Rock Star Birthday Party
8:13 AM - Posted by Tomorrow's Wishes - 0 comments
Come ready to rock!

For my daughter's 7th birthday last year she decided she wanted a Rock Star theme. It actually turned out pretty cool. From the invitation to the event it was a hit. I even had parents telling me they were using my daughters party as an inspiration for their own daughters upcoming party.

And aside from the actual rock star trashing of my house (No seriously, they even pulled down the decorations!) I thought the day went pretty well, so I thought I would share it with you.

Rock On!

Preparation started with our invitations and so did the fun. In order to make our invitations we first needed to have a mini, er full fledged photo shoot. Let's just say, Tessa was all over this one!
   
She certainly wasn't camera shy!

I raised a rocker!
Tessa was posing then running over to another area and saying "How about this? How about this? Here Mommy take a picture." She was really having fun! I must have taken close to 100 pictures, I was starting to feel like a professional photographer!



At one point, before I even knew what she was doing, she hopped up on the back of the couch and started posing like she was in some 1980's Madonna video. And no I am pretty sure she doesn't even know who Madonna is, however I either have a future model on my hands or I am in big trouble!

OK photo shoot over! LOL

Once our photo shoot was complete, we uploaded the the pictures to my computer and I let Tessa pick her favorite pose (well I did steer her away from a few) and we created our invitation...

We used Publisher to create the invite

This is a bad picture, but you get the idea.
I printed each invitation on heavy card stock and
inserted it into a clear vinyl sleeve and hung it on a lanyard.
Once the invitations were done, we picked a day after school and drove house to house to personally invite each guest giving them their "back stage pass" with instructions to wear their best "rocker" attire and be sure to bring their VIP Pass in order to get "back stage". It was fun to watch the looks on the girls faces, big smiles.

I have to admit I had a lot of help with this party. My best friend Dawn gave me a lot of the ideas to make the day a smash hit!

I want to share the cupcakes with you first though, because they were amazing! And quite yummy to I might add. Dawn's daughter Courtney helped with these and I think they turned out great! They were certainly a hit with both the kids and the parents. Everyone kept asking where we bought them. I beamed when I told them my best friend Dawn and her daughter made them. If she was a baker, she would have had twenty orders!

(One thing I should mention...when the trashing of the rock star party started, not part of the agenda either, this hot pink icing was hard to get out of the carpet!)

Cupcakes fit for a Rock Star! Dawn and Courtney made chocolate cupcakes with hot pink icing,
lots of decorating sparkle and finished them off with zebra fondant and plastic guitars! 

I decorated shoe boxes with zebra paper and used those as my displays.
 We added a few stars and props like a microphone and trophy for the best air guitarist!
Setting "the stage". Party City, Oriental Trading and Michaels were visited a lot by me and Dawn! This is one of those times, that if I had a lot of money, I could have really went crazy! But, that is not the case, so I did have to scale it back a bit. 


These are our "roadie" t-shirts that each girl was given



Tessa and I went to Michaels and purchased
white t-shirts for her to decorate


Tulip fabric paint

We purchased stencils and letters at Michaels

Simply Spray was perfect and easy for Tessa to use

We spent an afternoon making our "roadie" t-shirts. Tessa really enjoyed spraying the shirts and using the stencils. I am still reminded of that afternoon every time I look at my garage floor and all the sparkle!

Once we finished the shirts we started focusing on the decorations. We wanted it to resemble going back stage at a concert. The girls would come in with their "VIP  passes" and get to go "back stage" to meet Tessa, aka the Rock Star!

We hung silver door way streamers in the entry way 

We also picked up a really cool back drop that resembled a stage for guests to come in and get their picture taken with Tessa "back stage". We put on rock music, had the lights dimmed and had colored lights going to set the scene.

We hung the stage scene on the wall.
We picked this up at Party City along with the silver door way streamers.
Now for the rock star "swag". I had a lot of fun with this. I picked up most of it at Party City and some of the glow sticks and other things at Michaels and the boas and some trinkets from Oriental Trading.

