I decided not to be too specific about it.  You could go with baby dolls, Barbie dolls, paper dolls, dollhouses – or you could just invite them all to your party!  I was inspired by this retro-look paper doll set I had gotten my daughter last Christmas.  I decided to keep it sweet, innocent, and a little vintage (imagine that!). 

To make this invitation, I found an appropriate scene in a vintage storybook (by Eloise Burns Wilkins – LOVE her!), then I laid the print boxes over the top.  Vintage children’s books are great sources for party invitations. 

Here is how I set up the dining room.  I began by positioning a couple of vintage tin dollhouses on the table.  These dictated my color scheme, which was green, yellow, and blue.  I used my green Martha Stewart tissue paper balls from Michaels.  Still bummed Martha doesn’t make these anymore.  And I scattered paper dolls and paper doll clothes across the tabletop.

I used a few vintage baby dolls and my collection of  McDonald’s Madame Alexander Happy Meal dolls.   For food, I thought baby and I thought miniature.  Babies love those butter cookies with the hole they can stick their finger through.  And baby food applesauce.  I popped some mini pizza bites in the oven and whipped up some strawberry smoothies for the mini doll-size parfait cups I snagged at IKEA for next to nothing.

When I was in elementary school I dressed up as a baby for Halloween and had a blast drinking from a real baby bottle.  I bought baby bottles from Dollar Tree and filled them with apple juice for the kids to drink from.  I think that was the biggest hit of the whole party!

I had long saved some vintage Joan Walsh Anglund paper plates with little girls cutting out paper dolls.   Finally got to use them!

I have to say that this cake was absolutely darling.  I got the vintage-look half doll from a tissue box craft kit from Michaels.  The baby torso and head fit nicely on top of the cake made from a Pampered Chef batter bowl.  Her “dress” was super easy to decorate, and could have been done any number of ways.  Almost too cute to eat.

When my friend Cathy moved to Texas, she gave me these jumbo retro-look paper doll sheets she had gotten from the French Paper Co.  I used a few of them for awhile as wall art in my daughter’s room, but I knew the girls would love to cut out these huge paper dolls at the party.  It was hard to see them cut up, but the girls loved having such large paper dolls.  The small ones are often difficult for little fingers to cut out easily.

For another party activity, I printed out some vintage doll coloring pages I found online.

The one game we played was Crawling Baby Race.  The girls took turns racing one another down our hallway.  Pretty silly, but they loved it.

I spread out a quilt in the sunroom so the girls and their dolls could enjoy a picnic.  I made sure each doll had a chair of some sort to sit in.  I’m telling you, those girls LOVED drinking out of those baby bottles!

Tiny food rocks!

The girls went home with treats in these fabric goody bags I found in the Target dollar aisle.  I included a doll baby bottle from Dollar Tree,  a box of Sugar Babies, a sippy cup with 2 fat lollipops inside, a paper doll sheet from my collection of Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion magazines (they used to include a paper doll insert in every issue!), and a Madame Alexander doll that came out of a McDonald’s Happy Meal.   

The girls and their dolls had a great time. 

I think the Doll Birthday Party was a great success.  Happy day with sweet friends!

My oldest daughter is a reader.  She loves mystery series like Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and the Mandy series.  For her 10th birthday, we decided to create a real mystery that she and her friends could solve.  This party could be modified for boys and for different ages.   Let the sleuthing begin!

First thing I have to tell you is:   I barely had to buy a thing for this party.   Decoration was easy.  I cut out footprints and question marks out of construction paper and taped them all over.  Most of the props for the party were already in our house (vintage suitcases, mystery books, vintage typewriter, etc.)

I created the invite below using typewriter font.  You can download an editable version here.

And yes, there was a true mystery to be solved.   However, I will share the mystery in detail on another post, along with the other related party games we played.  For this post, I am going to focus on the party decor, food, and party favors.

To set the scene, I taped cut-out footprints on the floor leading from the front door into the dining room.  The colors were mainly blue and green.

So, here’s the Mystery Party tablescape.  I simply stacked lots of mystery books (Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Sherlock Holmes), used a few vintage suitcases, candles, and magnifying glasses from Dollar Tree, and spread out a vintage Clue game board and a few game pieces to set the scene.  The most money I spent was for the helium-filled balloons (about $15).

I had my kids cut out letters from magazines to create labels for the food we served.  The result was a “kidnap letter” effect.   We had “fingerprints” (sausage pinwheels).

We also had “poisoned fruitcups” and “mystery cheese.”

I made my famous shortbread cookies (find the recipe here) and simply piped a question mark of each of them, dubbing them “get-a-clue cookies.”

Happily, this was one easy “super sleuth”  cake.  It was a rainy weekend, and I knew my homemade icing would be a disaster.  I made one small round and one small rectangular cake, using one cake mix.  I used 2 cans of cream cheese frosting – I simply dyed one can to get the blue I wanted.  I took black licorice and cut it lengthwise with kitchen shears to get thin black strips to create the fingerprint in the center of the magnifying glass.  I could of done it with icing, but this was easier!

