A 7th Birthday Puppy Paw-ty

For Mia's 7th birthday party, she requested a puppy theme. This sweet and simple party was one of my favorites to plan, and it was a big hit with the guests and the birthday girl alike. The colors were primarily brown and white with touches of red and black. I made everything myself, and it was very inexpensive to pull together. Outside of food, I don't think I spent more than $10!

My favorite part was that in lieu of gifts, we asked for donations to the local Human Society.  Despite it being quite snowy on that particular Saturday, several friends turned out with doggie-friendly donations. This seemed to go over well, and now we have a large stash of items to deliver when the weather gets better.

{Friends brought donations for the Humane Society.}

The Invitations:
Being a planner, I made these invitations and sent them out about 3 weeks prior to the party.

{Puppy Paw-ty Invitations}

The Food:
I did not serve a full meal. (Go, me! Way to keep it "simple" -- at least for me!) For snacks, we had a bowl of "pupcorn," which was just air-popped popcorn. I did add some melted butter and salt, but that was not enough to tempt people when "puppy chow" was an alternative snack. (Note: I was running low on powdered sugar after making the cake, so I just made a half batch, and that was the perfect amount.) To round it out with some slightly healthier choices, I made up a tray with crackers, cheese, carrots, and cucumbers. At about 5 minutes to party time, I decided these looked bare and needed to be dressed up, so I grabbed some left over kraft paper and rubber stamps and made little placards that read "pupcorn," "puppy chow," and "bone appetit." (Yes, I know that "bone" is spelled incorrectly, but you know what I'm going for, right?). We also had the stamped napkins, good ole IKEA plates and bowls, and Capri Sun juice pouches. (I typically come up with a themed drink with an appropriately themed name, but I just didn't have anything for this one, so I made it easy on myself.)

{Simple Puppy Paw-ty Food}

The Decorations:

{Easy Centerpiece}

I made a table runner out of kraft paper and hand-stamped it with a homemade paw print stamp. (Directions can be found here, but I later discovered that Dollar Tree carries a roll of wrapping paper that is pretty doggone similar, if you're not into DIY projects!) Also for the dining room, I made these adorable puppy balloons, which I taped to the chandelier. For a quick and simple centerpiece, I just filled a canning jar with dog biscuits -- two items I already had on hand for everyday life.

{Paw-ty Decor}

To welcome guests, I made this front door decoration, again using the homemade paw print stamp on kraft paper. After cutting out each paw print, I "laminated" them all between two pieces of clear contact paper. For the wording, I typed "The Paw-ty is Here!" in Microsoft Word using the free Puppy Bellies font. Then, I cut out each word, affixed it to kraft paper, and "laminated" them all with contact paper. I taped all the pieces to the outside of the front door with clear tape.

{Front Door Decor for a Puppy Paw-ty}

The Cake:
The cake that was served for this party with friends was actually the third batch of puppy-themed baked goods that I made. Mia requested a white dog, to look somewhat like our dog, Ritzy. (My first attempts were these kind of complicated chocolate "pupcakes" that I served at the family shindig. After that, I simplified and went with these paw print cupcakes for school.) This puppy cake was not actually the way I had envisioned it due to what could have been a cake catastrophe when one of my rounds broke apart as I tried to get it out of the pan. I was planning on making a cake similar to the Care Bear cake from last year, but I think this turned out even better than I previously imagined! My brilliant husband suggested that the broken round pieces could still be used for something so they turned into floppy ears.

{The cake turned out cute!}

To make this cake, I did a double batch of my favorite white cake and a batch of my favorite buttercream frosting. I made two round, one that was 7" and one that was 8" (the one that broke apart), plus a half dozen cupcakes. The small round became the face and the broken round was trimmed to make the ears, which were attached with frosting. Then, I frosted it all with my angled spatula. For one cupcake, I removed the wrapper, frosted it all, and stuck it to the face. The nose is a mini peanut butter cup and the "freckles" are brown mini M&Ms. The eyes are brown Reeses Pieces and the eyebrows and mouth are piped with black decorating gel.

At this point, it was looking somewhat like a deranged Easter bunny and very little like a dog. Then, two cupcakes were frosted and bumped up against the bottom of the face to make paws. To show definition of toes, I just piped some lined with black decorating gel. The remaining cupcakes were decorated with paw prints made from mini peanut butters cups and brown mini M&Ms. This started to help make it look like a puppy. Then, I realized that I had a red bow left over from Christmas that might look right, and fortunately, it really helped. The addition of the bow made it look more and more like a dog, or at least not like a weird looking lop-eared rabbit.

One final addition did the trick. The tongue is cut from a strawberry Fruit Roll-Up. This last touch was what truly made it look like a puppy. I am thankful to my little man for asking, "Where's the tongue?" on the morning of the party!

{The bow hides the indentation -- bye-bye rabbit ears!}

In case you're wondering, my cake board is just a scrap of cardboard. I covered it with my roll of kraft paper and taped it to the back. In the past I've used aluminum foil for this, which doesn't show grease as much, but the brown went with the party colors better. Plus, it covered easily without having to use multiple pieces.

The Games and Activities:
I had other ideas, but decided to keep it fairly low-key this go-round. We had the dog house photo prop which worked overtime as decor, party activity, and souvenir photo included in the thank you cards.

