Handmade Birthday Decorations for My Daughter's 8th Birthday

For my daughter's 8th Birthday yesterday I made pink and black decoration.  The theme for her party this year is Culinary Creations.  So the children cooked decoration their own cupcakes, making kid friendly trail mix, chocolate drizzled pretzels and mixing up homemade hot chocolate mix.

We have her birthday outside every year.  I know mid November birthday OUTSIDE really?  We live in the south and you never know what the weather will be like any given day but for the last 8 years this weekend has always been beautiful and warm.  So outside we went to celebrate.  It was windy but the temp was around 72 degrees, PERFECT!

Back to the decoration!  I loved making everything this year, so many inspirations came from other crafty blogs. 

The Invitations:

The Tutu Wreath: 

How to make the wreath:
A. I used a wire 'funeral'wreath form. I know kind of weird but here is why.  Everyone else has been using the Styrofoam wreaths but you waste so much tulle around the Styrofoam forms.  With the wire forms you use less. 
B. I cut 12 inches strips of hot pink and black tulle. 
C. I tied 12 pink then 12 black and so on, repeating until it was completed.
D.  I used some extra black to make a tie for hanging.
E. For the sign in the middle I used  Microsoft Picture It to make the Happy Birthday Sara and then used the same circle for the number '8'.  I cut a small piece of gift wrapping ribbon and glued it down the middle of the circle and then layed the other circle on top sandwiching the ribbon between the two circle leaving plenty of ribbon on each end for tying.
F. Tie each end to the top and botton of wire form push the tulle over just enough to pull the ribbon through to tie.

I love the wreath so much but boy it takes some time, super easy but very time consuming.  I originally was going to make 4 (yes four) wreaths.  After this one I decided that was too much work~

I made all the cupcake toppers on the computer.  I originally made them circles but soon realized the squares are so much easier to cut out!  I used my Microsoft Picture It Program for this too.

The big 'Happy Birthday' circle was for the inside of the wreath.

 Cupcake Toppers

  I also made a mini banner for her birthday cake.

I decided to make the adults at the party little To-Go party favors as a way of thanking them for coming to her party. 

A little background on my beliefs about proper etiquette: I truly believe in Thank You cards and I think it is appalling that people have intentionally "forgotten" how to write a lovely thank you.  I had another mother ask me recently at my niece's 1st birthday if she thought my sister-in-law really needed to write thank you notes for all the gift my niece received and I told her yes I believe in a proper Thank You and left it at that.  Well, all I think she really wanted was me to agree with her and saw No but she did ask my opinion.  Don't ask my opinion if you aren't prepared for the answer.  Getting off my soapbox, I could go on for days about etiquette~ 

I have been told I am very old fashioned and that nobody writes thank yous any more.  Well I do BUT this year I thought I would do it a different way, I pre-wrote the thank yous for everyone.  The adults that attended got a lovely party favor with a sweet Thank You message on their goodie box and the children all got a thank you postcard tucked down in their goodie bags before they left.  And I am ok with that, everyone got thanked for their gift by my sweet little 8 year old and they also got a thank you card to take home. 

Good Thank YOU = content Mommy

For that kids table I wanted two buckets one for crayons and one for markers.

Here is how I made them:

A. 2 Halloween Mcd's happy meal buckets

B. Curly ribbon

C. Butcher Block Paper

D. Scrapbook paper

E. Gift labels (Found at Dollar Tree) Found in the school supplies section, I also use these for birthday presents, it saves you from buying a card every birthday.  I think you get 20 for $1!!

Cut a circle of butcher block paper and fold into the bucket , secure with tape.  Cut a strip of scrapbook paper and secure with tape (it will not go all the was around bucket. Then cut your curly ribbon and tie.  Next punch a hole through your gift tag and string it through the ribbon and curl the ends.

 Cheap (if not free) and super easy. 

Since it was in our backyard I really wanted something eye-catching at our back gate to get the guest attention so they would walk to the back and not come to the front door and ring the bell when everyone was outside.  I decided to make a sandwich board of sorts and my little peep helped with the painting.  I was originally going to paint it with chalkboard paint but ran out of time so I decided to make it a cafe board with the menu pinned to it and "newspaper" clippings and old recipes.  I really love the way it turned out.

The gate was the perfect place to hang the aprons for the guest chefs that were coming to cook.

Next up was the Birthday Banner it was so much work! But so worth it, the banner turned out beautiful and I can use it for many many years to come. I made the backside in boy colors for my son so it is reversible for his birthday. This is the only picture I have of it. 

Aren't they just the cutest little chefs you have ever seen!!!

 Close-up of the banner:

I will post picture Tuesday of the BIG birthday bash & Sara seeing her desk for the first time!

Lets just say she hasn't stopped telling me how much she loves it!

Here is a sneak peek of how it looked in her room Sunday morning before she got home.

Blog Parties I am linkie to:
 

Diaper Bag, oops bag and a flooded office......Is it Friday yet?

I have a sweet friend, who is having her third baby boy early January 2011.  Her best friend threw her a baby shower this weekend.  When I first found out she was pregnant  I told her I would make her a diaper bag , she was so excited.  We talked colors very briefly about three months ago at a kids clothing consignment sale.  We talked about getting together at the fabric store so she could pick out the fabric she wanted BUT time flew by and I got the invitation to her baby shower a week a head of time and there was no way we could coordinate our busy mommy schedules to meet.

I bought the fabric last Tuesday,started working on it Wednesday and it had to be finished by Friday~  I think I spend about a hour in the fabric store (thank goodness they are use to me pulled and matching and comparing fabric at my favorite store).  I love to mix and match fabrics it really does add a little something special to a tote when you can mix and match fabric that might otherwise be overlooked or not even considered.

So I don't usually use patterns to make my totes or anything for that matter.  I guess I am one of those people that thinks out of the box.  Pattern are too restricting or maybe it could be that I have made hundreds of totes and I could make them with my eyes closed by now?   Whatever the reason I just don't use them, I view the construction of each tote as a sculpture, I guess that is the artist in me.  When I was making and selling totes on a daily basics and had to duplicate the small size and shape and so I had no other choice to use a pattern, they had to be identical.  but when I am creating a one of a kind tote I just start cutting and build my design as I go.  I have a visual image in my head of what I want the tote to look like but I really create as I go.

My first attempt at the custom diaper bag was a little small  ALOT small.  Ok Miss Smarty Pants; that is what I get for the "I don't use a pattern" genius idea .   I never said it was the best idea, it's just the way I tick!~ 

Back to the drawing board and back to the fabric store for a little more fabric.  And no I didn't use a pattern for the second attempt but I was a little more awake and it turned out perfect!

What do you think?  I love it and I also love that she can use it long after the baby doesn't need half of his room packed in a diaper bag everyday.

Want to see the oops bag?  I really loved the fabric and kind of wanted a bag made out of the same fabric anyway so maybe it was fate that I made the opps bag first.

Prep for the 8th Birthday is going well, even if this is what I walked in and saw at work this morning:

Oh, yes that is a ceiling tile on top of my desk and the floor is flooded again.  And on top of that we have no heat and when my brother pulls in he has my one year old neice with him for us to babysit.....at work...in the fload zone.....with no heat~  What a Monday.......

 

So I came home and I am working on birthday decoration right now.  The banner is almost done, the tutu wreaths are almost done (here is a peek) and the other things are lined up on a To Do List .

So how is your Monday going so far?

Linkie Parties for this week: