Monkey Birthday Party

It's no secret I am HUGE fan of Paperglitter parties. So, this time around for Avery's 8th birthday we threw together the Monkey Party designed by no other than Linnette over at Paperglitter.

I decided {as a thrifty mama} to go with the basic monkey kit only because I also have a son...who does not like girly stuff like hair bows and flowers.  This decision allowed me to also use this kit for him should he decide to "Go Bananas" for his own birthday later this year.  And, for once - my blah-blah brown walls actually accompanied the overall party decor quite nicely.

For the occassion, I got straight to baking - but I didn't go overboard...just four different treats for the guests to enjoy.

Like banana cupcakes with swiss meringue buttercream...

 Cool grease proof cupcake wrappers were purchased from Golda's kitchen, the colours lent themselves perfectly to the overall scheme and were decked out with a combination of rounds from the party kit and monkey heads {Monkey'n Around} from Party Stuff.

A two tiered cake with polyer clay monkey keepsake topper and a colour palette drawn from the colours in the kit (plus a pale blue as our extra accent colour)...

The leaves and number 8 on the cake were made from a blend of fondant and gumpaste so they would firm up {and were made 3 days in advance of the cake being assembled). Then, using an edible food writter, the leaves were detailed to reflect the leaf decor in the kit.  The monkey was also made by me {something else I've been doing for a while...okay - years...like about 20!}

Bakerella inspired monkey cake pops with paperglitter flare ... designed by MOI!

and of course...SUGAR COOKIES - no party here goes without sugar cookies. We jazzed up half of them with 3/8" satin tied bows for the little ladies and the gents got the original monkey.

I tried using a new technique I picked up from one of my other favorite reads on the net which made for perfect outcomes like the sugar cookies.

Over at The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle, Callye posted a tutorial using a "push pin" technique to accurately mark flat iced cookies so that the details would be picture perfect {in her example she uses LEGO man heads to illustrate this method}.  I think I did pretty darned good if I don't say so myself :). Although it was slightly time consuming, it was well worth the work, as the results couldn't have turned out any better in my opinion. Originally, I began by using a quilt marker pin with a large round head on it, but after a while my fingers began to get sore from gripping something so small...so I thought outside the box - "what else do I have that could poke holes into the icing?" .  Then it came to me....my paper perferator from my makin' memories scrapbook kit. It resembled a stylus, was much easier to hold and gave just as accurate marks in the royal icing.

 After the cookies were finished some were bagged and topped with the treat bag toppers from Linnette's party kit.

Water bottle labels were repurposed into bubble wraps...

Cupcake topper rounds were reduced in size at printing and turned into tokens to adorn the cutlery wraps with pipecleaner monkey tails, and the treat bag flags were re-invented into soda pop bottle decor. Avery scattered the leftover tokens all over the table like confetti! What a smart cookie!

and the bunting banner was sewn together for durabilty and was a huge time saver. {I stacked the words with the last letter on the top of the pile from the sentiments to ensure the banner did not come out backwards}.  We couldn't have "YADHTRIB YPPAH" now could we?  Then we inserted some leaf cutouts randomly and a monkey too for added cuteness and personality.

More leaves were fastened to the other trays and displays to pull through the theme.

And we can't forget the treats for the little monkeys that were at the party! I used the editable text fields to personalize each treat box for all the children that attended, and added eyelets with a grosgrain ribbon handle for easy carrying on the way out. 

...and don't forget the sugar cookies!

                           

Although the party took quite a few hours to put all together {from strategically planning the baking projects to print runs for the week leading up to party day} it was well worth the effort. I thouroughly enjoyed doing it {when do I not?}. 

Enjoy!



Supersized Frogs...would you like Flies with that?

Spring is soon to be upon us, and before I know it the back yard will be swamped, gushy and an atrocious mess... the perfect conditions for after school puddle jumping sessions, soggy pants and mud riddled clothes. Ah, the smell of melting snow and the croaking of frogs?

Earlier in the week a neighbour contacted me to follow up on a request she had made months ago. Her daughter was soon to turn seven and she felt cookies would be a perfect send-off token for all the little buddies attending the party. Like any good neighbour and delighted by the request I said "Yes, I can bake them for you." Followed by "Can I borrow a cup of sugar?" NO! Not really, I did have a late night door knocking a couple weeks back though and this was the exact conversation...

{firm knock at door}

Me:  "Hi."

Neighbour : " Hi, sorry to bug you - my wife decided to make some muffins, she ran out of eggs."

Me:  -

Neighbour:  "Could she borrow two eggs?".

Me:  "She can have them, I don't need them back.{smirk, poor late night humour.}"

Then I handed over my eggs, calculating how many I too would need for the week to tie us over to payday shopping, deliberating with myself if I should have given them up...that was equivalent to 1 double batch of sugar cookie dough. 

Me: "Happy Muffin Making, what time should we be over in the morning for breakfast?" {Smarta#$} 

{Door closes, neighbour leaves with my eggs in hand}.

I love my neighbours, they really are great, I had never experienced that before where someone would just walk over and ask to borrow something of that sort. Perhaps it's the small community we live in.  As long as the requests stop at baking supplies and not

 "Hey, can I borrow your wife Chad?  I need her to bake me a cake."

ANYWAYS... attempt at humour will now be cast aside and I will get to the order of today's business.

The other neighbour, with the cookie request - {before the side bar, and interlude of neighbourly commentary}  told me her daughter just loves frogs.  I recalled this from our original conversation and like a kid in the candy store went to town and began drawing up templates for potential winners to use for this very occasion.   Remember back a little while ago to my Princesses and the Frog post?  Well, that's the frog! With a few minor tweaks for eyes and mouth.  He was a little smaller than I figured for this party favour though, so I enlarged my pattern {ugh! the P word, I need to get me some cutters that can do double duty...ah, Sugarbelle...share with me your inner knowledge on "How the heck you do it?"}

Moving forward, a sucker for punishment  {as may already know for past posts} I drew my picture on paper, then traced the outline onto a piece of parchment paper.  Then I outlined this onto a piece of chipboard and cut it out.  This is what I got...

What do you get when you take a double batch of cookie dough and a quite house?  PRODUCTIVITY!!!  Roll, Cut, transfer, bake, cool, repeat.  Twenty four cookies later I was done and ready to move onto icing these little froggies. {Note time to complete - 1 hour, 10 minutes. Including clean up. YEAH ME!}

I made my icing ahead of time, thinned it to piping and flood-filling consistency, added my colours and then let them sit to allow for any air bubbles to surface and vanish in an attempt to have flawless cookies.

Day 1: Bake & Pipe outlines

First I piped the eyeballs using a Number 2 tip.

Then I filled in the gaps with the face outline, again with a Number 2 tip.

Then I made the crown outlines with a number 2 as well.

I let the outlines set up for about 45 minutes.  Then I proceeded to fill in the eyeballs and crowns. 

Wait some more, about 30 minutes, flood fill the green.  I wanted my frog warts to be flush with the green and not raised up, so I piped them randomly onto the bridge of the "nose" so they would settle in.

Then I left them over night undisturbed to harden up.

Day 2: Adding the finishing details

Using a Number 2 tip I piped the arch for the frogs smile, and added the pupils to the eyes with black, and added the rosey pink cheeks for added cuteness. 

Then I added the Monogram with a number 1 in piping consistency in black so they would pop out.  Time to finish drying.  I wrapped them up on Sunday, tied them with coordinating ribbon and attached a cute little tag on them. I love plays on words, how could I resist this time?

Mission complete, party favours ready for pick up.

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