baby shower - I'm Topsy Turvy

Airplane Baby Shower

April 24, 2012 by Ashlee · 60 Comments

Now for the full Airplane Baby Shower Reveal! It was SUCH a fun party to plan and throw, and so much fun for my sweet cousin to come into town so we could all love on her and be happy for her upcoming baby!

Again- we went with the Airplane shower because her Dad worked as an air traffic controller and her husband works for Delta, so lots and lots of flying are in this kid future! We designed the table to look like grass on either side of a runway… and I love how the table turned out! I wrapped a few of my puzzle boxes in green wrapping paper to add height without sticking out.

The control tower cake, AND the biggest hit were these cloud cake balls!!! (a 6 petal cookie cutter, press the cake inside, freeze, cut in half, add to a stick and dip!)

What kinds of food do you think of when you think Airplane? I created these labels for Pretzels…

and peanuts! This way people could snack at the party, or take some home as well!

I found these great clam-shell plastic food containers at Gygi’s here in SLC, but I’m sure a local food/restaurant supply store would have them, or of course ordering online! We made chicken salad sandwiches on croissants and I love the addition of my stickers too them. I’m still tickled how it all came together!

And of course my airplane color flow cookies…

And you can’t have any party, let along an airplane party without bottled water!!!

I also found these plastic cups, the same ones from the airplanes, for the Orange juice (my favorite airline drink, AND the perfect color for our party). BUT I couldn’t find the right size lids… NEXT time, right? And with Easter the next weekend I found an abundance of blue cotton candy, so I made these orange planes with a mold and added them to the bags!

I used my silhouette machine to cut out all the clouds and the planes, you can’t see it but I created a mobile that’s hanging from the chandelier to add more clouds and a plane into the sky above the table. The cartoon plane was an image I found that I changed up to match the other plane, the silhouette of a plane, that I designed…

Since so many people were coming from different parts of the Mother to be’s life we included name tags. On top of the wings is a cloud shape space for names… Another missed picture (I always have those don’t I?) and the gift table (with a maternity pictures from a photoshoot with my sister, Chelsea Peterson Photography)

The prizes for our games were simple, but delicious! The sad thing is the first time around I actually miss-spelled chocolate…

We threw a maternity Jeopardy game, that was a HUGE hit! Everyone was laughing pretty hard, and the team that won didn’t have any new or young mothers on it…

And the baby food game, the winner of this one was my 17 year old cousin, she babysits alot!!! Way to go!

And finally a reminder of the invitations I created for the party! It was a wonderful evening and I hope my sweet cousin had a great time, cause in the end that’s the whole point of throwing a party!

Airplane Baby Shower
Airplane Color Flow Cookies
Airport Traffic Control Cake Tower
Airplane Boarding Pass Invitations

Filed Under: baby shower, Cakes, Crafts, paper, Parties, photoshop, printables · Tagged With: garland, silhouette machine

Airplane baby shower boarding pass invitations

April 19, 2012 by Ashlee · 38 Comments

The mom to be’s dad worked as an air traffic controller her whole life and now her husband works for Delta so when we started talking about a shower our favorite theme was airplanes. And what better invitation than an airline boarding pass??? (BTW Badger is there last name)

I mixed a few planes to create the flying cartoon image, but created my own cloud, flight lights and the airplane silhouette I used. It was really fun. I took a picture of a ticket and used my photoshop to lasso the shape of the tickets.

I wanted to use two pages, so I could really staple it… AND so the front wasn’t cluttered with all the information, like where she was registered and the QR code that went to the facebook event page to make it easier for people to RSVP

I cut out the tickets with my silhouette machine and also perforated the tickets. Not that I expected anyone to rip it off, but just for fun… The secret to an over the top party is to leave no detail overlooked! Plus as long as I was already cutting them out perforating took no extra time!

When I get back from SNAP I’ll work on creating printable’s for all you guys!

