Candy Buffet Birthday Party

Where have I been? I have been so busy!! We went to Atlanta for vacation. My sister-in-law lives there (ok, so does my husband's brother and his 2 kids, but who cares about them LOL) so we stayed with them. We went to the Georgia Aquarium, which is awesome! Of course, I always love getting to visit with my sis-in-law! So, I am back now, but the orders are piling in on me. I have a tutorial ready to publish, once I get the pdf file made, and I have some flowers of all kids to show you how to do. I hope to get some time to make some videos for you too!

Today's project is a Party Pack of ideas! You will see everything you need to create your own Candy Buffet Party! You can see the invitations here. You can also click the link on the right in the Categories called PARTY. You will see all things related to party planning and decor.

My cousin's daughter had her 4th birthday recently, and I was in charge of some of the decorations, invitations, etc. Below you will see photos of the party with all decorations in place. It was really cute and everyone LOVED the decor! There was so much candy there! She sent a bag of candy home with each child, then sent a bag home with the adults too!

If you plan to have your own Candy Buffet Party, gather the candies you like and put them in bowls, apothecary jars, jelly jars, or any other clear containers. r containers worked out so that they were symmetrically arranged, but having all sorts of different containers is cute too! Play off the colors of the candy by using a primary color theme or choose one color and let the candy be the accent!

This first photo shows the candy buffet table as it was set up moments before the party. Click on any photo to enlarge it!

This photo shows a gun drop topiary. These were the small size gum drops, which were stick on using toothpicks into a styrofoam ball. The ball was stuck onto a wooden dowel that was cut to size and stuck in a pot. The pot had a piece of styrofoam in it with the dowel hot glued into it. Rocks were added to the bottom of the pot below the styrofoam for weight balance, then colorful paper grass was added on top. The topiary is finished with a tulle bow and tissue paper!

 

The next three photos are of decorations we made to look like candy in wrappers. We took a cookie tin (we have lots of these—I collect them) wrapped it with crepe paper or tissue paper, then covered it with cellophane and tied off the ends of the cello with curly ribbon! We hung some from the ceiling, put one on each adult table, and two on each child's table.  Cute, simple, cheap, and lightweight! You could use paper plates or plastic containers, if you don't have the cookie tins.

The next photo shows the cupcakes. My cousin made them. She is super talented!! Devil's Food cupcakes were iced with a cream cheese buttercream icing then sprinkled with candy sprinkles. A sugar cookie lollipop was iced with Royal icing and added to each cupcake. The cookies were made with a sugar cookie recipe and had a lollipop stick  she got at Target stuck in the raw dough before baking. The colored icing was spread on and allowed to dry completely. Then she put the white icing in a small ziploc bag, snipped off just the corner tip, and squeezed on a spiral in the center of each cookie. Each cookie was dusted with chunky decorator sugar, while it was still wet. They were so darling!!

This next photo is of the candy jars. I have seen candy buffet parties with dozens of candy jars. That is all well and good, but remember that all that candy costs a TON, plus you have to do something with the leftovers. There will be leftovers…guaranteed! We probably sent one pound of candy home with each child AND adult at the party! You will see each candy jar in a close up photo after this one. The labels were made with My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up! They are super cute! You could also make these by gluing strips of white paper onto red paper and adding a label!

          

These photos show the party favor. They can't just get candy! That would be irresponsible! So each child got a cute little travel toothbrush with a cap. A tag with a song I made up was tied onto each toothbrush. You will see a close up of the tag, so you can see the words to the song. It is sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Finally, this is the banner for the wall. I used the sizzix Scallop Circle die, cut the circles with my Circle Scissors, and made the polka dot paper using My digital Studio. A hole was put in the top of each piece using the Crop-a-dile. I gave my cousin the choice of using a ribbon punch (makes two vertical slits) or the crop-a-dile. You could also staple the ribbon onto the scallop circles. It will be cute no matter what you use. I have seen these with various coordinating ribbons tied along the long ribbon too. With the different colors and polka dots for this banner, we thought it was busy enough.

 

One suggestion: When you are planning out your project, do not use the same color for the letters as you will use for the base. You can see how boring it is on the "n" and the "l". The letters were cut using the Hello Kitty Font cartridge and my Cricut!

