tutu fabulous party

Welcome back to Party Week!  For our second installment, I am sharing my DD’s 3^rd ballerina party last fall. One of Craftmates’ favourite things to do is planning parties.  My DD’s parties (for the past 3 years now) had always been a collaboration of the Craftmates. And this one is no exception.  Just a heads up though ... it is going to be a long post with lots of photos. So hope you have your coffee (or whatever it is you normally have) handy.

My DD started attending ballet class during spring time last year.  She enjoyed is so much, it got me thinking to use it as a theme for her birthday last November. 

                    

Here are some of my inspiration photos.

When preparing for parties, I always want to have a colour theme as well so that it is easier to make design decisions.   For this party, my colour combo is pink and brown (or sweet blush, raspberry fizz, and dark chocolate in PTI lingo). 

First up is the invitation.  I handmade the invites which set the tone for the party. 



Pull out envelope adorned with a Stampin' Bella stamp



Here is what you get when you pull out the card base inside

 Next is the decoration.  Our parties are never complete without these tissue paper pom-poms which we learned how to do from here.  Sassy Sewer Virna did all of them for the party.

I also dressed up a dress form with my daughter’s purple tutu.  We call her Kimberly.  It belongs to Crafty Beddazler Aimee and she uses it for displaying her bead necklaces on craft shows.

I put my limited sewing skills to use and whipped up the backdrop we used for the photo booth.  The banner was cut using my now underappreciated Cricut machine and I also incorporated some Papertrey Beautiful Blooms and Doily Details die cuts.

Sassy Sewer Virna handcrafted all our tutus. 



Craftmates with Melanie (the ballerina) and Alie (friend, crafting protegee and muse to the Craftmates)



Next up is food.  For the kids, I made mac and cheese and oreo cheesecake and put them in mason jars like these.  I heart mason jars! (They also had fruits, hotdogs and chicken :) ).



I added a piece of fabric, some twine and a name tag and called it a day.



Kids also got to take home sweets from the apothecary jars



Oreo cheesecake for the adults






Mac and Cheese in mason jars

We also had chocolate milk in plastic bottles which I decorated with the “Sip, Stir and Enjoy” sentiment from PTI’s Holiday Treats set.  Love the striped straw. I put them in tin cans from Target which I decorated with flowers from PTI’s Bloom Builder #3.

Crafty Beddazzler Aimee also made this awesome trifle dessert  made of brownies, skor chocolate and pudding (yum!) and these pretty chocolate and red velvet cupcakes. 




I used lots of tulle to decorate the tiered trays



Cupcake toppers made of dressform adorned with tutus



Here are more pictures of the table setting and dessert corner.



Dessert and lootbag table



For the loot bag, Sassy Sewer Virna helped me create these bags where I put handmade notebook, clips, lip gloss and nail polish.  They also got to bring home the tutus they were given to wear for the party (a gift from Crafty Beddazzler Aimee). We requested the girls to arrive in their ballerina tights ready to be outfitted with tutus from the celebrant.

Thank you giveaways for the adults are Bath and Body Works hand sanitizers in these cute packaging from Papertrey's Favor It Box #3.

For the prizes, I gave away bow clips and some pencils packaged like this.

There were also Ghirardelli square purses whose tutorial I got from here.

I invited a party ballerina to entertain the kids.  She started with a make over where the girls chose the colour of nail polish they want.  My DD of course chose this very bold teal colour (You’d think she’ll choose a shade of pink because of her party’s theme... but no!  She is unexpected and full of surprises like that).  They also got to wear lip gloss and a little blush. 



Checking out her freshly polished nails



With our little ballerinas now all dolled up, they are ready to show off their ballet moves.  Ms.  Melanie led them through a series of tippy toes, pirouettes and curtsies which the girls really enjoyed. There were also games and some storytelling time in the end.      

Don't they look cute on their uniform tutus?

Cake time is my DD’s most anticipated time.  Not because she loves cake (again, she is unexpected like that) but because she loves blowing candles.

Of course, celebrations like this are never complete without a layout from me.  The first one was for her actual birthday.  She woke up to three chocolate cupcakes topped with sprinkles and candles (of course!).  Totally made her day!  We then spent the rest of the day doing and eating her favourites.  We got unlimited rides to an indoor amusement park (where she had countless carousel rides) and capped the day with her favourite ice cream from Baskin Robbins.

Here are some layouts of the party...

 And that is it!  Are you still there, lol? Thanks for reminiscing with me.  It sure was fun looking back.  Off to the next party.  Craftmates  have some exciting ideas up our sleeves for her 4^th birthday.  Watch out for it!