Freebie Printable Party Supplies – Rainbow Sherbet – Updated!

Updated 4/9/12: The original file had demo text on the invitations page, which was not editable! So sorry! And thank you so much to the reader who pointed this out! I have fixed the file, and now you can edit the invitations as intended. The link is still at the bottom of the post!

Erin

Hi again! I finally have a second to post another freebie… My Ice Cream Social Printable Party Pack in the Rainbow Sherbet color scheme! I have had a recent request for this, so I hurried to get it on here. Sometimes with three kids, I cannot find much time to blog – or design for that matter! Please click the links to download, at the bottom of this post, and also make sure to read the Read Me First file that has explanations, etc. in it. Enjoy!

Read Me First File

Free Printable Ice Cream Social Party Pack in “Rainbow Sherbet”

Let me know if you use this party pack! Leave me a link to any photos, blog posts, etc. I would love to see them!

– Erin

Mini Donuts + Free Printable Donut Party Invitations

Hello again! Last week was another busy week, and I am starting this week out with something pretty sweet… Mini Donuts! I was at Meijer on Saturday, and saw this Mini Doughnut Pan again (I restrained myself from buying it the first time I saw it!) and caved in and bought it! I love donuts (doughnuts?) and so do my 3 kids, and my husband too… And I love anything tiny. Can’t resist. So I made donuts on Sunday for my kids, and they turned out so well! Here I am going to share my photos, the recipe I used, and at the end of this post – a free donut party invitation!

First, I want to let you know, if you don’t normally bake you will need some patience for this process. The mini donut wells are very tiny, and you have to slowly and deliberately pour the batter off the end of a spoon into the wells, so you don’t get the batter all over the little “hole maker” in the center of each well. Does that make sense??? But over all, except the pouring of the batter, this is very very easy.

Since I was the only one awake at 6 am on a Sunday, I couldn’t capture a photo of me putting the batter into the pan, so here is my first photo, of the donuts baking.

My first batch, in which I filled the wells a little too much, looked slightly more like mini bundt cakes…

 

I dipped the mini donuts in a vanilla glaze, just turned them upside down and dunked them half way. Super easy. Then, I showered them with rainbow non-pareils! These rainbow non-pareils were purchased at The Flower Factory.

 

 

 

 

Don’t they look cute?!?!

 

 

My second batch looked a lot more like donuts, not mini bundt cakes. The directions say to fill them half way, and this time I did a better job of that…

 

 

The only other advice I have for you if you bake up a batch (or 3) of these mini donuts, is when you spray the Pam into the donut wells, spray only a little, and if you spray too much, wipe out the excess with a paper towel, or this will happen:

 

 

 

Here is the recipe I used, that was on the back of the donut pan packaging:

 

Baked Mini Cake Doughnuts by Wilton

1 1/4 c. cake flour, sifted

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. buttermilk (I used regular milk, and added 1/2 tsp. white vinegar)

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 tbsp. melted butter

 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray Mini Doughnut Pan with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add buttermilk, egg, and butter and stir until just combined.

Fill each doughnut well approximately 1/2 full.

Bake 4-6 minutes or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched.

Let cool for about 4-5 minutes before removing from pan.

Finish the donuts with glaze and sprinkles.

The recipe states that this will yield 24 mini donuts, but I got 40 out of it!!!

 

Vanilla Glaze

1 c. confectioners’ sugar

1 tbsp. milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In small bowl, stir together sugar, milk, and vanilla until sugar is completely dissolved. Use immediately to glaze donuts.

 

Alas, since I gave up all sugar for Lent, these are the only mini donuts I could indulge in:

 

 

 

Also, here is a list of cute donut party finds on the internet:

P is for Party: Delectable Doughnut Party

Have Faith. Every Day. : Donut Party

One Charming Party : Strawberry Party – Donut Cake

Kara’s Party Ideas : Donuts & Doilies Party

 

Well, as promised, here are the free donut party invitations, in downloadable pdf format. You just open the pdfs in Adobe Acrobat Reader, and print onto Letter sized paper (preferably cardstock) and cut out! There are two color schemes in the file (see below). Click here to download the free PDF.

