Have you been anxiously awaiting the recipes I've been promising you from the Rainbow Unicorn Party?  The first one I want to share is for these...

Chocolate Sprinkles Cookies

I was inspired to make these after seeing THIS POST from Rosie at Sweetapolita.
These are SUPER chocolaty but oh so delicious! They weren't hard to make at all but you'll need to double the recipe if you are looking to feed a crowd. (and yet for me, the batter got a bit dry pretty quickly, so if you make a big batch you'll need to keep the dough covered while you've got your first batch in the oven).

I opted to use the pastel colored round sprinkles - to keep with the party theme a little better. (Not that the other ones wouldn't work just fine). BUT…I did have to pick out every purple sprinkle so they matched the party color palette perfectly. Ha!! GET THE RECIPE HERE.

Next up…the recipe for this...

Rainbow Sprinkles Popcorn

This is actually considered "Cake Batter Popcorn". It looked adorable sprinkled with the same candy sprinkles used on the Chocolate Cookies. It's SUPER sweet and it keeps the popcorn soft…not crunchy. (I personally prefer crunch). But the kids loved it and it looked cute on the dessert table. I'm honestly not a huge fan of boxed cake mix, which is what the recipe calls for, but it sure makes things simple.

The recipe came from my Popcorn Flavor Round-Up Post - 9th flavor down in the post. 
Really easy to make and since you can change out the colors of the sprinkles this treat works for ANY celebration you are having. I just filled up some white party cups and popped the clear lucite table labels (coming to the shop soon) in front and called it done!

KEEPiNG iT REAL
Had you noticed there was no purple in the party scheme until I mentioned having picked out the purple sprinkles from the bottle I used for the cookies? (and popcorn too).

I'm not a big fan of purple in the first place. (cringing when I say that because I have so many friends/fans that love it and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings - *wink*). I'm trying to warm up to it again. My room was painted lavender when I was in middle school so I'm not sure what happened between now and then? I think you either love pink or purple. And I just happen to prefer pink.

Anyway…not only did I have to sort through the sprinkles, I also sifted through the shimmer sixlets and candy pearls from Sweetworks too - removing all of the lavender pastel pieces. I created my own custom mix of colors I call the "Ella Collection" - Ha! The tedious behind-the-scenes tasks that no one ever really knows about…until now.

COOKIES | Rainbow Unicorn Birthday Party :: Paint-by-Party Sugar Cookies

You guys…I'm totally gushing today about one of the cutest parts of Ella's Rainbow Unicorn Party. It's not only adorable but it's brilliant because it is a party "activity" that becomes an edible party favor.

I had the privilege to work with Lisa from Flourish Sweet Shop again while planning Ella's birthday party. (remember the "Love You to the Moon" cookies she made)? When I mentioned to her Ella's request to be able to color rainbows as one of the party activities, Lisa mentioned a new cookie concept she'd been playing around with and I knew it was exactly what I needed for Ella's party.

Rainbow Unicorn "Paint-by-Party" Sugar Cookies

These 100% edible “Paint-by-Party Cookies” by Flourish Sweet Shop (FSS) were designed for

CELEBRATE | Ella's Rainbow Unicorn Birthday Party

I am beyond excited to finally be sharing Ella’s Rainbow Unicorn Party today.

It was an exclusive feature on HWTM last week which now allows me to post freely all of the photos and details here on the blog! Yay! 

Ella started dreaming of a Rainbow Unicorn Party months before her big day. When I asked her what kind of party she’d like to have I shouldn’t have been surprised

CRAFT | Ella's Rainbow Unicorn Birthday :: Thank You Cards

If you were wondering how I put together the Rainbow Unicorn Thank You Cards I first showed you last week…I've got all of the details for you today. It's not a complicated process at all but I wanted to share with you some insight into the reasons I packaged it just in case you decide to recreate these yourself.

Along with the Rainbow Unicorn Thank You Cards I gathered all of my supplies:

Ditto Dots washi tape // Tissue Confetti (info below) // Birthday Photos

Blank Business Cards (just something I happened to already have) // Pen // Clear Envelopes

I knew I wanted clear envelopes because I wanted the coordinating confetti to show along with the fun graphic of the Thank You Card - and Ella's cute signature.

However, because I didn't want Ella's photo to show for everyone at the Post Office to see I just put it face down against the backside of the Thank You Card. (If you are concerned that the ink from your handwritten personalized message on your Thank You Card will transfer to your photo during the mailing process you can insert a thin piece of tissue paper trimmed to size to put between the ink and photo to help protect it). I didn't need to do that because I wrote the cards at least a week before I finally inserted the photos and got them mailed out - so the ink was good and dry.

