The morning of the birthday party started by helping herself to one of the cupcakes. A little early cake-smash if she does say so herself... haha. Really, all there is to do is take a pictures and laugh. It's her party she can eat cupcakes if she wants to.
Her birthday party was a fun way to unleash my crafty side. I did a few projects that kept me busy, all after she went to bed, of course.
The first project was her Invitations:
"One little candle, One little cake, One 1st year to celebrate"
I'm pretty happy with how they turned out actually. The picture above isn't great but I think they were pretty cute.
- I got the dark purple (textured/card stock) paper from Joann's. The light purple paper is just regular paper in a lilac color. And the front/white paper is regular card stock.
- I had to get the envelopes before I could make the invites to know how big the paper needed to be. In my case they were 5x8"
- I used my paper cutter to cut to the appropriate sizes and glue sticks to glue them all together. I saved the excess paper for other projects. (See highlight board)
- I obviously had to print up the white card stock first before I could glue everything.
- That is a real candle. I found some cute purple ribbon at Joann's (on sale) and realized I needed a lot more so I found the same stuff at Walmart. Tying little bows around little candles is easier said than done, let me tell ya.
- Then I used hot glue to sick the candles to the invites.
Big Fluffy '1':
- For this project, I started with a large white poster board and cut out a 1.
- Next I covered the 1 in light purple paper. In hind-sight I should have either painted it in a darker purple or not done it at all. I think the point of doing it is so that if there are gaps in the tissue paper, it blends a little better but I put so many little pieces of tissue on there it wasn't really a problem.
- Then I cut up a gazillion little squares of purple tissues paper, bunched each square in the center and used a hot glue gun to stick them on. It took a LOOONNNGGG time but it was cute. Maybe it was worth it, maybe it wasn't. Oh well.
- I bought the poster board from Office Depot and in the same section they have poster board stands that stick directly to the board. They come in a pack of 6 so I used one of those to stand it up. Maybe 2 (one on the left and one on the right) would have worked better?
Highlight Board:
I don't want to be a braggy mom but I do seem to get asked the same questions by everyone and there is a lot to be proud of with this little girl so the highlight board was a fun and easy way to wrap it all into one.
- Again, I started with a large poster board (from Office Depot)
- I had some left over paper from her invitations so I used that (and a glue stick) for the boarder.
- I printed out her name and all the fun facts ahead of time. I liked using different colors and fonts for each thing. It adds dimension and makes it a little more aesthetically pleasing. Don't forget the swirls/hearts for fillers.
- Next, I cut it up and just had to arrange everything. I placed it all on the board before I glued it in case any changes needed to be made.
- Then I just glue-sticked it up.
- I did feel like there needed to be a little separation between the things so I used a sharpie to draw lines under and around each thing.
Birthday Banner:
This was was really easy.
- Print out each letter fairly large on a piece of paper. I took it too far and alternated colors for each letter so if you want to do that, pay attention what color paper each letter is printing on.
- Cut out the letters and squares that are slightly larger than the letter
- Use a glue stick to paste letters on larger squares.
- Lay letters out in correct order ahead of time.
- Use scissors to cut small slices at the top of each letter and slide a ribbon through the top.
- Leave extra ribbon on either side for hanging. And you're done!
Table Runners:
Easy but VERY time consuming. I say it's worth it though.
- I had the lilac paper left over from the invitations so I figured out how long I wanted the runners to be and glued several (in my case 8) pieces of paper together length wise/end to end. That ended up being about 88" and was just barely hanging off either side of the picnic benches. Next time I would probably do 9 pieces.
- I printed out about 140 of my favorite pictures of Arriah on plain paper. I liked the 3x5 size for this purpose. Each runner used about 20 +/- pictures and we needed 7 runners. I didn't have any pictures left over.
- Cut them to size
- Use a glue stick to apply them to the runner. I sorta paid attention to her age in the pictures and whether they were vertical or horizontal so I could have a variety. I also did roughly 2-3 facing one way, then 2-3 facing the opposite way since there would be people sitting on both sides of the table.
