DIY Party Mom

Facebook Fridays

I wanted to take a minute to introduce a new feature I am having for our new retail and on our online web store.

We now have a weekly coupon code called "Facebook Fridays". Every week, I'll introduce a candy that we carry in our store on our facebook page. If you are a fan of ours on Facebook, you can check out what the candy is. If you're in the Canon City area, come into the new store and tell us what the candy is and you'll get 10% off your total purchase.

Since so many of my friends and followers aren't in Colorado, the code is also good for 10% off our online web store too!

But to know what the "Candy of the Day" is, you have to go check us out on facebook! Go check it out NOW since it's only good on Friday and only good once per customer.

Dum Dum Candy Wreath

I wanted to make a new wreath for the front door of my new candy store. I really considered making another Jelly Bean wreath like before, but I decided I wanted something new and a little different.

I saw this sucker wreath idea on Pinterest and decided it would be perfect. I was a little worried about the candy melting in the hundred degree heat we've had the last few weeks and about the suckers falling out whenever someone opened the door, but I'm glad to say after having it on the door for over a week, it's not been a problem.

I started with a foam wreath from Walmart and a bag of Dum Dum suckers.

I was worried about how long the sucker sticks were and pushing them into the wreath, so I cut them down at the base of where the wrapper meets the stick. It was a tricky job but I found if I held the stick and cut, the sucker would fall into my lap and the sticks wouldn't fly all over the place. (Yes, it was a problem for a while...almost took out one of the kiddos that way.)

I wanted a really full wreath so it took the whole large bag of Dum Dums and a little bit more.

Then I randomly started pushing the suckers into the foam wreath until it looked "right."

I tried to make it good and full so that when people walked in, you couldn't see any white.

To make sure it didn't bang against the door, I put a Command adhesive strip on the back of the wreath so it sticks to the door.

Lastly, to hang it, I used a Command adhesive hook and turned it upside down and placed it on the top of the inside of the door. Then I looped a big piece of ribbon around the wreath and tied it in a bow on the hook.

Now it looks beautiful and welcomes visitors to my new store in a sweet way!

Lost in Sweet Candy Bliss

I never meant to be gone so very long. Life has gotten crazy, wonderful, out of control, and amazing in the past two weeks!

I have told you before how I live in a little town in Colorado and there's not a lot here. I've struggled trying to run my candy and party business with so little choices available to me. Well, I'm constantly telling my kids that they can't complain about something unless they are willing to do something to change it. I finally took my own advice and have turned my little business into an actual retail store!

I still can't believe it. As I look around at the amazing confections around me, it totally thrills and amazes me to see such love in the candy. So many people have helped me to get to realize my dream and to keep me going through the rough spots (and there have been MANY!)

But I'm super excited at the results. I am hoping that this new candy store will grow my online party dreams and my online will help me grow the candy. If you're ever in Canon City, Colorado, be sure to come by and say "HI!" If you can't get there, come tour it with me now.

Sweet Shopping on Etsy

I need to take a break from showing you all the fun projects from our Disney Fundraiser to move onto another exciting project I have in the works. I am super excited about this and the direction it will take my ideas and business, but I'm not quite ready to announce yet, so I am going to go shopping with a sweet Candyland theme.

Come along and support the small businesses of Etsy with a candy inspired shopping treasury.

Handmade Candy Cupcake Sprin... Candyliciousje... $14.00	Candyland Party Cake Pops SinfullySweetL... $36.50
Edible Arrangement l Butterf... CharmiosEdible... $39.95	CANDYLAND Journal Notebook H... heavensentcraf... $16.00
XL Happy Birthday Banner in ... thepaperkingdo... $40.00	CandyLand Ticket Birthday In... PinkLilyInvita... $11.50
Candyland Birthday Party Dec... YourPartyPeopl... $5.10	Chalkboard signs / tags - se... HappilyHandmad... $32.00
100 Candy Shoppe Candyland S... CupcakeExpress $16.00	Cupcake Cutie Crayons -Set o... SprinklesCrayo... $4.50
Lollipop PiÃ±ata - Pull Stri... PinataQueen $41.00	Candyland Digital Print You... scrapWorld2010 $3.00
Candyland Ribbon Garland atozebracelebr... $37.99	Candyland Pixie Stix Favor S... CuriousPrinces... $19.99
Candyland Pattern, Cross Sti... RetroMadeDesig... $4.47	Brightly Colored Candyland ... oldintonewcout... $35.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Cinderella's Castle

We HAD to have Cinderella's castle when planning her table. It is almost a requirement. I had originally planned to try and make one, but I just ran out of time and the thought of building a castle that wasn't exactly like the icon just didn't seem right.

