Dora the Explorer Party: Cake

I thought of a really fantastic way to open this post...  And then I forgot it.

I'm going to start carrying around a Dora notepad (leftover party favor) so that I can jot things down as they drift through my brain. 

Although that may not fix the problem because a lot of my ideas come to me while I'm driving...  Or in the shower.  And water + paper = paper mache, not help for my incredibly shrinking brain.

But for what I lack in brain power, I make up for in cake decorating prowess.

Please ignore the fact that I dyed all my frosting blue and didn't have any white to write "the" on the arrow.

Isn't this like 10 levels of awesome?!

I was never particularly interested in trying fondant because, well, it tastes like crap.  Then I heard about marshmallow fondant.  It was the answer to all my prayers.

Because while I wanted to make my daughter a Dora birthday cake, there was no way I was going to spend 3 hours piping frosting to end up with carpal tunnel and a pale, cross-eyed little Mexican to show for it.


Photo courtesy of Cake Wrecks

Warning: While mashmallow fondant tastes waaaaaay better than traditional fondant, it's not exactly something you'll be stealing off other people's plates.  It's still kinda like eating sweet play-doh.

So, let me tell you the right way to make marshmallow fondant.

Supplies:
1 16oz bag of mini marshmallows
1 2lb bag of powdered sugar
3 Tbsp water
1 hunk of shortening
corn starch

1.  Place marshmallows and water in a greased, microwave safe bowl and cook until melted, stirring every 30-60 seconds.


2.  Once marshmallows are liquified, dump in all but 1/4c of the powdered sugar and stir until it becomes "dough-like."


3.  Dump mixture onto a greased counter and knead into a smooth dough.


I'm going to encourage you to check out Bake at 350 for a more detailed tutorial.  Because this is not what I did, as I am horrible at following directions.


Now...  My way...


Supplies:
1 16oz bag of mini marshmallows
About 1 1/3lbs of powdered sugar?  Dunno because I didn't measure.
shortening


1.  Melt marshmallows in the microwave until they are a gooey, stringy mess.


2.  Dump in half a bag of powdered sugar and quickly realize there is no way even the Hulk could stir this bowl of cement.


3.  Remove dough to a greased counter and attempt to knead in more of the powdered sugar... Unsuccessfully.


4.  Stored greased dough in a ziploc in the fridge for 1 week, contemplating my sanity for taking on such a project.


When I removed the chilled dough to cut out the letters, I found that it would be perfectly suited for breaking windows.  After struggling to dye small chunks of the hardened dough, I decided to start nuking them to make them more pliable.  This worked great until I burned myself with scalding hot sugar.  But a mother's love knows no bounds, so I persevered.  I managed to get all the pieces of Dora's logo cut out using an image printed on cardstock as a template and an exacto knife.  I had hoped to also cut out a Dora, but decided to stop while I was ahead.  Enter the Dora and Boots candle.


At some point in this process, I also realized that I didn't add the water in the first step, so I did try to go back and add the water and more powdered sugar.  It wasn't a hugely noticable difference, but the fondant was a bit more soft and flexible.  Enough so that I had the courage to undertake covering the entire cake in fondant.  Which turned out amazingly well.


It was actually a lot of fun to do (even the tedious cutting of the letters) and I'm very pleased with the end result.  I'm really looking forward to the next birthday so I can try again!


Other lessons learned...


-- If you have multiple colors, melt the marshmallows in batches and dye them before adding the sugar.  Trying to mix in the gel at the end was pretty time consuming.


-- The rolled fondant isn't going to harden entirely, so keep that in mind when you're rolling out your pieces.  I left the logo fairly thick to give it more structure (although it still sagged a little on the unsupported sides) and rolled the cake covering thinner, using a rolling pin to move it from the counter to the cake.  I still had a little tear, but I just made that the back.


-- Plan out your design ahead of time.  I discovered that I should've done the "A" in yellow after dying the logo background.  Green on green doesn't show up so well.  And I wish I had done the actual cake in pink and purple.  This color combination was just thrown together and I feel like it's a little circusey. 


But one person really liked it...

Priceless

And that's what really matters.

