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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