{Inside of the Thank You Card}

The only game I did was Puppy Bingo. (The rest of the time, they played, so this was just fine.) I created 6 Bingo cards on white card stock. I made the blank template myself in Microsoft Word, but in retrospect I probably could have found one online and saved myself some time! For the pictures, I found various clipart on the Internet, pasted it into Word, printed 7 copies, and cut them all out. (Tip: A paper trimmer saves you time.) One set I kept in a baggie to the the calling cards. The rest, I glued onto the cards, making each one different. There were a few extra images, so I just omitted different puppies from each card. I "laminated" all of the Bingo cards between two pieces of clear contact paper. The Bingo markers were just squares of kraft paper that I made with a 1" square craft punch. We played for fun, so there were no prizes awarded. (I figured they already got enough sweets and they were getting these homemade puppy ears as a take-home gift -- simple!)

{Homemade Puppy Bingo Game}

Extra Credit Points:
Oh, and just for fun, Brett wore his Snoopy costume (without my even asking him to). This was, of course, cute and sweet. What a good daddy!

Photo Thank You Cards for a Puppy Paw-ty

I once read that thank you notes should be sent within three months of the event. I think for busy folks, the sooner the better, so my goal was to get them done within three weeks. We just celebrated Mia's 7th birthday with a puppy paw-ty on the first, so I am going to meet that goal with these photo thank you cards. As a bonus, they serve as a fun and inexpensive souvenir from the party.

{Front of Card}

Materials:

• card stock weight kraft paper (mine was 8 1/2" x 11")
• paper trimmer
• photos from dog house photo prop
• scrapbooking adhesive
• scalloped scissors
• black ink pad
• date stamp
• "Wonderful Times" stamp
• computer and printer

Directions:
1.  During the party, I took pictures of the guests wearing puppy ears and posing in the dog house photo prop. Then, I had them printed at Meijer. For family members who sent gifts, or for kids who didn't want to pose, I used pictures of Mia, so I had extras printed for this reason.

2.  Next, I folded a piece of kraft paper in half, width wise, and cut along the fold. Then I folded each piece in half again, width wise, to create two cards.

3.  In Microsoft Word, I created a fill-in-the-blank template for the inside of the cards. This fit four to a page in landscape setting and I used this free font. It read:

Dear ___________________________,                     

Thanks for helping make my 7^th birthday                           

a doggone good time! Thanks also for the                     

______________________________­_    

______________________________­

______________________. It’s paw-fect!

Your friend,                                                                

At the bottom right corner of each, I included a red paw print clip art. I used scalloped scissors to trim these to size and then adhered them on the inside of the cards, on the right.

4.  I trimmed the photos to fit inside the cards and then adhered them to the inside, left of the fill-in-the-blank template.

{Inside of Card}

5.  For the front of the cards, I printed off several of this cute puppy holding a cupcake clip art. Again, I cut these out with my scalloped scissors and adhered them to the center of the cards. Then, I added the date of the party and the phrase "Wonderful Times" with stamps and a black ink pad. Tip: If you don't have this sort of thing (both are the dial type of stamp that you see at libraries), you can type anything into your computer and print it out. This would give you more choices of font style, size, and color.

6.  Last but not least, I had Mia fill in the cards with the recipient's name, description of the gift (mostly donations for the local Humane Society!), and, of course, her signature.

A "Jawsome" Shark-Themed 4th Birthday Party

Well, it's about time that I wrap up my posts about the Little Man's 4th birthday bash, so here's the overview. I don't even know where he came up with the idea for a shark-theme, but it seemed to come out of left field. There are a few things out there that can be purchased for a shark-party but I wasn't interested in buying online and then having to pay shipping. That's why it's a good thing that this mama is creative!

Decorations:
Out in the front yard, I placed three shark fins and a warning sign that read "CAUTION SHARK SIGHTING." Then, on the front door, guests were once again cautioned with a sign reading "DANGER ENTER AT OWN RISK." I used shark stencils for both of the signs and everything was made out of cardboard.

{Land sharks!}

{Don't say you weren't warned...}

To set the indoor underwater scene, we had three kinds of window paint, two of which were homemade. This one was on the dining room sliding door, and I don't recommend it for window paint. This paint recipe was also used in the dining room, and it worked beautifully for making blue waves and multi-colored sharks (which I used these stencils to create). In the living room, I used a blue window paint pen that I had purchased from Oriental Trading to make waves on all the windows. Then, I taped undersea animals to the windows. These were classroom decor left over from my teaching days, so they were two-sided and laminated, which was perfect.

I also made some blue zigzag steamers (directions here) and taped them up in the entry to the dining room and in the hallway so they were visible when guests walked in the front door. These are perhaps the simplest, quickest, and cheapest party decorations ever! And they make a big impact. It felt very much like we were under the waves.

{You can see the streamers in the background.}

Hanging from the dining room chandelier were 3 friendly jellyfish that the kids helped me to create.

I used a roll of blue cello wrap from Dollar Tree to make a table runner, secured with blue painters tape (again, from Dollar Tree). The excess I cut off and taped to my folding card table. Then, I tossed a few sea shells onto both table coverings. (As a bonus, this didn't get messy, so I just removed the tape after the party, and rolled it back up to re-use for something else.)

{See the window paint in the background?}

The thank-you gifts did double duty as decorations. I just displayed some small containers of homemade blue glitter play dough and fish shaped cookie cutters (from Jo-Ann) until it was time to send them home with the party guests. I had made small round labels to fit the containers (which came in a ten-pack at Dollar Tree). Using Microsoft Word, I made them to say "Logan's 4th Birthday" (Logan's curved on top, and 4th Birthday curved around the bottom of the circle, with a shark photo in the middle). I ended up making 3 batches of play dough, and each batch was enough to fill 6 of the plastic containers.

