Let's get creative! Dress up gift bags with DIY watercolour ribbon.

Let's get creative! Here's a sweet idea for making plain white gift bags a little more colourful by just changing out the ribbon handles. 

I recently had the pleasure of working with Gloria Vazquez-Abrams from Historia Wedding and Event Planning and the amazing team that she brought together for a styled shoot wedding. Gloria's pastel coloured theme was filled with so many whimsical details and as soon as I saw her mood boards I knew that I needed to find a way to work my DIY watercolour ribbons to the set up.

I removed the white ribbon handles on these white and gold foil edged gift bags and replaced them with the rainbow coloured ribbon.

Gloria filled the gift bags on this glorious sweet table with cotton candy. The colours in the cotton candy and gourmet chocolates are so much fun and I love the way that the ribbon handles on the gift bags add that little bit of extra colour pop to the overall set up.

The rainbow ribbon handle gift bags were also used in another area of the set up. Gloria incorporated the gift bags and these gift boxes along with balloon, paper flower, drapery and vinyl floor decal installations to create a centre stage area for the Cirque Entertainment.

Interested in doing this for a wedding or party?

Here's a quickie tutorial to show you what I did and how to figure out how much painted ribbon you will need.

You will find my painted ribbon DIY tutorial here.

The ribbons that came on the gift bags can be removed by simply cutting the ribbon and pulling them through the holes from the inside of the bag. But I suggest that you remove at least one ribbon handle by untying the knots and removing the handle in one piece.

So as you can see above, I used the original ribbon handle to work out not only how long the ribbon needed to be for the gift bag but to also calculate how much ribbon I would need to paint so that I could change the ribbon on all of the gift bags I planned to use.

To add the rainbow ribbon to the gift bag I tied a knot on one end of the ribbon, feed it through both holes of the bag and then tied a knot on the other end of the ribbon to finish. Repeat on the other side of the bag.

My tip to make wrinkled ribbon smooth: Use a straight iron on a low temperature to easily iron out wrinkles. 

Credits for Styled Shoot:

Planning and Styling by Historia Wedding and Event Planning 

Photography by Samantha Ong Photography 

Balloons by The Sweetest Thing Balloons 

Draping and Vinyl Floor Decals by Finer Events  

Paper Flower Décor by Floral Fantasy Studio 

Tableware Rentals by Sweet Bee Tea Party  

Linens, Chargers, Napkins and Chairs by Chair Decor 

Invitations, Menu, Place Cards, 3D Animal by A Good Day Inc. 

Packaging Supplies by Creative Bag

Chocolates by Stubbe Chocolate 

Favours by Marie Genevieve 

Cotton Candy by Bucket and Whisk 

Custom Lighted Designs by Marquee Marc  

Cirque Entertainment by Articus Productions  

Tuxedo by Andrew's Formals 

Dress by Papilio Boutique 

Accessories by The Loved One 

Hair and Makeup by Beyoutiful Brides  

Venue: Ontario Heritage Trust Enoch Turner Schoolhouse 

You can do this - painted macarons and chocolate candy sweets

I am so excited to share two of my favourite DIY edible projects with you today. 

Not everyone has the time (or the skills) to make all of the pretty edible sweets that we see on Instagram. Taking a cookie decorating workshop has been at the top of my "wish list" for a while. For now, I am happy to just add hand painted details to pre-made macarons and create these simple candy treats.

My Easter themed hand painted macarons are very easy to create using vodka, gel food colouring and of course pre-made macarons. My macarons came from Macaronz. I should point out that the colours of the macarons were more important to me for this project than the flavours.

Here's the supplies that you'll need to paint on macarons: vodka, gel food colouring, paint brushes for baked goods and a small paint palette.

1. Painting with gel food colouring and vodka is very much like working with watercolour paints. Add a small amount the gel food colours into the paint palette and water it down using just a little vodka. The more vodka you add the more "watered down" the colour will become.

2. Paint your design using the food safe paint brushes on the macarons. And that's it!

Pretty simple right?  You can use my examples as inspiration to make these yourself or come up with your own designs. 

Tip: Get a couple of extra macarons to practice on first. Practice with different paint brushes and test your colours. You can just eat the test samples so it's a win/win ;)

Note: The vodka paint does not make the macaron soggy and it does not change the taste of the macaron. From everything that I have been able to research on this technique, the vodka evaporates so it's safe to give these to children. 

My Easter themed macarons included a chick, bunny, and whimsical decorated egg and carrot patterns.

If you want to use these painted macarons as party favours head over to this blog post for packaging ideas.

I love candy melts and they are a basic baking supply that I stock in my pantry all year round. I used vanilla chocolate candy melts in lollipop molds to create these pretty and easy Easter theme candy treats.

Here's the supplies that you'll need : lollipop candy mold, lollipop sticks, (vanilla) candy melts, chocolate M&Ms, assorted candy sprinkles, microwave safe containers.

