Murder at Mardi Gras- Food Table and Door Wreath

Happy Friday and welcome back! Today is the last day in the Halloween Murder Mystery mini series that I have been sharing. After today we will be all caught up on my previous parties.

Last year the party was called Murder at Mardi Gras and as you can probably guess the theme was under the sea...just kidding, we all know it was Mardi Gras. (That was my lame attempt at being funny but I am sure it failed once again...oh well). Click HERE for the link on Amazon.

I had a blast planning last years party. It was so colorful and fun!

Now, let's get to talking about the real reason we are all here...the FOOD!! Once again, like every year, we had a salad with several dressing options. I do this every year because it is easy and inexpensive to prepare and everyone for the most part likes salad and it fits with any theme. Moving on down the line (of the photo below) we had two different types of sandwich rolls. The small ones (in a line on the top) were a potato roll and the bottom, larger rolls, were a Ciabatta (I think) roll that is hollow on the inside. My aim was to have the fixings for mini muffuletta sandwiches. A friend of mine went to New Orleans several years ago and when she came back she talked for WEEKS about these sandwiches so, I wanted to try to mimic the style but in an affordable way that my guests would enjoy. I thought that the best way to do the sandwiches was to set out all of the ingredients and have each person make there own with the ingredients that they like.

On the deli platter there was mozzarella and provolone cheeses along with roast beef, ham, turkey and salami deli meats. There was also a cup full of green olives since a muffuletta sandwich is typically made with an olive spread. Several of my guests don't care for olives (myself included) so this was the easiest way to offer an option. (Fun fact: My youngest niece LOVED the olives and after everyone sat down with their plates of food she went back to the table, grabbed the cup, then sat in the floor and preceded to eat nearly the entire thing.) ☺ For side dishes, I decided to go extremely SIMPLE this year (since I have been criticized for doing too much in the past) and I purchased pre-made potato salad and macaroni salad (which I happen to LOVE)

I kept the dessert more on the simple side this year as well. We had the standard black cauldron full of Halloween candy and I also bought some cute little glass jars that have gold painted on the bottom that I filled about 3/4 of the way with green, purple and gold Sixlets candies. I made two Mardi Gra themed desserts (that were both delicious!!) The bottom dessert was a mock version of a traditional King Cake made out of cinnamon rolls, cream cheese icing and colored sugars. The cups on the top of the stand were a bananas foster banana pudding that was absolutely AMAZING and everyone wanted to take extras home! But, for the first time in the history of my Murder Mystery Parties, I didn't HAVE any dessert extras. See I told you I was improving. ☺ (Oh, and another fun fact: less than a minute after the photo was taken, someone bumped the table and that top pudding when crashing to the floor and spilled all over the carpet. That was such a pleasure to clean up, let me tell you). 

Since this is the final post for the Halloween Murder Mystery mini series I also wanted to share with you the door wreath that I made to hang on my front door. In all honesty the first three ideas that I tried resulted in EPIC FAILURES so, I had to dig deep for an idea and in the end this is what came about. In hindsight I would probably go back and add a mask or something to the center to really drive home the Mardi Gra theme and make it look a little less light a random Christmas decoration. 

If you have been following along with all of the posts of this mini series you will notice that I haven't posted a layout yet from the Murder at Mardi Gras party and that is because I haven't had a chance to physically make the layout yet. I have it all planned out but haven't yet had time to sit down and put it together. Also, the party this year is still up in the air...I have a few guests that have RSVPed but others refuse to get back. So....we will see what happens. I am trying not to dwell on it or let others actions bother me. (I am failing at both)

I will see you again on Monday with a SUPER card. 

EDIT: Just after writing this post I finally heard back from one of the people that I was waiting on a reply from and they WILL be able to make it so the party is officially a go...oh man I have so much to do in such a short amount of time!! 

Lethal Luau- Food Table

In 2016 the theme for the Halloween Murder Mystery party that I did with my family and friends was HAWAIIAN. The name of the game was Lethal Luau and can be found HERE on Amazon. (I was fortunate enough to find this particular game at my local Good Will for about $2) This particular year was a BLAST! It seemed like most people enjoyed this one a bit more than the previous year. I don't know if that was because of the theme, the game itself or just everyone's overall mood coming into it.

When I was in College (getting my Culinary Degree) I had a class where we actually operated a restaurant one day a week. Each week focused on cuisine from specific regions of the country. The menu was planned by the student who was the leader for that particular cuisine. Lucky for me, when it was my week I was assigned Hawaiian cuisine, so I had had to put a LOT of thought and effort into foods from that region in order to create a menu. So, when I saw the theme for this particular Murder Mystery was Hawaiian I grabbed my old notes and set to planning.

For the entree part of the meal we once again had a salad, but this time it was strictly made of spinach and arugula leaves with several dressing options. Next, we had some Hawaiian sweet rolls and barbecue pulled pork. You could either make a sandwich or eat them separately. We also had coconut shrimp (my FAVORITE) with a side of cocktail sauce, french fries in both regular and sweet potato varieties and lastly, a bowl full of amazing corn in a cream cheese sauce. Not to toot my own horn, but this menu tasted AWESOME!!

