Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Monster Truck Party :: Reveal!

Hello all!!

I know I haven't posted in awhile, but hopefully tonight's photo overload makes up for that :)

Jason had his little "staycation" this past week, so we were able to get started on a few projects this week, so hopefully soon pictures of that will be up as well! Aside from that, we are slowly trying to settle into the new "normal" that is NO SCHOOL.
 Blah :)

So, FINALLY, here is the Monster Truck Party we have been obsessing over for the past month:



This picture is what the kids first saw when they entered the "party room". This was one of my favorite memories of the party; all the kids came in exclaiming, "WOW! MONSTER TRUCK WHEELS!" I honestly do these parties for reasons like that :)












The Birthday Boy seriously bugged me every single day until the party for one of these pouches. When the day finally came, he couldn't wait to hand them out to all his friends!










It's always been a tradition for Jason to make the cakes for the parties, and he did not dissapoint! A little boy's dream cake, right??




The Blowouts everyone voted for!!! And yes, I realized that AFTER I took this photo, that the GraveDigger is still backwards...oooops :) 


Every party has one "element" that is my favorite. For this party, hands down, these favor boxes were it. I loved how they turned out! And look at how great the tape turned out! I told you I would find a way to use it :)  Best part? The boxes were all the extra from the Care Bear party cookies, so they were FREE! 






From Dreams to Reality!


Remember the plan I came up with a month ago? It's always fun to see how all the "plans" actually pan out: 






Not too far off, right??

I hope you had as much fun looking as I did creating this party!


xo,
Rachel















Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Behind the Scenes :: Monster Truck Party

Hello!

Today I want to do a little "behind the scenes" action from our Monster Truck party, because I know a lot of people may wonder how I get to some of my "after" moments.

I'd like to say that there was a method to my madness; some kind of event planner "secret", but really I just get crafty with whatever I have around, making stuff out of {literally} junk. To say the least, there are plenty of "make it work" moments :). And with that, comes a lot of creative ideas. I promise you, the moment's I am most creative are born out of the times that I am completely stumped on how to do something!

The first project that I want to show you are the track mark tablecloths that {with a little assistance from me}, the birthday boy made. The idea was born from something I came across when researching ideas for the tires we bought. You can see that post here.



I loved the idea of creating track marks for the table top. The tires we had just seemed too big to make the marks; the smaller hotwheel toys too small, but J's larger Gravedigger toy was just perfect ........
of course, looking back now, I kinda wished I went bigger :) Isn't that the way it always works!

I love this project because it was a great way to get Jameson involved. And it was a super cheap way to create something custom for the party. The tablecloths were from Oriental Trading, and pretty cheap. I was worried that the paint wouldn't stick to them, but we had not trouble at all. The paint was brown tempura paint {poster paint} I have seriously had since I did his 2nd Birthday Party!



Jameson got really into it, and really thought about how the tracks should go. He had a blast! Afterwards, before it could dry, we washed off all the paint off his toy.

Easy-Peasy, right???

The second thing I did was create stands that would not only hold and display some of our trucks, but actually prop them up so they would look like the were heading towards each other. I did this the day before, with no concept in mind, just knowing I would have to find stuff around the house.


And enter the oriental trading boxes that half the party supplies came from! Those boxes + wrapping paper {which I needed anyway} + the roll INSIDE the wrapping paper = some awesome stands!! I love this project because it was F.R.E.E.



This is where that creativity I talked about earlier comes into play. I had NO idea what I was going to do for these....as I made it and pushed the roll into the box, something about the height sticking out made me think of the leftover tape I still had.....and boom! We have flames :) And to think I almost wrapped these babies up in paper! The stickers were an after thought because (1) the fabric wasn't as tight to the box as I wanted, so these secured them a little and (2) they were right next to me on the counter from where I had left them after making the pudding desserts! And the fabric?? I I only thought of it because I thought the front looked too plain.

Here's a sneak peek of them in action:



In a room full of Kindergarteners, almost every boy there was able to read the words "Gravedigger" and "Grinder". ha!


My last behind the scenes moment is how I craft some of the dessert and candy displays.





Once again, anything I can find around here or the dollar store!! Add a little crinkle paper, and you have one good looking piece to put on your table :




.....and if you're one of my lucky guys, you get a little bit of loot, as well :)





Hope your day is sweet as well and that you found some of these tips helful.

xo,
Rachel




Sunday, May 20, 2012

Nestling Weekend

So, the Monster Truck Party has come and gone.

