Step One- Trace a circle shape the size of the bottom of the party hat.
Step Two- Fill hat with candy.
Step Three- Cover bottom of party hat with small piece of tissue paper. Glue with hot glue around bottom edge of hat.
Step Four- Poke hole in middle of round card stock circle and pull twine through hole.
Step Five- Tie string around toothpick and pull tight.
Step Six- Cover toothpick side of circle with hot glue.
Step Seven- Attach circle piece to tissue paper / bottom of party hat with hot glue.
Step Eight- Wrap party hat in paper fringe (available in all colors for only $3 here). You can alternate colors or leave all the same color. Whatever your heart desires!
Step Nine- Attach string or yarn to the top of the party hat with hot glue.
And VIOLA! You now have a fun pull string piñata!
BONUS- Use the piñata as a party hat once the candy is out of it!
I was so excited for the April issue of Parenting Magazine! I had the honor of styling a Harry Potter themed birthday party for both the Early Year and School Year April issues!
Being a part of the editorial advisory board for Parenting has been fabulous! When Sabrina James (Style & Fashion Director) asked me if I would like to work on another fun project for them I just couldn’t resist! I will admit, when she asked if I would do a Harry Potter party my first thoughts weren’t all warm and fuzzy. It was a party theme outside of my comfort zone, and a theme I had never done. But now, it’s one of my most favorite parties to date!
If you haven’t yet, be sure and grab a copy of the April Parenting Magazine to see the full spread along with other fabulous parties styled by The Tomkat Studio & Oh Happy Day!
Photography by Valerie Hart.
Decor
The party was set out on Harry Potter inspired items like an old steamer trunk, some vintage suitcases, a british inspired telephone booth shelf and a book themed end table.
Candles were hung from the ceiling with fishing line to create a floating candle effect.
Old books are an easy way to stage a lot of the party food/decor. They go along perfectly with the Harry Potter theme, too.
The printable lightning banner, paper ties, argyle cupcake wrappers, invitation, Hogwarts Express sign and food labels/place cards are all part of the Harry Potter printable collection in the Kara’s Party Ideas Shop.
Invitation
This Harry Potter fill-in-the-blank invitation is a simple download from Kara’s Party Ideas shop. Roll it up and attach it to a white balloon, acting as the “delivery owl” from Harry Potter. Use a black permanent marker to draw an owl face onto the balloon. I weighed down the invitation with a vintage key.
Popcorn Bar
Since children will be watching Harry Potter at the party, provide a fun popcorn bar! This one included caramel corn, original corn & kettle corn. Parmesan seasoning and salt were set out for added flavor. Find the wooden scoops, signs & popcorn baskets in the Kara’s Party Ideas Shop- www.KarasPartyIdeas.com/shop
Butter Beer
Cream Soda acted as “Butter Beer” at the party. To create the foaming effect simply add vanilla ice cream to each drink.
Hogwarts Express Sign
Bring the feel of the Hogwarts Express Train Station into your party with this printable sign available in the KPI shop.
Butter Beer Candy Favors
Small glass salt and pepper shakers perfectly resemble mugs, so they were filled with butterscotch candies and labeled as “Butter Beer Candy Favors”. A vintage key was attached to the top of each jar with twine.
Owl Glasses
If a few simple steps, make these darling owl glasses for the kids to wear at the party.
- Pop out the center eye pieces of inexpensive glasses or sunglasses (available at the dollar store).
Attach white and brown feathers to each side of the pair of glasses with hot glue.
For the nose, cut a diamond shape piece out of orange card stock and make a crease down the middle. Glue the piece in-between the eyes of the glasses with hot glue.
Hanging Key Activity
These darling chocolate keys were made with a key candy mold from the KPI shop & melted chocolate. The keys were hung from a broom with twine. A child held up the broom as children tried to eat the keys with their hands behind their backs or at their side.
Party Activity- Magic Potion Station
Clear plastic gumball tubes from the KPI shop were filled with lemon lime soda. Three small honey jars, also from the shop, were filled with different flavored Koolaid drink mix. Koolaid is perfect because it’s a very light color, so the children can’t tell what flavor it actually is. The kids spooned the Koolaid into their tube of soda & watched in amazement as their color was revealed!
Paper Ties
These darling HP inspired printable ties are available in the KPI shop and are simple to print and cut out. Attach the ties to inexpensive elastic headbands and put the ties on guest as they arrive at the party.
Candy Stick Wands
Rock candy sticks from the KPI shop were placed in an owl vase as “Candy Wizard Wands”.
Honey Dukes Candy Shop
Small burlap bags from Kara’s Party Ideas shop were set out for the kids to fill with various types of candy from “Honey Dukes Candy Shop”, including actual Bertie Bott’s Every Falvour Beans, also available in the KPI shop here.
Owl Cake
Make this cake with fondant or gum paste pieces, cut to resemble leaves or feathers, and layer the pieces up the side of the cake. This cake was made by the talented Marcee, owner of Dippidee.
