Gifts That Say WOW

Nurse Graduation Party

My beautiful niece graduated this week from nursing. This is one of the cakes at her party. This picture does not do justice to this cake. It was so adorable and everyone commented on how creative it was. There was also the cutest cake squares Krista called these the first aid cake. This is the picture of this cake.

She received so many nice nursing gifts, and we had such fun celebrating this milestone in Krista's life.

Pet Parties

Party Like an Animal

The decorations are up, the table is set, the cupcakes are iced,and the goodie bags are made. Now it's time for the guests to arrive.This is no ordinary party, pet parents everywhere are celebrating their pets with parties. This photo is from my niece's party for her pet baby Toby. Pet friends and pet parents were invited. Toby's friends were served pup cakes made with whole wheat flour, honey, peanut butter ,eggs, and peanut butter icing. She made gift bags with a variety of dog treats. She used puppy paw cups, plates and napkins and to go puppy paw cupcake holders. And each pet received a pet toy. She also made real people cupcakes and goodies for the pet parents.Here you will find many ways to celebrate your pet.. They are a very important member of our family and hold a special place in our hearts.

Pet Party Invitations

You can easily make your own invitations to send to pet parents. Here is an idea for the Female Dogs and one for Male Dogs. Invitations set the tone for a Pet Party.

Cousin Toby

Picking a Theme for Your Party

I don't know how thrilled Toby is about the party hat, but you have to admit he is absolutely adorable. If you don't know your pets birthday, pick a date.and then pick a theme for your party. How about some famous dogs like scooby doo, snoopy, clifford ,or a pink poodle party. Or you can pick a season, such as a garden party in the spring, Winter Wonderland for winter parties , pumpkins in the fall, or a swim party or backyard barbecue in the summer. Can't wait until your pups birthday....have a spaw day or a Bark Mitzvah.....you get the idea.

10 Ideas for A Perfect Pet Party

Here are some helpful Ideas to plan the perfect party for your Pet.

1.On your pets special day, dress him in a tux and her in a rhinestone collar.
2. Have pet guest dress up for a pet fashion show. Winning pet gets a prize.
3.If your party is in the summertime you can fill a kiddie pool for the pets to take a splash in.
4. Be sure to include games for your guest, have frisbees, and rope for tug a war.
5.Serve your pets water labeled Salty Dog.
6.Decorate using red fire hydrants
7, Draw paws going to the door with sidewalk chalk.
8. For safety reasons, don't burn candles at your pet party.
9. Remove temptations for your pet guests, such as shoes or any items you don't want chewed...
10. Leave aggressive dogs off your guest list and as an extra precaution, make sure your guests are spayed or neutered.

Lion Themed Birthday Party for 1st Birthday

Your baby's First Birthday is a very special occasion and you want to celebrate this wonderful little person who has forever changed your life. For the Perfect Birthday Party, start with a theme and build around it. For a Lion themed Birthday, here are a couple of suggestions for invitations. One for a girl and one for a boy.

1st Birthday Lion Party Invitation by cooltees
See more 1st birthday party Invitations at zazzle.com

1st Birthday Lion Party Invitation by cooltees
Create your own invites at Zazzle

Party Ideas:

Plan for the party to last an hour to an hour-and-a-half since babies have short attention spans and run out of energy quickly.
Plan the party for late morning or late afternoon after nap time.
Have guests bring a memento like a photo of a relative with baby,a toy, or a magazine with the year of her birth. I bought
a Life Magazine when my daughter was a baby. It amazes her what was going on in the world when she was born. Put these items in a time capsule for baby to open on 21st birthday.

Make simple but very cute cupcakes by piping icing around the edges of the cupcake and using a icing pen to make the face.

Photo: Cupcakes Take the Cake

Put the children's food at eye level to make it more appealing. They love small cut up fruit, such as bananas, peaches,pineapple, and small cookies like graham crackers, animal crackers. Be sure to have some grown up food for friends and family members.

Games

Small children enjoy playing with balls. Try several different types. Small balls like these Kush balls or large beach type balls. Bean bag toss is another activity young children enjoy. While they are outside, give them some sidewalk chalk. Highlight the activities by releasing a bunch of balloons.

Catch the Tiger by the Tail Game: (Easy to set up game that the older kids will enjoy. This may be too difficult for a one year old.)

Kids sit in a circle on the floor. The child who is the lion puts a homemade Lion's tail into his waistband and begins circling the group and touching each child on the head and saying Lion. When he touches a head and says Hyena, the hyena tries to grab the lions tail. If the Lion can make it back to the hyena's seat with his tail, he is still King of the jungle.

Don't go overboard with the party, your one year old will never remember it, but be sure to have the camera ready to make pictures for your baby to see later.

Checklist for Kid's Birthday party

Photo Credit: Peppers and Pollywogs

Here is a Great Checklist for Children's Birthday Parties Visit Peppers and Pollywogs for Party Ideas and tips.

For the Cutest Invitations ever visit Cool Tees and Baby World.

