A 'Retro Kinda' Girls Bowling Birthday Party

Big sis just turned 5- WOW how time flies!!!  She requested a bowling birthday party which was GREAT since her party is in February and we froze our behinds off last year trying to do a Superhero Obstacle course outside.  Here are a few shots from the shin-dig :)

Colors: teal and a soft pinkish red
Cupcakes: Strawberry with double choclate chunck brownie mix on the bottom half, topped off with a teal cream cheese frosting= YUM!
Favors: Cute little Ice Cream Sundae bubbles from Dollar Tree
Invitations and Party Decor: Christy's Customs (yours truly!)

Thanks for stopping in to take a peak!

A Shabby Chic First Birthday

Little sis turned one this month.  I had a blast throwing all the details of her party together... a shabby chic sorta affair with a little country garden feel to it.

The Invites
I design the invites myself using Photoshop Elements and use a business postcard printer online to print- for about $25 I can get 50 of these on heavy duty card-stock, rounded corners, and envelopes!  They also print the back- so all the details (and more adorable pictures) go on the reverse side!  Love this little trick to help save money!!

 Making the Banners
I went to our librarian at school to see if she had any discard books (older books usually missing pages) and I was in luck!  I used old book pages, packaging paper (which is kind of a paper bag feel and you can get at any hardware store), and I printed out the letters on 4X6 lustre finish paper at Costco.  To make things go quicker, I used a spray glue I had left over to throw them together- and I loved how they turned out!!

The Outfit
I made this shabby chic little outfit {the tutorial is HERE} for under twenty dollars and only about an hour of time.  It turned out super cute when paired with boots and some ruffly socks!

The Decor
I went with a country garden feel... think burlap, red checkers, and mason jars!!  I found favors in Target's dollar section: hand shovels and rakes, bubble wands, and pin wheels.

The Grub
The hubby got up early to smoke us a pork shoulder... YUM!  So the menu included chips and salsa to snack on, BBQ Pork sandwiches with a homemade Carolina style BBQ sauce, sweet baked beans, salad, watermelon, and a fresh strawberry-cucumber water, lemonade and sweet tea to drink.  The cake was a delicious dark chocolate with strawberry filling with a smoosh cake in white cake for the munchkin... so fun!  A perfect welcome to summer :)

I had a blast putting it all together and most importantly, little sis had a great time with family and friends!!

PS- I am all about sharing... you can download all of the following tags and birthday banner letters HERE (They are JPEG files designed to print on 4X6... I use Costco and choose lustre finish which is similar to matte)!  Just share the love by following my blog :)

A {Girl Kinda} Superhero Birthday Party

Big sis just turned four... and big sis just happens to be a tough little cookie!  SO it wasn't that much of a surprise when she requested a superhero party... an orange superhero party, lol!  But her wish was my command, of course :)  Here are some shots from the fun little fiesta!

The Invites!

I found these fun (and free!) Superhero-ish fonts that made creating all our Superhero prints a breeze:

Badaboom BB
Digital Script

and you can find many more at this very cool Superhero Font site called Blambot Comic Fonts!  Check them out- they are amazing!!!

The Grub!

We decided on a simple menu: Superdogs and Veggies with Ranch... 

because Superheros Eat their Veggies!!!  The superdogs were easy to prepare too- we had two crockpots- one with the dogs and one with chili (because the adults need to eat too!) and a topping tray that I prepared the night before: onions, pickles, sauerkraut, cheese, tomatoes, and jalapeno and yellow peppers.

You can find the printables above by clicking the links below!
Superheros Eat Their Veggies and Superdogs Are Served- 8 1/2 X 11 Printable
Sound Effect Bubbles- 4 X 6 Index Card Printable
The Banner was made from Scrapbooking paper of the colors above, then I glued on the following letters to create the: Happy Fantastic Four and simply hung on string- super easy banner!!
Fantastic Four Banner Pt. 1- 8 1/2 X 11 Printable
Fantastic Four Banner Pt. 2- 8 1/2 X 11 Printable

The Capes!

Of course superheros need capes, right?!  You can find the tutorial with free templates HERE!

The Activities!

We did a "Superhero Training Course" with a "Villain" pinata at the end.  We had tied up baby dolls (poor things!) that our little superheros had to rescue by completing the different obstacles... but it just so happened to be FREEZING that day (of course!) so we cut the training course short and skipped to beating up on the poor villain... which my husband picked out-on his own-and happened to really be a Mexican Wrestler- close enough I suppose?!

Fun stuff, right??  They seemed to all have a blast despite the frigid conditions :)  Anyone else out there have little girls requesting superhero parties??

