Welcome to the blog for Tradewind Tiaras, Inc. We'll tell you all about our newest products, of course, but we'll also provide great wedding planning tips, showcase gorgeous weddings, and talk about our favorite vendors after 10 years in the business. Visit our main website at tradewindtiaras.com .
Showing posts with label Dessert Table. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dessert Table. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
DIY Project: How to make a Cookie Display Backdrop
Looking for the cookie display backdrop tutorial? It's been moved (along with the rest of the blog) over to Tikkido.com. Come join us!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Real Parties: An Egyptology/Archaeology Excursion (Part 2, the Desserts!)
Looking for the post on the Egyptology birthday party desserts? It's at its new home at Tikkido.com!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
How to Make a Paper Flower Backdrop: Let's Finish It!
And here we are, at the final part of our How to Make a Giant Paper Flower Backdrop tutorial. In case you missed it, learn how to make all the other flowers for this backdrop in Part One and Part Two.
Today we'll learn how to make the last flower, what I call the Rolled Cone Flower. As before, you'll need more of that roll of paper, scissors, and a glue gun. Tape is handy for this one, too, but not necessary.
This is what I mean by Rolled Cone Flower:
These are incredibly easy, and you can make them very large. This is good for two reasons. First, because the large scale is dramatic. Second, the larger your flowers are, the fewer you have to make!
First, cut your petals. They should look like slightly tapered U shapes (narrower at the top of the U). But don't knock yourself out worrying about getting it just right. Rhatever you cut will be just fine. Really.
Roll each petal into a cone, and secure with tape or hot glue. Tape is faster, but the glue gun works just as well.
Arrange the cones so that they form a circle, with the points meeting in the middle. I usually used six for each flower, but it really depends on the size of your petals. Use as many as you need. Glue together using the glue gun.
Make a fringe flower center, if desired, and glue to the center of the flower.
The only other element on the backdrop were the leaves. These were insanely simple to make, and were great filler. I used a lot of leaves.
The instructions for these are pretty darn obvious. Cut out leaf shape. Fold in half to give some dimension. Voila, leaves!
You've done the grunt work--now let's see it all come together into a thing of beauty. To make the paper flower backdrop, you'll need:
 |
| Paper Flower Dessert Table Backdrop |
Today we'll learn how to make the last flower, what I call the Rolled Cone Flower. As before, you'll need more of that roll of paper, scissors, and a glue gun. Tape is handy for this one, too, but not necessary.
This is what I mean by Rolled Cone Flower:
These are incredibly easy, and you can make them very large. This is good for two reasons. First, because the large scale is dramatic. Second, the larger your flowers are, the fewer you have to make!
First, cut your petals. They should look like slightly tapered U shapes (narrower at the top of the U). But don't knock yourself out worrying about getting it just right. Rhatever you cut will be just fine. Really.
Roll each petal into a cone, and secure with tape or hot glue. Tape is faster, but the glue gun works just as well.
Arrange the cones so that they form a circle, with the points meeting in the middle. I usually used six for each flower, but it really depends on the size of your petals. Use as many as you need. Glue together using the glue gun.
Make a fringe flower center, if desired, and glue to the center of the flower.
The only other element on the backdrop were the leaves. These were insanely simple to make, and were great filler. I used a lot of leaves.
The instructions for these are pretty darn obvious. Cut out leaf shape. Fold in half to give some dimension. Voila, leaves!
You've done the grunt work--now let's see it all come together into a thing of beauty. To make the paper flower backdrop, you'll need:
- your trusty glue gun
- your mountains of paper flowers
- a 4 x 8 sheet of foam insulation sheeting from your local Lowes or Home Depot
The foam insulating sheet is lightweight, easily can be cut to whatever size or shape you want, and is very inexpensive. I think I paid about $6.50 for mine.
Now all you need to do is use your glue gun and start sticking on those flowers!
Use the leaves to fill in the cracks between the flowers. A little bit of the Styrofoam will still be visible, but when you're doing a white-on-white background like this, it just looks like part of the design. If you were to do this project in a different color (I'd love to try it with wrapping paper!) I'd paint or cover the Styrofoam first.
I hope you've enjoyed learning how I made the backdrop for the Secret Garden baby shower. I can imagine a ton of other applications for this type of project. The most incredible photobooth backdrop ever? cover cardboard columns and arches to make an insanely beautiful focal point for a wedding ceremony? Me, I'm planning to re-use the backdrop as an art piece in my bedroom, whenever I get around to re-painting the awful purple sponge painting left behind by the previous owners.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
How to Make a Paper Flower Backdrop: Part 2, Roses
Here we are at part two of making a giant paper flower backdrop like the one from the Secret Garden shower. Today it's all about the roses.
