Birthday party invitation

Man, it's that time of year again and I'll have a seven year old on my hands in the next little while. I'm still getting my head around that! We got the idea for her party invitations from the Travel Issue of Lotta Magazine, and I think they turned out really well (once I got my technique down-pat!). If you don't know Lotta Magazine you should, especially if you have kids! It's an ad-free kids' activity magazine out of Australia and I love it.

Basically it's just an A4 piece of card folded in half with plastic over a window and behind that is an image. You fill up the space with glitter and confetti and then glue it all down and it's a snow globe!



It's actually a bit trickier than they made it sound, and instead of gluing around the window, I used double-sided sticky tape. The glue wouldn't stick to the plastic and tape and so all the glitter fell into the space around the hole instead of staying inside the dome. The tape worked really well, although it was a bit labour-intensive.  The other issue is gluing all the stuff down without getting glue on top of the image, as you can see by the glitter clustered around the candles, I didn't quite manage it with the tiny pieces!

Hazel's sewing box

As I said in my previous post, my original present idea for Hazel was a sewing box filled with all sorts of notions and girly sewing needs.  I found a great wicker one in an second hand shop and it came filled with odd 'n ends, old wooden spools of thread, embroidery thread etc. Naturally I kept that for myself and bought Hazel new stuff - I mean, she's not going to appreciate wooden spools is she?



The box was essentially sound but looked a bit dry and the inner lining was in dire straits on the bottom.  The padded top was in ok shape, a bit battered and stained but I love the folding and wanted to keep it in lieu of a pincushion.







I  deliberated about the interior for awhile, to keep intact or not?  In the meantime I gave the outside a light going-over with Danish Oil which improved its appearance markedly. But made it stink. It still does a bit!



Then I decided that I'd replace the bottom lining and put new braid around the edges.  I had a scrap of Liberty that suited it perfectly.



Gluing down the braid was heinous and I didn't do the best job ever. Though having said that it looks a LOT wonkier in this photo than it does in real life!  There's definitely an art to it that I'm not privy to.



Hazel seems quite pleased with it, though like many presents from the day it's languishing somewhat due to all the competition!

Dumpling Dynasty Bunny

Along with the Mee a Bee bag, I wanted to put together a sewing kit for Hazel for her birthday, she's been asking and asking for one. I found this great vintage wicker sewing basket in an op shop, full of odds 'n ends (and 3 silverfish!) and refurbished it (another post because I'm doing this one from University during my office hours ahem). Then a bit later on as part of the Ice Cream Social I needed the pattern and found it over at Kelani Fabric Obsession. Of course on such a nice website it would be criminal not to browse around and look at the loveliness and while doing that (and studiously NOT looking at any of the fabrics) I found this little kit - the Dumpling Dynasty Easy Sew Bunny Kit. I mean, how could I not add it to my cart? They also do a cute little sewing kit but that would have rather defeated the purpose.

The really appealing part of the kit is that it comes with everything you need and the holes already punched into the fabric

which makes Hazel actually sew properly instead of the free-form she's currently producing. Which is all well and good but it needs to get directed at some point! You also get a wee journal and pencil to record your adventures and a gorgeous little tin to keep it all in. I especially love that the two girls on the front look a lot like Hazel and her friend Chloe (awwwww!) and the little phrase 'Make with Joy' top right. I'm sure it's just pandering to all my preconceptions of Chinese products but it's damn cute!

Hazel really enjoyed making it, though she's incredibly impatient and still has to learn that there are steps that need to be completed first - boring things before the fun. But this is such a great way for her to learn that and she gets a cute bunny at the end. We've finished the bunny and the dress is still to go - I think Hazel is actually quite happy with her fuzzy pink bunny ("it's fur is SO FUZZY LIKE A KITTEN mummy!") that the dress is a bit incidental. Plus of course the mini-me American Girl doll and fuzzy puppy arrived from NY a few days later so much has fallen by the wayside since then :)

The Mee a Bee puppy bag

Here in New Zealand kids start school the day after they turn 5 so not only were were getting ready for Hazel's birthday but we also had to start thinking about school stuff!  Because she's been going to créche for several years it wasn't such a big shock and we had lunch boxes and all that, but we needed a good school bag.  One of my first thoughts was a bag from Mee a Bee. Hazel and I had a good browse around but as it turned out the bags were too small to fit her lunchbox in so they weren't an option for school - but Hazel had fallen in love with one made from fabric with dogs on it.  I got in touch with Jacqui and it turned out that she had a larger dog one partially made so I bought it for Hazel's birthday.  It came with a little extra in the form of some super-cute Japanese stickers and a writing set, which I neglected to take a photo of before they were used!  Despite having two boys Jacqui obviously knows the way to a little girl's heart :) But here's the bag (it has a lovely pale grey striped lining)

I saw another Mee a Bee bag at a children's play last month and they're very distinctive, I spotted it right away! It's funny how that works, I look at the website and then literally the next day there one is across the room.  They're just so small and cute! Perfect for littlies - and this one being a bit larger is perfect for a 5 year old because you can fit in a Barbie or two (if only that was all she had!)