Kids' Birthday Party Checklist

SIX WEEKS BEFORE
Choose a theme with your child
Determine the guest list
Reserve your party venue or hire a party entertainer
FOUR WEEKS BEFORE
Prepare your invitations
Ask for an updated class list from your child’s teacher
Determine games, activities and menu to match your party theme
If ordering a cake, place your order
THREE WEEKS BEFORE
Mail invitations
Purchase party supplies, especially if ordering on-line
Arrange for extra help, if necessary
ONE OR TWO WEEKS BEFORE
Create a party flow schedule
Purchase more party supplies as needed
Call families who have not yet responded to your invitation
THREE DAYS BEFORE
Purchase food
Purchase batteries for camera
Charge video camera
Call entertainer to confirm appearance and expectations
Call party venue to confirm all details
Assemble party favors
ONE OR TWO DAYS BEFORE
Bake cake or pick up pre-ordered cake
Confirm help if using extra help
Decorate home or gather decorations for party venue
Prepare make-ahead food
ONE WEEK AFTER
Send thank you notes!

How to Stop Junk Mail

Want to stop all the junk mail coming into your home daily? Send a letter with all possible spellings of your name, address and signature. Mail it to: Mail Preference Service / DMA ATTN: Dept. 9407644 P.O. Box 643 Carmel, NY 10512. Or Call them at 212-768-7277.

Glass Etching Tutorial

This is just one of the coolest projects I have seen lately. This site has step by step tutorial on how to etch on glass. She uses the subway art which is awesome but you could use monograms or cute graphics for children's glass mugs. There are a lot of ways to use this technique. Visit her site at A Girl in Paradise for this easy tutorial.

Printing on Fabric


Photo From My Repurposed Life

I am so in love with this pillow. This is on my project to do list as soon as I buy the supplies. The graphic is from the graphics fairy site. I have been to that site hundreds of times but my mind never conceived an idea like this. I found this while I was looking for sewing ideas. I cleaned out a back room today and dug out my sewing machine. As soon as I locate my bobbins, thread, and machine needles, or most likely go and buy some, I'm going to do this. She warns about using your printer to print on fabrics, but I have printed on paper bags, tissue paper, and many other items not associated with printing. It is just the matter of not leaving ends that will get caught in the printer. If you are interested in learning her technique visit her site at My Repurposed Life. Don't forget to visit The Graphics Fairy for free graphics...we would love see any projects you make.
Here is a site called Instructables showing how to use freezer paper to print on fabrics. Lots of good info here.

Cupcake Ornament

Bake It Pretty Blog

These are my new favorite thing to make. I just glued and rolled 6 styro foam balls with tacky glue and snow flakes and am letting them dry. Tomorrow I will make the cupcake ornaments. Everybody loves them. I made 2 for a friends children and now she wants one. I'm going to make some of them with zebra cupcake wrappers. Can't wait to see how they will look. This idea came from the Bake It Pretty Blog. She has a step by step tutorial. I will post my pictures tomorrow when I finish making them.
These are so cool for Christmas gifts. Everyone says they look so real, they want to eat them....

Not a good picture but here is my attempt at cupcake ornaments: A friend wanted chocolate on her so I took black paint and drizzled.

Cute Christmas Reindeer Goodies

Melt almond bark, and dip nutter butter cookies. add edible eyes or make them with white and black icing.Use a red m&m for the nose. Before the chocolate dries add broken pretzels. Idea from Munchkin Munchies

Bake cupcakes and frost.
Use pretzel for antlers. You can also break them

Use a Vanilla Wafer for the face,

White white candy for the the eyes or make from icing.

Use red candies for the nose or Chocolate balls

Photo: With Sprinkles on Top

Reindeer Candy Bars are made by covering a candy bar with a plain wrapper and cutting out red noses, antlers, and gluing wiggle eyes. Photo: Kerry's Paper Crafts.

Use a roll of sugar cookies found in the dairy section. Cut sugar cookies into triangles and bake. Frost triangles with chocolate and decorate with pretzels and round candies. Photo: All you.
More Christmas Ideas

Organizing the Home

My Newly Organized Pantry

I am in the zone for organizing this week. Cleaned my pantry yesterday and I keep opening the door and looking when I go by it....lol I love these baskets with the handles, they are big enough to hold a lot of stuff, but not too big that everything gets lost. I love that they slide out easily. I also used a wire rack for my cake mixes and put the frosting cans under them. This rack alone added a lot more space.

I'm ready for my next project which may be this cool idea from Lady Goats. Love, love this drawer organization. She made drawer dividers with rulers and there are no tools required to make this. She uses a box cutter to make a guide to break the rulers. Just too cool. Click HERE for her tutorial.

Photo: Lady Goats

Make Your Own Transfer Paper And Tracing Table

Photo: Home Frosting

Make you own Transfer Paper with this cool idea from the Home Frosting site. Transfer paper is very expensive but this sure takes a bite out of the cost. This site has a step by step tutorial. Great idea for the crafter that transfers graphics to t shirts and other fabrics. She says you can also use this method to transfer to wood.