Marabou boas (because every girl needs a marabou boa!), colored hair extensions, rock star dog tags, jeweled tattoos and gem body art, sunglasses that we added gems to of course, glow bracelets and rock star wrist bands. The goody bags were filled with candy and extras!


We had all the party games planned, the decorations were up, the cupcakes had arrived...time for the rock star party to commence.




"Air guitars" were ready!




Tessa waited patiently for her "fans" to arrive.


As they arrived they were escorted back stage to meet Tessa and have their pictures taken.

"Back stage" door

Tessa greeting her fans

Tessa and her fans back stage

Individual pictures were taken of each girl and Tessa

We did several group shots to as the crowd got bigger
The girls seemed to love the games.

Hula Hoop Shimmy to 80's rock songs of course

Boa Limbo

And what rock star party is complete before you have an air guitar jam?!
Or in this case, an "air filled" guitar jam!
Once we worked up an appetite the girls took a break to refuel.

We had pizza delivered (Tessa's favorite Papa John's Pizza of course!)
Popcorn, drinks and bowls of candy were laid out as well.
After the girls ate we took time to open presents. We let each guest come up "on stage" when Tessa was opening their gift.




Then once all of the gifts were open we did a few more group shots.


Then it was time for our rocker photo shoot. The girls really had a good time with this. They grabbed all of their rock star swag, got dressed up and we headed outside for our photo shoot.




Rock Star photo shoot complete!
Then of course it was time for cupcakes.




The cupcakes were a smash hit! No really, they smashed it into my carpet. We did try eating these outside, but the girls took them inside as well, that hot pink icing looked great on my beige carpet.



Note to self, probably having the bowls of candy out throughout the party and then the cupcakes, I just may have given them too much sugar. I even found candy wrappers stuffed in my couch! Yikes!

We decided we might need to burn off a few of those sugar calories so we reverted back to a good old game of duck, duck, goose.



Once we ran some of that sugar out of our veins we broke out the rock star pull string pinata, but we let them beat on it instead since they still had plenty of energy.




 And once we broke open the loot from the guitar we let Tessa trash is like a true rock star!



All in all, aside from the decorations literally being ripped down off of my walls, again, I blame this on the sugar, it was a pretty great party. The girls all had a great time and I think Tessa will remember that party for years to come. It really made her feel like a true rock star!

My little rock star!



Where Creativity Happens - Part II
3:08 PM - Posted by Tomorrow's Wishes - 0 comments
I think I am an Official Michaels groupie!
9-15-2013

Day Two

If you haven't been into a Michaels store lately, you need to! They have remodeled their stores and have made shopping with them a whole new experience that is both pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate through. You will love it!

My morning started off with a ribbon cutting at the Des Peres Michaels store on Manchester Rd.

Shoppers started gathering outside the doors to get a glimpse of Jo Pearson. Once Jo arrived she immediately went out to greet the crowd of shoppers and fans eager to get a glimpse of the queen of the craft world.

Shoppers lining up outside the Des Peres Michaels store




Jo speaking at the podium

Jo shared with the crowd a little about what they were going to see when they entered the store and some exciting things coming up for Michaels and then the ribbon cutting began. 





Once the ribbon cutting celebration was over, shoppers and fans were invited into the store to see first hand the new look of Michaels. And...the first 100 guests received a $10 Michaels gift cards as they entered the store. 


Jo Pearson and me in the Michaels store


Upon entering the store you were greeted by the exceptional team at Michaels. Each team member was friendly and eager to help. They even gave out a few hugs. The atmosphere was cheerful and the store looked amazing!

Michaels staff member Betty and Jo's daughter Dawn


I meandered through the aisles taking it all in. It was like a candy store and every where you looked there was something new! I snapped a few pictures before heading to the truck to see what craft they had set up today. 

I was especially drawn to the beading aisles

The new lighting made the beads just sparkle!

I wanted one of everything!
As I was headed over to the truck I caught Jo walking with a few visitors of the Michaels Craft Tour truck as she walked them in. They were all very kind to turn around and let me snap a picture of them. And then they were gone inside the truck, you could see the look on the kids faces...they were eager to get inside. 