{Cute and inexpensive party favors!}

Games/Activities:
I decided since it was a nice day and we had kids ranging from infant to age seven, that I should keep this pretty simple and outdoor-centered. So, we turned on the sprinkler, set up the water table, and made sure there were plenty of toys in the sandbox.

I had made a game that I called "Shark Bait," which some kids played with a hula hoop and my homemade fishy "beanbags."

{DIY Game for a Shark Party}

We also had a bubble station which included homemade bubble solution in cake pans and pie tins and lots of wands.

My favorite thing, though, was the shark photo prop that I had made from cardboard. I took all of the kids' pictures inside of his mouth and then used them to make the thank you cards. It was totally "jawsome!"

{A "Jawsome" Photo Prop!}

Food:
For the main course, it was a build-your-own-shark-sandwich bar. I had found a 3-piece cookie cutter set on clearance at Walmart for $2.50 a few month ago. It included a shark, a dolphin (which I have not yet used), and a fish. The shark was too big for regular sandwich bread, but I was able to fit it onto a tortilla twice. Then, I bought turkey from the deli and used the shark cutter on that. The deli cheese was too small for me to use the shark cutter, so instead, I made lots of cheese fish. This way, people could build their sandwiches however they liked, and using tortillas was pretty smart because there was less waste than if I had used bread.

{Build-a-Shark-Sandwich Platter}

The shark watermelon turned out very well and made a huge impact. It wasn't too difficult, but it was pretty messy. It took around 45 minutes to carve, which is deceptively longer than the short YouTube video where I found the directions. I then used this website for backup since I could only watch the video so many times before getting frustrated by the lack of information. Anyway, I would probably make another carved watermelon again because it was worth it. It just might not be for everyone!

{This toothy fellow put in an appearance.}

I also served grapes, colorful Goldfish crackers, and the new Goldfish Puffs, which were kind of like fish-shaped cheese balls. All of that was simple and very kid-friendly. For the beverage, I mixed up some lemonade and added a few drops of neon blue food coloring. It was obviously a teensy bit green-ish, but the idea of ocean water was clear and nobody complained.

The Cake:
I had originally though to make a cute shark-shaped cake like this one, but then I decided to go easy on myself and just make cupcakes for the kids. (I always make the kids' birthday cakes because I am way too cheap to pay someone else to do it!) Cupcakes were perfect, anyway, since they are pre-portioned and you don't need plates or forks, which makes it easy for kids' parties.

I made a double-batch of my favorite white cake and included some blue food coloring in the batter. Then, I mixed up some buttercream frosting, which I also tinted blue. I baked the cupcakes in some blue and white chevron cupcake liners that I found at Michaels (Note: This is a good resource for inexpensive decorative cupcake liners. They are often in the $1 section, and when those go on clearance, it's a super deal!) because I thought this was reminiscent of both waves and shark teeth.

To top off the cupcakes, I added a gummi shark to each. These came from Meijer and I had gotten them on sale, two packages for $5. (I used more than one package, but less than two to top all 24 cupcakes.)

{They taste as good as they look.}

I don't usually buy disposable plates or cups for parties, so we just used our IKEA plates and cups. I did, however, pick up a package of blue napkins from Dollar Tree and stamp them with sharks to customize them for this party. Simple, cheap, and totally necessary!

{It's so easy to customize napkins for any theme!}

While this party did not cost tons of money, I did start begin making things about 3 weeks in advance, starting with my shark photo-prop. Overall, I was pleased with how things turned out. I had one very happy little boy, and I think all of his friends enjoyed his "jawsome" party, too!

DIY Shark Party Game

In trying to come up with party activities for Logan's shark-themed 4th birthday, I was reminded of a magnetic fishing game with sock fish that I had seen on Pinterest. (The link no longer works so I can't show it to you. Sorry.) However, I had also pinned this idea for making a feed-the-shark-beanbag-toss game. I decided to combine the two ideas and this is what I came up with for a young-child-friendly version.

Aside from being an inexpensive party activity, this Shark Bait game was a great way to re-purpose some items that were no longer functioning as intended (but that I was still reluctant to throw away they still could be used for something.) While my sewing skills are not the greatest (which I have previously admitted to here and here), this was still a simple project to pull together with items I already had around the house.

Materials for "Beanbag" Fish:

• old, mismatched socks (Make sure they do not have any holes.)
• buttons (2 per fish)
• thread
• scissors
• rice
• rubber bands (1 per fish)
• puffy paint

 Directions for Making "Beanbag" Fish:

1. Sew two buttons near the toe end of a sock to make eyes. Tip: I found the rolling the socks up made it easier to reach inside the sock in order to get the needle to pass through without getting the thread hopelessly tangled.
2. Add rice to the sock until it is filled up to the heel. Tip: If you don't have rice, use whatever you have on hand; dry beans would work. I've even used beads or small pasta for things like this. Tip: I used a spoon to fill my socks.
3. Secure the "beanbag" by wrapping a rubber band tightly around the heel end of the sock. This should leave you with a "tail" with a length determined by the height of the sock. Ankle socks are, of course, shorter, so you will be done shaping your fish. You may, however, wish to trim the tail-ends of longer socks. Tip: To make it look more tail-like, I held the two sides of the open end together and then used scissors to cut an inverted "V" through both pieces of material.
4. Add a mouth to the fish. I used puffy paint in assorted colors and then left the "beanbags" upside down to allow the paint to dry. Tip: My current favorite material for placing crafts on to dry: cereal box liners. Paint won't stick to it while drying, unlike newspaper, and you can re-use it. And, it's free, unlike wax paper.

