Happy Tape project #1-Meredith's 4th Birthday Party

Lucky for my niece Meredith (or me, I guess!) her birthday party came at a time when I was just dying to use my Happy Tape in a project. AND even better, the theme just happened to be purple cupcakes! So I magnanimously announced to my sister Alex that I was helping with the party favors and anything else I deemed important enough to use my Happy Tape. She graciously accepted whatever help I offered, and in return, I consulted with her during a million and one phone calls while she emptied out various party and craft stores with whatever purple stuff they offered. I have created my first collage with Picnik (an on-line photo editing site) and present these photos of the Happy Tape projects:

CUPCAKE FAVOR BAGS
I used the tape to create the cupcake "cups". Since it's translucent, there is a nice visual effect of the accordion folds where I overlapped the edges slightly. I taped a section roughly the size I needed for the "cups" and did this on plain white adhesive stock. This way, I could simply trim out the cupcake cup shape after the tape was down. I used pinking shears for the top of the cupcake cups, cutting away with standard scissors where the icing "overlaps". Then I peeled off the backing and placed it on the white favor bag. After many attempts, I finally achieved the desired frosting top shape and drew it with a light purple marker. We added sequins for sprinkles because Meredith always needs a little bling, and wrote the message with my purple LePen marker. I should note that my daughter and craft prodigy Julia assisted me in this project.

CUPCAKE FLAGS
And since one project was not enough, I also created cupcake flags with wooden cupcake sticks (purchased from Michaels). This was quite quick and simple,  I folded the tape over on itself and trimmed the "v" shape for the ends. The kids were decorating their own cupcakes as an activity and this way we could put the flag in their cupcake before the child took off to play more Barbie Airplane. The decorated cupcakes went into a single cupcake box and went home with the party bags.

OTHER CUTE PARTY STUFF
My sister found a special cupcake cake pan, which bakes the top and the bottom separately and you frost the two pieces together to make the complete and very large cupcake. The table was decorated with a purple plastic tablecloth (these guys are 4, remember!) and Alex made a white runner out of white butcher paper. She prettied it up by taping small doilies to the underside of the runner so that it had a lacey edge. The doilies were also used as the banners, hung in the window by the party buffet table. The letters were glittery purple stickers she found. The purple flower poms were made by hand and are always wonderfully colorful and festive party decorations. (Here is a link to a video on how to make them from Paper Scraps and Picture Passion blog) Alex also made oversized cupcakes on cardboard for the kids to use as props in the "photo studio" on the front porch. Those pictures will be in a later post.