Lalaloopsy Birthday Party Theme

Lalaloopsy Birthday Party Theme. Our little Luci turned 4 this year, so we had a LalaLoopsy themed birthday party for her. 

These invitations are available in my shop, fully personalized with a matching thank you card here.

 Albeit this party was fun, but I have to admit, it was crazy challenging....have you ever seen those dolls in the store? They cost like 20-30 dollars. They dont DO anything, their sole purpose in life is to look cute, but oh they do it sooooo well. We suckered right into the Lalaloopsy phase in this house. Anyhoo---the major cuteness of these dolls comes from their sewn outfits and button eyes, so I incorporated the sewing theme into the party decor & games. Here's how we rolled it out to create an amazing day for the little one.....

First of all, I invested some major love in my local Dollar Tree. The tissue puffs hanging above the table in the picture above are created from tissue paper (DT find) and you can get an easy tutorial here. Martha Stewart sells these pom poms in craft stores for like $15 bucks for a 5-pk and believe me, they are not any easier, all she has done is put together coordinating colors of tulle, cut the ends and 'pre' fold it half-done so you have to fold it accordian style anyway. Save $10 and do it yourself. Trust me. 

I also took some plates and put black circles on them to create faux buttons, then strung them together like garland. This was so simple and easy I made tons of plate-garland just because I could. The time-staking decor was the trees and clouds. I hand cut these shapes from cardboard I found laying in my garage. Then I painted green, brown, white, etc, and drew the sewing marks around all of the edges in permanent marker. Super cute way to turn the room into Lalaloopsy Land!

Then I put a cute little sign on the door, personalized so my guests knew where they were and where to go. Believe me, it is embarrassing walking into a party, not knowing anyone, and ten minutes later realizing you're supposed to be at a party down the street! I love me a good personalized door sign. This is available here. 

Outside I fashioned a party table consisting of bottled water with cute little personalized water bottle labels, striped straws I ordered from a fellow Etsian- they were too cute NOT to have, and some flavored water packets. This was so easy and fun for the kids to pick what flavor they wanted in their drink, and no yucky soda!  

Also on the table I put the jewelry making craft (more on that later), the kids' goody bags- again with personalized goody bag toppers cuz it has to be personalized for that really cute touch....and last but not least some striped candy canes that I stumbled upon from Cracker Barrel. YUM!

For games and activities, I had so much fun getting creative! We played a 'button hunt' game, where I had hidden TONS of buttons (printed from my computer and cut out while watching tv) all over my yard for the kids to find. 

Then they played a thread toss game and just tossed old-fashioned thread spools into some cute Lalaloopsy buckets I created from dollar tree bins. I also created personalized game cards for each game so the kids knew where to go when each activity started. 

The kids had a blast playing the games, and most took several turns, so this was definitely not a short party. :)Then lastly, we did a craft, which we took inside just to avoid a breeze we had going on. The craft was super simple and so fun! We made the bottle cap necklaces (and keychains for the boys) that kids love. I ordered the bottle caps and clear top stickers from here, and then ordered the ribbon necklaces from here but the necklaces came from China and took several weeks, so plan ahead if you're doing those. I chose her anyway because she 1) had a low price and 2) let you choose your own colors- which nobody does!! I mean, who wants brown ribbon necklaces for a lalaloopsy party?? Then I printed 1" circle designs- these can be anything you want- so I made mine lalaloopsy, superheroes (for the boys), phineas and ferb, and monster high. Covered all my bases. ;)

Whew, so crafts and games were done, and we made it to cake time!! The hubby decided- after a mild cake disaster with our usual cake lady, and replacement cakes costing $85-130 (this is edible birthday cake, not wedding cake...I mean, 80+ bucks for something I'm eating?!?)- that he was going to go all Cake Boss on this party and he actually did an awesome job. Above is his first cake- yes, first ever cake....with homemade marshmallow fondant. I contributed a little and made some button-topped cupcakes. And yes, his cake was WAY yummier. By way of other party food- which was eaten pretty much throughout the whole party- I kept it pretty simple because I was tuckered out by this point. We had a veggie tray, chips & dip, chips & salsa, fruit, a meat-cheese-cracker tray, and drinks. 

 I also added some little lalaloopsy doll cutouts (available with a big poster pack here) and stuck them in some thread spools around the table for super cute decor!

Finally, we opened presents, and Luci- although she is only four- got super excited about everything she opened but super shy when it came to doling out thank yous.....something to work on for next year! And of course, her party dress was a custom design sewn by our favorite embroidery shop Sawyer's Closet! Below you can see a closer shot of Luci's dress- and the cute bottle cap necklaces we made during the party!

 Of course, we left clean up for Monday (because who wants to clean on a Sunday?!?) and patted ourselves on the back for a party well served. <3 

Dont forget to check out the links above to get your own personalized printables to create a super cute Lalaloopsy party at an affordable Lalaloopsy price! ;)

Spa Themed Birthday Party - Its Spatacular!

Once a year, my oldest child has a birthday. 

(This invitation is available here if you are having a spa or beauty birthday.)