 

 

 

 

Real Life Party – Rainbow Art Party

Well, since I am posting this on Tuesday, instead of Monday, as I thought I would, you can probably tell that the party threw me for a loop as far as housework goes, and now I’m getting back to normal! Yes, it took a lot of prep, setting up, tearing down, cake baking, cake frosting, etc. I was very tired after the party on Sunday! Anyway, leading around 15 8 year old girls in an arts and crafts party was a bit of an ordeal… I thought my daughter was the only one who was hyperactive, but most of the girls were, and so my plans of taking nice photos while they were doing their crafts flew right out the window, as I was cleaning and helping out constantly instead of taking pics. I did get some, just not as good as I had hoped.

However, the most important thing was that the girls had fun, and they sure did! Even though I forgot to bring:

1. The music

2. The Rainbow Punch ingredients (7 up & rainbow sherbet – my mom ran to the nearest drive through to get just plain 7 up instead 😦 )

And I got set up late, as the parents were walking in I was still madly setting up, 3o minutes is definitely not long enough to carry 5 boxes of supplies in and set up tables, chairs, and all of the decorations, so I will definitely reserve the room for a longer block of time next time!

Anyway, here are the photos, and also some freebie PDFs in case you want to throw your own rainbow party!

The rainbow cake, before I sliced it! All of the girls were saying, “what kind of cake is it?”

 

 

Not the best photo! Someone had moved a few of them before I had a chance to snap a pic, but you get the idea of the custom H20 labels…

 

One of the things I was madly setting up as the parents were walking in! I didn’t have time to fix the ribbons & labels that had fallen off… :*(

 

This is the absolute calmest the girls ever were! They loved painting…

 

The colorwheel I made for the girls to reference, and my daughter’s “fruit in bowl” painting. Don’t you love it??? I do! 😀

 

My daughter set this up. I should have come up with alternative containers for the beads. The labels on the boxes look so busy. 😦

 

Love the purple sky and pink clouds!!!

 

The girls making their “About The Artist” self portrait sheets. Got this idea from One Charming Party… I also got the rainbow cake idea from them, but didn’t remember to get the cool, cut-away cake photo like they did on their website… 😦

 

One of the girls eating her rainbow cake! They loved it…. But it was quite hard to slice, being so tall!

 

 

And this is all that was left at the end:

 

 

Well, I had hoped for more organization, and less chaos, but maybe you’ll have better skills than I at herding cats – I mean little girls. 😉

 

Here are the free printable Rainbow Art Party PDFs… 1 page of 2 invitations, 1 color wheel 1 page of party circles/ envelope seals / treat labels which are 2″ circles. And the party circles are fillable, meaning you can type right into the labels in Adobe Acrobat Reader and make your own labels. I have formatted to text to be American Typewriter Light, like you see on the invitation, so if you don’t have that font on your computer, your computer will substitute something automatically. Just click on the color wheel to open!

Enjoy!

 

 

Inspiration Board #5 – Rainbow Themed Party

So I always plan my kids’ birthday parties months in advance. Everyone thinks I’m nuts, but if I don’t plan ahead, I can’t get it all finished in time. Life with three kids is hectic! So I kept seeing rainbow themed parties around the internet, and I was so inspired that I talked my daughter, who was about to turn 8 into a rainbow party. But not just rainbow. It had to be more – to get her interested – so I showed her this party over at One Charming Party, and the whole arts & crafts + rainbow = awesome party started to settle into her brain! We didn’t do the same art projects that they feature in their party, but we did use a few of their ideas. Like the 8 layer rainbow cake (8 layers for 8 years!) and the “about the artist” coloring sheets for the girls to do about themselves. We also had painting, but we had the girls paint on 8×10 inch canvases with acrylic paints, instead of watercolor. The only other craft I was brave enough to tackle was bracelet making. With rainbow colored beads of course!

I will post the photos of Emma’s actual party after we host it, on Monday. But I wanted to share some of the parties that inspired me to choose this theme.

Here is my inspiration board:

Details:

1) Scene from the One Charming Party Art Gallery Party

2) These 4 photos were featured on Amy Atlas’s blog! The party details can be seen here on the Cake Ink blog.

3) Dessert table from the Rainbows & Unicorns Party over on Juicy Bits.

4) These 2 photos are from the Rainbow Party on Buggie and Jellybean.

5) Candy from the Rainbows & Racecars party featured on Kara’s Party Ideas from Glorious Treats.

6) Love the decorations at this Rainbows & Ruffles party from Hip Hooray.

 

Check back Monday to see photos from my daughter’s party. I really hope it goes off without a hitch! Maybe I’ll have some disaster photos to share! 😉