MAKE YOUR OWN TISSUE PAPER CONFETTI

Making the tissue paper confetti was one of the fun steps of the whole process! It's super easy too! Simply make sure your tissue paper is folded several times and use a paper craft punch. If you have never tried this I bet you are thinking it's going to get all jammed in your craft punch. Trust me…it cuts like butter. Now…if your tissue paper isn't thick enough - not so much! *wink*

I chose to use a 3/4" Paper Punch for the Thank You Card Confetti but you could use any size you want! The tissue confetti used to fill the inside of Ella's Birthday Balloon was created with a 1" circle paper punch - which was just a little bit bigger and to be honest…I bought the balloon confetti pre-punched from Shop Sweet Lulu. I also happened to purchase the bundle of assorted tissue paper seen below from the same place and then made my own for the Thank You Cards.

Choosing which photo of Ella to include with the Thank You Card was the hardest part for me. I ended up just letting Ella decide! Which helped keep her involved in the whole Thank You Card process. Originally I was going to just use shipping labels for addressing the envelopes, (and you could totally do that), BUT…I wanted to use a little washi tape as an accent and I wasn't sure if it would stay attached to the outside of the envelope. So, I had a really old package of leftover blank business cards (the ones that you use for printing your own business cards from home - does anyone do that anymore?). If the Thank You Card was being hand-delivered then I only wrote the person's name. (as seen below). I taped the addressed blank business cards to the back of Ella's photo using the cute washi tape. I slid it into the envelope and then added the confetti. I liked the size of this confetti because it wasn't too small - which would have more of a potential to cause a mess upon opening…if you know what I mean!

I LOVE snail mail, people! It's absolutely one of my favorite things. And I especially love preparing invitations and the such in a fun, fabulous way. It will never get old for me. Seriously.
This technique is simple yet significant. (if you saw my Instagram post today you'd know exactly what that means). I hope you'll get yourself some clear envelopes for mailing out your next set of invitations or thank you cards. Love them!

SOURCES:
Rainbow Unicorn Thank You Card
Solid Tissue for DIY confetti
Tissue Confetti pre-punched
Clear envelopes
Washi Tape


KEEPiNG iT REAL
I had a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend by the way. I hope you all did too.
Aside from being spoiled with gift cards to some of my favorite places, J and I enjoyed a last-minute dinner at a local Italian restaurant that proved to be exceptional. While we were out, Ella was at the church fully engaged in making cupcakes and cards to present to us when we returned. So sweet.

Clara planned a big fancy night out with her girlfriends that don't have boyfriends. *wink* They got all dressed up and had dinner together at Olive Garden before heading out to see the new movie Endless Summer. She even went and got a pedicure and manicure for the big night along with a new dress! I just LOVE that she did that. She had it planned for months and was so excited about it and get this…she paid for every single cent of it! 

I will be sharing the sweet details from the "memory-making event" Ella and J had together on Saturday night! Stay tuned!

LIFE | Sprinkle the confetti - let's celebrate getting stuff done!

Sprinkle the confetti people! It's time to celebrate!
All of Ella's Thank You Cards were finally finished and sent last week! *high five*
AND…I was also able to edit all of the Rainbow Unicorn party photos and will be sharing the details soon!

You are looking at the front of the thank you cards - addressed and ready just before I mailed or hand-delivered them. More details on how I put these together are coming later this week.
For now, just know they are tucked inside pretty clear envelopes from JamPaper and Envelope!

KEEPiNG iT REAL
I've been asked to bring cupcakes to Ella's Valentine's Day party on Friday so I was contemplating making my own or just picking up a delicious dozen or two from Cupcake Delights.

THEN…I saw THESE posted on Facebook today by my sweet friend, Carrie, from The Cake Blog and I can't help myself. I'll be doing the mini-sized version and I'm hoping the kids absolutely love them!! I promise to share my results!

SNEAK PEEK | Ella's Rainbow Unicorn Party

It's taking FOREVER for me to get done with going through and prepping the photos from Ella's 5th Rainbow Unicorn birthday party.

It's not the actual process that's been the challenge…
it's the constant barrage of interruptions, work, deadlines and life as we know it.

I just can't hold off any longer sharing one of my very favorite party elements…
So here's a peek…just to keep you excited until I'm finally able to share EVERYTHING!!

