This post may contain affiliate links. When you click on a link, you are supporting DIY Party Mom, my family, and our blog fun. Thank you for your love and support!

Sweet Stuff Sale

In honor of our CandyLand party, we have put all of our candy bars, candy name plaques, and candy lollipops on sale this week so you can make any party a little sweeter!


We have lots of Whirlypop sucker designs so you can have a personalized lollipop at your Blues Clues, Pokemon, Hello Kitty, or Hot Wheels party!  We even have Elmo and the Sesame Street gang.  How sweet this would be to add to any party with your little one's name around the outside of the sucker.


Would you rather have something chocolatey?  We carry sweet candy bars personalized to wish your favorite Spiderman, Star Wars, or Pokemon fan a Happy Birthday.  Or Thank you guests for coming to your party in a sweet style.  All of our candy bars are printed to be able to enjoy the candy and scrapbook the wrapper.  This would be a truly memorable thank you favor!

Or do you know a Chocoholic?  We have even put our chocolate name plaques on sale this week so you can give a sweet gift to the hostess or birthday girl!  We have our Chocolate Covered Truffle Name Plaque, our Chocolate Hug and Kiss Name Plauque, and even an M&M Name Plaque with your name in the sweet candies.


We've even put our Gum Heads on sale!  Add a sweet gum favor to your baby shower or summer BBQ!


Don't see the theme of your next party?  We have LOTS of graphics and are thrilled to create a new plaque, candy bar, or lollipop sticker as unique as you!  Just give us a hollar and even get the sale price before Monday June 28!

What a Sweet Week


I think I'm going to LOVE this week's party!  I have had an obsession with candy related items since I opened my business MANY years ago.  I have a huge collection of M&M items, Hershey items, and anything that can be recycled from candy.  I even made myself a M&M purse a few years ago--made from used M&M wrappers.  It's awesome!

So this week, we're having a CANDYLAND theme for our party.  I can't decide what my favorite item is from this week's etsy treasury.  I love the upcycled Pixi Stix notebook.  I would love to have those Gummy Worm Soaps.  And those Lollipop invitations?  What a neat idea!

So here's the start of a sweet week on our blog with a sweet themed candy treasury.  Find the treasury here:





Don't get a toothache!

Family, Fun, Food, & Fireworks -- A Patriotic Party

So this week's party is one that's close to home.  I'm actually going to have most of my family in town (all 21 of us) for the 4th of July.  So we're going to get together with them and a few of my closest friends (for a total of 75 people) for a holiday BBQ, fireworks party, and Birthday for my soon-to-be 6 year old son "Z".  So I've spent ALOT of time thinking about how to make this a great party, and hopefully I've succeeded.  If you see a problem, or better way of doing something, PLEASE let me know!

Invitations:

I made some really cute invites for this party.  I printed out the party inforatmion on plain white cardstock, which I then ran through my Craft Robo to cut multi-sized stars on the top left and bottom right.  I glued the cardstock to some cute blue and white starred patriotic pattern paper that I found at Jo-anns.  This shows the blue pattern paper on the sides and through the cut-outs in the paper.  Doesn't it create a fun look?  Then I brought in the color red by gluing the whole invite to a slightly larger piece of red cardstock.  I may be a bit biased, but I think they turned out really cute.


Decorating

This party will be held outside at a pavillion and softball field at my hubby's workplace.  So we're praying for good weather so I can decorate to my heart's content.  This pavillion has wooden support posts around the outside edges.  I plan to create red, white, and blue pennants from cardstock to hang in a double-tiered around the pavillion using the posts as a swag point.

For the head table with the food, I'm going to use a red plastic tablecloth with a blue and white fabric runner down the center.  I'm giong to get 5 yards of blue patriotic fabric and cut it down the center lengthwise.  Since it's so windy here some days, I'm going to use double sided tape to tape the runner down and some picnic table clips for the main tablecloth.  The other half of the fabric will be used to make a matching cover and runner for the dessert table.

