Party Invitations, Party Planning & Event Ideas

A Fall Hoot-enanny

Needing some clever ideas for a fun fall party? While looking through Matthew Mead's Monster Book Of Halloween, I discovered the cutest Owl-oween Party, but really couldn't you use it anytime? Change the colors to fit the occasion; pastel for a baby shower or gender-specific colors for a birthday, or whatever you like! Thus today's inspiration.... Get The Party Started
They may be for a wizard party, but you can still download and use these scroll invites and place cards. I love the colors of Polka Dot Design's owl invite; this blue and brown owl invite from My Good Greetings has clean lines and simple perfection. Setting The Scene
Bring in natural elements like grapevine wreaths to mimic bird nests and manzanita branches adorned with small owls. Of course you have to use feathers, like this beautiful wreath from Zofia Design. The Munchies
If you have the skills, this owl cake will blow your guests away. Catching Fireflies' too cute owl cupcakes and Bright Ideas' owl cookies have easy tutorials to follow. Transform moonpies into clever treats; serve these chocolate owls or send them as favors. Adorn cupcakes with these cupcake topper downloads from Rock Scissors Paper. What To Do
Check out petit elefant's DIY for a fun party activity; make their felt bean bags and let guests glue on the features. Or set out paper bags and craft supplies for this inspired owl craft. I know that owls don't live in birdhouses, but setting out small wooden birdhouses (check out your local craft or dollar store) to paint would still work. Send Them Home With A Smile
End the party with Favormaker's owl favor box filled with treats or this cute Stampin Up! favor bag.  Not Just A Mommy!

Gothic Girls Night Out Party

Here is a not so typical Girls Night Out Party. Invite your friends over and ask them to dress on the dark side - a Gothtail Party. Everyone owns something black and with a few accessories it is easy to pull of a gothic look. Glitter skulls, feathers and bling make this a fun party to plan.

Get these party details at Entertain Exchange with more decorating ideas here. The complete hand made invitation instructions are here.

Happy Halloween!

Monster Mash Bash

So, last year's Mad Scientist's Lab Halloween party was a bit much, so I've decided to alternate my holiday parties, so this year small Halloween party, big Christmas party. I fell in love with Target's Monster Mash line, so I let that be my inspiration. Everyone loved the Monster Fingers. You know I love to decorate paper bags. These are filled with themed pencils, glowsticks, vials filled with gummy body parts and these comp books (clearanced for dirt cheap after the Back-To-School rush) I covered with scrapbook paper. These fun monster pillows from Oriental Trading make new friends, especially inspiring while watching Pixar's Monsters, Inc. How cute are these eggs? Perfect for our Monster Egg Hunt!   And the party couldn't be complete without making monster cupcakes! For my second Monster Mash Bash, we made monster trick or treat bags. I made the cupcakes instead, and needed something to do with all the frosting, so I covered cookie balls and made these cute Monster Eyeball Cookies. Come visit my blog for my next Tuesday Tutorial and I'll clue you on how to make them, they are perfect as a last-minute party treat! Not Just A Mommy!

Boos & Ghouls Party

Enter if you dare - get into the spirit of a spooky Boos & Ghouls party, complete with bootiful decor, spooktacular activities and ghoulish food. Use a black and white palette from start to finish.

Get The Party Started
Raid your favorite candy store for the giant lollipops needed for these party invites from HGTV. Have a Halloween birthday? These sweet and scary Halloween invitations from Fun and Sassy Designs also have matching flat note cards and calling cards.

Setting The Scene
Ghostly door decorations made from painted gourds chill the hearts of those brave enough to darken your doorstep.

Spookify your living room furniture with white draping and adding ghostly black felt eyes. Replace light bulbs with blue or black-light bulbs, and everything will take on an eerie glow.

Purchase white pumpkins, paint on black eyes and mouths and place them everywhere; in the dark they resemble floating heads.

Country Living shares how to make these pretty ribbon-handled paper cones; on the back of your guests' chairs they do double-duty as treat holders and party favors.

What To Do
Have a younger crowd play freeze dance with glowsticks while dancing to Ray Parker's "Ghostbusters" and color on black cardstock with glow-in-the-dark paint and markers.

Get right to the point and make a spooky ghostwriter from Crayola Model Magic at FamilyFun.

Have a Slime Pit Relay - fill a large cauldron with homemade slime and have teams try to fill their smaller cauldrons with handfuls of slime. Check out the ultimate slime recipe from the slime expert that is Nickelodeon.

Having a teen sleep-over? Host a Haunt-A-Thon with movies like The Sixth Sense, Poltergeist, Amityville Horror and The Shining, guarantees to keep them up all night!