1. Place the lollipop sticks in the candy molds. 

2. Melt the candy melts as per the instructions on the package. 

3. Pour the melted candy into the candy mold.

4. Working quickly before the melted candy hardens in the molds add sprinkles and M&M chocolate candies to decorate.

5. Allow to completely harden for an hour. Pop them from the molds and you are done.

I think that these would make wonderful party favours and you can find more information on how to package these in this blog post.

I like to display sweets on sticks in jars filled with candies or coarse sugar. This display idea works whether you are serving these (unpackaged) treats on a sweet table or setting them up as a favour/take away.

Tip: I use paper straws that have been cut to different heights in the jar to hold the lollipop sticks in place and add to the visual presentation.

Have a sweet (long) weekend!

Creating sweet tables has to be one of my favourite things to do during the holidays. 

You don't need to have a lot of different treats to create a holiday sweet table. I used assorted serving dishes, buffalo gift boxes, burlap ribbons, mini trees and lights for my festive set up.

I prefer to put out a little bit of everything in smaller containers and then refill them every once in a while so that the display looks some what full for most of time.

Here's how I set up my little stress free sweet table:

Buffalo plaid gift boxes are both functional and decorative in my set ups. If you don't have gift boxes, you can create a similar look using books covered with wrapping paper "jackets" like I did here.

I have created these snow globe inspired jars filled with cookies as hostess gifts for years. This year I thought that it would be fun to make one for myself and use it as the focal point of my sweet table display. 

 I use coarse sugar to create a snowy base in the glass containers.The mini gingerbread house and cookies are from Mad Batter Bakers. The container is more of a display element so you may want to fill another serving dish with gingerbread cookies for guests to easily take and eat.

I filled a candy dish with custom made sugar cookies from Emma's Sweets. You can add coarse sugar to the bottom of the candy dish so that the cookies will stand up.

Another small candy dish was filled with assorted colours of french macarons from Macaronz and placed on a gift box for height.

Not everything on your sweet table has to be baked goods. I like to fill larger containers with chocolates, popcorn, candy and nuts.

Once the serving dishes have been set up I fill in large spaces with gift boxes tied up with ribbon. I like to use pretty gift boxes in my holiday decor and in January I fill them with Christmas tree decorations for storage.

Finally I add in mini trees and battery operated strings of lights.

Guests may think that your sweet table is too pretty to eat so make sure that you tell them it's okay to help themselves!

Sweet DIY: donut display board

I have been waiting for a reason to create a large beautiful donut wall. The problem is that I am not a wedding or party planner and I did not host any large parties this year. I am planning to do some holiday entertaining and I thought that this might be a great opportunity for me to put my own twist on the donut wall concept that is a little more holiday entertaining at home friendly.

 So I came up with the idea of turning these wood market trays into donut display boards. They will hold a dozen mini or regular sized donuts. You can replenish the donuts during the party to keep it looking full. And the trays are not huge so you can easily store them after the event and reuse them again.

 I painted this donut display board white and added gold details to the end of the the wood pegs. Learzi from Autumn Grey Designs added the gold hand lettering and the adorable mini donuts were made by Macaronz. 

 My donut display board is also perfect for displaying decorative cookies with a hole.

Caitlyn from Cakelaine created the festive wreath cookies that were displayed above as well as all of the cakes and sweet treats for our holiday themed party.

Here's how to make these donut display boards yourself:

 1. Gather your supplies: Wood market tray, small wood pegs, kraft paper to work out spacing, ruler, pencil, drill, paint (optional).

2. Use kraft paper to figure out spacing for the holes that you need to drill into the tray. Make sure that you leave enough space around the donuts. Centre the kraft paper on the wood tray and mark where to drill with your pencil. 

3. Select a drill bit that is the same size as the wood pegs. You want the holes to be tight so you will not require glue. Drill holes in the wood tray. 

4. Place wood pegs in the holes. Paint if desired. 

Tip: You can prop the board up against a wall. Or, if you want the display board stand on it's own, I suggest that you super glue a large square vase to the back of the tray. 

If you make one of these for your own party I'd love to see it! Use hashtag #lorrieeverittinspire and follow me on Instagram for more holiday diy inspiration. 

Photo credits:

Donut display set up:

photography  Janet KwanPhotography 

mini donuts Macaronz 

hand lettering  Autumn Grey Designs 

greenery  Flower Treasures      

packaging products Creative Bag

entertaining products Weddingstar

creative direction Lorrie Everitt

Cookie display setup:

photography  Heidi Lau Photography 

hand lettering  Love Lettering   

florals Flowerly 

cake and sweets  Cakelaine   

packaging supplies  Creative Bag  

entertaining supplies Weddingstar

creative direction  Lorrie Everitt  

& the handcrafted artisans:

Milo and Ben  

Little Rose & Co 

Sweetie Pie Design Co