It was so much fun and went off without a hitch :) How often do you every get to say that about anything???

Here's a peak at some of the excitement....can you tell our birthday boy had a good time? LOL



Can't you just see the excitement in is face ?!






Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend as well :)

xo,
Rachel

Friday, May 18, 2012

Mud Pit Pudding!

Hi!

I have seriously been decorating my little cookie-loving heart over here, so there is no Freebie Friday... but I am not leaving you completely empty handed!

Jameson's class at school celebrated his birthday today in class, so we {of course} brought in a dessert for his friends to share.  And {of course} I made sure to tie it into the theme of the party :)

Because, I'm good like that.

 It actually worked out really well, because the venue we are having his party at does not allow "wet" treats (read:pudding), so I got to live out my mud pit dreams through his school. Plus, I happened to have a bunch of sheets of monster truck stickers that were given to us as a replacement for a cancled order throught Ebay....only 12 sheet, so not enough to hand out in goodie bags, but enough for me to cut out and create pics from. I love when decorative things actually serve a purpose instead of being something you just throw away. Perfect!


I knew from the second we got the kid's reactions that the treats were a success. The mud is chocolate pudding and the dirt is ground up oreos. The kids loved smashing them for me :)






Success!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Wish me luck on getting everything set up for the party!


xo,

Rachel

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Monster Truck Party :: Invitations

Hello!

I am excited to show to you the Monster Truck invitation I created for our party. I am a big believer that invitations really set the mood for the type of party you are going to have. I want our {little} guests to be excited the moment they receive theirs!

I originally thought about doing an invitation that looked like a Monster Jam ticket. There are so many of them already out there, however, I didn't really see the point in making them. I was going to just order some, when I came across a handbill on Ebay for a previous Monster Jam.
And I was totally inspired.
So off I was again, sitting at my computer, trying to recreate it to be an invitation.
 I was pretty happy with the results {and they got the Jason approval!}.



I really want this party to encompass the feel of a monster truck show, since it is what sent my son into a monster truck obsession :) I want you to feel the mud and excitement and LOUDNESS.


Ugh, these envelopes!! This should have been such an easy project, but it occurred right at the beginning of the "everything involving technology is turning against Rachel" week  month.
What should have taken half an hour and 24 envelopes took all day and about 40 envelopes. Blah.
But my perseverance paid off, and every child got one :)



 
All worth it in the end, right??



Hope everyone is having a splendid evening :)

xo,
Rachel

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Inspiration and Sneak Peak

Hello all! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend {yes, I do realize it's practically the middle of the week now!}. I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend full of fleamarket finds, brunch, roses, {and best of all} a nap. :)

The weather here has been off and on, cold one day and hot the next. On some of the not-so-good days, I like to take the kids up to one of our malls to play in the play areas inside. One of the malls we go to is a bit further away, so we don't go there often, but I was happy we went the second I saw these:


Aren't they wonderful? This mall has a playground that is made to look like a tree house, and they are good at changing out the decor to match the seasons {think, rust colored leaves for the fall}. And apparently they are in full swing for spring! It reminds me of the April Showers Bring May Flowers party I posted about awhile back where umbrellas were hung for decoration.
Beautiful!





Sorry for the bad pics--they were from my phone.

I also got started on some stuff for the big guy's birthday party! It's this Saturday, can you believe it??

Here's a sneak peak of some of the goodies going on here:




Exciting stuff!


Tomorrow I will have pics of the invitations and envelopes I made. Cant wait to show you!

xo,

Rachel




Thursday, May 10, 2012

Freebie Friday :: DIY Thank You Tags

Hello!!

As I told you Wednesday, I was pretty inspired by one of the Teacher Appreciation ideas I saw. Are you ready to see what I made?  I hope so, because it's todays




Remember this cute little quote on the card I showed? I decided it would be cute paired with a gift instead of a gift card. The idea evolved because of the fact that on this particular day our son's school recomended bringing in something sweet. I figured his teacher would be overloaded on cookies and chocolate, and a good cup of coffee would treat her nicely :)

It involves only a few items, and worked out great for us since we are making one for his school nurse as well.




The best part? We had a couple of the biscotti left over for us :)




And the next best thing?



You can grap some of these tags yourself to make your own gift! These would seriously be great for anyone...teachers, nurses, your MOM  ;)


I would LOVE to see what you make up yourself!

Have a great weekend!
...and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO MY AMAZING MOM!

{who taught me everything I know :) }

xo,
Rachel