Hello stamping friends!!
Well, I survived my daughter's 10th birthday party this weekend!!
We had originally had her party scheduled to start at 3pm. But then the soccer schedule came out. Ansley's first game was scheduled to start at 3:15!! We were going to go to the pool from 3-5pm then head to the house for dinner, cake, glitter tattoos, dancing, and sleep over. Therefore, we had to cancel the pool portion of the party. We had a tight schedule to get home and showered up by the time the guests arrived at 5pm. We made arrangements with her coach (who knew that we had the party planned before the schedule came out) for Ansley to leave at half time.
On a good note, she scored a goal in the 1st quarter!! On another good note, it started thundering during the game so the pool was closed for most of the time as well. I guess it's a good thing we cancelled going to the pool otherwise we would have been disappointed that it was closed!!
We rushed to get home and almost didn't get everything ready before the guests arrived, but everything ended up working out. We had a great time! Two of my friends stayed to help and they were a HUGE help!! Hubby was locked in a room upstairs trying to watch the University of TN football game on pay-per-view...HE wasn't much of a help!! LOL Actually, I gave him "morning duty" so he was a big help in the morning.
Ansley wanted a purple zebra theme for her party. I went online and looked for ideas for purple themed parties and didn't have a huge source of inspiration.
Here are some of pictures of the party...
Ansley asked for a "Candy Bar" for the goodie bags. You can see that in the back of the room. There were only 9 girls at the party so I didn't go crazy on the candy and only got a few options.
The Candy Bar...
The last photo was taken yesterday morning - after all of the goodie bags were filled. Just a little left over.
Purple flowers from the grocery store.
I got the plates, napkins, and forks at Party City.
During the night, I had the girls fill their goodie bags with the candy. Then after they went to bed, I washed their cups from dinner, dried them, and put their goodie bags inside.
I purchased the cups here.
My friend made the cake. Oh my gosh...it was sooo huge! Two tall layers!! The pieces my husband cut filled the whole plate!!
One of the ideas I got from pinterest for the party was chocolate dipped strawberries with colored sprinkles to match the color theme. I went with white chocolate with milk chocolate strips to go with the "zebra" theme and added some colored sprinkles.
Tip: We messed up a few strawberries before we got it right. First, we waited until the chocolate hardened, but then the sprinkles didn't stick. Then we dipped them straight from the chocolate into the sprinkles and it got globby. We finally figured out two things: 1. wait a few minutes after dipping the strawberries into the sprinkles - not "wet", but not hardened either. 2. With the chocolate a little soft, it's better to "drag" the strawberries into the sprinkles instead of "dipping" them - use a stroking motion to kind of drag the strawberries; it seams to look the best without making the chocolate clump up.
Another idea I found on Pinterest was this gumball machine. I added some purple glitter spraypaint so it's nice and glittery, too! It can be used as a bank after the party.
I found this awesome glittery-mirrored frame at Ross a few weeks ago and knew it would be perfect for the party! I displayed a Whiff of Joy stamp that I used for the party invitations backed with some glitter cardstock. Now that the party is over, I will use this frame in Ansley's room (she has a zebra room as well...pictures here) with a picture from her party in the frame. Then I will use the colored stamped image for the scrapbook page of her party.
I had some crafty items as well...
I created a name banner using my silhouette machine to cut the ruffled banner, nestability circles, and sizzix alphabet dies.
I created a "10" stick to put in one of the candy jars using nestability dies and sizzix numbers dies.
Ansley loves to cook so I made her an apron as one of her gifts. It was a surprise so I didn't have measurements. Therefore I had to guess. I made it a little wide for the top. I may have a few alterations that need to be done, but I was happy with the results (especially for doing it without a pattern). Lots of ruffles!!
She was so happy with her new apron.
And this is the card I made her. I added a pocket on the inside to hold some cash for her gift.
The image is Dancing Willow from Whiff of Joy. I also used the Starlight Lace DooHickey die from Magnolia.
And to finish off the theme, Ansley and I had pedicures last weekend and got toenails to match!!
And how about a picture of mom and birthday girl?! Ok, so I cheated and had pink in my shirt. At least the rest of the colors worked together!
It was a great party and all of the girls were asleep by 11:15pm!! I might not do a sleep over next year (*wink*)!
Thanks for stopping by! Happy stamping!
~Lacey
