Its Turkey Time...Pass it Along!


This Thanksgiving marks the one year anniversary of Paper & Cake printable partyware, and it has been quite a year - we've done Baby Showers to Bachelorette Soirees, Fairy Parties to Farewell Parties, Pirate Parties to every Printable Party in between!
We want to show our appreciation for all of the support you have given us - with your business, your blog postings and your kind responses to this creative endeavor - by offering you a little thank you gift.
The Paper & Cake "Thanksgiving" collection includes all you will need to entertain your family in style:

* Invitation + Envelope
* Menu* Place Cards
* Wine Glass Tags
* Napkin Rings / Vase Wrap / Candle Wrap
* Party Food Label
* Recipe Card
* Favor Box
here, and thank you again for a great year!
Sincerely,kira & abigail

BIKE DAY!

My incredibly talented husband built me this grocery-getter-kid-transporter bike...Love it!


He made it from an old tandem, then added a custom wood deck with handles for strapping kids and/or groceries...oh, and it has two pannier-styled baskets for carting stuff.

Makes quick runs to the grocery store pure joy! But it needs a name. We name them all (yes, there are 9 bikes in my garage for a family of 4). My beach cruiser is "Gertie"... any ideas?

Halloween Village Craft

Last Christmas I made a little paper village; the kids liked it so much they asked if we could do one for Halloween.

Using the same idea, I created three Halloween Village Templates to share (Creepy Haunted House, Spooky Halloween House and Maniacal Halloween Mansion). Just cut them out, and decorate! I also cut out tombstone shapes out of black construction paper and glittered...

Boo!

Re-Posting Halloween Download

I have been a crazed bat of late and in my haste I am lazily re-posting my halloween to do list from last year...

Need DIY Halloween Party Gift Tags? Try These! This goes really well with our Elegant Halloween Tablescape.

Haunted?

lanterns (go together in a snap), party decorations


Want to host a Modern Halloween Party with a Gothic twist? Have no time? Not a lot of money? No problem... Head on over to Paper&Cake for the newest Halloween DIY party kit.

sinister snack boxes and spooky candle wrappers

It's inexpensive, it takes about an hour to put together and best of all...it's totally chic!

bottle labels (for wine or non-alcoholic libations), invitation, glass tags

This collection is great for teens (the bottle labels can be non-alcoholic) and grown-ups alike. I LOVE the halloween window decor and lanterns! Don't you?

cupcake wrappers (great for bringing to the neighborhood Open House)


So get out that witch's hat and heat up the cauldron!

best of all - favor bag-toppers



This Halloween party kit includes:
Invitations, Menus, Bottle Labels, Napkin Rings/Candle Wrappers, Cupcake Picks, Cupcake Wrappers, Food Labels, Lanterns, Window Decor, Bag Toppers, Snack boxes, Banner that reads "Happy Halloween", Patterned Paper and a Halloween Trivia Game to help break the ice...

Party for a Cure

As many of you are aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Having family members who have fought and are currently fighting cancer, is a daily reminder of just how important finding a Cure is.

Paper and Cake would like to do our part by donating 50% of the proceeds from each "Pink Party" sold, to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

FREE DOWNLOAD

Went to tuck some lunch box notes in my son's lunch the other day (seeing as its the first week of school I'm still on top of things), but...the little woodland critter ones I made last year are just not cutting it....so I made up some robot ones this morning to share.

Click HERE to download yours (oh, and I included a little note to the teacher just in case you have a "spirited" child like mine...you know who you are...)

Kid's Halloween Party Mood Board

super creepy and yet scrumptious cake from CakeLab, and how cute would it be to have fun halloweeny buttons for favors?, super cute finger puppets from our own Paper&Cake store, turn the traditional Christmas village into a Halloween with this easy tutorial from ziggity zoom, must-do pumpkin decorating craft, and how about adding a colorful banner from MaryLittfin's etsy shop, try tiny treat bags from our Paper&Cake shop, coll colorful spider lights, frightful frankenstein cupcake bites via Root Coffee.

So every year I throw a casual trick-or-treat gathering at my house to keep tradition alive (and the ghouls and zombies and mummies..no vampires please...so passe!).

