invitations: download and print

Have you seen this yet?  I first found Download and Print over at one of my favorite blogs iDiY.  I couldn't believe it - beautifully designed invites free to download?  Crazy, I tell you!


I'm loving this one for my next beach soiree...

How about these two graphic beauties...

I love this one.  Something about it being off centered makes me giddy...

You definitely need to bookmark this site.  What a great little internet treasure.  Can't wait to see new designs.

harry potter party

Party plans have begun swirling in my mind for a Harry Potter party to celebrate the 1st installment of the 7th movie scheduled to be released November 19th.  I was thrilled to see the abundance of cute ideas over at Hostess with the Mostess.  Check out Jen's great ideas here and here.  I'm especially loving this idea...

For others searching for more ideas for their own movie release party, a Potter themed birthday or better yet a way to celebrate a family trip to Universal's new Wizarding World of Harry Potter (oh how I wish I was heading there with my family in June) here (scroll through all the posts) are some more ideas from some of our past wizard shindigs that I've posted about previously on Little Ant Design.


Here are some never before posted photos of our very first Harry Potter party that we threw to celebrate the release of the last book - Deathly Hallows in 2007.  We held the party open house style with people coming and going through the night and ended the party with party guests heading over to a local Borders to await the midnight release of the book.  


Look at my cute little guy, dressed up as Dobby the house elf, taking 1st place in the Borders costume contest.

Now some more pictures of the festivities at our home...

I turned my kitchen/dining room area into the potions class.  A cheap piece of plywood was stained to cover my tiled kitchen counters for a bit more authentic Hogwarts feel.  Labels were made for bottles that I had been collecting and filled with various "specimens"  This are also served as the drink station so I labeled sodas, drink mixes (Kool-aid, powdered Gatorade, etc), juices and other drink add-ins with interesting names and guest were able to concoct their own potions.

In an effort to keep the kitchen from ruining the potions class atmosphere I added a "stone wall" behind the drink area.  I had this left over from an Indiana Jones Halloween theme I had done prior but this is an easy DIY project.  I simply bought sheets of insulation foam and using a wood burning tool that I picked up at a local craft store I carved the stones into the foam.  The foam usually comes in pink or blue - use the blue.  Add some paint to get the weathered look you want and you have instant stone walls.

Other areas inside the house were...

Ollivanders wand shop - a little bookcase that jewelry boxes labeled with wand labels that I made on the computer.  Guests used these boxes to hold wands that they made during the evening.  Wands were made using wooden dowels and varying sized balls (with holes drilled them).  Guests took the balls and glued them to the end of the dowels to create wand handles.  I wish I had pictures.  I am notorious for not taking pictures of my parties so all the pictures you see here were taken by my brother or other party guests.

Trophy Case - here various Quidditch and other awards were displayed as well as containers that held the house points.


We also had an area full of Honeyduke's sweets.  Guests could eat some Bertie Bott's every flavor beans and guess the flavors.  We also had lots of yummy treats to make up for the grass and boogie flavored beans.


Outside we had...

Herbology class - guests were able to snack of food here.

We also had a pensieve that contained floating orbs filled with deep thinking quotes from some of the Harry Potter characters.  Guests could pull these out of the fountain to read them.  I didn't think this would be too big a deal but guests enjoyed this - the kids especially.


I wanted a place for people to congregate and chat so we set up a Yule Ball area.  We were supposed to have snow falling down on our guests but we could not get the snow machine to work.  I'm still irratated about it all these years later :)

Out near our fireplace we set up the Divination Class.  Here guests could make their predications about what would happen in the last book as well as read their fortunes with tea leaves.

There you have it - a few pictures from one of my favorite themes for a party.  To see a few more photos from that night you can go here.  I can't wait to throw the next one.  


I'm always looking for ideas so if you have thrown your own Harry Potter party or know of some other great HP ideas (like those from Jen at Hostess with the Mostess) please let me know.  

st patricks day: lucky you!

