Back to School Ice Cream Social

DIY, Party Planning & Tablescapes, SponsoredAugust 23, 2017May 12, 2020 Betsy Eves

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser.
All opinions are mine alone. #SoHoppinGood #BlueBunny #CollectiveBias

Summer is almost over and my kids are getting antsy! To beat the heat, I threw a Back to School Ice Cream Social for all the neighborhood kids!

What kid doesn’t love ice cream? I mean… what adult doesn’t love ice cream? So when Blue Bunny® reached out and asked me to throw a Back to School Ice Cream Social and said absolutely!

I didn’t want to spend a fortune on this party, so I kept my expenses under $40 and created a super fun afternoon of games and ice cream for the kids!

Decorations

Ice Cream Cone Bunting

Walmart has black triangle-shaped bunting in their party section which made creating this ice cream cone bunting really simple.

Using the chalk that came with the bunting, draw lines across the triangles to make the lines of the ice cream cone.
Cut out ice cream scoop shapes using primary color construction paper.
Glue them with a glue stick to the top of the bunting triangles!

I also had some tissue paper tassels from past parties, so I strung a few together to finish off the bottom of the dessert table.

Pencil Boxes

I used two pencil boxes to hold some of the party items I had for the ice cream social.

These boxes are really inexpensive at Walmart ($0.49 each) and were the perfect size to hold the sprinkles and the ice cream snacks.

Cake Stands

To add height to the ice cream display table, I used cake stands. Cake stands are a great way to bring visual appeal to the table, add height and highlight something special on your tablescape.

Games & Activities

And ice cream social isn’t complete without games and activities!

Make Your Own Ice Cream Cone

Supplies:

Construction paper
Scissors
Crayons/markers
Paper straws (optional)
Glue sticks

Technique:

Cut out triangles to create the cone shape
Cut out circles in various colors/sizes
Glue the circles onto the cone to create you ice cream cone. Add as many scoops as you like!
Using the crayons/markers add sprinkles, cherries, or anything else you want to your ice cream.
Optionally, glue your ice cream cones to the paper straw so you can hold them up on a stick!
Photo Booth
No party is complete without a photo booth! The set up for this photo booth was super simple because Walmart sells complete kits in their party section!

The kids loved trying on the different faces, masks, and hats!

Okay… I loved it too!

Bubbles & Chalk

I always like to have some simple, easy activities for kids at parties and this almost always includes bubbles and chalk. Kids love this and you just can’t go wrong!

Ice Cream

Now the best part of the party… the ice cream! Blue Bunny® recently came out with our new 2017 lineup of ice cream flavors and treats so I was super excited to pick out my favorite flavors!

For this Back to School Ice Cream Social I chose to serve Blue Bunny® Mint Cookie Crunch and Blue Bunny® Bunny Tracks® ice cream as well as Blue Bunny® Cookies N Cream Blue Bunny® Bunny Snacks™.

Bunny Snacks™ are the perfect bite-size treat available in four must-have flavors: Salted Caramel Pretzel, Chocolate Vanilla Twist, Chocolate Chip Cookie and Cookies ‘N Cream.

Blue Bunny® products are available at Walmart stores nationwide and include these awesome ice cream flavors: Rockin’ Rocky Road™, Monster Cookie Mash, Toffee Brownie Twist™ and Mint Cookie Crunch. Additionally, Cherrific Cheesecake, which had been a seasonal flavor, is now available year-round.

I used a baking rack designed to hold ice cream cones to make serving the ice cream easier. The kids got to add fun sprinkles to their ice cream cones and then devoured the delicious ice cream!

I hope you are inspired by my Back to School Ice Cream Social! My kids and their friends had so much fun and all asked for seconds (and thirds) of the delish ice cream!

Enjoy the remaining days of summer and have a great school year!

How to make Buttercream Succulents

DIY, Frosting & Buttercream, Recipes, springMay 4, 2017May 12, 2020 Betsy Eves

Spring has sprung and succulents are everywhere! Not only can you grow these beauties, but you can learn how to make buttercream succulents with this simple tutorial!

Most of you know I’m originally from Seattle and the inspiration for this blog came from the other foodies in the region. Specifically Jenny Keller of jenny cookies.

