Halloween Party Inspiration

As seen on Afternoon Live. Watch it

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to host parties.  There's so many themes to choose from.  You can get really creative with your décor. 

Depending on where you live you probably won't be setting up your dessert table outside.  But it was such a gorgeous day here in Portland and the lighting is so much better outside than in our house.  I couldn't resist setting up outside.  And our little graveyard adds to the overall look.

Caramel apples and candy corn. Must haves on a Halloween dessert table. 

You can attempt to make your own caramel apples or, you can pick them up at a pumpkin patch like I did.  They make them so much better than I ever have.  And pick up a couple of pumpkins while you're there.  Candy corn doesn't have to just be in a bowl on the table.  You can use it as part of the décor.  You know your friends will nibble on it every time they walk by the table. Even if it's part of the décor like how I used it here on the table.

The witches head is super easy to make.  Pick up a Styrofoam head at your craft store, some paint and a Halloween pick you can find in the floral or seasonal section of the craft store.  With a pencil, draw the lip line and hair line.  Paint the lips, eyebrows, hair line and add eye lashes if you want.  You can paint the skin green like I did or any colour that matches your party theme. Stick the Halloween pick in the head and you're done.

The only problem with caramel apples is, it's hard not to eat it before the party begins.

Desserts 

For me, no dessert table is complete without cupcakes.  And I can't have naked cupcakes so I topped these with Candyfetti and tulle poms that I made.  Normally I make my own cupcakes because I love to bake cupcakes but these are store bought.  If you're short on time or don't like to bake, pick up cupcakes at the store or bakery.

I like to have a variety of desserts on the table. A little something to please every one's taste buds.  I did make the chocolate covered Oreo's with edible glitter spiders. See below for how to make the chocolate covered Oreo's.

Cupcake toppers 

You can make your own tulle poms or order them in my shop until December 31, 2018.   Dress up store bought cupcakes with candy sprinkles, toppers and using liners that match the colours of your party.

How to make chocolate covered Oreo's 

I used an Oreo mold that had the spiders on it.  I melted black chocolate discs, painted the bottom of the mold and put it in the refrigerator to harden.  Once the chocolate was hardened I put the Oreo in the mold, painted more chocolate on top the Oreo and put back in the refrigerator to harden.  Once the chocolate was hardened I let them rest upside down until they fell out.  You might have to give them a little push but don't push too hard or you'll separate the chocolate top from the bottom.  I than took a small paint brush and painted edible glitter on the spider. 

Cookies 

Sugar cookies is one thing I always order for my parties.  I don't even attempt to make them.  There is so many great cookie artists out there.  It would take me forever to decorate sugar cookies and they wouldn't look nearly as pretty as when cookie crafters decorate them.

Look at that smooth icing job and spot on Halloween decorating skills. Yeah, mine wouldn't look anything like that.  I could learn how to decorate cookies like this. But I'd rather just support small cookie bakers.

Bubble bubble toil and trouble 

Bubbles, yes bubbles for adult parties. On a whim one party I had bubbles out. I mostly had them out for fun but my guests got so excited about them.  They all started blowing bubbles and we're having so much fun.  Little bottles of bubbles make great party favors, even for adult parties.

Check out the companion to this party- Witches Cocktail Party 

Shop this party-
Styled by Fizzy Party
Table Linen- Joanns 
Cake stands- Homegoods
Spell books, caramel apple trays, Styrofoam heads- Michaels 
Caramel apples- Krugers Farms
Oreo mold- Fancy Flours
Bubbles, lime green stands- Oriental Trading 
Cookies- Love Hope Cookies 

Witches Cocktail Hallowen Party

 Halloween parties are SO much easier when you have a theme. This Halloween, leave the men at home and host a witches only cocktail party.  

The rules of this party:

1. Women only. 
2. Witch costume required. 
3. Have fun. 

Halloween Party Treats

Halloween party treats shouldn't be hard to make. I'm here to show you some spooky cute treats for your Halloween dessert table that only look hard to make. 

To set a spooky Halloween dessert table use a dark table linen and cover that with gauze cloth.  On top of your table set out your easy Halloween treats.  Your guests will be impressed with your treats. Just don't tell them how easy they were to make. Pop over here for the witches cauldron popcorn.  

Serve up your drinks in beakers.  It adds an element of fun to your Halloween table.  I set the beakers on a tray to give it a bar element feel.  I filled my beakers with soda's and wine.  Alright, let's talk easy Halloween treats...

