Butterfly cupcakes toppers

For my daughters' birthday party, I made some beautiful butterflies cupcakes toppers I would like to share...
I melt some white candy melt and add pink food color. I drew butterflies on white paper and covered them with parchment paper.


I piped the pink candy melt following the outline of the butterfly drawing and filling in it with squiggles.
They set almost immediately. I let them rest in the refrigerator until I set them on top of the cupcakes the day of the party.


Here the result...

Party Tags

I found a simple, but colorful collection of party accessories and stationary especially for children. It is fun and stylish . My favorite items: the gift tags. For more products visit: www.sambellina.com.au

Paper Pom Poms

I have been busy making paper pom poms during the weekend for my daughter's birthday party. I have to admit that they are not that easy at the beginning. This picture is from Martha Stewart website.

You can follow Tissue Paper Pom-Poms How-To from www.marthastewart.com
The tissue paper comes in different textures, I found the softer one easier to work with, but you have to be very gentle or you will have no pom poms complete. Another advise is to alternate the opening of the paper from sides and middle. This way you will get all the paper open completely from the root evenly.
Here some of mine...

Placements

I found these fun placements we can use for parties, picnics or special occasions. They will keep the little ones busy playing with the stickers, learning where to set forks, knife and spoons. They come in sets of 8. For more products e information visit www.hellohanna.com

Evites

I love traditional invitations, the ones you print, seal, stamp and mail, but in these digital age it is more practical to send evites. I usually use www.evite.com, but I just found a new website I would like to try www.pingg.com It has many stylish e innovative images, cards and invitations. Check it out!

Baby Shower

I hosted a baby shower for one of my best friend. I knew she was expecting a baby girl and I was sure she would prefer any color except pink! I chose orange and turquoise as the colors of the party. She certainly liked it.

I decorated the place with paper banners and paper poppy flowers I made coached, of course, by Martha www.marthastewart.com

As the Mexican tradition, we welcomed every guest with a corsage. I made just a simple bow with a tiny heart that said "it's a girl" from Michael's (first picture)

For favors, I gave some little notebook pads with initials bought in ACmoore.

Choco Flan

Tomorrow is the Winter Fest and Auction at LCYC and we have to participate in the bake sale. Here is my bake item: a CHOCO FLAN. ...voila!

If you would like to try ...here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
• Chocolate Cake Mix
Flan
• 1 can condensed milk
• 1 can evoporated milk
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 2 spoons of cream cheese
Caramel
• 1 cup of sugar

Directions:
1. Melt the sugar in a low heat until bubbling. Transfer to the baking pan or bunt cake pan and let it cool down.
Cake
2.Prepare chocolate cake mix according to the instructions on the box.
Flan
3: Beat milks, vanilla, eggs and cream cheese in a blender ( 1 min)
3: Spray bunt cake pan with non-stick cooking spray.
4: Add cake mix to the pan with caramel and after add the flan mixture with a big spoon to avoid mixing the cake with the milks too much.
7: Bake at 375 degrees for about 1 hour or until done. Enjoy...

Valentines's Day Treats

I got inspired by www.bakerella.com and I made tons and tons of cake pops this past weekend. They are easy and fun to make. At the beginning, my chocolate covering process wasn't smooth, but I got it! We tried different shapes with stick and with out them. They were yummi! I can't stop trying and trying them. I am chocolate lover!

These hearts were delivered at school as treats for my kids' teachers.

Our Valentines

Following the inspirational Valentine's Day Crafts ideas I posted from Martha Stewart website. I finished our version. Unfortunately, my kids won't be able to deliver them before Valentine's Day due to the snow storm. Hopefully, next week they will catch up with the celebrations!

Car's Theme Party

These cars are an amazing attraction for the small drivers. You can organize a race or just let them ride them. My son enjoyed so much the set of cars I created for his 3rd Car's birthday party. I cut the top off a medium size box, cut out some circles on the side and top, painted them, decorated with some print outs and for tires I glued black paper plates. They ended pretty good!

Princess Party Basket

My daughter's school is having a Winterfest and Silent Auction. They asked each family to donate an item for the event. I put together a Princess Party Basket for 8.
The basket includes: Invitations, thank you notes, placements cards, crowns, table decor, favor bags, cupcakes toppers, banner, game (pin the crown to the princess), activity (create a necklace).

Dinosaur Party

For his 4th birthday, my son Joseph, asked for a Dino-mite celebration. I couldn't take many pictures of the details but I was glad to see some from my friends.

We divided our backyard by stations. 1. Welcome by personalized hats with the guest dino-names 2. Dino-Tattoos 3. An excavation site, the most crowded station! (we fill our sand box with buckets, pails, shovels and molds! 4. Play-dough Time. We had a table full of play-dough and dinosaurs cookie cutters) and last one 5. Gamo-o-saurus. A game to stick some bones to the dinosaur. For the kids to take home, I arrange Excavation Kits (buckets filled with dinosaurs, pails, binoculars, and more related items.

Lunch was grilled hamburgers for the big herbivores and hotdogs for the little ones. Joseph had an amazing time. He said "mom my party was awesome!" We hit the goal!

Mickey Mouse

These are some chocolate cake pops we gave the guest.




I created these Mickey Mouse favor tags for our friend Danny. He is turning 2 this coming Monday.

Valentine's Cards

Valentine's Day is coming this weekend. If you still need some inspiration for your kids' valentines here are some recommendations:

www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/valentines-day-projects-for-kids



familyfun.go.com/assets/cms/crafts/butterfly-card-valentines-day-craft-photo-420-FF0299VALA14.jpg

Cupcakes

Cupcake-mania! Kids love cupcakes. I decided to bake some for my daughter's birthday celebration at school. I found a very easy vanilla cupcake and frosting recipe from www.marthastewart.com (I am big fan of Martha!) I asked my daughter to throw some sprinkles on top and I finished the decoration with some initials and #3s I printed and cut them in circles. My daughter enjoyed decorating them and the kids ate them all!
I cut the recipes in half. I thought for mini size the full recipe would make so many.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners; set aside. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well. Add vanilla. Reduce speed to medium. Mix in 3 batches of flour mixture, alternating with 2 batches of milk. Raise speed to medium-high; mix until thoroughly blended, 10 to 20 seconds.
2. Spoon 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup. Bake until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Let cool in tin on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tin; let cool completely. Line tin with muffin cups; repeat process with remaining batter.
www.marthastewart.com/recipe/vanilla-letter-cupcakes

Fluffly Vanilla Buttercream
Ingredients
Makes 5 1/4 cups
4 sticks (1 pound) unsalted butter, softened
6 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt

Directions
Put butter in bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium; add sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well, about 5 minutes total. Add vanilla and salt. Raise speed to medium-high; beat until smooth, about 1 minute more
www.marthastewart.com/recipe/fluffy-vanilla-buttercream

Beautiful and delicious: macaroons

I am crazy about macaroons. I find them so beautiful and delicious. They remind me of those we used to have in Luxembourg when we were leaving in Germany. In Paris is worth the line in LADUREE www.laduree.com.fr
Here is an examples how few macaroons in a clear box with a paper flower can be stoning favor for an elegant event, baby shower, baptism or more. Source www.marthastewart.com

You can find macaroons on line shop at www.shopsucre.com

My daughter's 3rd birthday party.

I will be sharing my daughter's birthday party planning. She will be 3! She has been dreaming about Tinkerbell Tea Party. I am not exactly fan of typical character parties, I prefer unique and personalized themes, but whose party is this for, anyway?
I started by creating an invitation from a Tinkerbell book cover that fits the party theme perfectly.