Category: Disney-Inspired Party Planning


Apr
2014

From the Kitchen of The Swedish Chef {DIY Free Printable}

categories: Disney-Inspired Party Planning, Disney-Inspired Treats, Free Printables

The Swedish Chef favor tagsThe birthday weekend is finally here!

My son, Gavin’s birthday party is tomorrow.  Today I’ll spend the day preparing for his big day. Last night I put together these little tags for the candy favors that will go inside the Muppet tote bags his guests will be receiving.  One of Gavin’s favorite candies is Swedish Fish (yum).  I have to admit, he gets his sweet tooth from his Mommy.  Anyways, I thought I would be perfect if these special fishes came from The Swedish Chef.  He is Swedish, you know.

The little bags came out cute and I’d love to give each and every one of you a bag, in honor of Gavin’s 7th birthday.  However, the shipping fees would kill my bank account, so I thought I’d share the file for the tags instead.  I think the tags would be a perfect accessory for “Muppets Most Wanted” movie night treat or if you plan on throwing a Muppets themed party too!  I found the image of The Swedish Chef on Wikipedia and it’s most likely a copyrighted image.  These little tags are not for sale and are only being used for my son’s party.  Having said that, here’s the PDF file for your personal use:

 The Swedish Chef

Here’s how to put the tags together.

 Print the page out on a piece of 8 1/2″ x 11″ white card stock.

The PDF file has two rows, one with The Swedish Chef’s images and the other with the “FROM THE KITCHEN OF THE SWEDISH CHEF” text.  Cut both the Chef’s image and the text out in a square that measures 1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ .

Glue the two sides together back to back or what I did was insert a 1 3/4″ x 1 3/4″  piece of a brown or blue card stock between the top and bottom and then I glued it all together.

Hole punch it, add the string and your ready to go.

Now for me to get back to the kitchen. Have a great weekend!  “BORK BORK BORK!”

The Swedish Chef snack bag tags


Apr
2014

Thumper’s Bunny Feet Cake Pops

categories: Disney-Inspired Party Planning, Disney-Inspired Treats

Bunny FeetDuring the last few months of winter, the kids and I have been digging into the movie drawers in our living room.  Each weekend we take one evening to have a Disney movie night.  Sometimes we watch a newly released Disney film, but most of the time I like to recommend three movies from the Disney vault and let the kids pick which one they want to watch.  During the month of April the movie Bambi is at the top of my must view list.   From the “Drip Drip Drop” of the  “Little April Showers” outside, to the celebration of rebirth, I think this movie is a perfect choice to welcome in Spring.  As an added bonus, it stars one of Disney’s most famous bunnies, Thumper!  I used these two Thumper books as references for making these pops look a bit like his feet.  The books really get a work out during the Easter season in our house.  On a side note, if you have a toddler in your house, I’d highly recommend the “Disney Bunnies” books!  You can find three of the “Disney Bunnies” books by clicking on the Disney Store logo on the side bar.  It will take you to the Disney Store site.  Once you’re there search for toddler books and you’ll find them.

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To make our movie night extra special, I like to make the kids a themed treat.  These bunny feet cake pops were inspired by Thumper’s oversized thumping paws.  As with all of the treats I make, these are super simple to make.  I have to warn you, they’re packed full of sugar so I’d only recommend them for a special treat and not an everyday snack.  If you’d like to make them for your little bunnies, here’s how!

bunny feet 006

Supplies:

  • bright white Wilton candy melts
  • vanilla candy melts
  • black food coloring
  • cookie pop sticks
  • pink jelly beans
  • Tastykake Dreamies Crème Kakes

bunny feet 013

Melt bright white Wilton candy melts in a shallow microwave safe pan.  The pan that I used is a Pampered Chef melting tray.  Once melted add some black food coloring to create the light shade of gray for the top of Thumper’s feet.

bunny feet 014

Tilt the pan so that all of the melted chocolate is on one end.  Place the rounded top of the Crème Kake down into the corner of the pan.  Roll the top of the cake back and forth to cover the top and half of the sides of the cake with gray chocolate.  Insert one of the pop sticks half way through the cake.  This will help you take it out of the pan.   The photo below shows you what the end result of this step will look like.  Allow the chocolate to harden before moving onto the next step.

bunny feet 021

Once the chocolate on the cake is hardened, add vanilla candy melts to your remaining gray chocolate and melt the combination.  The yellow color of the vanilla melts will give the gray chocolate a brown tint for the bottom of the feet.

