Panda Tea Party

My sweet Marina just turned 10 years old.  I can barely believe it.  They grow up so fast (sniff).  But I adore the young lady she's become, so sweet and loving.  She has always loved animals.  She was never a Barbie or a dolly girl.  So when she asked for a panda party, I thought it was perfect for her.  She has loved pandas for years and I knew we could have a lot of fun with it.

Hostess with the Mostess Feature!!!!

I have nothing but love for Hostess with the Mostess right now.  Thank you, thank you for featuring my Zombie Apocalypse party. I've been on their party of 5 features a couple of times and it's a wonderful honor to even be mentioned there.  But this is the first time I've had a post all to myself and I'm doing a happy dance. So don't anybody pinch me because I don't want to wake up.  Hope you are having a fabulous Monday and don't forget to enter my flash giveaway for these zombie printables.  Thanks again Hostess with the Mostess<3  

Zombie Apocalypse Flash Giveaway!

It's time for a Flash Giveaway! 

When zombies attack you have to be ready so I'm giving away one Zombie printable set in the next 24 hours. To Enter all you have to do is leave a comment and tell me what is your favorite zombie themed food. I will choose the winner from the comments Tuesday at noon.  

This is my first fully editable printable set.  Which means you can add your own text to make it say whatever you want whenever you want.  No worries about waiting on me to email your files or edit your files.  Super simple and easy all you need is Adobe Acrobat reader and you are ready to go (and a printer). 

This set includes:

Banner (editable)
Invitation (editable)
Thank you note (editable)

Envelopes  
Welcome sign (editable)
Cupcake toppers (editable)
food labels (editable)
cupcake wrappers 
drink wrappers (editable)
treat bags 
cake topper (editable)
circle tags for mason jar lids (editable)
decorative zombie hands (for placing on doors or mirrors or doorways)

Don't forget to tell me what your favorite zombie eats are and you will enter to win this printable set.  I will announce the winner tomorrow at 1pm.  Good luck my undead 

friends. 

This Giveaway is now closed and the winner is...... "Bryan H"......

Bryan if you could email me at sunnybydeisgn@gmail.com that would be great. 

~Sunny~

Zombie Apocalypse 8th Birthday party

For Myles 8th birthday he chose a zombie apocalypse theme. He has a slight obsession with pretending he is defending us against the zombie apocalypse (no we don't watch the Walking Dead).  It's kind of cute with him and his friends running around the neighborhood with their Nerf guns making sure we are all safe and secure.  So I tried to translate that into a kind of desolate zombie apocalypse dessert table and treats.  

Halloween Flower Wreath For 13 Days of Handmade Halloween

Yay I'm a contributor today to the fabulous Cupcake Wishes and Birthday Dreams, 13 Days of Handmade Halloween   If you'd like to see the tutorial for this wreath and get the free printable download for it visit her blog.  

You can also visit her blog everyday after that for a new crafty Halloween idea up until All Hallow's Eve.  Hope you all are having a wonderful fall and getting ready for Halloween.  Thanks again Keisha for letting me participate in such a wonderfully fun countdown. 

~Sunny~

Kitchenaid Giveaway

I love to bake and I love my Kitchen aid mixer.  It's my favorite kitchen tool by far.  That's why I'm oh so happy to be a part of this awesome Kitchenaid giveaway hosted by Takkido.  But wait you can't have a lovely Kitchenaid mixer without an extra bowl and beater blade. I don't even have a beater blade so I'm just a tad jealous. To top it all off this giveaway also includes a sweet mini gingerbread house cookie cutter from Fancy Flours. 

This giveaway has no affiliation with Kitchenaid.  Just a bunch of bloggers and companies getting together to spread some baking love.  

