HWTM Guest Contributor, Maureen Anders of Anders Ruff, here to share a rustic meets crafty backyard camping party!  If you love burlap, twine, sparklers and camping themed treats, it shouldn’t be hard to “lure” you in to this adorable backyard camping party by Stephanie Monge of MonMell Designs.

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Burlap wreaths embellished with lures, bobbers and toasted marshmallows
• Fishing Tackle Box dessert table display
• Handmade tents and movie screening setup
• Custom embellished burlap pillows that coordinate with the printable elements

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Stephanie…

What a treat and honor to be able to share all the memories created during a backyard camping party held in Chandler, Arizona!

I’m Stephanie {Mon}ge, half of the duo who is MonMell Designs, a pillow and home décor company approaching our 1st Birthday! Being that most of our designs revolve around burlap and our obsession with it, it was only fitting that my 7 year old son’s birthday have a few  LOT of burlap touches! I fell in love the Anders Ruff camping printable collection and once I saw it, I knew the happy campers were going to need tents! But, we’ll get to those in just a little bit!

I also knew I wanted to incorporate a few of the birthday boy’s favorite things: sparklers, movies, worms and ‘old school’ carnival Go Fish! (You know the one where you throw the fishing pole string over a little wall?) So, getting those elements to work together wasn’t entirely easy. But, ultimately it all came together with the invaluable help of my sweet mom, Sandra who flew from Houston just to help me make this perfect! {What a mama wouldn’t do, right?}

I should tell you, MonMell Designs first collaborated with the lovely ladies of Anders Ruff in November of 2011, on the coordinating home décor line of their Happy Gobble Gobble Collection. And then with our work together on the North Pole Collection.

In designing the details in this event, I created the MonMell Designs Camping collection using the AndersRuff images and guests saw the first glimpse of the Camping Collection when they arrived at the front door!

They were also greeted by a “Welcome Happy Campers” burlap banner, a tent, fishing poles, sleeping bag, and a wreath.  It even had real fishing lures, bobbers and fire-roasted marshmallows on sticks in the wreath!  To the backyard, which was set up with rows of tents, homemade kids size picnic tables I built from a pile of lumber, and a smore’s station! And of course a variety of Anders Ruff graphics printed on burlap and canvas. They incorporate designs which could be used for any camping trip and of course the coordinating Camping Themed Party.  Details include jute twine, Swarovski crystals and bronze brads, to name a few.

While the children were waiting for everyone to arrive they were able to decorate their tents wrapping pinecones around twine and hang them on their tents and get grubby with worms…live fishing bait!

At one point there were a group of kids in a circle, chanting ‘fight, fight, fight’ at the worms squirming around each other! Ha! Once hands were cleaned and the kids could wait no longer they were ‘lured’ to the dessert table. Oddly, enough the kids were torn between the real and the gummy worms…which were on the dessert table.

The backdrop was one of my FAVORITE things! I had my beloved on hubby clean up the backyard patrol, when I realized he was going to throw away two weathered and faded pallets! Gasp!! After I wrestled them away from him, I decided to use them as a backdrop and loved the way it turned out!

I love how they look like old weathered wood on a fishing dock.  Another wreath was hung from the pallets a with moss covered 7 and frame with an AndersRuff printable.  I bookended the table with oversized balloons from Petite Party Studio.

On the table were lots of little surprises, including a tackle box with vending capsules!  Kids were able to pack their own ‘bait’ and had a ball doing it!  The cake was beautifully created by Cakes by Cassie and complimented with cupcakes and the Anders Ruff printables. {TIP} Don’t put out all the cupcakes or sweets to avoid overcrowding the table.

The happy campers also really enjoyed all the woodsy essentials; Twigs/Twix, Snakes/Red Vines, Grizzly Bears/Gummy Bears and even Bug Juice/Orange Soda! Once the kids were fully loaded with sugar and the sun was beginning to set, we played a good ol’ fashioned came of Go-Fish over the fence.  I was shocked how much they LOVED this, even at 7 years old!

Just as the sunset we lit the candles and the special surprise sparkler in the cake!  After the singing and sweets the happy campers, with parent supervision were given sparklers to wave and enjoy!

Finally, when all the kids were ready to “relax” and the smell of fresh popped popcorn lofting in the air, the kids sat down to watch a movie on a backyard Big Screen from Fun Flicks of Arizona.

Kids say on sleeping bags and in their tents, some playing with the worms…still!  It was an absolute hit with the parents and children and a wonderful way to enjoy good old-fashioned backyard birthday fun!