Minnie Mouse party

What a busy two months it has been! Cakes left and right plus all kinds of activities for the kids. I meant to post this party stuff earlier but I just never had the time. I was asked by a friend who claims to be craft-defficient, to hep with her daughter's birthday party. I left my camera at home on the day of the party but I did manage to get pics of all the favors, decorations, and cake.

The first thing we made were the head bands. I wanted to try it out first to make sure it wouldn't take too much time to do. Originally, I wrapped a cheap headband with thin grossgrain ribbon and then attatched a pink and white polka dot bow. My daughter loved it and wore it for a week straight. It didn't take too long doing it this way but I'm a perfectionist so it probably took me twice as long as it should have. After the first one was done, I tried to think of faster ways to do it. In the end we bought some 1 1/2 satin ribbon, folded it in half and then sewed it together. Flipped it inside out and slipped it over a headband. The ends were cut and then heat sealed together. It was a lot faster than the first method! Once all of the headbands were done (some with bows, some without), we cut circles out of black foam and attatched them as ears...it was so cute!

The next thing we made were the centerpieces. These were extremely easy and cheap. In fact, everything was purchased at the dollar store! We started with styrofoam circles. I wrapped the edges with pink grossgrain ribbon to hide any peek-a-boo parts. For the first centerpiece, we used pink feather boas (bought at the dollar store) and hot glued them to the circle. For the second centerpiece, we randomly arranged silk flowers (again, dollar store) and hot glued them in place. Then comes the Minnie Mouse part. We purchased several styrofoam balls, spray painted them all black and glued together to look like Minnie Mouse. Then attatched a pink and white polka dot bow. Again, really easy!

This tree was probably the most expensive part of the party. The original idea was to do a large Minnie Mouse head filled with suckers. Unfortunately, that would have been pushing at least $50 so we cut it back to just this. Again, this was another really easy thing to make. We purchased a large styrofoam ball and pushed dum-dums into it. At the bottom, I pushed in 3 dowel rods to help steady it (it was really heavy). The dowel rods were then stuck thru a piece of round styrofoam that was placed about 1/4 of the way into the pot. The pot was also filled with rocks to keep it from tipping over. 

 Here is a picture of the party favors. I went to the dollar store and purchased a few packs of bracelets and rings. I found the hot pink and silver sunglasses at party city and had to have them for the party! And they even had bead necklaces to match. Feather boas were purchased at the dollar store.

 I really love the idea of rolled utensils. I think it really pulls everything together. And its really cute if you have a multi-toned theme. It really takes no time at all and its stuff that you'll more than likely need to have for the party. I just cut a piece of computer paper into 1" wide strips and wrapped around the napkin. Secure in place with a glue dot.

And these are the invitations! Yeah, this probably should have been the first picture but I didn't take a picture of the invites until the day before the party so it was the last pic on my camera. The white cardstock pulls out and gives all the party details. Everyone who got one loved them.

And now I'll have to search for the remaining pics. I'm sorry, my computer is not very organized :(

Other things we did: While at Party City, I purchased a "pin the flower on Minnie" game...which we turned into something else. I taped two pieces of posterboard together and then taped the game to the large board. I went ahead and placed a flower on the spot where the kids were supposed to. Then I took a piece of vellum and traced Minnie's bow. From there, we copied that drawing to pink cardstock and we were supposed to play "pin the bow on Minnie." Unfortunately (actually, probably not) the kids were so into everything else at the party that no one really cared about playing the game...except my son who was upset that we didn't.

I also made some little purses for the girls out of felt and (of course) gross grain ribbon. I tried a few different designs, all of which were cute and my two daughters claimed. For the party, I picked the one that was quickest to sew. Folded a piece of felt in half and then sewed ribbon up each side and into a handle. Very easy...trust me. Before this party, I had absolutely no experience with a sewing machine!

At walmart I found some Cutie Boutique items that were on clearance...nail polish, lip gloss, nail files...and filled the purses with those.

For treat bags, I had a few small Wilton plastic treat bags leftover from a bake sale. I printed out a picture of the Minnie Mouse thank you card front, filled the bags with candy necklaces, candy rings and other various candy (all from the dollar store!) and then stapled the "Thanks" to the top of the bags. Easy, quick and cheap!