Receive 10% Off Overstock.com for Cupcake Wishes & Birthday Dreams Readers

I heart Overstock.com.  I was looking for items for a Princess Party and found so many items to select from like, kids furniture; this Princess Plush Kids' Crown Chair is a great place to seat the birthday princess as her guests sing Happy Birthday to her.  All princesses love to dress up!  You can also find adorable girl's clothes like this AnnLoren Girls' Princess Crown Tank and Tutu Set. Overstock even has complete Princess Party Pack gift baskets filled with plates, napkins and decorations.  I especially love the home & garden items on Overstock.  I prefer to use reusable melamine plates for my parties.  This Princess and the Frog Play With Your Food Children's Princess Dinnerware Set is perfect for a young princess and her party guests. 




If you're like me, you can't wait to go shopping and especially love a good deal.  That being said, Overstock.com is giving all CWBD 10% off their next order and FREE SHIPPING on all electronics*.  Yeeeaaaahhh!!!!! 

Use the following information when placing your order:

*The 10% discount code:121745 - good for 10% off Overstock products (excluding movies, books, and electronics).  This discount code never expires, however, it can only be used once per email address. Free shipping promo code for electronics: 202234 .

All the ideas and opinions expressed are my own. No monetary compensation was received for doing this post, however, I was provided with a discount code.

Party Recaps: Superman and Another Princess and The Frog Themed Party

Let me just say that I've been trying to access my blog for two whole days with little success - until now.  I am so excited to share the photos from the last two parties I did --- and the fact that my lovely husband got me a new camera for Mother's Day!!!!!  FINALLY!  LOL.  It's not a Nikon D60 like I was campaigning for, but considering we'd need a bailout for that purchase, I'll be content with my wonderful present - plus, it beats that hot mess of a camera I had before.  I got a cute Kodak EZ Share Z915 - and it has a button on it that will upload my pictures straight to Facebook and my picture gallery - but I don't know how to exactly do that yet - I just think it is too cool. 

So, onto business, two weekends ago I created a handful of items for a Superman themed party for an adorable 7 year old.  In addition, I made a full sheet cake for the party - which was  fun for me since I typically stick to cupcakes.  Here are photos from that party:

Door sign

Circle banner – love doing these!

Found simple paper bags and added tags and labels to them for guests to take home goodies.

Someone with little hands, I’m sure,  got to my party table before a  good picture was taken :(

I made a centerpiece from a plastic container, balloon weights, a Mylar balloon and some foil sizzle and just added custom tags and stars!

Custom party hat and you can’t see them so good in the pail, but I made napkin rings as well.

Here is the cake I made for the party – it was a confetti cake with vanilla buttercream frosting! 

So, about a month ago, I received a call from a super nice mom who read about my daughter’s The Princess and The Frog themed party and was looking for a planner to coordinate a birthday party for her twin girls because they love Princess Tiana.  So she and I sat down and exchanged ideas and I coordinated a custom party for her lovely little Princesses.  Here are some photos from that party:

Princess Tiana cake topper that was used for decoration for a cupcake stand.

We set up a dress up area for the girls.  The boys wore gold crowns and purple satin capes that I got from Sew Plain Jane who I found on Etsy – Dawn was awesome to work with and her items are really adorable – check her out when you have a chance!

The accessories table – tiaras, necklaces and rings were available for the girls to make them feel extra special.

Fancy little shoes to complete their looks!

 

Table settings – I created tissue paper topiaries for the centerpieces

 

I topped each topiary with a glitter Monogram for the girls’ names and added a crown and butterflies

Here is the birthday banner – we had a time trying to get this hung - it was windy, the banner was long and I’d never made one with more than one name!  LOL

Door sign!

Girls created picture frame castles for their craft activity and the  boys made mosaic frogs – but let me note that the frog project was a bit complex for excited four year old boys to complete – so no pictures of the frogs!  LOL

There was a prize basket for the girls to choose from….

….and one for the boys!

Here are the birthday girls on the left and in the center greeting our Princess Tiana (you know how I feel about showing faces - sorry - they're very adorable, however)

One of our prince’s playing Pin the kiss on the frog game.