In case you missed yesterday's post, Part 1 of making the paper flower backdrop, this is what we're making:
You'll need the same materials as yesterday: the same roll of paper, scissors, and a glue gun.
How to Make a Paper Rose
I'm talking about these:
First, you need to make a cone for the center of the rose.
Cut a rectangle of paper (top left image above). Roll it into a cone (image on the right above). I left a gap at the tip, because that looked like the center of a rose, and was easy. Tape or glue the cone shape in place. Then gently squish the cone flatish (bottom left image above--don't crease it, just squish it enough to trim both sides at once) and trim an arc on the bottom. You'll be left with a perfect cone. Or perfect enough. Remember from yesterday, this project is not about perfection. As long as the cone kind of sits reasonably on a flat surface, it'll be great.
Next, cut the petals. You want shapes that are roughly teardrop shaped, and about the same height as the cone, or a little bit taller.
Then simply glue the petals around the cone. Place three petals directly on the cone. Five petals on the next layer. Seven petals on the next layer (if you want a rose that big). Once the petals are glued in place, you can gently curl the tops of the petals down, which makes the rose look even more fabulous.
How to Make Spiral Roses
As much as I love the look of the regular roses, they were the most time consuming flower to make on the backdrop. The spiral roses were a great filler flower, because they were so darn simple and fast. I'm talking about these guys:
First, cut a circle of paper. Then cut it into a spiral. Be messy, be wobbly--that will make the petals have different lengths and give you extra texture.
Then just start rolling up the flower, starting on the outside of the spiral. Once it's all rolled up, a dab of glue will stick it all together. Did that make sense? If not, watch this video I found. It's great.
I want to mention one tip for making this project a lot faster: cut more than one item at a time. Cutting petals? Cut strips of paper and cut four or five at a time. They'll all be exactly the same size, and you'll be done that much more quickly. I spent about four or five hours on this project all together, but it would have been far more tedious if I'd been cutting one element at a time.
Tomorrow we'll learn how to make the last few elements of the paper flower backdrop, and will see how easy it is to put it all together.
In case you missed yesterday's post, Part 1 of making the paper flower backdrop, this is what we're making:
You'll need the same materials as yesterday: the same roll of paper, scissors, and a glue gun.
How to Make a Paper Rose
I'm talking about these:
First, you need to make a cone for the center of the rose.
Cut a rectangle of paper (top left image above). Roll it into a cone (image on the right above). I left a gap at the tip, because that looked like the center of a rose, and was easy. Tape or glue the cone shape in place. Then gently squish the cone flatish (bottom left image above--don't crease it, just squish it enough to trim both sides at once) and trim an arc on the bottom. You'll be left with a perfect cone. Or perfect enough. Remember from yesterday, this project is not about perfection. As long as the cone kind of sits reasonably on a flat surface, it'll be great.
Next, cut the petals. You want shapes that are roughly teardrop shaped, and about the same height as the cone, or a little bit taller.
Then simply glue the petals around the cone. Place three petals directly on the cone. Five petals on the next layer. Seven petals on the next layer (if you want a rose that big). Once the petals are glued in place, you can gently curl the tops of the petals down, which makes the rose look even more fabulous.
How to Make Spiral Roses
As much as I love the look of the regular roses, they were the most time consuming flower to make on the backdrop. The spiral roses were a great filler flower, because they were so darn simple and fast. I'm talking about these guys:
First, cut a circle of paper. Then cut it into a spiral. Be messy, be wobbly--that will make the petals have different lengths and give you extra texture.
Then just start rolling up the flower, starting on the outside of the spiral. Once it's all rolled up, a dab of glue will stick it all together. Did that make sense? If not, watch this video I found. It's great.
I want to mention one tip for making this project a lot faster: cut more than one item at a time. Cutting petals? Cut strips of paper and cut four or five at a time. They'll all be exactly the same size, and you'll be done that much more quickly. I spent about four or five hours on this project all together, but it would have been far more tedious if I'd been cutting one element at a time.
Tomorrow we'll learn how to make the last few elements of the paper flower backdrop, and will see how easy it is to put it all together.
Monday, August 29, 2011
How to Make a Paper Flower Backdrop: Part 1, Basic Flowers
Looking for this? The blog has moved to Tikkido.com! Find the full tutorial over there, and join us for lots of creative new content.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Real Parties: The Secret Garden Baby Shower (And Happy Blog Birthday!)
This August, I was delighted to have the opportunity to create a baby shower to welcome a new little girl into the world. When the hostess told me that the theme was The Secret Garden, I was utterly delighted. That Frances Hodgson Burnett novel had been one of my very favorites when I was young. Turns out, the theme wasn't actually a reference to that children's book, but I still used it loosely as my inspiration to create a magical scene of a garden that felt almost like something from another world.
