Mustache & Bow Tie Cupcake Toppers - {Sneak Peak Party Week}

It's day 2 of Sneak Peak Party Week. I'm counting down the days until Sam's 1st birthday and sharing with your behind the scenes photos of what's been going on for party preparations! Today's feature is all about the cupcakes! In addition to cake and an assortment of other sweets at the party I'm going to be making some chocolate cupcakes topped with adorable mustache and bow tie toppers! These are so super simple to make and only require a few materials but will certainly add to the cute factor and "tie" in perfectly with the mustache and tie/bowtie theme! The pictures below show you step-by-step what you need and how to make each topper.

Mustache Cupcake Toppers:

-toothpicks
-double stick tape
-black paper
-mustache paper punch

How stinkin cute are this little guys!

Bow Tie Cupcake Toppers:
-toothpicks
-fabric scissors
-fabric

I love these little polka dot bow ties!

I can't wait to use these for Sam's party this weekend! Stay tuned for sneak peak #3 coming up tomorrow!

Happy 1st Birthday Sam! - It's Sneak Peak Party Week!

Today is such an exciting day! My little guy, Sam is 1 year old! This past year has gone by so fast and my little baby is growing up to be such a sweet little boy that makes us smile and laugh everyday! If you've been a long time follower of the blog then you've seen me post about Sam a few times over the last year and also post about his 1st birthday party plans! Well this is the big week, we are having his party on Saturday. Our family is flying and driving in town from 3 different states for the big celebration and we can't wait to see everyone.

I'm going to refer to this week on the blog as "Sneak Peak Party Week". I know I've been tempting you with bits and pieces of Sam's party theme for the past few months now. This week I'm going to show you a few peaks at how things are coming together. Then next week I will come back to share the full photos and all the details in probably one monster size post! I have had an absolute blast planning Sam's 1st birthday tie/bowtie/mustache party and I can't wait for you to see how everything turns out!

Here's a peak at the mini bow tie and #1 cookies I made for Sam to take to school today to share with his little buddies!
 
Happy birthday Sam! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Cora's 1st Birthday

I recently had the opportunity to help with the sweets for my friend Jennifer's little girls' 1st birthday party! Miss Cora sure is one special little girl, and also Sam's girlfriend so I wanted to go all out for her party!  Jennifer had the vision to decorate with shades of light and dark pink and lime green with both polka dot and stripe patterns. She coordinated all the party decorations and together we brainstormed on the sweets for the dessert table. We decided on cake balls, cookies and cupcakes, and of course a smash cake for Cora. I tried to carry the polka dot theme through the sweets as much as possible using pink and white polka dot cupcake wrappers, white cake balls with pink sprinkles, and #1 cookies with pale pink polka dots. We used some lime green polka dot wrapping paper as the table runner to balance out all the pink and add an extra pop of color to the table. Jennifer came up with the theme "year of firsts" from the invitation she chose so I used this idea to create a few special cupcakes with toppers displaying some of Cora's memorable "firsts". Jennifer really did an amazing job with all the party details and I was so honored to be able to help in the sweets department! Hope you enjoy the pictures from this sweet pink 1st birthday party! 

Just wait until you see Cora and her smash cake...not so sure she is a huge fan of icing just yet!

Pumpkin Patch Cake

I having been dying to share this adorable 1st Birthday cake with you all! I absolutely love the idea of a "pumpkin patch" themed cake for a fall birthday. It can't get much cuter than this can it? This cake was so easy to make, as you can see the famous fall "candy pumpkins" are the star of the show! So no need to spend hours making your own fondant pumpkins, just grab a bag of these little candies and you are all set! I used brown fondant to create the fence around the sides of the cake and the sign. Using some green tinted buttercream and the Wilton tip # 233 I piped grass around the base of the cake and around the pumpkin clusters on the top.

Then I made one single cupcake for Finn to enjoy as his smash cake!

Not only is this cake perfect for a fall birthday, but it would be great to accompany your Thanksgiving Feast! You could change up the writing on the sign to say "Give Thanks" or "Happy Thanksgiving" and it would be perfect. You could even make a pumpkin flavored cake with a cream cheese frosting...yum wouldn't that be an amazing end to your turkey dinner. So if you are still looking for a festive fall dessert, give this cake a try and grab the kids to help you decorate. I guarantee they will love scattering the pumpkins all around.

The Lorax - 1st Birthday

I recently got to work on a super fun 1st birthday cake for my friend Jamie's little boy Jonah! The theme was The Lorax. I have not read the book or seen the movie, but Jamie pointed me in the right direction with what she was looking for! She wanted a smash cake for Jonah decorated in orange with yellow polka dots and then a larger cake covered in trufulla trees for the guests to enjoy! Each layer of the larger cake was dyed a different color...orange, yellow and green and then frosted in blue buttercream. Fondant truffula trees lined the outside of the cake. For a little something special, I used black and white striped paper straws to resemble the trunks of the truffula trees and then added puffs of cotton candy on top. I really love how both of these cakes came together and the fun color palette I got to work with. It was so much fun to see little Jonah dig into his smash cake! He was a little hesitant at first, but once his fingers hit the icing, it was all over and orange buttercream was everywhere! Hope you enjoy these pictures of Jonah's birthday cakes.

Happy 1st Birthday Max!

Check out these adorable cookies I made and sent to my friend Laurie for her son's 1st birthday today! Laurie was decorating for the party in bright primary colors so I thought it would be cute to do the cookies in blue, green and yellow for little Max! I added a few polka dots and stripes to provide a fun assortment for the party guests!

Laurie and Max live in Florida and we live in Alabama so I've only seen her little guy once when he was about 3 months old! I was actually about 4 months pregnant with Sam when we met Max. So it has been a long time and he has changed like crazy since then. Hopefully Max and Sam can meet sometime soon, I know they would be the best of buddies! Good thing for iphones these days b/c we are able to send pictures back and forth of our little ones growing and changing so quickly!

We wish you a HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY MAX!