Navy blue is beautifully nautical or simply neutral… or both. Using navy as a neutral can add a springtime freshness to your event. Replace the traditional black, gray, or brown with navy to get a nautically neutral color palette. This navy blue and white cupcake tower is crisp, clean and lovely on its own, but watch as different colors pair with the navy blue to create a whole new look.

Navy blue and coral…

Navy blue pairs with most any other color. Here we created a fresh spring or summer color combo with coral and navy blue. Just feminine and pretty.

Navy Blue and Yellow…

Navy blue and yellow screams spring. Happy and bright, yellow and blue are tried and true.

Navy Blue and Kelly Green…

Navy blue and kelly green are fantastically fresh. Perfect for a summer wedding at the country club, kelly green and navy are a flawless color combination.

Navy blue is simple, classic perfection-- on its own, or paired with almost any color.

Today, we are offering you the last few details of this weather themed birthday party- the party food ideas. Get the links to the entire party plan at the end of this post, in case you are just tuning in!

Party Food Ideas

A few popcorn clouds rolled in on the party buffet, then came the rainbow…

The party buffet was filled with the colors of the rainbow at our weather party. Bright and fun, we were able to sneak these healthful fruit skewers into the mix, simply because of their gorgeous colors. Rainbow fruit skewers are always a hit, and everything is even better when served on a stick! Get these adorable rock candy lollipop sticks for your party!

Gotta have cupcakes, of course. No birthday party is complete without a few cupcakes. We skirted our cupcakes in Kaleidoscope rainbow cupcake wrappers in trendy rainbow hues, and trimmed a basic cake platter with adorable, yellow pom-pom trim. Our cupcakes accompanied a towering rainbow cake!

The candy cart was the highlight of the rainbow party food! It was a rainbow of candy, cake-pops, and Oreo cookie bundles.

The party overview:
http://confetticouture.com/blog/creative-party-theme-weather/

Storm cloud party décor tutorial:
http://confetticouture.com/blog/do-it-yourself-party-decor-cloud-lamp/

Party activity ideas:

http://confetticouture.com/blog/party-activities-ideas-for-a-weather-party/

Party food ideas:

http://confetticouture.com/blog/rainbow-party-food-ideas

Get even more ideas from our Weather Party Pinterest board!

With three versions of this easy chocolate truffles recipe, your chocolate dessert buffet will be gorgeously filled to the brim. With a few tweaks, the same recipe can be used to create distinctly different chocolate truffle desserts and a will put a plethora of possibilities up your hostessing sleeve! Master a few easy chocolate handling techniques, and you’ll open the door to a gazillion possibilities from coating luscious cakes to creating these delectable delights.

Classic Chocolate truffles recipe

If you’ve never made chocolate truffles before, they may seem intimidating, but trust us when we say that once you have the basics down, it’s a snap. This chocolate truffles recipe and tutorial on truffle basics will give you all the details you need for making perfect chocolate truffles, every time.

Chocolate truffles on lollipop sticks

For this tray of chocolaty treats, we pushed a wooden lollipop stick into each chilled truffle before we dipped them in the chocolate coating. Go for gorgeous presentation with this cake pop kit, available in loads of pretty color combos, that makes it so easy to turn a few truffles into gorgeous chocolate party favors or display them on your chocolate dessert buffet.

Chocolate Truffle Recipe—Tiny Chocolate Almond Tarts

By adding a ¼ teaspoon of almond extract with the heavy cream in your chocolate ganache mixture, the very same truffle ingredients turn into a chocolate almond tart. Silky smooth chocolate ganache tops a simple shortbread cookie crust.

Easy shortbread cookie crust:

2 cups of crushed shortbread cookies
¼ cup melted butter

• Combine melted butter with crushed cookies.
• Press the crust mixture into the bottoms of each well in a mini muffin baking pan. 
• Bake for 5 minutes at 375, or until lightly golden. 
• Let the crusts cool completely and then pour the ganache mixture over each mini crust. Top each tiny tart with a toasted almond slice.

Spicy Chocolate Truffles

These truffles are kicked up a notch with the easy addition of some crushed Thai chilis. Add spice to suit your taste, and roll them in cocoa powder to finish these easy chocolate truffles.

One recipe… one entire chocolate dessert buffet! We love easy.

