Printables: Pink and Gold Puppy Party Birthday Papers

I loved designing this 5x7 single card puppy party invitation for Tess's birthday! Isn't this a cute little pooch? She was inspired by our own yellow Lab. 

I wanted a cute, yet simple and modern face and couldn't resist adding a party hat and bow tie to make it more festive. This little puppy became the mascot for our Pink and Gold Puppy Party, adorning labels and tags and even cornhole game boards.

I was inspired by some morrocan cement tiles I was looking at for another project and so I created a bone and paw pattern in pink and gold for a suite of party printables. I love the look of the puppy face against this background.

The party invitation includes form fields you can edit for your own party details, and the suite includes extras such as these cute photo folders (I used them with "wallet sized" prints from Costco but they'd be great with instant prints from your phone or camera), puppy face tags, poster sized puppy faces for cornhole boards or posters, thank you tags, thank you cards, party hat templates, doggie bag tags, and lemonade bottle labels.

I also included my template for tracing this little puppy face on a canvas bag, t-shirt or backpack for a fun coloring activity at the party. Our guests loved coloring these bags!

In addition, I've included a huge selection of patterned bone and paw papers, which can be used for lining trays, cutting buntings, wrapping bottles or candy bars and anything else you can think of. You can purchase these party printables in my Etsy Shop.

For a little extra i adeed some gold glitter to the invitation and party hats. Click through for a quick how-to!

Party: Pink and Gold Puppy Birthday

Somebody had a birthday party! And she wanted a puppy party! Makes sense since our family recently adding a darling yellow lab to our family. So this little lab became the mascot for Tess's puppy birthday party, with a dash of pink and gold added by me to make it extra fun for girls.

I had so much fun designing this birthday party! I happened to be looking at concrete tiles in Moroccan patterns at the same time, so I incorporated some fun geometric patterns with paw and bone motifs as backgrounds for all the printables.

I made paper party hats with gold tissue paper pom poms and a dash of gold glitter, puppy ear headbands for the guests to wear (I hung these on a bronze "tree" with tissue tassels), traced puppy drawings on blank canvas bags for the guests to color, found white puppy plush animals to wear little party hats and go home as the party favor, and of course came up with a puppy inspired party menu.

There was Pink Paw Lemonade (my re-labeling of Simply Lemonade individually sized bottles), PBandJ sandwiches cut in the shape of dog bones, a gold dog bowl (which I spray painted) filled with strawberries, "doggie bags" filled with white milk chocolate bones we made with molds, and of course, birthday cake.

I have been loving the naked cake trend so I tried one with moderate results.  It tasted amazing as it was vanilla buttermilk filled with strawberry buttercream and topped with vanilla buttercream. But I left the decorating until the minutes the guests were arriving so the giant fondant bone was a pretty rushed effort. Tasted great though!

The girls had a great time dressing as puppies with their puppy ear headbands and some face painting provided by Tess's older sisters. They also colored their puppy bags and played a game of cornhole for small prizes.

I created a puppy face line drawing on the bags to make it easy to color.  I printed a stencil of the drawing on my Cricut machine but you could also print and trace the drawing on bags (it's included with my party printables). 

I decorated the cornhole boards with plain white paper and poster sized puppy faces to tie in with the theme. (My party printables file includes these large puppy faces set up to print two on a 20"x30" print.)

What fun we had! 

As a thank you we took pictures of each girl dressed as a puppy and holding her new plush puppy, which I printed wallet sized and sent home in a photo folder.

Tess looked adorable in her pink pleather and gold Maren dress and our lab was the perfect photo prop. I loved celebrating another year with this little girl!