Owl Cupcakes
Easily make these cute owl cupcakes with vanilla icing, mini vanilla wafers, chocolate chips, almond slices and cashews. The argyle cupcake wrappers are from the Kara’s Party Ideas Shop here.
Golden Snitch Gumballs
Gold gumballs from the KPI shop were put in a jar and labeled as “Golden Snitch Gumballs”.
Golden Snitch Cookies
These were made with store bought banana cream cookies and yellow card stock. Simply cut the card stock into wing shaped pieces and insert the ends of the “wings” into each side of the cookies.
Chocolate Frogs
Simply make these with a frog candy mold from the KPI shop and melted chocolate. The frogs were set a top of an open book for added HP charm.
Party Favor- Truth Serum
Cute miniature glasses with cork lids from the KPI shop here were filled with water, mimicking “truth serum”. What mother wouldn’t love her child to come home from a party with this! The tags are part of the HP printable collection in the KPI shop.
Gowns
Inexpensive children’s graduation gowns look just like Hogwarts gowns! A gown was given to each child as they arrived at the party. The gowns are available in the Kara’s Party Ideas online shop here.
**UPDATE** This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Nicole Day for winning! More fabulous giveaway’s like this one coming soon!
Who’s ready to win some PARTY PRODUCTS!! How about $300 worth?! Woot, woot!
Today I am giving away a $300 GIFT CERTIFICATE to my SHOP! Think of all that you could buy for $300! (Giveaway open WORLDWIDE!)
So, here’s the scoop…
One of my employees is an avid cylcist and my shop helps sponsor his riding. He is trying to win a $4k sponsorship from First Endurance. I wanted to support him and see him win this thing… so let’s help him out!!! I’m going to give a $300 gift card to one of my lucky followers that takes the time to vote for my employee in the contest he’s in!
ENTER TO WIN THE $300 GIFT CARD TO KARA’S PARTY IDEAS SHOP VIA THE RAFFLECOPTER FORM BELOW (Open Worldwide!):
Please note: Entries will not work on mobile devices.
Mandatory- You MUST do first step on form below (like First Endurance on Facebook AND vote for ‘Team Party’) to have a qualified entry in the giveaway!
Here’s what Nellie said about planning the party- “Coming up with this theme for our daughter, Navy’s, first birthday was easy! With a nautical name, it was only her destiny to have a fun Sailor Girl themed party! I am the owner and designer of nellie*design, and I create printable party invites & decorations, so I considered this a high priority job and had a blast creating a beautiful and special day to celebrate my baby girl!
To set the tone for the party, each guest received a simple, preppy invitation in the mail, inside of a 5×7 flat kraft paper bag. I wrapped a {printable} envelope address label around the outside of the kraft bag to personalize them, and secured the “envelope” closed with navy polka dot washi tape! The invites are double sided, with a fun navy polka dot pattern background.
At the party, the party favor table was a main focal point. Pink & navy tissue poms made a fun statement as the back drop, with a printable birthday banner. Each little sailor received their own personalized sailor hat and a box full of “life rings” {aka powdered donuts!}. The sailor hats were personalized with a printable name tag.
The Sweets Table was another highlight of the party, with pink frosted cupcakes, a polka dot cake, mini fruit pizzas and other fun treats. Printable party decor spruced up the table with food label tent cards, cupcake topper “sails”, large “sail” signage and party tags. A navy and white striped wooden boat hull was filled with take-home pretzel fish snacks and a large sail played as the backdrop for the table.
Some of my favorite food/drink items that coordinated with the theme, included a watermelon “boat” and pink lemonade filled with blueberries! The drink station was a “printable party” dream… with everything labeled, from the water bottles, to juice boxes to flags on each navy striped straw. Mason jars were tied with a printable tag and a life saver candy.”
Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Favor / Cupcake Boxes Striped Paper Straws Mason Jars Washi Tape Jute Twine Lollipop / Treat Sticks Tissue Pom Poms
The above red buckets are available in my shop. I simply glued on two white circles to make them look like Mickey Mouse. The same idea could also be used at a Minnie Mouse party…just get black buckets (or pink) and glue polka dots onto the buckets.
Make these hats out of regular red party hats from my shop and black paper circles. Simply attach two black paper circles to the back of the party hat.
Tutorial on how to make the above balloon wreath on the video at the top of this post.
Tutorial on how to make the cupcake liners in the below video…
Watch the video below to learn how to make these adorable Mickey Mouse Oreo pops!
Make the above lanterns out of Chinese lanterns available in the shop. Simply attach round paper circles to the backs of the lanterns.
With the ingredients below make these fun Mickey Mouse caramel apples! Tutorial on the video.
Make the below Mickey Mouse gumball machine by attaching black paper circles to the back of the machine with tape.
Tutorial on how to make the above Mickey Mouse favor bags in the video at the top of this post.
Tutorial on how to make these fun Mickey Mouse Oreo pops on the video at the top of the post.
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