The picnic tables we'll eat at will have white butcher paper table cloths.  I'll put a centerpiece of a cute Red, White, or Blue bucket like Simply Creative Insanity has here or a large recycled can with patriotic paper with crayons on it.  This way the kids can color on it while they wait for their food or for their parents to eat.  I'm also trying to find some wooden stars that I can paint to add a little punch to the bucket centerpiece.

The silverware will be on the main food table inside matching centerpiece buckets or paper covered recycled cans.  I think I'll put some river rock gems in the bottoms so the wind son't blow the cans/buckets over.  The plates and napkins will be also patriotic colors and sit beside the white silverware.

The dessert table will be decked out in the same red tablecloth and fabric runner as the food table.  In the center of the table will be a large cupcake with 6 candles for "Z"s birthday portion of the party.  To each side of the cupcake will be over 100 cupcakes on a large cupcake holder that I found at Jo-anns.  They are a plain white, which will set off all the holiday colors and designs on the cupcakes themselve.  Then, we'll scatter other desserts around the table.

Food

It will be a classic potluck style BBQ with meats, salads, and treats.  Since I have so much family to add to the mix, we're going to bring alot of food.  We'll bring our family favorite of "Pink Salad", corn on the cob for all the guests (someone find me a good sale!), Sam's Club's yummy potato salad, and hopefully we can figure out a way to bring my hubby's buttery, greasy, yummy, tasty cubed potatoes.  We'll see what the other guests bring to add to the yum!

For dessert, we'll have 1 Large cupcake and over 100 small cupcakes.  The small cupcakes will have a variety of toppers on them.  We'll have everthing from Inchmark's cute sugar cookies stars, to pinwheels, to the patriotic cupcake toppers I shared yesterday.  My son is so excited to start baking already!

We'll also have bowls of Red, White, and Blue M&Ms in both plain and peanut, a cut up Watermelon,  oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (another family favorite), and an apple pie.  What's more American than that?  To top it off, I'm going to find a large bucket and fill it with ice and popcicles. 

We should have enough food to overeat and stuff ourselves just as the founding fathers would have wanted!


Games:

To start the party off and give the kids something to do while the meat cooks and everyone arrives, I'm going to do a craft with them.  I wanted to do something that would allow my kids to have a souvenier for this fun day with their cousins and friends.  So originally I wanted to do t-shirts like this and this.  But I realized the cost and mess factore where way out of my control.  So instead, I refined an activity that I had wanted to do last year when my family got together--necklaces.

I bought a bunch of stretchy necklaces where I wanted to add a phone number on them so incase the kids got lost at any of the theme parks or activities we did, someone could call us.  Well, I never could quite make it work in time for last year's reunion, since no one makes affordable numbers on beads big enough to gon on the necklaces that I bought.  This year, I have a new laser printer.  So I have drilled holes in small wooden circles from Hobby Lobby.  I'll let the kids paint and decorate the front and I'll put a sticker on the back with contact information.  I'll go ahead and seal them with modge podge just in case.  Then the kids can decorate the necklaces with pony beads in different colors and shapes.

Hopefully, they'll be done about the time the food is too.  After dinner, I'll let the adults sit, talk, and settle their stomachs.  The kids can play with a variety of items I'll bring-- a football, basketball, volleyball, frisbee, ring toss, and lawn golf.

Once we have settled, I'm going to put everyone's name in 2 jars.  One for kids 10 and older and one for kids 9 and under.  Two team captains will draw a name from each of the jars.  This will set up the teams--hopefully evenly and fairly for a fun game of Kickball.  We had such a good time playing this for FHE a few weeks ago that I'm sure we'll all enjoy the game.

When the game is over, we'll meet back for cake and ice cream for "Z".  Since his actual birthday isn't until 3 weeks later, we'll give him one big present that all his cousins can play with while they are visiting.

My Sister-In-Law has a desire to see fireflies while she's here, so we'll take glass Ball jars and go firefly hunging for 1/2 hour while the men prepare for the "big show."  I LOVE Family Fun's idea of the firefly party and had to incorporate it into our evening.

