PHOTOBOOTH

Something that has become really popular at parties in recent years is having a photo booth. I absolutely LOVE taking photos and having them as memories so I really wanted to set one up for my Mum's party. 

I spent a long time researching how to do it on YouTube and Pinterest and in the end it was super easy. We have a small front porch so using a white sheet, I covered all of the walls up to create a plain background and decorated it using a gold foil curtain and string lights. I also printed the word photo booth out and stuck it above the door which I thought really added to the effect. I set the camera up on a tripod and then all that was left to do was for people to grab a prop and snap away. 

It was definitely one of the highlights of the night and now we have all of the photos of everyone who came to the party to keep. My mum actually printed a bunch of the pictures off and has included them in her Thank You cards which I thought was a really nice idea. Anyway here are a few of my favourite pictures from the night.

Cute Carrot Cake

No Birthday is complete without cake and a special birthday deserves a special cake. My Mum can't eat chocolate so I wanted to make something that looked pretty but also tasted amazing which is why I went for an ultimate carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and cake bunting! 

The cake bunting was made using paper straws, string, patterned card and letter stamps and was unbelievably easy to make. My friends and I cut out all of the flags and glued them to the string, we when tied the string to the paper straws and it was done! It was so simple to do but it made the cake the centre piece on the night.

For the cake you will need:

150g self-raising flour

100g wholemeal self-raising flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp mixed spice

zest 1 orange

400g caster sugar 

(this is A LOT of sugar and could easily be reduced or swapped for light brown sugar)

350 ml vegetable oil

4 eggs

350g grated carrots

This recipe will make a large two layered sponge. My original idea was to do four layers so I made two batches of mixture but when my first sponges came out of the oven they were so huge I ended up with three layers and a whole tray of cupcakes.

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4 and grease/line your cake tins with baking paper.

In a mixing bowl stir together the flours, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, mixed spice and orange zest.

Mix in the eggs and oil until fully combined.

Stir in the grated carrot.

Spoon half of the mixture into each of your cake tins and place in the oven for up to 50 minutes until a skewer in the centre of the cake comes out clean. 

For the icing you will need:

170g icing sugar, sifted

60g unsalted butter, softened

240g full fat cream cheese (Waitrose full fat)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Whisk the butter and icing sugar together on a low speed until it forms a sandy consistency.

 Add a little cream cheese at at time while continuing to mix.

 Add the vanilla extract and then turn up the speed and beat until light and fluffy.

This is the best cream cheese frosting recipe I have come across so far. All of the other recipes I have used in the past used Philadelphia cream cheese and I found that as soon as I started to mix it it went runny and horrible. The Waitrose cream cheese didn't do this at all, it held it's shape and was really easy to spread on the cake.

To finish the cake off I crushed some walnuts and sprinkled them in a circle on top and obviously decorated it with birthday candles and the cake bunting.

I was so pleased with how this recipe turned out and I got nothing but good feedback on the night. The cake was so moist and delicious, I just wish I had got a picture of the inside but it was demolished so quickly I didn't get a chance!!

DIY Paper Pom Poms

My Mum turned 50 this month and what was originally going to be a very low key gathering at the house, very quickly turned into a huge party when I became involved. I love organising parties and one of the first things I knew I wanted was paper pom poms and a lot of bunting. I had seen these pom poms all over pinterest and a friend of mine told me how easy they were to make so I decided to give it a go myself. They really are so easy and look so effective. There are tons of video tutorials on Youtube about how to make them but I thought i would do my own step by step guide in pictures.

You will need lots of sheets of coloured tissue paper, some thin metal wire, some string and a pair of scissors. I experimented with various amounts of tissue paper and for the large pom poms shown in the picture above I used about 6 sheets of tissue paper. some of the videos recommend you use up to 15 sheets of paper but this gave a much denser effect and I liked how mine looked slightly more floral.

Next you need to line all of your sheets of tissue paper up and start folding them in a concertina. It is important that all of your sheets of tissue paper stay in line because it makes it easier when you come to cut them later on.

One you have finished folding, you need to find the middle point and pull each side out to make a double ended fan. 

Next, take the wire and wrap this around the middle. 

My wire was pre cut and was quite long so I twisted it together and then wrapped it around again to make sure it was extra secure.