Now I know you've seen these white chocolate covered pretzel ghosts before.  I made these the super easy way though. Catch them and me on T.V. here.  When I've seen these ghost treats before people take pretzels, dip them in melted white chocolate and add eyes.  Oh no, make it so much easier on yourself.  

• Buy yogurt covered pretzels. 
• Dab a little frosting in the top holes of the pretzels
• Add some candy eyeballs on top of the frosting 
• Done

See how easy and time saving that was.  Layer some candy corn in a serving dish,  set the pretzel ghosts on top and serve. 

Look at that orange POP off the table. 

Here's why these Nutter Butter mummies are easy.  They don't look perfect and I don't care. When you see these all over the internet the wrappings are all thin and perfect looking. My wrappings are thicker. It adds character to them and honestly, you're guests are not going to notice that the mummies wrappings are not perfect. So dip your Nutter Butter's in the melted white chocolate and when you drizzle the melted chocolate over top for the wrappings, don't stress out if they come out thicker. And if you're guests think they look more like ghosts than mummies just go with it. 

When you make your Halloween treats are you going to:
A) Stress if they don't look perfect, point out all the flaws to your friends and not enjoy your party
Or
B) Are you going to just go with it, enjoy the compliments from your friends and have fun at the party? 

Halloween Witches Brew Popcorn

Halloween Witches Brew Popcorn 

Did you catch my Halloween party tips? If you didn't I'll wait while you pop over and check them out. If you did, than you saw the popcorn on the table.  This popcorn is fun, easy and great for a Halloween movie night. Especially if the movie has a witch them. 

To give your table a more creepy look use a dark table linen and layer on top a gauze cloth found in the Halloween décor section of most stores. It comes with holes ripped in it already. 

Instead of serving the popcorn in a bowl, serve it in a cauldron.  You can find these inexpensively and when your party is over you can use it to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters. 

Place some smaller cauldrons in front of the larger one holding popcorn and fill it with candy.  Your guests can eat the candy separately or mix it into their popcorn.  Have you ever had candy corn with popcorn. Yum! The mix of salty and sweet is the perfect combination. Gummy frogs add to the witch theme and coconut Jelly Belly jelly beans look like spider eggs. 

Add some gummy brains and eyeballs to your cauldron full of popcorn for some spooky fun.  I picked these up at World Market.  

For more fun Halloween party tips watch my segment on Afternoon Live.

And be sure to come back this week because I have more easy Halloween treat tips. 

Halloween Party Tips

Halloween is coming and that means parties! I'm going to help you throw a great mini Halloween party. I've got lots of easy ideas to help keep stress out of your party planning.  Because if your stressed your guests will pick up on that and the party won't be as fun. But if you're relaxed when your guests arrive you'll have more fun and your guests will too. 

I like to start the party outside.  On your lawn or porch set out some tombstones, a few bones and some jack-o-lanterns. As your guests pull up to your place and see the décor outside they'll be excited for the party that awaits them inside. 

Watch the t.v. segment here 

When setting up a dessert bar add some spookiness to your table linen by layering a gauze cloth.  Display your desserts at various heights by using crates, acrylic risers, a coffin décor piece maybe. Adding little details pulls the theme together, draws the eye and adds texture.  I added moss to the bottom of the crate, added a tombstone to carry the tombstones from outside to the party indoors and added a few mice for fun.  The coffin boxes tie into the tombstones and bones from outside. 

Instead of using dishes for candy and popcorn use cauldrons.  You can pick them up inexpensively. 

Beakers make great vessels for serving your drinks. Set them atop a serving tray to add more dimension and interest. 

I'll be sharing with you how easy it is to make all these Halloween treats in future posts. You'll definitely want to come back to see how to save yourself time and stress. 

If you love to host Halloween parties or need help planning a Halloween party join my Facebook Pop up group.  This group is only open until the second week of November 2017.  Join us now! 

Flamingo Halloween Party

Flamingo Halloween Party Inspiration 

**Product was given to me by Oriental Trading in exchange for styling a party. I've been ordering from this company long before I was a blogger. Just so you know ;) **

Fizzy Friends, I decided to go a little different this Halloween and keep the summer flamingo fun going. The inspiration for this party came from an Instagram post I saw on Cake and Confetti's feed.  I emailed her and told her I was inspired by the picture she posted and would she mind if I ran with a party idea based on it.  She was awesome and said, go for it!