I immediately thought of the Chanel 2009 runway show, and knew what I wanted to do for my backdrop. A garden wall of paper flowers, all white. I wanted to play with texture, with light and shadow, more than color for this party. I'll be posting a tutorial for how to make one of these show-stoppers for yourself, and you'll be amazed at how inexpensive and easy it is.
I wanted pink to be the predominant color of the desserts (it was a shower for a little girl, after all!)
Raspberry mousse is a delicious, delightfully pink dessert. And any excuse to use my mini trifle dishes is a good one!
The brush-embroidery cookies were so easy to make, and looked so amazing (if I do say so myself!)! I also love how my mirrored cake stands came out, and I can't wait to share the tutorial for those as well. They added just the right sparkle and flash to the display.
The cupcakes were inspired by Zalita of Cupcake D'Lights. Her cupcakes always astound me, and are so amazingly creative and detailed. Head over to her Flickr stream for some serious beauty and inspiration.
When thinking about pink confections, I remembered these biscotti. Pink pillows of deliciousness with a light vanilla and anise flavor. The subtle sweetness of this traditional Italian recipe is absolutely addictive. Good thing the recipe made a huge batch--plenty of cookies for me to taste test. You know, for quality control. Many thanks to the Zappanti family for sharing their family recipe with me for this party!
I carried the paper flowers theme through the table tents as well, using simple paper punches to create a miniature version of the backdrops. Wouldn't these make absolutely stunning place cards for a wedding?
Pink Lemonade Tea Cakes were a fun and successful experiment. I created the recipe as a riff on Russian Tea Cakes/Mexican Wedding Cakes. All that buttery, tender goodness with a bright citrus flavor and pretty pink color. Want to learn how to make them for yourself? Pop over to The TomKat Studio blog for a how-to post and the recipe!
The lemon tartlets weren't pink, I know, but the flower shape and lemon flavor made them irresistible for the party.
This was a baby shower, after all, so I created this simple, but utterly adorable onesie bunting.
The beverages had white-on-white textural floral signs, too.
As did the simple thank-you tags. It's amazing how much elegance and dimension one little paper flower can add to a package!
Savory snacks included pork tenderloin mini sandwiches with a horseradish mustard spread.
Cheese and crackers are so much more special when the crackers are homemade rosemary sea salt crackers, and the plate is garnished with adorable miniature champagne grapes and raspberries.
The bacon, date, and goat cheese streudel was a huge hit, and was so simple! It's a great make-ahead appetizer.
For an activity, I came up with the idea of making custom paint-by numbers canvases. The design was inspired by the bedding the mother-to-be had registered for. Each guest at the party could paint a piece of the picture using the easy color-coded canvas and paints.
And after adding their contributions to the artwork, the guests signed the canvas. An activity, a gift for the parents, nursery decor, and a loving memento of the people who came to celebrate the new baby, all rolled into one!
I'll be starting the series of how-tos for this party tomorrow, so be sure to come back for lots of great info!
And I have to note that this post marks the one year anniversary of my blog. What a marvelous adventure this has been so far. Thank you so much to all my readers for your comments, support, and friendship. Here's to many more years to come!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Featured on the Amy Atlas Blog! Our Tykki-dyw Butterfly Birthday
I am beyond excited to announce that our latest party debuted today on the Amy Atlas blog! What an incredible honor this is; Amy Atlas pioneered the dessert table trend, and does absolutely exquisite, inspirational work.
Come back tomorrow for the start of the party posts. I'll have tons of pictures, and many tutorials from this party.
Come back tomorrow for the start of the party posts. I'll have tons of pictures, and many tutorials from this party.
Friday, April 1, 2011
A Neapolitan Ice Cream April Fool's Day Party! (Part 1, the Dessert Table)
Many thanks to The TomKat Studio for debuting our April Fool's Day party yesterday! I'm really excited to be able to show off all the details here now!
It all started a few months ago, when the universe started telling me to throw a Neapolitan ice cream themed party. They were little messages. Individually, they didn't mean anything. But they just kept falling in my lap, until, without any real planning effort, I essentially had every element for the party ready. Just a small sampling of the offerings from the universe:
So I had the outfit, the theme, the decor, the venue, and one of the activities handed to me on a silver platter. I couldn't not throw this party!
The concept for this April Fool's Day party was that nothing would be quite what it seemed, that everything would have a trick or a twist and fool the eye. That meant, with a Neapolitan ice cream theme, that everything on the dessert table would look like ice cream...but wasn't.
We served:
Maybe...Milkshakes? (Actually white, chocolate, and strawberry milk, topped with whipped cream and a fondant cherry.)
