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P&C Real Life Party: BMX Birthday Party!

May 9, 2013 | No Comments »

Sometimes, boys just want to do their thing-even if it going to be covered in dust and dirt and sweat. When a good friend of mine said that her son was having a BMX party at a local dirt track, I begged her to let me help with the planning and decor. You heard me, begged. I love working on a real party – working on logistics of how to serve lunch and cake at a dusty, hot venue, with gusty winds – I’m totally not kidding!

For lunch, the mom made turkey and cheese sandwiches, cut with a round biscuit cutter. She placed them in printable lunch trays with goldfish, a fruit cup and a granola bar, and packaged the whole tray in a cellophane party favor bag – to keep the dust out. She also made cupcakes, which we placed on this wind proof hatbox-turned-cupcake-tower, and topped them with BMX rider silhouette cupcake toppers. Totally awesome, right?

To keep the parents happy, and cool, iced coffees were offered in a matching orange bucket… those did not last long!

After rides around the track, kids grabbed a water spray bottle and kept each other cool. Also, kept the parents cool, the plants cool, the dirt cool, the bikes cool, the chain link fence cool.

Party favors of sour jelly bellies, stickers, and a coordinating bottle cap charm were easy and inexpensive!

Out at this track, wayfinding was an important element to help party guests find the birthday spot.

All of the party guests were offered a “number plate” for the front of their bike. This printable item was so easy and fun to come up with! Just add your text, print it, cut it, hole punch it, and tie it to the handlebars. We chose to laminate ours, but you could cover them in clear wide packing tape, or just leave them as is.

Happy Birthday Lance!! And thanks for letting me be a part of your day.

Have a BMX bike riding enthusiast with a birthday coming up in your house? Stop by our shop and pick up this BMX printable kit to throw your own party. We offer TWO ways to party… choose “YOU PRINT” to download and print out at home

Invitation (fits a7 envelope) +
Thank you Notes (fits 4bar envelope)
Silhouette Cupcake Picks
Cupcake Wrappers +
2” Rounds +
1” Rounds
Favor Bag toppers +
Jar Labels +
Party Food Labels +
Lunch Tray +
BMX Bike Plate +
Pennant Banner +
BMX Sihouettes
Full Patterned sheets (including the tire tracks for the cupcake tower)
Bottle cap charm Party Favor tutorial
Cupcake tower how-to

Or choose “WE PRINT” and we’ll do the work!

Time for a Fiesta!

April 23, 2013 | 2 Comments »

Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner and we have a crazy, colorful collection for your Fiesta. So put on your sombrero, pour yourself a margarita and lets get loco!

Print • Cut • PARTY!®

Want to add a little bit of spice to your next party? Download our Cinco de Mayo printable set and find everything you need to serve up nachos, guacamole, and did we mention the margaritas, at your very own Mexican Style Fiesta!

Invitation (Fits A7 Envelope) +
Cupcake Picks +
Menu +
Napkin Rings (Vase Wraps, Candle Wraps, Paper Chain)
Cupcake Wrappers
2″ round Party Food Labels +
3” Rounds – coasters, garland and gift tags
Lanterns
Pinwheels
Margarita Glass Charms
Favor Bags
Nacho Tray
Recipes – Margaritas & Guacamole
Papel Picado Banner +
Full Pattern Page

+ Customizable item

Need a Fiesta ice breaker? Get into character with our Cinco de Mayo Printable Photo Booth Props!

Print • Cut • PARTY!®

❍ Photo Props
● Mustaches
● Lips
● Sombrero
● Margarita Glasses
● Tequila Bottle +
● Flag of Mexico
● Maracas
❍ Pennant Banner +
❍ Signage+

or does your party style lend itself more to our Dia de los Muertos Photo Booth Props?

Print • Cut • PARTY!®

• Sugar Skulls in 7 styles
• Top Hats in 6 styles
• Roses
• Skeleton teeth in 8 colors
• Skeleton “eyes” – roses, spiders, hearts and butterflies
• Blank Skull Mask coloring page – make your own!
Papel Picado style Banner +

Need a little foodie inspiration for your Fiesta? See our Margarita Cupcake recipe!

Special thanks to our Fiesta loving friends, Missy Marie Photography for the pics and HGTV.com for the feature!

margarita cupcakes recipe

April 22, 2013 | 3 Comments »

Ingredients

Yield: 2 dozen cupcakes

2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter (softened)
2 eggs and 2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup non-alcoholic liquid margarita mix
2 teaspoons grated lime zest
2 tablespoons tequila for brushing on top of cupcakes

Tequila Lime Buttercream Frosting
2 sticks softened butter
5 cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons tequila

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare your muffin tins with paper liners. In a large bowl, use a whisk to mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add your eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

3. Add the vanilla, margarita mix and zest. Mix until combined, scraping the sides when needed.

4. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry flour mix, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix. Bake for 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. After removing from oven, brush tequila on the cupcake tops while they are still warm.