Materials for "Chum Bucket":

• large empty container/can
• blue construction paper (2 sheets)
• paper trimmer
• black ink pad
• foam alphabet stamps
• shark stencils
• black Sharpie marker
• glue

Directions for Making "Chum Bucket":

1. First find a large container and make sure it is clean and dry. (I re-used the same cocoa canister that had been made into a drum a few months ago, but a coffee can would also work.)
2. Then, measure the paper to fit around your container. (My ultra-professional method for this? I wrapped the paper around the can, and then used my fingernail to make an indentation to show where the bottom would need to be cut, since the paper was too tall.)
3. Trim the first piece of paper using the paper trimmer, then use it as a guide to cut the second piece to the same size.
4. Stamp "SHARK BAIT" with foam alphabet stamps onto one piece of the construction paper.
5. Use shark stencils to draw a shark on either side of the wording. Fill in the sharks with black Sharpie. (I used the Mako and Blue shark stencils for this.)
6. Glue the blank piece of paper onto your container first. Then, layer the stamped piece over it so that the entire container is covered.
7. Place the "beanbag" fish into the "chum bucket" and get ready to play "Shark Bait."

 How to Play "Shark Bait":

1. You will need: a hula hoop, your chum bucket, and your "beanbag" fish.
2. Lay the hula hoop on the ground to make a "shark pool."
3. Have children stand back and toss the "bait" into the "pool." (Younger kids will stand closer, obviously.)

That's actually all I had planned for this game. No scoring system or anything too complicated or too challenging, just simple fun for preschoolers. Now, some of our bigger party guests decided to make it more challenging for school-age kids by holding the hula hoop up in the air and creating a moving target for others to pitch through, and that made it far more interesting to them.

One last note: I suggest that you make this an outdoor game. We had one "beanbag" burst open before the party and that meant that I had rice all over my living room, and while having rice all over my house is not something I am unfamiliar with (for fun things to do with rice check out my posts here and here), it was not exactly what I had in mind for our party game. Fortunately, the weather cooperated, and we were able to play outdoors on the day of the party.

DIY Shark Party Decor: Warning Signs and Land Sharks

Logan's 4th birthday party turned out to be pretty "jawsome" and these homemade decorations helped set the tone right as guests were arriving. I was inspired by these signs that I saw online. So, I set out to make my own, using my cheap, go-to-party-decor material: cardboard. After the past couple of birthday parties -- Care Bears for Mia's 6th and Cars for Logan's 3rd -- I have decided that I can make just about anything out of cardboard! So, these signs and shark fins were not very difficult or time-consuming for me, and I was able to make them almost entirely with items I already had at home. (The only thing I had to purchase was another small bottle of yellow acrylic paint, which I believe was 53 cents at Wal-mart.)

{CAUTION: Shark Sighting!}

Materials for Fins:

• corrugated cardboard
• pencil
• scissors
• gray primer (or paint)
• large foam paintbrush
• Styrofoam tray (to hold paint)
• cereal box liner (to protect work surface)
• wooden skewers (2 per fin)

Directions for Making Fins:

1. Draw a shark fin onto the cardboard and cut it out. (I made three because odd numbers always make sense from a design perspective.)
2. Lay the cut-out on a flat surface. (Mine was the dining table protected by the cereal box liner.)
3. Cover the first side with gray primer (Paint would work as well, but Brett pointed out that we had primer already. Score! I didn't need to mix paints or buy any extra. This provided very good coverage, quickly and easily.) Let the primer/paint dry completely before moving the fin.
4. Now, flip it over and paint the other side. Again, let it dry completely, or you will end up with smudged paint. (Note: I also painted the outside edges of the fin, as best as I could. This is best left until the end of the painting process.)
5. Insert two skewers into the bottoms of each fin. These will fit directly into the spaces of the corrugated cardboard. Mine were placed about two inches from the outside edges. Tip: I found it tricky to insert the blunt ends into the cardboard, so I first expanded the openings by sticking in the sharp end of each skewer. Then, I removed the skewers, and flipped them around so that the sharp ends were pointed down. 
6. Stick skewers into the ground to make the sharks "swim" in your lawn. The skewers may end up poking up through the tops of the fins, so push them down and re-adjust as needed until they look the way that you want.