Her birthdays are the roughest birthdays for several reasons. First of all, she was born on Christmas. Yes, she was seriously born on 12/25. So she shares a birthday with Jesus Christ, there is not really much she can do to compete with that, and its always fun to have some jerkwad relative hand my child a gift and say, "Here this is for Christmas AND your birthday put together." I've decided that next time (even if their birthday is in July) I will be handing them a present in said birthday month and using the same phrase. LOL...priceless picture moment.

Anyway, getting off topic, the second reason its rough is because she never knows what she wants, especially when it comes to a party. So this year we settled on a Spa slash Beauty Sleepover. And it was stupendously amazing.

First, when guests arrived, they saw the sign on the door and knew right away what to expect. This was a drop your coat, get your mani-pedi relax-on, kinda fling. Oh yeah.

 Got our dining room table set up with some party favors and a quick photo booth prop- had to take before pics of the guests coming in, wearing an ugly shower cap and holding a massively big loofah. (I mean, really- If Im gonna be teaching a bunch of 11 year old girls how to do makeup, I at least gotta give their parents blackmail photos for future boyfriends, right??)

Here are a couple closer shots of the table:

Then we had a few stations set up around the house to make sure we had a surreal beauty experience going on. We had a manicure station, a popcorn station, a sundae bar, and of course the usually party snack food table spread.

For the food labels, I used 2" circle cutouts on skewer sticks, and taped them to nail polish bottles to keep with our spa theme. 

 And of course girly colors all the way. :)

 As you can see, our decorations mainly consisted of pink and turquoise tulle, and multi colored paper which I designed into signs and such. Kept it pretty simple since tulle can be pretty overwhelming all on its own. For the games, we played stack the cucumbers, in which the girls paired up and tried to stack cucumbers on one eye of a partner (who laid on the floor of course) and the pair with the tallest stack won. 

 Our next activity was genius. I had no idea it was going to be such a hit. Seriously I think it will become a staple at all my parties just for sheer convenience  I got about 5 rolls of tin foil from the dollar tree, and had the kids do a "fashion show" based on fashions they designed from the foil. This kept them busy well over an hour.

Finally, our wind down activities were manicures (we painted nails to a musical chairs style of game) and makeovers. This was fun for the girls, and since the party favors I was giving out consisted of makeup bags that included eye shadow, lipstick, facial wipes, hair bands, and blush, this was a perfect way to use their new makeup. They also got to take home their nail polish kits (smaller makeup bags with nail polish, remover, nail glitter, and a manicure set).

 A dance party or two, and the kids were worn out enough to lay down and watch a movie, and us grown ups could get some rest!

Party well served! (Clean up crew on Monday!)

Welcome Home Daddy! Deployment's Over!

Yep, its that time we thought would never come, the kids counted down and recounted down (and got very impatient towards the end when the date changed five times) and the day finally came when we got to have our super awesome Daddy (well Hubby for me) come home from his nearly 7 month deployment. 

This isn't about a party, so normally I wouldnt post about military ho-rah....but hey, I went cra-zeee come homecoming time and decided to share all the awesome craftivities with ya'll.

So, where do I begin? Lets see...I guess it all started with a scrap piece of wood and some spray paint....

And pretty much anyone can tell you that I am a little haywire when it comes to spray paint. I dragged the wood out to my driveway and sprayed it black (I even left a nice black box outline for the hubby to clean when he comes home since I didn't have the foresight to lay down cardboard first) and then let that dry, and stuck some awesome vinyl cutouts I did to create the final Welcome Home sign for the door. 

BTW I sell these in my shop now if you want one for your awesome lovie, too. 

Then I moved on to some wicked cool red, white and blue woven headbands with removable korker bows. I think these came out pretty cute, and if you want a tutorial, they are actually pretty simple. Call me crazy, but watching a YouTube video will not teach me anything besides how to burn my hair off, so here is an actual tutorial for you, step by step. If you prefer to learn video style, check here.

 Then I cut out some stars, by hand because self-torture is truly the preferred way to show your love....and glued some little gift bow thingies onto the bottoms. Pretty sure this little craft was dollar store funded, all the way. 

  Here is a picture of my house, outside, you cant tell from here but there is actually another banner on the garage door, and a sign in the grass. My neighbors probably thought I was either crazy, or my hubby was gone for years, with the amount of enthusiasm I showed here. Actually, I was just hoping for some one important enough to notice all the bling...maybe Desperate Landscapes would show up or something. You never know.

  And here is the inside of my house. Went straight to the Dollar Tree and had them blow up 30 red, white and blue balloons. The lady at the counter nearly keeled over when I said "5 red, 5 white, 5 blue, 5 striped, 5 stars, wait....how many is that??? Add 5 more...."

  And last but definitely not least (save the best for last) the girls totally rocked it out in their matching ensemble. They looked fabulous in their headbands but seriously, it was the shirts that everyone was raving about, had them made custom by Sawyer's Closet, who does all of my embroidery for literally every holiday shirt I have done. 

 And after all of that planning and preparation, not counting the tags we had to get to help the inlaws get on the base, the hours waiting for the plane to arrive (late) and the nagging to make sure the girls' skirts were not tucked into their tights every ten minutes when they had to pee again, our HERO was finally home.