{Recent Project} Bat Mitzvah Minis

I love party favors! My favorite being the edible kind! Think about it - how many little picture frames or candles does one person need?

Chocolate on the other hand, especially when it's personalized is a sure winner!

Recently I was asked to design a personalized chocolate bar wrapper for an upcoming Bat Mitzvah. Two friends were going to have it together. One girl liked purple whereas the other liked gray/silver.

No problem! They provided the photos, I provided the editing :) and custom design

The front of the wrapper had each girl's face and the back had the Bat Mitzvah details. They decided to go with minis which I think looked so cute!!

I'm in the final stages of getting my shopping cart up and running so you'll be able to see lots of wrapper designs!

What's your favorite type of party favor?

{Party} Justin Bieber / Lady Gaga - Part 1

Just realized I never posted the rest of the details from my daughter's Justin Bieber / Lady Gaga party. I left you off with the cake wreck.

This year I let my daughter get involved in the planning. Usually I like to do it all (it's a control thing) but this time she was so excited about it, we did it together. This turned out to be a bit difficult because her ideas were a bit all over the place. Kept trying to reel her back in which wasn't always working.

Her main requests were that the colors were pink, violet and turquoise, had to have Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Hello Kitty, gum and candy. See what I mean about all over the place?

So this is what I came up with...

Streamers, balloons, and partyware incorporated the colors she wanted.

The birthday banner is one I made years ago but it has become a tradition to hang it up every year.

For more decorations, I bought magazines and cut out pictures of Justin and Lady Gaga and decorated the walls with them.

I designed personalized chocolate bars and water bottle labels with both JB and LG.

We had lots of candy and gum (from Economy Candy) - all with the pink, violet and turquoise color scheme.

Here's a good tip to save money - either use smaller containers or if they are larger, fill the containers half way with paper and then fill the rest with your candy so it looks like it's overflowing.

This is a trick gift basket designers use when filling their baskets to make them look so full. (I should know - I was one of them!)

Besides the Hello Kitty cake, I made cupcakes with turquoise frosting, pink and purple liners and created custom JB and LG cupcake toppers.

I rounded out the food with little finger foods like pizza rolls, mini quiches and mini pigs in the blanket.

Tomorrow I'll be back with details on the activities and goodie bags!

Barbie Party Decorations - A Year Too Late

My older daughter's 7th birthday is coming up in September, so the planning (at least thinking) has begun! She thinks about her birthday all year round. She is definitely miss party girl. This year she is torn between a Justin Bieber themed party or having it at a gymnastics place. If it's going to be Justin Bieber, I really have my work cut out for me. The research begins!!

Last year she had a Barbie themed party. I looked everywhere for Barbie party decorations and there were none to be had...ANYWHERE! I improvised by just getting girlie stuff, making a Barbie themed cake, made Barbie personalized chocolate bars, and got miscellaneous Barbie items to try and theme it as a "Barbie" party.

So, this week, while waiting for my family to arrive at the movie theater to see Toy Story 3, I decided to stroll through the neighboring Party City.

Wasn't I surprised when I came across this...

It seems as though Barbie has finally jumped on the party bandwagon. It sure took them long enough! There were so many options now - tattoos, party bags, centerpieces, plates, napkins - you name it!

Only a year too late.

We're moved on to Justin.

HELP!! Would love any ideas you may have for a Justin Bieber party. Was thinking of using posters as decorations. I love planning the food, decorations and party favors. When it comes to the activities though is where my mind completely shuts down.

Would love (and appreciate) your suggestions!

A Happy Birthday Boy

Recently my friend Pam asked if I could help her out with her little guy's 3rd birthday party. Of course I can! She wanted me to design the cupcakes and party favors. Two things I love to do!!

The party was at Chuck E. Cheese's in Harlem.

My dilemma was how I was going to deliver the cupcakes because it was a really hot day and I didn't want the icing to melt. Also, I had my little one with me so I had to coordinate her, the cupcakes and the party favors. I had 2 choices - to either ice the cupcakes when I got there, or drive in (instead of taking the subway). I actually came up with a third and even better option. I asked my sister to drive us down! That way, I wouldn't have to worry about parking and walking with the cupcakes. (and my daughter) Genius!!

