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.
This adorable CHILDREN’S FANCIFUL EASTER PARTY was submitted by Gemma Touchstone of Party Style. This entire printable collection is available as a FREE download HERE!
A few of my favorite elements in this fun and fanciful Easter party for children are:
The brightly colored glittery Easter eggs
The colorful egg carton favor boxes
The rainbow Peeps kebobs
and MORE!
Here’s what Gemma said about planning the party- “This amazing color-filled Easter party was a blast for the kids. Using elements from around the house, we just let color be the guide. Fun glassware, a glitter egg project, decorated ice cream containers filled with holiday treats, and sweet pastel M&M’s made this fanciful party one to remember. Printable Place settings, cupcake wrappers and straw flags are available in our Free Printable Guide for Easter 2013.”
Party Planning and Styling- Party Style
Photography- Party Style Magazine
To download the FREE Easter Printables by Party Style, CLICK HEREItems used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Ice Cream Cups Wooden Utensils Apothecary Jars Gumball Tubes Pearlized Gumballs
This fantastic EASTER DESERT BUFFET + PARTY was submitted by Cris McGrath of Crissy’s Crafts!
The printables used in this party are available for FREE here!
Such a cute party with so many adorable ideas! Perfect for Easter or any spring soiree! Some of my favorite elements in this Easter party are:
The Easter egg tree
The favor cones filled with fresh fruits and vegetables
The glass egg cups holding chocolate eggs
and MORE!
Here’s what Cris had to say about planning the party- “I always have a blast styling a party using Amanda’s Parties To Go printables! Amanda has the most adorable and colorful designs.
The dessert table was full of easy and colorful treats that were a feast to our tummies and eyes! To create the pallet backdrop, I glued several pieces of scrapbook paper found at Hobby Lobby to a foam board. I attached the Happy Easter Banner from Amanda’s free Easter collection and added mini wreaths to the backdrop. The sweets included Kisses push up pops, Tulip cake pops, Hershey’s chocolate, chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies, jelly beans and sweet popcorn. I kept the sweets simple and focused on the presentation using a lot of Spring items and took advantage of the huge items included in the printable set to really make the party pop. The party activity was to build and paint your own bird house, and of course we had an Easter Egg Hunt as well! It was a fun and happy way to welcome Spring and celebrate Easter!”
Photography and Styling- Crissy’s Crafts
Printables- Amanda’s Parties To Go
Cupcake topper- Edible Details
Party supplies, candy, favors and crafts- Oriental Trading
Adhesive and label paper- Onlinelabels.comItems used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Popcorn Boxes Paper Straws Push Pop Containers Treat / Favor Cones Polka Dot Nut / Candy Cups Striped Paper Bags Cupcake Liners Ribbon Tissue Balls Wooden Utensils
It’s Easter time! Today I’m excited to share these awesome FREE “HOPPY EASTER” PRINTABLES with you! These tags & cupcake toppers are perfect for all of your Easter favors and treats this year.
I just wanted to say THANK YOU for being the best part of Kara’s Party Ideas. So, from all of us here at Kara’s Party Ideas, THANK YOU, and Happy Easter!
xoxo
Kara
Download the FREE printables HERE. (Add the free desired file(s) to your cart and checkout, you will immediately receive an email containing a link to download your printable(s). You can also access your free printables anytime by going to www.KarasPartyIdeas.com/shop and clicking the ‘My Account’ tab. Once you login, just select ‘My Downloadable Products’ from the menu on the left. There’s no limit to how often you can access and download your printables!)
This is what Cris said about planning the party- “With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, now is the time to start planing your get together! Amanda’s Parties to Go and I teamed up to help make the festivities easy and fun for you! Amanda is offering a FREE St. Patrick’s Day Printable Set that made this party a breeze to style. I created a colorful sweet/snack table for the kids with a rainbow backdrop made out of ribbons where I displayed the banner from the set. I used the icons from the printable set to create the center pieces for the the sweet table and the kids table. I dressed up the candy containers using ribbons and the circle tags included in the set. I also used the tags to embellish the popcorn containers. The rainbow flags were added on the kabobs sticks and lollipops for an extra pop of color. As for healthy snacks, the guests enjoyed leprechaun whole wheat sandwiches, rainbow fruit kabobs, veggies and orange juice. After their lunch, the children had fun making rainbow necklaces and finding gold coins around the backyard. It was finally time to enjoy some sweets! Rainbow cupcakes, M&M’s, Hershey’s kisses, lollipops and cinnamon popcorn were enjoyed by all! Instead of the traditional rainbow and pot of gold favor, I created a cute favor by dressing up green pails using cupcake wrappers, filling them with gold coins and finishing up by adding a rainbow lollipop.
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