It should be getting dark by then and so we'll do sparklers for the kids and pop Jiffy Pop popcorn for families to enjoy during the show.  I'll make these patriotic treat holders from Martha Stewart for the popcorn so everyone can have their own "bowl".  Then, it's time for our own fireworks show!  We've done this for the past few years and have really enjoyed being able to have a private showing.  I can't wait to share the fun with family too!

Favors:

The kids will each have their own necklaces to take home and I'm going to make these Family Fun Festive Fans for the adults to use during the party if it gets hot.  They are so patriotic looking and handy to have!

I'll also have some of these boxes done up as cupcake holders so we can send home any of the leftover cupcakes with friends.  We can't take them since we'll be busy parting all week.  And how can you have a night party without glow in the dark necklaces?  It's un-American!  So we'll definitly be making a trip to Oriental Trading for some extra light to add to our night!

So what do you think?  I think it should be a fun, festive, sparkly night!

Print Some Patriotic Fun

Here are some sweet printables from Me and Other friends around the web to add some fun to your 4th of July party.

I'm offering you our popular Firecracker Poop Baggie Topper printable for your holiday treats. Here's a printable for 6 of our Firecracker poops. Just place several red and blue M&Ms or other colored candy inside a 3x4 bag (available at Walmart or other craft store.) Then print and cut out this page of poops on a 81/2 by 11 sheet of white cardstock. Fold each topper in half and staple onto your candy baggie.



Kari Lind Creations has a wonderful page of cupcake toppers to spruce up your 4th of July cupcakes.  Aren't these so cute?  You can download them HERE.

She promises to add more printables for your holiday pleasure, so be sure to check back on her blog often.








Here are some free printable 4th of July party invitations for you to customize and print from 123printables.  Just click on which invitation you're interested in and enter the information for your party.  Then just print.  How easy is that?





Patriotism is So Sweet



Okay, I admit....I haven't gotten around to putting out my Patriotic 4th of July products.  I haven't done it in the stores, I haven't done it online.  So, I guess this post is good for me.  It has gotten me moving...very slowly moving...but it's a start.

Here are some fun items that will be showing up online and in stores, very soon.  Check them out and get 20% off your online order until Monday, June 21!







I'm really excited about these.  I think these would make some cute cupcake and treat boxes to put favors in for your party!  What do you think?

And here are our Patriotic Gum Heads.  We have "Uncle Sam" and "Lady Liberty".  Wouldn't they be cute sitting as place settings?

I'll also HAVE  to come up with some cute patriotic versions for our Whirlypop Lollipops.  They would be great favors for any outside 4th of July party or BBQ.   So stay tuned to our Etsy and Facebook sites for some great products at SALE prices!

Team USA Winners

I've started my blog surfing for my end of the week party planning...and along the way, I've found some fun contests for you to enter. 

Buddy-Notes Buddy Star Letter Giveaway
What a fun way to celebrate the 4th of July for your little ones! Win a personalized letter sent to your son or daughter for the holiday.  Just go to Buddy-Notes facebook page and become a fan.  Then leave a short note saying your interested in winning! What a great favor this would be for those little ones at your party.

Krups Ice Cream Maker and Rosanna Sweet Dreams Bowl Contest

Have a great 4th of July party by making your own ice cream and serving it up in some pretty sweet bowls.  Contest sponsered by 5 Minutes for Mom. They have several other July 4th Giveaways going on, so be sure to check them out and register!





July Giveaway: Retro USA Tablecloth

Here's an American Wonderland Tablecloth for your retro 4th of July party.  What a fun and different type of tablecloth sponsored by A Lovely Thing.




Choice of 50 Laser Paper Invitations and 50 Foam Cups

Inviting Company is giving away your choice of 50 invitations from several different styles, so you can invite your friends to your party in a personal style.  How fun!

Reach for the Stars -- Patriotic Week

This week we're getting ready for our annual 4th of July Party.  I'm having ALOT of family in town for this awesome event, so I need to get planning and preparing now.

Let's get this party started with an awesome Etsy treasury of Patriotic Party decorations, treats, and necessities!

How fun!

A Twilight Party Alice Would Be Proud Of

After a week of looking at some wonderful sites and gathering some great Twilight party ideas, I'm ready to share with you my Twilight party.  Hopefully, Alice will be proud of me.

