There Be a Pirate Party (Part 2)... And Treasure Map Cake!

Ahoy, mateys! (Sorry, can't help myself...)

To quickly recap the first post of this series, my 3-year-old daughter just got potty trained and wanted to celebrate with a pirate party. I didn't have an opportunity to make a lot of things myself because the party planning all kind of happened at the last minute. One of the things that I did make was an awesome, candy-covered Treasure Map Cake. I am not a cake decorating person usually, but this was fun and easy to do. I thought I would go ahead and share the basic steps with my readers so that you all could do something similar for a child's birthday party or even Talk Like a Pirate Day.

 Ingredients:
- A cake (boxed or homemade... I used a box of strawberry cake and filled the center with strawberry jam at my daughter's request)
- Vanilla frosting (again, I used store-bought, but you could totally do homemade if you are awesome like that)
- Wilson's Royal Blue Icing Color or something similar
- Icing spatula
- 1 tube of Wilson's Lemon Yellow Decorator Icing (or yellow icing color)
- 1 coupler and decorator tip for the tube of icing (if you dye your own icing yellow, then you'll need a bag for piping as well)
- Dr. Pepper Jelly Belly candies
- Tropical or Sour Mix Jelly Belly candies
- Twizzlers or Red Vines
- Chocolate Twizzlers or Root beer flavor licorice
- Spearmint leaves
- Swedish fish or gummi fish (and/ or gummi sharks)
- Root beer barrels
- Pirate candles or decorations (these are optional, but definitely added some pizzazz to the cake... if you want everything to be edible, you could probably make these out of fondant)

Step 1: 
Once the cake is cooled, filled, and pulled together, mix a few drops of the Royal Blue Icing Color into the vanilla frosting. I used the icing spatula to cover the entire cake with blue frosting. Since it is supposed to look like water, the icing does not need to be completely smooth. I actually went back and added some texture to create "waves" in the icing.

Step 2: 
Pipe yellow icing onto the cake into the shape of an island. Fill in and smooth out to your desire.

Step 3:
Decorate with copious amounts of candy!

- Use the chocolate or root beer licorice for palm trees and cut spearmint leaves to make the tree tops.
- Root beer barrels look like kegs of ... ummm... root beer (rum for grownups).
- Dr. Pepper Jelly Belly candies make great footprints.
- Twizzlers or Red Vines make an "X" to mark the spot.
- Use the gummi fish and sharks to decorate the water and add to the nautical feel of the cake.
- Decorate the bottom rim with the colorful Jelly Belly candies to look like pretty rocks

This is your chance to get really creative with the cake! I got most of my ideas just by going to the bulk candy aisle of the supermarket and looking around. It is pretty amazing to see all of the cool candies available now!

Step 4: (optional)
Add the candles or fondant decorations. I placed the pirate ship candle in the island's harbor, and I used the rest of the candles to decorate along the side of the cake. This can be left out or done to your taste. I found my candles at Party City though, if you are looking.

Step 5:
Enjoy that beautiful cake! This is an overall view of my finished product so that you can see how I laid out the candy decorations and candles. The overall effect is bright and whimsical, which is perfect for kids (or fun-loving adults).

Aside from baking time, I would say the cake took about 30 minutes to decorate. I only have two warnings about making this cake: 1) It is more difficult to cut than a cake decorated entirely with icing because you have to kind of maneuver around some of the candy and remove the candles before serving; 2) It is extremely sweet-- cut small pieces! But personally, I thought it was worthwhile to see my daughter's excitement at her "cool pirate cake."

I hope you found some interesting ideas here for the next time you want to have a pirate-themed party. This Treasure Map Cake is sure to be pleasin' to the eye!

(Please Note: I bought and paid for all of the ingredients myself. I know I mention a lot of brand names in this post, but this is just to give my readers and idea of what worked for me! There is no intention of endorsement here.)

There be a Pirate Party (Part 1)... Arr!

My 3-year-old was not interested in the potty (the link with pirates will be clear in a moment here... bear with me). She has the dexterity to dress and undress herself. She has the ability to communicate the need to go. She is perfectly capable of staying dry for extended periods of time. But whenever I tried to sit her on the potty, she would refuse to go and inevitably wet herself within the next 10 minutes.

We tried bribing her with dance lessons.

We tried bribing her with getting her ears pierced.

