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Pretty in Pink First Birthday Party

A very simple and pretty in pink first birthday party that’s so sweet…

My great-niece turned one and my girls and I got the honor of decorating and baking for it. I’m not supposed to be old enough to have great-nieces yet! Where did the time go? But she is so sweet and I think she liked what we did for her. The best part? The decorations are very simple and easy to do.

For a Pretty in Pink First Birthday for Hope, we made vanilla cupcakes and a vanilla smash cake with Rice Krispy treats. The cupcakes in the shape of the one are so easy to do. Start with a row of two cupcakes and go from there until you get the shape you want. We used one sheet of foam board with 24 cupcakes and we tinted buttercream with one drop of pink gel color.

Tip: Ice the cupcakes when you have them in the shape you want. We had to transport our cupcakes, and it just made it so much easier to assemble since they weren’t iced yet. We used a huge open star icing tip. It makes icing cupcakes so fast and you get just the right amount of icing.

For the smash cake, I used a 6″ cake pan with really tall sides and baked two layers. When they were cooled, I sliced the two layers each in half so that I had four layers. I stacked each layer with buttercream between each and iced the cake as smooth as I could get it. It helps to crumb coat the cake first. If you’re not sure what crumb coating is, it’s just putting a thin coat of icing on the cake and then refrigerating it till it gets good and cold. It makes icing the cake so much easier and you don’t pick up crumbs from the cake! I then used a shell tip for the border on top and bottom. I think by the time we got to take pictures, some little fingers had been sampling the bottom border! Didn’t even get a chance to put on tulle for the bottom of the cake. Oh, well, it’s pretty anyway! Then we just topped it off with large sprinkles. Isn’t it cute!!

I made the “Hope is One” topper using my Cricut. I made it 5″ tall by 5″ wide and I used Chopin Font. Adjust the size of the topper to the size of your cake. Since my cake was 6″ across I went with 5″ so the topper would fit nicely and not be bigger than the cake.

To make the topper you will need:

Poster board

Glitter cardstock (we used purple)

Clear glue

Tiny paintbrush

Cricut

Candy stick

First size and choose the font you like. I learned the swirlier (Is that a word? It is now!) the font, the more fragile it is to work with. Cut out at least 3 from the poster board and 1 from the cardstock. Use the clear glue applied with a tiny paintbrush to layer each of the cutouts ending with the glitter cardstock on top. Allow each layer to dry a few minutes before adding the next layer. Once everything is good and dry, use the same glue to attach the stick in the back. That’s it! Super easy!

For the sweet centerpieces I used the leftover tulle from the tutu to make pompoms and hot glued them to sticks. I also used my Cricut to cut out the 1’s and hot glued them to sticks also, using the same purple glitter cardstock. We used a variety of glass jars; two different sized mason jars and one Starbucks glass jar. They turned out so cute!

The My First Birthday keepsake I made using Canva. I got the idea from Pinterest. The monogrammed canvas with the flowers was made by my daughter Emily. It is part of a gift for Hope. She also made a beautiful floral chandelier/mobile for her. I’ll link to it as soon as she gets her post ready.

To make the rice krispies, that my nephew Brandon, couldn’t stop eating click here. They were so yummy!

Every princess needs a tutu! This one is light and delicate. I wish the colors would have shown up better, but we didn’t bring my daughter’s lighting kit to the party. Not a good idea with little ones running around. It was made with pink, green and lavender tulle and gold ribbon. She loved it and couldn’t stop playing with it! The best part is, when she’s ready for to wear it, all she has to do is adjust the ribbon and tie. Princess perfection! For the DIY click here.

I couldn’t resist a picture of those sweet hands in her smash cake. I think it might be my favorite picture. First birthdays are so sweet and precious. We wanted to make her’s just as sweet and delicate as she is. Happy 1st birthday Hope!

Spring Flowers for Mom

As hard as it is to be without my mom, it is an honor to be able to make flowers for her. Here is how I made spring flowers for mom…

I have to say that it’s really crazy sometimes how an idea comes together. Just like the idea for this particular spring flower arrangement. I really didn’t have any design in mind when we went to the store; I just knew I was late getting this done. I kept thinking white for some reason. I met my stepdad at Hobby Lobby with my daughter Emily, and all he knew was that he really wanted some Easter lilies and some color.