I know this is totally small and needs to be MUCH bigger. It was my first attempt at a Pinterest pin. Leave a comment and let me know what you think of it, besides the size. I know it needs to be bigger. 

For Halloween I like to throw theme based parties.  It makes planning out all the décor so much easier.  It also allows me to pick up items on sale when I see them and keeps the stress level of throwing parties down. Throwing parties for me is a passion so I rarely stress over them but I know it's not every one's passion and for a lot of people throwing together a mini party is a lot of work. That's why I bring you inspiration and ideas and if you leave comments with party questions I'll always answer them. 

I like to keep my parties mini. Only inviting over 6-8 friends. This allows me to really connect with my friends while they're at the party and bonus, it keeps costs down. You don't need to buy as much food, plates, cups, utensils etc. 

The inspiration for this Halloween theme was a flamingo cookie on a spider web paper cut out.  Being Halloween I have to have tombstones.  I picked these up at a dollar type store.  The flamingo's are meant for a table top display but I took them out of their stand and stuck them in the ground.  I couldn't find any pink pumpkins so I picked up some faux orange ones, on sale at a craft store, spray painted them pink and sprinkled them with a little black glitter. 

When it comes to serving cupcakes at your party you don't have to bake your own. Unless you like baking then by all means, bake away.  But if you really don't like baking or don't have the time, don't stress yourself out. Whip into your local bakery or grocery store and buy some. The key to my parties is to keep the stress down so you can enjoy your friends during the party.  I picked these cupcakes up at the store, plopped them into some party themed liners and added a pink bubble gum candy to the top. This took me very little time, matches the party theme and my friends didn't care that I didn't make the cupcakes myself. 

I love to add details to a party that tie the theme together.  The black glasses and straw flags pull in the spider element while the flamingo printed straws and pink tulle poms pull in the flamingo element. When hosting a party think of ways you can incorporate little details into your party. 

For the dessert table I like to have a variety available. I always end up with extras and always send my friends home with desserts but I love desserts and I just like the way a variety looks. I'll be bringing you more tips and close ups of this dessert station in another post so be sure to come back. 

So.. what did you think of this party? Should flamingo's stay in their own season, summer? 

Now let's shop this party! 

Wood flamingo's, flamingo balloon, hot pink table fringe, Happy Halloween banner, black balloons  and black glasses- Oriental Trading 

Spider web cupcake stand, cake stand, black table linen- Joann's

Spooky sign- Target 

Coffin box, pumpkins- Michaels

Pink tulle poms- Fizzy Party 

Flamingo Cookies- Gingerhead cookies 

Cake- Confection Deception 

Reflections on Halloween

Halloween has come and gone.

Halloween usually screams through our house all month.  This year, it whispered.  One would think with 13 being my favorite number that this would have been the  year for Halloween for me.  But it wasn't.  Perhaps it was all the house repairs, the endless phone calls back and forth, taking time off work for apts, or maybe it was the new products I was making in preparation for my new business. Shop opening November 3rd on Etsy.

Halloween normally screams in toward the end of September. I fill my calendar with Halloween fun. Never enough days in October to pack it all in.

3 to 4 loaves of pumpkin bread are made through out the month.  Zero loaves were made this year.  Although part of that is my husbands fault.  He kept coming home with loaves from Great Harvest Bread Co. 

The house is fully decorated.  The kitchen and dining room become the bat cave. 

The living room is filled with spiders and the mantel becomes a cemetery. 

The hallway always gets covered in a cemetery scene.

This year the hallway and mantel were all I accomplished.

2 to 3 trips are made to pumpkin patches.  Two times with friends and once with my husband.  No trips were made this year.

8-10 pumpkins are carved and placed in the yard. Lit every evening until Halloween's end.  No pumpkins were carved this year.

Caramel apples are made. None this year. Nails are painted black all month. One week this year.  Costumes bought. None this year. Parties are attended. One this year. And Halloween movies are watched every day. Five were watched this month.

Today I'm mourning Halloween a little.  How could I have let you pass with a whisper.
Fear not Halloween 2014, I'll be sure to see you come in screaming and continue screaming until the last Trick-or-Treater of the evening.

Related: Pumpkin Carving Party 

shhh, I'm already planning for 2014 ;)  Halloween sales here I come.