Apple picking season is upon us. We love the warm colors and all things fall. In the spirit of autumnal pleasures, we bring you this Seven Dwarfs themed party from our very own creative team here at Confetti Couture, complete with an apple dipping and decorating buffet! Featured in full on HWTM earlier in the year, we thought we’d feature it here in The Dressing Room this week, and on this Pinterest Board, to inspire creative fall entertaining across the land.

Not being huge fans of character themed parties, when we do go that direction, we prefer to use the B-list characters. And born was the Seven Dwarfs theme. Sorry, fair maiden, but the miners took center stage this time. The warm reds and browns make for a pleasantly vibrant fall color palette, and the engaging apple buffet lends to a fun party atmosphere.
We’ll help you recreate this look in your own apple orchard… or backyard. The party plan this week will include the invitations, favors, food, and fun.

For the caramel apple buffet, the table was first covered with playful polka dotted red fabric. The caramel was warmed and kept in a fondue pot near a basket of clean, dry apples. The sticks were inserted into the apples before the party. (Hint: If you have a well-worn play structure in your yard, it may be a great place to create your “mine”.)

For embellishing the dipped apples on the caramel apple buffet, we created mining cars from wooden salad bowls stacked on clear plastic containers for a little elevation. To the plastic containers we attached wooden rounds with buttons to look like the wheels on the mining cars. The tracks were created with brown ribbon and tongue depressors. We loaded the “mining cars” with toppings for the dipped apples. Candies, chocolate chips, nuts, cookie crumbs, crushed pretzels, and sprinkles all make fun toppings for your caramel apple buffet. Choose whatever you like to please your crowd.

We also warmed some water in a crock pot, covered in rustic looking paper, to keep some melted chocolates warm and ready to drizzle.

Cupcake wrappers were used to rest each finished apple. Guests made some to eat, and some to take home.

An oversized lantern filled with extra apples…

and worn wood(ish) signs completed this sweetly rustic caramel apple buffet.

Keeping the colors and theme consistent, makes for such a pretty party.

More Seven Dwarfs party details to come!  Next, we'll get things started with a creative, mining craft party invitation.

We think these rock candy lollipop sticks are precious. They add just the right amount of nostalgic charm to your creations. These lollipop sticks are perfect for making rock candy, but can be used for so much more. Take a look…

Lollipop Swizzle Sticks

A fun and frosty slushy is tucked into this whimsical cupcake wrapper from the Buggy Daze collection. We pushed mini orange slice candies onto the wooden lollipop stick and slid it into the icy drink.

Cotton Candy Sticks

We used a simple cotton candy machine... so much fun… to swirl a bit of the classic sugary treat onto this rock candy lollipop stick. We nestled the cotton candy into a cupcake wrapper for display. This cupcake wrapper is from the Flowers for Tiffany collection.

Cupcake Picks made with Rock Candy Sticks

These super versatile lollipop sticks come in two lengths, 4 ¼ inches and 6 inches. The 6 inch lollipop sticks make lovely cupcake toppers. Using a paper punch, we cut a tag from a coordinating color of paper. We punched two standard size holes in the tag and threaded it onto the lollipop stick. For added charm, we tied a puffy tulle bow to the top to coordinate with this cupcake wrapper from the Birthday Wishes collection.

Cake Pops on Wooden Lollipop Sticks

This adorable cake pop was made on a 4 ¼ inch wooden lollipop stick. Before pushing the stick into the cake ball, we slid silk flower petals to the top of the lollipop stick. This fun idea for entertaining is perfect for a wedding or wedding shower, baby shower, or a sweet, girly garden party.

Party Table Tags on Wooden Lollipop Sticks

These wooden lollipop sticks work beautifully to display tags for your party table as well. Make them just as you would a cupcake topper to label your buffet. The muffin is skirted in a cupcake wrapper from the Little Black Dress collection.

We believe in classy, no stress entertaining, and these sticks make classy look easy. We love that.

Mini desserts are fantastic because, you get to indulge in several sweet treats without overdoing it. That’s partly why dessert tables are all the rage right now. Dessert tables are perfect for weddings, anniversary parties, reunions, birthday parties, or showers, adding elegance to any occasion.

