Katy Perry Inspired Candyland Birthday

A good friend of mine asked me to help out with her daughter's 7th birthday party and I happily agreed. She then told me the theme was Katy Perry / California Dreams which stumped me. Now I admit I am a bit slow on the pop culture so my husband told me to watch the music video so I could understand the theme.
For those are also a bit pop culture dificient haven't seen it, you can watch it on YouTube. But the quick version is, it really is a cute video, white trees with pink cotton candy, cotton candy clouds, ice cream cone castles and the Candyland board comes to life except, Katy Perry is also pretty much either naked in most scenes or shooting whipped cream from her bra while singing lyrics not suitable for children.
I figured Jazley, the birthday girl, saw the video and fell in love with all the pretty elements and Candyland setting in the video and everything else (hopefully) went over her head. So together with her mom, we decided to use the video as inspiration for our "Jazleyland" table. I had done a candy themed party before and you can view that post here, but I wanted this table to really showcase elements from the music video and not just be a candy table.

In the video Katy Perry's hair is bright blue and she is wearing a headband with a purple heart on the side. I really thought this was cute and carried the idea to the cupcakes. The cupcakes were strawberry with blue cream cheese frosting and a purple candy heart on top.

Jazley's mom Aprile made these adorable lollipops out of paper plates and balloons. She also found these beautiful flowers at the doller store. She set the lollipops and flowers up against the walls to mimic the candy forest in the video.

I made a bunting banner that spelled Jazleyland that we attached to the tablecloth

I also made paper plate candies which I taped to the wall with a poster of Jazley in a blue wig above the candy table.

The table was filled with both handmade candy and store bought favorites.

mini white chocolate cupcake candies


Ice cream cone cakes with meringue icing

While I tried to bring down the theme to be appropriate for a little girl, I couldn't help but have a little fun with the gingerbread people which were actually sugar cookies.

I also made centerpieces with larger paper lollipops that coordinated with the cupcake toppers and candy jars labels.

Jazley's mom also set up a photo booth complete with props. The kids posed in front of a green screen and we were emailed our pictures with our trip to Jazleyland Photoshopped in.

This is what it looked like when guests posed for the photos


And this is what we were sent. Pretty cool, huh?


It was a sweet party for a very sweet little girl. Happy Birthday Jazley!

more photos can be viewed on the facebook page

Tangled Garden party

I can't believe Audrey's 6th birthday party came so fast. She was just a helpless baby yesterday and today she's this amazing little girl who energetically made poms for her party, gave input on the centerpieces and decided what games we should play.
After spending the past few months watching Tangled every moment she could and using lines from the movie as part of our conversations, her party theme was pretty much set in stone. I have nothing against character themed parties really, except they tend to be a little cookie cutter sometimes. I used a lot of poms and flowers to give the party a garden feel. When I watch the movie, something that stands out to me is the bright flowers in the forest, in her hair and in the village so I really wanted to play that up.

When I started looking for inspiration, I found Paging Supermom's blog where they featured a Tangled party. They offered a very cute invitation tutorial and a free downloadable template which I was very tempted to use. I took their wonderful invitation as inspiration and instead designed something similar, with a triangle top like the tower in the movie.




Paging Supermom, being the wonderful and generous, also designed these free downloadable sun bunting banner like the ones that hung above the village in the movie. I printed those out and hung them above the picnic area and made centerpieces. I also made a coordinating bunting banner with my daughter's name.

Our party happened to be right smack in the middle of a heat wave. It was 5 p.m. and it was still well over 90 degrees. Luckily, all our sweets survived the heat. My dear friend Kit of Cupkits Edible Creations did an amazing job with all the goodies she made. The cake was covered in fondant and had royal icing trees and details. The brownies also had royal icing trees which had no problem in the heat. Kit also made a smaller Rice Krispy cake which held the magic flower made of fondant with young Rapunzel under it and Mother Gothel nearby.

Although I knew it would be a warm day, I didn't plan for a heat wave. My candy display did not include my usual lollipops and handmade chocolates. Instead, I opted to include things that could be out in warm weather. I offered animal crackers, popcorn, lemon drops, wafer sticks, banana marshmallows and pretzel sticks. The pretzels were drizzled with yellow chocolate but they still held up.. To my relief, My Oreo cupcakes with Oreo cream cheese frosting held up in the heat. Thankfully, the guests ate a lot of it before the icing had a chance to go bad. My mini blackberry pies also made their debut.

I bought one of those mini figurine sets at the Disney Store and used them throughout the table. Here, we placed Maximus near an apple tree.

On the sweets table, my tree arrangements, which made previous appearances at a Minnie Mouse party and 50th birthday party, were decorated with bright purple, pink and yellow poms.

I bought several white photo holders at Ikea to display signs at the food table and art table.

Disney Family offered several free downloadable Tangled themed activities on their site. I printed out several of the activities for the kids to do at a Rapunzel Art Studio table since she loved to paint. I also whipped up a couple batches of homemade play dough for the kids to sculpt and create with.

Happy birthday to my sweet little girl, Audrey!

More photos from the party can be viewed on the Facebook page

Cupcakes, mini pies, printables & styling by Lollipops & Paper

Cake, brownies & royal icing decor by Cupkits

invitation inspiration and printable sun bunting banner by Paging Supermom

Printable activities by Disney Family Fun

Photos by Cupkits and Lollipops & Paper

9.11 Memorial Free Printable

Tomorrow marks the 10 year anniversary of the attacks and I was trying to find a way to remember and honor the day with my children who are really too young to understand.
I designed these printable tags with a request for everyone. To honor those who lost their lives that day, let's thank those who served and are currently serving our country. So I say, today and tomorrow, how about we bake a batch (or two) of our favorite treats, add these toppers and deliver them to a local fire station, police station, veteran's center or someone we know who served our country.


You could also create a care package for someone on active military duty and decorate the package with these. Although they may not get the care package in time for the anniversary, we can still show our gratitude.



I printed these on white cardstock and alternated between using a 1 1/2 in. and 2 in. circle punch.

you can download the labels here