I'm Back! New Party Sets, shop sale and birthday competition!

Goodness, it's been a long time since I last posted. I haven't been very active on the blogs lately as I've had some health issues to deal with. I don't want to bore you too much, but I know many in the crafting community have health issues or care for some one who does so I'll briefly explain what's been going on. I was diagnosed with a condition called temporomandibular joint dysfunction(TMJD) - which for me means the disc between the upper and lower jaw bones is displaced and damaged and so the bones rub together and the disc stops me from being able to open my mouth very wide. 2 months ago I had a terrible couple of hours of pain and from that I have been told that the swelling from my jaw is compressing some nerves (occipital and trigeminal) so I get pain from that too. Luckily, I have still been able to design and I've managed a few party sets since I last posted.
I have been working with some beautiful new watercolour graphics recently and have 2 sets made with them and many more planned for the future.
I'll start with the most recent set, which I designed last week as it's great for Valentine's day, as well as for birthdays, engagement parties, anniversaries and even weddings.

Above is a lovely A4 print I made to go along with the party set or just to decorate your home.
I'll show you some other previews for the set below but you can see all them in the shop here.

I also designed a lovely Halloween set which can also be used for a magical birthday. Click the image below to see all the products in that range.

And just quickly before I go and make a cup of tea! It was my 40th birthday last week and to celebrate I'm having a 40% off sale across the whole shop and I'm running a little giveaway competition on my Facebook page to win a bundle of your choice. Click here to go the page and enter. Good luck :-)

That's all for now but I'm going to try really hard to keep the blog up to date in the future!

Take care and happy crafting

Suz x

Tissue Paper Pom Pom Tutorial

Hello!
Apologies for the long absence! I finally had my knee operation a few weeks ago and couldn't do very much work with the laptop in the first week or so after. It's healing well, although I keep trying to do too much and then it gets really sore again!!
Anyway, I got around to making some pom poms for the decoration at Padawan #1's party in just over a week and as they look lovely and are pretty easy to make I thought I would make a tutorial for you all.

Firstly, you will need about 8 pieces of tissue paper for a larger pom pom and 5 or 6 for smaller ones. You can make your pom poms all one colour or mix up the colours in differents ways if you like.

Now you need to concertina fold your tissue paper - as though you are making one of those paper fans I'm sure most of us made when we were younger! I found for the smaller sized pom poms, 1 inch strips worked well.

Once you have finished folding the paper, tie a piece of cotton or thread round the middle. You don't need to squeeze the paper together at all but make sure the knot is secure.

Now shape each end of the paper with scissors. I made my pom poms curved but you could do pointed edges for a spikier look!

Once both ends are shaped, open out the fan. Now you need to gently tease out each layer of paper. I did the top one on each side first to stop the paper slipping through the thread.

Tease out each layer on both sides and then ruffle to ensure an even look ball. I found that it was best to work as close down to the thread on the top and bottom layers as you can. Be gentle though as the paper can tear easily.

I hope you enjoy making these and have fun experimenting with colour combinations and styles.

All the best for now
Suz and the Party Padawans
xx

Pizza Boats!

We had a very busy day yesterday at LHPC HQ!!
After the lovely banana dolphins at lunchtime we went to the school's Daffodil Tea and Theo had lots of fun operating a digger and getting his face painted!
I decided to make mini baguette pizzas for tea as it was just the two of us but had a brainwave as the rolls I got reminded me of little boats!! So, after I had quickly drawn a template and cut out these little sails, we spent an hour decorating them.

Theo wanted to make a classic skull and crossbones sail first, and then he wanted to do the British Flag. I went for flowers and butterflies for my first sail and then thought I'd honour my Viking heritage with a Viking long ship sail!! I used a sticker on this one too!

We then used kebab skewers as masts (I cut about 2 inches of the top so they wouldn't be too long). Theo got his Lego figures out to sail our ships for us!!
Below is a template you can use if you would like to have a go at making sails yourself. Try them on different food - hotdogs, sausages, cakes!

I hope you have lots of fun making food interesting and do please share any photos of your creations!

Take care

Suz (and Theo)

Hello!! I'm Back!

