Category: Parties and Events

Pumpkin Ice Bucket

We’ve seen this amazing idea all over Pinterest and we just had to try it for ourselves. We figured it was only appropriate to fill such an ice bucket with pumpkin beer…but you can also use it for wine bottles, champagne, or even soda!

All you need is a large, squat pumpkin, a bowl, ice, and your drink of choice. Here’s how to make your very own pumpkin ice bucket:

Step 1: Cut off the top of the pumpkin and scoop out the insides. You’ll want to cut lower than you usually would when carving a jack-o-lantern so that you have the biggest opening possible.

Step 2: Find a bowl that fits inside the pumpkin. We used the outside of a salad spinner! It was the perfect size.

Step 3: Add ice.

Step 4: Add beer!

Step 5: Throw a Halloween party!

Felt Pumpkin Garland | Bat Pumpkins | Graveyard Cake

What do you think? Does your next party need a pumpkin ice bucket? It would look great with your Thanksgiving spread!

Find more pumpkin ideas here. Have a wonderful weekend!

Tags beer, carved pumpkin, DIY, halloween, ice bucket, jack-o-lantern, pumpkin

DIY Holidays Parties and Events Recipes

Halloween Graveyard Cake

Planning a Halloween party? We have the perfect (and most affordable) accessory for you…

We found these skeleton hands at Dollar Tree in the Halloween party section. They came in a pack of two and were labeled salad tongs! How hilarious is that?!

(We had a lot of fun with these guys during the photoshoot…how could we not?)

To create this graveyard cake you will need: chocolate box cake mix, chocolate frosting, and brownie box mix.

Directions:
1. Bake the chocolate cake and let cool completely.
2. Bake the brownies and let cool.
3. Frost the cake with the chocolate frosting.
4. Cut a square of brownie and crumble with your hands or in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle the crumbled brownie on top of the cake to create the look of dirt. Sprinkle more crumbled brownie around the cake plate if desired.
5. Stick a skeleton hand in the center of the cake (the taller the cake, the more supported the skeleton hand will be!).

That’s it! You are just a few dollars away from a deliciously spooky graveyard cake.

Stay tuned for more Halloween party ideas! And don’t forget to follow Vicky Barone on Instagram to catch more skeleton hands in action 🙂

Tags cake, chocolate, DIY, dollar store, dollar tree, graveyard, halloween, party, pumpkin, skeleton, skeleton hands

DIY Holidays Parties and Events

DIY Felt Flower Napkin Rings

Post author By vickybarone
Post date October 5, 2015

It’s no secret that we love making felt flowers, but we’ve gone to a new level with these miniature versions! A handful of mini flowers and some floral wire are all you need to create these adorable DIY napkin rings. They are perfect for any gathering around the dinner table and can be personalized with a variety of colors. Keep scrolling to find out how to easily make your own!

Supplies: felt, floral wire, hot glue, and scissors.

Directions:
1. Cut a long piece of floral wire and wrap it around a cylindrical object to create an even circle. Wrap the wire around the object as many times as you can, and slide the loop off of the object when you run out of wire. Secure the ends and keep the loop from uncoiling by wrapping them tightly around the loop (as seen in the middle photo above).
2. Create your felt flower. We linked to four different felt flower tutorials in this post, if you’d like to see. For these napkin rings, we made miniature versions of two different felt flowers that are no more than an inch or an inch and a half in diameter.
3. Cut two leaves out of green felt. Put hot glue on the bottom of a felt flower and attach it to one of the leaves.
4. Add hot glue to the second leaf and press it onto the under side of the wire ring.
5. Add more hot glue to the bottom of the leaf with a flower on it and press it onto the top of the wire ring. The napkin ring should be sandwiched between the two leaves.

Repeat these steps until you’ve created as many napkin rings as you’d like!

These napkin rings would be perfect to set the table for Thanksgiving dinner! Make a set of matching rings or use a variety of colors to match whatever theme you’re going for.

These would also make great hostess gifts or even add a DIY touch to a wedding reception.

Have a wonderful week, everyone! Happy crafting!

Tags DIY, felt, felt flowers, floral wire, hostess gift, napkin rings, table setting

DIY Kids Parties and Events

DIY Cupcake Liner Garland

Post author By vickybarone
Post date August 21, 2015

Do you have a little one who LOVES cupcakes? Have a cupcake-themed birthday party with all things sweet! This cupcake liner garland is SO easy to make and helps you decorate on a budget. Keep on scrolling to see how you can make your own…

Supplies: cupcake liners, glue, and baker’s twine.

