{DIY} Summertime treats - what is your favorite?

With the end of summer drawing near, I just had to share a few of my favorite summertime treats....

Make your own popsicles!

I am dying to get one of these... ZOKU quick pop... popsicle maker. Makes a frozen popsicle in under 7 minutes!


I'm all about making healthy items seem like a treat for my kids! Love this idea...Frozen fruit skewers with a yogurt honey dipping sauce (reminds me of Pierson's first bee day - I made honey yogurt dip for the fruit and served it in a honey bear container ;-))
How about these cute and yummy banana split pop treats:

Sweet Mini cupcake desserts that are topped with a yummy scoop of gelato. What a fancy way to serve ice cream cake! Spotted at Martha, of course!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

{DIY and Recipes} Halloween Treats

I am just in the mood to plan Halloween for some crazy reason! We just got back from Charleston, SC and my husband (J) and I usually go in the fall. I love Charleston Ghost tours! I guess that is what got me in the mood for Halloween - all the fun memories!

I came across this inspiration board on Tastefully Entertaining and had to share. Quite the collection of great treats to make for a Halloween party!

I can see the sandwiches being "picked" with our logos from our Happy Halloween Collection! (Which is still 50% off right now in the shop!)
Easy, fun and cheap!

These are from Martha Stewart:

- Halloween party picks in sandwiches
- Sweetly packaged cookies
- Chocolate Fig Pumpkins
- Ladies' Fingers and Men's Toes (eww!)
- Ghoul's Graveyard cake
- Chocolate Witch Hats
- Tombstone Cupcakes
- I Scream Ice Cream
- Orange and white candy buffet

{Giveaway} BIG Party Package from Crossroads Cottage {aka Pinwheel Heaven!}

This is a big one, people. (over $114, people!) If you haven't noticed, I love pinwheels and Adria does, too. (Remember Jeffrey's pool party? That was featured on Hostess with the Mostess blog)

Shana, the mastermind and creative paper genius behind Crossroads Cottage, contacted us a bit ago because she loved our Vintage Carnival Invitation design. She wanted to design beautiful accessories that coordinate perfectly with our Vintage Carnival design. She did an awesome job coming up with TONS of fun products that would make any party perfectly accessorized and coordinated! Just wait and see below.

Crossroads Cottage has generously offered up a fabulous giveaway for one of our lucky readers! Read on....

Crossroads Cottage is a total eye candy destination for all things party. Shana designs and assembles several varieties of pinwheels, cupcake toppers, banners, party hats and lots more. She even offers a DIY package for those of us crafty ones that like to save a buck and don't mind doing it ourselves! She does custom work and that is her forte. She has so many patterened paper designs styled that she prints custom for each client! (No pre-purchased scrapbook paper there!)

But WAIT... these are not just for birthday parties and showers. She creates the most beautiful accessories, pinwheel placecards and more for WEDDINGS! Just wait til you see some of the beauties she has created...

She was even featured in THE KNOT magazine! That is huge!





I mean, check out these pinwheel placecards for weddings...


I especially LOVE this shot - at the beach. Can you picture how beautiful that must have been with the wind blowing and the little pinwheels twirling!?
Beautiful and such a fun and whimsical idea for a wedding, right?

The DIY kit is super cool and budget friendly!
I love all of her paper varieties. She has TONS to choose from!





Cute centerpiece ideas....


and favor bag decorations...
A fun vessel filled with pinwheels on a dessert table?

Or just for a summer picnic! Kids love them!
How cool is this color scheme below.... I love how classy these look. I could picture these at a rehearsal dinner or engagement party. LOVE them.





How PERFECTLY would these have been for our Happy Halloween Design Collection photoshoot? They would be perfect decorations and favors for a halloween party. How adorable!?


So now to the fun eye candy that she created and photographed for the Vintage Carnival invitation accessories.... She printed our vintage carnival invitation for the shoot. (So nice of her!)

So here you see a shot of lots of fun items. banner, pinwheels, party hats, pinwheel cupcake toppers and cupcake wrappers, invitation.... they all coordinate so well!

