Thursday, March 31, 2011

{Featured Clients} Got Milk? Milk & Cookies Party!

A super sweet client of ours, Crystal, sent us the CUTEST photo of her daughter, Brynley, to use for the invitation to her Milk & Cookies themed party. Isn't it precious!?


We were super excited when we saw her party photos. I love the party on the terrace with the cute matching pink, brown and white poms hanging....

The dessert table was precious....

She hung the milk & cookies photos of Brynley from the photo shoot with Buttercup Photography.
She used our printable package and displayed waters with the drink wrap "Got milk?" in a galvanized bucket.
Don't you love the cake!?

Are those Neiman Marcus cookies I see?
(LOVING the containers of different milks in the tub)


The sweet birthday girl, Brynley....


She had her own "cookie inspired" smash cake....

Crystal tied our printable favor tag around a milk bottle with a logo on top and a cookie attached.... Oh, the details!

Anyone craving a chocolate chip cookie like I am?

Crystal's Sources:
Bday onesie and matching bib - Paris Baby
Bow - Pretty Stitches Bowtique
Ruffle pants - Dream Spun Kids
Photos of the bday girl for the backdrop - Buttercup Photography
Cake and smash cake - Butter Cream and Dreams - Kellie Coats
Cookies - McKay's Bakery
Printable Invitation and Matching Logos/Accessories - Anders Ruff
(available in our shop!)

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

{Featured Clients} A Birdie Birthday for Clara

Our client Megan recently asked us to customize our Sweet Tweet Birdie Birthday Party printables for her daughter Clara's first birthday. This little birdie is the belle of the ball in her tutu and pink high-tops.
Clara, the "birdie" girl!

Look at this little tootsie in the pink high-top

The dessert table, a vision in pink and green

Look at this cake - (S)TWEET!!

Our birdie cupcake toppers...tickle me pink

More sweet treats (typing this post is making me hungry)

Veggies!!

Fruit kabobs

No bird bath but plenty of water bottles with our customized label wrappers

More refreshments - sippies!

How cute are these favor boxes?!

The little princess in her high chair

Megan customized our Happy Birthday Banner with Clara's name

The wreath is such a nice touch

Thank you Megan for sharing Clara's special day!


Credits:


Balloons, napkins, treat boxes, ribbon wreath and gumballs - Polka Dot market


Candy - Candy Warehouse


Cake & cupcakes - Babycakes Bakehouse


Clara's outfit - FairyWonderful Tutus and Tutu Dresses


Clara's headband - georgia blue


Pom poms - DIY


Invitations, thank you's, water labels, favor tags and banners - Anders Ruff Custom Designs

Monday, March 28, 2011

{DIY Tutorial} Egg Shaped Old Fashioned Candy Buttons

DIY Tutorial: Egg Shaped Candy Buttons

Did you see our feature on our Easter Has Sprung Collection photo shoot yesterday?
We had many comments asking how to make the old fashioned candy buttons.
Simple!

Materials:
- Copy Paper (Cut into 4"x5" rectangles or whatever size you prefer)
- Printed Egg Stencil Shape (Download yours here)
- Piping Bag or Kit (I love my Kuhn Rikon Cookie Piping Kit! shown below)
- Cello Bags (Optional) for packaging
- Printable Patterned Papers from our Easter Has Sprung Collection (Optional) for packaging.

Recipe (via Rachel Ray)
Ingredients Needed:

- 3 Cups Confectioners Sugar
- 2 Egg Whites
- Food Coloring

Steps:
1. Using an electric mixer, beat the confectioners' sugar and egg whites until thick and smooth, about 5 minutes.

2. Divide the icing into small bowls
(the number of bowls = the number of colors you want to mix).

3. Mix the colors you want for your candy buttons. I did some mix-ology to create the aqua, chartreuse, etc.

4. Put your colored icing into piping bags/containers with simple round icing tips.

5. Place the Egg template underneath one of your copy paper sheets.

6. Start piping the shape of the egg with simple dots. Get creative with your color scheme.

7. Allow to dry overnight.

8. Package in cello bags and use patterned papers as a pretty topper.


Thanks to Danielle of A Few of My Favorite Things for sharing the icing recipe with us.
We took the recipe and ran with it "egg style" ;-)

{From the Studio} Easter has Sprung!


You may have seen our Easter Has Sprung photo shoot on Hostess with the Mostess last week. We were SO excited to get these fun spring photos out to the world.

We did the shoot on March 5th - VERY early. Had we waited a couple weeks we would have been able to enjoy the fabulous Carolina spring blooms. (Note to self for next year).
We had a so-so/rainy day but the photos turned out fab-u-lous!
(As always when taken by Becca Bond!)

We designed the "Easter Has Sprung" printable collection with colors of chartreuse, aqua, periwinkle and tones of pink. We incorporated patterns that remind us of Easter - like polkadots and gingham as well as some unique festive patterns like a stitched stripe and a kaleidescope/pinwheel pattern.

We picked out several elements that remind us of spring and Easter and brought them into the dessert display. (Grass, Parasols,...and a LIVE bunny!)



We wanted to show how a dessert table doesn't have to be on an actual "table". No rules to displaying your desserts - we opted for 2 side by side white painted metal garden type shelving (IKEA!). I love the effect the height had on the display. Think outside the "table" and use some of your fabulous furniture as the focal point of your party!


Paper parasols from Luna Bazaar of coordinating chartreuse/pink and aqua were hung upside down over the shelving to symbolize spring, Easter, April showers bring may flowers.

The fabulous cake was designed by Mandie of Got What It Cakes. She matched our kaleidoscope pattern from our printable collection.
Patterned papers are included in the set, you know!?
Mandie also designed made a bunny silhouette to match our graphics for the top tier of the cake. Minnie Pearl loved her some buttercream!