Bloom Designs Online, Sweet Dahlia, Paige Simple Studio, Party Patisserie, Fancy Flours, Sunny by Design,Sweet Threads Clothing Co, Paisley Petal Events, Best Friends for Frosting, Catch My Party, A to Zebra Celebrations, A Zesty Bite, Mother Would Know, The Hopeless Housewife, Eat2Gather LLC, This Mama Cooks!  On a Diet, Mexico in my Kitchen, and Cooks & Books & Recipes.

This giveaway is open to all residents of the United States and will be open until 
10pm PST, Monday, October 7th..  

If you would like to enter to win a Kitchenaid 6 quart Artisan Mixer, an extra bowl, a beater blade, and a set of mini gingerbread house cookie cutters from Fancy Flours, you may do so through this the giveaway tools widget below. 

Good luck and happy baking.  

Entry-Form

Mindy Cone's "Gourmet French Macarons" Book signing

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting the talented and sweet Mindy Cone from Creative Juice.  Who also happens to be the author of the beautiful new cookbook "Gourmet French Macarons".  I have never met Mindy in person so when I found out she was going to be in Maryland for her book signing I jumped at the chance to buy the book, get it signed and meet her face to face.  

Lace and Pearls table by Cupcake with Character

Earlier this summer I worked with Shauna from Cupcake with Character on burlap and lace themed printables for a lace and pearls bridal shower dessert table.  It's so wonderful to see your work along with many other talented vendors.  I'm just a little excited to finally be able to share the beautiful photos by KTMoffitt photography. Here's what Shauna had to say about her lovely table. 

Never Forget...

I will never forget where I was on the morning of Sept 11th 2001.  
I will never forget what I was doing, who I was with or the sadness and fear that I felt at that moment in time.  
I will also never forget the way people rose up from the ashes and gave their lives as hero's.  
I will never forget the way we joined together as a community and a country to recover from this tragedy.  
This day has forever changed us and we will never forget.  

~Sunny~

Print, Cut and Assembly

I am happy to announce that I am now offering to print, cut and assemble your orders and ship them to you.  I've wanted to do this for a long time but living in Germany made shipping anything very difficult.  So now that I'm in the good old US of A, I can do it. 

Printing

Cut and assembly

I'm just starting out with this service so please be patient with me as I work out the bugs.
I'm offering the print and assembly services separately just in case you'd like to save some money or your are a crafty type person who likes to play with paper like me but doesn't have a reliable printer.  I hope to print something for you soon. 

~Sunny~

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Fall is right around the corner but I just couldn't wait that long to start baking with apples. I mean really does it have to be fall to bake with apples?  I don't think so. So lets bake some Apple Cinnamon muffins please. 

Free printable Thank you card and envelope

Sometime during the day yesterday I hit 2,000 likes on Facebook. I'm excited and happy and a little smitten to have you all join me.  I know many have joined thanks to giveaways and I really hope you stick around with me for awhile.  To celebrate the big 2000 I'd like to say "Thank you" with a free printable thank you card and envelope.  

I designed these for a dear friend and can't think of a better way to use them.  You can always use a sweet thank you card.  

For those that are new to printables just download the files below and cut them out.  For the cards you just have to fold them in half and you can write a sweet thank you note on the inside.  For the envelopes I have some simple walk through instructions on how to assemble them here. 

Download your thank you card

Download your envelope

Instructions on how to assemble your printable envelope

ENJOY

Beginning Illustrator Lesson 1 Shapes

Welcome to my very first tutorial on Adobe Illustrator.  I am not an expert.  I've actually taken an Adobe skills test several times on several job board websites and failed, well I got an average score(they were super hard). I am a Graphic Designer and an illustrator and I pretty much fell in love with Adobe Illustrator from the first time I used it.  I have about 8 years of experience with Illustrator and I've mostly taught myself everything I know.  I did take a couple digital illustration classes in college but that was it, the rest I learned through trial and error and online tutorials.