5. For the frosting, mix together butter and about half of powdered sugar with an electric mixer with the paddle attachment. Add lime juice, tequila and remaining powdered sugar; mix until smooth. If your frosting is a bit too runny, add a bit more powdered sugar until you get to the consistency you desire. If frosting is too stiff, mix in a bit of milk, one tablespoon or less at a time.

6. To make the lime twist, begin by washing a lime and cutting the ends off (image 1). Make a shallow incision from one end to the other, cutting just through the rind. Slice thin rounds of your lime (image 2), and remove all of the meat (image 3). Twist the rind strip into a curly cue and place on top of your frosted cupcake (images 3 and 4). Sprinkle with a bit of coarse salt of desired.

Lime Twist How To:

Cut both ends of lime off so that pulp is showing. Cut slit into lime just enough so that it cuts through the rind (the white part).

Thinly slice lime into wheels.

Starting at the slit, gently peel fruit away from rind. Do this slowly and carefully because it can break easily.

Once you have your strip of lime peel, its time to turn it into a twist! Wrap around finger to make it a tight ringlet, and pull each side to stretch into a corkscrew. Let go, and twist should take shape.

Add to your Margarita Cupcake and enjoy!

tutorial: hat box cake stand

April 17, 2013 | 1 Comment »

This Cake stand is a must!!! It was the centerpiece of the party and so easy to make! The best part about this particular kind of stand is that you can use it for cupcakes, a cake, or even cakepops and pushcakes. Any colored or patterned paper would work for the party of your choice. Here is a quick step by step tutorial on how we made a Hat Box Cake Stand for our Medieval Knights Party.

What you will Need:
-Hat boxes, Small & Large (We had two tiers, available at craft supply stores)
-Patterned Paper included in Medieval Knight’s Printable Party Set
-Xacto Knife or Scissors
-Hot Glue
-Ribbon

Before getting started, note that you will not need the lids for the hat boxes. We only used the base of the boxes, turning it upside down so that the flat bottom became the top.

Step1: Using the patterned paper, trace the circumference of the hat box to cover the top. You will need to tile more than one piece of paper together in order to achieve this. We just aligned the patterns and used double sided tape to make it look like one big piece.
Step 2: Cut along traced lines. You should end up with a circle that fits nicely on the top of the hatbox.
Step 3: Use hot glue gun to adhere your circle to the top of the hatbox.

Step 4: Measure sides of hat box, and cut out strips of patterned paper to fit along the sides. You will need multiple strips depending on the size of your box to cover the entire box.
Step 5: Hot Glue strips to side of hat box. Try to align the pattern to keep a uniform look.

Step 6: Once sides are all covered, check to make sure you don’t have any hat box peeking through. We didn’t have enough coverage towards the bottom of our box, so we hot glued black ribbon to cover it up. It actually made the stand look even better!

Hat Box, or stand #1 should be covered and finished. Repeat steps 1-6 on different sized boxes for different tiers.

Get started with your own custom hat box cake stand, and have a great party!

P&C real life party: Vintage Surf Baby Shower

April 15, 2013 | No Comments »

When we heard that my cousin and his wife were expecting, my sisters and I were SO excited!! The mom to be was a bit weary of a traditional baby shower, so we decided to throw more of a family BBQ than anything. We live near the beach, so we went with what we know, and designed a Vintage Surf Baby Shower! Because of our genes, my cousin and I share a serious love of pie (which is no secret). I surprised myself when I realized I had never done a Pie Bar! Needless to say, it was a success. We featured Chocolate Cream Pie Bites, Banana Cream Pie Bites, Pumpkin Pie Bites, Peach Pie-in-a-Jar, and Mini Apple and Cherry Pies. We styled this party using vintage crates, jute wrapped bottles (we have a thing for these), pie tins, coordinating printables and lots and lots of seashells.

Everything about this shower was laid back and casual, from the Beverage Station to the Pie Bar. We kept it simple, with a drink for everyone, big or little. Finger foods and traditional BBQ grub, and of course the pie. Other than the pie, our favorite details were the paper lanterns! They looked so cute hanging above the bar and around the house. We just might have a few still hanging around the office.