Jo walking in with some visitors to the Michaels Craft Tour truck

Jo helping a few kids with the Crayola Model Magic craft project
I have to admit that once I was inside I was just as eager! Stepping inside I could easily find myself getting lost in the craft projects again. Today they had a table set up with Crayola Model Magic. The kids seemed to love it, even the adults were flocking to this one. I think it kind of brings you back to being a kid, coloring, kneading Play-Do, just using your hands. I was anxious to get started on my own.

My attempt at a Crayola Model Magic dog pencil topper

Once I finished I headed back to the store to meet a group of bloggers. Tomorrow's Wishes, along with several other local bloggers, were all invited to meet with Jo Pearson for a little one on one craft time. And needless to say, I was excited. Even though I was there the day before, and literally had just walked off the truck, I just couldn't seem to get enough! And craft tips from Jo...OK that is just another bonus, can you say AWESOME!

Once the other bloggers arrived at the store we headed back to the truck and met with Jo. Jo asked us all a few questions and we did introductions. Then sat down to get started on our craft project. Jo started things off with a simple and fun to do ribbon and charm book mark.

We were given all of the supplies we needed...
black velvet ribbon, silver charms, jump rings, clasps, ribbon clamps and pliers

Jo walked us through this simple and easy craft. Yet I admit I did have trouble with my jump ring, my friend Dawn had to help me. I think I need new glasses!

Jo talking to the group of bloggers about the ribbon book mark

This is where I looked at Dawn for help

Finished project! Ta Da! Not bad. And no those are not extra parts!

Once we were done Jo talked to the group about a few craft tips, like using Glitter It! (this is a link to a cool pumpkin ornament project) to coat the inside of glass ornaments with glitter. I happen to love this product. I once spent an entire afternoon glittering glass ornaments, I had so much fun I couldn't stop. Everyone in my family had a personalized glitter ornament on their packages that year!

Jo's favorite color happens to be glitter. Yes she knows that's not a color, but if she had to say a color, it would be pink glitter!

We talked about quite a few products like the Spellbinders, Cricut, Mod Podge and  Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile It was very informative and gave me some great crafting tips and ideas to try at home. We also talked about some of the hot items like the Rainbow Loom! (I picked up one of these for my eight year old!)


Jo demonstrating the Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile
The group of bloggers lucky enough to meet and craft with Jo!

Michaels and Jo gave us lots of goodies to take home as well as gift cards which I promptly spent after the event was over (and then some!).

My loot!

Next we were taken on a personal tour of the store with April Willers from Michaels. Again, from the minute I walked in, I was impressed with the new look of the store.

New look, new store!


She walked us around pointing out the new and exciting features that they've added as well as asked for our input.

April Willers giving us a store tour
 Just part of the dedicated service team
She talked about how all of the St Louis stores are redesigned to be the same
They want you to walk into any Michaels store and know exactly where to go

Departments are clearly marked with logical and more
broad naming with icons next to the name
When visiting the Michaels website you can look for these icons
under "categories" to help you navigate through the site

Department names are listed high on the wall giving it a clean look and
Seasonal Items are grouped together with fun project ideas and help 

Wider aisles are found throughout and they have lowered the display heights
giving you a clearer view of the store

Me and the group of bloggers sporting our Michaels goody bags 

LOVE the wider aisles! It is such a clean look to!

End caps have simple 1, 2, 3 Step tips
with all of the supplies you need to do the project


Simple and fun projects can be found throughout

Look at all this room!

Needles to say, I LOVED the new look. Now more squeezing through aisles, not knowing where to look. It is easy to navigate, bright, roomy and full of new, creative and wonderful products, tips and supplies!

I wound my day down with a bit of a mini shopping spree and made sure to get a few more pictures of my new friends. 

MY NEW MICHAELS FRIENDS!

Me and Jo 

Ken  and Me

Mary and Me
(Mary was the go to person on the truck!)

Ken and Me
(He gets to drive this big honking truck!)

Hope to see my new Michaels friends soon! Where is the tour bus stopping next? Click here to find out! Maybe I will see you there. Hey Honey! I'm going on tour!!