For the cupcakes, I was told he likes the color red and sports balls - specifically baseballs and basketballs. So, I started designing. We also thought it would be cute to have his face on the cupcake topper so I made 2 different designs.

Sports balls...

and the others with his cute little face.

This one got both designs. It must have been the birthday boy's.

I used red icing with blue and yellow cupcake liners.

When it was time to sing the Happy Birthday song, they brought out the Chuck E. Cheese's mascot.

I think it freaked out the kids. (do you blame them?) He was politely asked to leave.

Time to blow out the candles,

and eat the cupcakes. Looks like he liked them!

Apparently, so did my daughter.

For the favors, Pam already bought some of the items but she also wanted personalized mini chocolate bars and lollipops and have them all wrapped up together in one package.

For the chocolate bars, I put his face on the front with a birthday message on the back, and the lollipops just had his face.

I designed a card to match the cupcake toppers that was used as the top of the favor bag.

Sometimes designing for boys is a bit harder than for girls but I think these came out pretty cute!

Since I've been getting requests for party designs, I thought I would add them to my Etsy Shop. What themes do you like for boys parties? Anything special for girls?

What about adults? (we like to have parties too!)

I'll let you know when they're available.

Sweet Treat For St. Patty's Day

In case you haven't checked your calendar lately, this coming Wednesday, March 17th is St. Patrick's Day. Why do I like this holiday? Not for the drinking (not big on alcohol - especially beer), not for the corned beef and cabbage (eeew!), but for the green. I love seeing eveyone dressed up in green! All shades of it. Well almost all. I don't even know what the offical shade is called - maybe pastel green, but it's that green shade that comes in a pack of pastel printer paper. I could definitely live without that one! Otherwise, it's my favorite color.

Another reason I like it is beacause of these personalized chocolate bars.

Chocolate pretty much goes with any holiday. I'm an authorized consultant for Cherubs-n-Chocolate. They have hundreds of preprinted wrapper designs just waiting for a personalized message to be printed on them. Just like this one...

These little guys are so popular because they can be given as party favors (I use them all the time for my girls' parties), thank you's, birth announcements, giveaways at trade shows, weddings and more. I'll do a whole separate post on this another time but today I just want to focus on the green ones.

If you are having a party or need something fun to give out at your office or school, I can definitely help you out. Or if you own or manage a bar or restaurant, this would be a great handout for your customers. You can even have a coupon printed on the back for their next visit. See, always thinking ahead! While I am working on setting up a new shopping cart, feel free to just e-mail me at stacey@TotalCityGirl.com for orders or more info. There's a minimum order of 12 bars and they are $2.25 each. Such a deal!

Do you have anything special you do to celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

Baby Shower Part II - Behind The Scenes

I recently told you about some baking I did for a baby shower. When I left off, I was finally finished with my baking and my friend Karen told me she was coming over so we can work on the party favors and centerpieces. Even though I was exhausted, I couldn't say no. Back in the days of my gift basket business, she was there to rescue me on many occasions - especially during the crazy holiday season. How could I possibly say no?!?

Before we get started I just want to go on record to say that the photos in this post ARE NOT MINE. They come from Karen's phone. I'll gladly let her take ALL the credit for these bad boys.

It's times like this - the night before an event, that it comes in handy to have a friend that's a complete Michael's addict. We had all the crafty supplies we needed to bang these babies out.

Both projects were pretty easy. She got clear plastic baby blocks to use as the party favors and bought an assortment of jelly beans from Economy Candy to fill them with. We tried to make them like sand art - layering each color to come up with a pretty design.



The blocks were going to be stacks of 3 so we tied ribbons to the ones that were going to be on the top of the stack.