Most importantly, here is Miss Priss at her party posing, as usual! What a cutie- pa-tootie!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

© Leslie Jones 2010 CreativePzazz.Blogspot.com

Candy Buffet Party Invitations

Today I am showing you an actual invitation that is being sent out for my cousin's daughter's birthday party. The theme is Candy Buffet. I will be showing photos when the party is finished, so just check back often for those. The party is April 24th. I have shown you over the past few days the samples I have made using My Digital Studio for the different decorations, etc. for the party. Using My Digital Studio is such an economical way to make samples! I can do hundreds of different designs for my cuz to choose from without wasting any paper or embellishments! Plus, I can change colors in a snap! Yippee!!

This photo is the complete invitation. Isn't it so cute?!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a blessed day!

Leslie Jones To place an order or for questions…CreativePzazz@gmail.com

Candy Jar Labels

Today I will show you the samples of the candy jar labels that I made for my cousin. She is having a party for her daughter, who will be 4, and the theme is candy buffet! It will be so cute! I will be posting photos of the finished party, so stay tuned!

So, I have been in charge of making the invitations, banner, tickets for the kids to purchase the candy, and the labels for the jars of candy. Yesterday I showed you the samples of the banner that will be put across the room. Today I will show you the labels for the jars of candy.

You can see my notes to my cuz. She hasn't told me which ones we are using yet. I hope it is the striped one. We aren't doing a red and white striped awning over the doorway, like originally planned, but these are still the cutest thing to me!! The ones with the black brackets on them would be hand cut to the shape of the bracket.

Which would you choose?

Don't forget about My Digital Studio when you are planning a project. It is a great tool to make the samples, see what they will look like without wasting a bunch of paper! What a GREEN way to paper craft!!

Have a blessed day! Thanks for stopping by today!

Leslie Jones …CreativePzazz@gmail.com

Banner!

Well, I am going to give it a couple more days before I make my final decision as to which blog design I am going to go with. You can see here and here the two designs to choose from. I am encouraging you to give me your opinion and vote too!!
Now on to new business! My cousin is planning a Candy Buffet party for her daughter for her 4th birthday! Yes, I will post photos of the finished event so you can see all the decor and candy. Here is a banner sample I made for her to choose from.
Remember a while back, I showed you some polka dotted paper that I made using My Digital Studio? You can see it here. So for the banner, I will print this cute paper that I made and use it as accents on the banner. I made samples of what the banner would look like using MDS too! It is cheaper and easier to email than a paper sample! The whole party will be candy in jars that the kids use tickets to buy, polka dots, and primary colors everywhere! Here are the samples I made for my cousin. I will be cutting the outside shape with the scallop circle die, the inside shape with the circle die, and the letters with the Schoolbook Serif Alphabet, which are all dies for the Big Shot. Ask me about a great deal on a Big Shot bundle for yourself!
Originally, we planned for the banner to say Happy Birthday! But then she called today wanting it to say Princess' Candy Shoppe! (Of course her name is not princess. Her actual name will be there.) Which would you choose as the banner?

Thanks for stopping by today! Contact me to place an order for Stampin' Up! products and supplies or to order your own copy of My Digital Studio!
Thanks again! Leslie Jones…creativepzazz.gmail.com

Another Blog Header

Yesterday I showed you a blog header that I made using My Digital Studio. It is so simple to make things using My Digital Studio, that I am actually hooked!

I am giving you all the decision of which blog header to put up until the end of May, either the one from yesterday, which you can see if you scroll down to the next post, or this one.

Leave me a comment about which one you like the best!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Leslie Jones…CreativePzazz@gmail.com

Blog Update!

I have a blog header (the title at the top of the page) I would like you to look at before I actually put it up. I made it using My Digital Studio (Boy! Is it versatile!). I want to use the blog header until the end of May. I have another one that I made, so I will show it tomorrow. Then you can tell me which you like better! We can have a vote!

That means some of you ladies are going to have to learn how to post a comment. Click comment below my post. Then you have the choice of signing in, if you have a particular email type, or you can choose anonymous. By the way, if you choose anonymous, please leave your name in the post so I will know who the note is from!

Thanks for stopping by today!

My Digital Studio Transparency!

Thank you all for the prayers and well wishes! I am much better! I can actually do things now; I am not stuck in bed! I haven't created anything yet with paper, like I am dying to do, because I am so far behind everywhere else in my life. hopefully this weekend I can show you a few things. I have some great ideas flowing in my mind that I cant wait to do! Plus, I have some AWESOME hauls that I got. Let's see, I got some things from Mike's, Target, Joann's, Scrapbook.com, and of course my favorite, Stampin' Up! I am so excited! I had been saving some money from Christmas and then got paid for a job, so I just had to spend it all… What? It was burning a hole in my pocket… Ok, so fine. I did all this ordering and shopping over a 2 week period. As soon as I made the final order, the following day my dishwasher died. So now I am washing dishes by hand for a few weeks. Do I regret my craft purchases? No, but don't tell anyone!