Sweet Funky Vintage provided the dress and bow tie and Sweet Things Kids made the hair bow/head band for Arden.
We served cupcakes in small natural square fiber pots that we covered with white paint. We embellished these containers with ribbon and filled with natural kraft shred.

The cupcakes were served in pink baking cups from Hey Yo Yo.
Minnie Pearl also loved the printables! She sat so still by our cupcake topper display!


These fabulous exclusive fondant cupcake toppers are from Two Sugar Babies and are SO perfect with our printable set. They really added a pop of color onto the natural white butter cream and natural shred. They are available exclusively in her shop.


We displayed wheat grass in long glass display containers. This is an easy way to bring a natural element onto your dessert table. (and add a pop of color) We stuck treats into the grass (marshmallow bunnies and chicks (Dandy Delights), marshmallow lollipops with printable party logos and adorable coordinating cookies (Allyson Jane))


Here is Minnie Pearl with our coordinating invitation that is available in the shop! Perfect for Easter egg hunts, parties, or play dates!The top shelf held candies as well as adorable egg shaped cake pops from Terri's Party Treasures. The cake pops were displayed in tiny glass ramekins and were embellished with cute printable party flags from our collection.

Below is a better look at the adorable home made marshmallow bunnies and chicks from Dandy Delights as well as the egg cake pops from Terri's Party Treasures.



Glass apothecary jars were displayed on every other shelf and were filled with candies from Candywarehouse. We wrapped ribbon around the necks of the lids and added party logos from our printable collection.

Look at the beautiful cookies from Allyson Jane! She matched our bunny silhouette perfectly and I love the scalloped looking cookie shape with the polka dot border. TOTALLY fitting for Anders Ruff.

We displayed the cookies in aqua lacquer boxes that we filled with natural shred and lined the lid with our printable patterned paper.

In another lacquer box we displayed a classic chocolate bunny along with blown eggs.

We also showed our old fashioned Easter Egg Candy Button Sets that we made and topped the bag off with our printable patterned papers that are in the collection. Tutorial for the Old fashioned candy buttons in the easter egg shape coming soon.

The gorgeous ribbon topiary by She's Kinda Crafty was shown throughout the shoot (both outside and inside).
We displayed glass bottles with green and white paper straws in a matching aqua lacquer serving tray. We embellished the bottles with our printable drink wrap.

We also found favor bags at Michaels and added treats and put a printable party logo sticker on the front to spruce it up for Easter.

A great find were these adorable tin lunchboxes from Michaels that were gingham. The gingham was in the perfect colors to match our collection. We tied a favor hang tag from our printable collection to the side and added a party logo to the front to create an adorable favor container to display on the shelf.


Minnie Pearl (our bunny model) enjoyed nibbling at all the treats, but really loved her favorite food - carrots!
How precious are the outfits from Sweet Funky Vintage?!


We made our own (DIY Project!) Easter baskets using natural fiber planters that we painted with matte white paint. We drilled holes in the sides for the handles. Ribbon was wrapped tightly around wire to create the handles. We then embellished the basket with thick wired ribbon.


Our DIY Easter Basket project was also useful because we filled one with jellybeans and stuck long aqua/pink and white unicorn lollipops out of the pot and filled it with jelly beans and real blown eggs. This sat on the floor beside the shelving display.



We of course, had the traditional Easter Egg Hunt with plastic filled Easter eggs.
We showed a few ways to coordinate and fill your DIY Easter Basket - we used our printable bubble wraps to wrap the bubbles, which is a standard in every Easter basket, right?, egg shaped lollipop covers, egg wrappers and mini chocolate bar wrappers and printable treat cones.



We wanted to show the second half of our Easter shoot outside for a classic tradition....
an Easter Egg Hunt.
Arden and Pierson had so much carrying their
home made Easter baskets. They are very lightweight, which is great for young children.

We strung our printable "Happy Easter Banner" across the trees and it looked so precious!
The kids loved holding Minnie Pearl outside and running around the green in our neighborhood, finding eggs.
Minnie Pearl was loving the topiary from She's Kinda Crafty!




The kids loved upwrapping their lollipop in the Easter Egg lolli-cover... another clever way turn simple candy into something spectacular.


Arden loved blowing bubbles out of her special bubble bottle that was wrapped with our printable bubble wrap. She couldn't wait to open up the treat cone we assembled from our printable collection.
She looked so precious wearing the headband from Sweet Things Kids.




All in all, it was quite an amazing day!
Tune in this week for a special giveaway on Friday with a couple goodies from this photo shoot, as well as a DIY tutorial on how to make the Easter Egg shaped Candy Buttons!

“Easter has Sprung” Printable Design Collection
(Over 29 pages of Printable Designs!)
is ON SALE
available in our shop
for 50% off for a limited time!


– Event Styling, Graphic Design & Printables – Anders Ruff Custom Designs
– Photography – Becca Bond Photography

Desserts:
– Candy – Candy Warehouse
– Custom Cake – Got What It Cakes
– Cookies – Allyson Jane
– Cake Pops – Terri’s Party Treasures
– Fondant Cupcake Toppers – Two Sugar Babies
– Bunny & Chick Marshmallows – Dandy Delights

Clothing and Accessories:
– Dress & Tie – Sweet Funky Vintage
– Hair Accessory - Sweet Things Kids

Decor:
– Paper Parasols - Luna Bazaar
– Paper Straws & Paper Baking Cups – Hey Yo Yo
– Ribbon Topiary – Shes Kinda Crafty
– Label Material – OnlineLabels.com

Models:
“Mini Pearl” as “Peter Rabbit”
(Special Thanks to Marce Savage for letting us borrow Mini Pearl for the shoot!)