Jenny and I met in 2010 when I enlisted her help to make cupcakes for the Cupcakes Take the Cake 6th Birthday Bash. However, it wasn’t her cupcakes that I was a fan of… it was her sugar cookies and her use of buttercream instead of royal icing.

A couple years ago I put together a tutorial for royal icing flowers and more recently a tutorial for buttercream flowers for flower pot cupcakes. Buttercream succulents wouldn’t be too hard to make since I knew already how to make the other flowers.

I watched a few video tutorials, used pictures from jenny cookies Instagram feed for inspiration and got to creating!

How to make Buttercream Succulents

Tools:

These are the tools I used to help me make the buttercream succulents. You may find other tips or tools are better for you. There is really no right or wrong way to do this!

Sugar cookies or cakes
Buttercream
Gel food colors
Bowls and spatulas
Disposable piping bags
Piping tips – Leaf tip (65), pedal tip (102, 104), semicircle/moon (81), star (4b)
Couplers
Flower nail
Parchment squares
Cookie sheet
Toothpicks
Paper towel or kitchen towel
Freezer/Refrigerator

Prepare your Work Space

Before you begin piping buttercream succulents, you’ll want to prepare your work space. Follow these simple steps to ensuring you’re ready!

Bake & cool completely cookies/cake.
Make buttercream and separate into smaller bowls.
Clear off a table or counter space. You’ll need lots of room to place your flowers once they are piped.Color the buttercream with gel food colors in your desired succulent colors. (Get creative!!)
Attach couplers to piping bags and fill with buttercream.If you don’t have parchment squares, cut parchment paper into 2-inch squares.
Arrange your work space how it’s comfortable to you. I put the large baking sheet on the right with the filled buttercream bags and parchment squares off to my left. Directly in front of me was for building the flower on the nail.

Pipe Buttercream Succulents

Instead of reinventing the wheel, I’m just going to share with you the amazing tutorial from CAKE STYLE I used to learn to make my buttercream succulents.

I also watched the Wilton Succulents Tutorial and found it helpful!

Assemble Cookies & Cakes

Chill buttercream succulents until they are firm.
Place a small dollop of buttercream where you’ll be placing the succulent.
Carefully peel succulent away from the parchment paper and place it gently onto the dollop of buttercream.
Continue placing succulents until you feel there is enough.
Fill in the holes between the succulents with remaining buttercream in your piping bags. Get creative with this! There is no right or wrong way!
Serve and enjoy!

Let me know if you make any buttercream succulents! I’d love to see how yours turn out!

Happy Baking!

Photography by Fanette Rickert Photography.

Football Party Decor Ideas

DIY, Featured, Party Planning & Tablescapes, SponsoredSeptember 12, 2016January 5, 2017 Betsy Eves

Are you ready for football season!? With these football party decor ideas, you’ll be ready anytime your friends and family want to come over to watch a game!

This post is sponsored by M&M’S®. All ideas and commentary are my own.

Have you ever been at CVS and a big stack of candy on the end of the isle catches you eye and you have to bring it home with you? That happened to me when I saw these M&MS® Brand Chocolate Candies Game Day Mix.

These M&MS® have football helmets, goal posts, and footballs printed on them as well as the classic “M”! So super cute and perfect for the upcoming football season! I decided that I needed to have a few friends over for a preseason game and somehow incorporate the M&MS® into my decor and tablescape.

Planning the Theme

The first thing I do when planning the theme of any tablescape or party decor, I decide on colors. My favorite football team colors are green and blue so I used those. You can easily choose any color combination for your party.

After the colors are chosen, I decide on the centerpiece or the main focal point of the decor. I always like to include one DIY item in my party decor and decided to to paint a mason jar like a football to serve as a vase for flowers.

DIY Football Painted Mason Jar

Supplies

Mason jar
Chalk paint, brown
1″ Paint brush
White paint marker
Ribbon
Tape
Silk flowers

Technique

Ensure the jar is clean and dry before you begin. Line your work surface with paper towels or other protective covering.
Paint the outside of the jar brown. Let it dry about 15 minutes. Paint a second coat of brown. Let it dry completely. (NOTE: You don’t have to paint the bottom of the jar since no one will see it.)
Using the white paint marker, dry the stitching of a football on the side of the jar that is flat with no writing. Allow the paint to dry completely.
Cut a piece of ribbon to fit the lip of the jar and attach it with a piece of tape. (I didn’t use glue so that I could take the ribbon off and put different color ribbon on for another party if necessary.)
Fill the jar with your favorite flowers. I chose coordinating blue and green flowers to match the theme, but any flowers would work… fresh or silk.

