chocolate factory birthday party

The first activity at Oliver and Cyan’s chocolate factory birthday party was for all the kids to make their own custom Wonka chocolate bar. We did this first so the bars would have plenty of time to cool and harden so they could be wrapped up ready to take home at the end.

I melted a LOT of chocolate at the start of the party, I used ²⁄₃ milk chocolate to ¹⁄₃ dark chocolate which tasted great, not too sweet.

 

I collected loads of different ingredients which the kids used to create their own custom chocolate bar (though most of them ended up with a bit of everything in their bar!).

Custom Wonka bar ingredients:

• numerous assorted sprinkles
• cake decorating pearls
• chocolate crispy balls
• white chocolate chips
• mini smarties
• popping candy
• mini marshmallows
• coco pops
• chocolate and toffee cereal stars

(Popping candy was the best!)



I set out all the ingredients in little bowls on our dining table, gave each child a foil takeout container and when they were happy with their mix I went round and poured melted chocolate into each one, they then added more toppings if they wanted. I made up little flags in advance with their names on cocktail sticks which were placed in the corner of each one to identify them later (I removed these when I wrapped them at the end of the party). We then put them all in the fridge to set.

These were Oli and Cyan’s bars. I wasn’t sure how they would taste with all the assorted ingredients added, but they were actually surprisingly delicious! (I did get to sample theirs :)



At the end of the party I wrapped each bar in baking foil and pre-printed custom wrappers with each childs’ name. The kids all had a lot of fun making the bars! I would highly recommend this as an activity at any party.



The kids then used the remaining sprinkles and some purple icing to decorate their own chocolate cupcakes (except Jack who wanted to leave his cupcake plain!) and I had made up golden toppers with their names to go on each one, these were put aside until it was time for food.

In the party madness I sadly neglected to get a photo of all the food laid out, but we did have a few of these biscuits left at the end, they were lemon/chocolate pinwheel cookies and we baked them on cocktail sticks so they were like lollipops.. very cute and tasty too :)



I wanted to make a cake reminiscent of the chocolate factory landscape in the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory films, so I baked a rectangular cake in a large roasting pan, then cut it in half diagonally. I added a cut off piece of cake to make a hill on one side.



I iced the cake with green butter frosting on top and brown chocolate frosting around the edges. Karl made the chocolate river by streaming some melted chocolate onto baking foil, and then trimming it to the right size to fit between the cakes. The bridge was made from half a Curly-wurly which we warmed gently, laid over a mug and then cooled in the fridge. I added a path of chocolate minstrels and brown and orange smarties.



I then added fruit rock and swirly lollipop trees and candy canes. The cake was completed with 6 candles on one side for Cyan and 8 candles on the other side for Oli.



My favourite part of the party was the sweet shop. I bought a whole selection of old school sweets and filled all my glass storage jars from around the house. These were set out in the glass cabinet on our sideboard, I temporarily removed the sliding doors and added some pastel colour paper backing. The sweet shop was covered up during the party, I unveiled it at the end and the kids all picked a bag of sweet treats to go in their party bag.



I had fun coming up with names for some of the sweets, we had: Flumpa Lumpas (super flump marshmallows), Parma Violet Beauregardes (parma violets), Fizzy Lifting Saucers (sherbet flying saucers)..

I had two jars with chocolate minstrels and smarties in, and labelled them Chocolate Smarties and Chocolate Sillies, when I unveiled the sweet shop and told the kids all the goodies to choose from, I said “.. chocolate smarties, which make you smart; and chocolate sillies, which make you..?” and they all chorused in delight “SILLY!!”. The chocolate sillies were THE MOST popular item, the jar was empty at the end, and the kids took great pleasure in sampling the sillies and demonstrating their silliest behaviour!





I made some signs to put up, the SWEET SHOP sign was hidden until the big reveal, I covered the whole thing up with a large piece of purple fabric from my stash, and a sign which read CHOCOLATE INVENTION ROOM, as this was where we made the chocolate bars at the start.



To make the signs I simply printed all the letters in purple on white paper, punched them out with a circle punch and stuck them onto gold card.

We had balloons and a PARTY sign on the front door..



Our living room was the FUN AND GAMES ROOM..



More balloons in purple, gold and chocolate brown for décor, these were hung down from the ceiling with strips of double-sided sticky tape..



I ordered some purple and white candy stripe paper bags for the party bags, I folded down the tops, punched holes and tied them with a golden yellow ribbon. I made name tags printed on the same golden vellum paper as the golden ticket invites. They looked cute.



Inside, along with their custom Wonka bars, they had their sweet shop candy selection..



I designed some custom stickers which were printed by the lovely moo.com. There were two sheets, one with colourful candy designs and one with chocolate squares, with each child’s name on..



I also included a few small stationery items, mini coloured pens and striped post-it note pads..