- I liked this idea because it was a great conversation pieces since everyone was sitting around the tables anyway. There was a TON of pictures to look at and not all of them had been posted on Facebook. It showed her in all stages and also, visually, added a little extra to the tables.
- NOTE: For transport, we folded them in half or gently rolled them. I'm saving them because you never know when we could use them again. They were so cute!
Birthday Outfit (Onesie):
This was probably the easiest project out of the whole party.
The purple tutu, crown headband & matching wand (not pictured) was all purchased from Target.
- I bought plain white onesies
- Picked out fabric that I like and thought would match her tutu. You only need a small amount. At Joann's they sell in as small as 1/8 yard and that should be plenty, even if you messed up and wanted to make 2.
- Printed up a fancy '1' that I liked and cut it out.
- I traced the 1 backwards onto the back of the fabric so it would be facing the right way but my pen marks wouldn't be visible.
- I peeled one side of Aleene's Peel & Stick Sheets (purchased at Joann's but available at most craft stores) and stuck it to the fabric. (See Warning Below)
- Then I cut out the 1
- Peeled off the second side and placed directly onto the onesie.
WARNING: Peel and Stick sheets are VERY sticky. Use as little of your finger as possible when applying both to fabric and to the onesie. Seriously.... SOOOO STICKY.
- I added a little extra design with purple puff paint. I just followed the lines that were on the 1 from the original font and did a little outlining. I feel like, in this case, less was more.
Smash Cupcake & Frosting:
Call me a granola mama or over protective or whatever but my 1 year old didn't need all the sugar and artificial crap that is in the box cupcake and frosting for her Smash Cupcake, even if it was her birthday. So I made her a (slightly) healthier, (slightly) more nature option. A banana muffin.
I make these muffins regularly anyway because they're so easy and so good.
Banana Muffins:
Ingredients:
2.5 cups old fashioned oats1 cup plain/vanilla yogurt2 eggs3/4 cup sugar {or sweetener of choice}1.5 tsp baking powder1/2 tsp baking soda2 ripe bananas
Blueberries {optional}
Directions:1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray tin with non-stick cooking spray. (From my experience, directly in the cupcake pan comes out significantly better than if you use cupcake liners. But either is fine.)2. Place all of the ingredients, including bananas in a blender or food processor, and blend until oats are smooth. {I added the oats a cup at a time and blended in between}3. Divide batter among cups (or cupcake liners)
**Baking times may vary**
4. Add blueberries, a few at a time, into each cup.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes for liners or 20-30 if directly in cups. Tops will be golden brown. Check with a toothpick until it comes out clean.
Butter-Cream Frosting:
Ingredients:
3 cups powdered sugar1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla1 to 2 tablespoons milk or whipping cream
3 cups powdered sugar1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla1 to 2 tablespoons milk or whipping cream
Directions:
1. In medium bowl, mix powdered sugar and butter with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the milk.
2. Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar. Frosts 13x9-inch cake generously, or fills and frosts an 8- or 9-inch two-layer cake.
After the muffin/cupcake was made and cooled, I used a piping bag and large star tip to frost for a rose-looking end result.
The cupcakes for the rest of the party were made with box cupcake mix and premade frosting and it still took me forever. The weird thing was that, I used the Wilson food dye to turn the vanilla frosting purple and after sitting in the sun for a few minutes, the frosting turned blue!
It was a long fun day. After a few falls, scrapes, bumps, and bruises, she was dirty and pooped!
As for her actual birthday, her parents are idiots and planned her 1 year check-up ON her actual birthday and, of course, she had to have shots that day so that was a long day and night it was and it's all my fault. I feel horrible. She ended up getting a little bit of a fever and I could tell she wasn't feeling well and her legs were sore from getting poked. Ugh, I won't make that mistake again and at least she's too young to really remember, right?
A year has already gone by and I barely blinked. I will soak up every second of this coming year because before I know it, she'll be off to preschool. *tear* But we won't think about that.