Choose your prize Giveaway for an Apple bundle or PC bundle

I am involved with another awesome giveaway hosted by Cupcake with Character and a bunch of other lovely bloggers. It's a choose your prize Apple bundle or PC bundle.  I would love it if one of my followers could win this because you guys are so awesome.  

The Apple bundle includes an iPad mini, Apple TV and $50 itunes gift card. The PC bundle would include ASUS VivoBook X202E-DH31T 11.6" Touch Laptop. Nice. 

This is will be open from Aug 10th until the 20th so you have plenty of time to join in. The winner will be chosen through Rafflecopter and must be 18 or older. 

This is an independent sponsored giveaway and we have not received any compensation by Apple, or Asus.  This is not associated with Facebook, Paypal, Twitter or Pinterest either.  Just a bunch of bloggers joining together to offer some pretty sweet prizes to our followers.  For all the lovely details and rules please visit Cupcake with Character.  Good luck! 

  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blast from the past Pet Shop party

Year ago in house far far away there was a sweet little Pet Shop party that started it all.  
It wasn't the prettiest party and it wasn't the coolest party but it was really fun and it's what started my party addiction.  

Macbook pro Giveaway at Pretty My Party

Macbook Pro!!!!!  I think that's really all I have to say.  I know I would love one and Pretty my Party  has put together this awesome giveaway.  I and many other sponsors have teamed up with Pretty my Party to offer this Macbook Pro as a prize.  It truly is the summer of giveaways.  You may enter at Pretty my Party where you can see all the pretty little details.  Make sure to read the giveaway rules to ensure you qualify for the giveaway. 

~Good Luck~

How to change your Facebook Page Tab image

I'm a do it yourself kind of girl.  So when I saw Facebook pages with cute modified tabs I couldn't sleep until I figured out how to do it myself.  Thankfully it's pretty easy to do so I didn't really loose any sleep over it.  These simple change makes such a difference in the look and feel of your business page.  So let me show you how to do it. 

Giveaway at Cupcake Wishes and Birthday Dreams

My bloggy/ party pal Keisha over at Cupcake Wishes and Birthday Dreams is celebrating her 4 year Blogger-versary.  To celebrate she's hosting a giveaway all week long with something new everyday and today is my day along with many other fabulous vendors. So stop on by her blog any day this week until the 19th and enter to win some fabulous party prizes.  

Congrats Keisha!!!

~Sunny~

Happy Independence Day! (Our trip to DC)

I hope you are all having a wonderful 4th of July Holiday.  This year is our first year back in the United States for this special day.  For the last 8 years we have celebrated Independence day with other American's serving and working Overseas on foreign soil.  It's hard to put into words the emotions I feel being back in our home country during this time.  To our children this country is not home yet.  I hope with time and exposure to this beautiful country that they will learn to love it as much as I do.  

We are so blessed to live close to our Nations Capitol and many National monuments and historical places.  I know that right now at such a young age our children probably won't understand the significance of everything we share with them. Hopefully in time they will understand the sacrifice and hope and perseverance behind all of these memorials. If anything it will give them memories that they can carry with them the rest of their lives. 

Here are a few pictures from our recent trip to DC.  I hope it will inspire you as much as it inspired me.  

Lollipop love

I hope your summer is going well.  We hit the ground running with  Grandma and Grandpa coming to visit the day after school ended.  It was so nice having them in our home and the kids loved every minute of it.  They even got to learn how to make lollipops.  I think I was more excited about this than the kids were.  They enjoyed watching the whole process and certainly enjoyed eating the finished product. 

Prince and Princess Twins First birthday party (Real parties)

I just love when things come full circle.  I was recently asked by my friend Alicia to help her design and style her twins Sophie and Cameron's first birthday party.  What's so cool about this is that a little over a year ago I helped design her Thing one and Thing two baby shower. That's the party that was featured in papers nation wide.  So it kind holds a special spot for me.  

This day is also pretty significant for their family because these two sweet children were born with complications.  You can read all about their struggles and triumphs here at Alicia's blog. That made this day something to really celebrate. 

