FREE Printable: Easter Tags

Squeal! We are so very excited to share our first printable project with you just in time for Easter celebrations this weekend.

We have collaborated with the uber-talented Sarah from Style Me Gorgeous to bring you the sweetest little set of tags to style up your Easter goodies. In a gorgeous colour palette of lemon, mint and lavender, there are eight different designs - 4 Happy Easter tags and 4 Easter Goodies tags.

Here's 10 ways with your free tags:

• Create take-home paper treat bags - punch and loop with ribbon or simply staple neatly to a folded edge. We added a length of pretty ribbon over the top fold and attached the tag to the ribbon at the front using double sided tape. Wooden pegs would look super cute, too.


• Make sure the Easter Bunny knows who's who by tying a little personalised tag to the kids' baskets.


• Gifts to give? Take a strip of wrapping paper and make a belt around a plain gift box before finishing with ribbon and a tag.


• Don't let anyone mistake who collected the most eggs in the hunt - use the tags to name the buckets, bags, or baskets.


• Decorate the edge of a cake stand with pretty ribbon and attach a tag at the front for a perfectly pretty display.


• Fill a clear pillow-box with these little speckled eggs, tie on a personalised tag with ribbon and use as a placecard for guests at your Easter feast.


• Cut a small vertical slit on the top edges of the Happy Easter tags and thread with ribbon to create a pretty garland.


• Add some height to a centrepiece by slotting cards onto a loop of wire and standing in a container of wheatgrass or real turf for a little bit of fun - add fresh flowers and painted eggs for bonus sweet factor.


• Use as labels on a collection of glass jars filled with Easter yummies - try marshmallows, chocolate eggs of all varieties and jelly beans - and let those who drop by fill a bag to take home.


• Bake a batch of Hot Cross Buns, wrap in baking paper, tie with kitchen string and a tag and deliver to your neighbours.

We are so in love with those little speckled eggs right now - let's just say there were quite a few less of these by the end of this little photo shoot. They just seem to be the perfect colourful little treat to package up and give to friends, don't they?

So how will you use your tags? We can't wait to see! Let us know your ideas and please send us some piccies. Hop on over here to download.

Happy Easter from Hip Hooray and Style Me Gorgeous. xo

Celebrating Easter

This is such a fun (read: busy!) time of the year in our house. We are headed off on Friday for our annual Easter camping trip - our seventh year in the most perfect little spot on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. The kids are beside themselves with anticipation - Mia says she wishes it could be Easter camping every day of the year - maybe she just knows her birthday is also around the corner and when it comes down to it these next two weeks are pretty darn good for a six-year-old - school's out and the beach is beckoning. There will be friends they haven't seem in a little while, chocolate, building sandcastles, chocolate, exploring the rock pools, chocolate, crab hunting by torchlight - oh, and chocolate!

In 2008, when I was heavily pregnant with Zoe, we took a little break from our tradition and celebrated Easter with the extended family instead - Mum created a delicious Easter brunch and the kids hunted for eggs around the beautiful gardens my parents have created at their home. And there were these cupcakes . . . .

Perfect inspiration for all the `bring-a-plate' invitations this week. I whipped these up for Ava's Kindy Easter Hat Parade. . . .

These cupcakes are probably even cuter with chocolate icing and pieces of Flake on the outer edge to resemble a little nest, but time was not on my side last night. Do you like the sweet tag? Why don't you check in later today - we have the cutest little pressie for you.

A reason

I have been married for (nearly) 8 years. Bridal Shower not an option. I have had three beautiful daughters and am not pregnant, nor planning on being pregnant. Baby Shower not an option. My birthday is not until September. Too long to wait. I want to have this party NOW - please help me find a reason.

(images from Nonpareil Magazine)

The team at Nonpareil have created this heavenly dessert buffet for body and bath . . . . Cupcake bath bombs, Pink Lemonade and Cherry Pop handmade soaps, sweet little tins of coconut lip balm. Oh and that colour palette of watermelon and teal. The best bit - it's all downloadable and comes with recipes for creating all the lotions and potions! Be still my beating heart.

This is just one of the gorgeous features in this inspiring online mag sprinkled with DIY delights and serious style for celebrating - our definite new favourite and one you won't want to miss.

Love letters

Oh my, how I would adore opening my letterbox to find one of these!

Un-Party Invitations

Six little envelopes are off to school today. Mia wrote and decorated each of the labels herself. Inside are our favourite invitations from KatyJane Designs. They are for the party-she's-having-when-she's-not-supposed-to-be-having-a-party. Shhh! Don't tell her Daddy.

Six little people is such a nice number - last year it was four times that plus their parents. Which is precisely the reason we are not supposed to be having a party! So, finally, we are doing the one-friend-for-each year-rule. We are keeping it sweet and simple. And if we wipe the frosting from our noses quick enough, we may just sneak this little un-party by Daddy.

But probably her happiness will give it away.

Grown-up Goodie Bags

Why should little ones have all the fun? Stylish bride turned bridesmaid, Sonja created these beautiful favours using pretty paper bags brimming with fresh blooms for her best friend's hens lunch. Love them! No doubt the gorgeous girls from Paper Eskimo would be proud as punch to see their `baby' bags looking all grown up.