I offer simple pumpkin-butter and apple sandwiches *, witch's fingers, creepy jell-o, and Shrieking-Split-Pea Soup Shots for moms and Dads. Kids can decorate pumpkins (carving is really too time consuming and potentially life-threatening, so I offer stickers and glitter instead) while Mom and Dad have a light Tarot Terror Cocktail. Then its off to the neighbors to trick-or-treat.

* my sandwiches are just whole-wheat bread spread with Trader Joe's pumpkin butter (sigh) and super thinly sliced apples (granny smith), then cut into pumpkin shapes with a cookie-cutter.

Kid's Art Desk

Four years ago my husband built this little art table for the kids...who were, well, little. We made it out of pre-made table legs from the hardware store topped with a slab o' plywood painted teal. Seating was two RIE stools (the best little-person seating in the world that I bought from our RIE teacher Hari, moons ago)...

While my kids are still little, they're not little enough for our tiny art table...ART has moved off the table and onto the coffee table, the dining table, the sofa, the floor...and in my wee 1100 square foot house, space is a precious commodity...so...



Time for new art digs. I loved the handmade quality of our former table, but neither my husband nor I have time to whittle away at wood these days...
Solution:

Ikea + handmade = easy, organized art table.




I admit that I'm addicted to bins...and my labelmaker, embarassing, but true. So we have a lot of those ugly, but fabulous Ikea bin things in the kids rooms.

I decided to put two low Ikea bin-things together in an L shape and top with a similar-to-our-beloved-but-too-small-art-table-top...


And, there you have it...and everything is organized and the kids have a ton of space...now, what to do with my RIE stools?

Needle Felting FINDS

Spent vacation in Seattle and was introduced to the most amazing shop called Weaving Works! (they told me they ship, so give 'em a call)...

So, I bought a ton of wool roving (at $1.60 an ounce I couldn't pass up a single color...)

I fell in love with needle felting last Christmas with a wonderful kit from WoolPets (so easy, and they really do turn out beautifully...see my bird below...go buy one now!)

(bluebird kit from WoolPets)


(my first attempt at the bluebird)

Anyway, we're super into Greek Mythology in my house right now (combination of Edith Hamilton's Mythology Book from my childhood and the Percy Jackson series...), so my son requested a "god...like Hades, with fire for hair". Clearly, I have much work to do in the needle felting department, but what a great way to pass an afternoon...

Hades

Quaterly Update on Daily Planner

Fall is quickly approaching (see how positive thinking can help change the seasons?). So, its time for the quarterly update of the Daily Planner. Get yours here!

How To

As promised, here's a tutorial for a Paper&Cake printable (curious how printables, work, see below).
page from back-to-school pdf (bookmarks)
I printed out the Back-to-School pdf file (for a couple of items I re-inserted the full-pattern pages into the printer, then on the other side, printed the notecards, so they're two-sided...super cute).

double-sided notecard printing

Anyway, I picked one of the more "complex" items, the snack container, just so you could see how truly easy it is to assemble the items, just think how simple invitations, notecards, bunting and cupcake wrappers will be...


1. Print out (double-sided if desired)


2. Cut out along outer edges of design (if you're good with an xacto knife, go for it, but I use scissors).

3. Pre-Score along dotted lines (you can do this with a ball-point pen with the ink removed, even a fork or, if you're fancy, a scrapbooking scoring tool). Pre-scoring makes the folding infinitely easier and the end product look super clean and professional.



4. Fold along pre-scored lines.

5. Using adhesive (ie: tape, double-sided tape or scrapbook adhesive), affix as noted in the instructions.

6. Fill with good stuff.


Yup, its that easy. For a full party for 12 guests, it takes me about 45 minutes to assemble a complete party (everything from the celebration banner to the cupcake wrappers, the favor boxes to food labels). It took my mom (with scissors and tape) and hour to do her first Paper&Cake printable party!

p.s. feeling the need to crate a new felt pattern - should I continue the circus theme, or something totally new? woodland critters, sequined rainbow?...help!!!

FABULOUS FIND!

