Eat Chocolate

Somewhere in the flurry of all the Christmas activities, we had a birthday party for Phoebe.  Her theme, CHOCOLATE.   I think I gained 5 lbs just thinking about it!  We had a cake that looked like a giant chocolate truffle, chocolate covered pretzels and popcorn, chocolate games, and a chocolate fountain.  We even used chocolate bars for her invitation. 

This invitation was inspired by some of the chocolate bar covers/labels that many folks have done.  We used a regular size chocolate bar.  In addition to the chocolate bar, you will need the following items for this invitation:

• Card Stock:  Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White
• Classic Stampin' Pads:  Chocolate Chip and Tempting Turquoise
• Accessories:  Clear Tinsel Trim, Frost White Shimmer Paint, White Gel Pen, Basic Rhinestone Jewels
• Stamp Sets:  Afterthoughts, Playful Pieces, and Pick a Petal
• Punches:  1 3/4 x 7/8 Oval, Scallop Oval, 1/2" Circle, Scallop Trim Border, Pinking Heart Border

Phoebe's entire party was very much inspired by the Eat Chocolate set in the new Occasions Mini but my set had not yet arrived when I was working on the invitations so I decided to improvise a bit.  We decorated the Tempting Turquoise card stock using the Pick a Petal flower centers- solid circles done with Tempting Turquoise stampin' pad and open ones using Chocolate Chip.  I created Chocolate Chip bands punching along both sides with the Scallop Trim Border Punch.  I layered a Tempting Turquoise band on top that was stamped with the squiggle line from Playful Pieces.  I used Afterthoughts for the sentiment, stamping onto Tempting Turquoise and punched it with my oval punch and layered that onto the scallop oval punched from Chocolate Chip.  The tag was tied to the band with the Clear Tinsel Trim (which is no longer available).  This took care of the front of the invitation.

For the back, I created a little mini card with the party details.  I liked the little checklist in the Eat Chocolate set so using My Digital Studio, I created a similar checklist that had the following tasks:  "Eat Chocolate, Go to Phoebe's Party, All of the Above."  Of course, "all of the above" was checked.  This was printed onto the Tempting Turquoise and attached to the mini Chocolate Chip card.  The card opened up to reveal the party details.  I used a little jewel rhinestone as an embellishment.  I also wanted a little truffle so I did a little punch art.  I punched strips of Whisper White with the Pinking Hearts Border punch and then cut at an angle to make a little candy wrapper.  I brushed the Frost White Shimmer paint onto the little mini wrappers.  I punched 1/2" circles from chocolate chips for my truffles and used the gel pen to make a little swirl on top. 

I continued the theme with her cake:

I used one of those super large cupcake pans to make the truffle and put melted chocolate on the top so it even had a hard candy shell.  I drizzled melted chocolate along the edges and used it for the writing.

For the party favors, I found the Serendipity Frozen Hot Chocolate Recipe online and packaged up the dry ingredients layering them in a plastic bag.  I attached a chocolate coated plastic spoon and the following recipe card created in My Digital Studio:

I exported the recipe cards to a jpeg image and printed at the local drugstore.  I downloaded pictures of the Serendipity Frozen Hot Chocolate and restaurant from the web. 

For the party bags, I used the Baskets and Blooms Die Cut to make little baskets.  I made tags using the long awaited Eat Chocolate set which arrived a few days before the party and tied those to handle on one side.  On the other side, I used the flower I punched with the basket.  We filled the baskets with the Frozen Hot Chocolate mix, a dessert themed silly band, straw, and sparkle pencil. 

For activities, I let the girls make photo frames using the Eat Chocolate set and some of the retired designer series paper I have.  Then, they played "Minute to Win It" playing crazy chocolate themed games with only a minute, made some chocolates and made chocolate lip gloss.  The girls all had a great time and Phoebe loved her party.

God Bless and Happy Stampin'!
Charity