Then one day she announced that she needs to have a pirate party. I said, "You can have a pirate party when you start using the potty like a big girl." She said, "Okay." We made a "treasure map" with a path of potties leading to the promise of said Pirate Party. Each day she used the potty for the whole day, she could earn a check mark on the treasure map. Once all the potties had a check mark, then she got her party.

The first two days went okay with the exception of a few accidents. This was okay... at least she was trying! Then she decided to take a day or two off. I kept reminding her about the super awesome Pirate Party. She started trying again. After some more accidents and a few small breaks (usually a day or less), she finally started going to the bathroom. All. By. Herself. (If you have ever potty trained a particularly stubborn child, you can relate to my barely contained excitement at this point.)

The check marks were adding up. She was wearing underwear all day. If she did wear a diaper on a long car trip, it stayed dry. Finally, we reached our goal... Party Time!!!

So in the space of about three days, I threw together a Pirate Party. Very few things were handmade because of the time factor, but I was still really happy with how it turned out. We had a bunch of family in town from Florida, so the timing was perfect to make a REALLY BIG DEAL about my little girl's major milestone.


One thing I did get to make was this custom banner. I used my computer to print out the letters and pirate clipart. Then, I pasted the letters onto colorful scrapbooking paper and cardstock. I decided to go with the triangle shape this time to make them look like flags. The color theme was just kind of generic, tropical brights. If you thought pink dinosaurs were hard to come by, pink pirates are even worse!
(Obviously the banner is longer, but it included my daughter's name, and I want to give her some anonymity here.)


Since my 7-year-old nephew was in town to celebrate with us, I decided to set up an arts and crafts table for the kids. They had construction paper, markers, and stickers to make their own treasure maps. They could also use the paper towel tubes to customize their own telescopes. I found the wooden pirate and sea creature masks at the local JoAnn Fabrics for a dollar each. I was a little miffed that I could not find girl pirates anywhere. Really, people?!? This is 2011. Girls don't have to be princesses anymore!

 Anyway, I will get back off of my soap box now. To the left is a photo of the treat baskets I whipped up. They aren't terribly original, but I thought the little buckets were cute. The older kids got skull-and-cross bones bandanas, an eye patch, a ring pop, and some candy necklaces. My 15-month old got the cockatoo Beanie Baby since I didn't think she was big enough for the candy. All of the kids got some chocolate gold coins, play coins, a little harmonica, and a little spying scope. One handy hint my husband discovered: pick up medical eye patches from the pharmacy. They are much sturdier and less expensive than the cheesy, plastic, party patches!


I got a combination of solid-colored and pirate-themed tableware for the party. My daughter especially liked the pirate map plates. As you can see, I grabbed random Beanie Babies and shells to decorate the buffet station and the craft table. The floral patterned fabric is just a 1-yard by 1-yard drop cloth that I use under my daughters' chairs. I thought it looked fitting to the tropical/ pirate thing and used it to decorate here.

Most of the party was outside so we could play in the kiddie pool and the sprinkler. The water was a tad chilly for the Floridians, but my kids loved it anyway. We just set up a bunch of folding chairs and a picnic blanket under the shade tree in our back yard and let the breezes keep us cool. We even enjoyed our pirate-themed dinner (fish sticks, french fries, and "golden coin" carrots... daughter's choice!) outside.

Of course, the center piece of the party was the amazing Treasure Map Cake that I made. Check out There Be a Pirate Party (Part 2)... And Treasure Map Cake! for the tutorial.

A Pink and Yellow Dinosaur Party (Part 3)

After months of planning and crafting, we finally had my daughters' birthday party last weekend. We have been crazy busy, so it has taken me awhile to post the decoration pictures-- but better late than never, right?

 To the left is a picture of the birthday banner I made for the girls. The letters were colored and printed with the computer. Then I cut the letters out and pasted them onto some cardstock (I  probably have 3-4 fat stacks on hand at all times). I added some dinosaurs and glittery gem stickers for embellishment. They are hard to see in the picture, but in person, the banner was appropriately sparkly. I bunched holes in the corners and strung the letters up for a fun, FREE, custom birthday banner.



To the right is a look at the table decorations, including the tablecloth that I made. Our table is just the right size for me to make super easy fabric tablecloths. Basically, I just pick out 2 yards of fabric from the bargain bin, sew up the edges and presto! Since we don't use a tablecloth any other time of the year, I usually keep them for drop-cloths to use under my daughters' chairs.

