It's a merry Cars party!

Birthdays in our house have always been a big deal. I am totally in love with throwing parties, so this year when my son said he wanted a Pixar Cars party, I was so excited! I saw how he carried his little friend McQueen with him from day to night, so I knew he would really like a party dedicated to his best buddy. Here are some of what we did:

I opted for checkered sashes on the chairs with a table runner that was sewn to look like a road. The scene setter was a great backdrop for pictures and Aiden couldn't get over the lifesize Mcqueen!

For the table centerpiece, I found these fun printable letters that were a road theme, so I made large 'Aiden' lollipops out of paper and placed them in balloon weights to anchor them down. A simple but fun way to have an interesting table scape.

The dessert table was an extravaganza of all of Aiden's favorite things! Fruit, gum balls, lollipops, chocolate, cookies, etc. And cake of course!

 The route 66 signage was a throw back from the first movie and a trip we once did across country. The food had names inspired by the movie and all things related to cars (chocolate biscotti were dipsticks, rock candy on a stick were sir axle rods, etc).

Aiden is totally in love with the Dinoco version of McQueen so I knew he had to be part of the cake. I made this multiple layer extravaganza with white cake and lemon curd. The icing was butter cream and some of the layers were encased in fondant. A road running down it with some of Aiden's favorite characters completed the look. He couldn't wait to get his hands on his new little buddy. 

We made his bunting using checkered bunting and added a crepe paper element that was sewn so as to ruffle. On the signage itself we used the Cars font (Magneto) and if you look close you can see each letter has a road encircling it. So fun!

The drink table had a "Taste In" bunting (after Fillmore's Organic Fuel) and the table was topped with peace sign fabric. I found this cute little Dinoco label from the movie and knew I had to do something fun with it.What better than to make mini apple juice cans into oil drums! And the kids totally loved their Dinoco juice! The tower was made out of a couple of boxes wrapped in craft paper and styled with Aiden's logo and checkered flags. We also had orange juice, milk, and for the young at heart some leaded fuel (aka Starbucks espresso shots). The drinks were paired with black and white paper straws which added a nice touch.

Sarge's Supply Hut housed the favor boxes which were little race tracks with cars and checkered flag with each child's name. Each favor box was individualized to the child's interests (sewn car rolls for the automobile obsessed, dress up tutus for the girls who were into princesses, invisible writing sets for school age kids, etc). Each guest also received a booklet titled "Aiden's Favorite Things" which talked about his favorite things, had some activity pages, a CD with songs he liked, and pictures of all of the party guests (because they are Aiden's favorites too!).

We had all of the food at Flo's V8 cafe. I read somewhere that when designing the Flo's V8 cafe sign, they wanted the sign to be reminiscent of an air filter.  The woman at the auto parts store was super kind with helping me find just the right one to compliment the Flo's V8 cafe sign I made. Aiden liked it so much that he wanted it for his room!

This was a breakfast time event, so all of the food was centered around that. We had mini leaning towers of tires (Luigi's Special), quiche, hash brown in diner boats with a Flo's logo sticker, fruit kabobs, cereal (spare tires), muffins (I used one of Aiden's racetracks to arrange them), and yogurt parfaits. There were also other sundry cookies, breads, and the like. The wrapped flatware had napkin rings that had a road pattern on them and were placed in an oil pan.

Then on to the games! We had car races using Aiden's blue track (www.blutrack.com) which did a loop d'loop. One of the older kids loved manning the checkered flag at the finish line. Above is a picture of the leader board that we made with all the kids names on it. They kept going up to the board and pointing out who they wanted to race next (soo cute!). After the races, we had a medal ceremony for the winners (essentially everyone!) where the parents were the paparazzi and the kids posing in front of the scene setter.

Over at Ramone's body shop we had all kinds of fun!

The kids painted wooden cars and got Cars tattoos. The day before the party Aiden and I made the Ramone's cardboard cut out together (you can see a bit of it in the background). They also had a little area for Izzy's Curio shop where they decorated 'license plates' (foam rectangles with stickers, stamps, alphabet letters, etc). We also did a McQueen pinata (the pull kind as most of the kids here were younger). We also converted a train table into a racetrack with some motorized cars and characters from the movie. There was never a dull moment!