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Holding the top of the cake, dip the bottom of the foot and the bottom of the sides in the brown tinted color chocolate.  Next, lay the bunny feet top side down on wax paper, so that the bottom of his foot is facing up.  While the chocolate is still warm, add the jelly beans to create the paw effect.  Allow the jelly beans to harden on the chocolate and you’re done!

If you’ve made these for a later date, be sure to store the pops in an air tight container to keep their freshness or if you’re giving them away for an Easter treat, wrap the pops in plastic and secure with a bow.

Have you made any bunny-inspired treats this spring?  I’d love for you to share them!  If you’re a blogger, feel free to add the link to your bunny-inspired treat in the comments section below.

I love all of Thumper’s little statements in the film Bambi.  Today, I’ll leave you with these wise words that Thumper learned from his father:

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”

Thumper is such a smart little bunny.


Apr
2014

Thumper-Inspired Easter Garland

categories: Disney-Inspired Crafts, Disney-Inspired Party Planning

Easter Garland

When I think of Spring and the Easter season, I think of my favorite Disney bunny, Thumper.  His thumping feet, big fluffy tail and twitching pink nose made me fall in love with him as a little girl.  He’s so adorable!  Couldn’t you just squeeze him?

I’m not the only bunny fan in our home.  My daughter, Victoria, loves rabbits, aka “Hop Hops”.  She has a couple Thumper books that we enjoy reading. Our favorite one is a sweet “Touch-and-Feel” board book, called Thumper’s Fluffy Tail.  To say the least, she’s pretty taken by Thumper too.  Today I decided to make Victoria a “Thumper-Inspired” Easter garland for her bedroom.  Her room is filled with a variety of pinks and whites.  I thought the brown of burlap and the gray and white of Thumper would coordinate nicely in her room and I knew she would love to see little bunnies hopping across her window!

This garland is an easy, quick and inexpensive way to add a touch of spring, Disney-Inspired of course, to any room of your house.  Here’s how I made it!

mom's birthday and easter banner 017Supplies

You’ll need burlap toile, a marker, black and white paint, a Wilton bunny cookie cutter, adhesive, and ribbon.  I used Fabri-Tac for my adhesive and a 5/8 inch grosgrain stitch ribbon for my garland.

mom's birthday and easter banner 023

Iron the burlap, measure, mark and cut out five triangle flags.

The burlap toile that I purchased was 18″ x 24″.  I had enough material to cut all five, 8″ wide, triangles and have material left over.

Wilton cookie cutter on burlap

Using a rabbit cookie cutter for a template, paint the gray-bodied rabbits onto the burlap.

This cookie cutter is a Wilton cookie cutter.  Wilton sells at least one other rabbit cookie cutter.  I chose this one because it reminded me of little Thumper.

In addition, when you’re looking at my photo you can see I used wax paper underneath the burlap while I was painting.  Just a bit of hard knowledge that I learned, double up on the wax paper because the paint can seep through onto your work surface.

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After the gray paint has dried on all five flags, add Thumper’s white tail to each.

I have to tell you that I got a bit impatient and brought out the blow dryer to move the project along.

mom's birthday and easter banner 031Once the paint has dried, glue ribbon to the top of each flag to create your garland.

"Thumper Inspired" bunny garland  It’s that simple!

I’m really pleased with the results, especially for the minimal amount of effort it took to complete this craft.  It looks great in my daughter’s room and I think it would work perfectly in a baby’s nursery and especially on a dessert table for Easter! Don’t you agree that there’s something about a dessert table that screams “I need to be decorated!”?

Thanks for stopping by the blog today and remember, “Eating greens is a special treat.  It makes long ears and great big feet.”