OH, I know that it is hard to tell but the platters that the rolls, pork and shrimp are on are actually shaped (and decorated) like surfboards.

DESSERT time, who else looks forward to this part the most? This year I allowed myself to ONLY make three things. ☺ Hey, at least I am TRYING to limit myself. For the first dessert I recreated a cookie treat that I found on Pinterest using Nutter Butter cookies, cookie icing and some sugar pearls to make these adorable flip-flops. Next, I made some mini pineapple upside down cakes in a muffin tin. I left out the cherries since I know that some of my guests don't like them, but I did place a bowl of Maraschino cherries next to the cakes in case people (like me ☺ ) wanted to add a cherry to theirs. Lastly, I made some coconut cupcakes. Looking at the pictures of all of these great desserts is making me SO HUNGRY!! 

Roman Ruins- Food Table

I am back with another post about FOOD!!! Today I want to share with you the foods that I made for my second Murder Mystery Party back in 2015. The mystery was call Roman Ruins and you can find it on Amazon HERE if you are interested in checking out the game. 

I got a LOT of flack the previous year about how much I made food wise for the party and knew that I needed to dial it back a bit. The problem is, that once again, I struggle with narrowing my focus. I have so many ideas that flood my head because I get so excited that I find it hard to pick only a couple. So, although I tried to scale it back with this year's food, I still had guests telling me that I did too much...oh well, at least we all enjoyed it. 

Once again, lets start off with the actual meal. Shown below are the two different salad blends (one is a simple iceberg blend and the other has baby spinach and arugula) a couple of different salad dressings and some salad toppings. I kept the bell peppers, bacon crumbles, tomatoes and olives in separate bowls because I wasn't sure who would like what. Next to the salad is a cheese and cracker tray with four different kinds of cheeses and four different kinds of crackers. 

Not shown in the photos, we also had a LARGE pot of spaghetti with meatballs, three pizzas from Little Caesar's (because they are the closest) and garlic bread.

Now on to my favorite part....DESSERT!!! Once again we had a bowl with Halloween candy and some chocolate covered popcorn. I placed some almond and chocolate biscotti into the black cauldron that I used the year before for the candy. Next to those are some mini cheesecake bites (that come in three flavors) from Sam's Club. Then lastly, I made my two favorite Italian desserts; a replica of Olive Garden's lemon cream cake and mini tiramisu cups.I actually made two varieties- the traditional ones with the the lady fingers dipped in coffee and another batch with the lady fingers dipped in hot chocolate- there wasn't too much of a flavor difference thought.)

For some reason, that I tried not to take personally, some of my guests didn't eat hardly anything this year. I later found out that two of them don't like spaghetti and had eaten pizza for dinner the night before and two others had eaten before they came even though all four new we were having a meal and what the meal would be. I have to admit, I was EXTREMELY hurt!!

Unfortunately, halfway through the party my older niece (who was five) got sick and threw up all over her daddy so they had to leave early. 

And, later that night, my friend was sitting on the couch and her wedding band fell off and disappeared somewhere deep inside the couch. We worked for five hours to try and recover it but in the end we never did find it. At about the four and a half hour mark my friend ended up saying that it was okay the ring only cost $10 on Amazon, she could get a new one. I don't know who was more upset at that moment, my friend for loosing her ring, my dad because he had been lifting the couch and crawling on the floor or my mom because we had to untack part of the liner at the bottom of the couch and bang it around an potentially damage it all for a $10 ring. 

It was sure an interesting year but at least it left some fun stories to tell later. 

Murder on the Grill- Food Table

Hey guys, happy Friday. I hope that your week has gone well and that you have some exciting plans for the weekend because I don't lol.

I have actually been feeling pretty blah all week. My back is still hurting from my all day card-a-thon last Saturday and it has made my stomach hurt as well. Oh well, let's start discussing something that ALWAYS makes me feel better...FOOD!! (Namely dessert but food works as well ☺)
I mentioned earlier this month that I would spend a couple of days solely focused on the food that I made for my different Halloween Murder Mystery Parties. The first party was from back in 2014 and was called Murder on the Grill.  If you click HERE you can check it out on Amazon if you are interested.

Before we begin discussing the food that I prepared for the party I want to start off by saying...."Hi my name is Ashley and I have a problem deciding between ideas, so I just MAKE THEM ALL!! I had enough food for 25 people easily....and I only invited 8." Please, no judging.
Since the theme of the party was a 1950 barbecue the actual food portion was pretty simple. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs outside on our gas grill (because the weather was actually nice enough to be outside in October, which is rare). I forgot to grab a picture of the burgers and dogs before my hungry guests started shoveling them into their mouths. We also had a large bowl of salad with several different kinds of dressing. Three different kinds of chips (Fritos, Cheetos and Tostitos) as well as a Croc-pot full of chili to add to either the chips or the hot dogs.

Now dessert is where I lost it a bit...okay A LOT!! I couldn't decide between all of the 1950's themed desserts and Halloween related ones. Since this was the first Halloween related party that I had ever had, I wanted to include some treats that represented the holiday but also represented the theme of the overall party. Why not do a mash-up? It works with music, what could possibly go wrong? 

