{Tutorials} Personalized Halloween Treat Bucket

My crafty friend, Amanda, always comes up with the cutest DIY projects! This particular one even looks easy enough for me. I'm craft challenged!

Supplies: a plastic bucket, acrylic paint (orange, white & black), paint brushes, polyurethane spray along with tissue, ribbon, a gift tag and candy.

Directions:

First, spray the bucket with polyurethane spray. This will help the paint adhere. Next, paint a white ghost on the bucket. Then, using white paint, paint the monogram, name or phrase you wish to use. Also, paint the large white dots on the side; 2 coats.

Using the black paint, add your ghost face, "Boo" and "2010" to your dots. Then, apply 2 coats of orange paint to the monogram, name or phrase. Next, add letter "shadowing" to your lettering using white paint. Finish by spraying the bucket with polyurethane spray once again.

Now all you need to do is include a gift sticker, fill tissue paper with candy and tie ribbon on the handle for a BOOtacular Halloween treat!

This is such a cute and easy Halloween bucket you can make as a gift or even for your child's treat bucket! Thank you Amanda for sharing!

**Amanda found this particular bucket at HEB in the candy aisle.**

{Real Parties} A Very MAD Hatter Tea Party

If you are leaning towards the gothic side this year and are in the need for last minute Halloween inspiration, look no further! The lovely Chris of Celebrations at Home has designed a very MAD Hatter Halloween Tea Party that is perfect for your party.

Chris pulled this table together in less than a week and you can too! Lucky for you...Gwynn of Gwynn Wasson Designs created all the printables for the table (excluding the clock cupcake toppers) AND is offering them to you for FREE!!!

You won't want to miss LOTS more pictures on Chris's site as well as her Facebook page. No only does she share more photos with you, but she maps out a party plan that is easy to follow.

Happy Halloween Week!

Real Parties: Woodland Forest Birthday Party

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Kelly from The Party Dress and WH Hostess is a true talent and her latest children's birthday party for a 5-year-old boy is perfection. Kelly created a modern version of the popular whimsical woodland forest theme we have seen lately.

Focusing on an owl, toadstool, acorns and moss, a color palette of rusty red, olive green, chocolate brown and robin's egg blue was born. I love the clean-lined version of this cute theme and the rustic feel that in Kelly's words, was "oh so boy"!

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I have fallen for Kelly's centerpiece sticks which are the perfect addition to a kids party. At this birthday, cylinder vases were filled with moss stones and green lentils and topped off with one of the sticks.

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The children's table was set perfectly with a rattan placemat, lemonade bottles embellished with stickers and and box lunch. Each place setting also had a favor wrapped in the cutest way! The favor was wrapped in burlap fabric and tied with a polka dot ribbon and adorning gift tag.

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The dessert table stole the show! I adore the rustic, yet modern feel. To enhance the setting, Kelly used wooden boxes from Ikea in various places. Coordinating cupcake toppers, candy jar tags and woodland forest banner were found around the table as well. The children got to indulge in lots of yummy candy such as candy raspberries and swirl salt water taffy and custom cookies by the talented Allyson Jane Designer Desserts.

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Another picture of one of my favorite elements...the burlap wrapped party favors!

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I always get so excited when one of Kelly's parties lands in my inbox. We were able to collaborate on a girly monkey party not too long ago and we are both dying to see the pictures!!

And did you know that Kelly was just featured in InStyle Magazine as one of "best of the web" entertaining sources?!

Operation Give Thanks: An Amazing Way to Give Back AND Party!

My friend Amy from Stem Parties is such an amazing person and is constantly giving back to others. Near and dear to her heart is Operation Shower and now Operation Give Thanks. I cannot explain this wonderful cause better than Amy can, so please let me share with you what Operation Give Thanks is through her own words...

Operation Give Thanks is a nation-wide fundraising campaign to help Operation Shower continue our mission to throw amazing baby showers for military families to ease the burden of deployment.

We are asking people across the nation to host a party, big or small, between now and the end of the year to raise money for Operation Shower. What a wonderful way to express your gratitude and thanks at this special time of year — and have fun!

What an easy and fun way to help such a tremendous cause! AND to make it that much more fun, 5 of your favorite bloggers have donated free printable collections for your parties!!! HWTM, TomKat Studio, Paper & Pigtails, Paper & Cake and Parties by Hardie are all on board!

I am hosting a Halloween playgroup this week which will be my party for the cause. Can't wait!

A New Look!

{image via style me pretty}

Welcome, dear readers to the new look of P is for Party! I can't tell you how excited I am and over the moon about the new blog design! I hope you like it as much as I do. I started P is for Party on a whim one day and I am truly humbled by the love and attention the blog has received. Thank you for giving me a reason to write!

{image via Flickr}

I could not have done this without the creativity and patience of Carolyn...a dream to work with! If you are interested in a small update or an entire blog makeover, she is FABULOUS. You can visit Carolyn's blog, Life in Graz, to learn more about the process. I really cannot say enough nice things about Carolyn!

Please stay tuned for an amazing giveaway I have put together to celebrate the NEW look! I will have details soon. Thank you again for stopping by and for your continuous support!

Lots of Love ~ Christi