The 2011 Oscars air on February 27th this year and I couldn’t be more excited! I’m a huge movie fan and grew up in a family that celebrated film and television. Consequently, the Academy Awards were always a big deal to us. My parents even named our cats Oscar and Emmy!

Last year, I created a downloadable Oscar suite that included printable party invitations, ballots, envelope liners, popcorn bags and candy toppers. I’ve been getting quite a few requests for an updated 2011 version so, with out further ado, here they are! Each PDF includes instructions and if you need more information, please see my original posts here and here.

OSCAR INVITATION & ENVELOPE LINERS
Set the tone for the party to come with these printable Oscar Party Invitations and envelope liners.

OSCAR BALLOT
Play along while you watch! Have guests arrive early to fill out the ballot ahead of time for who they think will win. At the end of the evening, tally up the score to see who guessed the most right!

POPCORN BAGS
What are movies without the popcorn? Serve individual portions by printing the template directly onto white paper bags, line with glassine bags to prevent butter stains and fill with movie popcorn! Both the paper and glassine bags can be found in my Etsy shop here.

CANDY BAG TOPPERS
Of course you can’t have the popcorn without the candy! Dress sweets up by arranging in cellophane bags and topping with red and white stripped toppers. Arrange it all on an old fashioned candy tray and pass it around to all your guests. Learn how to make a candy try here.

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CONDITIONS OF USE: All Twig & Thistle downloads are subject to our Terms & Conditions. Downloads are for personal, non-commercial use only. In addition please do not redistribute or modify any of the templates. If you’d like to link to the pdf, please link to this post directly. Thanks!

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Ok, isn’t she the cutest?!

For Part II of my Circus Birthday Party I wanted to share some of the details. As a backdrop for the party space, I created a flag banner which read “Taylor” and was accented by animals and the number “1″. Each piece was trimmed to a triangle shape and then strung together with coordinating ribbon. The rest of the decorations included cupcake toppers and small food signs.

At the “kids” table, there were party hats for them to wear and favor bags for each to take home. Initially I tried to make my own cone hats, but it turned out to be more challenging than expected… As a quick solution I purchased colored hats at my local party supply store, then attached paper circles with animals to the fronts. HUGE time saver! I kept the favor bags simple by filling clear acetate bags with animal crackers and attaching a custom label with ribbon.

It was so much fun creating all of these pieces! I am looking forward to next year’s birthday party!

If you follow me on twitter you may have already seen me rave over today’s post but this party is just too sweet not to share! Sofia, of Brancoprata, had the sweetest birthday ever and every last detail is to die for! I just love the unusual color combination along with the perfectly sweet arrangement and stationary designed by the birthday girl herself. And there are no words for how fabulous that cake by Bolos por Gosto is! Happy, HAPPY belated birthday to my blog friend Sophia!

A few weeks ago, I shared these beautiful baby shower invites that my friend Tara Lee designed and letterpressed and today I get to share some of the details from the event. Tara did an amazing job of coordintaing all the pices and creating a stunning environment. Pale yellow tulips along with custom posters with elements from the invitation were displayed throughout which were later given to the mom-to-be to decorate the babies room.

To test their knowledge, each guest got a nursery rhyme quiz where they had to fill-in-the-blank to complete the line of the song. The nursery rhyme game was adorned with a yellow pencil and attached with glue dots. The other game was simply guess the mom’s baby belly size. Each guest received a small bag with ribbon which they cut to the size they thought would fit around her belly bump. And to take home, each person received a sweet bag of cookies embellished with a blue ribbon. All totally and perfectly coordinated with all the other details!

Congratulations to Tara for a job well done and to Lindsey, the mom-to-be, for the little guy on the way!

We went down to Portland last weekend to celebrate our nephew Cole’s second birthday. The party was a cowboy theme and Cole’s parents, Mark-o and Johanna, put a ton of work into the details. From the food (mmmm corn bread!) to decorations it was an adorable event. They really went all out and above are just a few of my favorite details from the day. Happy Birthday to Cole and have a great weekend everyone, see you Monday!

As promised here is the rest of the goodies for the DIY Oscar Party! I thought a candy tray would be a fun way to serve your guests and what Oscar party would be complete without a ballot! Mine are designed to let guests make their predictions and keep track during the ceremony. There is a place on the back to record the final score to help you pick a winner if you’re awarding a prize. Also note, not all categories are represented due to space constraints.

Candy Bag Toppers Download
Fill 3 5/16″x5 1/8″ cellophane bags (buy) with candy and staple in the center. Print out candy bag toppers onto solid sticker paper (found at office supply stores), cut to size, fold in half the long way and affix toppers to cellophane bags. Don’t have sticker paper? Just print onto cardstock paper and affix with double-sided tape.

Candy Tray
Inspired by the candy girls at Alt, I thought a candy tray would be a perfect touch to the party. All you need is a white tray and a length of red ribbon. Tie the ends of the ribbon together. The knot should rest behind your neck and the ribbon should go under the front of the tray. Then just fix the ribbon in place with strong tape or thumb tacks!

Ballot Download
Print double-sided onto 8.5×11″ card stock and fold in half length wise. Coordinate with red pens.

I love movies and with the Academy Awards coming up I thought it would be fun to make an DIY Oscar party. Here’s everything you need to throw your own! From invitations and ballots to popcorn and treat bags, just print, cut and enjoy!

Invitations Download
Print onto 8.5×11″ card stock, trim to size then use a 3/4″ hole punch to notch the corners.

Envelope Liners Download
Print onto 8.5×11″ paper, trim to size and afix with glue stick to the inside of an A7 envelope.

