My Party File - blog

Archive for the ‘invitations’ Category

The kids will enjoy making an “ocean in a bottle” at your Under the Sea, Mermaid or Pirate party.

To make an “ocean in a bottle”, you will need:

• 350 ml (12 ounce) plastic bottles with screw on caps (1 per child)  - clean and label free
• 175 mls (6 ounces) of cooking oil per child
• 175 mls (6 ounces) of vinegar per child
• Blue Food colouring
• Tiny Shells, plastic seawood, glitter, plastic confetti, tiny plastic toys, sea themed beads
• A funnel
• Rubber cement or strong glue

Instructions
Use the funnel to pour the cooking oil into each child’s bottle, followed by the vinegar. The oil will go to the top and the vinegar to the bottom. Allow the kids to watch this, before pouring several drops of blue food colouring into the bottles. Again, let the kids watch the fluids interacting.

Close the caps tightly and let the kids shake the bottles to make waves. Let them then put some shells, glitter, confetti and toys into the bottle so that they can float in the “ocean”. Seal the caps shut with rubber cement or glue to prevent it leaking.

Although the ingredients are non-toxic, warn the kids that they shouldn’t drink the liquid in the bottle.

TIP:  I used small cosmetic bottles that you buy for travelling.

Linking to:

The Girl Creative

Its So Very Cheri

Delicious Ambiguity

Blue Cricket Design

Fireflies and Jellybeans

This beary cute invitation is so easy to make!  You will need:

• brown craft fur
• light brown felt
• spray adhesive or craft glue
• black felt
• googlie eyes
• permanent black texta
• ribbon
• A4 paper or card

Download our handmade teddy bear invitation template and use the first page as a template for your fabrics.  Cut the bear head outline from your fur, and ears and face from light brown felt.  Attach felt to head using spray adhesive or craft glue.  Cut out nose from black felt and attach to face.  Draw mouth using black permanent texta.  Attach googlie eyes with craft glue.  Using ribbon colour of your choice, tie a small bow and attach with glue (or sew) to head just below face.

For the back of the invitation, use the second page of the template and customise your text.  Print on paper or card of your choice.  Simply cut around the outline and glue on the back of your teddy bear head.  Beary special!

Linking to:

Life as Lori: Get Your Craft On

Making the World Cuter

The Girl Creative

We’ve had a few requests for our starfish labels, so here is a template for you.  We recommend printing on pink card for the best effect. You can use them for:

• goodie bag labels
• party favour labels
  • mermaid sweets
  • mermaid bath fizz
  • mermaid bath colour
• invitation labels
  • message in a bottle

I thought I’d try out a Martha Stewart project - and I’m pretty sure I picked out the easiest!  These sponge balls are good clean fun and are a great alternative to water balloons - easy to fill, no broken pieces to pick up, they are reusable, and softer and splashier than balloons!

Fill a few large buckets of water and let the kids splat each other, and afterwards they can take home a fun party favour!   These are also good for a pool party, and make a good bath toy (a great party favour for a rubber ducky theme - keep them in the theme colours of blue and yellow).

To make sponge balls you will need:

• Sponges (4 sponges will make 3 sponge balls)
• Scissors
• Dental Floss

Step 1: Cut each sponge into six equal strips.

Step 2: Grab eight strips and stack them into two layers of four sponge strips (as shown), into any pattern you like. Place a length of dental floss under the pile.

Step 3:  Tie dental floss around the middle of the sponges and pull tightly,  drawing strips together into a pom-pom shape. Knot the dental floss and trim.  Fluff and twist the sponges to get the desired shape.

Tips:

• You can use zip/cable ties instead of the dental floss.
• These are machine washable - just let them air dry.

It has been lovely getting your feedback about our blog, and hearing from those of you that have tried out our ideas or used our templates.  Here are some of the ideas that have proven to be popular.

1. Tiny Teddy Cars
2. Handmade Mickey Mouse Invitations
3. Easy Teddy Bear Cake
4. Ladybug Plates
5. Secret Agent Bomb Invitation
6. Cucumber Crocodile
7. Rubber Ducky Goody Bags
8. Frog Eye Drink
9. Rainbow Cupcakes

You may also like:

• lego party invitation
• alien slime
• jelly pumpkin heads
• marshmallow teacup biscuits

If you want your guests to have a dino-mite time at your child’s dinosaur party, you might want to draw inspiration from some of our ideas here.

1. Handmade Dinosaur Invitation
2. Dinosaur Crossing Sign
3. Dinosaur Footprints
4. Dinosaur Water Bottle Labels
5. Dinosaur Eggs
6. Dinosaur Hunt
7. Dinosaur Jokes Party Favour
8. Volcano Cake
9. Dinosaur Straw Decorations

Want more ideas for your dinosaur party?  Click on the “dinosaur” link under “themes” on the left.

These message in a bottle invitations are fantastic for a pirate, mermaid or beach party.  Simply purchase plastic bottles with corks, fill with some sand and a few shells and place your invitation inside.  For extra effect we used brown paper and burnt the edges of the invitation.  These were used for a mermaid party, so we added some mermaid colours with the starfish tags and ribbon.

We purchased the bottles already filled with sand and shells online at All Bottled Up to make it even easier.

Come back soon as I’ll be posting the printable templates for the tags and the invitation inside!

This is an unusual but incredibly sweet idea - hand decorated fortune cookies, with messages inside fit for princesses!   Buy a packet of fortune cookies and remove the messages with tweezers or a needle (if you do break one, don’t worry you can join it back together with chocolate).  Use our printable princess fortune cookie messages, and put one message into each cookie.  Dip each cookie part way into some melted white chocolate, then gently roll into some pretty sprinkles.  My 5 year old decorated these all by herself!!  Place a cookie into a cellophane bag.  Print our princess fortune cookie label onto a sticker sheet, cut and then seal the cellophane bag with the label.

Alternative:  You could actually also make these into invitations - put the party details on a slip of paper and insert into the cookie!  Or give one out with the invitation. The message could simply say something like:  You will have a wonderful time at Tilly’s Princess Birthday party.

You could also serve them up at the party table, and have each princess read out her fortune…

The kids will love this Lego invitation, which they get to put together.  Make a wall of lego bricks and write the party details on them with a permanent texta.  Put them in a zip lock bag and add a piece of card to indicate it is an invitation (just to make sure they don’t think you’re just getting rid of your Lego!).  You can add the name of the guest on the back of the invitation tag.  A unique invitation that really sets the scene for the party!

Try out this easy photo print invitation for your kid’s Lego party.  Simply download the image file and print it out as a 5″ x 7″ photo on matte stock at your local photo shop.  Using a black permanent marker, add the party details.  It looks fantastic and only takes a few moments!