The Munchies
Oh, so many ideas to choose from! White and black food are a must. Of course, you must set up an Oreo cookie bar. Set them on square plates in piles of like-flavors for maximum impact. Serve shots of milk and chocolate milk, alongside clear glass bowls and jars filled with black and white candies.

Add all sorts of other treats to the table like these mini ghost cupcakes, or these Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy ghost cookies from Everyday Celebrating.

Marshmellow treats never looked so good with these White-As-A-Ghost recipe.

For those who need a bit more of a challenge, BHG's meringue spooks are to die-for.

Come visit my blog this Sunday for two special ghoulish beverages to serve. Not Just A Mommy!

Murderous Cupcakes

Perfect for your Slashin' Halloween Bash, these cupcakes were also inspired by the Showtime serial killer show Dexter. See the post below - A Slashin' Dinner Bash. Get the details for these Murderous Cupcakes here.

Posted by Entertain Exchange

Bewitched

Bewitching fun for Halloween!

1. Add a little witchy fun to your front porch this year - Better Homes & Gardens

2. I scream sandwitches - Martha Stewart

3. Bewitching Invitations - Get the instructions from Better Homes & Gardens

4. Kick up your heals with these wacky witch cupcakes - Better Homes & Gardens

Witch Legs Cupcakes

Your kids will love this wickedly wild coconut-topped cupcake, with wacky witch's legs made from peppermint sticks.

To make it, follow these steps:
1. Start with frosted store-bought or homemade cupcakes.

2. Use black marzipan to make the shape of the witch's boots.

3. Stick yellow mini M&Ms on each boot for the buckles with frosting.

4. Mold each boot around a peppermint stick to create the legs.

5. Top cupcake with coconut dyed with green food coloring.

6. Insert the peppermint sticks into the cupcake to create the witch's legs.

Posted by Entertain Exchange

A Slashin' Dinner Bash

Looking for a unique way to thrill your guests for Halloween? Feast your eyes on this entire macabre dining room created by Amy Lau, inspired by Showtime's Dexter. Set in Miami, the series centers on Dexter Morgan, a covert serial killer governed by a strict moral code (his victims must be unrepentant killers themselves and he must have defining proof of their crimes) who actually works for the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood splatter analyst. The room features a table ready for a sit down dinner of twelve. No detail is left unturned with stark white, blood red accents and various tongue-in-cheek nods to the character. I could just die (no pun intended) for the dining chairs with the embroidered blood splatter. Dexter is meticulous about keeping his workspace clean when he carves up his victims, which is interpreted in the clean, protective plastic tablecloth in white. Mimic this look with white chair covers with red splashes of fabric paint. How in love are you with the the blood vial centerpieces for red wine refills? An online science supply store can readily help you create your own version. Inexpensive wine glasses with a dribble of red glass paint down the stem makes a perfect substitute. And the plates? A splash or two of red paint on unfired bisque at your local paint-your-own pottery store ought to do the trick. Once fired, you will have a white plate with it's own blood spatter. And don't fear, your plates and glasses will make an annual Halloween appearance or out for your next murder mystery party. Repurposed wine glasses dipped in white latex, then strung amidst wood, cables, light bulbs, wires, wax rope and ribbon create this elaborate chandelier. Want your own? A quick online search of "wineglass chandelier" will reveal many a project to fill your Martha need. If you have the ducets, the Dexter chairs, as well as bloody dinner plates and dismembered flatware from the collection, are available. Not Just A Mommy!

Ghostly Ideas

Ghostly Ideas to SPOOK-UP your Halloween.

1. Ghostly Pillowcase Trick-Or-Treat Bags - Get the full instruction from Martha Stewart

2. Strawberry Ghosts - Recipe from Taste of Home

3. Ghostly Soaps from Carvel Country Soaps at Etsy

 4. Ghost Pillowcase chair covers - Instructions from Rachael Ray

Posted by Entertain Exchange

Halloween Invitations

New Halloween Invitations from Sendomatic Online Invitations. Send these modern einvitations in minutes - easy to create with spooky sound and music. Keep track of your RSVPs, poll your guests and send reminders.

Bats Invitation >

Haunted House Invitation >

Orange Lantern Invitation >
 

Mad Scientist's Lab Halloween Party

I've been posting creative Halloween party ideas, and now I get to share my own. After months of planning, and the craziness of pulling it all together, my first Halloween party was a huge success!

My plan was a open house, people coming and going, a few here and there, alas, that was not the case, as the bulk of people came at the same time and more trickled in, but not a lot left. But because it was a school night, it wound down right on time. Because of that, I had not a single moment and was moving the whole time, so a friend was gracious enough to take pix for me. I had an army of teen helpers which was amazing, because I'm learning to delegate and not do it all myself.

