1st Birthday

My daughter turned 1 on the 11th and we had a great time doing a cupcake party. I wanted to share what we did for gift bags as I think they really were a great for kids 3 and under. I got really lucky with party supplies and one of the "gifts" as Michael's had a line of cupcake items in the $1 bins. Got even luckier when the same items went on sale for $0.47 each.

I made cupcake softies in pink, yellow, and blue, added some bubbles that I had left over from my son's birthday, made a cupcake memory game, and threw in a cupcake magnet. Tied the bags with some ribbon from Michael's dollar bin and a perfect cupcake gift bag was done.

For the cupcake softies, I made a pattern based on a picture of a cupcake that I liked. I used my limited photo shop skills and enlarged the picture, printed it out twice and cut out a top and bottom piece that I then used for my pattern.

Cupcake memory was fun to make. I spent a day finding eight different cupcake images, tried to size them all the same, printed them out on white card stock, then had my husband cut them out. I spent forever trying to figure out what to use to hold the cards together and give me a place to put directions too, finally I took some florist cards and printed out stickers for directions. I like the way it all stays together, plus it was free.

Teacher's Gift Idea

My son had his last day of preschool recently and it was really hard to say goodbye to a great school that we spent three years with. I have watched my son grow and become a confident little boy ready to face Kindergarten. To say thank you to all of his teachers we made these adorable pots. I of course did not take a picture of the final project, I guess that means that we need to make at least 1 more. But here is the general idea.

We took some terra cotta pots, primed them white, had my son draw line to separate grass and sky, using a paint pen for terra cotta wrote along the top "thank you for helping me grow". We then using his thumb and finger we made flowers around the pot. When the paint dried I used some spray varnish to seal the pots and potted them with lavender. I think that the teacher's really liked these gift as they were handmade, but useful. Plus what women does not like the smell of lavender.

Cupcakes

Speaking of cupcakes I want to give a shout out to all these amazing people who have inspired me on this theme and for ideas on the take home gifts for the party that I am throwing.

These beauties are from http://lindaalbrecht.typepad.com/ and her Simple Things Blog, they made not be edible, but they sure look scrumptious. You should really see Linda's other work as it is just amazing. I am so inspired to play with paper now. Thanks, Linda.

This is a cute as pie (or should I say cupcake) pin from HappyBirdscraftinghaven.com, I just love the effects from the glitter.

Who could resist this cupcake? I love softies and this one by cherrymix is just so cute. I can picture all of the embellishments that one could do too.

I love this idea, pin the candle on the cupcake, it is available from tons of online retails for about $19.99, so not paying that, but will have fun making one of my own for sure.

I also loved what My Little Piece of that Azure Sky did for her little girl, check it out at http://davinie.blogspot.com/2008/04/cupcake-party-for-cupcake-lass.html

These are from CutieGoodie.etsy.com. I love the idea of personalised little felt take homes for the kids. This party is going to be so much fun. Now that I am full of ideas off to work I go.

Cupcake Invites

I am planning my daughter's 1st birthday and doing a cupcake theme. I am having kids all five and under so I am planning to do some cupcake decorating, pin the cherry or candle on the cupcake, and food in cupcake/muffin form. I think that this will be a blast. The hardest part was finding an invite that did not cost and arm and a leg. After hitting the wire for when the invites needed to get out I found a great cupcake image and using my very limited photoshop skills made up the invite. I hope that someone else can use this too. Take image 1 and print as many as you need, fill out the details in image 2 and using a red brad, attach the two at the cherry. Also image 1 would look awesome on vellum using the same method to attach and create the invite. I hope that you like. I am now on a mission to find some cardboard big enough to start making the felt board for the game. Happy crafting.