Crafty V-Day Party Part 1: The Sweet Table

On Sunday, with the incredible help of my friend Amy and my mom, I threw a Crafty Valentine's Day Party, which I dubbed "Craft Your Love."

It started out as a simple idea: I wanted to throw a party for my friends, because I hadn't hosted one at all in 2009, and they always love my parties. One friend requested a Christmas party, but I just couldn't manage it with all the other things I had going on at the time. Post-New-Years, I somehow came up with the idea that I should have a Valentine's party, and that everyone should come over to make cards.

This little idea evolved into this fantastic red and pink wonderland, that I would like to share with you! Some of you may have seen little sneak peeks at things, via my flickr or facebook, but I'd like to provide for you a bit of the bigger picture!

First up: the sweet table.

I am a big fan of little details. The sweet table was one of those things that kept on evolving until literally, the start of the party, and came together so nicely in the end!

This is how it looked at the beginning of the night.

Some of the main elements:

heart-shaped cake, made by Christina.

Rainbow cake, made by myself and Amy (and thanks to Melisa for the recipe & directional help with the cake!)

Cupcakes made by Amy

I made some gummy candy, using this tutorial. It turned out pretty cute. Not exactly like gummy bears that you would buy in a store... A few people likened the texture to "old Jello Jigglers" (haha), but the taste and look were amazing.

This was one of the super cute elements that came together in setting up the table the day before. Amy had printed out a whole bunch of vintage Valentines, and we used some of them in a wall-hanging, but there were a bunch left over. As I was flipping through the stack, and noticing an empty picture frame with hearts on it, I noticed this popcorn card, and knew the exact perfect spot for both of these things!

Christina was the first of my friends to arrive. Along with the heart-shaped cake, she also brought me a package of super cute "decorate your own heart shaped sugar cookies"! As soon as I saw these, we decided that we would have a cookie decorating competition! (We had already planned to have a cupcake decorating competition, so all of the sprinkles and candies were already set out). This ended up being a cute element, because along with the fun competition, it also became a way to snap some pictures of my guests with their cookie creations!

There was definitely no shortage of pink and red sweets at this party! Check out my flickr for more detail shots, and watch for more party elements coming soon!