Birthday Bash

Ummmm... YUM.


Not gonna lie... if you don't like sweet paper crafts or sweet treats, man oh man... you're not gonna like today's post for Papertrey's March release countdown :) Not one little bit.

Cause there is just a whole lotta sweet up in here today.
Sweet after sweet after sweet.

With extra sweetness sprinkled on top.


Today each of the Papertrey Ink design team gals are focusing on one of the images from the new 2012 Birthday Tags set as well as the new By Invitation set.  (Both sets will be available for purchase beginning 3/15 at 10pm EST at www.papertreyink.com.)

As luck would have it, my real life and my Papertrey life happily coincided right around the time of a special baby shower...

Yeah... I might have knocked a few DT'ers over in my quest to secure this celebrate tag for my projects :)  (Kidding, kidding.) I thought it would make the perfect accent for all of the baby boy shower details.

I started my paper projects with the invitation.  The base layer is cut with the new Card Base-ics #2 die... yeah... totally diggin' that thing.  I wanted this set to have a very simple, elegant feel so I started with one of my favorite elegant basics... linen fabric. 

All it took was just a bt of spray adhesive on a panel of white cardstock to adhere the linen on top.  Do that step first, THEN die cut it with the Card Base-ics die.  Mine cut perfectly the first time in my Big Shot... just look at those beautiful edges!

I added a bit of tissue paper cut with the Parisian Lace die to the top and bottom of the card base.  That left the perfect spot to add my Celebrate tag stamped in Spring Rain. 

Love the Spring Rain, linen, and white combo :)

A vellum panel stamped with the new By Invitation set slips right into the die cut slots... love the detail there.  I wrote the details in with a white gel pen to tie everything together.


You know what baby showers mean to me?
I mean... besides the (obvious) baby :)

Treats.
Lots and lots of treats.
So when I host a shower, I can assure you... there will be treats.
Lots and lots of treats.

See?

Cupcake in a jar.
Seriously :)
The last baby shower I threw involved pies in a jar, which left me lots of jars, so naturally... another baby shower mean another something-in-a-jar :)  You'll find baking details at the bottom of this post.

I thought it would be fun to create a cupcake bag instead of the more traditional cupcake box.  I used one of Papertrey's small coffe bags with no window, then created my own custom window with the new Tag Sale #6 die. 

All that requires is placing the die on the inside of the bag (face up) and running it through the die cut machine.  Since you're placing the die inside the bag, the placement can be a bit tricky.  To fix that, I used some removable adhesive to keep the die in place and held it up to a light to help get the placement just right. 

Next step is trimming a clear panel to fit over the window.  Here's what my panel looks like... I set it on top of the bag so that you can see what the placement should be like when you stick it inside the bag...

Of course, the cupcake carrier needed a matching topper :) I added the Parisian Doily die cut plus a little linen detail.  I made that in the same fashion as the invitation card base, I just die cut it with the Tag Sale #6 tag this time.  The celebrate tag sits up on top of everything.

But wait, there's more :)

I kicked of this entire baby shower idea with some iced onesie cookies and, as you know, apparently I think that all cookies deserve a pretty glassine bag wrapping (see here and here for further evidence).  Seriously, I just think glassine bags make everything prettier :)

This favor bag got prettied up with a Parisian Lace doily topper, plus another linen Tag Sale #6 die cut.  I folded the tag in half then used a standard hole punch to add another hole to the bottom of the tag.  I also punched a hole straight through the bag so that I could hold everything together with a matching ribbon.  Sweet, right?

And, of course... those sweet cookies needed an equally sweet and practically identical card to go with them :)

Be sure to click on the picture below to catch the details on this one.  I used the Shape Up: Onesie die here and added a stitched edge to the front for a little something extra.  The heart die cut on the front just puts the cute factor over the edge for me :)

Once more I'm gonna be up front with you... the following pictures are pretty much just gratuitous shots of the baked goods.  So, you know... if you're into seriously sweet baked goods... read on.

If not, save yourself the calories and skip to the end :)

Once again I used the sugar cookie recipe from A Bee in Our Bonnet here, and the royal icing recipe from Sweet Sugarbelle right here.  I paired those with the sweet onsie cutter from Hobby Lobby (it came in a set of 4 baby themed cutters).

Have to say... these are my favorite cookies to date :)  The decorating is 99% white icing which makes for a super simple design to execute.  I didn't come up with the idea to add the heart myself... I've seen it on lots of beautiful onesie cookies.  I just tried to put my own spin on it by keeping everything else super simple and beautiful. 

When thinking through some plating ideas for the shower inspiration struck in the form of sugar... I added a layer to all of my platters.  The white base on everything helped tie my different silver platters and dishes together and gave everything a pretty base to sit on.  (Ummm... sort of like my love of white card bases?  I think so.)

I have one long platter that *perfectly* fit the baby name cookies :)  Love how these turned out!  Every mommy loves to see her baby's names on things, right?? I used some older Martha Stewart cookie cutters for the letters and this tutorial from Sweet Sugarbelle to add the sanding sugar to the edges.  This was my first attempt at adding the sanding sugar and it was no surprise that I loved it... it's the Prisma Glitter of the cookie world :)

I couldn't resist adding one tiny little heart detail to the M...

And to keep everything consistent, I used some of the leftover blue icing to make some heart accents for the cupcakes-in-a-jar (catch Sweet Sugarbelle's tutorial on royal icing accents here).  Kinda love how that ended up coming together. 

The cupcakes themselves were super simple.  I used the small 4oz jars and sprayed the inside with oil.  Any cake batter will work, just fill them up around halfway or a smidge over (more is not always better, though!).  My cake batter filled about 20 jars so I baked 2 separate batches of 10, setting each 10 on a cookie sheet to be slid into the oven.  They might take a bit longer than typical cupcakes, but not too much.

If you're nervous about baking the jars (I'm not as they are canning jars and made to be exposed to high heat, plus this isn't my first baking-in-a-jar-rodeo :) you could always just bake regular cupcake, cut them in half, stick the bottom half in the jar, add icing, then repeat with the top half and more icing.  More icing doesn't sound half bad to me :)

But I do love how just the jar dresses up a typical cupcake :) They're great for a party because you can just carry the jar and your fork and eat it without the cupcake paper mess.


I sprinkled some sanding sugar on the cupcakes to tie them in with the letters (once again, it's the papercrafting influence... I want them all to work together!).


And here's a few shots of how some of the treats looked the night of the shower...

(Hey, look... I was able to strategically crop out the messy kitchen counter, haha!)

Pretty cupcake jars...

and even more cookies.  Lots and lots of cookies :)

If you've made it this far, you deserve a medal.
Likely one made of cookies :)

Or you could just mosey on over to see the rest of today's new projects from the design team.  I promise you won't be disappointed...
Nichole Heady

Betsy Veldman

Erin Lincoln

Maile Belles

Lisa Johnson

Dawn McVey

Heather Nichols

Melissa Phillilps

Michelle Wooderson

Danielle Flanders

Thanks for hanging in there for this marathon post, friends!

Thoughts? Opinions?  I'd love to know what you think about the paper crafted sweet fest happening here today :)

{Celebrate} Baby Shower set

Supplies not available now but available 3/15: 

Stamps - 2012 Birthday Tags, By Invitation
Dies - Card Base-ics #2, Tag Sale #6
Supplies available now:

Supplies available now but not listed in Inlinkz: Classic Kraft ink, Linen Vellum Cardstock