FREE BIRTHDAY CAKE TOPPER + Ice Cream Cake

 

It's your birthday. It's your birthday. We're gonna party like it's your birthday!
 
Who loves celebrating birthdays? Yeah me too. It is absolutely one of my most favorite things to do because think about it, you are ONLY the age you are celebrating just ONCE! ONCE! I believe that everyone deserves to have at least ONE DAY a year where all of the focus is on celebrating them, because c'mon you get to have cake for dessert! So marking the day by having a slice of cake is a must! So I say "have your cake & eat it too!'

Speaking of CAKE . . . do you have a fave? For me, for as long as I can remember I have had ice cream cakes for my birthday. I have always loved all things ice cream and cake is just ehhhh to me, so when I discovered ice cream cakes (many many years ago) well let's just say it is now MY 'go to' for celebrating my birthday every year! 

Since I love to celebrate just about anything and I love to create FREE downloads for you to help in YOUR celebrations, I have a special treat for y'all today! Think of it as some 'eye candy' for your cake.

But first, I wanted to share a couple tips for setting up a quick and easy way to celebrate a birthday that doesn't involve a lot of time or cost. I am a firm believer in using what you have already before hitting the stores and spending more money because I would rather save my money for a killer dessert. ;)

Decide on a color palette that you love. For this I picked a black and white theme (big surprise, I know) with a pop of mint green for a neutral look that can be used for anyone's birthday celebration. I simply used some things I had on hand and mixed up some patterns to give it a fun look.

• For my background this time, I used a simple black and white banner that I picked up at the store for my daughter's birthday party earlier this year. I keep all of my decor if it's still in good shape because it saves so much money in the long run.

• On the table I used a white table cloth (if you don't have one, invest in one as you will always use it) and for the black and white stripe runner, I used a mini roll of wrapping paper. If you ever shop at Target's dollar section, I recommend picking up those mini rolls of wrapping paper (when you see them) to use for everything - including this simple table runner. Don't be afraid of using patterns and mixing them up. On the place settings, I used IKEA paper napkins for 'place mats' with this geometric pattern in shades of green to mix in with the stripes of the rest of my table and I loved how it all came together.

• I also grabbed a couple of simple green plants in white bowls I had around the house to add a pop of color to the background. Plus I scattered a few decor balls on the table for added interest, that's it. Simple.

• Well . . . .and last but certainly not least, THAT cake!!! As you know we LOVE getting our ice cream cakes from Cold Stone Creamery and they have a great selection of birthday cakes to choose from! Well this one grabbed our attention called Cookies & Creamery™, because it IS amazing and who doesn't love cookies & cream?! Imagine layers of moist Devil's Food Cake and Sweet Cream Ice Cream with OREO® Cookies wrapped in fluffy white frosting!! Oh my!! It is beyond delicious and will be a staple for birthdays in our house now! The best part of getting these cakes . . . is they are available year round, so stop in and get one or do what I do and order online at ColdStoneCakes.com and pick it up! Doesn't get any easier to celebrate a birthday and 'have your cake & eat it too' now does it? ;)

Soooooo where can you get that amazing hand lettered birthday cake topper for FREE you ask? Well right here friends . . . lol

It's super easy to put this cake topper together. Promise.

You just need a few supplies: print this FREE birthday cake topper art on a nice card stock so it's sturdy, cut out with scissors and attach to a couple decorative straws (like I did here) making sure to use something that will stick (I used Tombow Adhesive +) to keep them in place. Then place them on top of your Cold Stone cake for your birthday celebration!

I hope you enjoy this freebie as you can come back and print this to use over and over again for all of those birthday parties you celebrate throughout the year. Plus make sure to visit Cold Stone Creamery and get that amazing birthday ice cream cake to have for dessert on your birthday! Trust me, indulge . . . it's so worth it!

Which of these Cold Stone Creamery birthday cakes would YOU be having a slice of? Let me know below . . .


** Thanks for helping me support the companies that help make this blog possible. This post was sponsored by Cold Stone Creamery but all opinions were my own. I truly only share with you, companies and products that I use or enjoy simple because I know you will love them too.

