Clues, Spells & Curses Scavenger Hunt

Katie October 17, 2011 0 Comments

My Party Games Plus is coming at you with a Halloween game like you’ve never played before!  This is a scavenger hunt unlike any scavenger hunt you have ever participated in before.  Hailed as a combination of scavenger hunt, treasure hunt and murder mystery (minus the murder).   You’ll have to separate your Halloween party guests into teams.  Each team must work together to find the hidden clues and figure out how to banish the evil witch!  But beware!  You may think you have found a clue but actually pick up a CURSE!  If a curse is found, the player must act out the curse until another member from their team finds the proper spell to reverse the curse!

Included in your party kit are:

• The rules/directions of the game so you know what you are doing 😉
• The introduction to the game
• Clue cards
• Curses!
• Reverse spells
• Labels for the magic ingredients
• Money
• Red Tickets
• Awards

The directions for the game are also super easy to follow:

1. Print out the game

2. Divide the sheets according to their number (found at the top of each sheet in a yellow circle)

3. Cut out all the pieces, but keep them separated by their numbers.

4. Place each individual piece from 2,3,45’s into separate envelopes.

5. For the magical ingredient labels (6s) you will need to prepare props ahead of time and attach the print out labels.  The ‘magical ingredients’ can be created from everyday objects.

6. Prepare your rule sheet. You can personalize the rules that come with the game if you want to include off limit areas in your house and print out a sheet for each player.

7. Divide money in to envelopes of $200 each.  Make sure there is enough for each player to have an envelope.

8. Decide and purchase any prizes to use after the game. You can have an auction for each item and the players can bid with what is left of their $200. (Or more, if they earn it during the game!)

The game comes in a 25 page PDF and is easy to set up and make for a memorable and fun Halloween party!  Recommended for ages 8 & up!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Smiley Cookies – Share a Smile!

Katie October 14, 2011 0 Comments

Halloween is just around the corner, and I am sure that you are wondering what kind of Halloween Party Snacks there are out there.  Look no further than SmileyCookies and their Halloween Cookies!

The cookies arrived promptly after I was sent notification that they had been mailed.  They came in a packing box, carefully wrapped with lots of bubble wrap so they wouldn’t be damaged during shipping.

Inside the box was another box, with adorable Smiley Cookies all over it.  Inside were a dozen Halloween jack-o-lantern cookies smiling back at me.  They were wrapped in shrink wrap and it did its job – the cookies were all in one piece and tasted delicious, they were soft not hard or stale from their trip to me!  Even after a few days of being left on the counter in their container – they still tasted as they did when they first arrived!

The whole family was glad to get to try the cookies and all had rave reviews that they were “really good”.  If you’re throwing a Halloween Party, looking for something to put in a Halloween Gift Basket, or even for something to hand out to trick-or-treaters, look no further than Smiley Cookies and their Halloween Cookies!

Also you should know that these are made in a Nut Free facility! This is great if you aren’t sure if neighborhood kids or your children’s classmates may have an allergy and you want to give out these cookies as snacks.  My brother has a nut allergy so it was nice to know that I could give him a cookie and not have to worry about it possibly having come in contact with any nuts.

SmileyCookies is offering all my readers 20% off their purchase of Halloween Cookies.  Simply like them on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/smileycookiestore) and you will receive 20% off your order!
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Etsy Store – Caramel Expressions

Katie October 1, 2011 3 Comments

Caramel Expressions has great prints that can be customized for your child’s bedroom. With dozens of prints to choose from, chances are you’ll be able to find something that matches the decor that you have in place already.

Since I don’t have a child myself (although some would consider me a big kid!) I opted to get a print for one of my newest buddies – Elizabeth Rose. Her mom and I have known each other since before we were born – as our fathers were BFFs growing up! Elizabeth was born in May and has an “under the sea” theme going with her bedroom – but her mother is a HUGE lighthouse fan. I found the perfect lighthouse print from Caramel Expressions that would work in Elizabeth’s room and make her mom, Lisa, pretty happy as well.