After this you will need to attach the string. It is best to do this now because it is quite tricky to tie it on once the pom pom is finished. All I did was thread the piece of string under the wire and tie it in a loop. 

The next step is to cut the edges of your fan to the shape you would like. I went for a scalloped edge because I wanted my pom poms to look like flowers. I have seen some with pointy edges that look equally as good. I found it easier to cut a few layers at a time because my scissors weren't good enough to go through all of the layers at once.

This is what it should look like once you have finished cutting the edges. You need to pull it out so that it looks like a double ended fan again. You can also see how I have tied the strong on a little bit better in this photo.

All that is left to do is start lifting each layer of the tissue paper. You will quickly start to see the shape of the pom pom come together. You need to be quite careful when doing this because the tissue paper can rip quite easily (I had a few casualties!) Luckily it doesn't matter if they aren't perfectly formed because it adds to the quirkiness of them. 

Once you have finished lifting about half of the layers, flip the pom pom over and start lifting the layers on the other side, This creates the sphere effect you are looking for and also makes the pom pom look more even.

Here is a cheesy picture of my holding the finished product!

I hope this post is helpful to anyone who is planning party decorations or just likes a good old DIY.

I have a few more blog posts on the way from the party including a DIY Photobooth and the Birthday Cake so keep your eyes peeled. 

DIY Christmas Cards

I saw this idea for Christmas cards on pinterest and I thought they were so cute I had to make them! You could also do this for present gift tags as it might be a little late to send out Christmas cards now. 

Here is what you will need:

 

Card

Envelopes

Super glue

A Pen

Buttons

Ribbon

To make the wreath card, I first set out the buttons into the shape and design I wanted.

I then glued down the buttons in place with super glue.

 

 Next I tied a bow out of some ribbon

 Finally I stuck the bow to the button at the top of the wreath, and that is it. It is so easy and looks so effective! 

You do exactly the same for the baubles card except after you have stuck the buttons down you use the pen to draw strings from the top of the card to the button. You can then write whatever message you want on the cards, I opted for Merry Christmas on this one.

How to: DIY Decoupage Storage Unit

I recently went to a little boutique shop where they were selling sets of draws covered in different floral prints and I fell a little bit in love, until I lifted up the price tag and they were selling them for between £30 and £40 depending on the size. Being a student I am constantly in need of storage as I pretty much have to keep my life contained into one small room but I was definitely not willing to pay those sorts of prices.

I knew I could pick up a relatively cheap set of wooden draws from ikea and having done some decoupage before I knew that would be the way to create the look I wanted. So that is exactly what I did. I also took some step-by-step pictures as I was going along for anyone who is interested in trying this out.

Step 1

First you need to start with a set of draws, mine were £17 from ikea (although you can use any piece of furniture you feel needs a revamp). You will also need glue, (I used 'decopatch' it is a PVA glue which also has varnish in so leaves a gloss finish) a paintbrush and the paper. I picked up the paper from my local craft shop for £1 a sheet but you can find it for cheaper online if you are willing to pay for postage. I bought 4 sheets of paper but only ended up using 2 so I have plenty left for another project. 

Step 2

Once you have all of your materials the first thing you need to do is rip the paper into pieces, I found it easier to rip as I was going along so that you can tear off pieces to fill the gaps. I made sure I kept the straight edges of the paper for the edges of the draws so I didn't have to worry about folding it to fit. 

Step 3

You then dip your paintbrush into the glue, put some glue onto the draw, stick the piece of paper down and then put some more glue over the top to varnish it. You keep sticking down different pieces of the ripped paper until the whole of the draw is covered, overlapping the paper until you can't see any of the wood.

Step 4

Next I painted the outside of the unit cream. I just used some paint that was left over in the shed. I only had to do two coats and I didn't have to be particularly neat as the draws cover up the inside anyway.

Step 5

Once the paint has dried and you have finished decoupaging all the draws you can pop them back onto the shelves and it's done. It was so easy and I had a really good time doing it. And the best part is, at the end you get to peel all the dried glue off your hands like you are back at primary school!

Here is a close up of the pattern once it had dried. 

This is such a good technique and you really can do it to anything, my mum decoupaged a letter 'K' and a lamp for me for my uni room last year and I can't wait to move back to Cardiff and start using these draws!