Let's start with the Halloween treats. I made both chocolate and vanilla cupcakes that I frosted with vanilla buttercream that was dyed black and orange and then  swirled together. Then I had THREE different kinds of cookies. A mint cookie that I bought to make into witches hats but ran out of time. Fudge striped cookies because....I don't remember why and finally a homemade sugar cookie that I again dyed black and orange and then swirled into a pinwheel before baking. (with the leftover dough from the sugar cookies I simply cut out some pumpkin shapes.)

I also had a plastic cauldron full of leftover Halloween candy (all chocolate), a bowl full of Hershey kisses that I had bought for the witches hat cookies and a large bowl full of Skittles simply because I like them. Are you feeling overwhelmed yet?? Because guess what, we haven't even talked about the 1950s themed desserts that I made. 

I made some personal sized pies (both apple and cherry of course) using a muffin pan. I also made TWO trays full of brownies for some strange reason. Then (not pictured) I made some Jello shots (that did NOT have alcohol) in about 4 different flavors (because one is just not enough) with some store bought whipped topping. I had also purchased some ice cream and root beer to make Root Beer Floats but unfortunately the freezer that I had the ice cream in when out and it all melted. Lastly, I made some truly ADORABLE milkshake cake pops that I saw on Youtube. They were probably everyone's favorite thing that I made!!

By the way, my grandpa had had a severe facial surgery for skin cancer just a couple of days before the party so I had been out out town helping to care for him. I only came back home on Friday night and the party was set to start at around NOON on Saturday and the ONLY thing that had been made was the sugar cookies and the store bought extras! I started cooking the SECOND that I walked through the door Friday and only took an hour off to sleep before I was at it again. If it wasn't for my mom's help the party never would have happened!! 

Lethal Luau Layout

I LOVE THIS LAYOUT!! I had so much fun creating this layout and I didn't even use the Cricut. I was able to dig through my large piles of embellishments and find enough goodies to fill both pages without it looking tacky (at least I hope ☺).

Stickers, chipboard shapes, rhinestones, and seashells...oh my.  (takes a short break to sing... ♫ I'm off to see the Wizard, the wonderful wizard of papercrafts (or Harry Potter)♫

When I was reviewing the photos that I was going to print for this layout I found that I had a couple of 'extra' photos that I wanted to include of other fun things that occurred that day, so I decided to add four additional wallet sized photo spots on the left hand side of the page where I would traditionally add more die cut images and decor. I really like this new look and I will probably stick with it going forward because in the end the photos on the pages should be the real stars instead of the images that were added.

And, for the last time...I covered all of the photos in my Halloween Murder Mystery Scrapbook so that the focus would be on the layout and not on the people and food. Plus, I didn't ask for permission from the guests to share their photos on my blog. 

Roman Ruins Layout

When it came time for me to make this layout I struggled BIG TIME! Absolutely zero ideas were coming to mind for an ancient Roman themed layout. I searched through the Cricut library of images for some inspiration but was shocked to find that there where hardly any Roman images. It is not as...detailed...as what I would typically make but I am still pretty happy with how it turned out.

I finally found this rather basic image of the Colosseum and made that my focal point on the left side of the page. Because I struggled so much with ideas for this layout, I ended up throwing it together the night before the 2016 Murder Mystery Party.

What do you guys think? What would you have liked to see for an Ancient Rome layout? Maybe I will try to replicate some of your ideas for another post. 

I covered all of the photos in  my Halloween Murder Mystery Scrapbook so that the focus would be on the layout and not on the people and food. Plus, I didn't ask for permission from the guests to share their photos on my blog. 

World Cardmaking Day 2018 (Bonus Post)

Hey guys and gals! Yesterday was a fun day in the papercrafting world, it was World Cardmaking Day. Don't worry if you have never heard of it, I only discovered it a couple of months ago. I decided to go online and see what could be found about this obscure holiday and I discovered that it was created by Paper Craft Magazine in 2006 and is held annually on the first Saturday in October.

In order to celebrate, I decided to finish a large group of cards that I had started working on awhile back but never got around to finishing. I had previously cut an entire 8.5 x 11 patterned paper pad into 4.25 x 5.5 inch rectangles in order to be used on cards.

I spent the entire day cutting, gluing (with double sided tape), stamping and sorting so that I could finish off this large batch of cards. I even got to use up some of my ENDLESS supply of Project Life cards (I swear that those cards have a way of multiplying when I am not looking). In the end I had about 150 finished cards (I made 4-6 of each card design).

Because I made so many cards of different types (birthday, friendship, encouragement, etc.), I decided to also make some boxes so that I could sell the cards in sets. I put eight different cards into each box so that each box would contain a variety of different occasions. 

Wow, it was a LONG day of crafting. I didn't finish until around 3 o'clock this morning, my back is KILLING me but at least I got a lot accomplished! 

Let me know if you are interested in purchasing one (or more) of these fun boxed sets. Email me at thesweetscrapper@gmail.com