For just $19 I was able to choose if I preferred a red or pink lighthouse and was able to get it personalized for little miss Elizabeth Rose. The print is great quality and at 8×10 in size, was no problem to find a frame for.

One lucky Concert Katie winner will receive a $10 gift certificate to Caramel Expressions for the item of their choice from the etsy shop. The contest ends October 16th at 12:01AM EST and the gift certificate expires November 15th, so start picking out what items you might be interested in now! (This is also the mandatory entry for the contest)

I was given a discount on a purchase to the Etsy store and a gift certificate to give away on the blog in exchange for a review on their product.

Amy Adele Personalized Calling Cards

Katie September 18, 2011 0 Comments

I have an unhealthy obsession with stationery.  Cute papers, business cards, envelopes, you name it – if it is cute and something I can write on or hand out – I love it!

Calling cards from www.AmyAdele.com are fun and versatile! Use them as gift tags, bookplates, playdate or appointment cards, or simply calling cards! They feature many popular designs, and can be used on their own or to match our stationery, invitations, labels, and Christmas cards.

Recently I had the chance to choose some personalized calling cards from Amy Adele.  Yes, I did have some trouble narrowing down what design I wanted to use. Somehow I managed to get it down between the Monkey Calling Card and Butterfly Calling Card.  In the end, I went with the Monkey for some Concert Katie business cards.  What can I say, I like to monkey around 😉 The best part is – I can also coordinate these with stationery thank you cards, invitations, return address labels and even make gift tags that match.

There are also a TON of other designs for me to choose from if I am ever looking to do a different theme for a birthday party, save the date, birth announcement, etc.  I can probably even work some of it into scrapbook layouts! And did I mention all the designs are super cute and adorable? Because they are!

Be sure to check out www.AmyAdele.com for all your stationery needs 🙂
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Mixbook 5×7 Card Review

Katie September 15, 2011 0 Comments

Every year, the Hanson fanclub organizes a card swap for Christmas.  I know in August / September it may be a little early to start thinking about Christmas cards but every year I always get a bunch of cute cards with photos the fans took at Hanson shows and I always say how “next year I’m going to make a custom card with my Hanson photos!” and then I forget and don’t have enough time to get anything put together.

Well, this year is going to be my year.  Mainly because I started thinking about this in August / September 😉

This year I am getting my photo cards done through MixBook.  Before I even logged in to the website, I thought about what photos I wanted to use. I decided that I wanted to use photos from March of this year at PST’s radio event. I would use 3 or 4 photos – an individual shot of each brother and possible a group pic depending on what the layouts I found were.

I ended up finding 1 that I liked that fit my criteria and 1 that I liked the front of that didn’t quite fit my criteria, but I was able to manipulate it so that it did by adding in another photo to the layout.  After I created mock ups I opted to order the one that fit my criteria (AND I was able to fit in 2 more photos on the back!) It really didn’t take all that time to go through the creation process for the 2 cards and it really made it easier to decide which one I wanted to order when I could see it with my own photos right in front of me, rather than have to guess what it might look like.

The cards arrived less than one week after they were ordered from Mixbook and came complete with envelopes. They look great and I can’t wait to send them out! For now, I am keeping them in a safe place so they don’t end up ruined or lost before the end of November when I start mailing out cards.

To find out more about Mixbook, check them out on Faceook and Twitter!
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Sticker You

Katie September 14, 2011 0 Comments

It’s really no secret that I LOVE stickers.  When I found out about StickerYou.com, I knew that I just had to try it out.  You can purchase sticker sheets (in USA at Hobby Lobby and at Mastermind and Scholar’s Choice in Canada) and head over to the StickerYou.com Make + Print website and create custom stickers.  They provide some graphics or you can upload your own photos to use and you can add text as well using several fonts that are provided.  Each sticker pack comes with a unique code that gives you access to the sticker design area and then a set number of times that you can print out your stickers. (If you don’t have sticker sheets you can design the stickers on the website and then pay to have them printed and sent to you!)