Materials for Warning Signs:

• corrugated cardboard
• pencil
• ruler
• scissors
• shark stencil
• black Sharpie marker
• yellow acrylic paint
• large foam paintbrush
• Styrofoam tray (to hold paint)
• cereal box liner (to protect work surface)
• 2 wooden skewers (for yard sign)
• masking tape (for hanging on door) 

Directions for Making Warning Signs:

1. Using a ruler for assistance, draw a rectangle shape from a piece of cardboard, to the dimensions that you would like. (Note: I decided on smaller signs than I have made in the past, for Logan's 2nd birthday which had a construction theme. This made things go faster, which was perfect, in my opinion. My "DANGER" sign is just 9" x 9" and my "CAUTION" sign is about 8 1/2" by 10 1/2".) Cut out your sign. Repeat as desired.
2. Protect work surface (and clothing) and then cover sign/s with yellow acrylic paint. Let dry, and add a second coat.
3. Using a ruler and a black Sharpie marker, create a black border for each sign. (On the "CAUTION" sign, this is set in about 1/2" and on the "DANGER" sign, it's only about 1/4".) 
4. Decide on the placement of the shark for each sign. Set the stencil down and then trace around the inside with your black marker. Fill in the entire shark outline. (Note: I used the Great White shark stencil from the set.)
5. Add your lettering. I chose to hand-letter the signs, but you could also use black letter stickers as a time-saver. I suggest using a ruler and a pencil to lightly block these in. First create a space for each word with a lightly-penciled line to show the tops of the letter and a lightly-penciled line to show the bottoms of the letters. I had three such lines for each sign. Then, find the approximate center of each word or grouping of words, and pencil in that central letter. Work your way out toward each side. Once the lettering looks the way you like (Remember, it doesn't need to be perfect! Mine certainly aren't.), go over it with black Sharpie. You can make corrections as you go. When in doubt, make the letters thicker. Note: The "CAUTION" sign also has some waves that I drew by hand so that the shark appears to be swimming near the top of the water.
6. Post your warning signs. I used masking tape to hang the "DANGER" sign on the front door. For the "CAUTION" sign, I used two wooden skewers, inserted with the same method as mentioned above for the shark fins. Then, I stuck it into the front yard near the "shark sighting" area with the three visible fins. 

Hanging Jellyfish Craft

To prepare for Logan's shark themed 4th birthday party, I decided that we needed a few hanging decorations and these jellyfish were perfect. The inspiration came from here and we made a few changes. The first was that I didn't have any bowls to use so I had to buy some. The original directions used paper bowls and watercolor paints which is lovely, but I found that Styrofoam bowls were cheaper so that is what we got. Since watercolors weren't an option with Styrofoam, we used acrylic paints instead. I loved the idea this person had for using up ribbon scraps, and I expanded it by adding the bubble wrap. I think this gives them some extra jellyfishy-ness, and it's a cute way to re-use some packaging material we had laying around.

This was a fun little project that both kids were able to help with by choosing the color scheme and then painting the bowls and bubble wrap accordingly. They also helped picked the ribbons to include, because believe it or not, I am such a ribbon junkie that we actually had to reject some in order to make it all fit and not look too cluttered. (Please tell me I am not the only person who can't go to Michaels without digging through their ribbon bin to see what there is!) Here is how we made our happy jellyfish, just in time for a celebration under-the-sea.

{A trio of friendly jellyfish.}

Materials:

• Styrofoam bowls
• acrylic paint/s in your color choices
• bubble wrap
• Styrofoam trays (to hold paint)
• foam paint brushes
• scissors
• googly eyes
• tacky glue
• assorted ribbon scraps
• masking tape
• fishing line (for hanging)

Directions:

1. First, I laid some bubble wrap, textured side up, and a bowl (Styrofoam or paper), upside down, at each work surface. I poured some paint onto a Styrofoam tray (You could also use a plate or bowl.) and then we used paintbrushes to apply acrylic paints. Foam paintbrushes worked well for this. Tip: Before starting, protect clothing and work surfaces as acrylic paints will stain. My kids wear old t-shirts of mine and Logan's is especially large on him, so I close it at the back of the neck with a clothespin. To cover the tabletop, we used cereal box liners, one per person. (Note: If you are concerned about bacteria from meat packaging, first run your Styrofoam trays through the dishwasher on the top rack. It will sterilize them without damaging the Styrofoam!) Allow paint to dry completely.
2. Using scissors, I cut the painted bubble wrap into strips, lengthwise. I cut each piece so that there were 6 strips, each one about 3/4 - 1 inch wide.
3. Then, I adhered the strips of bubble wrap to the inside of the bowls using tacky glue. We spaced our out so that they were somewhat even, although it does not need to be perfect by any means. Tip: We found it best to apply glue to the smooth side of the bubble wrap.
4. Next, we grouped together a variety of ribbons including: grosgrain, sheer, curling, yarn, wired, raffia, rickrack, whatever we had on hand, trimming them to the desired lengths (not all the same length). After the kids made their final choices, (red for Logan's, pink/purple for Mia's, and blue for mine), I bundled the ribbons together with masking tape and then affixed the bundles to the undersides of the bowls. I also used scissors to curl the curling ribbon and make adjustments to the lengths of ribbons as needed.
5. They added googly eyes to each jellyfish using tacky glue. 
   
6. Lastly, I poked two small holes in the top of each jellyfish for hanging. (I think I used a pin from my cork board for this.) For each jellyfish, I threaded fishing line through the tops of the two holes and then knotted it underneath, after I had strung the jellyfish up on my dining room chandelier. Then, I trimmed and excess fishing line and stood back to admire our friendly-faced jellyfish.

DIY Napkins for a Shark Party Theme

One of the simplest projects that I did for Logan's "jawsome" 4th birthday party was stamping the napkins to go along with the theme. It's a simple trick I've used for various kids' birthday parties over the years. I just found a package of inexpensive party napkins (Dollar Tree has them in several colors, and this is where my package of 30 for this project was purchased) and a stamp that goes along with the theme. In the past, some of my stamps didn't perfectly "match" the theme, but if I had an ice cream cone or a cupcake stamp on hand, and my kiddo approved of it, then that's all I needed.