 

 


Mar
2014

Easy To Make Kermit Inspired T-shirt

categories: Disney-Inspired Crafts, Disney-Inspired Party Planning

Muppets Shirt 052It’s So Adorable Being Green!

With the release of  “Muppets Most Wanted” this weekend, and the continuation of planning my son’s upcoming Muppets party, I’ve been searching the stores for anything Muppets related.  Strangely enough, there’s not much available.  I haven’t been able to find even a t-shirt!

Freezer Paper Stenciling is something I’ve wanted to try for a while now, and I thought this would be a perfect time to try!  Today I’m going to share with you my experience trying this for the first time, my mistakes and all!  First I started by consulting my little Muppet fans as to their characters of choice.  To my surprise both picked Kermit!  Then I went to work gathering supplies.

1. Before you head to the craft store, pick up some Freezer Paper at your local grocery store.  Muppets Shirt 003

2  . Pick up the supplies from your local craft store.

You’ll need a T-shirt, fabric paints, cutting board, X-Acto cutting knife, and brushes. I purchased this basic green t-shirt for $2.50 at Michael’s Craft Store. The paint that I chose to use was Tulip brand.  The first mistake I made was not reading the bottles completely, I purchased three containers of Matte finish paint and one container of Pearl, which could have easily been called glittery.  Luckily I started with my daughter’s shirt first!  Gavin quickly put his foot down and proclaimed he wasn’t wearing a shirt with glitter.

Muppets Shirt 009

3. Choosing an image to stencil.

 I chose a photo of Kermit that I sized to fit the area I wanted to paint.  I found the photo on Disney Wiki.  Here’s where my first problem occurred.  Since Kermit’s green and red are deep colors, I had a horrible time trying to trace the mouth.  If you take a look at the image below, you can see that the eyes were easy to trace, but I ended up having to freehand his mouth and looked to other images to come up with his neck area too.  After this project I can see why most freezer paper stencil projects are text or graphic related.

Muppets Shirt 0154. Trace your image onto the Freezer Paper.

Make sure that you have the shiny side of the Freezer Paper on the image and the dull side of the paper facing up.  This means that your tracing on the dull side of the paper.  I used a black permanent Sharpie marker to draw the template.  Here’s a look at the template.

Muppets Shirt 025   5. Cut the Template Out

Protect your cutting surface by a mat board to cut on.  Take your time cutting it out and remember that the remaining negative space is where you will be cutting.  Here’s what the template looked like after cutting out the areas to paint.

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6. Iron the Freezer Paper template to the t-shirt.

Before ironing the paper to the t-shirt, iron out all the wrinkles on your shirt.  Then I placed a cardboard piece in-between the top and bottom of the shirt.  This way it’s prepared for me to paint in the next step.   Next, shiny side down, place your template where you want it on the shirt and gently iron it onto your shirt.

Muppets Shirt 027

7. Paint!

In painting Kermit, he had overlapping colors, such as the white and black of his eyes and red and pink of his mouth and tongue.  So, first I painted the white and pink layers.  The paint bottles told me to wait 4 hours for it to dry, but being impatient I used a blow dryer to dry it quickly so I could move on to the next layer of paint.  His eyes took three coats to cover the green color.

Muppets Shirt 033

 8. Peel off the Freezer Paper to see your finished piece.

Unfortunately, the result wasn’t what I had hoped.  The paint of Kermit’s eyes and mouth didn’t have the clean edge I had hoped for.

Muppets Shirt 035

9. Touch up the edges.

Freehand touch up any little messes left behind where the freezer paper allowed the paint to leak through.

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10. Steam iron the painted area to allow it to set into the shirt.

According to the paint instructions, I was supposed to hold the iron 1/2 an inch away from the shirt and steam the image.  I haven’t washed the shirt yet, but I’m pretty happy with the turn out!  Now to make another one for my son, Gavin…without the sparkly pink paint, of course!

 There were a few bumps in the road, but it’s actually pretty easy being green!