Here are some custom party hats and treats the kids took home. Girls got satin purses filled with hair accessories, lip gloss, ring pops, The Princess and The Frog mini sticker albums, swirly pops and marshmallow poles.  We filled customized gable boxes with swirly pops, marshmallow poles, Hershey kisses, a frog paddle ball game, and noisemakers for the boys.

I created Lily Pad cupcakes and topped them with custom toppers!

So after having done 3 parties back to back, this Do-It-All Party Diva is partied out – for now!  I’ll be working on some items in the next few weeks to put on Etsy – because I’ve been saying for the longest that I need my own shop.  Time to get to work!!!  I will keep you updated on that project in the next few posts!

No Boys Allowed! Sweets & Treats Sneak Peek

Here’s a little sneak peek at some things I making for The Mini Diva’s Valentine’s Day Party. Now, she really doesn’t know about it at this point….she’s actually in the process of making requests for her Princess turned Princess & The Frog B-day party in April – but she did mention she didn’t want boys at her party (except her baby brother who she loves very much). So, no boys this time….In any case, I’ve learned that the best way to handle all the constant inquiries about any celebration is to not tell her about it until the morning of. If I tell her about this party, I will not stop answering questions about it. I’ll have a list of endless requests for the decorations and food she will want to have. I just can’t take it. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to tell her because I get excited too, but seriously, I just can’t deal with it - she’s relentless – it’s too much.

I decided to throw her a Sweets & Treats themed Valentine’s Day Party. Invitations are out, we’ll have a Sweet Shoppe set up with a variety of candies and baked sweets. I thought it would be fun to have the girls make this adorable bag as an activity. We’ll have some fun games and prizes and a card exchange too.

Here’s your sneak peek:
These are the invitations I created. I use Power Point and Word. I’ve said before that my mom is a graphic designer and she really hates that I use these programs. She’s always pushing me to use Photoshop and Illustrator, which she so kindly installed on my computer, but I have not the patience for it. I do well with what I know and when I decide to give in to the Adobe Gods I will. Until now, MS Office is my bestest friend:

I have two options for cupcakes; either a rose cupcake or piped on swirly frosting with a cupcake pick…..or I can do both, I haven’t decided yet.

I can’t wait to show you the rest of the details of the party and the ideas I have for another V-Day party & a romantic dinner for two!

All Photos in this post are Property of Cupcake Wishes & Birthday Dreams

My Next Great Party Idea: Shhh, It's a Surprise...

While I was brainstorming on the theme for the next party collection I wanted to create, I was thinking that it had to be something that I haven't seen much of. Personally, I like to stand out with my work and take what is in at the moment to the next level. In any case, I knew that the next theme had to be easily duplicated, non-gender specific, provide me with lots of fun ideas for games, activities and decorations. I finally had a 'DUH' moment and when it finally came to me. I would create a party collection based on my absolute favorite book ever!!! Ironically, I recently remembered seeing a trailer for the soon-to-be release of its motion picture. What perfect timing!

I remember the story well, but admit that I'd only read the book in recent years to my daughter, and her enthusiasm for it didn't quite match mine. So, it's consequentially been shelved. Maybe it was a bit too much for her; but for me, I know it's a beloved classic.

Just to get my creative juices flowing, I started surfing the internet and looking for all the images from the book, and I immediately came up with ideas for decorations, invitations, games & activities and food! I must say that, in my search I didn't find a lot of party ideas or partyware and it could be the lack of popularity. However, I believe once the movie is released, there will be lots of product on the market and a new found love for this tale.

I know you all are curious as to what the theme is and what I have up my sleeve; for now, my lips are sealed (even though I'm bursting at the seams to spill it). Being a wife and mom lends me only so many hours in the day. So, you'll have to give me a few days to knock out my first project for the party, but to give you a hint, it involves a wild imagination, a magical forest with loving creatures and a lesson in what happens when you back talk your mother! If you know the story you can pretty much figure it out!!!

I'll keep you posted!