Hello - I can't believe how it's been since I last posted! And so much has happened since then! The kids went back to school, we had Nienna's postponed birthday party, my eldest daughter turned 18 and moved into her own flat, my mum went into hospital for an op and my sister and her son came up to help me out with her and my Grandma!!! Phew!!
OK, so tonight I'll just share some of the photos from Nienna's very girly pink Cotton Candy party. I must say that this party turned out exactly how I imagined it in my head and I was so pleased with everything. I really went to town on the small details and they paid off - although I discovered that the piping bags I had were of very little use what-so-ever! I'll be looking for some tips in that department if you have any to share.
First up - I decided to get really creative in the kitchen and make my own chocolate cupcake toppers in the shape of the cotton candy and lollipops I designed for the printables.

Piping with candy melts really isn't easy as they set so quickly and the oil from the chocolate was just being squeezed through the material of the piping bag!! I was a bit disappointed with these until I turned them over and this was the result I got!!

 Not bad for an amateur! I also attempted cookie pops and macarons for the first time too!! I like to live dangerously! My macarons were something of a disaster, albeit a rather yummy tasting disaster!

The photo below shows the table setting with a cake pop, cookie pop and name pop alongside a little vase with pink gerbera and a mini milk bottle with pink paper straw (and flag).

Each girl had a doily place mat and Nienna helped me to add half a small doily to each of the vases and the milk bottles too.

I think the different shades of pink flowers worked really well on the tables and instantly added a professional touch with the need for any fancy flower arranging skills which is something I don't have!

The mini Pick and Mix table was a huge success as usual. I honestly suggest having something like this at the next party you throw for your kids. It doesn't have to cost the earth as you can pick up good offers on sweets in the supermarkets and the discount stores are fantastic for sweets too. I used a couple of small fishbowl vases, one tall candle holder type glass, some plastic cocktails glasses from Poundland and little sandwich paste jars with party circle tags on. All the sweets were pink and the little pots in the middle are ice cream pots from Home Bargains.

As it was a very girly party, I provided some make up from my rather pathetic stash for them to play with!! They also had nail varnish which had a little pen applicator and a stash of gems built in to the bottle!! They each got to take one of these home along with a hairbrush and these fabulous handbag gift bags which had lots of goodies inside.

Now, no self respecting Cotton Candy party would be complete with some candy floss!! Thanks to my best friend who lent me her candy floss machine.

And here we have the birthday girl with her candy floss and her birthday cupcake as I didn't make a big cake - far too many sweet things to eat already!

Here's a lovely photo of the girls getting stuck into their cake pops after their lunch.

I'll leave you with other photos of the day and next time I'll share some photos from Lorien's 18th Birthday Horrible Histories party.

Night all, take care
Suz xx

Alice In Wonderland Tea Party

Hello! It's me! Did you wonder where I'd gone? I've been spending some time with the family as the kids have been off school for the summer holidays for just over a week now and my eldest daughter has come home to stay for awhile (or maybe longer!).
The Alice In Wonderland party was a great success and we had gorgeous weather! I think it was the hottest day of the year so far!

Above, you can see a small coffee table with an old tea set I found in a charity shop and my 3 tired fruit basket which had little favours of tea bags and candy pouches for guests to enjoy. 

The children at the party really enjoy the mini pick and mix bar. The sweets were mostly from a pound shop or on special offer from the supermarkets so weren't too expensive. At the back there are two fish bowl vases with lollipops and marshmallows and a old glass sweet stand from the charity shop. I also used popcorn treat boxes and food trays from my Wonderland range. Small candy bags and tongs were bought from Amazon.

Delicious red cake pops were also a huge hit with the little ones. You can also see two large tin buckets which we used for popcorn and crisps. 

I'm not much of a flower arranger but I'm really pleased with the arrangements I did using teapots and these tea cup garden decorations. Once again, I kept prices down by buying these from a pound shop and I simply repainted them to match the colour scheme. 

Some bunting from the Wonderland range.

This juice dispenser was a great find at John Lewis. The kids really liked the fact they could get their own drink without having to have an adult open up tight lids on bottles.

Cute mini tea set in a spotty suitcase! Perfect for decorating this party.

This is a selection canvases my daughter painted. They should have hanging around the marquee but it was quite windy and the sides were blowing in a lot so we decided it was safer if they went on the ground. 

My friend made these cool signs which we nailed to a tree! 

Theo as the Doormouse posing in my photobooth frame! Nienna and Lorien added some red hearts for the occasion.

And that's me!! But anyway.... quickly moving on something far prettier...

Here's Nienna as the White Queen!

And finally, napkins with the napkin rings from The Wonderland collection.

So there you have it... my Wonderland Tea Party. I hope it has helped to inspire you with some ideas which are pretty easy to pull off even on a budget.

Take care 

Suz x