Airplane Baby Shower
Airplane Color Flow Cookies
Airport Traffic Control Cake Tower
Airplane Boarding Pass Invitations

Filed Under: baby shower, Crafts, invitation, paper, Parties, photoshop, printables · Tagged With: craft supplies

Airplane baby shower control tower cake

April 18, 2012 by Ashlee · 5 Comments

Deciding on a cake for the shower was probably the hardest part. Do I do a plane… like EVERY other airplane shower? But what can I do that’s unique? Since we were setting the table up with “grass” and a runway I decided to do an airport control tower! Kind of silly, kind of fun. The father of the mom to be is an air traffic controller, and the dad to be works for an airline, so I knew the tower would go over well!

I built the base just like the ice cream cake base, 2 circles connected with a dowel in the center. And warm rice krispy treats wrapped around the dowel, wrapped in parchment paper to hold the shape and cooled. Then I frosted it and covered it with fondant. The cake itself is 5 layers and the 2 edges carved down.

I wish I had cone shaped it more looking back (it wouldn’t be one of my cakes if I didn’t have something I wish I’d done better). Carved a bit more of an angle on the sides, but in the end it was totally cute enough.

I rolled out marbleized grey/dark grey and then cut it into window shapes. Then I used my silver edible paint to make them shimmer… I brushed it on rather than spray it on trying to get more texture and depth. I’m happy with them (although in the pictures I’m not sure you can see the marbleizing underneath)

At the party I stacked them and added some blue and orange (the party colors) to bring out some simple details. The rest of the party was so detailed that the simpleness of the cake really worked well!!!

Airplane Baby Shower
Airplane Color Flow Cookies
Airport Traffic Control Cake Tower
Airplane Boarding Pass Invitations

Filed Under: baby shower, Cakes, carved, Parties · Tagged With: fondant

Color Flow Airplane Cookies

April 16, 2012 by Ashlee · 9 Comments

This week I’m going to be sharing my airplane baby shower all week, today is the cookies, Wednesday the cake, Thursday the invitations and Friday the rest of the party, including the labels! I hope you all enjoy it! It was such a fun party to throw for my sweet cousin.

Take your favorite sugar cookies, but for this method if you want the frosting to dry hard so you can stack them you need to use royal icing, so it’s mostly sugar, and looks AMAZING, but isn’t he most tasty frosting. You CAN use my classic Sugar cookie frosting, making it thick for the outline and thin for filling in, but while the frosting will crust over you won’t be able to stack them. But it does taste better in my opinion….

First we’re going to outline the shape you want. I started with the MAIN space, then did one side of the details then the other. You want to make sure your outline connects everywhere without spaces or holes.

Then any detail work in the center, I was going off an image of a plane I tweaked and colored for our party… do this to ALL the cookies and let the outlines dry completely.

Take the royal icing and THIN it out, after you’ve thinned it, plop a bit of the frosting back into the main bowl and count to 10, if the plop and/or lines created when you dropped it in have disappeared and you have a nice smooth surface again it’s thinned enough, if not add a bit more water, mix and try again. Go slowly, like half a tsp at a time, you can always add more water, but if you go too far you can’t take it back out!

Now we’re going to fill in the design, doing one space at a time,works smoothly and quickly, starting with a side and moving your way over. You want it to bubble up over the edge of your outline JUST a bit (but not overflow) creating a pillowy effect..

Use a straight pin or toothpick to help fill in any area and pop any bubbles

Jiggle it a bit to help it smooth itself out

Let it dry completely between each color! Fill in every space and your done! Once they are completely dry you can stack them.

And here you can see the plane I tweaked for the labels and used as my cookie inspiration! More on the party all week! I can’t wait to share it with you guys!

Frosting
4 C powder sugar
1/4 C milk
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp corn syrup
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp extract (peppermint or almond)
Food coloring (optional)
Mix butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and peppermint in your mixer. add more milk if needed

To Thin Icing: To thin for pouring, add 1 teaspoon milk at a time. Keep adding milk until it’s thin enough that when you stir and let it sit the icing will smooth out by the count of 10.

Airplane Baby Shower
Airplane Color Flow Cookies
Airport Traffic Control Cake Tower
Airplane Boarding Pass Invitations