep for little miss Haleys birthday party! We have the place, the invites sent, and the goody bags ready! The last step is….THE CAKE!!!


Now anyone who knows me knows I am a birthday cake snob! I love to have the most original and fun cakes for my kids parties and have a GREAT lady who makes them for me.

(She doesn’t have a website but if you are in the Atlanta area and want her info let me know! )

However this year the budget is VERY tight and even though my cake lady would have given me a great deal I decided it would be better to attempt to make them myself. Usually before I call her about a party I search the internet for cake ideas, email her the pictures, and end up with cakes that looks like THIS:



YES that is Spiderman climbing up the cake!!!

So I searched the internet for ideas and came across:






I can do THAT…right?????

I got my cake mix and icing for about $0.40 each so that saved a good deal of money! I them purchased the following:

Tinkerbelle cupcake liners $2.00
Pink Sprinkles $2.00
Wilton 10 color pack (a bit of a splurge but I have been wanting these and they will last FOREVER!) $10.00

Fondant Items:
Marshmallows $0.89
2lb powder sugar $1.20


So total spent is $18.00 (including my lifetime supply of color)



Now I decided to venture into Homemade Fondant thanks to



CakesAndKids




HERE is her SUPER easy recipe!

I will update as I go but here are the first pictures…fondant is DONE!

I asked him to smile and got THIS.....


For the record we have owned this sifter thing since we got married 7 years ago...and today is the FIRST time I have used it!


Is it just me or does she look older...{{crying}}


Next while hubby made…

And what happens when you have too many cupcakes and left over fondant…



and don't forget Quality Control




So the GRAND total was $6.oo for over 30 super cute custom cupcakes! (since I didn't end up using the $2 sprinkles)
Don't forget! If you are alreayd a follower all comments count towards an entry to win a birthday prize pack complete with Tink Necklace, Tutu, and a FREE custom invite design by Amber!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

DIY No Sew TuTu's


I am counting down the days till my sweet baby girl turns 4! I have already posted about the party plans and how to make a custom invite here but NOW I am going to finish the week with how to…


Make No Sew TuTu’s

Make Tinkerbelle Cupcakes

AND THEN

On Saturday I will be giving away a Tinkerbelle Necklace, a no sew Tutu AND a custom invitation (or card) design by Amber! It will be just like you were there! All you have to do is be a follower AND comment! You can leave one comment per post and each comment will count as an entry! Also, if you are a fan of Atl Mom Guide of Facebook then you get ANOTHER entry…just let me know (in the comments) that you are!

Now for today’s post

How to Make {CHEAP} No Sew Tutu’s

Once again I checked Etsy for tutu’s but the cheapest one I could find was $5 and that’s a little pricey (in addition to the necklaces) for a party favor so I ventured off to figure it out for myself! I looked at a bunch of different sites for the general ideas but honestly I kinda had to figure it out for myself in the end. LOTS of trial and error! I did however determine that it takes approx. 1.5 yards of tulle to make a toddler/youth size moderately fluffy tutu. I say moderately fluffy because you could def use MORE and make it MORE fluffy but I thought the fluff was enough for a party favor!

Does that make sense?

Oh and the tulle at my Hobby Lobby was on sale for $1.30 a yard.

You will need:

Tulle (at least 1.5 yards per tutu)

Elastic (I bought elastic at the store. Each pack has a yard in it which makes 2. HOWEVER I also saw someone who used elastic headbands which may be cheaper and would cut out a step!)

scissors

Step 1:


Lay out the tulle and cut it (does not need to be straight line) in 2-4 inch strips twice as long as you want the skirt to be. For example if you want the skirt to me 4 inches long cut it 8…make sense?


Step 2:


I bought the elastic at the fabric store so I had to cut it in half then get it back together. I sewed it together with a needle and thread (if I can do it so can you!) but if you used an elastic headband you could skip this step!

Step 3:


Fold the tulle in half making a loop. You can use as many strips as you want depending on how fluffy you want it.

Step 4:




Put the loop through the middle of the elastic circle then pull the end up through the loop in the tulle.

Step 5:

Repeat…repeat…repeat…repeat!



It took a little getting use to but after a couple I can make one in about 5 minutes (after step 1-2 are done). My favorite part is that it is VERY artistic. You can add or change the lengths to make it look so different and EVERYTHING is fixable! It is IMPOSSIBLE to screw this up…trust me! My hubby cut the yellow tulle WAY to short so I just used it with the orange which he cut a little long (FYI he is no longer helping) to make a very unique looking sun tutu!


Any questions?
Ask away!

OH and the final cost was approx. $2.50 each! Not too shabby!

Be sure to check back tomorrow for Tinkerbelle Cupcakes…and order some Tastefully Simple to support St. Jude Children’s Hospital!

What is the BEST birthday party your kids have been to or had?



Tuesday, March 9, 2010

DIY {CHEAP} Tinkerbelle Necklaces

I am counting down the days till my sweet baby girl turns 4! I have already posted about the party plans and how to make a custom invite here but NOW I am going to finish the week with how to…


Make Tinkerbelle Necklaces

Make No Sew TuTu’s

Make Tinkerbelle Cupcakes

AND THEN

On Saturday I will be giving away a Tinkerbelle Necklace, a no sew Tutu AND a custom invitation (or card) design by Amber! It will be just like you were there! All you have to do is be a follower AND comment! You can leave one comment per post and each comment will count as an entry! Also, if you are a fan of Atl Mom Guide on Facebook then you get ANOTHER entry…just let me know (in the comments) that you are!

Now for today’s post

How to Make {CHEAP} Party Favor Necklaces

Our theme this year is Tinkerbelle! So I first searched Etsy and Ebay for cute cheap necklaces. Last year I found SUPER cute bottle cap Ariel necklaces for a great price! To bad this year I had no such luck so I was forced got to make them myself.

First I found these on Etsy for $0.80 each!


PLUS since I was ordering 14 of them the seller gave me a discount on shipping…this is one of the GREAT things about Etsy! If you are buying in bulk a lot of sellers will give you some kind of discount. I figure that it doesn’t hurt to ask! The worst they could say is no right?!

Next I had to decide what to make the necklaces out of. Luckily while walking around hobby lobby looking for ribbon for Cora I found THIS:



How perfect!

So I bought 3 rolls for less than $3 each.

I happen to have the circle link things (so professional I know) so I did not have to buy them but I can’t imagine they would be more than $2…maybe?

All I did was add the circle link thing to the charm


Fold the ribbon to fit through the circle


And VOILA!


Total Cost: $1.60 each

I made the ribbon long enough to tie and I think it turned our pretty cute. I may also secure the edges somehow…if you have worked with ribbon before and have a suggestion I would GREATLY appreciate it!



Be sure to check back tomorrow for No Sew TuTu’s!
and order some Tastefully Simple to support St. Judes!

What is something YOU have made for a birthday party?