The swing tag is still there not because I'm trying to garner favour with Jacqui but because Hazel won't let me take it off. I tried, I was there with the scissors and she was all "NO! Leave it!" and when I asked why she said "because it's cute" which is pretty much her raison d'être these days and I don't dare argue with it.

Party invitations

Well phew, so that's all over and Hazel's off at her first day of school. Talk about cramming it all into one weekend plus the farewell at créche on Friday (which reduced me to tears if not Hazel!).  I've been battling sciatica as a result of a slipped lumbar disk too, so sitting hasn't been all that fun for the last couple weeks - nor has anything much! Ladies, Do. Your. Abdominal. Exercises. after your baby is born, let me and my lack of muscles be a dire warning to you.  Here I am 5 years later paying the price for my laziness and procrastination.

After a lot of mind-changing Hazel had settled on an animal 'theme' for her birthday - I use that term loosely as the only thing animal about it, other than the behaviour of the kids which was distinctly feral at times, was the invitation and the suggestion that the invitee should dress as their favourite animal. That actually got them incredibly excited and there was a lot of "Hazel's mum, Hazel's mum! Guess what costume I'm going to be wearing to her party!" when I picked her up on créche days. As it turns out, princesses are a kind of animal - did you know that?

The invitation got a lot of compliments and I was pretty pleased with how it all went so I thought I'd share it with you - and make the photograph available for people to download if anyone else has a small party animal to plan for.  Click on it to go through to Flickr and then Actions/All Sizes/Download (original size)

It's simply a photo of some of Hazel's Schleich animals that has been Photoshopped till it begged for mercy and then Mat found some appropriate clip art to finish it off.  Hazel thought the photo corners were hilarious but they made me miss real photo albums and the process of putting photos in and licking the corners. Well ok, so I've never really done that on a large scale, seeing as plastic photo pockets had been invented by the time I got my own camera and albums! But you know, my parent's albums and my baby photos (in black and white!) look pretty classy with the photo corners. Besides, I've had a packet of them lurking around for years so I was pleased to get to use them!

I printed off the photos myself (3 per page) so they would fit on the front of half a sheet of A4 paper folded in half - whatever measurement that is, with the text printed on the inside. Pretty easy to set up on Word or in Photoshop and print off yourself.

Party Favour bags

A couple people expressed surprise that there could be debate over such innocuous little things, and I guess it's because it's not a long-standing tradition here in NZ from what I can gather, but has been imported wholesale from the States (like Hallowe'en) and therefore garners a certain amount of resistance in some circles. You know, the whole consumerism/cost issue. I can see both sides but since I bought up with them on a moderate scale that's where I'm choosing to be as a mum. It's hard to not go OTT though, I can totally see that being a big issue for me!

I'd been tossing a few ideas around in my head even from several months ago, but they really crystallised when I saw the Birthday Goodies and papercraft download post over at Chez Beeper Bebe - she'd used lots of things I already had sitting on my computer, like the stickers, and had put them together in a really fun way. So I shamelessly stole several ideas :)

I started with stickers from Lotta Bruhn - the animal ones for the girls and the space ones for the boys. I don't think I actually needed to do that, the animal ones would have been good for everyone but I wanted an excuse to do the space ones too!


I printed them off onto repositionable sticker paper and then cut and peeled them off and put them onto plain paper and stapled them in one corner. This was the bit that took all the time but I couldn't bring myself to leave them on the original backing as it was so ugly! I think they'll work well on windows and walls but haven't had any feedback yet on how good they are.

We also did up little colouring books following the tutorial at Chez Beeper although I didn't end up using her very detailed instructions on setting up pages etc. because we use A4 paper with different dimensions and I also have a husband who uses Adobe In Design :P Had to keep him involved in some way or other!



