PRINCESS & PIRATE PARTY FAVORS + DIY PRINCESS CROWNS

Soooooo, when I meant that I would share a more detailed post of the party favors from Amara's 3rd birthday party on Monday...... yeah, I meant NEXT Tuesday! Yikes! So sorry for the delay. We are really trying to get back to our first love around here..... blogging. However, our Etsy shop has definitely taken up a lot of our time. We are so grateful, and we are loving it, but we also love sharing things with our readers on here so much!!

Ok, so here are the detailed photos of the party favors....

Everything for the pirate favor boxes was purchased at Party City. 

 Except for the tattoos of course! Check out our Etsy shop for customized tattoos for your next event!!

 I found all of these goodies at Party City as well. The little camera was quite the hit!! I made the wands using dowels, ribbon, and watercolor paper! So easy!! I just traced a star out with a cookie cutter and painted them purple and hot glued them to the dowel.

Below is a little tutorial on how I created the princess crowns...

 Cut your lace strips into the size that you want. I just wrapped it into the size circle I wanted, then measured each strip.

 Completely submerge each lace strip into the stiffener.

 Blot off the excess on both sides and lay on a plastic bag so that they can dry partially.

 Once they start stiffening up, hang them on a "drying line" so they can completely dry on both sides.

 Let your little help! Take a sponge brush and dab each side until the lace strip is completely covered in your paint color of choice.

 We opted for metallic gold, silver and purple.

 Wrap around and glue!

Voila! The last step ( which I failed to photograph.... I was in party mode) is to glue them to a headband , or even a hair clip. We also ended up glueing a couple of "gemstones" on each of them. 

Enjoy!

FEATURED: ROWEN'S SHARK PARTY

We've been bugging our crazy-talented friend, Shara, for pictures of Rowen's Shark Party since we walked through the door of the party... and had our mind's blown. Modern, clean, fun, creative touches EVERYWHERE. Crafty in the coolest way, clever menu, fun games for kiddos...so good.

Shara used two slightly different colors of crepe paper and twisted them to create "water". She hung all the sharks from string so they would appear to float on top of the waves. Genius.

 One of our favorite things of the party was this shark wreath! Shara spray painted a foam wreath core gray then hot glued plastic sharks (here) all around to simulate a shark attack feeding frenzy!

The fins on the mantel were pin-on fins for the kids to wear. Shara made them using stiffened felt and a template found here.

 I mean... really

Cake topper here

 Menu:

Shark Bait sandwiches (tuna salad)

Shark Fin sandwiches (cheese triangles)

Slow Swimmer Salsa and Sea Algae Guacamole with Fins (blue tortilla chips)

Shark Teeth (Bugles)

Whale and Goldfish crackers

Vegetarian Shark Food (crudites)

Watermelon Shark fruit salad (carved by Shara's husband after she showed him pictures on Pinterest and convinced him it would be easy! Ha!)

Sea Dogs (hot dogs)

Great White Sugar Cookies

Fish Kabobs (gummy fish and shark candies on a stick)

Life Preservers (mini sugar donuts with red gel icing)

Jaws cupcakes (vanilla cake with vanilla whipped frosting and gummy sharks

Shark Attack cupcakes (blue velvet cake with coconut cream cheese icing and fondant fins)

Chum Punch

Shark Infested Lemonade

 Shara's favorite things about the sharks hung from the ceiling were the shadows they created when the light was turned on. The slight movement of the sharks and the big shadows made it look like there were actually sharks swimming around the room.

Party Activities: 

Shark Dress Up Bucket- shark, sailor, and captain costumes, beach ball, surfboard, sunglasses, flower leis, blow up shark, beach paraphemalia

Air swimmer remote-controlled helium shark (Amazon)

Pink the Fin on the Shark (Amazon)

Make Your Own Shark Game craft station

Let's Go Fishing Game

Finding Nemo Movie

 

Ari LOVED this activity... we still have his shark on the fridge!

 Favor buckets: "shark tank" bubbles, "under the sea" coloring book, shark stickers and tattoos, bag of shark and fish gummy candies, shark squirter toy, fish stamps, sunglasses, and glow bracelet

Invitation, favor tags, and thank you notes here

Gummy fish kabob!

Big Birthday Boy Rowen!

Thank you for sharing your party with us, Shara! We loved every minute of it (oh and so did our kids!!). 

A PRINCESS PARTY IN THE PARK

Our little Amara turned a whopping 3 years old at the end of September. I am really late in getting this post up, so I apologize! Anyway, we have a lot going on right now, and the end of summer/ beginning of Fall is always such a busy season for our family ( lots of birthdays and travel). So, I decided to keep Amara's party simple this year! The biggest thing for me was NOT hosting it at my house. Last year, we did her party at a local vineyard ( 2nd birthday here ), and it was so nice not having a huge mess to clean up at my house afterwards. 

With that being said, the park seemed like a good choice. Kid's could play, the weather is so gorgeous this time of year, and it is easy clean-up. You always take a risk having your party at a public place. There were NO empty pavilions for decorating, so we worked with what we were given. It all turned out nicely.

 The party favors were a mix of handmade and store bought items. There will be a more detailed breakdown of the favors on Monday! So, be sure to check back!

 Princess (fruit) wands were a hit...

 Pirate's Booty (Amara's favorite) snack bags!

 Our cupcakes began to melt in the sun, which didn't make for a pretty photo-op, but I got some horse figurines from the Target dollar section to resemble "Minimus" from Sofia the First.

 I made sure all of the food was grab and go.... stuff that you could stand around and eat. 

 It is always good to save. I had tons of straws leftover from Amara's party last year, so I just put them to use this year. 

 We hired an amazing face painter, and she was definitely the hit of the party. I could have stood there and watched her paint every single face. Such a talent!

Amara takes it VERY seriously.... 

 

Mastering her new number...