GRAD party decorations {DIY: banners, chalkboards, pom poms & posters}

These are a couple of the indoor banners I made for the GRAD party.

I updated my new chalkboard with Miss E's senior quote, made a lazy susan chalkboard, which is really fun, and also made small chalkboards to use to label the food.

I made orange pom poms for Miss E's college theme table and some green and white pom poms that we hung from the arched trellis over our gate to the backyard. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the decorated gate.

In addition to the traditional high school graduation poster, this year I also made some large black and white family photo posters and hung them both outside and inside.

Happy Thursday!

GRAD party favors {part 2}

I came up with this party favor idea in 2003, for our first high school graduation party, as a fun way to thank our guests for stopping by and have made them now for all 4 of our HS graduation celebrations. I use fun foam for the mortar board and the buttons, print my message on paper which I cut into strips the same size as the satin ribbon, fill the cups with matching jelly beans and then stack them near the front door so that guests can take one as they leave. These easy and fun party favors also double as table decorations, which is always a bonus!

Have a fabulous day! 

UofO Storm Trooper cake & cupcakes {college grad party}

I made this Storm Trooper cake and cupcakes for a University of Oregon GRAD party on Saturday.  The cake is a double chocolate two layer cake with ganache and raspberry filling and butter cream frosting. The cupcakes are also chocolate and are filled with either ganache or raspberry filling and frosted with buttercream frosting. I also made some matching cupcake picks for the top of the cupcakes. Also, for anyone that may not know, Storm Trooper is the name of the football uniform NIKE made for the DUCKS to wear for their game against USC. Such a FUN theme!

GRAD party favors {part 1}

Just popping in to post one of the party favors from Miss E's graduation party. I have more to share however I am working on a very fun custom order college GRAD Cake & Cupcakes today and only had time for a quick post. I will be back soon with more party favors, decorations and party food.  

Have a great Saturday!

Grad Party Invites

These were our 

GRAD Party invitations!

Remember the handmade tassels & brads I was working on in May?? They were for the invites! I also made the clear cellophane straps that are wrapped around the invites. Since it is an accordion style fold the cap was popping up, which bothered me, so I came up with the idea of a strap to hold the cap down. To make the strap I simply cut a small cellophane bag I had into strips and then slipped one up over the tip of each cap. It worked perfectly. 

Why 2 invites?

Due to some unexpected additions and changes to our already busy end of the school year schedule and the fact that the folded invites were taking much longer to make than I had originally planned, I had to quickly come up with another, more simple version that I could easily print and mail.  I decided to design the second invite with elements from the first one so that they would be somewhat similar. The result,  two complimentary styles of GRAD invites. I also made Miss E some fun personalized "graduation" return address labels and we used monogram stickers to seal the sparkly envelopes.

To read more about the handmade tassels and brads go here 
Grad Cupcakes and Cookies go here
Grad Cards go here

Grad Cupcakes & Cookies

Chocolate Cupcakes

with

Buttercream Frosting

Chocolate Cupcakes 

with 

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

Frosted Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Lots of cupcakes and cookies for the Grad Party!

I got the idea for the cute little grad caps from a magazine article published in a 1998 Family Fun magazine. I had been saving this magazine page in my idea file for years and finally made the peanut butter cup grad caps which I used as toppers on the cupcakes.  I did make a couple of small changes however.  Instead of  making the tassels as shown for the caps I used frosting for the buttons on top and I used a mold to make solid chocolate squares rather than chocolate covered graham crackers.

I will be posting more fun GRAD Party details tomorrow!

2013 Grad Cards

These are a few of the 2013 Grad cards I  made this year. Since each year there are a lot of graduates we want to congratulate I designed a template that I could use to personalize each card with the graduates name, mascot and school colors. I also made a template for the inside messages which can be personalized too. 

CONGRATULATIONS

Class of 2013!

Happy Summer!

I am finally back 

and 

have so much to share!!

Two weeks ago we had our very last k~12 LAST DAY of SCHOOL! Last week we celebrated our very last High School Graduation and had our very last HS Grad Party so probably needless to say we have been busy preparing for a party and attending all the activities and ceremonies. It has been a full and fun couple of weeks which means I now have lots of  crafty and delicious things to share. Tomorrow I will begin posting all the Grad Party details including invites, decorations, cards, food, party favors, another chalkboard and much  more!

Have a great Monday! 

banana poppyseed {mini} cupcakes

I made some cupcakes yesterday and was able to get a few photos {four to be exact but unfortunately only one that was blog worthy} before we took them with us to our friends house for dessert. I decided on banana poppy seed cupcakes after hearing about some that were served at a retirement party last week. They sounded so good I knew immediately that I wanted to make some, however, there was one small problem, I  could not find a recipe anywhere so I had to come up with my own and had very little time to do so. As you may have noticed in the picture I also baked some classic vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting to take along as another choice and also for back up since I wasn't sure how my banana poppyseed cupcakes would turn out or even taste for that matter. I am happy to report though that the reviews are in and my new cupcakes were a success! YAY!! I will try and get the recipe posted later in the month when things slow down a bit. 

Happy June!

my NEW chalkboard! {a honey~do project}

I love my new chalkboard!!!

Ron made this little "honey~do" project for me last week using some leftover wood from his scrap pile. We hung it on Saturday morning so I had fun writing messages on it all weekend. It's exactly what I wanted.

Happy Monday!