Free printable Splashy Birthday Card

We still have one more week of school here and we can't wait for summer to begin.  So when Marina got invited to a friends pool party she jumped at the chance. Normally she likes to draw her own adorably cute cards that take her hours upon hours, but today we were a little pressed for time and she asked me to make a card for her.  Well how can I say no to that?  I mean that's what I do. Which is why one hour before we had to leave I sat down at the computer and Marina told me exactly what she wanted the card to say and how it should look.  Since it was a pool party it had to say "Splashy" Birthday.  Get it instead of Happy Birthday.  Then we went from there.  

I think it turned out super cute and most of all Marina was all smiles.  She's so creative and I love including her ideas in my designs.  

I haven't shared a freebie in awhile so I thought this would be nice for any summer birthday.  Since my sweet little girl came up with the idea how can I keep it to myself.  So please feel free to download and use these for your own personal use and share the splashy love.   

Splashy birthday card

Splashy Envelope

Envelope assembly instructions

Baby Animal Gender reveal party

We recently moved from Germany to Maryland but because the world (and the military) is such a small place we still stay in touch with many of our friends.  They fly through our area or are already living within close traveling distance because they just recently moved as well.  Making it not seem like we are really that far away from everyone.  

Moving was hard we lived in Germany for eight years so it was very much our home.  Anything that reminds me of it or my time spent there I cherish.  When my friend Mareisa asked me to help with a few decorations and the cake at her gender reveal party in DC I was happy to oblige.  Besides she was flying all the way from Germany with her husband so how I could I miss that.  

Mothers and daughters Baking

This is just one of the things we did this Mother's Day weekend. I hope your Mother's Day is spent with all your loves doing what you love. Happy Mothers Day my friends.

Mocha Latte Cupcakes

Have I ever mentioned that I love coffee?  

I have been putting coffee in my chocolate cake for a couple years now.  Thanks to Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) one of my favorite lady chefs.  I don't use her recipe anymore but I still use the coffee.  

White chocolate crackle candy

I have wanted to post this quick and easy recipe for months now.  Ever since our Minecraft party I've had numerous requests for how to make "Redstone" candy.  For those that are Minecraft illiterate, "Redstone" is an ore in the Minecraft game that is sparkly and a little bit sparky.  It is used to create circuits that can control levers, doors, switches and tons of other elaborate things.  For our party I wanted to make a candy that had a little kick to it just like Redstone. 

Tip Junkie Printable-Shop-a-thon

I'm participating in the the Printable Shop-a-thon over on Tip Junkie. Where my Itsy Bitsy Spider invitations and envelopes are 30% off.  They are only on sale for 24 hours.  To get the discount enter the coupon code TIPJUNKIE30 when you place your order.  I will be discontinuing the coupon on Saturday so don't wait too long or you might miss it.   Have a happy Friday!

~Sunny~   

Something a little different

I just added these to my Etsy shop and I have to say I'm a little smitten.  They aren't my usual style but I adore their sketchy whimsy.  I wish my Mara would let me use these for her Birthday but they aren't quite froofy and filled with little girl glam the way a typical 5 year old likes.  She does like blue so maybe just maybe there is hope.  I know I would love a tutu and tea party.  Who wouldn't?

~Sunny~

Yay! I made Hostess with the Mostess party of 5

Thank you, thank you, thank you Hostess with the Mostess for posting my Country Garden baby shower in the "Friday, party of 5 picks".  I am a huge upon huge fan of Hostess with the Mostess and tickled pink to appear on her blog.  There are so many beautiful parties on her site.  I have to say I am guilty of spending countless hours browsing through the pages of splendiferous party goodness.  Sorry, I told myself I wouldn't gush. 

So if you have a few hours to spare you should go check out her lovely blog and store and  website.  Okay now I'm off to celebrate.  Hope you have a great weekend. 

~Sunny~