by Jessika Hepburn, Editor
Last month I wrote about our family celebration for my daughter Sela’s second birthday & today I am happy to share her handmade party. I made everything by hand from the decorations to the birthday cakes & thought you all might enjoy some of the fun things I made for this party and like to make them for yourselves. If April showers bring May flowers then now is the time to revel in all things that bloom. If you use any of these ideas in your party planning please share some pictures I would love to see your take on celebrating Spring.
First up, the table…
I made 15 tissue paper pom-poms using this Martha Stewart tutorial & covered our dining room light with them + attached one to the back of each chair. I cut the 20×30 sheets of tissue paper in half to make the smaller ones in the vase. Some potted tulips & daffodils, the flower wand party favors (see tutorial below + more to come!) in miniature pots and vintage Strawberry Shortcake fabric + Ila’s kokeshi doll pulled everything together.
Make your own Spring flower wand using this tutorial- I will be sharing more step by step tutorials on how to make some of the more complicated flowers later this spring but this one is really easy & kids can totally help.
What you need:
-Wooden doweling (I buy mine at the hardware store in a long piece & cut it down to whatever size I want then sand down the ends. These wands are 1.5 feet)
-Acrylic paint
-Small sponge
-2 sheets of wool felt in a petal color & a leaf color
-Hot glue gun + glue sticks
How to:
-Paint your wooden doweling whatever color you want-I chose a bright green to match the leaves. I find using a little piece of sponge makes this process super quick. Let it dry.
-Cut a 8×10 sheet of wool felt in your petal color (check out the gorgeous felt from Felt on The Fly-I’m in love!) in half lengthwise & trace + cut two leaf shapes from your leaf color.
-Cut thin strips 3/4 of the way into & all along your 4×11 piece of felt
-Using the glue gun add a little bit of glue around the top of your painted doweling then wrap the end of your cut felt around the top of the doweling.
-Add a strip of glue to half of the felt and keep rolling tightly along the edge until you have rolled it up 1/2 way. Now add a small amount of glue to the underside of the flower and finish rolling it up and shaping the bottom. Then glue on your leaves placing one to cover up the seam and ta da! A lovely flower wand that would also be fun in an Easter basket!
After lunch & before cake we got dirty & planted some flowers (cosmos, marigolds & lavender hyssop) in their little plant pots (Ila’s headband is from the lovely Lizzie, Izzie + James):
But it’s not a party without cake, right?
Yum!I made my favorite crazy easy, infinitely adaptable cake recipe I mentioned in my last post. Here is the recipe + a printable recipe card for you all. I frosted them with pale peach colored swiss meringue buttercream ruffles and filled the center of the cakes with piped whipped cream. I love small cakes so I made each kid their own cake + matching flag using Illustrator. Download a template for blank polka-dot cupcake flags here.
After cake the girls decorated a bare branch with wool roving that I dyed last summer-they had so much fun bringing spring blossoms to this sad little branch! Look at their focus, too cute:
The total cost of this party was less then $100 for materials & food but a lot of time & love (& burnt fingers!) was what made it all possible. I had such a magical, beautiful day and I know the little girls and mamas had a wonderful time too. Celebrations like this make my heart happy! So I hope you are inspired to celebrate spring, maybe a little tea party is in order?
I just love children & handmade parties, don’t you?
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This is TOTALLY adorable. I’m not nearly Sela’s age, but I would have loved to have that exact party for my birthday. I’m seriously bookmarking this for October 21st so I can make flowers + pompoms + cupcakes with my friends. This is my dream birthday hehehehe! We maybe plus a couple of glasses of wine :). Sela will have to wait for that 🙂
Thanks sweetie! Now that I know when your birthday is I can send you a flowery surprise: ) I totally would love a party like this too! Yum for rose petal mojitos! Oh that would be so fun…
This you say “mojito”? Girl are your my soul sister? I LOVE MOJITOS hehehe. We’ve gotta meet in person! Seriously. We would make so much stuff + bake so many cupcakes. Maybe we can wait until I have kids + then our kids could play with each other. Oh boy! I have too much imagination 🙂
Mojitos make the world a better place; ) Let’s not wait though-cupcakes & crafting with you would be super fun! I just need to make my fortune so I can bring us all to Panama!
I’m with mayi on this one .. Totally going to have my birthday with the pom poms and the works ! Never mind that my daughter will have her 3rd birthday end of the year !! I want this !!! Hehehe
Thanks Lakshmi-Yay! Pom-poms for all! I hope you both go all out for your birthdays and celebrate yourselves: )
That is absolutely adorable! I am definitely going to use the wand idea for quick Summer crafting with Gia. And who doesn’t love pom poms!
OMG!! Jessika , great job I especially love the little wands!!
Thanks Stacy! I’ll be doing more tutorials for the other flower types & I am really excited to share those they are so fun to make!
What a sweet party theme and I love the photos!
Thanks Eve! I loved photographing all the colors-I had to force myself not to keep adding more & more to this post: )
So so pretty! I can’t decide what I like best – but the wool roving blossoms are just so lovely!
you.are.incredible. wow
i think those wands might be my new obsession 🙂
Yay Allie! You are so sweet-I hope you make a whole garden!
I really love this party! So precious! I featured you on my blog today.
http://www.maddycakesmuse.blogspot.com
I LOVE the wands!!!
Thank you so much for sharing my daughter’s birthday party on your lovely blog! So glad you enjoyed it: )
I love this!!! My daughter’s birthday is May Day and these is the perfect theme!!! thanks for sharing!