Total eye candy, right? Now, I hope you are not intimidated by my plethora of “home made” pies – cause lets face it, I did “make” them, but not from scratch! Frozen pie crust from Trader Joe’s, cans of filling for the pumpkin, cherry, peach and apple pies, tub of pre-made Belgian Chocolate pudding for the chocolate cream pie. And I will admit to making the banana cream pie filling from scratch, but I did not grow the bananas. Next up? Lets not forget drinks! Served up on an old door turned table, we offered everything we could think of for a nice warm summer day.

And now, for the best part of all. My family! Bunch of crazy people.

There you have it. Want to look like superstar and throw this party? Whether your event is a baby shower, a rehearsal dinner or baby’s first birthday, this Vintage Surf themed set works perfectly!

We offer TWO ways to party… choose “YOU PRINT” to download and print out at home

Invitation (fits A7 envelope) +
Thank You Notes (fits 4Bar envelope)
Party Food labels +
Jar Labels +
Cupcake Picks +
Table Tent signs +
Front door sign +
Lanterns
Napkin / Vase / Cutlery wraps
Pennant Banner +
Patterned Papers

Or choose “WE PRINT” and we’ll do the work!

Special thanks to Missy Marie Photography and Hostess with the Mostess for the feature.

mod stripe: mini golf party

April 6, 2013 | No Comments »

Fore! Isn’t that what all those golfers are yelling just before they hit their ball into the rough? At this mini-golf party, our guests had a BALL racing from hole to hole, with their cute matching party hats. In between all the birdies, we offered bottled water and popcorn snacks just to the side of the fairway. After the party goers were finished with their rounds, boxed lunches, yummy treats, cake and adorable golf ball cake balls were gobbled up before you could say sand trap.

Want to throw this party for your birthday star? Whether your theme is mini-golf party, Movie Night, Candy Bar, Bowling party or even a Roller Derby, this Mod Stripe set works perfectly!

We offer TWO ways to party… choose “YOU PRINT” to download and print out at home

Invitation (fits A7 envelope) +
Cupcake Picks +
Favor Bag Toppers +
Cupcake Wrappers +
Place Cards/Party food Labels +
Party Cone Hat
Mini-cake Bunting
Mini-popcorn Boxes
Straw Flag +
Paper Chain
Soda Bottle Wraps +
Pennant Banner +
Full Patterned Sheet

Or choose “WE PRINT” and we’ll do the work!

Special thanks to Missy Marie Photography, A Twist of Cake, Land of Nod and Hostess with the Mostess for the feature.

Marbled easter eggs = cakeballs!

March 18, 2013 | 1 Comment »

You knew that someday this had to happen, right? I mean cakeballs are kind of a hobby of mine, and well, it is Easter pretty soon. I’m going to tell you right off the bat that the marbleizing technique on these is not “simple”… rather, it’s a little more time consuming. But so TOTALLY worth it!

Okay, let’s get to it. You will need:

- Boxed Cake Mix & Can of frosting
- Chocolate Melts (white)
- Food Coloring (we used gel)
- Silpat Mat (or wax paper)
- Toothpicks
- Basic knowledge of making a cake ball (check out this video for some help)

1} Once you have your cake ball mixture its time to start shaping! We used a 1″ round ice cream scoop, but spoon or meatballer works just fine. Start by rolling into a ball in the palm of your hands. Hands should be completely dry for this. Once you have a round ball, work into an egg shape by rolling back and forth between hands guiding one end to a rounded point and the other to wider width. We used an actual egg to model and compare to. Repeat steps until mixture is gone. Put back into refrigerator to harden up a bit.

2} Follow directions on the package for your candy melts. If you are going for the marbled look in this tutorial, use only white. If not, feel free to dip egg cake balls into any colored melts! Make sure to follow directions carefully and DO NOT overheat!

3} Before we start coloring, we recommend putting your melted chocolate into small containers/bowls because you are only going to get one or two dipped eggs out of each chocolate batch. (Once the food coloring is added and cakeball is dipped, the food coloring mixes into the chocolate and marbled effect is lessened with each egg). Once chocolate is ready to go, add food coloring. We used a gel food coloring because it didn’t mix as quickly, but liquid works just fine. Be generous with it. Give the coloring a couple of swirls with a toothpick but don’t mix too much or you will lose swirled effect.

4} Drop the cake egg into chocolate and -using a spoon- turn over to completely cover surface of the cake ball. Again, avoid mixing too much. Scoop out ball and gently tap the spoon to remove as much excess chocolate as you can. Place on Silpat or wax paper to harden. You may have some excess chocolate around the base of your cake egg – don’t worry, just keep going! The excess chocolate will pool around the egg, so while it is still liquid, take a toothpick and scrape around the base of the cake egg moving the chocolate away from the egg.