It's your lucky day...TomKat Studios has great St Patty's Day printables for the low cost of...FREE.  


Such a great inexpensive way to make the day just a little bit brighter.  I'm thinking I'll use mine in cupcakes for my kids OR maybe I'll cover our corned beef with cute little toppers - I'll start a new trend, meat toppers.  I am totally kidding.  


Click here to download.

alice in wonderland party idea

I just got this in my inbox.  Thank you Disney Family.com!

Perfect little edible teacups for an Alice in Wonderland party.  Here's the how-to.  


I CAN NOT WAIT for this movie.  Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are movie magic in my book.  Friday can't come soon enough.


For my Alice in Wonderland craft ideas go here.

oh la la

How cute are these?  Download them for free over at eat.drink.chic - I love that site!

pom pom love

During my morning rounds of blogs I stopped to check out the latest on iDIY - a favorite of mine.  A stop there introduced me to these glorious balls of fluff on a stick....

Do they make you feel all warm and fuzzy?  Me too!  I decided to go and check out the creative mind behind them and was led to domestifluff to check out Kristen's creativeness.

I loved her tutorial on these pom pom flowers and can't wait to make some of my own.  They would look great in a vase for your home (seen above) and equally cool as a party accent.  How about making them in bright colors for a Dr. Suess themed party or other whimsical theme. Tone down the color for a great baby shower addition - the possibilities are endless with these.

And to add to all this pom pom goodness Kristen has added pom pom printables - you have to check it out.  I am loving this!

kickin' tees

Tomorrow is my daughters kickball showdown that we have been planning.  It was supposed to be an end of Summer party but got bumped on the calendar because of some scheduling conflicts. 

I thought I'd share some pics of the team shirts we designed...

Gotta love the underdog - Neville KICKbottoms aka Neville Longbottom of Harry Potter fame. Love this sweet unassuming guy.  

On to shirt #2, again with the "kick" reference - we are after all playing KICKball
Spongebob KICKpants - he's all thumbs up and ready to play.

The shirts were easy.  Iron on transfer paper, printer and iron and a shirt of course.  Come up with your design, print it onto the paper, cut, iron on and get to playing.

Look for more pictures of the game this weekend.

the dads in the details

I just ran across this picture today - he's good looking, huh?  Yea, that's right he's my husband and you can't have him (although I am sure you want him after checking out this picture)

This picture goes to prove that my husband will sacrifice his own dignity to help make a party better.  

These pictures are from a few years back when the second High School Musical movie came out on Disney Channel.  My then tween daughter wanted to watch it in the backyard on a big screen for her birthday so we went to work planning.

It was a fairly simple party to plan and we didn't go too big with it.  Food was served cafeteria style (on cafeteria trays) hence the good looking food service worker pictured above.  I made the aprons for both husband and I to wear and added the ever stylish hair nets.

There are a few other things I wanted to share from the party that would be great to use now during the college football season.  Just change the colors to match your fav team and your all set for a great football party...

These chairback/placecards are a breeze to make.

Cut felt into a triangle shape.  Use iron on transfer paper to cut out a collegiate style letter and iron on.  The letters used were the first initial of each guests name with their full name written within the letter.  Example...a big letter S with the name Sydney written in the letter (you can kind of see that in the picture above)  Use a coordinating ribbon I used a paw print for Wildcats and tie them onto your chairs.

These were the invites for our HS Musical party (sorry for the poor quality of the photos)...

The pendant is felt with the invite being printed out iron on paper and ironed onto the felt.  The guests initial/name was printed out onto card stock and tied to the top of the pendant (this invite went to twin hence the two initials)  The pendant was glued to a wooden dowel.

The dowel was placed in a megaphone (purchased at a local party store)  the megaphone had been glued to a round cardboard base and the edges were covered with shredded paper that I glues on to mimic the look of a pom-pom.