Party Resources: (including affiliate links)

Tess's Dress:  The Maren Dress sewn by Aesthetic Nest
Birthday Invitation and Printables: Pink Puppy Printables from Aesthetic Nest on Etsy
Blank Canvas Bags
Fabric Markers: Sanford Stained by Sharpie Fabric Markers, Assorted Colors, 8-Pack
Puppy Ear Headbands Tutorial
Gold Tissue Paper for party hat pom poms and tassels
Plush Puppy Favors: Douglas Cuddle Toys Bichon
Tess's Yellow Lab Plush: Aurora Myoni Yellow Lab
Cornhole Boards to decorate with puppy face
Dog Bone Cookie Cutter for PBandJ sandwiches
Dog Bone Chocolate Mold for white chocolate doggie bag treats
White Chocolate Candy Melts

Cooking: Spanish Springtime Brunch for Book Club (Recipes & Printables)

It's teasing of Spring around here, which makes me want to celebrate it. What better way than with a brunch of delicious foods? Brunch is my favorite meal because it combines all of them. The menu can include breakfast foods, a salad on the side, and dessert of course. And brunch usually accompanies a special occasion. In this case it was a gathering of friends to discuss one of my favorite books: The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway.

I have loved Hemingway's writing since I studied it in high school. I find his economy of words and tight prose invigorating. And his stories have such romance. The Lost Generation and wars and romance and heartbreak. All set in beautiful European cities and rural landscapes. If you haven't read this book you should pick it up. (We read The Paris Wife along with it, which is a fictionalized account of Hemingway's first marriage and the time period in which he wrote The Sun Also Rises.) And then host your girlfriends for a discussion with brunch! I've got invites and a menu you can edit with your details, and all the recipes below.

You can find The Sun Also Rises Art Deco/1920s-inspired printable invitation file here (yes, it's a re-imagining of this Roaring 20s invitation.) It is a PDF, which prints two invitations per 8.5"x11" page, designed to fit in a #10 envelope (such as these metallic silver envelopes). Download it, edit it with Adobe reader, and then I recommend printing on bright white cardstock. There is a fan pattern for the back if you'd like to print double-sided. (Please note that "The Sun Also Rises" graphic cannot be edited.)

Because this novel is set in Paris and Pamplona I decided on a Spanish-inspired menu for our brunch. My husband and I took a trip to Spain a couple years ago this Spring and I loved all the delicious food! He had spent a couple years in Sevilla years before and had talked of their Tortillas and I became a big fan on our trip. So the headliner for this brunch was a Tortilla Espanola. It requires a good investment in olive oil and some tricky flipping in the pan but it's so worth it!

I served this with steamed asparagus and a rich Spanish aioli (lots of garlic). I was a little timid about the aioli but loved it on the asparagus as well as the Tortilla--yum!

I brightened these indulgences with a Spring Greens salad tossed with slivered almonds and my favorite Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette, and a Citrus Salad with Cinnamon-Cayenne dressing (trust me on this--so good!).

Finally, I served Garlic Marinated Shrimp. Not only is it pretty to look at but it tastes fresh and good too.

Such a pretty Spring plate. This would be a beautiful menu for an Easter Brunch. I may have to repeat it! Especially now that I have a tablecloth to go with it. (My tablecloth was sewn with IKEA Rosemarie fabric in grey.)

You can download the printable Spring Brunch Menu File here. It can be edited with Adobe Reader to match your own menu and then printed two-per-page on letter sized paper. You can also add the fan pattern to the second side of this printable to match your invitation.

I decorated with a "snake vase" I purchased at the Takashimaya Manhattan store years ago (when it still existed) to use for our wedding. I don't bring it out often enough. It's perfect for a long table.

I also printed photographs of Hemingway and his friends on their Pamplona trip to see the bullfights. I found these via his Wikipedia page. Fun to have them sitting in frames like some distant relatives looking over our dessert buffet. Hemingway was a handsome devil.

Speaking of dessert, I served Chocolate Croissants, Almond Croissants and Almond Horn cookies from Trader Joes (I always purchase part of my menu to give myself a little break in the prep) alongside a rich Drinking Chocolate. This recipe came from my wonderful friend, Lynda, who knows a good recipe! But it's incredibly easy (you make it in a crock pot!).

Now that your mouth is watering, you can click through for all the recipes. Welcome Spring and throw a brunch! It's such a luxury in a busy life to relax midday with good friends and good food. I'm still thinking about it...