But the gorgeousness (new word?) did not end there . . . . Sonja and a clever friend designed and crafted unique and thoughtful brooches for each of the girls to wear on the day.

(images via Tied with a Bouw)

Sweet bridesmaids. Lucky bride. More here.

Too kind

We were overwhelmed with blog love last week after posting details of Zoe's 1st Bird-day. Thanks so much to readers and friends, old and new, who made us smile with your comments or shared our celebration with your own community. We were thrilled and honoured to feature on some of our favourite blogs and also to discover some great new reads - thanks for the shout out guys. Many of these have lovely ideas for celebrating or for the little people in your life - check them out!

Drooling . . .

. . . . over everything to do with this photo shoot on Style Me Pretty. Not even quite sure where to start there are just so many details that are well . . . . drool -worthy! Oh, the colour palette. Oh, the candy store backdrop. Oh, the fabric bunting and sign. Oh, that ribbon candy ring.

(images via Style Me Pretty)

Off to clean myself up while you pop over here and agree with me. Be warned, it could get messy.

Hello Cupcake

When it comes to decorating cupcakes we are buttercream swirl kind of girls - not because we have a preference, more because that is about as far as we've gotten with our mastery of cake decorating skills - and even then it's possibly a stretch to say we've mastered it! The gorgeous creations of cupcake couturier and caterer, Hello Naomi, have long held our admiration, fascination and intention to one day try our own hand at a little fondant colouring, rolling, cutting and sticking. So we were most excited to see Naomi will be running a series of tutorials over at the prettiest little online baking store Little Betsy Baker, and have vowed to tune in regularly. Check out the first one now for tips on making these little sweethearts.

(image from Hello Naomi via Little Betsy Baker)

Hip Winner!

Thanks so much to those who entered our very first blog giveaway for a pack of delightful invitations by KatyJane Designs. My girls had so much fun crinkling the names, making drum roll noises and digging in to draw out a winner. Congratulations goes to . . .

Amanda was our first entry and said `I'd love to win some of the Umbrella invites. Would be so lovely for a little girl's birthday - as for a prop, I think cute gumboots (preferably spotted) would be perfect :)'

We think so too, Amanda, and would love to see the party you might create one day - spotted gumboots and all! We are also going to throw in a little umbrella cookie cutter, because frankly we just can't bear the thought of it not being part of such a cute theme.

Real Hip Hooray: Tied with a Bouw

The most heart-warming thing in our business is to get to see where our little parcels, carefully wrapped with love and affection, end up, and the celebrations that are styled using them. We all lead such incredibly busy lives, and it is a rare customer who finds time to share their pics with us.

So how delighted were we to see this most beautiful wedding created and styled by Sonja Bouw, clearly with love and affection in abundance. Sonja's attention to `the details', most of them she created herself, is perfect. We love the unique poster-inspired theme, the sunny but sophisticated colour palette of yellow and black and that fun cake of Krispy Creme donuts! Sonja shares more of their gorgeous celebration - and lots of other lovely things - over at her blog.

(images via Tied with a Bouw)

And the Oscar goes to . . .

Kathleen of Twig and Thistle for her sublime art direction of a great night in with friends next Monday.

Such fun, stylish details including popcorn bags, candy bag toppers and a ballot form to keep track of all the action on the telly - who will get your votes? Easy printable files mean there is still enough time to pull off a fab red carpet affair so head on over to this beautiful blog for all the downloads and a few entertaining tips you need to create the night of nights for your friends.

The Oscars will be telecast in Australia live at 11.30am AEST Monday 8th March on Nine Network, and again at 9.30pm.

In the Window: KatyJane Designs

Press your nose against the glass today and meet the adorable fill-in invitation range from KatyJane Designs.

Aren’t they just so reminiscent of a perfectly simple, carefree childhood?

Imagine if you might that the window today is strung with paper chains made from vintage children’s books. There is an old-fashioned trike, probably a red wagon, definitely a spinning top and a jack-in-the-box. There is a party table laid with Nanna’s finest embroidered linens mixed up with some fun contemporary tableware. There is a row of paper party hats. There are paper bags filled with 5c sweets from the corner store – milk bottles, teeth, spearmint leaves, cobbers, conversation hearts – and tied with these tags. There is homemade lemonade in glass bottles with stripey paper straws. And a beautiful, simple birthday cake – homebaked, of course - perhaps vanilla sponge with strawberry jam and fresh whipped cream.

And if this window were wired for sound there would be giggles for sure – happy kids without the need for a jumping castle or magician to direct their party play.

We remember birthday parties like these – and we want that for our own children. Thanks KatyJane Designs for making old so very new again.

To herald their arrival in our store, we are giving away a delightful KatyJane Designs pack of 12 fill-in invitations + party bag tags of the winner's choice. Just leave a comment here and let us know which design you love the most and a prop you might use to theme the party.

The winner will be randomly chosen next Monday 8th March, 12.00pm AEST.

International entries are welcome, however please note prize will be shipped using Australia Post Standard International Mail service.