However, in this case, I didn't have anything suitable for Logan's desired shark theme. I found a stamp an under-sea stamp set on clearance at Wal-mart a few months before the party. It was just 50 cents, so I bought it, not even sure how I would use it at the time, but knowing that for that price it would be well worth it. (This is when it pays to listen when the kids start tossing out party suggestions. Then, whenever you happen to be out shopping, take a quick cruise through the clearance section and see what is there that could be useful for your upcoming celebration.) I strongly encourage advanced planning, if like me, you don't want to spend much money on birthday parties!

After pulling out the stamp pads that I had in my craft stash, I quickly decided to go with the teal color. Paired on top of the dark blue, it made the most sense to me as a shark swimming in the water. To get the best coverage on the stamp, I lightly tapped it about 3 or 4 times on the stamp pad and then firmly and evenly pressed it down onto the napkin. I re-inked the stamp before each impression to ensure even coverage.

One important thing to note about stamping on napkins, is that you will not get perfect delineation. The ink gets absorbed into the paper a bit, so don't expect crisp results. My shark stamp actually had an eye that showed up on first impression but then quickly faded as the ink was dispersed on the napkin. To me, this was not a big deal. I still got the shark I wanted (albeit eye-less), but it might make a difference if your stamp has lots of details that you feel are important to the overall design.

{Left: freshly stamped, Right: after ink dried}

In the end, I had 30 shark party napkins that cost me a total of $1.50. I fanned them out in two areas of the counter near the food and lemonade (which I had dyed blue to go along with the theme). Big impact, small price tag, happy birthday boy. Totally "jawsome!"

Thank You Cards for Care Bear Party

These are the photo thank you cards that I designed to go along with the Care Bears birthday party. The photos are the ones I took at the party using my home-made Cheer Bear photo prop. I made a simple fill-in-the-blank format so that Mia could help fill out the cards because I think that this helps teach gratitude, or at the very least, it helps with teaching social conventions associated with gratitude. My goal was not just to have her write "thanks for the gift," but also to let her know that we were thanking people for making her day special. For me, having a child's birthday party is about giving her an experience that she will remember as being a fun time spent with friends and family, and I want to pass this belief on to my children.

Materials:

• red card stock
• paper trimmer
• word processing software
• printer
• scissors
• scalloped scissors
• photos
• clear adhesive photo corners
• scrapbooking adhesive 
• white printer paper
• envelope template (optional)

Directions:

1. Using a paper trimmer, I cut the 8 1/2" x 11" card stock in half (hamburger fold) to get two pieces of paper. Next, I folded each one in half (hamburger fold again) so that I had two cards.
2. For the cover of the card, I found an image of Birthday Bear, copied it into Microsoft Word and adjusted the size so that I could fit 8 images on the page (in landscape format). I printed and cut out the images with scalloped scissors. Then, I affixed them to the center of the cards using scrapbooking adhesive squares.
3. For the wording on the front, I used the word art feature in Microsoft Word to type "Caring is Sharing!" for the upper arch and the date of the party on the lower arch. The font was "Care Bears Family" and it was a free download found here. I fit 9 of these upper arch over lower arch per page in landscape format. After printing, I used scissors to cut them into banners, following the curves of the text. Lastly, I cut into each end in a "v" to make the flags on the end of each banner. These were adhered to the front of the card using scrapbooking square adhesives that had first been cut in half.
4. For the inside of the card, I had the photos printed. Then, I used my paper trimmer to cut them down so that they would fit inside. I used clear scrapbooking photo corners, one per corner, to affix these to the inside of the card (on the left).
5. For the fill-in-the blank format that I put on the right side of the inside of the thank you cards, I again used the "Care Bears Family" font to type: "Dear _____________, Thanks for sharing in my 6th birthday fun! Thanks also for the ______________________________. It made me smile! Your friend, _____________" I used this image of Cheer Bear to tie it all together. (This was also used in the invitations, and of course, the photo prop.) I was able to get 4 of these fill-in-the-blank templates per page in portrait format. After printing, I trimmed them with my paper trimmer and adhered them with the scrapbooking adhesive squares.
6. The rest was up to Mia. I helped her fill in the names and the information about the gifts, and then she signed her name to each one.
7. I made some envelopes with white printer paper and my template that I bought many years ago at Michaels, wrote each child's name on the front, and sealed them with some Care Bears stickers that were a gift from my brother. You can use store bought envelopes if you don't want to make your own. I just have been making my own cards for so long that I don't typically have the right size envelope on hand, so I make those, too.

Welcome to Care-a-Lot! (A Care Bears Themed Birthday Party)

As soon as Christmas was over, Mia was asking me when we were going to start making things for her birthday party, which was last Saturday. This gave me about a month to get everything ready. She had chosen the Care Bears theme, and it didn't take me too long to discover that it wasn't something I could find in any stores. There were a few things on Amazon and eBay, but nothing that seemed worth the cost. I wasn't too concerned, though, because Mia agreed that we could do a lot of "rainbow" colors for decorations and such instead of focusing just on Care Bears.

Plus, I love a creative challenge. I think that is why I do parties in kind of a crazy-big way, not that I think it isn't important to celebrate my kids' milestones. I do, of course, or we wouldn't do it. Truly, though, this mama loves herself a good project, and doing themed birthday parties allows me to express myself creatively with quite a few of them. Thankfully, Mia's desire for advanced planning helped me pull it off without getting getting too stressed out. In fact, I feel pretty fulfilled for making her 6th birthday party a success.

