The whole year of planning...yes a full year and some days of putting this day together is finally here.
Here's some quick info:
Theme: Mermaid
Favors: Chevron tote (DIY # 1) with turquoise shell headband & clips (DIY # 2 ) and candies
Chevron bag with foam ship and candies
Centerpieces: foam ships and animal clothes pin clips
Decorations: inflatable sea animals
Main dessert: sea green cupcakes from Vons
On her first birthday we normally
have a big blessing ceremony so we had lots of guests. Apart of having a
lot of guests we had to have a lot of food as well. Most of that I let
my mom handle. Yay mom!
So then there was my part. The decor, cake, invitations, centerpieces…anything non food related really.
I had some many ideas. The photo
storage on my phone was blowing up because I had to snap all the
inspirational ideas I found online or in magazines at the doctors
office. After I figured out what I wanted to do I need to find out who
would
do them with me. I mean I only have 2 hands. This is when my socially
awkward self flips through my phone log and wonders
hum who have I kept in touch with enough to ask for a favor. The
cool thing about asking for favors is the people who do the favors
usually never ask for return backs like I don’t get conversations that
go “remember when you called me at 9am to wrap
cake pops? Well I need you to return the favor.” It doesn’t happen very
often for me so if you think about it im just politely asking for free
labor. Well that and my awesome company that is :P
So my loving cousin PS and amazing
friend KB arrive at the house. We munch, chat and they see the mess
they’ve gotten themselves into. One of the things I value is my friends.
I mean good friends….not the people that are just acquaintances.
When you talk to good friends the conversation never stops and that’s
what I love about it. I think I might have lured them in when a
conversation text like:
“Hey. How are you doing?”
“Good. How about you?”
“Lets have lunch sometimes”
“Yeah. Just let me know when.”
“What about this Saturday? 12 noon my house. I’ll grab us lunch”
“Ok”
“See you then. Oh yeah bring an extra glue gun.”
So we begin assembly. I think we made over 25 headbands and hair clips. Fun times.
So let’s breakdown the party.
THEME & INVITES
I had some many different ideas to
what her first birthday party theme might be. I like ballerinas, pretend
play, dolls and then somehow I ended up with mermaid. I think it’s
because I saw this cute sleeping mermaid baby that gave me the
inspiration to have that.
I
knew I didn’t want to sew the mermaid tail because there were just too
many different styles to choose from so I crocheted it. I loved that
crocheting really challenged my current techniques. I learned new
stitches and even got better
with it when I made my second crochet tail (I had to make a second
because I crocheted it so early in the planning I couldn’t find it when I
was planning out the invites.) the second tail took about 2 weeks to
complete. The treasure chest I got as an Easter
basket. I should have cut the handles, but I think it was cute leaving
it on there. The fishes ended up coming out better than expected. They
were a pack of 3 with a fishing reel for $3. The “ground” was a throw
blanket and the “water” was my bed sheet.
The resolution on my camera wasn’t so
good that’s why there was a blur and the ripple next to Em’s tail was
made by accident, but it made it look as if she was moving.
FAVORS
I knew I wanted to make something
special. Maybe headbands for the girls and bow tie clips for the boys,
but the bow ties didn’t fit in with the mermaid theme so I scratched
that. I worked on the chevron totes and then the seashell headbands.
DIY 1: Mini Chevron Tote
Materials:
Mini Tote bag
Painter’s tape
Paint brush
Acrylic paint
1.
Use painter’s tape to create your image.
2.
Paint the open areas
So I we worked on the headbands and clips.
DIY 2: Seashell Headband
Materials
Felt (any color)
Candle (this is for the singeing of the felt)
Band (purchased on etsy)
Scissors
Beads, other embellishments
Bookmakers
Whole puncher
Needle and thread
I
used E6000 to glue the shells on because it’s quick to dry, but it
smelled so strong. If you use this use in a very ventilated place. So
what I did was put all the headbands in a bag and put a candle in the
bag for a few days to help
mask the smell and eventually it went away. Next time ill try to be
more patient and use the hot glue gun.
Use a stencil or free hand different circle of different sizes on the felt.
Light
the candle and hold one of the felt circles a few inches from the
flame. Just enough to singe the edge and keep rotating until the whole
outer edge is burnt.
Measure
out the band. The guide that I used on this was Em’s head. I didn’t
make it too tight around hers, then I measured mine which I stretched it
a little bit. Then I used the middle of those 2 to guess the length.
But if you know exactly
the length you want it then that makes it easier for you.