Giveaway Description:
Your choice of any paper pattern color...

16 traditional pinwheel cupcake toppers (mini lolliwhirls)
16 cupcake wrappers
4 handheld peony pinwheels
4 large handheld traditional pinwheels
16 assembled party hats
1 Happy Birthday Banner
1 Pennant Banner

Total value: $114.30!



First Way To Enter
• Visit Crossroads Cottage Etsy Shop and leave us
a comment here telling us what product you love best!

For Additional Entries* (not required but LOTS of extra ways to win!)
• Subscribe to Follow our blog
• Follow Crossroads Cottage Blog - Pinwhirl Parties
• Post about this giveaway on facebook
• Post about this giveaway on your blog
• Tweet about this giveaway
• Become a fan - “Like” us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter (@andersruff)


{*For each of the additional entries, you must leave separate comments here
on our blog telling us you did the specific step (or already have done that step)
We check to see if you did the step if you win!}
Winner chosen!

Winner chosen Friday at 11:00 am

Winner is: Comment #13

CandiceR said...
My son would looove these on his next bday or any day for that matter :)

Congrats, Candice!
I hope you share photos of the event you have where you use these fabulous accessories from Crossroads Cottage!!!!

Contact us to claim your prize!
andersruff@gmail.com

{Giveaway Winner} - Congratulations goes to...

Giveaway Description:Your choice of a free customized tee from Little Uni!

The Winner is......

Robyn said... I "liked" you on facebook! August 21, 2010 1:46 AM

Congratulations!!!

Robyn - please contact us to claim your prize: andersruff@gmail.com

{Eye Candy} If I had a chance to change one thing about my wedding....

It has been 5 years since my wedding ceremony. If I had a chance to change one thing about my wedding, I would choose THIS cake.... (top left maybe with some more fall colored flowers). I mean, it looks like real ruffles. The icing is absolutely so simple, classy, soft looking and it would be gone GREAT with my dress!

Wow. I spotted these over at Eat Drink chic blog. I love her blog. She found them somewhere else, too! She found them from Magpie's Cake on Simplesong

Amazing!

I did LOVE my day, though ;-)

Here was MY cake:
The cake designer tried to mimic the french lace on my dress.... she did okay, but I LOVE this new cake!

Shout out to my sister - she put up with my demands!

XO
Maureen

What would you change about your day, if anything??

{Inspirations} Pretty, Pretty Tape

Ever since I was tee-tiny, I had an obsession with paper, stickers and tape. The only thing I would ask Santa for as a little girl was "paper". Well, if only I had THESE puppies back then!

I came across these while doing a little research for a giveaway (hint, hint).

Have you seen/used Japanese Masking Tape?
IDIY blog did several writeups on this magical and glorious tape. I couldn't help myself but share the eye candy and inspirations!
{ image source }


Packaging and label ideas
From Nothing Elegant on Etsy
Remember how much I LOVE collages? (Remember my past life?) Think of the collage I could come up with using this tape!

"Big Bang" - a collage I created for Suysel! Could this have been done with tape? Doubtful but it would be a really cool effect to try!
Remember "UNITED" that I created for Ashley Whittaker Design? How about a flag out of Japanese tape!?



Photos -A Spoonful of Sugar ( 1 / 2 / 3 )





Maybe Jeffrey would keep his markers nice and organized if I helped him make a cool container like THIS...Taped cans from PicnicBlog


I could just sit and play with this tape for HOURS.... Look at these pretties:
Colorful collage of patterns from Origamisan


I could think of a MILLION reasons to hang cards and design them like this....
Photo by Haystack Needle; From a NY Gift Show booth display

Boxing and ribbon ideas
from the MT Gallery
Um, I want to tape a bunch of pretty colors and have a party! This was from Project Wedding


Glass bottle or vase wraps via Flickr 1 / 2



DIY magnetic note holders from Whisker Graphics
I love to try new ways to package and favor-up goodies. Check out this pretty packaging with glassine bags....via Happy Tape