I popped in a few little coloured pencils for use in the car on the way home, and a bag of jellybeans to get them even higher on sugar. Because really, that's what it's all about right? Get them wired on sugar and hyped by running around screaming like banshees and then send them home when they start to crash? The favour bags are the best way to lure them out of the house and into their parent's cars I've found...

The pièce de résistence though were the little brooches made for me by Lyn at Belle and Rose - dinosaurs for the boys, icecreams for the girls. And yes, Hazel's desperate for a dinosaur! They really are to die for - thanks Lyn!



They all went into spotty cotton bags with a ribbon tie. I really should have taken a photo of them together in the basket, they looked really cute!

Birthday preparations

Let's pretend I actually blogged about this before the party shall we? Great.

I decided that Hazel, being a four year old girl, needed a crown and wand for the party and duly constructed them.



The crown was made from the pattern at Koala Brains, with embellishments inspired by Woodcraft's felt crown and another one that had cute embroidery on it but I'm darned if I can find it again to credit it! I started with the big felt flower, and then had the idea with the button flowers, and then decided to round it out with some little plain plants similar to the ones I've been loving over at Tiny Happy. I don't often do things in that sort of organic way, I tend to be more planned, but I really enjoyed the process of just adding things until it looked right.



For the wand I followed the instructions over at Little Birdie Secrets and I think it came out ok, but perhaps would have been better with shorter ribbons and more of them.



Whatever, I think it looks pretty good and I'll be doing another one for her friend Suzy so will get a chance to get it more to my taste. The best thing about making the wand was curling the ribbons - it's like magic! The only issue I had is a couple of my dowels exuded resins during the baking which soaked into the ribbons and ruined them. Next time I'll cover the dowels with foil before wrapping the ribbon around and that should solve that problem. Made the house smell nice though, like a pine forest on a hot day!

Hazel being four though, didn't really want a bar of either item! She spent most of her party tearing around the house holding model dinosaurs. This created a conflict in my heart - on one hand I was a bit crushed that she didn't appreciate all that hard work, but on the other hand I'm really pleased that she's into dinosaurs! Archaeologists don't dig up dinosaurs, but they really are the next best thing (or possibly even better to be honest) so I'll cross my fingers she becomes a palaentologist and takes her old mum on excavations sometimes.

Birthday Invitations

Birthday Invitations, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

I finally got around to distributing Hazel's birthday invitations I created from Go Make Me's .pdf - took an embarrassingly long time but I make the excuse that I was busy discovering that my printer won't print on any paper heavier than 200gsm. An expensive lesson to learn! I think they turned out really well even on that weight paper. I just realised that the swings are facing the wrong way to the camera on the two front trees, you can see on the back one that they actually look quite 3-D and sit-on-able. I also had some 'issues' with my printer scaling things, so some of the trees ended up being smaller than they had to be! So printables aren't all sunshine and roses, there can be "technical difficulties" in producing them :P

Printable birthday gear

Oooo I'm so excited about Hazel's birthday invitations this year! I also need to add that I love the internet, internet shopping, and people who design fabulous stationary that you can download and print yourself.

For last year's invitation we used this great template from How About Orange and glued on buttons to make flowers. They were super cute and Hazel was able to help by choosing the buttons and pressing them into the hot glue.

This year, I'm spoiled for choice. Initially I thought I'd get the cute orange and pink alphabet invitations and assorted other neat goodies from A Little Hut, and maybe the alphabet cards for favours because they would add up to a theme* of sorts and Hazel's very into letters at the moment.

Then this evening I was over at the Crafty Crow and I noticed a wee ad in the sidebar for printables and checked it out. I hardly ever do this I have to say, but so glad I did! It was for Go Make Me and she has the cutest printables, including this one called 'Spring Has Sprung' which made me go "eeeee" (in a subdued and mature way). I mean really, look at those little swings!


So now I'm the proud owner of both designs and the only problem will be deciding which to go with this year, secure in the knowledge that I can't lose - the other lot will be next year's invitations!


*I figure there are themed birthday parties, and then there is having the alphabet or trees or polkadots. I refuse to throw anything themed as that's just kind of scary to my mind, but I like the idea of having things tie in together in a loose way. I'm only explaining this in psyche-baring detail because I'm worried someone out there might think I'm one of those mothers who throws relentlessly planned and regimented parties. Are there any other revealing things I need to explain in footnotes on my blog? Not at the moment, but just wait until Xmas rolls around and you can see all my crafting and parenting hangups out in the open :))