The best place to find colorful (and affordable) cupcake liners are at craft stores and places like Marshall’s or TJMaxx. They have tons of super cute designs like these multi-colored polka dot liners that we snagged for $1.99!

Directions:
1. Flatten a cupcake liner by pressing out starting from the center, all the way around.
2. Flip the liner over and fold it in half with the design on the outside.
3. Lay out the baker’s twine (or whatever string you choose) and fold the cupcake liners around it where you’d like them to go.
4. Glue the folded liners together making sure the string is securely in the crease.
5. Let dry completely and hang your garland!

Have any other birthday decor ideas for a party planner on a budget? We’d love to hear them!

Tags baker's twine, Birthday, bunting, cupcake liner, cupcake liners, cupcakes, DIY, garland, ideas, party, polka dots, string

DIY Parties and Events

DIY Felt Watermelon Garland

Post author By vickybarone
Post date July 28, 2015
1 Comment on DIY Felt Watermelon Garland

Today we’re sharing the perfect no-sew garland for Summer. This sweet little watermelon decor is so cute you’ll want to use it for a Summer party or just hang it up in your office to enjoy all day long!

Supplies: red and green felt, scissors, hot glue, string, and a fine tip black Sharpie.

Directions:
1. Cut circles out of the red and green felt. We used two different glasses to trace circles before cutting them out. Be sure to make the green circles slightly bigger than the red.
2. Cut each circle in half.
3. Hot glue the semi-circles together to create the watermelon shape.
4. Use a fine tip black Sharpie to draw the watermelon seeds.
5. Flip the completed watermelon slices over and add two dots of hot glue to the back. Quickly press the string to the hot glue dots.
6. Hang your garland and enjoy!

Looking for more watermelon-inspired ideas? Click here!

Tags bunting, DIY, felt, garland, new sew, watermelon

DIY Parties and Events Recipes Things I Love

18 Sprinkle Party Ideas

Post author By vickybarone
Post date July 10, 2015

Colorful sprinkles are a staple at any party, but what about a sprinkle themed extravaganza? Today we’re sharing 18 deliciously fun ideas for sprinkle-filled festivities. Click on the links below to find each recipe and DIY.

Happy Friday! Enjoy!

Tags colorful, DIY, parties, party, party ideas, recipe, sprinkles, things i love

DIY Parties and Events

DIY Popsicle Garland

Summer is in full swing and so is the HEAT! Since our go-to method for keeping cool is chowing down on some frosty Popsicles, we decided to make a little party decor to celebrate our favorite treat.

These paper Popsicles look good enough to eat! We were inspired to make this garland when we saw one made out of pool noodles (!!) here. We loved it so much, we went digging into our scrapbook paper collection for just the right Popsicle-inspired colors.

Supplies: scrapbook paper, tongue depressors, a paper cutter and/or scissors, glue stick, hot glue, twine, and clothespins.

Directions:
1. Each Popsicle will be two-toned to mimic the shaded inset of a Popsicle made from a traditional mold. Pick two shades of each color Popsicle you’d like to make.
2. Using a paper cutter, cut the lighter shade of each color into rectangles (ours were about 3×5.5″). Round off the top of each rectangle using scissors.
3. Next, cut the darker shade of each color into thinner rectangles (ours were about 0.5×5″). Round off the top of each of these rectangles. You should have twice the amount of thin rectangles as you do larger rectangles.
4. Glue two thin rectangles to a larger rectangle in a coordinating color using a glue stick.
5. Flip each paper Popsicle over and glue a tongue depressor to the back using a glue gun.
6. When all the glue is dry, clip each Popsicle to a piece of twin using mini clothespins.

Hang your bright Summer garland and enjoy!

Tags bunting, DIY, garland, paper, paper garland, popsicles, summer

Holidays Parties and Events Recipes Things I Love

18 Patriotic Desserts for the 4th of July

Post author By vickybarone
Post date July 2, 2015

Fourth of July Weekend is here! To celebrate, we collected 18 delicious red white and blue desserts from across the web. Don’t they all look amazing?!

Click on the links below to see each recipe. We hope everyone has a fun, safe, and happy weekend!

Tags 4th of july, desserts, fourth of july, independence day, patriotic, red white and blue, things i love