The Invitations:
I designed a fairly simple invitation in Microsoft Word that would allow me to print 4 per page. At the top, I centered this "Have a Rainbow Day" image. For the wording, I used this free "Care Bear Family" font that I downloaded. (This is fun because the punctuation includes hearts.) I used different colors of the rainbow to set apart the key words: red for "What," orange for "When," yellow for "Where" (Note that the where is "Care-a-Lot" and I added our address in parentheses.), green for "RSVP," blue for "Cell," and purple for "Home." After the important information, I typed "Please help share in the birthday cheer!" emphasizing the words share and cheer because they related to the Care Bears theme. I also added "Your presence is your present," which didn't make too much difference, but it was worth a try. I included this image of Cheer Bear, which I made smaller and flipped in my word processing program. After printing, I cut them apart with my paper trimmer, used scalloped scissors to add decorative trim to the top and bottom edges, and then adhered them to red card stock.

The Decorations: 
I tied together some Dollar Tree balloons (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) and had my husband put them on the mailbox, but they must have blown away at some point during the party.

Guests were greeted at the front door by a fun "Welcome to Care-a-Lot" sign that I made from a cardboard box and acrylic paint. The wording is again done in Microsoft Word with that same free font. You can find complete directions for the sign here.

I made these super simple and very inexpensive zig zag streamers following the directions I found on this blog. My only change that I would suggest is to specify that I used construction paper that was first trimmed in half (like a hot dog). Then, I saved myself some time by cutting several pieces at once. They don't need to look perfect. I used Scotch tape to hang them from the entryway to the dining room, three of each color: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. I had one extra streamer per color, so I hung them at the end of the hallway going into the kitchen, so that when people came in the front door, they saw the same rainbow: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

The buntings on the ceiling were probably the most annoying thing for me to do for this entire party. I am not sure I even would have done this if Mia hadn't caught me looking at the picture online (which did not include any directions, by the way) and announced that she really wanted it for a decoration. I knew it would be inexpensive, so I decided to give it a try. I purchased some 97 cent table cloths from the party aisle at Wal-mart (red, orange, yellow, and green -- plus I already had the blue one that I had found at a garage sale over the summer -- for 10 cents). I cut the table cloths in half, and then folded each one in half again, length-wise, so that they were not as transparent. I used pieces of double stick adhesive that I had cut prior to getting started. They were about 1" squares, and I used at least 3 or 4 per section. (And then, I was climbing up again the following day to apply a bit more since some were falling down...) The white balloon cloud came from that same Dollar Tree bag of balloons (There were really quite a few in there, maybe about 45, so it was a pretty good deal.) and is tied together with light blue curling ribbon (also purchased from Dollar Tree two years ago). I also had a purple table cover from Wal-mart that I trimmed to fit our dining room table and our card table, taping down the ends so it didn't slip.

The Food:
Since we were having a party with the most of the girls from the kindergarten class, and then having some family afterward, I wanted to keep the food simpler than I have in the past. (Basically, I told myself I am not serving a full meal, and I made myself stick to it.) I didn't even make a "fancy" themed drink; I just offered milk, apple juice, or water. I am kind of proud of myself for this. And they ate and drank from our regular kids' plates and cups from IKEA, because I hate buying stuff that would just get thrown away. For food, I offered crackers and heart shaped cheese. I took some sliced deli cheese that I already had and then used my little metal heart cookie cutter (actually, I think it's meant for fondant, but you get what I mean). I thought about doing a rainbow veggie platter, but my kids are not huge fans of peppers so I just did red grape tomatoes, orange carrots, and green cucumber slices so it wasn't truly a rainbow.

One of my only big to-dos for food was making the rainbow fruit kabobs, which were inspired by this photo. I used bamboo skewers, which I broke about in half. On each one, I threaded a whole strawberry, an orange slice, 3 canned pineapple pieces (note for future reference: buy something larger than tidbits), a slice of kiwi, a couple of blueberries, and a couple of purple grapes. Then, I cut off the sharp end of the skewers, and arranged them on my tray.

My other kind-of-a-big-deal food was 6 layered rainbow Jell-O cups, which were inspired by this blog. I used 5 ounce clear plastic cups that were left over from my failed chocolate business (waste not, right?). I did this as inexpensively as possible by getting Kroger brand gelatin for as many layers as possible, and I also bought as many sugar free varieties as I could get since the kids wouldn't likely know the difference, and why give them more sugar if I didn't need to? I bought the small 3 ounce boxes (0.3 ounces for sugar-free varieties). I used the quick-set method involving ice cubes, so each layer set up for about 20 minutes before I was adding the next layer on top. (I actually had this almost down to a science by the end: put Jell-o in refrigerator, set timer for 15 minutes, wash bowl and spoons, put water on to boil around when timer went off, repeat...) I guesstimated that 2 tablespoons of each flavor would be about right, and it was nearly perfect for making 16 cups. (I had determined that 16 cups was the max amount that would fit in my cake pan, and I planned to put the Jell-o cups in the pan to make it easier for all the in-and-out of the refrigerator. It was a great tip I had picked up here.) My layers from bottom to top were: Grape Jell-O, Berry Blue Jell-O, Kroger Sugar-free Lime Gelatin, Sugar-free Lemon Jell-O, Kroger Sugar-free Orange Gelatin, and Kroger Sugar-free Cherry Gelatin. I topped the rainbow cups with Cool Whip "clouds" and served them with the cake in lieu of ice cream. One good thing about this was that I didn't have to dish up any ice cream.