I haven't done a find in a long time....but I just got my package from Plastic Foliage today and giggled for half an hour...I bought their hysterical "hand soaps" which feel silly and modern/sculptural at the same time.

Had to share... still giggling...oh, and they are handmade from super mild natural vegetable glycerin and my daughter's hands smelled nicely clean and not at all overly-soapy after the first test-run...

Please Explain


A lot of people have recently been asking about Paper&Cake...they look at the store, say "That's really neat, but I don't get it"...So, I thought I'd take a post to explain.

Paper&Cake is basically the party store you always looked for, but never found (amidst all the plastic-party-town-dora-favors-for-too-much-money places that abound these days). My friend Abigail and I created a party store with no packaging, no shipping (we like our planet), for people like you and me... people who are not Martha Stewart, but who have a pair of scissors and some tape lying around...somewhere.
Here's how it works: A customer buys one of Paper&Cake's Collections; price range is $5-$10. Or directs the design of a custom collection,; price is $60 (we just finished a custom collection for a "Waiting to Exhale Divorce Party")

You receive (within 24 hours of purchase) a multi-page pdf document (you know what those look like right?)...

Each collection comes with a front instruction page with supplies your might need, what kind of paper works best and other little tips and tricks.



Then you just hit print on your color printer (and if you don't have one, you just save your pdf to a disk or jump drive and take to your local kinko's or staples and have them print it out for you).
The cool part is you print out as many as you need as often as you need. Have only 4 guests, print out only 4...no paper wasted...having a wedding with 176 guests, print that many.

And the stationery collections are great for people like me who never seem to have the right thank you note on hand...with one from Paper&Cake, you just print as you need...and gift tags too! Doesn't get better than that!

Next I'm going to show you how to actually assemble one of the items from a collection (its sooo easy and everyone will think you're brilliant!)

FREE DOWNLOAD

Need a babysitter checklist? If you're a wee bit type-A, like myself, you'll appreciate having a place to put all that kid info (ie: don't let Fia talk you into reading 50 books before bed, cuz she'll try), dvd instructions (what you don't have 4 remote controls that each need explaining?), and the neighbor's number just in case the house gets burnt down and our cell is out of range...see how useful it can be?

CLICK HERE to download

School?


I have a confession to make...went to Target to buy beach stuff...and found....Back-to-School stuff. What? It's the middle of July, what's up with the School stuff? While (and here's the confession part) I am more than ready for school to start, I'm surprised... it is July after all, but it got me thinking and, to be perfectly honest, wistful...
So, in my school-wistfulness (I'm a horrible mother), I thought y'all could get a head start (that' s apparently not really a head start seeing as Target has beat us to the punch), and illustrated this "Back-to-School' embroidery pattern.

Use it on canvas lunch bags, back-packs, iron-on to fabric book covers (see, now you're getting wistful too!) (Oh, and all solid areas are for satin stitch...)

DIVE IN!

It's been really, really hot here... so Abigail and I thought y'all could use a cool dip in the pool (even if it's a kiddie pool like the one we've got in our backyard).

Invite some friends over this weekend for lemonade, a BBQ, snowcones...and a dip!

This Poolside Party Collection is so easy to put together and will get everyone in the swim! Go check it out now! Right now!

ENDLESS SUMMER

Need something for that last summer BBQ, or a going away to college send-off, or just a casual late summer birthday party?

How about the latest Paper&Cake collection?


This one is our first with a customizable invitation... you just type your text right into the file. So no more bad handwriting excuses!

Shell Craft

My kids love to head to the shell shop (California Shell Co.) in Seal Beach after a day of boogie boarding. So we have bags and bags of little sea shells...
Yesterday, we decided to make shell aliens. Get out your bag of googly eyes, your cool glue gun and craft away!

Happy FOURTH OF JULY!

4th of July Printable Partyware from Paper&Cake

Obsessed with Meyer Lemons

My Meyer Lemon Tree (with which I am obsessed) is in need of harvesting (again). I've given a bunch to So Cal Harvest, but the thing just keeps on producing (despite daily pluckings)... so, in a moment of Target-Shopping-Inspiration I bought myself an ice cream maker!
Here's my recipe for Meyer-Lemon-Cheesecake-Ice-Cream. Its a big 'ol mess to make, but the steps are easy...and the end result...heaven!!!