I took manilla folders and labeled them TOP SECRET! and CONFIDENTIAL!! and stapled the sides closed.  Then I slid in the party favors:  a magnifying glass from Dollar Tree, a word-find book from the Target dollar aisle, fake eyeglasses from a party pack also from Target, and a retro Nancy Drew paper doll page downloaded free from Tangarang.

Here are the girls sporting their new disguises and magnifying glasses!  They were definitely a band of super-sleuths.

Click here for the post detailing the mystery I created and the other party games the children played!

I think children’s birthdays are magical.  A simple theme can be developed into something truly special that you and your child will never forget.  For my daughter’s 4th birthday, we decided to make it all about butterflies.  And what little girl doesn’t love butterflies?

So, let’s start with the decor.  I actually have lots of butterfly ornaments that I use on my Christmas tree, so I pulled those out to start.  The colors were pink, creamy white, light green, and pale blue.  Pink, white, and green balloons and faux flowers made the dining room feminine and airy.  For this party, I shoved my dining room table against the wall to serve as a buffet for the food and to provide more room for guests to mill around.

I used colored chalk on a chalkboard easel that I got for $3 at a yard sale.  Those flower thingees laying on the table are a pair of table runners with applied flowers and fabric petals – they kinda have a lily pad effect, but it works.

I found a picture out of a vintage children’s book and scanned it to create a custom butterfly invitation.   The invite read “Flutter On By to the Barnett Butterfly Garden for Kelta’s Birthday Party” with details and rsvp information.  Feel free to download the one I created which can be customized for your own butterfly birthday party.

We served “Butterfly Nectar” to the guests.  In other words, Juicy-Juice.  It’s all in the presentation – I found these foam craft flowers in bulk at Michaels, punched a hole in the middle of them, and stuck a short straw through.

This cake was soooo easy.  Really!  I made a large round cake, cut it in half, flipped the halves over, and carved out the “wings” on the outsides of the two halves.  A twinkie and colored Twizzlers created the body and antennae.  The details on the wings included some flat candy sprinkles and clear sugar sprinkles.  JoAnn’s has lots of colored candies that you don’t find most places that really simplify my cake decorating.

Other food included these frozen strawberry salad cups (recipe at end of post), sausage pinwheels, and butterfly-shaped cookies.

For my delicious shortbread recipe that I used for the butterfly cookies, look here.

In another room, I set up a table for crafting.  I borrowed and bought enough butterfly wings for all the girls to have their own pair and scattered them around the table.

Now, older girls might be able to do these themselves – but I premade little tissue paper flowers for them to glue to headbands to create their butterfly “hats.”  I simply cut out uniform squares of tissue paper, stacked 5 pieces, and accordion-folded the paper.   I secured the middle of the folder papers with a twist tie, then began separating the tissues to form the petals of the flowers.

I helped the girls twist pipe cleaners around pencils to make antennae while they cut out pre-printed butterflies and glued them to ends of the pipe cleaners.

With butterfly wings and floral crowns, the girls look all aflutter!

Everyone colored beautiful butterflies that I downloaded from here.

The girls also made a lovely stained glass butterfly with wax paper and crushed crayons.  The instructions from Enchanted Learning are here.   Afterwards, the girls went outside to take a swing at the candy-filled butterfly pinata.

Goody baskets were filled with a butterfly puppet, butterfly tic-tac-toe games, a mini windchime, butterfly bookmarks, and a butterfly sucker.  The baskets and contents were mostly from Dollar Tree, except for the tic-tac-toe games from the Target dollar aisle and suckers from Oriental Trader.

Hope you liked this party proposal!  Click on the pics below for more details from the butterfly party.

Recipe for Frozen Strawberry Salad Cups:

diced pint of strawberries

1/2 small can of condensed milk

pineapple tidbits

2 cups cool whip

2 chopped bananas

Mix berries and milk.  Fold in pineapple, bananas, and cool whip.  Freeze in aluminum baking cups on a tray at least overnight.  You can make these weeks in advance if you like.

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Do you guys shop at Dollar Tree?  What a great place for finding mini-gifts, party favors, paper party products, stocking stuffers, holiday trinkets, and sometimes even good decor!   So I’m at my local Dollar Tree to stock up on Old London’s Melba Toast – but they don’t have it anymore!  Sad, but I did find these beautiful blue-tinted, delicately etched bud vases.  I scooped up 5 for a mere $5 and brought them home to do some styling.   Have you ever put a large centerpiece on your dining room table only to have to remove it to be able to see your guests?  Well, here’s a simple but elegant idea for a table “centerpiece” that doesn’t interfere with conversation.  I simply grabbed my new bargain bud vases, clipped some hydrangeas from my yard, and lined them down the middle of my table.  If you do this, it’s important to use items in odd numbers – 3, 5, or 7.

These bud vases would be lovely with a single rose in each, or a daffodil, or even just a twig of greenery.  I think they’d look lovely across a fireplace mantel, as well.  Can you imagine how much money you could save by buying these in bulk and using them for a wedding reception or other event - on tables, in window sills, etc? 

You can also keep your used alfredo and spaghetti sauce glass jars (after removing labels and running them through the dishwasher, of course) and use them the same way.  I really like the shape of the Bertolli ones, but just pick the prettiest shape you can find when you are grocery shopping.

Keep thinking outside the box, and let me know if you have a great find to throw into my Bargain Bin!

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