Birthday week! My kids have birthdays just two days apart. My son turned 19 and my daughter turned 16 this past week.
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| The obligatory birthday pic |
I had been thinking of having her a surprise Sweet Sixteen party since last year and then time got away from me as it tends to do and combined with some setbacks, it almost didn't happen. It wasn't a "real" party, but she was surprised and I think she loved it anyway.
If you know me, you know I am "themey." Everything has to have a theme and it has to coordinate. I searched Pinterest for ideas for a sweet sixteen party and most of the things that came up were candy related. Then I saw a Starbucks party and I knew that was it! She's a Starbucks girl, she likes her iced and flavored coffees and frappuccinos.
I wanted to do a party with her church youth group but couldn't get the timing worked out. The youth leader graciously allowed me to bring cupcakes and some decorations on Wednesday night, the day before her birthday. I enlisted the aid of one of her friends to coordinate the teens to yell "surprise!" when she walked in. I wish I could have been there, but that would have given away the surprise. Scroll on to see what I crafted for the big event!
The Starbucks themed decoration board for the party. The idea was to make it look kind of like a Starbucks store, with the chalkboard menu and pictures of drinks.
I tried to duplicate the look of the Starbucks coffee cup with the wrap. I made about 4 dozen "Starbucks Salted Caramel Frappuccino cupcakes." YES! I! MADE! THEM! If you know me, you know I don't "do" food. I just don't like to cook/bake/decorate and I HATE to clean up the mess. But I found the recipe on Pinterest and it sounded easy enough so I just went for it. They turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself! My daughter's reaction was priceless when I told her I made them. "YOU made these????" She thought I had gotten them from my cake supplier ;)
The surprised birthday girl. She couldn't believe I pulled it off. She couldn't believe that her friend, well known for not being able to keep secrets, kept the secret!!
This is what she got in her lunchbox the next day, on her actual birthday. She wasn't supposed to open her lunchbox until lunchtime, and I had included a note that she had to wear the crown in order to get lunch (which I was bringing to her). The little stinker found it before lunch and then left it in her locker so she wouldn't have to wear it! Sometimes she's no fun at all! It's not a very good picture of the bottle, but I glittered the bottom part of it. One side says "Birthday Girl" and the other side says "Sweet 16." I made the vinyl part removable (I mean, she's only a birthday girl for one day) but the glitter part is really pretty and is supposed to be washable even in the dishwasher so we'll see how it holds up!
Nothing crafting related here but this is cute! The only thing she wanted for her birthday was a dog! She didn't get one, ha! But we had gone out to eat and as we were leaving the restaurant, this super friendly dog (and her owners) were outside. So she got some dog loving and a doggie kiss on her birthday after all!
The cake!! I made the cake!! My kids don't like traditional birthday cakes, so she had requested a cheesecake. I had been wanting to try cutting a sugar sheet in my Cameo and I'm happy to say it worked very well!! Glenna at
MyPaperCraze has a fantastic tutorial on cutting sugar sheets. There were a few spots that were difficult to remove, especially the centers of the letters "A" and "R" (thank goodness there were only those two)! It's not perfect but overall, I was very pleased with how it turned out. I will be doing this again since it was a pretty easy way to decorate a cake! (Bonus that it was also yummy!)
Of course, no party is complete without a birthday banner! Yes, even though they are not all in the picture, there are sixteen pennants.
That's all for now, time to work on my next project!
