Show and Tell: Rayven’s Pink in Paris Party

The 22nd brought my daughter’s big birthday party. Yes, there were hiccups, and I think I threw a fit like a two year old sometime before the first guest arrived (some decorations I had made and spent several days on weren’t out, and never got to be).
But, my guests were extremely happy and, most important, so was my daughter.
My two hour long party ended up going over into 5-6 hours as my guests stayed and visited, ate, and were just happy in general. I think that says something in itself, what about you?
Friends and family we had not seen in several years were there, and it felt peaceful and comfortable after it all got started.

Party Highlights-
The Cake Stand
Handmade (and perfected) French Macarons
Tutu and Gumball Necklace Party Favors
The Water Bouncy Mat
Bubble Machine
and of course,
The Cake




The cake and cupcakes were made by a talented bakery artist local to my area. She has a Facebook page if you are from the Kansas City-ish area: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kristys-Kitchen-presents-Guilty-Pleasures/576830295683515
I do recommend checking her out. She is very talented and extremely easy to work with.






The wind and the heat made it difficult for us at times, but since I was more worried about how everything looked when my guests arrived, I had no problem moving the food indoors. The kids were able to stay cool with their bouncy water mat…thing. Well, whatever it is called, they loved it.
Nearly all the decorations used were handmade.

The punch bowl was given it’s own tutu
The backdrop is made up of a piece of fabric, tissue flowers, and tulle garland, pinned to a collapsible clothing rack.
The jars are spray painted candle sticks glue to various glass jars and globes and filled with candy.
The cake stand is a re-purposed chandelier (tutorial found here: https://portiasunexpectedtreasures.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/the-chandelier-cakestand-a-walk-through/).
The balloons are tied with regular balloon ribbon and tulle.
My daughter’s outfit was handmade from top to bottom.
The guests got their own tutus and necklaces, also handmade. (tutorials can be found on my blog here: https://portiasunexpectedtreasures.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/gumball-necklace-tutorial/, here: https://portiasunexpectedtreasures.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/parisian-inspired-necklace-part-2/, and here: https://portiasunexpectedtreasures.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/tutu-party-favors-aka-my-death/)

None of these things would have been possible without the help of my family. My mother-in-law made many of the sweets, including those perfect and utter gorgeous macarons.
My sister helped make the tutus and get the yard set up.
My husband did a lot of the shopping for me and put together the water bouncy mat thing…
My parents cut up most of the food
And my father helped me put together the back drop.

It was a huge team effort.

It was all well worth the effort in the end. Some things were omitted, sure, but the look of utter joy on my daughter’s face is all that really matters.

Thanks for allowing me to share her special day with you.

Parisian Inspired Necklace: Part 2

Time for part 2 of the necklace tutorial!
We are going to have a finished product that will look something like this (thank you to my lovely little sister for modeling :P):

Now it’s time for the assembly. Here is what you will need:

Unfortunately, all our regular tools are still packed away in our boxes…somewhere, so we used what we had on hand:

1 pair of Wire Cutters2 pairs of Needle Nose Pliers
Length of chain (mine is 18 inches, bough at Michaels)
3-4 Jump Rings (also from Michaels)
Lobster Claw Clamp (Michaels again!)
Eiffel Tower Charm (I bought a load of these from Tophatter for like…$5. Keep an eye on that site for neat things like that)
Your Macaron we made last tutorial!

Let’s get started!
Open up all the jump rings first. My husband will be putting it together for me while I sit back and just snap pictures. 😉 He has found that it’s much easier when he does this step first:

Next, add a jump ring to one end of your chain:

Add a jump ring and your clip to the other end of the chain:

Now, comes the hard part. If you used a head pin and don’t happen to have your curling pliers around, you are going to have to try and curl your excess wire on your macaron with regular needle nose pliers…like this:

Clip off the extra with your wire cutters. Fiddle around with it and you should get something that looks like this:

Add this and your Eiffel Tower charm to one jump ring:

And attach this to your chain (If you decide you want it stationary, you will need to find the middle of your chain. If you don’t care, then just attach it completely around the chain) and you are all done! Now admire your work and show it off!:

Parisian Inspired Necklace Tutorial: Part 1

Since I am still preparing for my daughter’s birthday party, pretty much everything I have been posting is in relation to that. Today is no exception.

This is a two part tutorial. The first half will go over making the macaron, like these:

Here is what you’ll need:



2 colors of Polymer Clay in your choice.
Needle Tool or Toothpick
Eye or Headpin
Optional* Small Circle Cookie Cutter

Pull out a bit of the clay in the colors you chose:

Separate the color you want the outside of your macaron to be up in three different pieces. Two need to be the same size, the other can be whatever is left.
Let’s work with the same sized pieces first, shall we?

Roll these two pieces into a ball like so:

Then lightly press them so that the bottom flattens and the tops is domed:

Now we are going back to that other piece of clay:

You’re going to want to roll it into a long snake:

Wrap the snake around one of your little domes:


Cut off the extra and repeat the process with the other dome.

Now you’re going to pull out your needle tool, or your tooth pick, and start to texture the snake. You want to poke, press, and seam it up with the rest of your clay:

You’ll want to end with something that looks about like this:

Repeat this with the second one.

Now grab your second color of clay!

Take a small amount and roll it into a ball:

Flatten the ball into a disk and place it on one of the macaroon pieces like so:

Add your top piece and your eye or head pin:

Bake according to the direction on the package of your clay.
My clay bakes at 275 degrees F for 15 minutes per 1/4 an inch of clay.
And you just made your macaron!

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial, part 2 is tomorrow!