So that was our chocolate factory party.. a bit crazy and a lot of fun!

golden ticket chocolate factory birthday party invitations

We threw a Wonka Chocolate Factory themed party for Oliver’s 8th and Cyan’s 6th birthdays. With our wedding in October to plan, I decided we would have one joint party and hold it a little early at the end of July (their birthdays are a couple of weeks apart in August/September).

They were both keen on the latest movie with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, and we had just finished reading the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory books by Roald Dahl; so we thought this could be a fun theme for their party.

Naturally the invitations had to be golden tickets.. I designed the tickets and laser printed them onto some gold vellum paper..



.. and of course the tickets also had to be found in Wonka Bars!
I found a lovely lady selling chocolate bars on ebay, she sold them with custom wrappers designed for wedding favours. As I wanted to print my own wrappers so I could insert the tickets she gave me a really good reduced price, I think they worked out about 50 pence each. They also conveniently had a base wrapper of gold foiled paper, and one of the flavour choices was milk chocolate with crunchy caramel pieces.. perfect!



And so became the Whipple Scrumptious Chococaramel Delight Wonka Bar..



On the back of the wrapper was the ingredients and dietary info, and I added a barcode with each child’s name so the kids would know which friend to give each bar to..



I was really pleased with how they turned out, they went down VERY well with the kids invited, and I got lots of compliments from the parents too!









More on the party soon....

cyan’s first sewing projects ... and hello! (it’s been a while!)

Firstly - hello! It has been a while, 9 months to be precise (exactly - to the day today!) since I last posted here. It’s been a crazy busy 9 months that’s for sure.. I had no time for blogging, sadly. We worked hard, partied, got married; and I’ve been dying to blog about it all! So hopefully I can set some time aside soon to do just that, and catch up with what everyone else has been up to in the world of blogs...

Back to today’s post.. Cyan (my crafty 6 year old daughter) has been wanting to learn to sew, so for Christmas my mum made her up a starter sewing basket kit; and my sister Tressa, who is the other seamstress of the family, put together a collection of fabrics for her.

Cyan’s first project idea was for a cuddly toy, we made a start on cutting out the pieces last weekend and I’ll be sure to post on that when it’s done...

Cut to today - Cyan was home from school recovering from a nasty cough, and my mum came over to watch her while I was at work.

Mum had promised Cyan when she gave her the sewing kit that she would help Cyan to make her own needle case and pincushion, so that is what they did today...



She embroidered her initial herself “in chain stitch” she told me proudly :)

Cyan’s sewing on the pincushion base..



Her needles nestled in their new case..



Not bad at all for her very first “proper” sewing project!

seam binding crafty ribbons challenge

I took part in another Crafty Ribbons challenge recently, after missing out lots of challenges since the Fun in the Sun challenge I did last year, for which I made a mini beach bag and some mini ribbon notebooks.

The challenge this time was to find new and different ways of using Seam Binding Ribbon..



My first thought was to try weaving it, so I made a woven panel using four different seam binding colours. I backed it with cotton with ironed-on interfacing, ironing the horizontal ends first to keep the ribbons in place while I wove the vertical ribbons through, then ironed the whole panel to fix them all.



This panel became the back of a little purse, with a handle plaited from three colours of seam binding..



And a seam binding ribbon which ties in a bow to keep the purse closed..



I had two ideas for beaded necklaces to make with the seam binding, the first did not work out, but I was very happy with this one, which is simply some wooden beads knotted onto a coordinated colour of seam binding, with a closure made using another smaller wooden bead, and a knotted loop..

mums for mother’s day

Today was Mothering Sunday or Mother’s Day here in the UK. I made a card for
my Mum with some chrysanthemums which I cut out from wallpaper samples..



I also cut the word ‘mum’ out of the front..



.. through this you can see another cut out flower on the inside..



The flowers continue round onto the back of the card..



The kids made a hand-print trees card inspired by this one..



I gave my Mum this necklace pendant set with two carved mother-of-pearl flowers.



The smaller one is a beautifully carved vintage example I bought from Beau Papier on Etsy, I made silver wire wrapped bails for this and the new larger flower and threaded them onto a fine organza ribbon – I know mum has lots of pretty chains and the flowers could be worn on the ribbon or on a chain, either together or separately. I love convertible jewellery!



And of course some real mums! I was so pleased with these large ornamental pale green chrysanthemums I found, and teamed them with some smaller darker green ones and some white carnations (Mum’s favourite).

This is the first crafting I have had time to do in weeks, it was so rewarding and Mum loved her cards, gift and flowers.

links..
Christy’s comment got me wondering about the origins of Mothering Sunday which we celebrate here in England, and the origins of Mother’s Day as celebrated elsewhere in the world..

Check out the Wikipedia links:
Mothering Sunday
Mother’s Day