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!)

Halloween Printable

CUTE HALLOWEEN PRINTABLE!

I'm always looking for cute ways to surprise my kids around the holidays, without going totally overboard. This cute little treat took less than 5 minutes and a quick stop to the store for some orange tic tacs, and my girls were thrilled! What an adorable way to please any child- and it makes a cute party favor too!

So since we are nearing the Halloween festivities, here is the cute little printable.

Just cut and glue (or tape) right over the label, and if you want to add a little ribbon bow (like I did in the picture) its going to look over the top adorable!

Happy Halloween Guys! {: )

Oh, and dont forget your personalized Halloween Iron On Decals or any other little touches you might need- 'cuz that's what we're here for! ;)

Super Awesome Halloween Party - Decorations, Games & Food

I've always wanted to throw a Halloween Party....but those with children know that once September comes life gets hectic for pretty much the rest of the year. So putting together a Halloween party was going to take some time- of which I had little- and everyone who knows me understands that I dont throw up streamers, pour chips in a bowl and call it done. I have an insatiable urge to throw 'wow' parties.

Here is where my overboard party planning comes in handy for you. Most of my ideas were things I could execute quickly and still look awesome. :)

Lets start with decorations. I kept it simple and cheap without sacrificing a super-scary looking house. For the windows, I found black fabric on clearance (you can also use black tablecloths, they wont block out the light but you will get the same eerie effect). 

I cut the fabric to the width of my windows and long enough to hit the floor (with the exception of the kitchen window as shown in the picture). Then I cut jagged uneven lines all the way from the bottom to about 2" of the top. Basically I was cutting the fabric into shreds connected at the top. VERY easy and only took about 10 mins to do all of my windows. The hardest part was pinning the fabric (it was too heavy for tape) over my window curtains. As you can see I also put black garland and paper halloween signs (available at the dollar store) everywhere I could find a spot for. 

I also used the fake halloween spiderwebs EVERYWHERE. On lights, corners, knick knacks. Everywhere. On my fireplace I put some tombstones for an extra effect- gotta love the dollar store! Decorations were probably the easiest part of the party planning.

The food was the trickiest. I wanted the food to look super cool without being a total pain in the kutuckas to make. (Yes, Im pretty sure thats a real word.) So I started by covering my soda bottles and food holders (dollar store cauldrons worked great on the table!) with custom made labels. I made my own, but you can print them off virtually anywhere. There should be some free ones from Martha Stewart if you go online. ;)

For the 'smores' I put chocolate chips in the marshmallows to make them look like eyeballs. And I made a special drink for the kiddos- just using a clear bowl, I put lemonade and green food coloring together with a bit of a swish, added some gummy worms and voila! The kids were totally creeped out. I also baked some potato halfs (with a bit scooped out of the middle), added sour cream and some onion faces. Super easy!

The best was the brain I made out of watermelon. It looks crazy- and I was totally reluctant to do this- but it really gave the food the final touch it needed. It honestly only took me 10 minutes and I am by no means a chef of any sort- well, maybe burned food counts somewhere. 

Anyway, to make the watermelon I simply cut a flat part off the bottom so it would sit on the plate without wobbling. Then I took a potato peeler (seriously) and peeled off the outside green rind. I cut a deep gash right down the center (for the hemispheres of course) and then using a toothpick (I went through a few toothpicks I think) I drew the brain lines. This was fun and easy. Once I had the initial lines in I just went over them a few times to get down to the pinkish color and suddenly I had a BRAIN!!

Finally I decided on the games. We had a lot of games but I am going to go into detail about the favorites...of course there was bobbing for apples. I had talked to most of my friends and they (nor their kids) had never done this! I was shocked....so it was a MUST for my party. Do you have any idea how easy it is to fill a bucket with water and toss a few apples in there? Done.

 The next favorite game (one kids still ask to play when they come to my house) is also super easy. I almost didnt do it because it seemed so simple and cliche. But seriously, we had Mummy Races, where the kids raced against each other to wrap themselves up in toilet paper.

We also had a spooky scavenger hunt, some coloring pages for the littles, and musical chairs done to silly halloween songs like "Monster Mash."

Over all, the party was a great success and really took very little effort to pull together. Cleaning up- now that is another story. I very much avoid cleaning up after any party, especially when you have 20 kids running around the house. ;)

HAVE FUN!

Tangled Princess Birthday Party Food, Decor, Ideas

For her 5th Birthday, our middle daughter Gracee wanted a Tangled Birthday Party theme. The only problem was that the movie was still new so there weren't many decorations out yet. So I made my own party theme!

My first challenge was the decorations. I had a lot of fun using colored scrapbook paper and folding these mini paper-lanterns, which I strung on strings and hung across the ceiling:

You can get a free tutorial for paper lanterns: here. Or if you are feeling fancy: here.


Next I set about making some braids to string all over the house. These were fun to make, and very simple but they took a LOT of yellow yarn! LOL

Then I created some authentic Tangled banners with purple felt and some yellow Tangled Suns. You can purchase the sun templates here for super cheap and simply cut/paste them onto felt triangles to make your own!

Feeling my decorations were complete, I focused my efforts on food. I went with basic party food and added a cute Tangled theme to everything with these customizable food cards available here:

Next, I made jello boats by putting blue jello in little cups and orange slices with these adorable flag picks from here. They made a cute addition to the food table!

The rest of the food was pretty much fruit (the card said 'Make Your Own Fruit Tower'), cheese and crackers, chips, and for the hamburgers (in pic above) I used Thug Circles that I got as part of a Tangled/Thug 2" Inch Circle set here to add an extra bit of flair, because real men need more than just crackers lol. And pink lemonade with lemons for the Witch's Brew made it complete!

Then I used lots of cupcakes, frosting and a waffle cone and got busy making a Rapunzel Tower cake, just what the Birthday Girl wanted! I used yellow fondant for the braid and made it the night before, which was probably a bad idea because it was a little hard to work with the next day. :/ But it survived the tower. The butterflies are made of edible wafer paper that I found from a little shop on Etsy.

With the food complete, I focused on games. This was the really fun part. I put brown paper (available in rolls at the dollar store) along the fence for true Rapunzel style painting. 

I also got some white cardboard shields from Oriental Trading Co so that everyone could make themselves an awesome shield for protection (you never know what you might encounter in the forest)!

 Probably the most favorite game of all, however, was the 'Pin the Frying Pan on Eugene' game, which was custom made just for this party and I now sell here. You can also order this with the different versions of noses (just like the wanted posters in the movie!)

Last but not least, I sent each child home with a goody bag, and for an extra special touch I made all of the girls three-pocket aprons and hair bows (the boys got something special, too, dont worry!)

It was an amazing party and we all had a wonderful time! :) Of course, the invitation and thank you card set are also available here. (Or you can get it all as a cute Tangled Party Package, customized and everything!)


It was such a great day, but for now, we're busy planning the next party!!


Thanks for getting Tangled with us!!
Girly Momma Designs