There were lots of dim orange lighting, candles and black lights, but the camera flash counteracts the effect. Trust me when I say it all looked really cool. I have other pictures coming, but here is what I have....

The Food - I love my labels, I think renaming stuff makes food more interesting. I had to counteract all the sweets so the main dish was"Chili Con Carnivore" (turkey chili with crackers), which I hear was really good, never got to have any. "Lime jello with gummy worms and candy spores" in petri dishes I ordered from Home Science Tools. I piped frosting through a large tip for "Monster Brains" and a great brain mold with gummy worms floated in "Dead Man's Punch". The "Boocakes" are Peeps ghosts poked through with a toothpick, sitting on chocolate cupcakes rolled in crushed chocolate graham crackers. In the capote is "Ghoul Fuel", Chex Mix with gummy eyeballs added. And of course, we had to have "Devil's Eggs". Not pictured, the "Monster Bites", apple wedges filled with peanut butter and candy corn teeth. They went too fast.

The Activities - In one room, we were playing Monster House with no sound, and yet the kids were mesmerized. I like to have something playing in the background, so kids can take a moment from the insanity. In another room, I emptied most of the toys and furniture and hung two black light fixtures, and white balloons with glow sticks in them for an eerie effect. The remaining furniture had white sheets on them, and Halloween music was playing. It became a dance/beating each other with balloons/popping the balloons then fighting with the glow sticks room. My husband was not pleased.

In the garage, I covered one side black plastic panels, to hide all of our stuff, the other side has gray butcher paper painted like stone, to give that mad lab feel. Cobwebs were strung up and dim lighting due to a few lamps. There were 4 stations: "Bubbling Blood" a demo of what happens when you mix Vampire's Blood (vinegar colored red) and Garlic Powder (baking soda); "Build a Molecule" with colored marshmallows and toothpicks; "Pick Your Poison"(not pictured) where kids tested different solutions with pH paper (also from Home Science Tools) and had to match up what color they changed to. I named the checklist with things like "Essence of Wolfsbane" "Zombie Venom", etc. etc. By far, every one's favorite was "Slime Time". It's a really cool recipe I found online. It's the type that when you play with it, it becomes a solid, and then becomes an ooze when you stop playing. I premixed the borax solution, then the kids added the glue and water, and their choice of concentrated coloring to a paper cup, stirring with a Popsicle stick, then slowly adding the borax solution. Then they have to put their hands in to pull the slime out and knead it for awhile. All the kids loved it, it was squishy and yucky. They put their creations in plastic baggies that had instructions on it, to keep refrigerated when not in play and wash your hands.

The hit with the older kids (and a few adults) was the wax hands. There is this amazing wax called FlexWax I purchased from Oriental Trading. It's a low temp wax that can be used to cast on the body because it doesn't need a lot of heat to melt, and won't burn the skin. With an rice cooker I found at Value Village (you have to heat the wax in a double boiler), the victim slathers up their hand in Vaseline, then dips into the wax, and cools it in cold water. Repeat a few times, and you get a really cool effect. The fun part is pulling the mold off. They also went home in gallon bags.

The Decor - Ok, so I had a lot of stuff going on. The black light room had plastic spiders puttied up on the walls, and spider webs everywhere. The Caution tape corner is covering a fog machine (note to self, one spray of fog is enough in a small room). I tried to get a picture without the flash to show the black light effect (yes, I'm still going to beat that dead horse), but not quite working. My step-daughter traced out like 60 bats from construction paper, using a cookie cutter as a template, and we hung them in the TV room from fishing line, and all over the walls. And a great paper chain across the ceiling as well. My shelf wall is full of creepy jars and stained cheesecloth, and plastic flies everywhere. I borrowed every table and folding chair I could for enough places to sit and eat, and my kitchen table has this great centerpiece of Martha's glitter skulls. Sorry, I purchased them last year, and it looks like she didn't have them out this season. The tablecloth is an old, stained cloth that I ripped up. Lots of candles on the table and everywhere I could think of. The bathroom lights were changed for black light bulbs, and I changed the kitchen ones to orange bulbs as well. I hate that light fixture, so I draped "bloody" cheesecloth and black branches on it, just to do something with it.

The Treat Bags - Yes, I love my little Frankenbags. They were full of gummy and chocolate body parts and other candy. The little ones' bags had stickers and pencils. I also gave my teen helpers small wooden Halloween totes that had a bag of candy tied to them, and they all had made wax hands and slime. And all the kids had their slime and some took their molecules home too. BTW, that's me in the blue scrubs with a very angry Obi-Wan Kenobi at my side. I was going for a undead scientist, but turned into a ghoulish 2nd year med student. I was looking for a lab coat, but I kept putting it off, and could only find scrubs at the thrift stores. Not Just a Mommy!