Halloween Decorating Ideas

Happy October! Since it's only a month until Halloween, I thought I would share some home and/or party decorating ideas that I found.  It's not that easy to find Halloween items in Switzerland, since it's not a highly celebrated holiday here.  However, it seems to have gotten more popular in the last couple of years, with more stores offering Halloween items, but the selection is often limited.  One thing you can always find at this time of year are pumpkins.  I love going to the roadside stands or to the local farmer in my town to get them. And of course, they are in all of the grocery stores too. They make great decorations not just for Halloween but for Fall as well. And pumpkin soup is good too!

Since it's not always so easy to find things here, I found some simple DIY decorating ideas that are possible to make with supplies that are easily found.  Check out the ideas and links to tutorials below:

1. Spray paint pumpkins.  This is one that I made last year.  I took pumpkins and spray painted them black and silver and stacked them on top of each other.  I also found some plastic spiders and spray painted a few of them silver.  I then glued them onto the pumpkins. So easy!  You can view the pumpkins and the rest of the decorations from that party here.

2. I love this idea and have actually done it before.  Cut out mice silhouettes from black construction paper and tape them onto your steps.  Download the mice templates and see the full tutorial here.

3.  Make spooky pinwheels.  These would make a fun centerpiece on your dining room table. Make a few and put them in a vase and you have a fun decoration. I'm sure the kids will enjoy making these with you.  See the full tutorial here. And if you need striped straws, you can find them in our shop :-).

4. I love these ghostly dresses made out of chicken wire. I wish I had a yard so that I could try this out (I live in an apartment).  I think these are great! Follow the link to see the ghost that was also made out of chicken wire and placed in a forest setting. I know I would be very spooked if I saw that while walking in the forest!

5. Wrap your front door with streamers (or maybe even toilet paper would work) and cut out some eyes with regular paper to make a mummy.  This would be fun for the trick-or-treaters that come to your door.

6. Make pumpkin and ghost decorations out of balloons. This is an easy one for the kids to make.  It would be fun to make a few of these to hang around the house.  And as a bonus, they last a lot longer than real pumpkins. You can make these now and they will still be around for Halloween.  Here is the tutorial with downloadable printables for the face.

7. These are such cute painted jars.  I have lots of spaghetti sauce jars that I could use to make these. It's one of those decorations that are not spooky and I wouldn't mind having around the house for a month. At night, you could put candles inside them.  Check out how to make them here.

8. This rat and spider wreath is so creepy, but it's also pretty stylish.  Go here to find out how it's done.

I hope you enjoy making some of these projects.  I know I'm going to give a few of them a try!

Picture sources: 1. Paper & Party Love | 2. MarthaStewart | 3. Smart School House | 4. Be Different, Act Normal | 5. Honey & Fitz | 6. Catch My Party Blog | 7. Eighteen25 | 8. Catch My Party Blog

Striped Paper Straws :: Not Just For Drinking

I love the look of these paper straws. They come in all kinds of different colors and are perfect for parties.  But did you know they are as versatile as they are cute? There are so many uses for them other than drinking. Here are a few ideas:

Use them instead of a lollipop stick for cake pops

Use them to hold up your photo booth props

Make a magic wand with them, or use them to make cupcake toppers

Add a printable flag to the straw to make your drinks a bit more special. OK, this one is related to drinking, but it's still something a bit different!

Can you tell we're getting ready for Christmas over here? ;-)

Do you have any other ideas?  I'd love to hear them!

P.S. If you want to purchase some of these straws, we have lots of colors in our shop!

Paper & Party Love Happenings

Since we just got back from our summer vacation, I thought I would write a post to update everyone on what's been happening here at Paper & Party Love.

Vacation was lovely and spent in the south of France by the sea with my family. Our days were spent paddleboarding (my new favorite sport), swimming, soaking up the sun and just being together. It was great to reconnect with my family without all of the distractions of daily life.

We returned home and I had an email saying that one of our parties was featured on Catchmyparty.com's homepage.  Yay! Very exciting and great news to come home to.

I also recently joined Instagram and am enjoying it.  Have you signed up yet?  If so, follow us.  My username is paperandpartylove.  I hope to give you more of a "behind the scenes" view of the parties we are involved in and the running of the online shop there.  Right now, there are pictures of our vacation :-).

And for those of you in Zurich, we are going to be at the Expat Expo on September 1st. Admission is free and it will be held from 11am - 5pm at the Kongresshaus. I'll bring lots of party products for you to see. I hope to meet some of you there!

To celebrate coming home and school starting soon, I am offering 10% off all orders in the shop between now and September 1st.  This will also work for our Etsy shop.  You can get 10% off by typing in the code WELCOMEBACK.  Happy shopping everyone!

Flamingo Party Ideas

Have you noticed flamingos everywhere lately? They are mentioned in many of the blogs I read and I have seen a lot of products around with flamingos printed on them. I thought it would be fun to put together an idea board for a party featuring flamingos.  This theme would be great for a summer party, a little girls pool party, or even a girls night in with your closest friends.  I can see the pink drinks now. Yummy! 

Picture Sources

1. DIY your flamingo invitation like these from Jacinda Haye-Leah.

2. Snack on beautiful pink and turquoise macarons like these from Sweet Style Blog.

3. Put pink popcorn in these polka dot bags and write a message in gold. By 100 Layer Cake.

4. Serve your drinks in these cute flamingo cups from Ikea.

5. Why not match your phone case to your party? From ShopLaBellaVia on Etsy.

6. Give your guests something to take home in these favor bags from Oh Happy Day.

7. Eat off of these pink and white striped paper plates from our shop.

8. Decorate around your house with these yard ornaments from Oriental Trading.

For more ideas, take a look at my flamingo party ideas Pinterest board.

Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone! How are you celebrating today? We are having some friends over and we are firing up the grill for a traditional barbecue.  To celebrate some more, I made this snack for my daughters today.  It's watermelon cut in a star shape on a striped straw, and some blueberries.  Hope you get to enjoy this holiday!