Ingredients:
Two 8 ounce packages cream cheese (softened)
2 cups half and half
12 tablespoons fresh meyer lemon juice (mornal lemons work fine too, not quite as sweet)
4 eggs
1 cups sugar
lemon zest
Directions:
Puree the cream cheese and half 'n half in a large food processor (or blender). Separate eggs (yolks from whites). Beat the yolks completely with the sugar. Add lemon juice. Add cream cheese mixture. Beat egg whites until foamy and slightly stiff, then add to mixture. Pour into container to chill for 1 hour. Pour the chilled mixture into your ice cream maker and do whatever your ice cream maker says to do. Chill for 2-3 hours. Top with lemon zest.

Summer Paper Doll Download


I painted my driveway deep turquoise last month, and my daughter is having lots of fun pretending she's in the ocean... so I drew these two little friends, Elise & Emily for summer time swimming fun ...Click HERE to download. Have Fun!
oh and p.s. they can share outfits...

New Paper & Cake Collection

Under the Sea Baby Shower...Perfect for Summer! Click HERE to DIVE IN!


FREE DOWNLOAD

We have a very large rollie pollie bug collection...which inspired these little crawlies... Click HERE if you want the solid version (for iron-on transfers, scrapbooking, etc...) or HERE if you want the embroidery version!

Lego Knight's Party Part II

Decorations: I decided to skip my usual all-out-foodie-ness and focus on the decorations this time around..the trick; to make it look Lego-y and Medieval-ish...
First, I bought three lengths of pvc pipe (nicely inexpensive at $1.30 for 6 feet), spray painted one a matte gray (primer gray to be exact), and cut in half, then cut large foam sheets into flags, cut a couple of slits, and voila - entrance Lego-Knight Flags...(my favorite part of the decor by the way and still in the front yard).

I kept the decorations in the house to a minimum with just this banner (again trying to keep it Medieval and Lego-ish) on the fireplace ...
...and a Lego Castle set up on the coffee table. I made a moat out of blue paper and set the castle on a box painted vaguely rockish (gray with black and green)... the kids had a great time taking a break from outside and playing a very focused and elaborate scenario with the Knights.


On to the outside: (You've already seen the silly inflatable dragon in her Lake of Fire), but I also made a Dragon's Cave/Lair out of a few cardboard boxes painted gray. I made a hole in the back of the "lair", attached red-foil-tissue-paper (cut into fire-ish strips) to the inside of the hole, then set up a fan to blow the fire (looked like a dragon hiding and spewing "flames"), I also bought a bunch of "jewels" from Michael's that were strewn on the "lair" floor...

Then I made Medieval-ish pennants (some parti-colored like this and some solid), to make our outdoor Medieval Bazaar (aka: spot where grown-ups drank beer).

The castle itself was easy...just cardboard painted castle-ish...my husband did the fire-scorched tower part. The most amazing thing was that the kids went with the theme wholeheartedly and slayed the dragon, found its treasure, defended the castle for a good 3 hours...holding their sheilds the entire time...
Oh, and I happen to have a giant (he stands 9 feet tall) Kung-Fu Panda living in my backyard...he got painted green with gold to become a giant Kung-Fu Ogre...
FAVOR BAGS: I made a simple bag-topper with a Lego Knight...


...and a small Activity Book, added three markers, a couple of Knight tattoos, one Lego Knight and a small bag of loose lego pieces (also with its own bag topper).

For the Activity Book I found a bunch of Medieval-inspired games, puzzle and jokes...I just altered them to have a Lego element like this:

FOOD: I decided to make life easy and not go all foodie like I usually do (having Vietnamese-Fusion was fine for my daughter's 2nd birthday, but really...what was I thinking?) So, I order pizza, had some crudite and fruit...But, I did steal my friend Abigail's awesome Popcorn Jar idea...in fact I stole her actual popcorn jars and made sheild-labels...

...and made little popcorn parcels (out of construction paper in Lego colors) for everyone to scoop popcorn. (Click here for instructions.)