Dora the Explorer Party: Party Dress

If it's not obvious already, my daughter loves Dora.  She has Dora jammies.  She has Dora shoes.  She has Dora socks. 

So I knew if I was going to get her into a party outfit, it better have Dora all over it since she's not so much into clothes.  Matter of fact, she would prefer to run around naked.  But my floors are too dirty for her not to at least have socks on. 

Also, let's face it, a 2 year old's birthday party is less about them and more about the mom guests.  Because she has no idea what a birthday is yet.  And I wanted her to look cute (and decent), dammit!
 
When I saw this embroidery design at k. mae designs I knew it would con my child into wearing it be perfect for Allison.

It's totally customizable, so not only is her name embroidered on it, but Dora is also wearing a "2" on her shirt.  I love that.  Because I'm a sap and 15 years from now when I'm sitting on her bed while she's out on her first date and crying, "Waaaahhh!  But we just had her 2nd birthday party last week!  Waaaahhh!"  I'll remember those details, down to the little "2" on her shirt.  And I'll cry some more.

But back to the present.  When I unwrapped the package, my delicate little girl jumped on the shirt and immediately tried to put it on.  I'd call that a winner.

But k. mae didn't stop at just the shirt.  She designed a matching skirt to complete the ensemble.  So. Stinkin'. Cute. 

And so is this.  My little birthday girl all birthdayed up.

Isn't she just one hot mess?  She wouldn't let me come near her with a comb...  But at least she's a fashionably dressed hot mess.

Now if only I could get her to wear these...

Or this...

Waaaaahhhh!  When did my baby get so big?

I guess I need to accept the reality that my baby is only going to get bigger.

So, maybe I can get her to wear this???

Dora the Explorer Party: Favors

For the kid's 1st birthday party, I knew I needed to give out favors to the dozen kids that we invited, but we were broke, so I had to get creative.  I googled "jungle theme favors" over 112 times and decided to make rain sticks out of rice and paper towel rolls and drums out of painted formula cans.  Genius, right?  WRONG.  It was a horrible mess.  The "drums" were peeling paint before I even packed them up and my dad and cousin were punching holes in paper towel rolls up until the party started.  It was a mess. 

So, this year when I told Matt I was going to make the kids Backpacks for Allison's party?  Let's just say I see that look quite often.  You know the one.  The "you're absolutely nuts but I'm not going to get involved" look.

But this time was different. 

This time they turned out.

Want to make one for your little Dora addict?  Here's how.

Tools:

1/2 yd purple felt (I was able to get 3 backpacks out of 1/2 yd)

1 sheet red felt

1 sheet white felt

1 sheet yellow felt

Backpack template

measuring tape

scissors

thread

glue

ink pen

black sharpie

1.  First cut out all your pieces.  (All dimensions in inches.  Because I'm in America, dammit.)

      2 - 11.5 x 11.5

      2 - 1.5 x 16

      1 -  3 x 11.5

      Backpack's face

2.  Then assemble by lining up the edge of the straps to the edge of one the large felt squares.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  Felt is very forgiving.  And they are kid's backpacks.  Are they going to criticize??

3.  Sandwich the straps with the rectangle piece of felt and stitch together the top edge to make Backpack's back.  I used a loose zigzag just to add some extra stability.  Because I've seen my kid with toys and frankly it's a little disturbing.  

4.  Placing right sides together, stitch the other felt square to the back piece on the remaining three sides.  (Don't forget to pin the bottom of the straps in place to keep them from going all crazy crooked.)  Turn Backpack right side out.  Sorry there's no picture of this, but when I try to take photos of items in my sewing machine, they always turn out horrible.  And kinda creepy.  In an Unsolved Mysteries kinda way.

6.  Apply Backpack's face with glue.  Eyebrows on the flap and face below.  I used Elmer's glue for this and frankly it didn't hold very well, so maybe fabric glue would be better.  And I was thinking that the pupils would be really cute with buttons.  But I stopped while I was ahead and used a sharpie.

7.  Lastly, round the edges of the flap for that signature "Backpack" look.  I actually folded the bag in half and cut both sides at the same time to make it a little more symmetrical.  Because asymmetry makes my OCD a little crazy.

