Jillian said this about the party- “My daughter Willow, is absolutely IN love with Dr. Seuss. She loves the books and the movies. The Lorax and Horton Hears a Who being her favorites. Naturally we decided to theme her 1st birthday with Dr. Seuss. We started the morning just us and our house guests with Green Eggs and Ham! It was delicious!
The invitations. I had some wording help from Pinterest, but designed the whole thing in photoshop. These images and wording are NOT my images please remember this. I only used them for personal use for the invitations.
For the party we kept the colors at blue and red. We had a blue chocolate fountain which was a huge hit! The cake was made and designed by Imagine it Cakes in El Paso, Texas. Every time Willow looked at the cake she giggled, she loved it!
Another idea I grabbed from Pinterest was Moose Juice and Goose Juice, from Dr. Seuss’s The Sleep Book. Conveniently The Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook had the recipes for the juice in it!
I even coordinated the favors! Crayon Rolls, coloring books, and snack bags! I put them in red bags with blue tissue paper. Crayon Roll was made by MrsCraftyRVing and the snack bags were made by Crafts By Diana.
We had everyone sign my daughter’s copy of the book by Dr. Seuss: Happy Birthday to You!”
Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Dr Seuss Party Supplies Chevron Striped Paper Straws Crepe Paper Streamers Tissue Pom Poms
This colorful CATERPILLAR BABY EINSTEIN THEMED FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY was submitted by Barbara Rivera & Monica Melendez of Just Imagine.
This caterpillar party is so adorable and would be great inspiration for a Very Hungry Caterpillar or a Baby Einstein party too! A few of my favorite ideas and elements are:
The colorful cake pops lined up to look like a caterpillar
The antennae headband party favors
The paper lanterns and balloons hung to look like colorful caterpillars
and MORE!
Barbara and Monica said this about planning the party- “Our friend wanted a colorful theme birthday party for her son’s first birthday. She likes “The Baby Einsteins” but she only wanted the caterpillar because she didn’t like the others little animals. She also likes ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ but not the colors. So we took both themes and this is what we came up with.”
Design and decor: Just Imagine
Balloons decor: Amazing Balloons
Cake and cookies: S&E Bakery
Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Jute Twine Decorative Paper Shred Balloons Paper Lanterns Tin Pails Paper Straws Clear Cellophane Bags Popcorn Boxes Apothecary Jars
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 is what Louise said about planning the party- ”‘Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you’…. Dr Seuss is fantastic for both Adults and Kids. We are such big fans. We celebrated in Seussian style with our digital printable set from SunshineParties on Etsy. Our Dr Seuss party was held at home with a close group of friends. It was such a colourful fun party to create.
Decor:
Dr Seuss has many different characters, so we chose to do a Classic Dr Seuss party. As Dr Seuss is fun and quirky, this opened the flow of ideas.
We created the backdrop with fabric we bought from a local fabric store. We made tissue paper pom poms in white and blue to match the colour scheme. Our Flags that hang on the backdrop are printed and handmade. We placed our Party this way that way sign in front of the party table for depth. Laying out the food table was such fun.
The printables include Cupcake toppers, Cupcake wrappers, Birthday Party Banners, Thank you favors, Food labels, Games ideas and so much more! All digital design elements can be printed on a home PC printer and handmade. This makes the party unique and still affordable! With a little creativity this party can be amazing.
Food:
Thinking of food names got the brains working, and was such a hoot! We used Candy Floss as Cotton Candy, a local sweet called Fizzers as our some things, marshmallows dipped in chocolate, strawberries dipped in chocolate, candy wrappers covering Lindt bars. Every food item was either blue, red or white. All the food was a hit!”
Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Stand Up Dr Seuss Dr Seuss Party Supplies Dr Seuss Hats Dr Seuss Paper Hats Bakers Twine Pillow Boxes Tissue Pom Pom Flowers Lanterns Striped Paper Straws Glass Milk Bottles Apothecary Jars
This creative NOAH’S ARK THEMED TWINS BIRTHDAY PARTY was submitted by Kelly Little.
I love the idea of throwing a gender neutral Noah’s Ark party for twins and focusing on the animals that went “two by two” (just like twins) as well as the vibrant colors of the rainbow. What a fun party!
A few of the highlights to look for are:
The watermelon carved into the shape of an ark and used to serve fruit
The Noah’s Ark themed cake, complete with animals and, of course, an ark
The birthday girl’s rainbow fabric strip and ribbon skirt
The ark shaped felt favor / activity bags filled with felt finger puppet animals
Here’s what Kelly said about planning the party- “What better theme for twins turning 2 than a 2×2 Party? It’s always a challenge to find fun gender-neutral party themes, so I thought a Noah’s Ark Party was the perfect way for my little boy and girl to celebrate their birthday together! Also, I loved all the fun rainbow party inspiration I had been seeing, so this was a great way to bring together my love for bright colors and my twins’ love of animals!
The centerpiece of the party was the “Taste the Rainbow” treat table including Rainbow Dipped Oreos & Pretzel Twigs, Marshmallow Lollipops with Rainbow Sprinkles, and Rainbow Licorice. And I absolutely adored the gorgeous Noah’s Ark cake from Elizabeth’s Cakes.
Other details included an ark made from watermelon (which served as a fruit bowl and was surprisingly easy to make!), felt ark gift bags with pairs of animal finger puppets for party favors, and a wooden ark bean bag toss that my husband and I made together.
Of course the main attraction was the adorable petting zoo of baby animals from Cathy’s Critters. We had quite a large age range of kids at the party, and the animals were a huge hit with them all!”
Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Tissue Pom Poms Scallop Circle Paper Punch Lollipop / Treat Sticks Balloons Ribbon Whirly Pops Unicorn Pops
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