Happy New Year!

{Real Parties}

After such a busy holiday season, we decided to have a "quiet" New Year's Eve at home.  To celebrate the start of 2013, our family of five would enjoy some light snacks while playing board games and watching movies.  Of course we needed just a few party supplies to ring in the new year but I just hate the generic stuff that you find at the stores.  So I decided to add my own embellishments on some old favorites in our DIY New Year's eve party.

I chose to use a similar color scheme as the one in my recent cookie exchange party, featured here, since I still had some supplies left over. For my own spin on noise makers, I bought some cheap horns, cut off the ends, and used washi tape to attach tissue paper streamers.  I filled some small, square tins that I had left over from my DIY advent calendar, with a few small candies, taped popsicle sticks to the backs of the tins, and covered in gift wrap.

This cute printable was found on Tip Junkie and I have included it on my Pinterest board with the other ideas that I found for New Years inspiration. I hung some disco ball-like filler on ribbon from the ceiling and topped drink stirrers with mini styrofoam balls for champagne glass decor. (The kids enjoyed sparkling cider from plastic glasses.)

I am not the only girl in my household that loves glitter.  My daughter had to have a tiara, of course.  I bought some paper hats at the Dollar Store and modgepodged (is that a word?) on some pink glitter.  It was a mess!  I added some silver tinsel bows to the tops with hot glue.  I fear I may be finding glitter all over my house for the next few months but the hats did turn out pretty!

I also hung confetti poppers to pull after our countdown.  These were easy to make.  I cut up tissue paper into small squares, stuffed it into empty toilet paper rolls, wrapped with colored tissue paper and stamped the outside with gold ink.  A note to the neat freaks like myself, you may find yourself getting out the vacuum just minutes after midnight like I did to clean up all the mess, but all, I wouldn't have traded our evening in for the hottest nightclub party in town!  

Happy New Year!

DIY Pixie Sticks

I had the pleasure of finding myself, yet again, with the task of creating 500 bag stuffers to include in Tagalong Tot's Baby and Kids Expo, October 19th and 20th at The Ranch Larimer County Fairgrounds.  

I LOVE the striped paper straw party trend and knew I could get them in just the right colors to compliment my logo.  But what could I do with them?  Kids don't just want empty straws......then it occurred to me, fill them with sugar!  (Sorry parents, I realize this may cause unwelcome reactions.  During an initial taste test, my own child laid on the floor of my kitchen sucking at the empty paper straw for 10 minutes until I was finally able to take it from her grip.)  

But just in case you would like to make these Homemade Pixie Sticks yourself, here are the instructions.

Materials:

Paper Straws - I can't give away my preferred supplier but you can find these all over the place right now in a huge variety of colors and patterns.

Glue Dots - It took me a few trial and errors to find the perfect size to make these stick but not be too big that they would bulge out on the sides, try to find "Glue Dots" brand, size 3/8" (1cm)

Paper Tags - This is optional for you, but I wanted to include my logo and contact info, so I printed off some info on blue card stock and my logo on white address labels.

A Funnel- I made one out of paper

A Mixing bowl and whisk

A Measuring Spoon

Lemonade Pixie Stick Recipe below

 Lemonade Pixie Stick Recipe - found on About.com
6 tbsp of granulated sugar
1 tsp flavored-Kool-Aid (about a half of a .23 oz packet) I used pink lemonade, lemonade and orange.
1/8 tsp citric acid Don't worry, I know if sounds scary, but its not.  Here is a link to more info about what citric acid is, It is a natural acid found in citrus fruits.  I found some at my local health food market.
About.com says that the above recipe fills about 30 straws, mine must have been bigger because I got about 20.

Directions:

1. Place glue dot at end of paper straw and fold over to secure end of straw.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk sugar, citric acid and kool aid together, add additional sugar or citric acid to taste.
3. Pour about 3/4 tablespoons of mixture through funnel into straw.
4. Attach another glue dot to top of straw and fold over to close.
5. You may choose to add a tag such as "Thank you" or "Happy Birthday," a ribbon, etc.
6. When giving to your child to enjoy, please snip off the top of the straw, entirely so that the glue dot is not a choking hazard.

The basics of this project were pretty simple, but I may have developed carpal tunnel after finishing 500....no seriously.  So if you don't have the time, or patience to work on these or your other little party details, please entertain the idea of hiring Little Bird Celebrations to help with all of your party planning needs.  

............a little bird told me you'd like some help with your event.