I chose a very small location (max occupancy 12) and just a few projects to keep the party personal but manageable. Elmo HAD to be the theme, as TC is nuts over him, and I didn't mind the bright fun color scheme the little monster brings. One of the projects I decided to do early on was Elmo cupcakes:
They turned out great, and were so easy! Chocolate mini cupcakes were baked from a mix. Red frosting was made from 2 cans of white store brand frosting and a whole bottle of Wilton no-taste red. Yeah, that's a lot, and will probably stain clothes, but I didn't want pink Elmos so I kept adding more and more, and in the end it turned out GREAT (this would totally stain clothes I'm guessing, and will make mouths red - but it's a b-day party, and a toddler - we knew stains would happen).
Here's the process - I used a mix to make mini cupcakes in foil liners. Then I piped stars as a base (or "fur" for my little monsters), added candy eyes by Wilton that are available at a lot of grocery and Target stores now, an orange jelly bean nose, and a chocolate piped smile. I didn't try to hard to make anything perfect (monsters are messy) and I cranked them out really quickly.