Football Party Decor Ideas

M&MS® as Decor

I knew I wanted to incorporate the M&MS® Brand Chocolate Candies Game Day Mix in a nontraditional way. They couldn’t just be baked into a cookie or used to top cupcakes, I really wanted the chocolate candies to stand out on the table! I found two inexpensive chargers that matched the color them of the party and planned to use those to hold the desserts.

I placed blue, green, and brown M&MS® under the cookies on the charger. Doing this not only carried the color theme to the plate, but it added a fun added touch to the display.

The table wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t have a big bowl of M&MS® to snack on during the football party. I used the same ribbon on the painted jar to weave into a ceramic berry box and filled it with more M&MS®. This is an easy way to turn a boring bowl of candy into something interesting on the table to look at.

Football Cookies

To keep the football theme going, I made sugar cookies topped with chocolate buttercream in the shape of footballs. Even if you didn’t have time to make cookies from scratch, you can buy pre-made dough or even a box mix from CVS and cut them out in the football shape. Super easy and they make a big impact on the overall theme of the table.

I just love how the football cookies jump of the plate on top of the colorful M&MS® Brand Chocolate Candies Game Day Mix!

Jars & Berry Bowls

Again, instead of just putting out popcorn and peanuts in simple bowls, I added a touch of drama by using mason jars and ceramic berry boxes.

Using the same ribbon on all the jars and bowls helps to create consistency in the overall theme and brings the color palate to every aspect of the table.

Treat Flags

Using toothpicks and paper (both of which you can find at CVS) you can create treat flags to top any bite sized dessert. For this party, I topped individually portioned marshmallow cereal treats with flags adorned with footballs and common football phrases.

My personal favorite… Team M&MS®.

I mean really… when you’re on Team M&MS®, you can’t lose!

Whether you’ve got a party coming up or you’ve found some last minute inspiration while shopping at CVS, these Football Party Decor Ideas are sure to give you some great inspiration!

You can find these M&MS® Brand Chocolate Candies Game Day Mix only at your local CVS store! Use this locator to help you find the one nearest to you!

Teen Bedroom Makeover

Contests & Giveaways, DIY, Featured, SponsoredJune 6, 2016May 12, 2020 Betsy Eves

Being a military family can be rough on kids, especially when moving often makes it difficult to create a home out of a new house. By using Enbrighten Café Lights by Jasco and a small budget, I was able to create a Teen Bedroom Makeover that my daughter was crazy about!

This post is sponsored by Jasco Products Company in conjunction with Acorn: An Influence Company. I was compensated & given a set of lights, but all the ideas and opinions are my own.

Being a military family that moves every few years, we get used to living small. We don’t hang much on our walls or get really into decorating because we know we’ll have to take it all down, fill the holes and start over in just a few years time.

In just a few months, my husband will be medically retiring from the Army after 3 deployments and 12 years of service. This means that we’ll be moving out of military house and into private housing that hopefully will become our forever home!

The new townhouse we moved to has a big basement with a bedroom and bathroom perfect for Emily. Emily is 16 years old and loves the privacy and access to her own bathroom! The only downside to this room is that is has no windows.

But that’s okay, no windows makes it the perfect space to use the Enbrighten Café Lights!

You can see from these before pictures that Emily’s room wasn’t very big and had no personality. Emily is full of personality and I knew I wanted to have that translate into her bedroom decor!

I really wanted the Enbrighten Café Lights to be the centerpiece of the room. Emily’s bed doesn’t have a frame or a headboard so I decided to use the lights to create a focal point above the bed. Hanging the lights above the bed brought your eye from the bed to the ceiling, giving the space height and depth.

To add color and texture to the lights, I wrapped tulle around the entire strand of lights. Doing this brought the color from the bedding into the light display tying it all together.