So instead, I went shopping at Amazon, because Goodwill just didn't have it this time. (DRAT.)

I found THIS 3D Cinderella castle puzzle. I used my Gift Cards from Swagbucks to make it almost free (which is pretty good price wise if you ask me!)

I'd never built a 3D puzzle before and it was a little tricky trying to line up everything, so I put the puzzle together and Drama Queen figured out how to put it together.

And it looked awesome beside our pumpkin and Cinderella's magic slipper!

Sleeping Beauty Maleficent Dragon

My good fairies needed Maleficent to fight for our Sleeping Beauty table to be complete, so I found THIS plastic canvas pattern from Annie's Attic.

The pattern itself wasn't hard to cut or sew. I even changed all the colors to look like the black and purple from Sleeping Beauty's dragon without too much trouble. But putting it together was some serious work. I'm not sure I got everything exactly as it was supposed to be. The pattern was not very clear in the directions and I think they seriously need to work on that.

But overall, it took me only a week to work on and it looked pretty cool on the Sleeping Beauty party table.

Check out more of our Disney party ideas

Hercules' Muse Vase

When I knew I was making a Hercules table, I knew I needed to add the Muses somehow. Since my skill at figurines is non-existent, I decided to add these lovely ladies on a vase as the centerpiece of the table.

It was pretty easy overall.

I started with a clear flower vase from, where else? Goodwill.

Then, I spray painted it black.

Next I found a picture with all of the Muses on the Internet and printed it out.

I cut each of the ladies out and then lined them up around the vase.

Pretty easy!

Check out more of our Disney party ideas

Hercules Snakes

I had grand ideas for the Hercules table, but I had no luck trying to find the directions or supplies to make what was in my head. I had hoped to try and make a minator or other Greek monster, but just couldn't figure out how to do it.

So instead, I made some cardboard toilet paper roll snakes to represent Medusa's snakes.

I found the idea here at Crafts by Amanda and had the Drama Queen spend the afternoon painting. They really turned out cute in person and gave a little something extra to a rather bare table. Plus, my boys loved playing with the snakes after!

Check out more of our Disney party ideas

Enchanted Table Decorations

Enchanted was another movie that I had a hard time coming up with ideas on how to decorate for. I had originally come up with a plan to make a building and wrap a dragon around it, but could never quite get it to work right. During the last week, these decoration ideas came to me and I think they turned out pretty cute.

I started with a light blue table cloth from my new favorite Party supply store Factory Direct Party.

Then I cut out a dress shape from the center of the table so it looked like Giselle had cut herself a dress out of it. I free handed it so it wasn't perfect, but I think it looked fun.

Then I made a silver version of Cinderella's shoe. I followed the same procedure, but used a silver glitter instead of gold.

I found a chipmunk to represent Pip at Jo-Anns when I was there a few weeks ago and put him on the table.

Then I represented the 3 apples that the Evil Queen tries to give Giselle. I had a regular apple, a apple-tini, and a poison carmel apple on a helmet.

Check out more of our Disney party ideas

Beauty and the Beast's Lumiere

So I wish that I could tell you how to make this AMAZING Lumiere decoration from Beauty and the Beast...but I can't. But I just HAD to share it with you since it is so absolutely wonderful....

and the most amazing part of him?

Drama Queen made him!

Isn't it awesome?

She needed to make something fictional in art class in school, so she took paper mache, some clay, a little bit of tissue paper, and some paint...and TADAH! Lumiere.

It's super cool in the fact that she made him so a tea light will fit in his arms and head. So we reused

the lights from the Tangled lanterns to make him shine. It's so cool.

I don't think I can rave enough about my UBER TALENTED artist of a daughter.

And she was kind enough to let us use him for our Beauty and the Beast table (seen here with the Princess Belle) at last week's fundraiser. We had more than one person who wanted to take him home, but we put a body guard on him and he'll soon have a permanent home in our living room!

Check out more of our Disney party ideas

Tarzan Monkey Trees

Tarzan was one of those tables that was hard to figure out how to decorate for.

I was lucky in that I found these trees at Dollar Tree a few weeks ago. They have them in two different sizes and I bought a few of each so it looked like a jungle in the center of the table.