StickerYou has just become the first website in the world to allow kids to design their own stickers and instantly print them at home via their exciting new retail product called “Make+Print Your Own Stickers”. With the launch of this new product line, StickerYou is poised to revolutionize the sticker industry.

Each package of Make+Print offers flossy, blank sticker pages in a choice of shapes and sizes.  Kids then go online to StickerYou.com to start creating.  Using the award winning online Sticker Maker, they instantly access thousands of proprietary and licensed art images, and can even upload their own photos and images.  They can also use the text and coloring tool that features a variety of fonts and special effects to maximize their creativity.  And the ultimate reward is once they hit ‘print’, they have the finished product in their hands in just moments.

Glossy and removable, the blank sticker sheets are mess-free and compatible with any inkjet printer. Available in circles, rectangles, hearts, stars (and even iron-on transfers), each package offers from 40-108 stickers and retails for $13-$15. Make+Print Your Own Stickers can be found at retailers throughout North America in August 2011.

I had no trouble creating my stickers on their website.  For my first sheet of stickers I used only provided graphics. Of my 8 stickers I had a Superman logo, a Batman logo, Superman and Wonder Woman, a Facebook “Like” icon, 2 mock tickets for concerts that otherwise won’t have tickets for my scrapbook (Using a combination of graphics and text), my name in animal letters and Charlie Brown playing baseball.   I didn’t even begin to touch on all the graphics that are provided by the website. There are a LOT.

I did however have some trouble printing.  I designed the page in Google Chrome, but later found out that this browser is not compatible and I should have used Firefox or Internet Explorer.  I was able to load the sticker page on the other browser but when I tried to print (using a test sheet first so I wouldn’t ruin the sticker sheets!) it was only printing out part of the stickers.  I then realized that I needed a more up to date version of Adobe Reader because to print the sheet, a PDF pops up.  Finally, after 2 nights of struggling I managed to get everything to work – so keep this in mind if you are going to be trying this with you kids! Make sure that your Adobe Reader is up to date and you use Firefox or Internet Explorer.  You might want to do a trial run first before the kids are around because judging on how impatient I was getting doing this myself, I can definitely see a kid having a meltdown.

For my second sheet, I decided to use photos that I had taken to create the stickers.  I took 4 photos from the Stevie Nicks concert and for the remaining 4 stickers used the different fonts and colors to make setlist stickers. Now that I had all the issues with printing out of the way, this page went incredibly smoothly and I am really happy with how it came out and am currently trying to figure out what to do with the stickers to turn them in to my scrapbook layout for the show!

Find out more about StickerYou at their TWITTER or FACEBOOK pages.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Heart Shaped Carabiner Keychain Review

Katie September 3, 2011 0 Comments

I have a terrible habit of “losing” my keys. But they are never really lost, just buried at the bottom of my bag. You know how it goes – you get to the concert and toss your keys in your bag. You head to merch and pull out your wallet, the keys fall a little further in to your bag, you pull out your camera and they fall a little further. Then the show ends and you have to spend 20 minutes digging for them so you can get in your car to head home!

Lately I have been using a keychain that is a carabiner to attach the keys to the strap of my bag or to my belt loop and then stick the keys in my pocket.  This has been working well – but the carabiner I have been using lately is kind of blah.  It is your typical black generic one and it used to say “Hanson” on it, but it has since worn off.  Wholesale Keychains have sent me a heart carabiner to try out and I must say that it has had no problem keeping up with me being on the go and my rather heavy set of keys and assorted keychains.
I haven’t had to worry about it opening up and my keys falling, not to mention it is a lot cuter and more stylish than my traditional black carabiner that I used to be using.  I definitely recommend this for anyone who needs a way to attach their keys to their purse or themselves so that the keys don’t end up going missing!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.