To makeover the bed, Emily chose a new duvet cover and pillowcases in lime green and decided on an accent color of hot pink. To cover the box springs, I placed a flat sheet over the box springs and let it hang just to the floor giving the illusion of a dust ruffle. It was an easy, inexpensive way to have the look of a dust ruffle even without buying or making one.

Instead of end tables, I used two metal and wood bar stools. Not only are these a fun alternative to traditional end tables, but they serve as seating for guests. I think we need to get a rug to tie this room together. I’ve seen some great ones on websites like Bazaar velvet so Emily will have to choose one.

To add another pop of hot pink, I placed several bunches of hot pink silk flowers in a vintage style porcelain vase. I chose silk flowers over real so that Emily can enjoy it all year round.

Finally, I brought over the green tool from the light wall onto the dresser pulls and mirror as well as a single hot pink silk flower. I hung a picture I had painted (which had hot pink in it) on her wall and set out a few of her favorite trinkets and her jewelry box to add a personal touch.

I really love how the Enbrighten Café Lights by Jasco bring Emily’s room to life! The LED lights will never die so this look can last as long as Emily wants it! We’ll never have to worry about changing a light bulb, ever! Their soft light is the perfect way to brighten this basement room.

GIVEAWAY!

How would you use a set of Enbrighten Cafe Lights? Leave a comment below telling me how you’d makeover your space with these lights then enter to win a set below!
Cafe Lights Giveaway

This post is sponsored by Jasco Products Company in conjunction with Acorn: An Influence Company. I was compensated & given a set of lights, but all the ideas and opinions are my own.

Minecraft Sword Pull-Apart Cupcake Cake

Cupcakes, DIY, Featured, Party Planning & Tablescapes, RecipesMay 6, 2016May 12, 2020 Betsy Eves

Surprise the Minecraft fan in your life with this simple and fun Minecraft Sword Pull-Apart Cupcake Cake!

Earlier this week, I shared with you the princess pull-apart cupcake cake I made for Emily’s 6th birthday. Today, I’ve got her twin brother’s Minecraft Sword pull-apart cupcake cake for you!

Say hello and happy birthday to Jakob! His mom Amy hosted a big party with classmates at a local jump house and it was a blast!!

Jakob’s cupcake cake was a little more labor intensive than Emily’s princess one. The same amount of planning went into putting his cake together, it just took a bit more time.

The bulk of the work went into piping the frosting to look like pixels, just like in Minecraft!

Minecraft Sword Pull-Apart Cupcake Cake

Supplies

35 cupcakes – 9 baked in solid gold liners and 26 baked in solid black liners from Sweets & Treats Boutique
Vanilla Buttercream (see recipe below)
Wilton 610-700 Icing Gel, 1-Ounce, Sky Blue
Wilton Cake Decorating Tip Pkg Open Star #21 or any medium open star tip
Wilton 2104-1358 Disposable 12-inch Decorating Bags, 24 Pack
Foam core board 22 x 28in (like this one Pacon® Foam Board, 22″ X 28″)
Wrapping paper (any color to match the cupcakes & theme of the party)
Scissors & tape

Assembly

Cover the foam board with the wrapping paper making a smooth, clean surface to place the cupcakes on.
Make the buttercream frosting and tint it to the color you want. (See recipe below)
Fit medium star piping tip onto the piping bag and fill with light blue buttercream.
Start with the light blue frosting and pipe 5 small stars across a cupcake (in a black liner) down the center of the cupcake. Repeat filling the top of the cupcake with stars until you have 25 stars shaped in a square. You want to make SIX 6 light blue cupcakes in black liners.
Repeat this piping process with the dark blue frosting and make TWELVE 12 dark blue cupcakes in black liners.
Finally, with the dark brown frosting, pipe 5×5 rows of stars onto cupcakes in the gold liners. You’ll have a total of NINE 9 brown cupcakes in gold liners.
Using the photos as a guide, line up the cupcakes on your prepared foam board. If you’re traveling, apply a small dollop of frosting to the bottom of each cupcake to attach it to the board. This will act like glue and prevent the cupcakes from sliding.
Be sure to be mindful of direction you place each cupcake, you want them to all be facing the same direction and uniform.

