My Party File - blog

Posts Tagged ‘butterfly’

Dress up your drinks with these pretty rose petal ice cubes!  I saw these on www.brides.com and thought this would be a wonderful idea for a fairy, princess, garden or tea party.

To make petal ice cubes, you will need:

Rose petals
Ice cube tray(s)
water

1. Gently rinse the rose petals and blot dry.
2. Boil water for 2 minutes, then let the water cool until room temperature (This ensures that the cubes are crystal-clear).
3. Arrange a couple petals at the bottom of each ice cube section of the ice cube tray.
4. Fill each compartment halfway with the cooled boiled water and freeze until solid.
5. Finish filling each ice cube compartment to the top with the remaining boiled water.
6. Refreeze and allow them to remain in the freezer until you are ready to use them.

For extra effect use ice cube trays in certain shapes, such as hearts or stars.

Buy a bug catcher and fill it with lollies and trinkets.  Add a ribbon and thank-you tag and stick a bug on the lid.  Viola.  Simple and effective.

Any little girl will be excited to find nail polish in their party bag.  You can add it to all sorts of themes, from princess and mermaid parties to circus and movie parties.  I found these small bottles in a pack of seven, which made them very affordable - about $1 each.  I also included a coloured nail file, which you can get in bulk from a variety store.

Alternatively, use these as prizes or even make an activity out of painting guests’ nails.

Making necklaces can be a fun activity as guests arrive, or you can add them to the party bags.  For this mermaid party we picked up an assortment of beads including shells and rocks.  We used stretchy nylon (which you can pick up from a craft or variety store) to make it easy for the kids to thread and simple to tie together without the need for fixings.  Guests were invited to make a necklace as they arrived and while they were waiting for other guests.

Another idea is to create small necklace making kits for goodie bags.  Put some beads in a bag or jar and cut some necklace string.  The kids can enjoy the activity at home.  If you have an assortment of buttons accumulating in your cupboard add these to thread - buttons make gorgeous necklaces and add wonderful character.

I picked up these tiny lip glosses for under $1 each in a bulk pack, to include in party bags for my daughter’s mermaid birthday.  They are fantastic to use for prizes or to add to all kinds of party bags for little girls.  You should be able to find similar lip gloss in your local variety store.

My friend Fiona provided this gorgeous cake for her daughters’ Enchanted Garden party.  The delicious chocolate slab cake was iced, then topped with chocolate butterflies, toadstools and flowers.  For those clever people that can make chocolate decorations, this cake might provide inspiration for your next enchanted garden, butterfly or fairy party.  If making chocolate decorations seems a little daunting, you could always order the decorations and place them on a cake yourself, or use images of mushrooms, butterflies, ladybugs, flowers etc that you have attached to skewers or wire (see our easy butterfly cake as an example).

Sack races are an oldie but a goodie!  And don’t despair if you don’t have a pile of hessian sacks lying around - you can use the eco fabric shopping bags as an alternative.  The kids can climb into the bags and hold onto the handles, or you can cut the base off of a bag and sew it to the top of another.  Much cheaper than making them from scratch.

Hold sack races as a stand alone game, or use the sacks to tie in with other games.  For example, at the dinosaur party, I read a letter to the kids telling them we needed to go on a dinosaur hunt, but the only way to get there was with “dino” sacks.  The kids were only too keen to climb into the sacks and jump their way to the imaginary destination!  This is a good way to eliminate the winning/losing scenario that younger kids don’t always deal with too well!

Sacks can even become cocoons for a butterfly party or mermaid tails for a mermaid party!

These straws add a sweet touch for all kinds of insect and garden parties.  Simply cut a leaf shape from green card and attach an insect sticker.  We found these ladybug stickers at a variety store.  Put a hole in your leaf and push it through a straw.

These straws can also be good to label the kids’ drinks.  Write their names on the leaves and you’ll know which drink belongs to whom!

I used these leaves as thank you notes for my daughter’s ladybug birthday party.  I tied them to spotted red and black helium balloons and attached plastic insects with tiny little pegs.  I used them to decorate the room and then gave them to the kids as they left the party. It was simple and the kids loved the insects.

If you want to give it a go, download our thank you leaves template.

When I popped into a local scrapbooking store, I came across these paper flowers and knew that I could use them for something!  They came with small slits in the middle, so they were perfect for sliding onto straws.  Wouldn’t these be great for a flower, butterfly, garden, fairy, or princess party?