Planning:
First I had to decide if I wanted a full dinner party before the premiere of the movie, or just a light "cocktail" type party.  I decided to go with the full party since there was so much more you could do and decorate for.  Plus, you need to have some Good Food in your stomach so you won't drool too much over all the shirt-less hotties in the movie.

Decorating:

In true Alice style, I decided to use LOTS of twinkle lights up the driveway and into the house.  I think it will be great to intertwine the lights up the driveway and in the trees.  I have a short driveway, so I'll carry the lights into the rose bushes in the front of my house and along the walkway.  Since we are going to be going to the 10:30ish movie, it should work great for a late dinner party.

At the front doorway, I love the idea of putting a "The City of Forks Welcomes You" sign at the front doorway from Design Dazzle.   My friend also had posted on her blog a fun idea about putting a bunch of plastic forks in your front lawn to help guests enter into "Forks, Washington."  Thought that was a fun idea!

This sign from Twilight Novel Novice would also be really fun to put inside the doorway with a basket of bandainds as guests come in.  It would also be fun to put some sparkly body glitter or lotion in the basket so guests can "adorn" themselves like a true vampire.
Once entering, it's all about the color scheme and lighting.  With Twilight, the books are all in the cover colors are red and black.  So these colors would be promonate in everything.  I will purchase alot of candles in red and white. I love the Hostess with the Mostess' idea of putting quotes from the book around some of the larger candles and in black frames on the tables and surfaces around the party.  You can find some great printable quotes from her site here.  She also recommends putting red apples in large vases around the room too.  I just love the table ideas to create an air of fantasy, romance, and Twilight theme.



Almost did, but can't forget to have music at the party.  My daughter has the Twilight soundtrack, so we'll probably mix that in with the Eclipse music playlist from Stephanie Meyer's site in the background.  I may even splurge and go get the other 2 soundtracks.

Dinner Table Decorations:

I love Twilight Novel Novice's centerpiece with a true tribute to all 4 of the Twilight books.  She took a vase and filled it with red and clear glass beads.  Then she added wax tulips painted to match the cover of the New Moon book and stemmed red apples from the Twilight cover.  Around the vase was tied a big red ribbon from Eclipse.  And the whole set is sitting on a chess board with red and white chess pieces from Breaking Dawn.  (She does say it's easier and cheaper to just buy a chess set and paint the extra pieces red.)
My tablecloths will be black with red napkins and white dishes.  (No need to go out and buy new dishes, I'm trying  not go completely overboard.)  I want it to keep an elegant theme, so I'm lucky in that I have the glass white plates from Walmart that will work perfectly.  For place settings, I'll use Design Dazzle's idea of the red apple on the crystal candlestick holder with a red ribbon around the base.  Each apple will have a green "leaf" with the guest's name tied to the top.


I also really like Bart and Ashli's blog post idea of placing different tags of each of the characters around the glasses so guests will remember which cup is their's as the walk around with their drinks.


Dinner Menu:

In the restraunt scene in the Twilight book and in the movie when Bella goes to first meet the Cullen family. Bella is served Italian food, so I think we all agree Italian is the only appropriate thing to serve!

Since we have so many guests coming, I think I'll make a variety of small Italian dishes in a buffet style so everyone can have a little or they can each have something different.  I think I'll try a new dish of Bella's Mushroom Portabella, my family's standby of Chicken Alfrado, and my husband's amazing Lasagna. (He spent 2 years in Italy and can out-cook anyone's lasagna...but I may be biased!)

For some ideas of more things to make, you can check out ... blog for some great Italian recipies for your own Twilight party.

For drink's I would love to steal Avah's idea of serving Shirly Temples.  The little cherry in the bottom of the drink can almost look like an apple.  I may even go get some bottles of Cherry 7-up and add Hostess with the Mostess' blood labels to the outside of them.


Games:

Although we will be going to see Eclipse as the main entertainment of the evening, I am a Recreation Major so can't throw a party without at least a few games.  I'm not a huge fan of pre-openers, I never liked having to play them myself, but they do serve a great purpose....to break the ice and get guests mingling.