We found some pretty Easter lilies and it just evolved from there. One thing I’ve learned about design is to work with the inspiration. He wanted white lilies, which are pretty bland, but they did have a little yellow way down in the center, so that’s what we worked with. Next we found those huge peonies, which are supposed to be peach, but really don’t look peach at all. They really looked like an off white, with a yellow tint and pink streaks. They were so pretty and they looked gorgeous against the lilies! Then we found the yellow daisy flowers that match and pretty pink sprigs.

Materials:

1 bush of white lilies

2 bush of peony blooms deluxe

1 bush of yellow daisies

2 sprigs of pink mini flower bushes

1 1/2 inch ribbon

1/4 pink ribbon

6″ x 12″ green styrofoam floral rectangle

1 saddle for headstone

Glue gun & glue sticks

Green floral tape

Wire cutters

Directions:

This was a really simple design. I started with the biggest flowers first and worked from the center out to the edges. Cut stems with wire cutters to desired lengths; longer in the center and shorter as you move out. Then add the large hot pink flowers in the center.

Fill in with the lilies. Not all of these are sticking straight up. The ones near the edges are put in at an angle. Feel free to bend them to get the desired shape, or try different angles. This goes for all of the flowers. Fluff, bend and shape until you get the look you want.

Last, place the yellow and pink sprigs randomly. If you have bare spots, fill in with any leaves you may have pulled off stems. For the hot pink sprigs, I broke the large sprigs off into smaller sprigs. Because I did that, each smaller sprig only had a few thin wires left that we wound together; which is really weak to put into the arrangement and be outside. The wind would probably blow it out of the arrangement. To help with that, I took a stem from one of the flowers I had to cut down and used floral tape to attach it to the hot pink sprigs. It made them go in the arrangement easier and they are sturdier.

For the ribbon:

Measure around the foam and add 1/2 inch for overlapping the ribbon. Cut both ribbons. I hot glued the pink ribbon down the center and carefully hot glued it to the foam. I start and end in a corner, so that the overlap isn’t as noticeable as it would be if it was in the front or back.

For the vase flowers, I started with the largest flower first and then the lilies and taped them together with floral tape. Then I played around and placed each flower and wrapped with floral tape. You can use foam shaped specifically for the vases, but for some reason, it’s really hard to find here, so I just usually have to skip it. The foam helps to hold it in the vase, because a strong wind can blow them out. To keep mine from blowing out, I bend each stem up like a J and outward. Then place in the vase. This helps to anchor it in the vase.

That’s it! Super simple, but gorgeous. Make sure to save any leaves that you trim off in case you need to fill in any gaps, holes. Save the bottoms of stems you cut off in case you cut something too short, or, in my case, you need to add them to a stem to make them stronger.

Like I said, it’s really neat how things come together. I got white, my stepdad got the pop of color he was looking for and my daughter helped to pull the rest of it together. When it was finished, he loved it and so did I. I’m sure my mom does too.

Classroom Makeover!

I haven’t been blogging a lot lately because I’ve been really busy with a surprise that my hubby brought home, a new desk! A big executive desk that was given to him for free! Ain’t God grand? I think so!

So what was the first thing I needed to do? Make it mine and since it wasn’t my hubby’s desk from childhood or an antique that someone gave me, I had no problems or guilt about wanting to paint it. My hubby wasn’t so sure though.

Here it is! It’s so big and it was really nice, but it had some rough spots. So I sanded the finish off to take off the shine so the primer and paint would adhere.

Next I gave it 3 coats of Behr paint and primer in Decorator White. Once it was all covered, I sanded it down in a few places to reveal the dark wood underneath. I was going for a shabby chic look but I only did a little because I didn’t want it to look too old. Then I coated it in 2 coats of varnish. I may do a 3rd coat later, but for now I’m really happy with the results.

Next I moved it into it’s new home right by the window of our classroom. I love it! There’s so much room on top to work and spread out and I love the worn look after I got the desk personalized. I still need to redo the lamp to match and I need to paint the trim on the white board to match the corkboard. That’s next on the list!

I went to Hobby Lobby and got the urn and the candle this morning for next to nothing, on sale baby! The vase I had and the flowers I also had from an old arrangement. Emily wants to paint the pencil holder she made when she was little, but I like it just the way it is.

Here you can see a close up of the drawers and the handles. It’s kinda hard to tell in the picture, but the handles were that gold-brass color. I actually painted the round parts red and the curves in the handles red. When it dried it looked really pretty. Then I gave them a quick varnish.

Here’s the finished desk and yes as you can see I’m on my Facebook page! I can’t wait to blog and write and do school from here! And what does hubby think of my finished product? He really likes it and I can’t believe how it turned out!

Tag Archives: diy

Pretty in Pink First Birthday Party