Mini desserts look so sweet in mini cupcake wrappers, highlighted on trays and platters. Tiered cake stands add height to the dessert display. Here are a few ideas for filling those Mini Skirtz mini cupcake wrappers on your next dessert table.

Great ways to use those mini cupcake wrappers

* Oreos tied in pretty bundles with a little ribbon.

We bundled three Oreo cookies together with some ribbon tied in a simple knot. To make these humble chocolate cookies presentable for our posh dessert table, we dropped the bundles into Little Black Dress Mini Skirtz, mini cupcake wrappers by Confetti Couture.

* Tea light candles

We placed the tea lights that come in a tiny glass holder (from the dollar store!) inside these mini cupcake wrappers. We love that the candles can so easily coordinate with our event, and the reversible Mini Skirtz cupcake wrappers bring the style up a notch.

* Names on soda bottles

Nothing worse than taking a sip of your drink at a party… and realizing it belongs to Uncle Ralph. Name labels for drink bottles are so popular, maybe solely for this reason, but we think not. They are a lovely addition to otherwise ordinary party fare. Confetti Couture’s mini cupcake wrappers have an aqueous coating, so they are perfect for writing a name, and sliding them around the neck of soda bottles. Simply tie a coordinating ribbon above the cupcake wrapper on each bottle, to keep them in place.

* Two-bite brownies

The simple two-bite brownie makes a statement at the party with some easy accessories. Just slip them into mini cupcake wrappers, and top each brownie with a small chunk of a chocolate bar paired with a fresh cherry. Caramel sauce and a gooey, caramel filled chocolate candy on top makes another sinfully delicious treat in seconds.

* Cake pops

Cake pops are so much fun, and can be extravagantly decorated. We are not pastry chefs of any sort... but we do know yumminess. So, make some delectable cake pops and serve them using these darling cake pop kits. Don’t worry if you aren’t the type that can craft a perfect storybook character out of sugar. These reversible mini cupcake wrappers hold your confection of perfection ever so stylishly. And even if it’s less than perfect, it will look drop-dead-gorgeous!

The precious mini cake plate in the photo? It’s simply a full size, Dessert Skirtz cupcake wrapper, assembled and placed upside-down. To the cupcake wrapper, we glued a coaster. These adorable tiny cake stands work beautifully for dessert tables, party tables, place cards and so much more.

We say go mini, or go home. Or go mini at home. Well, you get the picture. Mini treats are the way to satisfy everyone’s sweet tooth at your next party.

We certainly can’t explain the intricacies of why everyone loves to eat food on a stick. Maybe it is the novelty of eating with your fingers without getting them messy. It could be the nostalgic feeling one gets from eating food reminiscent of our childhood favorites… corndogs, lollipops, popsicles. Whatever the reason, it cannot be denied that if you bring food on a stick, people will eat it…and love it. Don’t question perfection. Here is a list of foods that were made for eating from a stick, as well as some that maybe hadn’t crossed your mind as being stick-worthy.

Appetizers on a stick

Teriyaki steak
Melon and prosciutto, drizzled with basil pesto
Buffalo chicken tenders- serve with bleu cheese dressing
Scallops and bacon
Shrimp and mango
Homemade corndogs
Meatballs
Sausage and bell peppers
Steak and mushrooms
Fondue buffet

Salad on a stick

Fruit
Caprese salad, great idea and recipe from Terri’s Table.

Cobb salad- boiled eggs, turkey, tomatoes, bacon- serve with salad dressing

Snack on a stick

Cheese
Popcorn balls

Soft pretzels- serve with cream cheese dip
Rice Krispie treats- add to the fun with some sprinkles

Dessert on a Stick

Popsicles
Bananas dipped in chocolate and sprinkles
Chocolate dipped marshmallows
S’mores pops

Truffles

Cake pops

Cookies
Cotton candy

Chocolate dipped strawberries
Homemade lollipops
Oreo pops
Caramel dipped apples or pears

Not just any stick will do. Confetti Couture’s wooden lollipop sticks with the traditional wooden bead are classy and don’t become soggy like paper sticks can. Available in two sizes, these wooden lollipop sticks are perfect to use as skewers, picks, drink stirrers, and so much more. Stock up. Food on a stick is, and always will be, the favorite on the party buffet.

Having a wedding dessert buffet at the reception is the hottest trend right now. A variety of tiny, tidbit sized treats for the guests means that everyone will be pleased with your choices.