Anyway, today I was looking at some things online, watching videos on youtube, and fell in love with these transparency pieces that a girl used in a mini album she made. I can't remember what she called them, but they were small pieces that looked stamped or printed. She used these small pieces as overlays, of course, but also as a belt-like piece or as pockets to hold tags and journaling. It was so cute! That led me to think that I could make some awesome transparency pieces using the stamp sets included in My Digital Studio! I could even make some that are colored!

Here is what I came up with! There are borders and tags and more, oh my! Each sheet is 8 1/2 x 11 and is printed on a thermal transparency sheet (clear on both sides), because I scrap in an 8x8" size, but I mainly make mini albums. They are so fun! Each of these items are things that I thought would be great to use for scrapping.

To use them all you do is cut each one out individually using scissors or a craft knife. Attach them to your project with glue Tombow multi glue, then hide the glue in the corners using an embellie, or better yet, attach them using brads or eyelets! You can also hide the glue behind the areas that are printed. The most important thing to remember about transparencies on a scrapbook page or card is that they should be layered over something to get the full effect of a transparency. They are nice alone, yes, but if you wanted it alone, why didn't you print it on cardstock? Some of the elements that are in color have a white background. Just email me, if you are interested in purchasing, and I will let you know.

I was thinking about selling these transparencies, so if you are interested, please let me know. I will have to figure out a price, but if you are interested, I will work that up! They will be sold separately and as a group, so you can order what you would like! I will mail all of them in a padded envelope with a piece of chipboard as added protection. With My Digital Studio, we are allowed to sell 150 projects in one year. So I won't be breaking any rules in selling these. I can't wait to print my own!

Without further ado…

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Leslie Jones

April Fool's: MDS

Happy April Fool's Day! I hope you "get" before you are "gotten"!

Here is the project for today:

APRIL FOOLS! LOL… I know. Lame. It was all I could think of!! No, you don't want to know how in the world my mind came up with that! Maybe it was because I'm feeling like my I need to get a new body… I am sick of being sick!! Pray for me. Please.

I have shown several of ideas for using My Digital Studio (MDS) over the past few days. Here are a few more. These are layouts I made to use in frames too.

I thought that I could interchange them within the one frame depending on the feeling or season I wanted.

These projects took around 1 hour to make. The extra time was spent more on the Christmas layout than the others, which were much easier. For the Christmas layout, I wanted the Medallion stamp to be a wreath. It took me a while to get the correct size circle in the center to cover the center of the Medallion stamp, then to get the brads in the right position, and to make sure the sentiment was centered. There is a GRID tool in MDS that places a grid over the entire layout so you can see if everything is lined up properly and evenly. In some instances you can click Snap to Grid, and everything will jump to the nearest grid line. Hope you enjoy.

Make Your Own Patterned Paper

It is almost April. The month where everyone works toward being more Earth friendly, celebrate Earth day, hug a tree, kiss a frog, oh... uh, maybe no one goes that far. I don't!! I am still showing you things that you can do at home to save your gas from going to the store. It is Easy Being Green!

Take patterned paper, for example. While you know that you can always stamp a background paper just by stamping an image or two all around the paper, did you know that you can make your own patterned paper and background paper using My Digital Studio?Just another great use for this program!

Here's the story. I needed some paper for my cousin's daughter's birthday party. We wanted polka dots in primary colors for a candy buffet party. I will show you pictures after her birthday. So I looked at what Stampin' Up! had to offer first, but found nothing. I looked online at other vendors and still found nothing! Doesn't anyone carry simple polka dot paper anymore? So, I was sitting there thinking that I could make it myself using punches and paper, then photocopy it. Well, if I can make the design with paper, then I know I can make it with My Digital Studio!

So what do you think? There are two because We decided we wanted to see what it was like without the black spots. That is what is so great about MDS! If I had made these with paper, I would have had to start completely over! The paper we didn't use would have been a waste! Not with MDS! With MDS, I opened the document, made the changes, and then Saved As! I still have both, and there was no waste!

If I need specialty paper in any color with any design, I can do it and then print it out! How awesome is that? Imagine what all you can create using My Digital Studio! I am still battling my Multiple Sclerosis more this week. I am not doing well, but at least it is not a relapse!! Praise God! Anyway, since I made this paper today, I thought that I would do some more My Digital Studio work for you, while I am stuck in bed with only my laptop and TV as friends!Can I tell you how much I am hating the re-runs lately!