Also note the placemats I made. I colored designs of different dinosaurs (T-rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Pteranodon, and Apatosaurus), glued them to colorful paper, and laminated them. The lamination is neat because now the girls can color on them with any washable or dry erase marker, similar to one of Emily Green's Imagination Mats (e.g. Emily Green Hootie Do You Love Placemat). Unfortunately, my laminator tops out at legal-sized paper, but I am pretty sure I could get a bigger design done at Staples for a reasonable price.


This last picture shows the cakes laid out on the table as a center piece. I cannot claim credit for these beauties-- it's all Nana! And really, with talent like this in the family, I have zero desire to work on my own cake-decorating skills. I will stick to crafting, thanks!

So anyhow, this is the final post in a series that began two whole months ago. It's hard to believe that my babies are already 3 and 1. The party was fun, and all of the work was totally worth my 3 year old's excitement when she saw the decorations. She is already asking for next year's party!

A Pink and Yellow Dinosaur Party (Part 2)

The time draws near for my daughters' birthdays and their Pink and Yellow Dinosaur Party. Since their birthdays are exactly a week apart, we will have the family party on the Saturday between their birthdays. I'm not sure when we'll have the childcare party, but it will be somewhere in that week time frame as well.

Earlier, I decided that I would be making the following party items:

- Appliquéd pink dinosaur shirts for the birthday girls (done!)

- Big stuffed dinosaurs for their birthday presents (done!)

- A "Happy Birthday" banner 

- Placemats for the family party (done!)

- Dinosaur cupcake toppers (for the childcare party-- done!)

- Little stuffed dinosaurs for gift bags (for the childcare part-- done!)

- A tablecloth for the party (done!)

- Dinosaur-shaped crayons (done!)

So, I feel pretty happy that in the next two weeks, all I have left to do is make the party banner, food for the family dinner, and the cupcakes. I will post the table decorations (tablecloth/ place mats / party banner/ cupcake toppers) at a later date. Tonight, I mainly want to share the stuffed animals I made and show the finished treat bags for the childcare party. 

To the left, you can see how the plushies came out. I made the pattern myself, and there was definitely a learning curve. However, I was pretty happy with the results... I just hope the birthday girls like them! Both of the dinos were made from upcycled receiving blankets and fabric scraps I had lying around. I had to buy the ribbon and buttons (which are both sewn and hot-glued for added security), but the cost was pretty minimal compared to buying stuffed animals.

To the right, you can see an image of the completed treat bags. I just used some white, paper bags and ribbon (nothing fancy) since there was so much goodness inside. I really wanted the treat bags to be special since I am combining the parties and ultimately saving myself a fair amount of work. Each treat bag (these are for 2-4 year olds) has a dinosaur activity pad, a dinosaur crayon, a mini-brontosaur plushie, and a noise maker. The activity pad and the noisemaker are store bought, but I already had a lot of crafty stuff on my plate and though that these would be a little challenging to do on my own.

I am getting really excited for the parties, and I look forward to posting more soon!

Upcycled Dinosaur Crayons

In addition to crafting some plush brontosaurs for my daughters' pink and yellow dinosaur party, I decided to make some dinosaur shaped crayons for the goodie bags. Since the other children at their childcare are all between 2 and 4, I figured the chunky crayons shapes would be perfect for them to color. Also, this craft gave me the excuse to upcycle all of the old, broken crayons I have sitting around the house. When I decided that I was going to do this, I also started saving all of the crayons that my kids get from restaurants (my husband deserves credit for that idea). Why let them go waste?

Materials:

- crayon pieces, labels peeled off

- 1 or 2 cooking pans (depending on how many colors you are using)

- tin cans or aluminum cans (1 for each color)

- popsicle sticks or wooden skewers for stirring

- a candy mold (I used this one)

- wax paper (to cover the workspace)

- lots of paper towels (for quick clean up)

1. After peeling the labels off the crayons and sorting them by color, I put each color into a metal can. Tins cans work especially well because the edges aren't as sharp, but a cut aluminum can does just fine. I would recommend breaking the crayons up into little chunks-- they will melt faster. (I forgot to do that and it was a pain.)