Guests get to try their favorite and don’t have to stop there. These elegant dessert displays become the centerpiece of the wedding reception. Customize your dessert buffet with fancy treats that coordinate with your wedding colors. Cupcake wrappers are a great way to bring the look together and keep to the wedding colors you have chosen. Confetti Couture offers 17 different coordinated cupcake wrapper collections so you can create the perfect look.

Here in The Dressing Room, you can find loads of tips, tricks, and creative ideas for pulling together an amazing display of gorgeous desserts on your wedding dessert buffet. Our four part tutorial on creating a stunning dessert buffet is easy to follow and has loads of great ideas and tips to get you going. If you are using a wedding planner, our photos are a great starting point for sharing your ideas.

Creating your own wedding dessert buffet tutorial:

Dessert Buftet: Colors and Levels

Dessert Buffet: Creating the Style

Dessert Buffet: Mini Desserts for Individual Portions

Dessert Buffet: Backdrop and Surroundings

Look at what a difference the cupcake wrappers make! They bring a lovely cohesive look to the cupcake tower, allowing you to choose several flavors and still keep the colors consistent.

Browse through The Dressing Room for color inspiration and wedding dessert buffet ideas.

Presentation is everything when it comes to desserts.

Even the simplest of desserts can become posh with a few tips and tricks for the display. You can transform a simple handful of candy into a fashion inspired dessert presentation in seconds.

Dessert Presentation Tips and Tricks…

* Carefully plan a color scheme. Keep your colors simple and consistent.

* Cupcake wrappers make easy work of decorating a dessert buffet. They are fantastic for candies, cupcakes, and mini desserts of all sorts.

* Use your household items in new and creative ways. Picture frames can become platters, and candle sticks are a gorgeous way to elevate your desserts.

* Consistency of shapes matters. Square platters grouped together look modern and clean. Rounds make a whimsical or traditional dessert presentation.

Here are some exciting and creative color ideas to try for your next dessert presentation…

Silver, plum and white make a sophisticated statement at your party that isn’t stuffy and stiff. This look is equally as beautiful at a wedding as it is at your best friend’s 40th birthday party.

Tiffany blue and white is classic wedding blue, or clean and crisp for a baby shower. Just as darling at a girly birthday party. Makes a lovely little or big girl party!

Tangerine, royal blue and lime make a playful combination for a boy birthday party. Think whimsical garden party or buggy birthday desserts.

Yellow, black and white create a bold dessert presentation of happiness.

Subtle cream and white screams elegance and tradition. Perfect for a wedding or bridal shower dessert buffet.

Go modern and classy with perfectly contrasting black and white. This duo is the queen of versatility. From a birthday to holiday celebration, weddings to anniversary, you can’t go wrong with classic black and white. Any color you add will make a stunning statement.

Use your imagination and personal style to perfect your own dessert presentation.

The colors you choose for your dessert buffet can set the mood and tone for your entire party or event. Choose wisely, and go for a big wow!

This pomegranate gumdrop recipe is easy, but do follow the directions precisely. These chewy morsels are a favorite of kids, and with the elegant flavor of pomegranate, these gumdrops are a favorite of adults as well. They make a statement on this gorgeous dessert table.

Pomegranate Gumdrop Recipe:

2 cups sugar
2 cups light corn syrup
12 tablespoons pectin
1 ½ cups pomegranate juice (You can use any flavor of juice you like!)
1 teaspoon baking soda

Line a 9 x 11 inch baking pan, (or an adult size shoe box lid- works perfectly!) with foil, then spray generously with cooking spray.

In a heavy sauce pan, melt the sugar and corn syrup together, stirring constantly. Make an effort not to splash the sugar onto the sides of the pan to avoid crystals of sugar in your candy. If you do get it on the sides, carefully wash them down with a bit of water on a pastry brush.

Once the sugar is dissolved, attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan, and cook over medium heat at a steady boil until it reaches “soft crack” stage without stirring. (280 degrees) Be careful… this is dangerously hot sugar!

While the sugar is boiling, in a separate pan, mix the pectin with the juice. Then, add the baking soda and cook over medium heat for 3 minutes.