Now that I've seen these pictures again and remember how easy this was to create I may get to work on my own football fete. 

just what dr. cullen ordered

Check out this great label found via flickr to be used on some "blood" candy.  Adding it to my Twilight inspiration.  More Twilight food inspiration can be found here.

gift bag goodness

So cute!

I found these over at Flights of Fancy as I was browsing for ideas for the upcoming baby shower I am planning.  The addition of the pretty little label to the brown bag is perfect.  Be sure to go check out the great step by step for making these.

welcome foolish mortals

As a born and raised Southern California girl I have a huge place in my heart for Disneyland and Walt himself.  Talk about a man with an attention for detail.  I find him fascinating to read about.  I'm getting away from myself though.

Disneyland, yes that is what we are talking about.  I love the place.  I am partial to The Haunted Mansion (one of my dream jobs, there's a few, is to be a Haunted Mansion cast member) so when I saw these downloadable (is that a word?) mansion goodies from Disney Family I knew I had to share them.

Throw a Haunted Mansion themed Halloween bash in honor of the Mansion's 40th birthday. That's right, the Mansion is celebrating this year.

How about these changing portrait bookmarks as favors for your guests...

Love this cupcake toppers...
And how about these candy boxes designed with some classic Haunted Mansion graphics...
You can find these projects as well as Madame Leota invites, hitchhiking ghost masks and more here.

a favorite post

Lolliblog recently posted about some of their favorite and cost effective party details here.  I loved so many of the ideas that I had to post on my blog so that I wouldn't forget them when I needed party inspiration.

i scream for ice cream

This make your own sundae bar from Eat Drink Chic is killing me with happiness.  Is it beyond adorable or what?

Every detail is perfect.  

I want to have this party and I want to do it right now.  I feel a bit like a kid throwing myself on the store floor while shopping with mom screaming, "I want that mommy!" and not just screaming it once but over and over.  I WANT TO HAVE THIS PARTY!
Look at this ice cream container - are you in love with it too?

Not only has Amy put up pictures for us all to take ideas from but she has also written up a how-to on this party AND included free downloads for her labels.  Amy, you are my hero!

This is moving to the top of my list as a must throw party.

a diy dinner party table

I just saw this great DIY table today and now want to do the same thing for my own home. Kate over at Mi Piace Kate Design found this plain table cheap on Craigslist.

With some sanding (read her post to find out how she got her hands on a sander - brilliant!) and a few coats of primer and chalkboard paint...

She created this great table - love it!

It's perfect for daily use or for some fun, interactive dinner parties.  I know my party guests would love sitting around this table.

i can't stay away even while on vacation

I saw these today while visiting One Cool Pick. Love them!

imagine the party possiblities

Make your own scratch of lottery ticket - cute and creative, huh?  You can find the directions here.

proper party tools

It is 12:34 am and I am sitting in front of my computer printing out labels for my nephews wedding reception tomorrow night and cutting them out with child sized safety scissors - can anyone tell me where my paper cutter and sharp adult scissors are?  This is crazy!

a little more with the library theme

I saw this headboard over at Instructables and loved it.  I realize it is more in the home decor category but after thinking a bit I'm wondering if it could translate into a table top for a library themed party (or a book club party)  You would probably need to place a glass top over the books to give yourself a smooth surface but I think it might work.  It would look cool.

This works well with the invites I shared yesterday.

how to share files

I have had some requests to share some of my Harry Potter graphics - The Three Broomsticks bag labels as well as some of the candy packaging.  I'm happy to share anything I've done.  

Can anyone help me figure out how to share the pdf files on my blog?  Drop me an email or leave a comment if you can help.  Thanks!

button, button, who's got the button

Look at what Brooke at Jackaroo Love found - adorable button candies from Bake it Pretty.

You can find the tutorial for making these sweet little sweets here.  You can buy the button mold here.  Tell me you're not planning a party in your head right now that incorporates these. My head is spinning with ideas.  I'm off to purchase my button mold.