I like the idea I saw on several sites where each guest was given a name to put on their backs as they entered the house.  Each name was given according to how much the guest knew about the series Twilight.  Novice's might be given names such as "Bella" or "Jacob".  More advanced readers may have names such as "Charlie Swan" or "Carlisle".  Very advanced Twi-hards may have names such as "James" or "Renesmee".  Each guest needs to figure out their character by asking only Yes or No questions. 

Between the meal and desert, guests can play Twilight Scene It (my daughter got it for Christmas last year) or a Twilight based trivia game. Guests can be asked to name the speaker of Twilight quotes or questions about scenes from the books or movie.  I even found a great idea for a Twilight scavenger hunt and treasure hunt.

The winner of the game will win a Golden Onion like Bella recieved in Twilight.  Just spray paint a large onion with gold paint!  How fun.
Dessert

I LOVE Louise Hayden's Twilight cakes from here.  They are all so beautiful and would make a great addition to any Twilight party.  I think the Twilight Chess board cake is my favorite. The cake recreates the chessboard from the cover of the fourth book, Breaking Dawn.  I think we'll add some edible chess pieces in chocolate to complete the set!

Then, since I absolutely love cupcakes, I will make a few Werewolf Cupcakes from Annies Eats and these Vampire Cupcakes from Baking Bites.


I would hate to mess up these beautiful cupcakes, but I do love Confessions of  a TwiCrack Addict's idea of adding forks in the center of the cupcakes with Twilight sayings.




Party Favors:

Of course I'm going to use my Team Edward and Team Jacob candy bar favors.  I just love them and I think they are the perfect size to sneak into your purse for a sweet treat during the movie.  So I have to add them to the treat bags.
I think I will also make a few extra of the chocolate chess pieces from the cake and wrap them up as sweet treats for guests to take home.  Also, the next time Bath and Body Works puts on a sale, I think I'll grab some of their bottles of "Twilight Woods" body lotion to add.  Finally, I think I'll wrap up some of the candles with sayings in Tulle from off the tables and give each guest one as they leave.
Hopefully, this will be a Alice worthy party and one you can get some great ideas from!  Now go and have a sweet day!

Twilight Crafts, Treats and Printables

I've gotten a little excited about all the amazing things that I've found out there to make your Twilight party an amazing one that Alice would be proud of. I had to make an unexpected stop to our blog and add some of these great ideas and printables. I think you'll be glad to see these fun and amazing treats from all corners of the Twilight web!


Werewolf KibbleRecipie
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 1/4 cup Chex Rice cereal
3 Tablespoons creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
Put cereal in large bowl. Place chocolate and peanut butter in a microwavable safe bowl. Microwave chocolate and peanut butter mixture for 30 seconds on high. Stir. Continue to microwave in 15 second intervals, stirring between, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Pour mixture over cereal and carefully mix until cereal is well coated. Add powdered sugar, stirring in a little at a time until well coated. Spread kibble onto a shallow pan and allow to dry. Store in 1 quart canning jars.
Idea and Werewolf Label Printable from BiteBella can be found here.




Volturi Thirst Quenchers
Fill 1 quart canning jar with Sour Patch Kids.
Label reads:
Volturi Thirst Quenchers
Ingredients: Unsuspecting Tourists from Italy
Idea for Volturi Printables from Pinkleo found here.


Twilight Dream Catcher


Grapevine wreath
4 yards Hemp or string
12 inch Suede Cord
Glass Beads
Monofilament
Scissors
Cut a 70 inch piece of Hemp or Cord. Tie one end to wreath. See illustration and begin tieing half hitches all the way around. Pull string tight between each loop. When you get to the middle, tie on a large glass bead. Trim. Cut a 15 inch piece of monofilament. Tie a large glass bead to one end. Continue adding smaller glass beads until you have a 5 inch long piece of monofilament as a dangler to hang on your wreath. Make 4 more danglers in smaller lengths to add to your wreath. Hang two on each side of 5 inch dangler. Add suede cord to wreath at top and tie a knot for hanging.
Twilight Dream Catcher by MakingFriends can be found here.