When the sugar mixture has reached the soft crack stage, remove it from the heat and slowly pour the sugar mixture in a thin stream into the pectin mixture, stirring constantly. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes more.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Let it set for about 2 hours or until the gumdrop mixture is firm and cool.

Cut the gumdrops into ½ inch squares with a knife coated in cooking spray, and roll each piece in sugar.

To create our white and silver New Year’s table we started with a white table cover and created white paper cone trees. The texture adds interest against a sheer white drape behind the dessert table.

We created layers of white with interesting textures. For the trees, we used white glitter on the larger ones, and feathers on the smaller ones. The smaller trees are perched upon white candle sticks in varying heights.

Keeping the colors consistent is the key. We used white platters and plates, and created a white and silver cupcake tower. For even more textural interest, we added white marabou to the edges of each tier on the cupcake tower.

To keep the look slightly formal, we kept the table somewhat symmetrical. To prevent a stuffy look, we didn’t go for complete symmetry, but did pay close attention to keep the look balanced on both sides. Now that our blank white canvas was complete, we added pops of color with the Jeweled Amethyst Dessert Skirtz cupcake wrappers and some plum colored desserts for our snowy, white and silver New Year’s table.

Subtle hints of shimmering silver come from the cupcake wrappers, cupcake tower, and ornaments placed on the white table.

Add the desserts, and you have a gorgeous, snowy white and silver New Year’s table with trendy bursts of plum. Love it.

We love to keep the celebrations at home with those most important to us. Everyone has their own ideas of the perfect New Years Party. Some whoop it up at a New Year party in the city, others keep it quiet. Some are making resolutions and goals for the New Year, while others are reflecting on the year gone by. In our opinion, family and neighbors make the perfect crowd for celebrations at home, and it keeps our loved ones off the streets and out of their cars after the bubbly.

We have created these elegant New Year’s party ideas for 2011

We invite you to try our tradition of creating a special party and New Year’s table for celebrating at home this year. As usual, we’ll give you the entire party plan, so you don’t have to do the planning. We have gathered easy party ideas, food ideas, and decoration ideas for you.

The entire party can be prepared well in advance (like now). On the eve of the New Year, simply set the dessert table according to our guide and place your prepared desserts on it. Open some cheeses and crackers and pop open a bottle of champagne. We’ll have the complete New Year’s table tutorial and lots of ideas coming, so stay tuned.

Celebrations at home are comfortable and fun! Don’t stress, just use our New Year’s party ideas and complete plan. Invite your family and neighbors today.

A Christmas cake pops display is a must this year! Oreo pops, Christmas cake pops, brownie pops… really, anything sweet and served on pops sticks is hot right now.

The Elf Laundry dessert table incorporates cake pops and Oreo pops.

Sweet Petites Kits, new from Confetti Couture, are perfect for cake pops display. These cake pop kits contain 12 wooden pop sticks, ribbons, and mini cupcake wrappers to rest your pops for a fast and easy display that will look simply stunning on your dessert table. Guests will appreciate having their own personal resting spot for their cake pop. The wrappers are reversible, and we chose the Midnight Elegance collection, using the black side to complement the Elf Laundry cupcake wrappers on this Christmas dessert table.

Our pops are made by simply rolling prepared brownies into walnut sized balls, and dipping them into white candy melts. The elf hats in our Christmas pops display are made from rolled fondant. You can use premade fondant, or make your own. The details and trim are piped on with royal frosting.

Finally, we served darling bottles of milk in individually portioned milk bottles. These milk bottles are surprisingly easy to come by. Ours are repurposed coffee bottles. Salad dressings often come in bottles that are shaped like a miniature carafes, and work well too. If all else fails, mini milk bottles can be found at the craft store at a reasonable price. A tag with each guests’ name finishes the look (the funky font is "Penguin Attack").

You now have the complete how- to for this Elf Laundry inspired Christmas dessert table. Check in with us next to find inspiration for a holiday spa party with the girls!

The Elf Laundry Dessert menu is fun-filled and easy! Use these adorable Christmas candy and cupcake ideas for your dessert buffet.