Photo:Here Comes the Sun

And then, check out this do it yourself light table that can be use to trace graphics. You can go to her site at Here Comes the Sun.

Blessing Bags

My niece sent me a link to a site that makes blessing bags. Love this idea. You can make these bags up as a group and put them in your trunk. We have all seen homeless people that we have wanted to help but have held back because it's not a good idea to give them money. Click here to visit the site for ideas of what to put in the bags. Be sure to read the comments, there are a lot of great ideas there. One idea was to put wipes instead of the soap so the smell of the soap doesn't transfer to the food. Coupons are a great way to get products for these bags. They can end up costing next to nothing using coupons.

Fall Decorations

Personalized Pumpkin

Mums and Scarecrow

I came into the kitchen late one night and my daughter was tying a ribbon on a pumpkin. I thought, oh my dear...The thought of a pumpkin and a ribbon just didn't click for me. The next day I had a change of heart. She cut out letters on card stock and used colored pens for the dots and background. I must say, I was pleased with the finished product. We have this cute little pumpkin on our front porch..that and this adorable scarecrow she put in a pot of mums. I loved both ideas. Never underestimate the creative abilities of others.
These fall decorations would be perfect for the fall cookout or party using these invitations.

Fall BBQ Wedding Reception Invitation by cooltees
Create an invitation online with zazzle

Halloween/Fall Party Invitation by cooltees
More Pumpkin Invitations

Ideas for an Over the Hill/Grim Reaper Party

Want to throw a memorable Over the Hill Birthday Party? Why not plan a grim reaper party. Here are some invitations and matching postage stamps to get your party started in high gear. If you need a Grim Reaper Invitation for your Halloween Party, Contact me at Cool Tees and I will design an invitation without the numbers. Scroll below to see some fun decorating ideas for your Grim Reaper Party.

50th Grim Reaper Birthday Invitation by cooltees

50th Birthday Funny Grim Reaper Stamps by cooltees
Make custom us stamps on zazzle.

Decorating Ideas

Black table cloth, black foods such as olives, caviar, black beans blueberries, licorice, chocolate dipped fruit, etc.
Visit a thrift store for vintage items like old phones, floppy disks, and anything that is old. Use them as decorations around the party room.

Be sure to bring out the ensure, adult diapers, false teeth (the toy kind) walkers, canes, laxatives, denture cleaners, prune juice, and brainstorm for other fun party items.
Make an adult diaper cake,similar to the baby diaper cakes. Use black ribbon around the diapers. Decorate it with reading glasses or a magnifying glass, denture solutions, Bengay, laxatives,or whatever you think would be funny to the birthday girl or guy.

40th Grim Reaper Birthday Invitation by cooltees
See more Grim reaper Invitations

40th Birthday Funny Grim Reaper Postage Stamp by cooltees
Order custom made postage stamps at zazzle.com

Halloween Cupcake Platter

Cute Attention getter cupcake display. Hand crafted cupcake holder is great for Halloween Parties. Click on tutorial at Pure Joy Events for step by step instructions. She also has some great ideas for a Halloween Party. Send these cool invitations out to get the party started.

Funny Halloween Party Invitation by cooltees

Haunted House Halloween Party Invitation by cooltees

Funny Halloween Party Invitation by cooltees

Back to School Supply Cake

This is my attempt at a teacher supply cake for a special teacher as a back to school gift or as a teacher appreciation gift later in the year. This would be cute for a primary school teacher since they are always running short on supplies. Click on this Tutorial to learn how to make this fun and useful gift for a teacher you know. Looking back, I would have used a wider ribbon but we are giving this as a door prize at a back to school blast at our church. I doubt they will care if the ribbon is wide or not.

Milkaholic Baby Shower Idea

Photo from hwtm site

Another great idea from HWTM Website. You can visit the site to see all ideas for this Milkaholic Baby Shower. What a neat idea for a baby shower. Babies love milk so what better way to celebrate their arrival or pending arrival. It doesn't get much cuter than this. See baby bottle stickers below.

Bedtime Story Book Baby Shower Ideas

I am totally in love with this theme for a baby shower. Super Cute Theme for Book Lovers. Great for a Baby Shower that you want the guests to bring bedtime story books as the gift. The tables are set up like a bed. I had to do a double take when I saw the glasses and place setting on what I thought was a bed....lol...I am amazed by the creativity of ladies throwing baby showers. This idea is from HWTM . See below for baby shower invitations and Stickers that fit the occasion. Stickers can be used for gifts or baby shower favors. Click on pictures to enlarge and to purchase.

Little girl bird Bookplate label for baby showers Square Stickers

Train Plane Book Plate Label Blue Green Dot Square Sticker

African American Baby Shower Invitations

Looking African American Baby Shower invitations? They are sometimes hard to find. Here are Trendy Invitations for the Moms to Be. You are sure to find a style that is just right for the occasion. The right invitation can set the tone for a great baby shower. Click on each invitation to enlarge the image and purchase.