4th of July Firecracker treat boxes

Welcome to the Party Gals Linky Party!  We're a group of  CREATIVE PARTY PLANNERS here to share with you our love of parties, entertaining, delicious recipeS, DIY ideas and crafts!  Visit us every other Friday to see what's new in our party world and link up with us to share your own fabulous ideas! 

Every other Friday, visit any of us on our blogs to check out a fun theme inspired project, idea, party, recipe or craft. We'll share all our tips and inspiration with you and what's even better is, you get to share your creativity with us too!  Each post will have a linky tool at the very end where you can link up with other awesome creatives!

To start things off, I'm sharing my free printable 4th of July firecracker treat boxes.

"Papa Bear" Father's Day Brunch

Since Daddy has to work this Father's Day we decided to celebrate a little early with a Father's Day brunch. My inspiration for this brunch came from a sweet picture of my hubby walking hand in hand with our girls.  How I got a Papa bear in glasses, tie and bowler hat out of that will require a bit more explaining. 

Mother's Day Breakfast in Bed with Blueberry Lemon Scones + $25 Zazzle Mother's Day Giveaway

Mother's Day is just around the corner and what better way to celebrate than serving Mom breakfast in bed.  I think I've had breakfast in bed once.  When my kids were little and Daddy helped them make eggs with toast and coffee. It was so sweet, but it was just that one time.  My kids are older now and usually my hubby is working so we celebrate whenever or whatever way we can.  Usually it involves some homemade cards and gifts the kids bring home from school, lots of hugs and me making breakfast. Well if I'm going to make breakfast it's going to be what I want.  This year it will be blueberry lemon scones. 

White Chocolate Rainbow Popcorn

White chocolate rainbow popcorn is so yummy and easy to make that you won't want to share the secret. Just let everyone think that you slaved away for hours creating this colorful, fun masterpiece.  Or let them think you bought it from a gourmet candy shop. Because if you tell them how easy this is they may ask you to make it all the time.  

French Memory Board tutorial

I love memory boards.  It's such a sweet way to display your mementos, photos and nick-nacks.  My girls accumulate a lot of those things and we've been looking for a way to help organize the clutter in their room. I thought a memory board would be perfect since it serves double duty as wall art and storage.  So when Zazzle offered to send me samples of their new custom fabrics for review on my blog, I knew this was the perfect time to make a memory board.   

(Zazzle did provide me with fabric for this post but as always all opinions are my own.)

I think these new custom fabrics are so exciting.  Now I can add my own designs to their fabric and craft or sew to my hearts content with a pattern or design that's totally unique. You don't have to have a Zazzle shop or be a designer to create your own fabric either. Anyone can do it.  Zazzle makes it very easy to just upload your own photos or designs and then they do the rest of the work.  They also offer several different fabric styles to choose from depending on your needs. 

Ninja (editable) Valentine Card

If you're looking for a last minute valentine for your ninja crazy child then here ya go.  My son loves ninjas right now. So much that we even decorated his Valentine box as a ninja. After finishing his box he asked me to make some valentines to match and this is what I came up with. 

Since I'm sharing them I made the name block editable so you can personalize for you child. 

Download here

Panda Bubbles (Free) printable Valentine card

Valentines Day is almost here so we are scrambling in our house to get all the Valentine cards and boxes made.  I made these Panda Valentines for Mara's first grade class.  They get so much candy every year that I wanted a candy free Valentine this year. When I spotted these sweet little bubble wands at Target I knew they would be perfect for a candy free card.  I also knew that I had to make the card super cute in order to convince Mara to go candy free, because she is a candy-holic.  Which is why we went with pandas because pandas are awesome.

Cranberry Cream

This Cranberry Cream Jello Salad was always a staple at my Grandma Bea's Holiday table growing up. She loved the Holidays and any excuse to get her family together.  Now I make it for my family every Christmas and Thanksgiving or any Holiday if I can sneak it in. With only three ingredients this is so easy to make and the perfect compliment to turkey or ham.  I also love to snack on the leftovers with nuts sprinkled on top and a little extra dollop of whipped cream.

Holiday Chalkboard gift tags

We have so many gifts going out right now from our family and from my kids that I created a simple holiday tag with an editable name on it.  A quick and easy way to add a personal touch to your holiday packages. Happy Holidays!!!

Download your editable tags here. 

Chocolate Pecan Toffee Bark

Every Christmas I look for an easy, simple recipe to give to our teachers, family and friends.  I love treats that travel well so my kids won't have to worry about squishing them on the way to school. Something that can be shipped across the country to family and friends with no worries. I also love treats that don't take a lot of effort or have too many ingredients.  We ship a lot of packages at Christmas with family and friends all over the world and with four children there are plenty of teacher gifts needed. 

I've had a favorite "Cracker Cookie" recipe that's more of a chocolate almond toffee bark than a cookie.  It uses saltine crackers but no one knows and it's always a hit.  This year I thought I'd change up the recipe a bit and use pecans because pecans and toffee are so delicious together. I'm so glad I did. 

My Zazzle store

Yay!  We have a Zazzle store.  Filled with my original illustrations and graphics.  My grand master plan is to stock the store with coordinating items for all my printable parties over on Etsy.  I'm also planning to have many of my Etsy invitations available here as well for those that would like everything printed and shipped to their door.    

For now we have aprons because well I love to bake.  There are mugs because I love coffee and hot tea.  

Then there are pillows, plates, phone cases, tote bags and mouse pads.  All of the items in my shop can be customized, so you can add text, change the background colors or even select a different style of the item.  There is still plenty of time to order before the holidays so take a look around and let me know what you think. 

Cyber Sale

Yay It's Cyber Monday!  Lots of awesome deals all over the internet helping to usher in the holiday shopping season.  Our Cyber Sale at Sunny by Design will last all week long from Dec 1st to the 7th. So you can stock up on invitations, or coordinating party decorations for your upcoming parties.  Order now and wait up to 6 months to have your items personalized for the big day. To cash in on the 30% savings use the code CYBERSALE2014 when you check out at our Etsy store.  

Apple Cranberry Bread

My grandmother's Apple Bread is my favorite quick bread recipe.  It's simple, fast and scrumptious. It freezes well and makes a wonderful hostess gift, teacher gift or holiday gift.  Can you tell I love this bread?  Even though it's wonderful on it's own I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like with cranberries added for the holidays.  I'm so glad I did.  The sweetness of the apples and bread with the tartness of the cranberries goes perfectly together. 

How to Tea Stain Paper

Last year my son had a Zombie Apocalypse birthday party.  I wanted to have aged paper for the invites but I also wanted to save on printer ink so I decided to hand stain the paper myself. Tea is so much cheaper than printer ink or store bought scrap book paper. 
It's surprisingly easy and I bet you have all the supplies you need on hand. 

13 Days of Handmade Halloween 2014 (Cupcake Wishes & Birthday Dreams)

Yay!  It's that time of year again.  Cupcake Wishes & Birthday Dreams is hosting the 13 Days of Handmade Halloween.  Today I am guest posting a DIY on how to tea stain paper.  Great for making invitations, cards, spooky pirate maps or just creating your own vintage looking scrapbook paper.

Keep visiting Cupcake Wishes & Birthday Dreams to catch all the wonderful Halloween DIY's by these fabulous bloggers.  

We've also got a fun Linky party going on for these 13 days.  If you have a Halloween craft or food tutorial that you'd like to share link up with us and join the party.  

~Happy 13 Days of Handmade Halloween~

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