Yo Gabba Gabba Foofa Cake

Each member of our family is a huge Yo Gabba Gabba fan... We have even seen DJ Lance and the Gabba gang live on stage 2 times! They are AWESOME! Our youngest, Brooke, is all about Yo Gabba Gabba, so it was a no brainer when it came to her birthday cake! This is pretty easy to create.

Covered the cake in yellow fondant... Created green garden mounds for Foofa Land.

Used a fondant cutter for the daisies and shaped them in plastic spoons.  Used pink icing for the centers piped from a plastic bag.

Printed a paper Foofa and glued to a lollipop stick.  Used Wilton food writers for details... and Brooke was pretty excited for her Foofa Land cake!

It's always fun to have a little extra surprise in the cake, so the batter was pink and yellow, the bottom layer (supposed to be center) was pastel confetti... but it still tasted good and made our Gabba Fan happy!

Personalize your Party with Special Hand-made Touches

This post is long overdue, but an important one because nothing makes the holidays and birthdays more special than the excitement of your children! My sweets get so excited when my husband or I have a birthday.  They have this idea that there will be cake, games and a pinata!  For my 37th birthday in April, I thought it would be fun to make MY birthday about THEM. Why? Because they are my gifts.  What did we do? How did I try to make it fun? Take a look... 

First, they decorated my birthday cake with fondant and food coloring makers.

Fondant flowers made by my little artists!

We decorated with excess party plates and centerpieces they made themselves.  These beauties were made with $2 Michaels grab bag florals and modge podge tissue papered pickle jars! They felt special helping prepare all the decorations.  We always have fun preparing for parties.  I do try to keep them involved and not worry too much about perfection, more about the process!  Must be the art teacher in me!

We used Pirate Treasure beads and colored tissue poms to color up the dining room.  So funny that my kiddos like "Pirate Treasure"!

Brooke couldn't wait to get a taste. Everything looked so colorful and pretty.  Our blue table cloth is bundled fabric from the thrift shop... $2! My son drew a picture of us dressed as Pirates for the birthday sign!

The children made a treasure pinata too! 

Here is a Treasure map of our home.  I cut it into pieces and put them in the pinata!

They had a great time putting the puzzle pieces together... The puzzle pieces were in the pinata!  Wouldn't you know that my dear dad put in $100 in the pinata without me knowing.  What a SURPRISE when they kids popped it open. I was thinking they would find puzzle pieces and tootsie rolls. 

The treasure map directed my kiddos to these wrapped presents throughout the home.  I love the fancy chair for our  Princess that I found at HomeGoods!

Whoopie pies with pretty sprinkles on the dessert table.

Honestly, one of the best birthdays ever was inspired by these special kiddos and the look on their faces made it all Perfect.

Brooke and Matt's Monster Bash, A Joint Birthday Party

We have 2 March birthdays, and this year it was a great fit to have a joint Monster Bash for Brooke and  Matt.  Brooke loves Yo Gabba Gabba and Matthew wanted monsters!  Find all the inspiration on my Pinterest board.  There are tons of talented mommies out there that inspired me and this is the end result.   The goal is to transform the house or space so the children recognize it is a special day for them.  Transforming the space doesn't have to cost a lot of money, just some prep-time, and plan ahead.  I usually purchase a pad of scrapbook paper when they are 50% off and use it for all the paper decorations.  The folded pinwheel circles, drink box wraps, food label tents... everything and it costs $10.00 at the most! I always have Wilton candy melts and gel food colors on hand, as well as tons of cake tips and icing bags.  

Our dessert table.

I use fabric that I find at the thrift shop for my table cloths.  They end up costing between $2 and $3 for 3-4 yards of fabric.  You can't beat that!

At the end of the summer season, these  pinwheels were 80-90% off at Hobby Lobby, and they are great for any party!  When they are in the yard... our friends and neighbors know we are celebrating some one special!

The Wilton monster eyes were perfect for everything and purchased them at Wal-Mart for around $3.00.

This was originally a cowboy hat on a Wanted sign... can you tell? it was one of our  signs for Joe's Cowboy party.  We recycled it for Monsters!

These cupcakes were super easy to make.

so easy to make and create a great impact, we use and re-use these for everyone's party.

Matthew's birthday cake... love that grass tip.

these were inspired by And Everything Sweet and was submitted to Kara's Party ideas.

Here are my 2 monsters!

manipulated this and emailed the invites to friends and family.  Perfect for the Gabba/ Monster party!

Easy Peasy, No Bake Cake! Personalize Your Child's Birthday Cake with Their Imagination!

It was my oldest son's 6th birthday! I just can't grasp where the time has gone.  He is going to begin Kindergarten in the Fall, so we have postponed his birthday party so that he can include some new school friends, but we couldn't celebrate without making his real day special.  We headed to the local grocery store and let Joe pick out a cake and a cake kit.  You can buy the cake topper characters without the huge cake.  Joe chose a 1/4 sheet cake that was less than $15.00.  We took it home and added some special touches.

The water is sparkling food gel with some blue food coloring and I just spread it in the corner.

Added our safari and jungle grass.  We used Pillsbury vanilla frosting. I add some powdered sugar to thicken it up and coloring.

Added brown grass and green grass, along with the cake kit animals we bought at the grocery store.

My sweet son added the giraffe from his personal collection of animals.  The giraffe is eating leaves from the tree.

He is the sweetest boy. I am happy he is happy with his cake! It was fun to let him add animals and his creative ideas. The personal touch made it special!

A Special Springtime Button-Themed Birthday for 2!

I have been a do-it-yourselfer for years! Flashback fun will have to be a weekly blog with all the fun handiwork I have dipped into.  Where to start? My Aunt Marie's 70th Birthday back in March shared with my dd Brooke.  I love throwing a party, and having a dessert table is every party's centerpiece! The inspiration for this party was a button fondant mold that I purchased at Michael's, and the rest fell together.

Here is the dessert table. I love the color scheme.  I purchased the yellow tulips at ALDI for $4.88 each and they lasted until Easter.  The white tulips were from the $2.00 grab bags that I have blogged about before.  

I made the bunting for the cakes with scrapbook paper.  The  white cake plates are from HomeGoods and Marshall's. I do interchange the ribbons to match the party colors.  I also love using candlesticks and glass plates, which is what I did for my wedding centerpieces.  Another flashback to blog about in the future!

My children love marshmallows and dipping them in colored chocolate on lollipop sticks makes a really quick impact for a dessert table.  Not a lot of prep time for a pretty impact.

I like having the inside of the cake to be a fun surprise.  Colored cake is so easy... take white cake batter... separate into different bowls and add coloring.  Mix in pan and wallah!  

I sent out tags to family members far and wide to celebrate my Aunt's birthday.  I used my Cricut machine to cut tags out of pretty scrapbook paper.  I have my dear sister to thank for getting me hooked on my paper cutting machine. Check out her awesome blog and shop here. 

I found these cute frames at GW for .25 a piece and I have about 30 of them.  I spray painted them and placed fun photos celebrating 70 years!

A special celebration indeed!