This month we have been doing all the birthday things, and the activities that our kids want while we celebrate two of our kids birthdays this month. We had a small little gabby Dollhouse Party for our new 3yr Nathan, and this month we’ve had a Taylor Swift Reputation, 14th birthday and later this weekend we will have a Construiction themed 5yr birthday for Harrison.
I went all out for her party, like I have ever since she was little. She was so happy with the party and i was so happy that she loved it when she woke up on the morning of her birthday to see all her decorations. Not that it matters but I grew up never having a birthday party as a December 21st baby, and the only one i did have at 17yr was a disaster.
So i really enjoy getting to go all out with each of my kids birthday themes to the max, making sure they really feel the love i have for them as i make each birthday as special as I possibly can for them. Along with a homemade cake of their chosen flavor and design, with food that they really love or that goes along with their chosen theme.
This year for Alycias birthday we just have pizza and chips since thats what she asked for, with some peach syrup and sprite mixed together for fun drinks that matched the Fearless album. Her cake though was the bug star of the show, i really wanted something that was going to stand out for her as this is the 14th cake I’ve made her and i needed it be a wow cake. So, as I was going through Pinterest trying to find a cake shed love, i cam across the heart cake from her blank space video and i knew that was the one. It took some time to figure it out and it wasn’t perfect, we didn’t get the big splash liked I’d hoped but she loved it nonetheless and it was a great surprise for her.
Below, you’ll find all the pictures of her birthday with links to everything we purchased and descriptions of what we used, and how it worked and was put together. I hope you enjoy!
For the table I purchased this black cheesecloth table runner, It was very soft and light that was breathable and moved well so you could easily drape it and lay it just how you would like and it would stay.
I also chose to add this Greenery garland, to break up a lot of the black and red that I had used with the flowers. I would have liked to add in some black baby’s breath flowers to the garland and maybe a few other flowers, but i forgot about it but still liked the way it looked.
I picked these Red Artificial Roses, I broke them off a little less than half way and then bent them so they would wrap around the branched and middle base of the garland. The second set of leaves on the rose stems, I placed here and there in greenery. Alycia and i love the Addams Family, and we both remarked how I should have taken the left over stems and placed them in a vase on the table, like Mortician has headless flowers. That would have been a fun idea.
I used our dark green ceramic plates, these boys are heavy, that I purchased from target a few years ago, and along with a small plate for Nate. They went so well with the table and i loved the way the green plates looked over our black dinner plates.
We also got the skeleton hands from Target and used them to hold our place cards that Alycia wrote out. Everyone loved the hand place cards for dinner.
There wasn’t a whole lot of Reputation decor to choose from, ok basically none. It was mostly lover style and thats not what we wanted to go with. So I went with a black theme, and added gold here and there to really make everything come together, with touches of dark silver and red.
Because I couldn’t find any decor for the party. I went with this black ball paper lanterns sapread throughout the living room. Then added in these dark silver star garlands from the ceiling to fill it out, each garland is quite long so i was able to cut each one into three sections so they were long but short enough the toddlers couldn’t reach them and tear them down.
I found this huge cheesecloth for the ceiling and it was perfect. I used clear thumbtacks to attach it to the ceiling and its held up nicely without any problems.
The little couple glasses are plastic with removable bottoms for easy storage. I believe they came in a pack of between 10 to 15 glasses, for only $10. It’s a really good deal compared to the more expensive ones for a less amount on amazon.
While looking for dark colored decor, I came across these glittery and shinny Taylor Record covers that were perfect for the party. Alycia loved them so much she promptly took them to her room a week later when we finally took down the decor to start preparing for Harrisons birthday.
I made all of the snakes and birthday banners by hand, using black card stock and my cricut and cardboard for the snakes that I painted black and then added some gold detail to a few. I purchased this black party curtain from Target a couple of years ago, when it was on sale for $2, knowing id either use it for Halloween and a kids birthday. I cut it down so the boys wouldn’t play with it and tear it down like they so like to do. Worked out well, I just used the scrap party curtain as table decor. I found a similar one on amazon. Back curtain.
This candelabra was something i made a week before, and I kiss loved the way it turned out.
I used Black unscented tapper candles. I also purchased two of this snake, as the base of the candelabra and used gorilla super glue to attach Vic pipe end caps onto the bends of the snake, before painting them black and adding gold detail to one and the other plain.
!
These gorgeous skull candles also came from target, they were $10 a piece which a great deal when compared to the ones I saw on amazon for about $27 to $30 for just one.
I
I found these Gold specked candles from Amazon, and they were perfect for her cake. I went with this silicone heart cake mold, and since i was doing cake decorating seriously and more advanced than i ever have. I chose this cake decorating set from amazon. It was exactly what i needed to do a base crumb coat, ice the cake and then add in all the details.
I lost the small writing tip so the letters are huge compared to what they would have been, it’s actually kind of funny because I ended up finding the smaller writing tip the next afternoon.
To make the cake, I made two cakes, then added frosting in the middle of the cakes. I found that it’s very important to cool the cakes and then put them in the fridge before freezing to make icing the crumb coat easier. Alycia wanted a chocolate cake so we chose that at the base then made a homemade buttercream frosting for both the crumb coat and the top coat. I then added black gel coloring to the frosting and usuing a piping bag and some of the different flower tins, I piped on more decorative frosting.
Alycia chose the tips she wanted for the details, so this cake can really be made however you like.
To get the exploding blood feature, you need to add watered down jelly to a balloon and then place it in the middle of the cake, in a hole thats been dug out. We had trouble with this part, as it turns out you will need some kind of bottle to fill the balloon otherwise it just doesn’t work. We filled it the best we could and let her stab the cake, it obviously didn’t have the exploding affect but she loves how the jelly still came out onto her cake.
As much as we all liked the cake, it’s one feature i probably wouldn’t do again.
We purchased this gingerbread stadium house last year and just never got around to making it, i had seen someone else make this for their event and Alycia loved this. She thought it was the coolest thing ever.
Of course we had to get these Taylor Swift tattoos and straw covers, they were a big hit.