For the centerpieces, Karen was adament about getting wheat grass. When we went to the NY Gift Show last month, we were on the hunt for wheat grass ideas. She ended up getting it in the flower district and also got some plain wood boxes to use as the base for the wheat grass. They looked nice, just a bit naked. Just needed to be dressed up a bit.



We took 2 coordinating shades of ribbon in different widths and wrapped it around the center of the box. Since the baby's last name will begin with an R, we had the idea to make monograms to use in the center of the boxes. Wouldn't you know, I was recently at Michael's and just so happened to buy an R stamp in just the right size that we needed. See, sometimes addictions pay off . We punched out white textured cardstock using a scalloped edge square punch and stamped the R right in the middle. (or rather middle-ish)



Once Karen started stamping, she just couldn't stop herself. She was gettin' stamp happy!! This is what happens when your close to delirium! The centerpieces really turned out nicely.



We were finally done for the evening!

My part was done. Now the next morning, Karen and her crew went over to the venue to set up.



She found some fabric that she wanted to use for the dessert table. I think it was a perfect fit for both theme and color scheme.



Besides the cake and cake blocks, she also had a tray of chocolate covered almonds on the dessert table.



The tray was mine. I don't mean "was" in a "it was mine and I let her borrow it for the party" kind of way. That's true, but in this case I mean it as "that was my tray until I got a text message saying that it crashed to the ground and broke to pieces" kind of way.

Bye Bye tray. I'll miss you!

Well, the shower turned out to be a success. The mom and dad to-be were very happy!



Uh! The things you have to do to show your appreciation! Wouldn't thank you cards be enough?

Guess not, after this load. I think they needed to rent a U-Haul to get this stash home.



They'd still be at home opening gifts and writing thank you cards but they got a little sidetracked.



2 weeks early!!

Hugs & Kisses

It's a couple of days before Valentine's Day so I thought I'd give you some tips in case you need a last minute gift for someone. Don't worry - you don't even need to spend a lot of money. It's all in the packaging!!

How about some Hugs & Kisses?? Chocolate ones, that is.

No, I'm not here to give you a Hershey's sales pitch. I'm using these little guys just as reference. You can substitute whatever other candy you like. I just want to give you some insight into what the gift professionals use. (that would be me) Remember in my past life I had a gift basket business? Packaging is still in my blood and I use it for my other things - just not baskets. I can't even look at another basket!

You can try some of these ideas at home.

First off, if you're going to get someone these little chocolate morsels, you can't present them in their original packaging. Unless of course you're going for that "oh crap I forgot it's Valentine's Day and stopped at the local drug store" look. In that case, you're perfectly fine. For the rest of you, it's just not gifty enough. You may not be spending the big bucks but you will need to take an extra couple of minutes to spruce it up a bit.

Idea Number 1 - Bag It!

Get a clear or printed cello bag from a local craft store (usually sold in the baking department) and fill it with the chocolates. Take 2 pieces of ribbon in different colors (you may even have some left over from XMAS) and tie a bow around the neck of the bag. You're done! See, wasn't that easy??

Idea Number 2 - Do Me A Favor

If you're having a party at work, home or school, it's always nice to have a little party favor. Everyone likes to leave with a little something to remind them of the (hopefully) fun time they had at the party.

These little pillow boxes work great and they can be customized in many different ways.

Fold the sides of the box in to form a pillow. Fill it with the chocolates,

tie a small ribbon around and embellish with stickers. That's one fabulous party favor!

Idea Number 3 - Box It Up

The last idea I want to show you is how to dress up an ordinary white box.

Take a colorful piece of tissue paper and line the bottom of the box with enough left over to stick up a bit. You want it to look a little fluffy.

Next fill the boxes with the chocolates, fold the tissue paper down and put the lid on. Now you can decorate it however you'd like. Here I used the same 2 ribbons I used for the first idea.

I also created a little gift tag with a stamp I got at Michael's.

I think the stamp may have cost me a dollar!! I just love a bargain.

I hope I've inspired you to go the extra mile when giving someone a gift. The reaction you get will make it all worth it.

And it will give me the pleasure of saying "told ya so!"