Probably...Drumsticks? (Actually cake balls on homemade krumkake miniature cones, decorated to look like the classic Good Humor ice cream treat.)
Presumptively...Scoops of Ice Cream? (Actually sugar cookies made to look like scoops of ice cream. Tutorial coming soon!)
Presumably...Ice Cream Cones? (I should have said "Soft Serve." Ah, hindsight. Since I threw this party together in about three days, I'm not going to be too hard on myself! These were actually meringues made to look like soft serve ice cream cones. Tutorial for these also coming next week!)
Supposedly...Sugar Cookies? (Ok, so these actually were sugar cookies, but I liked the alliteration!)
The dessert table was great fun to put together, and the kids loved the sweets (of course!) but for me, a party is all about...well, the party! Come back for all the details about the fun we had in Monday's post!
It all started a few months ago, when the universe started telling me to throw a Neapolitan ice cream themed party. They were little messages. Individually, they didn't mean anything. But they just kept falling in my lap, until, without any real planning effort, I essentially had every element for the party ready. Just a small sampling of the offerings from the universe:
- My daughter already had the perfect dress from her grandpa's wedding a few months ago.
- I found a darling little set of play dishes at Ikea and thought the glasses looked just like little ice cream cones. So cute!
- I'd finally figured out how to make cookies that look like scoops of ice cream.
- I saw floral containers (on sale!) at Joann Fabrics that looked just like ice cream cones.
- TomKat and about three other designers all created adorable Neapolitan ice cream themed printables.
- TopIt Cupcakes opened up less than a mile from my house, and its entire concept was based on a top-it-yourself ice cream shop...but with cupcakes!
- And on top of it all, the cupcake shop is painted in Neapolitan stripes of pink, brown, and cream!
So I had the outfit, the theme, the decor, the venue, and one of the activities handed to me on a silver platter. I couldn't not throw this party!
The concept for this April Fool's Day party was that nothing would be quite what it seemed, that everything would have a trick or a twist and fool the eye. That meant, with a Neapolitan ice cream theme, that everything on the dessert table would look like ice cream...but wasn't.
We served:
Maybe...Milkshakes? (Actually white, chocolate, and strawberry milk, topped with whipped cream and a fondant cherry.)
Probably...Drumsticks? (Actually cake balls on homemade krumkake miniature cones, decorated to look like the classic Good Humor ice cream treat.)
Ostensibly...Fudgesicles? (Actually chocolates with a peanut butter filling, sprayed with luster dust to give it a little bit of a frosty look, and nestled in fake ice to help give it some extra realism.)
Supposedly...Sugar Cookies? (Ok, so these actually were sugar cookies, but I liked the alliteration!)
The dessert table was great fun to put together, and the kids loved the sweets (of course!) but for me, a party is all about...well, the party! Come back for all the details about the fun we had in Monday's post!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
How to Make Chocolate Popcorn
Looking for the DIY on making chocolate covered popcorn (or Troll Boogers for a Harry Potter Party)? It's moved, along with the rest of the blog, to its new home at Tikkido.com. Here's the direct link to the content you wanted!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Real Parties: A Harry Potter Extravaganza--Part 1, the Dessert Table
Looking for the Harry Potter party? It (along with all of our content) has moved to its new home on Tikkido. See the whole party there.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Bargain Find: Elegant Miniature Frames
As I was out shopping, plotting, and planning an event I'm working on, I came across these darling miniature frames.
They have a whimsical, Baroque style to them (at least I think "Baroque" is the word I'm looking for; I reserve the right to correct this post when I get a hold of my art-historian friend who actually knows this stuff). They're ideal for labels on dessert tables, seating assignments, and wedding favors. And at only $1 each at Michael's, they're a great bargain.
The fall color palette not right for your event? A can of spray paint would take care of that in mere minutes. I can't wait to use mine!
They have a whimsical, Baroque style to them (at least I think "Baroque" is the word I'm looking for; I reserve the right to correct this post when I get a hold of my art-historian friend who actually knows this stuff). They're ideal for labels on dessert tables, seating assignments, and wedding favors. And at only $1 each at Michael's, they're a great bargain.
The fall color palette not right for your event? A can of spray paint would take care of that in mere minutes. I can't wait to use mine!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Sugar Plum Fairy Party Part 2: The Dessert Table
Looking for the dessert table details for the sugar plum fairy party? It's moved to its new home at Tikkido.com.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
DIY Project: Lollipop Topiaries from the Cornish Fairy Party
Looking for the lollipop topiary tutorial? It's moved to its new home at Tikkido.com.
 |
| Lollipop topiaries from the Cornish Fairy birthday party. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)