A Delightful Doll Tea Party!

My niece, Kaylee, just turned 8 and she loves her American Girl doll, Ruthie and her dog, Buster. So, we celebrated her big day with a fancy Doll Tea Party right in her own backyard (and Buster's stomping ground).  She invited a few of her friends, and their dolls, of course.

5"x7" Invitaion (FRONT)

5"x7" Invitaion (BACK)

I designed and illustrated this Tea Party invitation with my new Wacom Intuos4 Sketch Pad. I love it!

My Doll Tea Party Invitation is now available at my shop! CLICK HERE!

I'll be posting the rest of the collection this week.

 I got an enlarged B&W printout of Kaylee's invitation, hand colored it and featured it at the entrance of the Tea Party.

We set the table with an assortment of china from three generations, plus a few Goodwill finds, my mother's teapot collection and a very generous neighbor who had some fabulous tablecloths. Thanks Debrah! Can you find my tea pot? It's my ewehooo! cameo.

Kaylee, the guest of honor and her doll, Ruthie wearing their matching birthday outfits.

The first thing the guests got to do upon arrival was dress for Tea. 

I found these Chipboard purses at the craft store (you can also find them here). I simply spray painted them and added their names. They decorated them with flower stickers and rhinestones. Inside each purse was candy lipstick and a small mirror compact.

 The girls decorated hats for themselves and their dolls.

My sister, Reba and I raided my 93 year old grandmother's closet for dress shoes and scarves. She had 88 pairs of shoes the last time she counted. She wears a size 4-1/2, perfect for little 8 year old feet!

I made each of the girls a set of gloves out of white knee socks. Easy tutorial to come.

The dolls were seated at their own special table, where Ruthie was at the head.

 Abraham Lincoln(s) were surprise guests. You can imagine all the dolls were tickled pink!

 Then is it was Tea Time!

 Lots of toothless smiles!

And a toast to Kaylee!

A friend of Reba's baked cupcakes from scratch and each girl got her own delicious treat with personalized mini-bunting, doll sized too!

Make a wish!

 The Party Favors were over-sized Tea Bags filled with chocolates. The Pink Polka-dot Tea Bags, Pink striped straws (used for the Cupcake Bunting) and Divine Twine are from Whisker Graphics.

What a delightful day!

Buster won't admit it, but I think he had a great time too!

Jackson's LEGO Builders Birthday Party!

There was no school last Friday, so we planned Jackson's Lego party for that day to kick-off our Spring Break! If you didn't see the Lego Party invites I sneak previewed last week, have a look here. Later this week I will also post some "how-to's" for some of the Lego crafts I did for this party. Enjoy!

THIS LEGO PRINTABLE KIT IS NOW AVAILABLE IN MY SHOP!

I made these Lego frames by hot gluing real Legos onto wooden frames from the craft store. My idea was to take a picture of each party goer and their lego creation and put it in the frame to give them at the end of the party. But the kids liked the Lego men I put in the frames so much, I didn't bother and just gave them the frames as-is. The kids really liked being able to put their Lego men on top of the frames. They were a hit!

I went to the Party store and bought the cheapest piñata I could find that was shaped like a box. Then I added red streamers and four Solo Cup tops to make a Lego piñata. Then I strung it up on our trampoline and let each boy come up one at a time and take a couple of swings at it.

I picked up these cute Lego Loot Buckets from the Party store too and added name tags so they wouldn't fight over who got which color. They got to scoop up as many Legos as they could from our Lego stash, plus the candy from the piñata and a few other goodies like the Lego man Soaps below and Lego man Flashlight Key Chains. Everyone's buckets were filled to the rims when the left.

Everyone wanted to take home our coveted Lego men and I did not want to disappoint, since we have enough for a small country. So I put one Lego guy for each guest in little bead jars from the craft store and called them "Lego Freeze Chambers". This got lots of wide eyed oooooo's and ahhhhhhhhhhhhs from the group. They couldn't wait to pick out their very own Lego Freeze Chamber!

The Grand Finale was blowing out the candles on the yummy Lego Cakes. We actually had to light the candles twice because the kids were so excited the first time around they all blew out the all candles while Jackson still had his eyes closed making a wish. 

I think everybody went home happy.

Happy 6th Birthday Little Man! I love ya!