For Evie’s first birthday party I made a ton of decorations and then was so busy setting up that I didn’t get a chance to take any pictures. I was not going to let that happen this time around, so I got all the decorations up the night before Mira’s party so I could get pictures of them all!
For the decorations I used a lot of Benzie Design wool felt and a lot of bakers twine from the Twinery.
The pinwheels came from Land of Nod, I didn’t even realize they sold party supplies until I saw a post on their blog about it. So last weekend we went to Land of Nod in Oakbrook to check out their party supplies, but found they don’t sell them in stores. The man working was super helpful and offered to have them shipped to us for free. Because of Memorial Day, there was a chance it wouldn’t get there in time for the party on Sunday so I wasn’t going to get it. He told me he could do free two-day shipping and so I ordered the pinwheels and a set of flags for the cupcakes. When he rang up my order he did it as free overnight shipping because he wanted to make sure it got there in time. I was absolutely floored by the amazing customer service I received. I have always loved Land of Nod, but now they’ve definitely got a loyal customer.
I cut the letters out of felt and then attached them with loops of velcro to a string of bakers twine. I used this tutorial for attaching the letters and I was really pleased with how it worked!
I made this felt one and attached it to two bamboo skewers. I was going to do the velcro for this as well, but since people would see it from the back I sewed some embroidery floss to it and tied that to the skewer. I was pretty pleased that I had felt colors that matched the flags pretty well!
These were the other purchase from Land of Nod and I thought they looked adorable. One day I will learn to really decorate cupcakes nicely, but until then I will continue to smear the frosting on with a knife.
I had a hard time getting a good picture of this one, but I wanted to show it off anyways. For Mother’s Day Josh got me this Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Instant Film Camera
I made this little banner for her high chair and I haven’t taken it down, I love how it turned out! Cutting out the letters that tiny was difficult but I managed! I left a little extra felt on the top of the flag and folded it over and sewed it down, leaving a loop that I could string the bakers twine through. The crown was less of a hit. It turned out cute, I used the tutorial from Laura at Bugs and Fishes. I did shrink it down a little bit since the crown I made for Evie’s birthday was too big on Mira. Mira was not thrilled about wearing it though, this is what she thought about it.
Evie has already started talking about wanting a Curious George party for her birthday in September, so I’d better start planning! Do you go all out crafting for birthday parties or go the store bought route?
You did a great job! What I do depends on how I feel and whether or not we have a cohesive idea leading up to the party. For Astrid’s first birthday, I made cute little monster cupcakes, but that was the extent of my creativity, but I did a fairy tale birthday party one year, complete with a pinata dragon, a castle cake, a pin-the-tail-on the unicorn for which I made the poster and yarn tails… I went all out that year. My six-year-old is already planning her 7th birthday party in August and I think we’re going to have fun creating it. 😀
I wanted to do more of a “theme” but I kept coming up blank. So instead I just picked a color palette and went with that. The fairy tale party sounds amazing, especially pin the tail on the unicorn! Evie’s Mo Willem’s Pigeon party last year was the first themed one she had, and now that she’s old enough to decide I’m sure there will be lots more!
Oh your felt banners and crown are wonderful!! That look Mira has is priceless!! Love the photo banner too. I think the #1 for the first birthday is a perfect theme,,, as they get older the themes get easier to pick. I think my fave theme I did for my daughter was a ‘tea party’, we made hats from paper plates with ribbon ties, tulle and tissue paper flowers. It was girly without being commercial. And an easy way to start with decorating cupcakes is with a medium size star or round tip,,,,just point, squeeze a dot or do a swirl, and wha-la, a decorated cuppy-cake!!
Oooh thanks for the cupcake tip! I will have to try that! I really want Evie to do a tea party theme, I think it would be so fun!