Super Hero / Police Party Sweets Table

Hello!  Oh happy day :)  I'm over at Maddycakes Muse today sharing Ethan's Super Hero / Police Officer / When I Grow Up 5th Birthday party.  I'll be there all week sharing great ideas and tips from Ethan's party. 

There wasn't time in the week to share everything I wanted to at Maddycakes Muse so here is one thing near and dear to my heart - the SWEETS!!!

The centerpiece of this table is a Pottery Barn Kids police station we gave Ethan for his 1st birthday.  I was so excited to be able to incorporate it into the party.  I just love that it served as the stand for my homemade cake and donuts :)  What could be better than to serve donuts out of a police station! I also had donut holes made to look so fashionable in my custom Kandy Kones from Superchick Studios.

Besides the cake, I made almost all of the sweets myself except for the beautiful sugar cookies that were from Happy Cookies.  I also purchased the donuts.  No donut machine at this house - only cake pops :)

The backdrop of the table is a shower curtain from Target!  I love using shower curtains!  They are easy, inexpensive and a perfect size.  The badge emblem is from the talents of Anders Ruff.

 

To give height to the table, I re-purposed the crates I had for our Ice Cream and Lemonade Party.  I used my Silhouette to cut out a city scape for the backdrop of the crates.  I made custom letters using MDF letters from Hobby Lobby that I adhered scrapbook paper and pinwheels.  I had to make a super hero out of one of them and chose the H to do so!

 

 

 

I used various printables from my Anders Ruff printable package in lots of different ways. When using printables, be creative! The cake decorations were printables I scaled down. Also, the embellishments on the pinwheels were also the same printables. 

 

 

 

I made the comic book pinwheels myself. So easy to make! I will feature all of the things I made out of the comic book pages later this week. Such a great inexpensive way to customize a super hero party! I

 

 

 

As I noted, most of the sweets I made myself.  Several members of my family (including me) have Celiac, so it is important to me that I make sweets all family members can enjoy.  It can get quite expensive finding great and good tasting gluten free sweets made by professionals.

 

 

I made the cupcake toppers using the same pinwheel technique, on a smaller scale, using the comic book pages.  I adhered a printable to the front.

My husband claimed the mustaches didn't go with the theme.  I think they made the perfect disguise for a "bad guy" or for a little guy wondering what he'd be when he grows up :)

The rice krispie bars were pre-made, packaged treats (not gluten free) that I simply dipped into chocolate and covered with sprinkles.  Everything tastes better on a stick!

 

The box I used for the custom Kandy Kones were from the $1 aisle at Target. I simply took the bottle wraps from the printable package and pieced them around the box. A simple way to dress up a $1 aisle find!  I shredded more comic books to use as the box filler.

 

 These cookies were my one splurge.  My "cookie lady" is local, and an amazing person.  I love that I can use her talents for my children's parties!

 

 

That's the tour of our sweets table.  Remember, keep it simple and keep it yummy!  Join me tomorrow on Maddycakes Muse for budget friendly party ideas.  You have to check out all the freebies I found for this party!

 

Vendor and Supply Credits:
Printables - Anders Ruff
Super Hero badge cookies - Happy Cookies
Shower curtain city back drop - Target
Peg Doll Cake Toppers - Creative Butterfly
Custom Kandy Kones - Superchick Studios

Sneak Peak of Ethan's Super Hero / Police Party!

Tomorrow my little boy turns 5!  It is so cliche to say, but so true - where did the time go?  And, can you still claim baby weight when your baby is no longer a baby, much less a toddler?

Ethan's party was this past weekend and minus some sprinkles of rain and deflated balloons (despite the promise that they would last for AT LEAST 2 weeks!), the day was perfect!  Ethan had an amazing time with his friends and family.

All next week I will be sharing lots and lots of details of the party on the all new Maddycakes Muse website.  I am so excited!  If you have not seen Michelle's new and improved site, you have to take a look!  In the meantime, because I usually have the first post up within 8 hours of my children's parties, I wanted to share a few sneak peaks of Ethan's party - in honor of his birthday tomorrow.  Please make sure you stop by Maddycakes Muse next week to see all the details.  The following week, I'll have even more details here on Buckets of Grace.

The birthday boy - 5 years later!

 

Sneak Peak of Party Pics

 

 

 

 

 

Deflated Masked Balloons (this pic won't make the Maddycakes Muse website!)

 

I can't wait to share all the great details of this party!  See you all next week!

{FREE} Super Hero Poster - In Need of Your Help!

Who doesn't love free things??? I stumbled across something I am SO excited about, but I need your help!!!

Ethan turns 5 this year. If you follow this blog, you'll know that my kids love to challenge me with their choice of birthday party themes. They usually try to combine some crazy ideas for me. This year, Ethan decided he wants a Super Hero and Police party. I am SO up to the challenge!