That's it.  A project even I can't screw up. 

Then stuff to your heart's content!  I just went to Party City and bought Dora puzzles, notepads, and stickers and printed out some coloring pages from nickjr.com.  But honestly, the kids loved the backpacks much more than what was inside them. 

The kicker: The entire thing cost me about $3 for 5 Backpacks* (+ backpack contents).

*I made two more Backpack's for my older nephews in dark blue (to be more masculine, of course) and just increased the dimensions of the squares to 13 x 13, the rectangle to 3.5 x 13, and the strap length to 2 x 18 inches.

Dora the Explorer Party: Invitations

I'm one of those crazy people that would rather spend 4 hours trying to mail merge her address book into labels rather than take an hour to hand address envelopes.

So, it should come as no surprise that I hate filling in pre-made invitations.  Besides, I like to pretend I'm all Martha-esque and make my own invites.  Because beautiful invitations set the stage for the tone of the party.  At least that's what I think Martha would say.  

  
These invitation cards really only took a few hours to put together.  Assuming you know what you're doing.  And because I like you, I'm going to provide a tutorial.  This just saved you like 6 hours of your life.  You're welcome.


Tools:
White 8.5 x 11 cardstock 
Purple (or color of your choice) 8.5 x 11 cardstock
Digital Image (this one is courtesy of Google Images)
Computer with Microsoft Word
Color printer
Glue stick
Paper cutter (this will save your sanity)


1.  Set up your word document with the following formatting: landscape, 3 (3 inch) columns, 0.5 inch margins all the way around (including between columns), Cosmic Sans text (centered).


2.  Add your text to the top of each column.  I used 18pt as the top line and 14pt on the next line.  I'm lazy, so I just copied and pasted it in each column.  Because typing 26 more words is just too much work for me.  

(And if you were wondering how I got the accent above the A?  Hold down the alt key and type 0225.  That will type an accented lowercase
A.)


3.  Copy and paste your image below the text.


4.  Add a text box below the image and to add background color go to Format → Text Box → Fill → Color and select the color of choice.


5.  Type your party details in the colored text box.  I used 18pt for her name for emphasis and 12pt for the what, when, and where.  More copy/paste...


6.  Below the text box put your RSVP information (10pt).  And of course, copy/paste.


7.  You might have to tweak the spacing to make sure it all fits and looks proportionate.  If anyone knows how to upload a Microsoft Word doc, I'd be happy to post the printable, but Google Docs kept ditching the formatting.


8.  Print out as many invitations as needed, remembering that you'll get 3 out of each sheet.


9.  Use a paper cutter to cut background cardstock into three equal pieces.  Making sure they will fit in a normal legal sized envelope...


10.  Cut and trim the invite cards so that there is roughly an even amount of background card visible.  


11.  Glue the invite card to the background cards.


12.  Stuff envelopes and mail!  If you are really an aspiring Martha, you can also use this fantastic tutorial on how to line an envelope with pretty paper to make it all fancy like.  I'm not that ambitious.


And of course, this type of invitation could be adapted to virtually any party theme and embellished in a variety of ways.  The best part?  It fits into a regular, easy to find envelope.  I've got a harrowing story about trying to find 5 x 7 envelopes...  But I'll save that for another day.

Here Lies a Hoarder.

Two posts in one day?  WTH, right?  I was kinda feeling that this milestone might deserve a small mention.

My site isn't so great on the SEO stuff, so imagine my surprise when I see my blog was found by searching Google!

So, of all the things I've done, said, and written, I will be now known best as a hoarder.  Hoo-ray.

However, that's not my only reason for posting again today.  I want to give you all a heads up on the awesomeness planned for the rest of the week.

I will be doing a daily series on my daughter's Dora the Explorer birthday party.  Because I just thought it was super amazing.  And she's super amazing.  And our family and friends are super-duper amazing.  Plus there was very little party planning inspiration to be found on the interwebz and I just know that every 2 year old dreams of having a Dora birthday party. 

Here's the schedule:

Tuesday: Invitations

Wednesday: Favors

Thursday: Party clothes

Friday: Food/Cake

Remember to come back everyday this week for a new installment of Party Planning: Toddler Edition!