Candy Coated Wonderland

The Candy Shop

Popcorn Lolli Stands

 Lunch Bags and Name Tags

Candy Shop Jars 

Lollipop String

Guest Welcome Drink

I finished the Candy Coated Wonderland party over the weekend and although the weather didn't play along, the colours of the party certainly brightened things up! 

No candy party is complete without a candy shop. We created a candy shop for guests to take candy home in coloured bags. To add character to the candy shop, we designed and added food labels to the jars and tied them together with a few satin ribbons. And then off course, bunting flags.  I made use of a lot of the bunting flags - they added the perfect touch. 

Other decor items included a string of covered wooden lollipops and candy cane's at the entrance door. It set the mood as the guests walked in with their colourful welcome drinks.  Another item was the chinese lanterns. I used red, green and blue lanterns and they where hung above and around the kiddies table. And lastly, I made use of popcorn quite a bit. Popcorn can be made a several colours and they are an affordable way of adding 'candy' to the decor.  You can add them to centerpieces (as I did) or even put a few on a string to be hung from the ceiling for extra fun!

Candy Coated Storyboard

I am terrible excited about my new project. I am doing another birthday party pretty soon and just finished the storyboard and presentation thereof. The theme will be a Candy Coated Wonderland for a birthday party of a 1year old boy. We decided on a colour palette of aqua blue, green's and red as the main colours. 

Once again, I will post my progress on the event as I go along to help you with your own Candy Coated birthday party planning.  

Lollipop Invitations

The invitations were sent out and I took some cute photo's of the boy wearing an oversized bow tie and a colourful candy cane lollie. The invitations were made up as lollipops on wooden sticks to keep it fun, playful and theme fitting. He had so much fun and the bow tie didn't bother him one bit! Such a good poser.  

Symbolizing Growth

Over the past few weeks I've been working on a launch for one of my clients in conjunction with Blue is The Word. 

The client wanted a growth inspired event to symbolize the growth process that their company initiates through guidance and other services they offer their clients. A few ideas where used to give impact with the growth theme. 

Some creative ideas included:

In stead of a red carpet we used a grass carpet. The grass carpet was repeated inside the venue at the food table to give high impact. A few corporate gifts were given out which included oak chopping boards with the company logo and Mr Grassheads. These Grassheads are so much fun and people really enjoyed them. The flowers were mostly done out of tree stumps to further symbolize the growth process. Grass pots were also placed around the venue to pull the theme through. 

Centre Of My Heart

I had a request last week from someone via my blog to help them with a few creative valentine's ideas. This person needed help as the couple doesn't live in the same city and he needed a few ideas to spoil his long distance love with. 

With only a few days to organize, there wasn't much time to waste and I asked him to write a love letter addressed to her. I then arranged for the love letter that he wrote to be baked inside a special valentine's cake which was just big enough for one. I left her a small note as a clue on the cake box to eat her way to the centre of the cake to find her secret love message.

If you ever attempt to do this, remember to protect the love letter from the heat and cake mix with a cover. I used a small pink easter egg. This way I could add a small wire heart and ribbon to add a special touch to the letter. 

Asian Ease

I had a request from one of my readers to post ideas for a themed dinner. I did an Asian themed dinner a little over a year ago and thought I'll share the photos with you for some inspiration. 

You can easily recreate the same look at home. I tried to tone down the strong colours and I opted for more neutral colours instead - brown side plates, bamboo runner and lots of green plants. I purchased three types of unusual flowers and grouped each individually in their own vase. Play around with your flower arrangements and create something unusual and interesting. For place mats, I purchased an Asian newspaper and used different pages from the newspaper - you can buy these at most Chinese stores. To add a bit of 'life' to the table, I hired 3 goldfish for the evening and used them in vases as part of the table decor. It added some interest to the table. Should you struggle to find a animal or pet shop to hire your goldfish from, use the Animal Kingdom in Atterbury Value Mart. Then lastly, I always enjoy adding depth to the overall picture and in order to achieve this I hung a few chinese lanterns and chinese umbrella's from the roof. 

Just think of something theme fitting and creative you can dish up for your guest and you will create your own Asian themed dinner with ease! 

Photo Booth Props

Photo booths are the perfect tool for adding spontaneity to your pictures and encourage guests to have loads of fun while taking photos.  

I recently suggested to one of my clients that we do a photo booth at their wedding. Because the photo booth costs did not fit in to their budget, it was my job to come up with another creative idea that would fit into the budget.

You can do the same at your next party or celebration:

Have a cordoned off area that will be for the photo booth only. You will need a fun back drop for your 'booth'. Select the type of style you want the photo's to be taken in - retro, funky or formal. Ask one of your friends with a nifty camera to take the photo's in the photo booth. Have the camera set up and ready on a tripod to ensure that all your 'photo booth' photo's will be from the exact same angle.  Create time slots in which the booth will be open for photos and invite your guests to partake during these time slots. The key to your booth will be fun props. I had awesome wooden props made and there will be enough props to make each photo unique and fun. 

The Bunny Hop

Main Table

Table Settings

Food Lollipops

No 1 Gift Box Tower & Ek Verjaar Blocks

Food Table (Side View)

Kids Table Setting

Bunny Birthday Cupcake and Bunny Friends

T-Shirt with Custom Bunny and Birthday Phrase

And so the bunny finally hopped! I finished the bunny themed birthday party today and it was such a fun theme to work with! I've added a few photos of the final product. 

The Bunny Hop Storyboard

One of my readers sent in a request for party ideas for small children. I thought it would be a great idea to do regular updates as I make progress with an event and hopefully give you some inspirational ideas and tips for your own event.

I am busy planning an event for a one year old boy. The theme is bunnies and I just finished my storyboard. Using a storyboard to present all the ideas really helps the client to envision what you are proposing and helps you to focus on the core items of the event.

As I go along, I will post updates under the label 'Bunny Hop Event Progress' so that you can easily follow the progress and hopefully see the end result. 

Invitation (front)

When it came to the design of the invitations, it was important to incorporate elements of the party as much as possible. I photographed the little boy a while back and we used the images on his invitation. He was such a good bunny! To bring in elements that will be used at the party, the table cloth material was scanned in and used as part of the design. 

Bird Themed Dinner

 I recently did an event where I used a bird theme with purple undertones. I used wooden birdcages and bird cut outs that I covered with decorative paper. These were used as place cards and I hung a few over the table with different coloured ribbon to add a bit of depth to the over all picture.

As a party favor I stamped small wooden hearts with a small bird stamp, twisted a hook on to it and tied a small piece of ribbon to it. It looked great on the table!