Popcorn Bags Download
Print directly onto white 5×7″ bags, available in my Etsy shop. If you don’t have an Ink Jet or if your printer doesn’t allow you to print odd formats, you could always print the label onto sticker paper (found at office supply stores) and post apply it to the bag.

Check back tomorrow for the ballots, candy bags and one other surprise!

I’m not sure how I managed to get my degree in Design without ever taking photography. Seems odd to me looking back and now I have quite a bit of catching up to do. Over the weekend I had the pleasure of taking a class from Nicole of A Little Sussy. This was a one day course that covered the basics of photography ranging from aperture and shutter speed to composition and lighting. I’m a huge fan of Nicole’s work so this was a real treat. If you happen to get the chance, I highly recommend snagging a space in one of her classes.

Speaking of Nicole, I thought it would be fun to share one of her most recent projects. She photographed this adorable Raggedy Ann children’s party styled by Brittany of One Charming Party. Being a “ginger” myself, I just love anything that has to do with Raggedy Ann. I particularly love each of the charming little details that can be seen throught the table. Wrapped PB&J sandwiches and tower of lollipops anyone?! Definetlly tucking this one away in the memory for when I have kids. Love!

I got the sweetest email from Susan of Silverbox Creative and had a chance to check out some of their work. I just loved scrolling through their blog archives and seeing all the beautiful things they’ve done and then I came across this adorable invitation for an adult summer party celebrating Shark Week. It’s so refreshing to see a whimsical party invitation for grown ups don’t you think? And Susan tells me that they aptly served bloody mary’s as well; hysterical!

Thanks to Susan for letting me share these invites with all of you and happy Friday to everyone! I’m taking a photography class from Nicole Hill of A Little Sussy this weekend and I’m giddy with anticipation! I’ll see you all back here on Monday. xox

Images: Silverbox Creative and Martha Stewart

Completely adorable Dirty Laundry Guest Book Kits by Mélangerie, a design consultancy specializing in events and custom gifts from Brooklyn. These would be great for a New Years bash, a bridal shower or even a baby shower! Oh, the possibilities! Now available in 6 colors; each kit comes in a mini laundry bag complete with clothesline, clothespins and the laundry for your notes. Check out their site for more event inspiration and ideas and their Etsy shop for the kits and other goodies.

I have a HUGE design/blog crush on Amy of Eat Drink Chic and yesterday’s post was over the top. Amy is so completely talented, from design and styling, to photography and blogging, she’s quickly becoming a favorite.

Check out this ice cream bar that she so generously put together for her readers, complete with templates for each little detail! At final tally I counted 7 of them! Having designed and offered a few myself I know how much time and work this can be and they are all so perfectly adorable.

Be sure to check out her site and if anyone happens to know Amy, give her a great big ol’ bear hug for me! Great work and thank you so much for sharing this with all of us!

Via Erin Vale

*This project happens to be included in Abby’s latest DIY contest so fingers crossed that I win! To vote for your favorite and see all the projects click here.

Click here to see my other Style Me Pretty contributions.

One of my favorite things about the Easter holiday is all the candy! I have a huge sweet tooth so naturally Easter is right up my alley. This year I decided to try my hand at an old time favorite and make homemade marshmallow peeps!

What You’ll Need:

Corn Syrup, Gelatin, Sugar, Cold Water, Salt, Vanilla Extract, Corn Starch, Powdered Sugar, Food Coloring and Sanding Sugar

Instructions:

1. Begin with a basic marshmallow recipe, this one from Alton Brown works well. At the end of the recipe when you are adding the vanilla extract also add your food coloring. I ended up making three batches, one for each color, needless to say I have a LOT of peeps now. If you don’t need  that many, think about sticking with one or two colors.

2. Once you’ve poured the mixture into the prepared pan, smoothed it out with a spatula and dusted it; place plastic wrap over the pan and flatten smooth the surface with a rolling pin. Remove the plastic wrap and let set for at least 4 hours.

3. Once the marshmallows are ready, cut them out with a lightly oiled cookie cutter. I used this set from amazon, but feel free to use whatever you like.

4. To get the sanding sugar to stick, I ended up lightly blotting the tops and bottoms of the marshmallows with a damp paper towel before rolling in the sugar.

5. For the “eyes” I put a dab of corn syrup on the back of a black candy button to get them to stick (found at a local cake store). NOTE: Man hands in the photo belong to my husband, not me.

6. For a sweet little present, line the bottom of a clear gift box with parchment paper, I added a little scalloped edge to finish off the look.

This was a fun afternoon project and even more fun to eat! Enjoy!

I finally have the complete set of baby shower goodies up on my Etsy shop! It seems that so many people I know are having babies these days so I felt inspired to make a baby shower kit of sorts. When I hosted a friends shower last year I had such a blast but it was quite the challange to come up with all the details. Hopefully this set will make planning a little easier for some of you.

This set, fondly named “Li’l Tweet”, is just the beggining of what I hope to offer in my shop but to celebrate I wanted to host a little give away! One lucky winner will recieve a Li’l Tweet Stitch Kit in one of four colors: green, pink, yellow or blue.

*To enter, just leave a comment below with your first name and last initial and tell us what you would do with your very own Li’l Tweet. You have until 11:59 PDT Thursday, April 2, to enter. The winner will be selected randomly on April 3rd and announced on Twig & Thistle, Monday, April 6th! Good luck!

NOTE: THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED

To see pics from the shower that these were originally designed for check out Baby Shower: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Top Left: Li’l Tweet Thank You Cards, Top Right: Li’L Tweet Mailing Labels, Bottom: Li’l Tweet Baby Shower Set