Have a Brave Birthday Party

While browsing the internet for castles made of cardboard, I stumbled across this fantastic "Brave" birthday party over at Sweeten Your Day Events. A birthday party theme that any boy or girl would absolutely love.

Upon arrival, children were led by wisps across the lawn into the castle entrance. Each kid received Tartans, those plaid sashes, of different patterns for representing their chosen family clan. They played Scottish themed games such as Caber Toss, archery, and even a bean bag toss made of nylon and rocks. Their craft was to make a bear claw necklace which doubles as an awesome party favor.

I love the arrow tails in the cupcakes. You could take this a step further by adding some red gel or sprinkles in the center of each cupcake to make it look like a target. The food display table looked amazing with the wood stumps and movie prop background. The bear claw cookies look so yummy and I love the bubbling cauldron idea to serve drinks from. She includes a full list and recipes at the bottom of the post with all the delicious food they made.

Thank you Sweeten your Day Events for all the great ideas and sharing them with us. Make sure and visit their website for more pictures to all the games, themes and food they prepared.

Coraline Birthday gift Box

For my brother's birthday he had on his wish list that he wanted a Coraline doll, Seeing as how I had a week, I was thinking I could make him one. So I searched online and found this blog. I thought long and hard about getting her pattern, but then reminded myself I don't like to use patterns, I decided against it.

But it did inspire me to make a "mini me" doll of him and a collection of objects similarly found in one of the 50 promo boxes mailed out to select bloggers.
So, a die hard Coraline movie theme person would have ordered a not so expensive Coraline.com key on ebay. Seeing as how I only decided what to make him a week before his birthday I didn't have time. So I went to an ACE store and asked if they had a skeleton key, They did have a box full. Note: if it isn't important to you, this works but IF you have the time and tad extra money I suggest the other.I also visited Coraline.com and downloaded some posters and images. Like his name in mice, his face in buttons, and was inspired by this image to make one he can hang on his wall. But ran out of space in my box. Maybe next time. I have some extra buttons that I thought I'd put in a box with some vintage thread and scarf from our grandmothers sewing drawer. I did not have the resources again or time. SO I painted a cereal box. Forgive me brother, please. I'll make a cooler one later. I did custom copy the Other Mother letter for him and slipped it in a paper envelope left over from our daughter's birthday.I made some yummy peanut butter button cookies. The straw part was hard. I eventually had to flip the straw to keep it cutting well. Plus I wasn't fast enough to get through the rack before they started to cool and be harder to punch. I guess fewer cookies on the sheet next time, and several straws.
This little guy is also cute, thought of adding him too, maybe for box #2 I already have brewing in my head.
This gift box was all made by hand and with items found around the house. (We have a lot of unused resources I am all too happy to make a bit more depleted.) The only purchased items was the key and postage. Have fun making your own.

Lemon Meringue Birthday!

So our daughter wanted a Lemon Meringue Birthday party! We don't like to disappoint especially when lemons are in season. So here is what we have:
I started with contacting my sister-in-law to design these lovely invitations, cupcake toppers, tags and thank yous.
I then raided my mothers fabric closet and stole all the items to make a party dress. I fabricated it out of my head from the cartoon and from other party dresses that inspire me. I also bought Yellow and white striped leggings.
Then I shopped for party favors. I picked up most of them here and supplemented else where. I also used left over fabric plus some extra I bought to make a banner.
I just had to make things for everyone so I made stiff felt lemon slice hair clips sewed onto bobby pins for the girls and 17" square handkerchiefs for the boys. With left over fabric I made 2 braid headbands and 3 bean bags. Oh, did I forget to tell you the kids are playing bean bag toss? The kids loved the bean bag toss. Yeah more scrap yellow fabric for bean bags. My husband designed and cut out two lemon tree boards to play Bean bag Toss. They were even challenging for the big kids.
I spent an entire morning creating a wall hanging for the party. I glued it to a cardboard back. I pocked wholes in it before I began and strung it with curling ribbon. I used all construction paper I had in a drawer for the kids. I glued it together with wood glue. Forgive me I don't have a hot glue gun. I stapled the outside fans that extended beyond the cardboard. Fun!


For Food I made Lemon Meringue Cupcakes for the kids, I have never made Meringue before, I even practiced the day before. The directions were not clear about where in the oven the meringue needed to be or how long or what over beating looks like. I made Lemon Meringue Pie in a jar for the adults. It was still delicious and it all was eaten. I didn't have jars for all my guests, so I put all the filling in clear 6oz plastic cups and did the meringue in paper cupcake sleves in the cupcake pan. It held its shape nicely after coming out of the oven, after it cooled I unwrapped it and set it on top of the desert. Worked great. Practice before hand. For 40 deserts I used about 12 egg whites.
I also made a Lemon Cake with a sugar frosting, it went fast. I made for the first time these gum drops for the treat bags. A must to make 3-4 days in advance. Of course Lemon Aide to drink.

For the treat bags I picked up yellow and green pencils, kazoos for the boys, crown clips for the girls, a picture of my kids, and pencil sharpeners (My kids gets given so many pencils at parties and no sharpener) and home made candy.

Space Rocket Birthday Pary!

This is a great Birthday party idea Space Rockets! The invitation created by Jospaperkitchen was a 8.4x3.5 card stock with a little green Rocket that slid on clear thread loop from the top to the bottom, dragged from a tag in the back. I saved, looking for it. Super cool. There are stars and glitter on the cupcakes.

The kids each got a soda bottle jet pack to wear for the party. Super simple to make.

And to top it all off they each took turns setting off a water bottle rocket from a custom home made water pressure launcher. The bottles are filled with water and plopped onto the launcher, the valve is opened for each kid who's turn it was (one at a time). One kid pumped air into the pipes and the other kid pulled the string which released the rocket. Now the one you see here I know was custom made, but I am sure you smart people could either figure it out by looking at it up close or look at some other sites to get some more ideas.

Princess and Knights Birthday Party

For our daughters 3rd birthday party we decided to have a Princess and Knights party for about 20 kids. We rented out the gym of our church to keep the disaster away from our house. Plus, it gave the kids plenty of room to run around.

My sister in-law made the invitations, absolutely the best.
I made crowns from stiff felt (from the craft store: only one store of three had it), elastic, glitter, sequence and rick rack. I also made felt tunics with both our family crests on them.

My husband made shields  of corrugated cardboard. He used spray adhesive with paper images on top. The kids played with all the extra cardboard. I wanted a cardboard castle but we ran out of cardboard too close to the birthday party to buy more. The little kids had just as much fun.

For the craft, the kids made paper doll puppets. I printed them onto card stock and just cut them out. We used crayons, extra lace and fabric from prom/wedding dresses I had laying around. I prepped the knights with foil a head of time. For the girls I prepped the dolls with fabric skirts and sticks. In order to cut down on drying time for everything we got a huge bag of wooden chopsticks (for $2) at our Asian food store and I have been crafting with them. They were perfect for this craft. The kids are still playing with the puppets weeks later, I thought for sure they would be destroyed. I think the sticks help to keep the kids from bending the paper too much.

For the goody bags I made sugar cookies and punched them out in the shape of crowns Also, I included glow-in-the-dark lizards or bracelets along with a bottle of bubbles.

I got a decorative punch from the craft store and used it on everything I could to justify buying it. It got used on the cupcakes, crafts, and gift bags. I cheated with the cupcakes, I chose to spend time with family who were in town instead of making them from scratch. Plus, the grocery store had cupcakes on sale that week.
All the kids and parents had fun. Sadly, my husband was completely wiped out and begged never to do this again.