 

Are you loving the "eye candy" here?  

 

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Looking forward to seeing you again! :)

PARTY :: Emoji Birthday Party

EMOJI Birthday Party & Sleepover


My daughter is 13. My baby girl. An official teenager! I still can not believe that I am now the proud mother of a THIRTEEN year old. I mean seriously . . . all.the.feels. ;)

As you know, I LOVE planning amazing parties every year for her and it has now turned into a yearly tradition but one that I absolutely LOVE and look forward to every year. When we were discussing the theme for this year, we actually played a little game to see if we could remember ALL of her birthday themes and between the both of us, we actually got them all. We have done some fun themes over the years (which I will share in a later post) as well as finally blog about some (I haven't gotten up yet- yikes!) BUT this year . . . I think may go down as one of my faves. 

WHY? Maybe it was the fact that I allowed her to have TWO parties (a sleepover with all her besties and then another with family). Or maybe it was the fun theme and color scheme we did. Or maybe it was the fact that she realllllllly was involved in the planning and ideas this time around. Honestly, I am sure it was a combo of all of these reasons but this is a great theme to have for kids of ANY age because helloooooo . . . everyone loves EMOJIS! 

Time to get #soemojinal! ;)

the DECOR
 

When she first told me she would like an emoji party, my first thought was eeeewwwww . . . that means LOTS of yellow all over and I was completely turned off as yellow may NOT be my fave color in the crayon box. Plus I know emoji parties are exploding everywhere now so I suggested a different color scheme to her: everything black and white with the ONLY items that were yellow would be the emojis. She loved it. I loved it plus this would be easy seeing as my love of everything black and white can be seen all through my home. So yay . . . black and white decor items a plenty for me!

I liked the stripes idea, the girl suggested polka dots so we went with both. I designed TWO different invites and she couldn't make up her mind which she liked best, so we used both - one invite design for the emoji sleepover and the other for the emoji birthday party with the family. Perfect.

I decorated with mostly things I already had and a few new things I picked up at Target, plus I designed a whole EMOJI birthday collection to decorate with. I also ordered some balloons and a few other decor items from some shops too to make this party extra special.
 

I went with MORE balloons than I usually do for her parties but I love the ones I ordered. The huge "13" balloon as well as those cute polka dot balloons came from the TomKat Studio shop along with the black and white fringe garland I used to hang as a backdrop (above). I am so loving the giant balloons as they really do add an element of fun. I even took them along on a photo shoot I did with my daughter for a nice photo to include with her thank you cards.

The sewn together felt circles you see in the backdrop are from Target and I hung them, along with the fringe garland, to create this backdrop for this table.

I also went with these emoji balloons from Tutus Bowties Events that were super cute as I used the shades emoji and the laughing emoji in the party collection, so they were a match made in heaven for this party. 

the CAKE
 

This cake. She wanted something with Oreos. I wanted it to match the party, what I made was a multi-layered "small" naked cake. I baked a small 6 inch round chocolate cake with whipped frosting and added crushed Oreos in the layers and also on top. Oh my yum! I have been wanting to try my hand at baking a cake that had the icing just on the top (a.k.a. naked cake) and I thought it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. ;)

I added the "13" topper myself - made from numbers from the dollar section at Target glued to a couple lollipop sticks. The black and white striped candles and the pearl candies around the base of the cake I ordered from the TomKat Studio shop and I think they complimented so well.

I also had my friend Andrea, from Paper + Pop make Skylar a custom name cake topper as the focal point on the cake and I LOVE how it turned out! It really sparkled and I tried my best to capture it in the photos but to see it in person was the best. I will definitely be ordering more from her again as it was such a fun addition to her cake!

the FOOD

The birthday girl had a couple requests for food . . . she always likes me to have a cheeseball with crackers and to make my mexican haystacks, which are BOTH her faves and are a must for her birthday parties. We decided on those to munch on plus some deli spirals. We ended up having pizza and pasta salad as well at her party and then an array of delicious treats for afterwards. I like a fairly simple menu that is tasty.

and yes, we even had a party drink! AND it was yellow (of course). What is it? An 'emoji mocktail' which is simply lemonade and Sprite over ice. If you would like to partake in an adult version of this beverage then simply add some clear liquor (vodka) to it and let the adults in on the fun. ;)

the TREATS

The treats are always the best part right? Well we had chocolate covered Oreo popcorn, Oreos with the yellow filled icing, Oreo chocolate bark, some candy items and then THESE! 