Then we had various decor elements to round out the rest of the space..all car themed of course!

All in all it was a really fun party and all of the kids had a great time. It was wonderful to see my son's eyes light up when he saw his favorite movie come to life. All in all totally worth it and can't wait to see what strikes his fancy for next year!

Start your engines!

My son simply loves the Pixar Cars movie. So, when his birthday came around this year, I knew we would be reviling in all things cars. Here is a little sneak peek...

I totally love the look of paper invites, but in our electronic age, they often are not very convenient for guests. So instead, I have taken to doing an initial Evite and then doing a paper invite/reminder card shortly prior to the party (especially handy the day of if someone doesn't have a smart phone but still needs the party address). This year, I thought a pit pass and raceway ticket would be super fun.

For the pit pass, I downloaded a few images from the movie and then added each little guests name. I then laminated it and clipped on a lanyard. My son was so in love with his that he didn't take it off for 3 days straight!  Then, I made the ticket using microsoft publisher and images from the movie. The ticket bar code was actually a QR code that directed each guest back to the Evite. Lastly, we crafted the signage for the party and shrunk it down to a smaller size so it could bind the elements together. To pull it all together, we bound the lanyard and ticket with some checkered ribbon and the Aiden is 3! circle. On the envelope, I completed the look by making return address labels with the piston cup logo.

Overall, it was great fun to make. And to see the look on my son's face when he saw his pit pass...it just melted my heart. KaChow!

On the dot!

Given that we have four little boys between the two of us, we always love the opportunity plan a party for a little girl. Our adorable client Olivia was turning one and her parents wanted to do something extra special to mark this momentous occasion. Olivia loves watching bouncing balls and her mom, Wendy, loves to dress her up in polka dots.. so, nailing down a theme was pretty easy. Dots, of course! 

First, we first worked on a 'fingerprint' for the celebration. Some dots and dashes later, we created Olivia's first birthday's fingerprint.

Next came party essentials - we wrapped flatware in this adorable water color dot napkin and added the signature band. The pink and lime bands reflected the key colors of the event.

Water bottles bands were custom designed and together with a solid pink plate, they made a pretty set.

What's a party without a fun hat? We started with a solid pink hat, added the fingerprint and to give it a festive feel, we cut thin strips of  tissue paper and created a pom pom at the top. The kids looked SO adorable in them. 

Olivia's mom is simply in love with arts and crafts. So she really resonated with our idea of having the favor bag be filled with materials for a craft that her little guests could make (with a bit of guidance from their parents of course!). The thought behind this was that it was a fun & engaging activity that the kids could do with their parents, all the while remembering the great time they had at the party. Each kit included instructions for making an origami lucky star (for girls) or boat (for boys) and sets of darling color coordinated craft paper (think dots, stripes, plaids). For the littlest babes, we assembled a sweet pinwheel making kit complete with a with a locking pin.

Then the instructions and materials were rolled into a scroll and tied with a bow. The favor bags were a glorious mix of  layered crepe paper, ribbon, scalloped craft paper, fine art paper and circles with the 'fingerprint' and the guest's name. These were simple yet dressy and looked very fun!

Then Olivia's mom ran with the whole dot theme and put together these cute bites:

In keeping with the theme, some of the food fare included M & M flowers (a hershey's kiss melted on a pretzel topped with m&ms), caprese salad on a stick, and cut fruit in dotted cups. She also had other food there as well such as sandwiches, broccoli bites, and mini peanut butter cracker sandwiches.

Olivia's mom wanted to have a special keepsake to remember her first big celebration and loved the idea that her guests could join in on the fun. We went to work by creating a cupcake sketch and then the guests added 'sprinkles' using their fingerprints to decorate the cake. We cannot wait to see the fully decorated cupcake!

Overall, everyone had a terrific time and they had a great time honoring Olivia's special day. It really was spot on!