Muppets Shirt 045

To complete this project I looked at a few blogs for reference in learning this technique.  If you’d like to check out their projects and steps for completing them, here’s the links.

http://crafts.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-make-freezer-paper-stencils–craft-1838

http://topicspill.com/2013/04/10/diy-tutorial-freezer-paper-fabric-stenciling-a-beginners-guide-to-stenciling/

http://www.thinkingcloset.com/2013/08/12/keep-calm-onesie-with-freezer-paper-stenciling-silhouette-winner/

 Have you tried Freezer Paper Stenciling?  I’d love to see your results! If you’d like, share the links to your Freezer Paper Stenciling projects in the comments below.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today and as always, I hope you have a Magical Day!


Mar
2014

Muppet’s Favorite ~ Beaker Cookie Pops

categories: Disney-Inspired Party Planning, Disney-Inspired Treats

Beaker PopBeaker, with his adorable little “Meep” noises and willingness to help in any situation, is one of my family’s top five favorite Muppets.

In actuality, Beaker is my husband’s favorite Muppet.  So when planning our son’s upcoming Muppet’s themed birthday party, I had to create a Beaker-themed treat.   I’m happy to report that after catching a glimpse of this sweet cookie pop my husband exclaimed, “That’s my favorite thing you’ve ever made!”  Success!  If you know someone that loves this shy Muppet as much as my husband does, surprise them with this easy to make treat.

Here’s the simple tutorial of how I made Beaker into a cookie pop.

Beaker Cookie Pops 001

Gather Supplies:  I used Vienna Fingers cookies for the head of Beaker, candy eyes and orange peanut M&Ms for his nose.  You’ll also need cookie pop sticks.

Beaker Cookie Pops 002

Additional supplies:  I used white and orange candy melts by Wilton candies.

Beaker Cookie Pops 006Step 1. Separate each cookie sandwiche’s top layer from their bottom layer.

Beaker Cookie Pops 007

Step 2: Melt a small amount of white chocolate.  Dip the cookie pop stick into the white chocolate and place it in the center of the pop.

Beaker Cookie Pops 009Step 3: Put the cookie sandwich back together very gently.  To make it stay together easily, I added a dab of white chocolate to the bottom of the top cookie layer before placing it back together.

Beaker Cookie Pops 013Step 4: While the chocolate hardens around the cookie pop stick, melt a small amount of orange chocolate.  Once melted, put it inside of a snack size Ziploc bag.

Beaker Cookie Pops 014

Step 5: Lay down a sheet of wax paper on your counter.  Then snip a tiny hole at corner of the bag with the melted orange chocolate and pipe Beakers hair on the wax paper.  Allow five minutes for the candy hair to harden.

Step 6: Mix the remaining white melted candy with the remaining orange candy.  This will give you the slightly lighter orange color for Beaker’s face.  If needed, add more orange candy melts until you have enough to dip the cookie pops.  I used a shallow pan to dip them in, by dipping one side and then flipping it over to dip the opposite side.  Place the cookie pop on wax paper after dipping.

Beaker Cookie Pops 024Step 7: Attach Beaker’s hair on the cookie while the chocolate is still hardening.  Once the hair has been secured, add his eyes and nose.  Allow all the chocolate to harden.

Step 8: Once hardened, you can now add Beaker’s mouth by using a toothpick to lightly carve into the chocolate.

That’s it!  If you’re not ready to enjoy these treats, I recommend placing them in a airtight storage container and keeping them in a cool area.

Are you ready for this weekend’s premier of Muppets Most Wanted?  Here’s to hoping Beaker gets some screen time!

This Friday I’m happy to be participating once again in the Favorite Food Friday blog hop hosted by Disney Day by Day.  If you love Disney food, hop over to Disney Day by Day to check out more Disney food. Today he’s featuring FRUSHI!  YUM!  Disney Day by Day even links you up with the recipe to make this Epcot Flower & Garden Festival favorite.  Check it out at:

http://disneydaybyday.com/favorite-food-friday-frushi/

If you have a Favorite Disney Food item that you’ve blogged about, why not link up?  Stop by Disney Day By Day for details!
DisneyDayByDay