These amazingly awesome delicious cool EMOJI MACARONS!!!!! I ordered them from U Had Me at Cake and they turned out so well. I was very impressed with them as each came individually wrapped, protected in bubble wrap and were so good. They were definitely a big hit at both parties! I mean how cute are all of those emoji faces? LOVE!!!!! I also kept them as a surprise from Skylar until the day before her party and she was elated to say the least. lol


 

AND we also made a couple treats for the party this year:

We made POO EMOJI BROWNIE BITES and they turned out so cute and make me laugh everytime I see them. There were so many giggles when the girls saw them, it was adorable.

We also tried our hand at emoji Oreo pops (which we'll have a how-to post, coming soon) and I think they turned out pretty good. If you gauge a food's success by IF they are the first to go, then they won! ;) 

 
the PHOTO BOOTH
 

What's a party without a photo booth? Um, a little bit of NOT fun, is what I say! lol

Of course I added some emoji photo props to this collection as it is so much fun to take photos with them and then send out in the thank you cards to your guests. At least that's what we like to do. I have a ton of photos of the girls but just posted these of our family since the girls 'may not' want their photos on my blog. I mean teenagers right? ;)

the PARTY FAVORS

This is one of those areas that we always seem to luck into finding the perfect things every year for her theme. It all started when I found these emoji keychains in the Easter section at Target, so I snagged a bunch. Then we happened upon these emoji socks there as well, to add and of course she said we had to get matching nail polishes to match. I grabbed enough of these black linen drawstring bags I found in the Target dollar section and of course gave them a makeover by hand lettering their names on them. 

Duh, of course! ;)

 

I also ordered matching cotton candy pouches from my friend Tonya from Soiree Event Design and they were so good. Some of the best cotton candy I've ever had. Plus she made the cute labels to match my party. On the flip side of them, we attached a thank you tag from the party collection and we were done and ready to go!

 

the SLEEPOVER  

 

Like I've already mentioned, my daughter wanted a sleepover for her party with her besties as she had been wanting to do that for awhile, so since she was turning thirteen and it being a 'big birthday milestone' I decided was a good time to let them ALL come over. I mean she's had sleepovers but this time I didn't limit it. lol

Just so you know it turned out fine, the whole school didn't show up, just about six so that was a good number to handle. ;)

We had the sleepover on Friday night with the family party happening two days later on Sunday. We basically did the same set up and food with just a few tweaks. I had run out of time on Friday, to do all of the fun ideas I had planned (does that happen to anyone else?), so the decorations for the sleepover were a little different, just because but it worked because then it gave us two different decor looks. Yeah yeah I totalllllly planned it that way! (wink wink)

the CRAFT!
 
The one other thing I DO want to share a peek of, with you now, are these amazing EMOJI pillows that the girls did at the sleepover for a fun craft! I promise to bring a full post on how these were made (soon) but they had a blast and they ended up using them in pillow fights later in the night and I'm glad we did them. They each picked out what emoji they wanted to put on their pillows and it was a hoot to see them make these. I know plenty of places are selling emoji pillows now but I'm glad we tackled doing them ourselves as we have those memories now. ;)

Well that's it! I know, I know . . .  that was a TON of photos but I didn't want to miss telling you anything! ;) Hope you enjoyed the ideas and you found something to try for your next batch of party fun! 

Let me know below what your favorite idea was  . . . 

Are you loving the "eye candy" here? 

Then join me over on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter & Instagram or

check out my designs, artwork & decor in my Etsy shop! 
 
Looking forward to seeing you again! :)