Make this cute Love cake topper and other Valentine’s party decor with your Cricut machine. I love how many little things I can make for parties with my Cricut !
Parties
PATRIOTIC CUPCAKE TOPPERS WITH YOUR CRICUT
These patriotic red, white and blue cupcake toppers are made using your Cricut and supplies from JOANN.
This is a sponsored post brought to you by JOANN. All opinions are my own.
15 MINUTE FALL DINNER PARTY & CRICUT EXPLORE AIR 2 REVIEW
I was so excited to get my hands on the brand new Cricut Explore Air 2! I couldn’t wait to use it to create these cute wood slice napkin ring holders and cute Fall mason jar centerpiece. They are the perfect 15 minute project for a Fall dinner party. Read on to see how to make them and to read my review about the Cricut Explore Air 2. (Read all about frequently asked Cricut questions on my post —> HERE.)
I was provided a Cricut Explore Air 2 in exchange for my honest opinion. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. This means, if you make a purchase through my links, I’ll receive a small portion of your purchase at no extra cost to you.
NAVY AND GOLD TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH CRICUT
This post contains affiliate links. This means, if you make a purchase through my links, I’ll receive a small portion of your purchase at no extra cost to you.
My friend’s little boy turned one on April 1st and she had the cutest idea for a navy and gold party. I loved the idea of combining that with “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. I had a lot of fun planning out some of the party decor.
First, I drew the cake topper “Twinkle, Twinkle” out with a sharpie on some white paper and took a photo of it with my phone. Then I uploaded it to Cricut Design Space, cleaned up some of the background and was able to cut it out on the Cricut Explore Air.
I thought some stars would be cute for the cupcakes, so I quickly designed a few toppers and also cut some extras for the straws. I’ve been saving some baby food jars forever, knowing that *one* day they would come in handy. I painted the top navy blue with craft paint and used gold adhesive foil cut with the Cricut to add a star. I filled the jars with all sorts of blue candy.
I had the idea of using some Wilton food color gold mist spray for the stars on the cake. I designed a star template on the Cricut and cut it.
I loved how quickly I was able to make custom party decorations that added fun and unique details to the party!
HELLO KITTY BIRTHDAY PARTY
People always told me time flies when you have kids. And boy were they ever right. I can’t believe my little girl is two years old! For her birthday I had decided on a gold theme with mint. But then I thought about how much she loves Hello Kitty and so I decided I needed to throw her a Hello Kitty party. I was able to buy all the Hello Kitty stuff as markdowns after Valentines day so that was awesome (see THIS post about saving on party supplies). I combined it with the other gold stuff I had already been making and the mint, pink and gold Hello Kitty party was born. It was a fun party to put together and I don’t think I have ever seen so many Hello Kitty presents!
I used THIS whipped cream frosting recipe for the cake. The bottom layer was chocolate with white chocolate frosting and the top layer was strawberry with cheesecake frosting.
The gold garland banner in the background was made using large gold confetti pieces that I sewed together. It was easier than I thought it would be and was a quick project. The Hello Kitty heads were actually Valentines, but I used them for the banner instead.
The cupcake toppers were made using some wrapping paper I got on sale after Christmas. 
I painted mason jars with regular acrylic paint and a sponge brush then used some glitter scotch tape for the top detail. I found the flowers marked down at my local grocery store the day before and just trimmed them and added them to the jars.
I forgot to take more pictures of the food, but we had Korean noodle bowls that were delicious! It’s a crockpot homemade version of a popular food truck around here- Cupbop. I think I will post the recipe soon. Some of the ingredients are a little harder to find, but they are worth it!
PINK AND GOLD FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY ON A BUDGET (TIPS TO SAVE MONEY)
Even before I had my little girl I knew I wanted to throw her a pink and gold first birthday party. I love gold and I love sparkles! I wanted to share some of my tips for throwing a party on a budget. I was able to throw this party for under $20 with some careful planning long before!
Scope out yard sales for possible party decor. I love yard sales! I am always on the look out for anything I use for a party. For this one I found all the cake stands at different yard sales throughout the year. If you can’t get to yard sales check out your local thrift stores. The tall crystal cake stand I got for only $2 at a sale! I also purchased the mason jars at a yard sale for $2 for a box of twelve and then spray painted them gold.
Go to stores after holidays and buy up all the holiday sale stuff! I knew I needed gold for the pink and gold party and Christmas decorations have tons of gold in them. I went to Hobby Lobby a few days after Christmas and everything was marked down 90%. This is where I bought all my gold details!! I got the bows, table runner, gold rope, gold tissue paper and most importantly gold glitter wrapping paper. I think I ended up paying 10 cents for the various gold bows, $1 for the rope, $1 for wrapping paper and $2 for the table runner. I also found a gold bead garland for $1 marked down at Target. Think of other colors you could also use too. I saw blue glitter wrapping paper, red, pink and green. All which could possibly be used for a party. After St. Patricks there are tons of green things on sale, Valentines lots of cute hearts, etc. Think ahead for your upcoming party! I used the wrapping paper to make my cupcake toppers and to make my ONE banner. I don’t have a machine to cut things out, so I just printed off the letters on my computer and traced them on to the the wrapping paper.
Find out if and when your local grocery or flower store discounts flowers. I am lucky enough to live by a grocery store the regularly marks down their bouquets to only 99 cents. So I was able to buy my flowers for only $3 for the party. I rearranged the bouquets to fit into my mason jars. I have found that a lot of places mark down their flowers when they are started to wilt a little, but you can usually place them in some fresh water and remove some of the wilty petals or leaves and they will look great the next day. Don’t be afraid to ask when they typically mark things down.
Make as many things as you can yourself. I looked at cakes I wanted on Pinterest and decided one I could make myself. I also made the cupcakes for the party. I just had to buy the ice cream. (I just did a simple cake and ice cream party). See if you can trade someone to make a cake for you if you have another skill! The recipe for the whipped cream frosting I used on the cakes and cupcakes can be found here.
Resale your party stuff!! Since I was going to be spray painting jars for the party I decided not waste my gold spray paint and just spray the extras I had. I also made extra cup cake toppers with the glitter wrapping paper and extra tissue paper garlands. I sold three of the sets (4 mason jars, 1 tissue paper garland and a dozen cupcake toppers) for $20 each on a local Facebook yard sale group. I also sold the ones I used for the party after I used them. So not only did I get stuff at an awesome discount I was also able to recoup the cost plus more by making a few extra.
I know that you might not be able to use all these tips to throw your party, but I hope I gave you some ideas on how you can save money and still have an awesome party.
MICKEY MOUSE BIRTHDAY PARTY
We are a Disney loving family so I wasn’t at all surprised when I asked my little guy what kind of party he wanted for his birthday and he said Mickey Mouse! My friend Hillary is the queen of parties and she had actually thrown a Mickey Mouse first birthday party for her son a few years ago and was kind enough to let me use her decorations. I also found free printables here.
I had found a couple of cute Mickey Mouse cakes that I wanted to do and then one day I found a Mickey Mouse shaped pan at the thrift store. I asked my son which cake he wanted and he picked out the Mickey shaped cake, which hadn’t been my first choice but it was his birthday. I baked a chocolate cake and piped starts to make the Mickey Mouse face. It turned out pretty cute.
We enjoyed a BBQ of Costco hotdogs (so yummy) and chips and a pasta salad. The little kids all went crazy for the Mickey Mouse cupcakes which were super easy to make with Oreos.
All in all we had a great time and an awesome party!
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