A DIY Shabby Chic Scrappy Tutu {No Sew!!}

 

So I fell in love with this skirt from Lullaby Birds on Etsy... I blame Pinterest!! And when I decided I wanted to do a shabby chic country garden theme for little sis' first birthday... I knew I had to have one!  The problem: my hubby might shoot me if I spend $30 on a skirt for my little one AND it was just the wrong colors.  So, what was I to do but make my own!

Now, by all means, if you have tons of quilting scraps laying around, use those!  I didn't and as I mentioned before, I was after certain colors, so I made my trusty trip to JoAnns, found the first paisley print that I just fell in love with and found five other fabrics to compliment it..

I bought 1 ft. of each fabric, which was more than enough and spent less than $10.  And luckily, my girlfriend let me borrow her rottary cutter and cutting board, so this went super fast and easy!!

I measured from sis' waist to her knees and got 9".  I doubled that and added one inch for tying.

EX: Measure from waist to knee ___ X 2 + 1" = length of strips

Next I measured her waist... 18".  The way I was tying, I needed 2 strips for every one inch.

EX: Measure of waist ____ X 2 = the amount of strips needed.

We used 36 (19" X 2") strips of fabric for her tutu... she is one year old!  For older kiddos, I would probably make the strips wider along with adding the appropriate length and amount needed... possibly 3"strips?  This tutu hit just above her knees.

 You could easily use elastic for the waistband, but I chose ribbon.  I cut enough ribbon to go around her waist plus extra on each end for tying a pretty bow.  To begin adding the scraps, I used a chair and tied the ribbon to both legs of a chair to hold it tight.  I started in the middle, using a double square knot to tie the strips snugly on and worked my way out.  I had 6 strips of 6 different patterns... and because I am slightly OCD, I tied mine on in the same pattern every time.  NOT necessary at all... unless you are like me, lol!

 The entire tutu took me about 1 hour from start to finish.  I couldn't beleive how quick and easy and ADORABLE it really was!  A few pictures of the try on...

and in the cherry orchard...

and in front of the old white barn :)

Thanks for stopping in, and thanks again to Lullaby Birds for their great inspiration!

UPDATE:  See the birthday girl in action in her super cute outfit HERE!

Linking up:

DIY Superhero Capes {Printable Templates Included!!}

Well big sis wanted a superhero birthday party for her 4th... so what else was there to do but to make superhero capes!!! {You can see her party here}

I searched on-line and found a few tid-bits here and there, but nothing that really seemed to help all that much, soooo, we basically started from scratch!  Lucky for you, if you ever need to make a superhero cape for your little angel, I saved everything I did right here!

The first main decision came down to time and money (doesn't it always!?).  I decided to go with a felt cape versus a shinny material because 1. it is super cheap and 2. it won't fray so you don't have to break out the sewing machine!  Once I decided that, I gathered the following materials...

Materials:
Felt by the yard (2ft. cut length per every two capes needed)
A pack of assorted color felt sheets for the emblems
Spray Adhesive
Velcro squares or 1" Velcro to cut
Christy's Customs Superhero Cape Template
Christy's Customs Superhero Cape Shapes and Letters Templates

{The template above is designed to print out on normal 8 1/2 X 11 printer paper.  Download the template by clicking on the above link and saving each of the seven pieces.  When printing, treat the JPEG file as a picture.  Choose 8 1/2 X 11 paper size and choose BORDERLESS printing.  The borderless printing will preserve the correct proportions of the template and is usually only an option when printing pictures.  I personally would choose to print in draft to save ink.  Once the template is printed, you simply lay the pieces out and use tape to hold them together.  Cut along the dark line to get your cape template.  This cape size works well for 3-6 year old children}

Lay out your felt (most is sold doubled over- I left mine so each template cut out resulted in two capes) placing the template on top.  Use a washable marker to lightly trace the template.  Cut out.

Using the Shapes and Letters template above, print out the shape for a background and letter for the child's first name.  Cut out and use for templates on the assorted color felt choices.  Using spray adhesive, coat the back of the felt shape, place on cape, and felt letter, also placing on cape.

Now the Velcro to hold the cape on... oh how I wish I could tell you to spray the back of the Velcro and stick it on too... but you will need something a bit stronger than spay adhesive to hold on the Velcro... ours pulled off after the first hour or so.  A few stitches would be best to add on your little cape neck closers!

And wha-la!  Happy little superheros!

For age reference... big sis had just turned 4 in this picture, while cousin is 6 1/2.  The capes seemed to work well for both sizes!

And- KAPOW!  There you have it!  Super simple.  I did 8 of them in just a couple hours one evening and gave them as party favors.  I wish I had taken a picture of all of them, but in the rush of the party, I forgot- oh well! 

I'd love to hear if you use the templates... I'd love to know that someone else got use out of them too :-)  So please share if you do!