Baby Girl's 1st Birthday - Starting to Create!

Even though Baby Girl's 1st birthday is 2 months away (2 months and 4 days to be exact!) I am starting on making things for her party. It seems like awhile away, but I know it will probably take me that long to finish everything because I don't always have time to just sit down and create. Her birthday falls on a Saturday, and one that her Daddy has off, so we get to have her 1st party on her actual birthday! I thought that was pretty cool. We are doing the Purr-fect Kitty theme from Oriental Trading. Anyway, we have all of the supplies we need and I just need to figure out the rest of the details and start making everything.

I am making some drink mix holders that go on water bottles that I found at Blue Eyed Blessings. Hers look so much better, but I had to work with the materials I had available to me. But that's okay. I really like how they turned out. I think they are super cute. :) Thanks for the inspiration, Heidi!!


For 2008 we had chosen a cat calendar. For one reason or another we didn't throw it out and now I am glad we didn't! I had rediscovered it a couple of months ago and really wanted to use the pictures somehow for the party. I thought about it for awhile and decided to make jigsaw puzzles! I was thinking of putting it on cardboard and cutting it out (because I couldn't think of anything else I could use that could be found in GTMO!) but my hubby reminded me of the stuff he and one of his friends used to make terrain for Warhammer. It is kinda like cardboard, but different. haha I really don't know what it's called. I'll have to ask him what it is and if anyone is interested, I will let you know.

Anyway, so I used rubber cement to put the pictures onto the "cardboard." Glue just left it bumpy but the rubber cement was perfect. Then I measured out columns and rows and cut them out with an exacto knife.


I had originally wanted to make a lot and put them in the goody bags, but they didn't exactly turn out incredibly perfect. But we decided they were more than good enough to lay out as an activity for the kids if they'd like!

It was so much fun to make these things. I am also making her invitations, thank you cards, and who knows what else. I'm still searching to see if I can find any other cool ideas! :)

**UPDATE** My husband just got home and said he thinks the stuff we used for the jigsaw puzzle is foam board.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Monday is my hubby's birthday and I wanted to bake something special for him during his birthday weekend. He had seen me looking at ice cream cone cupcakes from Betty Crocker and said "Why wasn't I aware of these before?" We were both excited to try them out.


All you need is:
^any flavor cake mix (we picked Devil's Food) and the ingredients listed to make said cake
^flat-bottom ice cream cones
^frosting
^any decorations you want (we used sprinkles but I was going to put maraschino cherries on top as well... too bad I forgot them when I went to the store!)

I saw these cupcakes on other sites as well and found two different ways to make these. Betty Crocker says to put cupcake liners in a muffin tin, fill them up 2/3 of the way, place the cone on top and bake. Other sites say to fill the cone itself halfway with the mix and bake them that way. Our first dozen that we made (makes about 2 dozen) we did 6 one way and 6 the other. We found that putting the cupcakes on top of the cake mix worked much better for us. Baking them for 17 minutes ended up being perfect.


After they are baked, let them cool completely. Then carefully take the liner off and frost. I put the frosting in a ziploc bag and snipped a corner off to make it easier to make it look like soft-serve ice cream. Then came the sprinkles! I was pretty happy with how they came out for my first try. Can't wait for a reason to try them out again!