KEEPiNG iT REAL
I've had too many irons in the fire and I'm working on "navigating" my way through the process of fixing all of that. I keep reminding myself to be intentional and purposeful with my time. (my whole "one little word" journey). That includes personal as well as work time! I'm making progress…but I've got a treacherous journey ahead of me. It should NOT take me this long to post about something so important to me - Ella's 5th birthday party. The holidays following right after her party don't help the situation every year but I've GOT to get better at party-detail-turnaround! Ha!!

LIFE | Ella's Birthday Photo Shoot

It rained ALL day the day we had Ella's Rainbow Unicorn 5th Birthday Party. (but of course you would never know that since I haven't posted party details yet). *blushing*

Anyway, because of the rain, I wasn't able to get any great photos of Ella on party day in the polka dot birthday dress I had made for her! But it all worked out because I knew I wanted to be able to include some fun photos in the thank you notes I still haven't sent out AND since I ended up not incorporating this fabulous diamond clear 36" balloon into the party details I knew a birthday photo shoot using that amazing balloon was a no-brainer! The next weekend I...

PARTY PEEK | Ella's Rainbow Unicorn Party- the Cake

Cake and Photo Credit: Sherri at The Pastry Studio

I shared this sneak peek of Ella's birthday cake on Instagram and Facebook yesterday.
I'm working on finishing up the photos and will be posting the rest of the details from Ella's Rainbow Unicorn Party soon!

KEEPiNG iT REAL
As much as I love taking my own photos it's busy holiday times like these I'd love to hand off this responsibility to someone else and just wait for the finished photos to be emailed to me! Ha!!

PARTY PREPS | Rainbow Unicorn Birthday Party Invitation

I'm having a hard time deciding on which invitation to go with for Ella's upcoming "Rainbow Unicorn" birthday party.
She's got her favorite and I've got mine.

Although I have never revealed the invitation pre-party before...
I'm thinking this is such a FUN idea to get you all involved in the voting process...
so if you have an opinion...let me know which version you prefer:

                             Chalkboard Background vs. White Background

Looking forward to your feedback and input!!

KEEPiNG iT REAL
This whole "Rainbow Unicorn" theme Ella picked is totally cracking me up.
I remember everything being all rainbows and unicorns at one point when I was growing up!
I've still got a unicorn statue a friend of mine (Missy) gave me for my birthday in elementary school.
It was from the Hallmark store - back in the day when shopping for pens and stickers was totally THE shopping experience all girls craved!
I have no idea how the porcelain unicorn has survived without any chips or breaks all these years?
Ella has it in her room now and LOVES it!
Maybe I'll use it as the cake topper for her party? Ha!!

BEHIND THE SCENES | More good stuff

It's grind time here at my house.
Tomorrow is the big day for our Neighborhood Fall Family Picnic and
I've been working on final preparations to make sure it all comes together nicely.
Which also means there's been no extra time for blogging this week - as you could tell! *wink*

Thought I'd send you off into the weekend with more behind-the-scenes photos into the random bits and pieces of my week:

Adorable Halloween goodies from The TomKat Studio

In love with these items and can't wait to share what I'm doing with all of this. 

Find these items and so much more at The TomKat Studio Shop.

New fave Ditto Dots washi tape from Doodlebug Design, Inc.

Totally perfect colors for Ella's Rainbow Unicorn party coming up in November.

 Halloween Decor for The Pastry Pedestal

The scrapbooking aisle of your local craft store is such a good friend to 

The Pastry Pedestal and the NEW Platforms!! Not to mention so are store-bought pastries! *wink* 

I'll share more deets next week.

New labeling for the Popcorn Bar on Saturday

Loving the new updated "Chalkboard" edition of the Rustic Popcorn Bar Collection.

Kernel Season's Popcorn Spritzer Makeover

It's amazing what a little brown paper bag can do. 

I'll be sharing more details of what else I used brown paper bags to create for the Fall Family Picnic.

New PNPF Branding and Business Cards

You've had to notice the new look of the blog?!

These are my matching business cards I received a few weeks ago. 

I always order the mini business cards from moo.com - They are my fave!

There's more...
but there's no more time! *wink*
Story of my life right now.

I hope you all have a GREAT weekend!
Believe it or not, even though there's still so much more to do for the Fall Family Picnic...
I'm not stressing about it. I've been pretty calm - up to this point.
I think it's just wisdom as I get older - knowing the world isn't going to end if every little detail I dreamed of doesn't play out. In fact - simple is better.

Now that doesn't mean skipping the small details altogether...
it just means picking and choosing the small details that matter most! Right?

KEEPiNG iT REAL
I'm really looking forward to the pie-eating contest on Saturday - it's going to be the highlight of my weekend!
J and some of the other menfolk from the neighborhood are going to be participating
so I can't wait to see how it all plays out!