2. Heat the cans in your pans on the stove. A low heat (2-3 on my stove) was sufficient. If you turn it up much higher, you start to get a funky odor and stress out your pans. Use the popsicle sticks to stir as needed. If you mix different shades of the same color, the stirring will help blend everything together.

3. Pour heated wax into the mold. The cans don't get super hot, so you could do this with bare fingers, but I thought it was easier to use a pot holder once I got the can out of the pan. Since the shapes in my mold were pretty big, each child is only going to get one crayon. I wanted each crayon to have different colors to give it a neat effect. On the first batch, I stuck the mold in the freezer between each layer of colors. This allowed each layer to be very distinct, but it took a lot of patience. On the second batch, I pour the colors into the mold without allowing cooling time in between. The result was more of a tie-dye effect, which is visible in this picture.

4. Once the crayons cool completely (again, the freezer helps speed this up), they pop right out of the mold. These are some of the crayons from my first batch to show the distinct layers. The whole process took about 45 minutes and was pretty fun. Be sure to wear clothes that can get dirty... I ended up with quiet a few splatters.

Happy crafting!

A Pink and Yellow Dinosaur Party (Part 1)

My daughters will be turning 1 and 3 in March, which means it is time to start planning a birthday party. We let our 3 year old do a lot of decision making, so she was pretty gung-ho about the discussion on what sort of party to have this year. At first she weighed heavily toward a Dora and Diego deal, but when I threw out the idea of dinosaurs, she got really excited. Once we had a theme, we started looking at colors. As usual, my 3 year old picked pink. My 1 year old picked yellow (by pointing, grabbing, and trying to eat the yellow plates at the store). Now I am planning a pink and yellow dinosaur party.

For those of you with daughters who like dinosaurs, you are probably well aware that dinosaurs are generally relegated to the realms of boy-dom. It seems weird to me because I loved dinosaurs as a kid, but every dinosaur search turned up blues and greens and reds. No pink dinos. In an effort to focus my search a little, I Googled "pink dinosaur party" and found these awesome ideas from the Serving Pink Lemonade Blog. Between that and my new Handmade Pledge, I decided that this birthday was the perfect opportunity for me to get a lil crafty.

Since my daughters are small, we are only going to have two little parties. One party will be at the home-based care where my daughters go during the days I work. The other will be a family party at home. I still have a bunch of pink plastic utensils and pink cups from last year's birthday party, so I will use those and just get some yellow plates and napkins to make the table colorful. We generally decorate with crepe paper and balloons as well. Nana is in charge of the big cake for the family party.

Here's what I will be making:

- Appliquéd pink dinosaur shirts for the birthday girls

- Big stuffed dinosaurs for their birthday presents

- A "Happy Birthday" banner

- Placemats for the family party

- Dinosaur cupcake toppers (for the childcare party)

- Little stuffed dinosaurs for gift bags (for the childcare party)

I am also thinking about maybe making a tablecloth for the party and some dinosaur-shaped crayons if I can find the right mold. I will know more after I poke around in a few stores next week. So far I have worked on the appliquéd shirts and one of the small party-favor dinosaurs.

These are the stencils for the appliqué (top) and the stuffed dinos (bottom). I sketched both designs and cut them out of a manila file-folder:

For the party favors, I cut two pieces out of scrap fabric I had lying around. I machine-sewed the outer edges, leaving enough of a gap to flip the fabric right-side out. I stuffed it with scraps from a fleece tie blanket that were cut into tiny 1/2 inch chunks. Once stuffed, I hand-sewed the bottom seam. I still have 5 more to make, but here is what the first one looks like:

For the appliqué, I raided my daughters dresser drawers and came up with two plain, pink, long-sleeved shirts. They were solid basics from The Children's Place-- just right for jazzing up. I used the stencil to cut the dinosaurs from a flannel fabric to give it a little extra weight. I am too cheap to buy fusible interface, so I machine-sewed a straight stitch around the edge to hold it in place. Then I went right over it with the zig-zag stitch to keep the edges from fraying. It's probably not the best method for appliqué, but I have an ancient sewing machine and little patience for hand sewing. I am open to suggestions! Anyhow, here's how they came out:

I sort of wish that I had picked two different fabrics for the dinosaur since it really blends on the darker shirt, but c'est la vie. I was trying hard to use materials I already had in my scrap drawer. As I get more goodies done for this party, I will post.

Peace, love, and pink dinosaurs.