{Pin of the week} Sweater Pumpkin by Confessions of a Plate Addict

I have been looking for pumpkin craft ideas in preparation for Halloween and I fell in love with these Easy Sweater Pumpkins !
Head over to Confessions of a Plate Addict for the tutorial.

{Detective Party} Detective Kits

On the day of the party, a crime will be committed and our little guest will have to solve the mystery ! So of course they're going to need a proper kit to help them become real detectives !!!
What a fun thing to put those kits together and I know for sure the children will love taking them home.

Since I have been washi-ing everything for this party (!) I had to put washi tape on the kit items too !! Every guest will be assigned a color for the party so the children will be able to recognise their stuff.

Kits included a mini magnifying glass, a test tube, gloves, a notepad and a pencil. At first, I considered adding ink pads for fingerprinting to every kit, but in the end I decided that 8 children "armed" with ink pads in the house could be a very bad idea !!!

I found the magnifying glasses (they came in different colours which was perfect to match with my tapes) and test tubes (plastic shot glasses !) at Diddams.

The notepads (from Target) were the only items displaying an assortment of washi tapes on them. After seeing this post on the Catch My Party blog, I decided it would be fun to simply embellish the notepads with different colours and patterns.

LINKY PARTIES

{Pin of the week} Adorable paper flowers from Ashlee Rae

I am in love with these paper flowers ! And arranging them into an arch is so pretty and perfect for a Fairy Party !!!
Visit Ashlee Rae's blog for the tutorial on how to make the paper flowers.

Chloe's Jake and the Neverland Pirates Birthday Party

Finally all the pictures of the Jake and the Neverland Pirates Birthday Party I created for Chloe's 4th Birthday !!!
I hope you enjoy them !
Scroll down to the bottom for the links to the tutorials and FREE PRINTABLES I did for this party.


I tried to represent as many elements from the cartoon as I could on the dessert table.

The cake was a treasure map.

Izzy's pixie dust pouches were strawberry filled crepes.

Skully's chocolate bars treasures, Captain Hook's Cake Pops, and chocolate Tikis !

Golden Doubloons Cupcakes. Jake and the Neverland Pirates Banner.

The table for the children was set up as a hideout ! I displayed treasures and pirate buntings in the nets above the table.

For games, we had Pin the Pixie dust pouch on Izzy, Knock the pirates over and a Treasure dig. 

But the true hit was the Pirate Shop !!! 

After finding gold doubloons in the treasure dig, the children were able to purchase goodies and dress up items from the shop !!! They had so much fun counting their doubloons and asking for prices to try and get as much as they could !

Treasure maps were sold as a lucky dip with only one of the maps leading to the actual treasure (pirate pouches filled with eye patch, head scarf, chocolate coins and stickers).

My adorable pirates !!!

For favors, the children got to keep their pirate pouch full of goodies and could also choose a box to fill with treats and sweets from the dessert table.

I would like to say a huge thank you to Party City for sending me a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Party in a box (please see previous post here), what an amazing selection ! I had so much fun using all the goodies !!

Thank you also to Sandrine and Francoise for lending me the treasure chests !

Styling, Baking, Printables: That Cute Little Cake

Party Supplies: Party City

Cake Pops: Goodness by Ansley

Here is a list of the previous post for this parties. You will find links to all the tutorials and FREE Jake and the Neverland Pirates printables.

EASY PIRATE BUNTING	Chocolate TIKI	Captain Hook's Cake Pops	Jake Neverland Pirates BIRTHDAY BANNER
DIY Goblets with jewels	Jake Neverland Pirates FREE STRAW FLAGS	Jake Neverland Pirates FREE DIGITAL PAPERS	Jake Nerverland Pirates FREE PARTY GAME LABELS
Jake Nerverland Pirates FREE PIN GAME	Jake Neverland Pirates FREE PRINTABLE GOLDEN DOUBLOONS

InLinkz.com

{Pin of the week} Lollipop Brooms from Paper Scissors Superheros

It's starting to feel a lot like the end of the summer now with shops displaying a vast selection of Halloween decorations... I am so ready for the next season, I love fall and its colours !

My favourite pin this week was this super cute lollipop Broom favor idea from Paper Scissors Superheroes.
Find the complete tutorial here, they are so easy to make !

{Craft} DIY Lanyards

So if you read my previous post, you'll know I gave out Detective ID badges as invitations for the Detective party ! They were such a hit actually ! It makes me so very happy when I get the effect I was after... Our little invitees were super excited to get them and even more so when they realized they each got a different one !

When I decided to create the badges as invitations, I initially started a shopping list: lanyards, badge holders.... Then as I was out shopping, I realised I was never going to be able to buy 8 different cute lanyard, the ones I could find were all solid colors, not fun at all !! I also realised that badge holders came in big packs ! What was I going to do with 25 or 50 holders when I only needed 8...?
I was going to have to spend around $20 for "not fun looking" lanyard and more badge holders that I could ever need !!! I would much rather spend the money on favors or detective kits for the children.

Therefore I decided I was going to make them myself! After all, since we're only having a small gathering (only 8 children in all), making 8 lanyard was feasible.
And the best thing about this project is that, in the end, it cost me NOTHING !!! My supply cupboard is so well stocked with ribbons, scrapbook papers and "stuff" that I had all I needed right there !

I hope you'll be inspired to make your own lanyards too, they are really fun for the children to play with, and you can change the badges for different scenarios (doctor, police, secret agent...). I know for sure ours will get used over and over again after the party.

You will need:
Ribbon
Keyring kit (rings and hooks). I got mine from Michael's a few month ago.
Optional: Embellishment  (I cut out scrapbook paper flowers using my silhouette)

Thread and needle

How to:
Put a lanyard hook on one of the rings.
Pass the ribbon through the ring (I used 70 cm of ribbon for each lanyard) and position the ring halfway through.
Stitch the two halves of ribbon just above the ring.
Close the loop by stitching the two ribbon ends together.
If using an embellishment, sew or hot glue it on the ribbon.

And you're done !! Such a quick project !



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{Detective Party} Invitations

I am designing this Detective Party to be for older children. Noemie is going to be 7, and for the first time, we have decided to invite only children her age. The main reason for that is that we need the children to be able to read to help solve the mystery.
Until now, we have always had younger siblings turning up at our parties, and to be honest, not only was it fine, I was totally expected them to show up !
But how do you tell parents that you'd rather not have the little sisters and brothers crashing the party without hurting their feelings...???

Well I thought that sending a completely personalised invitation to each guest would be an ideal way. So I came up with these Detective ID card.
Not only does it create a little bit of expectation for the party, it also kind of says: "if you get a badge, then you're on the guest list" !!!

The front is the ID card (I had the mums send me some pictures !) and I added the party details at the back.

Come back later this week for a tutorial on how to make these cute lanyards.


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{Pin of the Week} Straw Easels by Wants and Wishes

Remember this mini easel tutorial I posted a few weeks ago ? Well the steps are the same here but using paper straws instead of wooden sticks.
Well, what a different a straw makes ! Aren't they just fabulous ??? I love that you can create any colour combo you can think of !
Head over to Wants and Wishes for loads more pictures and the tutorial.