Simple Indeed

Unlike her sister, who needs some time to decide what she wants for a birthday cake. Anais knows exactly what she wants.

She turned 4 in January, and she wants an Elsa cake.

Pssst, “Did you say January? Why are you writing about it two months later?” If this is the question that pops up now in your head? I’m total with you. I know I should get more organized!

But time just slips through our fingers so fast.

Busy parents, anyone?

To change from unorganized to organized one step at a time. I decided to make a wall calendar that I can see, not hidden in my phone. So I designed the first one for April 2017. You can download it now for free. (If you’ve subscribed to my newsletter, you’ve probably already got it in the email.)

So back to the Elsa cake. I showed her 3 or 4 Pinterest pictures, and she picked this one (I made this one, inspired by the picture she chose that is not included in this blog post.)

Before every party, I always pick a color theme. And I make color swatches of exact colors, according to what I found in craft/party stores. This time I know, there will be blue and white, and I don’t want it to be all about “Frozen,” you know, the film. It is a Frozen inspired party, but it’s more about winter, snow, etc. It will include purple because I want to reuse the “4” I made with coffee filter flowers for Gabby’s birthday, which is by the way very time-consuming.

I started preparing only one week before the birthday party. Since it was around Chinese New Year, I was deep into dumpling making and teaching. I shared three recipes and also made a video showing how to make dumplings, and even hosted a dumpling-making party at my house. That’s why I almost ran out of time for my little girl’s birthday. And I decided to make a 3D paper castle as her present and the centerpiece of the table, five days before!

Did I mention it’s the first time I made a 3D castle? I always learn something new while I was preparing my kids’ party. And I get better each time. That’s something exciting about planning your own party!

First I found the pattern from SVGcuts, which is an excellent place if you are into making 3D paper stuff and have a cutting machine. I got mine as a Christmas present a year ago, and this is the first time I intensively used it.

There are many pieces, and if I don’t choose colors wisely, it can be visually too busy. While sourcing cardstocks needed for this project, I chose first some patterned paper for the roofs, To be able to make them pop, I have to use a neutral color for the other parts, so I chose gray.

Turquoise will be the dominant color, surrounded by white, gray/silver, and a dash of purple. These are also the colors for the whole party set up.

Since I always perfect my parties until the last minute, I never have any time taking pictures. This time I got 10 minutes before the party would start. And I have to get my shots with this strong backlighting. That’s why everything looks darker than it should. 🙂