And for the cake...well you need to go visit Piece of Cake Parties for that next week...cuz I don't bake...but it totally rocked!

Need a Fun Summer Day in Southern California?

On June 20th (from 11am to 5pm) the Santa Monica Pier is hosting a "School's Out" Extravaganza. Kids can learn to juggle with Cirque du Soleil or hip hop moves with Groovaloos; partake in drama workshops with Kids on Stage or puppetmaking with Santa Monica Puppetry Center and tons more...oh, and our favorite...Lego My Pier...to find out more check out the Pier's website (and no, this plug has absolutely nothing to do with my husband being the Director of the Santa Monica Pier...nope, nothing thing at all! and yes, my kids think Dad has the coolest job in the world...)

LEGO KNIGHT Birthday Party Part I

fire-scorched-castle tower (that Dragon is mean!)
Last year my son and his best friend had their 5th birthdays (they're two days apart) at Adventure City. Yes, it was fun for the kids and super easy, but I really missed making stuff and creating a homemade adventure with my son. So this year we decided to do his 6th at home. His top two choices were Lego Star Wars or Lego Knights. I figured I could do a castle on the swing set better than the Millenium Falcon so I admit I was very enthusiastic whenever Lego Knights were mentioned. (We did have a day or two when he wanted a "Make-your-own-video-game-gormiti-alien-zombie party", but I put the kibosh on that (and yes, that's the way kibosh is spelled, I looked it up)...
So, INVITATIONS first...I thought it would be kind of neat to make the invite look like a Lego Box...so I did a postcard-sized version that I created myself (graphic designers avert your eyes)...and it turned out ok. It would have been great to actually make a box, but I'm lazy and how on earth would they be delivered? The back had all the details...


Next we came up with the ACIVITY...if you've got knight's you must have swords. So of course I thought "we can make cardboard sheilds to decorate and cardboard swords"...oh, wait...we're inviting 4-7-year-olds and cardboard kind of hurts when smacked upon the head...hmmmm? I looked and looked for foam swords, sqishy swords, plush swords... I finally found these fabulous inflatable swords; they're huge (48") but the handle is really squashy so they can't inflict a lot of damage...and they're so big the kids felt very knightly swinging them around (proud to say, not a single eye was poked out!)

Next, I set up a decorating table (thank you Abigail for the craft-table idea) with pre-cut cardboard sheild shapes (handles duct-taped to back), a bunch of adhesive jewels, foam stickers and... I pre-cut out Lego-ish shapes out of adhesive foam paper. Kids decorated sheilds (which they were quite proud of by the way), and were given a sword...
...to vanquish the Dragon... We have this 10' kiddie pool and I thought it'd be fun to have a dragon in it...So I dyed the pool red. But it just didn't pack any punch, so my brilliant husband came up with the idea of bubble-bath AND dry ice (genius). Now we had an actual Dragon living in the LAKE OF FIRE, and it bubbled and frothed and the kids vanquished that dragon (not sure it'll ever be the same poor thing)...
(Lego-Knight-ish Banner)

Part II soon (in which Abigail makes a spectacular castle cake, I show you how to make your very own swing-set castle, the dragon finds a lair in which to hide his treasure and we put together fairly inexpensive but totally awesome Lego Knight Goody Bags)!

Birthday Party


...just finished 6th birthday party...must rest...blog later...

FOURTH OF JULY!


Hosting the Fourth of July? Try the latest Paper&Cake collection.




It includes everything you need for a 4th of July Spectacular
(including invitations, food label flags, cupcake wrappers. drink parasols, pinwheels and more!!!)

FAIRIES...

Its here!



Fairy Wonderland is available NOW in the Paper&Cake store.

Remember, you can change colors or add text for only $15!!!

Free Fairy Embroidery

If you like this little fairy embroidery download... check out the Paper & Cake store next week for a whole Fairy Wonderland party collection!

RECIPE: Homemade Finger Paints


2 cups soap flakes
2 cups laundry starch
vegetable coloring
muffin pan
saucepan

Follow the directions on the starch box for making boiled starch. Add soap flakes and mix. Put a little in each cup of the muffin tin, add coloring. Paint!