Minecraft Sword Pull-Apart Cupcake Cake

Ingredients

Crustable Buttercream

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup shortening (I used Crisco)
1 lb powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
¼ cup heavy whipping cream
gel food coloring
2-3 Tbsp dark chocolate cocoa powder

Instructions

Frosting

In your stand mixer, whip together the butter and shortening until combined.
Add the vanilla, salt, and powdered sugar and mix until incorporated.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the heavy cream. Whip until smooth.
If the frosting is too thick, add 1 Tbsp more cream until you reach your desired consistency.
Whip on high for 2-3 minutes or until light and fluffy.
Reserve half the frosting for the brown and set aside.
Add a SMALL amount of blue gel coloring to the remaining white and whip until combined.
Decorating the 6 light blue cupcakes.
Add more gel coloring until you get a deep dark turquoise blue and whip until combined. Let the color sit in the frosting for 5-10 minutes before piping, it will turn deep and dark in color.

Brown cupcakes

Add 2-3 Tbsp dark chocolate cocoa powder to the reserved frosting and whip until combined.
If the frosting is too stiff, add a small splash of heavy cream to slightly loosen.
Allow the frosting to set for 5 minutes to deepen in color.

Princess Pull-Apart Cupcake Cake

Cakes, Cupcakes, DIY, Featured, RecipesMay 3, 2016May 12, 2020 Betsy Eves

This pull-apart cupcake cake is perfect for the princess loving kid in your life!

My friend Amy has twins who needed cakes for their joint birthday party. Emily and Jakob requested cakes for their birthday this year, but their party was being held at a local bouncy gym. When Amy asked me to help her figure out the cake situation, I suggested cupcake cakes!

Typically, I’m not a fan of these types of cakes. The grocery stores sell them and typically smear frosting over the top of a dozen cupcakes and call it good. I did not want these cakes to look like that. Cupcakes are perfect for parties because they are already portioned out sizes and no cutting or plates are needed!

For Emily’s cake, we decided on a princess theme. We found a few photos online that were on inspiration and went from there! These cupcakes can be made in any flavor, but the frosting should be a white based frosting so that it can be dyed pink or whatever color princess dress your little one wants.

Princess pull-apart cupcake cake

Supplies

32 cupcakes baked in Sweets & Treats Boutique grease-proof pink cupcake liners
Buttercream (see recipe below)
Wilton 610-256 Icing Gel, 1-Ounce, Pink
Wilton Pink Sugar Pearls
Crystal sliders (like these from Michael’s) for the belt.
Tiara
Wilton 331422 Decorating Tip-No. 1M Star
Wilton 2104-1358 Disposable 12-inch Decorating Bags, 24 Pack
Foam core board 22x28in (like this one Pacon® Foam Board, 22″ X 28″)
Wrapping paper (any color to match the cupcakes & theme of the party)
Scissors & tape
Tweezers & toothpicks

Assembly

Cover the foam board with the wrapping paper making a smooth, clean surface to place the cupcakes on.
Make the buttercream frosting and tint it to the color you want. (See recipe below)
Fit 1M piping tip onto the piping bag and fill with buttercream.
Pipe a swirl onto the cupcake creating a rose shape. To do this, do not lift the piping bag when swirling the frosting, leave it flush to the surface of the cupcake. Lindsay Ann Bakes has a great video tutorial for this technique!
Using this photo as a guide, begin arranging the frosted cupcakes onto the covered board. Place a pea sized amount of frosting to the bottom of the cupcake to act as “glue” before place it on the board. Doing this will make sure your cupcakes don’t roll around if you need to transport the cupcake cake.
Using tweezers, place the sugar pearls in a swooping pattern on the bottom row of the cupcakes. This will create a pretty trim on the bottom of the princess cake. Optionally, you can add 5-6 pearls to the center of each cupcake.
For the belt, I chose two types of crystal sliders from the craft store. The first was a set of 4 large flowers and was 3 sets of smaller flowers. I attached three of the large flowers together and added a strand of four smaller flowers to each side. This made the belt long enough to cross the “waist” of the dress.
If you have any crystal flowers remaining, use them to decorate the base row of cupcakes creating beautiful embellishments like on a bottom of a dress.
Finally, place the tiara at the top of the cake.
Serve and enjoy!

Coming next week… Jakob’s Minecraft sword pull-apart cake!