The Cake:

I promised Mia a Care Bear cake, and I used this photo for my inspiration. I used my favorite white cake recipe and tinted the batter pink with Wilton icing color, purchased from Jo-Ann with my coupon. The head is a 9" round and the body is a 10" round. Plenty of cooking spray and waxed paper cut to fit the cake pans helped ensure that the cakes came out without breaking apart. I also used my cake knife to trim them so that they were flat before frosting them. The neck looked a bit skinny, and my cake, overall, was quite short since I should have doubled my recipe. I made 6 (short) cupcakes. One is the muzzle. One is cut in half and used for the ears. The other four are the paws. All are covered with plenty of frosting to keep them glued together.

For frosting, I made the Wilton buttercream recipe, which I again, tinted pink, and applied with an angled spatula. The center of the ears, the belly, and the mouth/nose area of Cheer Bear are all done with plain white buttercream that I had set aside.

It is fortunate that Valentine's Day is around the corner because that meant that seasonal heart-shaped candies were easy to find. Cheer Bear's nose is a red cinnamon jelly candy, which came in a bag for $1 at Kroger. The foot pads are pink marshmallow Peep hearts. I cut one in half, and placed the sticky sides down on the frosting. The eyes are a regular marshmallow, which I cut in half, and again, placed the sticky sides down. Then, I used black decorating gel to make the pupils. The freckles are red non-pareils (which I got for $1 at Target last Christmas). I used red decorating gel for the mouth and eyebrows. The most important part of Cheer Bear is her rainbow belly badge, which I made using red, orange, yellow, green, and blue mini M&Ms. (Note: The leftovers made delicious cookies, and I think I will buy the mini size for baking from now on.)

My cake display was a piece of cardboard that I cut to the size I wanted. Then, I took some colored tissue paper from Dollar tree, and folded it so that the 5 bands of color: pink, red, yellow, green, and blue all fit in approximately equal amounts. I used Scotch tape to affix the tissue paper to the back side. I used more wax paper circles on top of the tissue paper to try to avoid having the buttercream completely soak the tissue paper. It didn't work perfectly, but I am sure it didn't hurt either. I found these tall rainbow colored candles at Wal-mart for about $1.50 and the birthday girl was quite happy with the whole cake presentation overall.

The Activities:
When guests arrived, they each got a party had that I made from colored cardstock using this template and directions. I made 2 hats of each color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Brett helped me assemble them, since I was struggling with getting the tabs into the slots correctly. Then, I found images of Care Bears online, put them in Microsoft Word, adjusted them so that they were all the same size, and printed them. I cut them out, leaving about a narrow white border. Then, I applied them to the hats with Mod Podge and a foam paint brush. After they dried, I added the ribbon ties. The directions didn't say how much ribbon to use, or even what kind of ribbon to use. I used narrow ribbons, about 1/8" wide, most of which I already had at home. I needed to buy orange and blue, so I got those at Wal-mart for about 50 cents each. (I actually got more of a turquoise shade because I planned to use it as hangers for the sun catchers they were going to paint.) It turned out that this project was kind of a waste because the hats wouldn't stay on the girls' heads, and when they were all leaving, there were some disagreements on who had which hat since I had used a different Care Bear for each, and apparently some are more desirable than others. Anyway, they looked great, but I am not sure I would take the time to make my own hats again, unless I used elastic cord, perhaps.

After they got their hats, I took their photos with my Cheer Bear photo prop, which was placed in front of yet another Wal-mart plastic table cloth. This one was a turquoise, which I thought would make a nice "sky" backdrop. It was doubled over and taped to our fake fire place.

Another party activity that we had was painting rainbow sun catchers that I had found in the craft aisle at Wal-mart for 53 cents each. To prepare before the party, I tied a narrow turquoise ribbon hanger to each one. I attached a piece of masking tape to each ribbon and folded it over to make a flag, which I wrote each child's name on. Then, I poured small amounts of sun catcher paint (which I borrowed, but you can get it from Oriental Trading) into small plastic cups with lids. These were also left over from my failed chocolate business so I didn't have to go out and buy them. I used 2 cups per color so they would have enough to share without having to wait for a color, or at least that is what I figured. Each kid got a paper towel and a small paint brush to use. This worked fine. The girls were very neat and put the lids back on without even being asked. We just left them on the paper towels on the counter to dry during the party and sent them home flat at the end. The most interesting thing, to me, was that none of them looked anything alike even though they started with the same sun catchers.

The home-made rainbow pinata was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I don't have any useable pictures of the game itself seeing as how it takes 3 hours to make something and it ends in about 5 seconds. The good news is that it was a pull-string, so it was not destroyed in that 5 seconds. My plan is to hang it in Mia's room.

Another game that I created was "Pin the Cupcake on Birthday Bear." I taped Birthday Bear to the same table cloth we had used for our photo back drop. This one lasted a bit longer than the pinata, and everyone was anxious to have their turn. We used Mia's winter scarf for a blindfold and that was very effective.

All in all, this was a great party. Things went smoothly. We had a nice turn-out. Everyone had a great time. Most of the things I planned came together almost exactly the way I imagined them. It didn't cost me very much. And most importantly, there was one very happy little girl. That's enough to validate all the time and energy I spent pulling this off.