I call using My Digital Studio, "Being Green", because you don't waste paper! You can create and create without ever printing! Save it all to a flash drive or make a movie out of your pages and put it on a DVD!

Thanks for stopping by today!! You can contact me to place an order for My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up! If you do so by March 30th, you can earn a free stamp set, because your order will be over $50!! I am all about some freebies!!

Framed Art by MDS

My Digital Studio is not just for scrapbook pages! I use My Digital Studio to make my title banner at the top of my blog. I made the buttons you can click on in the right panel. You can also make cards, too. I wanted to make something to go in a great frame I have! Yes, lots of people frame scrapbook pages, and you can too!

You know what bugs me? When you make something that you like for a specific purpose then find out it won't work! I made this 8.5x11" piece using My Digital Studio (MDS) so they would fit this great 5x7" frame. Yes, you read right. I made it the wrong size! But the great thing about MDS is that it takes 5 minutes to do a project! So I made a new one that is 5x7. Now I have 2 of these!! Note: when you pull up the JPEG image by clicking on the images below, you will notice it is much larger than 5x7". That is just how this particular file was saved. You can save them in various formats, sizes, and qualities! You can even load a JPEG in MDS and resize it as you wish that way.

It honestly took me 10 minutes to complete this layout from scratch. Remember, you can use the pre-prepared layouts and it will take you 5 minutes!!

This next photo is a layout I made in less than 5 minutes! It took longer to open the page than for me to add the photo and save it! These pre-made templates are designed so that you just drag the photo you want from the left panel into the photo box on the layout. For this layout, there were two wide photo boxes. I wanted one tall box. I just deleted the top one added the photo to the bottom one, then clicked rotate to make the photo stand upright, as it should! So simple! It took me way longer to explain than it takes to actually do!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Scrapbook Layout by MDS

I'm still suffering from MS symptoms. :( BUT I think I may be getting some better! Whoo- hoo!

So, while I am stuck laying around, not able to do very much, I have spent a good bit of time online. I should be as tan as a coconut by this point from all the surfing I have done! I have watched so many movies that I could kick Roger Ebert's butt in movie trivia! My DVR (TiVo) is almost empty too! Even with all that, I was getting so stir crazy, but still not well enough to get up and out.

Until I thought of My Digital Studio yesterday! I am having so much fun again! I can create even though I feel terrible and can't get to my scrap table! The best part is that I can change papers, replace embellishments and ribbons over and over until I get the look I want without wasting any paper!! It is easy Being Green! Don't get me wrong, I love to cut and glue and ink and sponge the real deal too! It's just nice to create a scrapbook page so quickly and help reduce waste at the same time!

Using My Digital Studio, I can scrapbook a complete layout from scratch in less than 30 minutes! If I use a pre-prepared layout, it will only take me 5 minutes! I thought I would share with you what I have been up to over the past couple of days. With these pages and things you will see over the next few days, I have the choice of having individual pages professionally printed, which has the added bonus of guaranteeing that the colors will be exactly exactly like the Stampin' Up! colors! Or I can choose to print them from home, which can be just as great!

Isn't it cute? The girl on the right is my niece and the others are my babies! It was a Christmas photo, but I didn't want it to be Christmas, but the flowers could almost pass as snowflake-ish, don't you think?

You'll love the rest of things I have created too! Watch for a change in my blog header too! You know that I have to change my blog header as often as I clean my craft room… does that tell you how messy my craft room is right now?

Order My Digital Studio by March 30th and get a free stamp set! Call 334.493.2511 or email me at creativepzazz @ gmail.com.

I Love You Card

I made this card for my youngest daughter. She loves everything on this card and so do I. I used the Tote-ally Tess stamp set and the Things I love Stamp set. If you would like to order the supplies used in this project, please email me today.

By the way, I am considering getting a Stampin' Up! website so people can place an order on their own in their pajamas. Problem is that I want to justify the expense. There are several people who read my blog now, send me an email or leave a comment and let me know what you think about having a direct order website. Do you think it would be beneficial for you?

Also, I am testing a new blog design. I made buttons for the side panel of my blog. I have one for you to join my Stampin' Up! team and one to order things from Creative Pzazz website, where I sell the personalized books and gifts. Notice that there is a symbol next to the web addy. I did that too!! I did it all myself using My Digital Studio, which is a Stampin' Up! program that you can buy too! It was so simple. Of course, you can use it to create stunning scrapbook pages without the expense of buying all the paper and supplies. Just create and print on your printer or using the professional book printing service! Email or call for more information!

Thanks for stopping by today.