Daddy is a police officer and Ethan thinks he and daddy are super heroes. I had to oblige! My plan to link them together is to use the overall theme of, "When I Grow Up."

Prior to Father's Day, I stumbled into Hallmark and found posters used to advertise their Father's Day line of products.  It was love at first sight :)  I am never to proud to ask for something for a party so I asked the manager if I could have the posters when they were done with them. Lucky for me, she said yes. Here are two pictures of them (sorry for the quality, I took the pictures with the Ipad):

If you can't tell, the posters both read, "DAD, NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES" and then has "Father's Day Sunday, June 17" underneath.  Obviously, this won't work for Ethan.  The posters have that vintage comic book look to them if you can't see from my quality picture :)

My initial thought to turn them into a poster for Ethan's, "When I Grow Up" Super Hero/Police party was to make a comic book caption burst a little bit larger than "DAD" to conceal it and put Ethan's name in it so the poster would read, "ETHAN, NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES."  That phrase would go great with the theme.  I would take a black strip and cover up the "Father's Day" caption and put Ethan's birthday on that. 

I found this plaque at Hobby Lobby that could fit the theme as well:

So, what do you think?  What should I do with those posters?  Or, do I scrap them and do nothing?  No pressure, but Ethan LOVES them :)

Perhaps I will award a prize to the truly ingenious suggestions :)  Thanks for your help!!!

Cute Find for Superhero Parties - Target to the Rescue!

Have you seen Anders Ruff's latest Super Hero spectacular?  If you missed it, check out all the fabulousness here.

I LOVE how they took a theme that could easily be commercialized and made it adorable without the commercial characters.

I particularly LOVED their city scape background for the treats tabletop and the use of city scape elements throughout the party.

 

In case their efforts make you feel intimidated, I spotted this fabulous City Scape shower curtain from Target in this weekend's flyer for only $13!  If you are not up to making your own city scape for your little super hero, this shower curtain would make the perfect back drop for a sweets table!  It would also make a great backdrop for a photo booth opportunity.

And, when your little super hero is all partied out, you could always use it for what it was intended.  Nothing like multi-tasking a shower curtain!

Buckets of Super Heroes!

These days, who doesn't need a hero!  And when it comes to finding cute ideas for boys' parties, let's face it - just like a super hero - they are hard to come by.  That's why I am so happy with one of the hottest trends in boys' birthday parties now - Super Hero themes.  This theme is especially close to my heart because my little Ethan invents himself as a new super hero every day.  These days, he's Spider Man.  Some days he's just a plain ol' super hero, running around the house showing his muscles with his dish towel cape!

Lucky for Ethan, he won't have to use that dish towel cape for much longer.  This week, I was the fortunate winner on Anders Ruff's giveaway from Annie at Kid Kapers on Etsy.  Yay Me!!!  And yay Ethan!!!  I never win anything.  I got to choose one of Annie's adorable capes.  It really was a hard choice, but given Ethan's affection for Spider Man right now, I picked the spider cape. 

I know that Spider Man doesn't actually wear a cape, but only adults know that.  I can guarantee Ethan will be thrilled!  And it will serve double duty - I already have his Spider Man costume from Target's after-Halloween sale at 75% off for next year.  I'm sure the cape will keep him warm for trick-or-treating next year.

Any of Annie's capes would make really great party favors for a Super Hero party.  There are also really cute girl options.  And, she does offer a discount for bulk orders so check her out!  Here are a few of my favorites (it was hard to pick!)
       

Sticking with Etsy Super Hero items, check out these "build your own super heroes" from the Crafty Clip.  You can choose hair style, hair color, skin color, color scheme and chest emblem.  After designing your own super hero, you then receive a PNG file to use in your own party planning.  How neat would it be to include your super hero child on the invite, cupcake toppers, banners, etc.  The possibilities are endless!

And, if you are no graphics wizard like me, you can send the file over to Ciao Bambino and she will create you darling cupcake toppers, thank you tags, banners, door signs, etc. for your little boy's out-of-this world party!  Check out her exclusive designs:

This post wouldn't be complete if I didn't feature my current crush of Super Hero party printables from BirdCrafts.  These are just so cute.  They are available in her Etsy shop.

 

Here are some other adorable Super Hero Etsy products:

Petit Bouh

How cute are these "POW" signs?  Perfect for photo booth props.

Kabibi Mei

The signs would perfectly coordinate with these cupcake wrappers and toppers!

That's a Wrap

Adorable banner and printables from Dimple Prints as styled by J At Your Service.



If it wasn't apparent that I'm a party planning nut from some of my other posts, this little indulgence may prove it beyond a doubt.  Ethan just turned 3 in September.  I'm already waist deep into planning a carnival themed party for his 4th birthday.  But, the cuteness of all of these super hero items may just force me to start to plan for his 5th birthday.  Perhaps it's the crazy hour that's making me silly.  It is very late for this Super Mom so I best be getting to bed.