The Cute Cupcakes:

These are some seriously CUTE cupcakes, and so easy to make. Start with a chocolate cupcake and make frost with peppermint frosting. You can make this by adding a touch of peppermint extract to white frosting. For the easiest ever cupcake decorating ideas…top your frosted Christmas cupcakes with a peppermint candy ball for extra cuteness… and to cover any not so cute frosting mishaps. The finishing touch is the ADORABLE Elf Laundry cupcake wrappers. These Christmas cupcake wrappers come in collections of three perfectly coordinated designs. Hand painted cuteness adorning peppermint cupcakes… what could be better? Use them for all of your cupcake decorating ideas to create polished couture cupcakes every time.

We used the cupcake wrappers to line our cake tier as well. We gave instructions on how to recreate this cupcake display in the last post, so check it out if you missed that. For the sweet plaid border, simply join the plaid cupcake wrappers from your Elf Laundry collection together by inserting the tab of one cupcake wrapper into the slot of the next cupcake wrapper and continue in this pattern until you’ve created a circle. We used 5 wrappers for this. Finally, we created a miniature cake tier with small cake circle placed on top of an empty cupcake wrapper, turned upside down. We placed sweet Oreo bundles tied with a festive ribbon on this tiny cake tier.

The Cotton Candy Display:

Cotton candy is all the rage right now, and it looks like snow if you use white cotton candy! Cute. We created these precious elf hat cones to serve our puffs of white cotton candy. They are made by rolling a piece of citrus green scrapbooking paper into a cone shape. Use your Elf Laundry Christmas cupcake wrappers to form the brim of the elf hat, and staple or glue-dot them into place. Finish the hats off with a handmade pom-pom attached with some hot glue. Fill them up with cotton candy just before your party. We used clothes pins to hang the hats! Really cute.

Visit The Dressing Room for more Christmas cupcake decorating ideas to come!

This dessert table is part of the Elf Laundry party plan that we have… free for you! We created this Elf Laundry themed party and have the complete how-to for you! Now you have no excuse, you just have to do it. We’ve done the planning for you! Today, we’ll show you how to set up this amazing Christmas dessert table in shades of red and green. Not to worry if you don’t own the exact items you see on this dessert table, we’ll give you the menu and a road map for setting up a table of your own… with items you have in your own house.

Dessert Table Set Up

Setting up a table just for desserts has become a popular trend and a great way to entertain. The food becomes a part of the party décor and makes the event feel so special. Tiny tidbits of a variety of desserts allow the guests to nibble and sample. Here is a complete plan for setting up a table for your own party. This dessert table feature is great for the holidays, because you can just set it up and fill it with new desserts whenever the fancy strikes. Whether you are planning a party or it’s just the family, this will be a precious addition to your Christmas décor. Get your Elf Laundry cupcake wrappers while they are still in stock for the season to complete this look!

Start with the table. A simple folding table pushed against a wall works beautifully. Before setting the table in place, we hung a red velvet fabric on the wall as a backdrop for our dessert table. Then, we put the table in place and draped it all the way to the floor with a solid green fabric. Don’t worry that the fabric doesn’t cover the entire table, just use masking tape to secure the fabric to the top of the table so that the bottom edge just skims the floor. Next use a festive wrapping paper and unroll it across the top of the table. We used a fun red and white wrapping paper.

Now, look around your house for items of varying heights, or items that can be stacked to create the height. These items you collect don’t necessarily need to be cake tiers and the such. Maybe you have beautiful candle sticks or hurricanes. Lamps, vases, planters, and other home décor items are also great choices. For our table, we used jumbo gumball machines for height on either side of a retro metal cart. The idea is to put the items with height in the back and arrange them across the table. It doesn’t have to be perfectly symmetrical, just balanced.

For the next level, look for items that are shorter that the first set. For our table, we used empty metal cans and hot glued two cardboard cake circles together. Then glue the cake circles to the tops of the cans. Finally, we attached the pom-pom garland around the edges.

Front and center, we placed a low tray filled with decorated sugar cookies. This could be anything from a platter to a low profile bowl or a similar tray.

The desserts themselves are really very simple, and can be swapped for your favorites if you like.

Our Christmas Dessert Menu:

* Sugar cookie cutouts- elf hats and socks
* Chocolate cupcakes with peppermint frosting
* Oreo cookie bundles
* Cotton candy
* Brownie pops
* Oreo pops
* Gumballs
* Milk

Visit us again for tutorials and more ideas to bring together your own Elf Laundry Christmas!