5} Repeat these steps in SMALL batches with different colors. Feel free to eat the not-so-pretty ones. Share them with the neighbors, hide them in your kids’ easter baskets, or how about an old fashioned egg-in-the-spoon-race? Happy Easter!

Special thanks to Hostess with the Mostess for a lovely feature!

an old fashioned thank you… and freebie!

March 5, 2013 | 3 Comments »

When was the last time you sent a message via “snail mail?” I don’t know about you, but I get so excited when I get a letter in the mail that clearly wasn’t sent by a credit card company or isn’t a utility bill. Few and far between do we send each other genuine thank you’s. Feeling a little old fashioned today, so we created a free Vintage Typewriter Stationery Thank You printable set for you =)

Freebie includes:

- Thank You Card
- Envelope
- Customizable Mailing Label

Click and download, use Acrobat Reader only to personalize the address label. Enjoy your new Typewriter Stationery Thank You Set!

a look back at 2012

February 27, 2013 | No Comments »

I am actually amazed at how quickly things change – a year may not sound fast, but trust me it just FLIES on by! 2012 was a year of amazing opportunities for Paper & Cake, some really fun additions to the shop and a whole lotta paper. Here is a quick peek at our highlights…

January ~ We had the honor of designing for Operation Shower, and attended the event in San Diego along with a who’s who of “party” girls! And lets not forget the beautiful pink argyle “Sweet Heart” party we created.

February ~ My daughter turned 10, and we had a Rockin Party for her! February also held an amazing party design, with a little collaboration from some friends-get the full scoop on the Grocery Store printable party and playdate set.

March ~ What can I say? March was chock full of features, press and Martha!

April ~ The coolest party, ever! Beer and plaid and beards adorned our Beer Tasting party released in April. Also big news? A brand new offering in the shop, printed and shipped party goods!

May ~ My son had the most memorable party – ever. Trust me, it was on fire. And lots and lots of PRESS!

June ~ We had a great time collaborating with The Hopefull Company on a fresh watercolor inspired party, couldn’t resist designing a Sun Bar … oh, and a couple of great mentions!

July ~ HWTM featured our Firetruck and Watercolor Popsicle party! We launched a fun Summer Games 2012 Photo Booth Props set, and designed our first ever Princess themed party.

August ~ I incorporated my love for pie with my love for my cousin and his expecting wife for a Vintage Surf Baby Shower. I was also delighted to design printables for yet, another Operation Shower… This time it was “Once Upon a Shower” in NYC. We also hit a huge milestone of offering 100 printable parties!

September ~ Had a blast with my ladies at the annual MS walk! Got an INCREDIBLE feature in Honest to Nod for our Mod Stripe Party, but the coolest thing happened when we were nominated for a Martha Stewart American Made Award! Top 100 isn’t too shabby if you ask me!

October ~ One day I want Paper & Cake to have a photobooth prop set for every single occasion imaginable… so of course we created a Dia De Los Muertos Photobooth Prop set in October. Did a little DIY No-Carve Pumpkin Tutorial in honor of Halloween, and created a brand new type of printable set for the shop- Winter Gift Giving!

November ~ New Thanksgiving Props in the shop, and we rolled out a new line of Sweet Treats Printable Baking sets.

December ~ Amongst all the family gatherings and holiday parties, we created a DIY Advent Calender using a Cricut Mini and some super fun New Year’s Eve Props!

Well, that’s a wrap! Thanks for reading, and for continuing to support Paper & Cake!

V-Day favors: Quick & Easy

February 7, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Need a quick fix for your kid’s Valentines? No need to go to the store, or spend a bunch of money on generic “I Heart You” cards. USE WHAT YOU HAVE! We recently just threw a Neon Roller Skate party for my daughter’s 11th birthday (check back with us for the awesome deets!) and we had a bunch of neon washi tape and jelly beans left over. Because we always try to give you accessible party ideas, we created an impromptu Valentine’s Day favor bag that took less than 10 minutes!

What we used:

- Cellophane Favor Bags
-Stapler & a Pair of Scissors
- White Cardstock Paper
- Neon Washi Tape from In The Clear
- Jelly Beans from Jelly Belly

We cut the cardstock to fit the cellophane bags and added the washi tape. Get creative with it! There was no rhyme or reason to our design, we just winged it and it came out great!

We filled the bags with our jelly beans… feel free to use whatever you have!

All that was left to do was staple the favor bag toppers to the bag and bam! Finished =)

Now grab the kiddos and go and make your own!

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