This precious SWEET JANE’S TRAVELING TEAHOUSE VINTAGE HIGH TEA PARTY was submitted by Kelly Holcroft of Sweet Jane’s Travelling Teahouse (Australia).
Oh my goodness, one look at the adorable pink polkadot “teahouse” traveling trailer and I was in love. What a lovely business…traveling around AU offering high tea services! And what an adorable birthday party at that!
This party is full of ideas. What a gorgeous bridal shower this would be…or a baby shower…or a teenage girl party. The possibilities are endless! Some of my favorite party ideas and elements are:
This fun SOCCER THEMED 6TH BIRTHDAY PARTY was submitted by Mareca Lacerda of Pequenos Luxos.
What a cute party theme for a boy! This soccer party is full of awesome ideas! Some of my favorite elements are:
This gorgeous ICE CREAM SHOPPE PARTY was submitted by the lovely Sarah Osmotherly of Sugar Coated Mama in Australia.
I just love the pastel color palette and the outdoor setting for this beautiful summer ice cream shoppe birthday party! Some of my most favorite ideas are:
The fabric ice cream cone hanging decorations
The tulle pom poms
The stunning 3-tier fondant cake topped with ice cream cone shaped cake pops
The cookies decorated to look like waffle cones and various ice cream flavors
Here’s what Sarah had to say about planning the party- “I scream, you scream… we all scream for Ice cream parties, they are the best! Nothing like a smorgasbord of toppings and treaties, delicious pastel colours and fresh ice cream, it’s scrumminess at its finest!! I was so excited about this party, everything from the location in the park, the beautiful colour palette, the delicious cake, the yummy toppings, it was heaven. My inspiration came from Kara’s amazing ice-cream and cherries party in 2011, I loved absolutely everything about it. It was one big drool session and will go down as one of my most favourite styled kids parties EVER, well done Kara. So I took lots of ideas from Kara’s (your) party and put my Sugar Coated Mama stamp on it. Many things were against me, my lovely white marquee blew away and broke in the wind, then the replacement tent broke in the wind, then with great faith, the third marquee was finally erected and thankfully stayed up the whole day. Despite a rocky start, it was a beautiful day for an ice-cream party!
There are a few DIY ideas in this little soiree; hand sewn ice-cream cones, workman’s horse I found from the side of the road painted up with a wood panel on top, hand painted shelving, left over material used as ribbon to hang off giant balloons and the scalloped pastel bunting.”
Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Pearl Gumballs Apothecary Jars Balloons Ice Cream Cups Striped Paper Straws Ribbon Mini Gumball Banks
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 fun and creative BUNCO THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTY was submitted by Cris McGrath of Crissy’s Crafts.
Bunco is such a fun game…what a good idea to create a whole party around the game! I’m sure Cris’ daughter and her friends had a blast at this fabulous celebration!
Fabulous party ideas I liked:
The Game Dice Shaped Cake Pops
The black and pink honeycomb lanterns hanging above the table
Cris said this about planning the party- “We had a BUNCO party to celebrate my daughter’s 14th Birthday. The girls didn’t know much about the game upon arrival but I explained the rules while they had dinner. We served all my daughter’s favorite appetizers for dinner like zingers, cream cheese/herbs dip(in the shape of a dice – made by my daughter), pizza rolls, dumplings, spring rolls and mozzarella sticks. After dinner we started the game and took a break after a couple rounds for some dessert! As per my daughter request, we had a chocolate fountain! It was a huge hit! None of the girls had ever had the pleasure to enjoy such yummy treat! As for dipping, they enjoyed some fresh strawberries, marshmallows, pretzels and Oreos.
We got back to the game and at that point all the girls were into the game! The music was loud, they were screaming and giggling! We had a bright pink boa that was passed around every time someone else scored a BUNCO! We were able to finish all the 6 rounds of the game! The winner took home the boa as a prize! We also had favors for all the girls! They took home giant plush dice, candy, chocolate bar and beads. After the game we sang Happy Birthday and opened the gifts. We had Oreo ice cream cake(my daughter’s favorite cake), dice cake pops and chocolate cornered fortune cookies for our second round of desserts! The girls loved playing BUNCO and now they want to organize a Mother/Daughter BUNCO Mexican Night!”