Hello Kitty Party How To:

MissE has a tendency to choose unique themes (her 1st birthday was a monkey party but for a GIRL and this year's Hello Kitty), as in I can't just pop into the party store and buy everything.  I don't mind because it gives me an excuse to channel my inner-Martha Stewart.  This year was no different, it started with a cake design she liked (Ha ha on me for letting her pick!) and came together after 3 months of trolling the internet for ideas.

I had a few "How did you..." from MissE's Hello Kitty birthday party, so here are a few tutorials on how I put it together (the cakes will be on their own post).

I'm Eloise!
I love personalising.  It's a reminder that it's MissE's birthday party after all!  From her invitation to the juice bottles to her goodie bag, I designed it all.  Thank you to my wonderful mom for my iMac!

Juice Poppers with Birthday Fun Facts
(including a manufacturing date of her birthday)

The Goodie Bag

Because I had the time to think, source and put together her goodie bag this time around (for her 1st birthday I was a working mom), her goodie bags were more like swag bags!

Contents:

1. Girls' received Ty(R) Hello Kitty beanie babies and Boys' received Red Angry Bird plush toys 
2. 2 x mini pots of Play-doh 
3. Bubbles
4. Hello Kitty candy and a heart-shaped lollipop
5. Hershey Kisses

And although it looks like I spent a mini-fortune, I didn't!  Again it was time and bargain shopping!  Thanks to Amazon and eBay, I found the Hello Kitty and Angry Birds for well below RRP.  I love Costco, especially around Halloween and Christmas.  The Play-doh was a trick-or-treat bag (genius BTW) of 80 mini-pots in various colours.  Not only are they fabulous party favours, they are also great for rewards.  And of course, the Hershey Kisses were also found at Costco.  The bubbles were a pack of 4 for $3 at the local dollar store.  A visit to the Chinese grocers found more Hello Kitty food products than I knew existed!

The Bags
I really wanted gorgeous pink and red striped bags, but they were too expensive.  It was also hard to find a bag big enough to hold everything and that was low in cost, so I opted for a "craft bag" sold in bunches at the craft store.  I then had to make a plain bag into a Hello Kitty bag so off to my iMac I went!

As MissE's girl and boy guests were receiving different bags, they had to have their names on them.  I created a Hello Kitty silhouette with their names, printed on a full page label (2 silhouettes per page).  I used full page labels so I didn't have to use glue (save my sticky fingers!)  Also attached is a 'thank you' tag, leaving room at the top with no writing for a hole punch to tie the tag to the bag.

Hello Kitty still didn't look quite complete so I cut and glued Hello Kitty's little red bows and added pizazz with red glitter centres.

Play-doh


MissE and I had a small workshop.  After designing and printing on a full page label, I cut the small circles by hand and she would put the off-cuts in the bin.  She also helped choose the colour pots.

Thanks for making my birthday purr-fect!

Bubbles

Finally, some straight cuts!  These were so easy to personalise.  After removing the generic label, I simply put mine on with clear packing tape.  Yes!  That's it, clear packing tape and your bubble label is waterproof (just make sure the label and the tape are the same size).

The juice poppers were done this way too.

Kisses from Eloise

Okay, looking at a few party blogs I loved this idea... if I was in America where you can easily find the correct little round labels.  That would of been so easy.  Instead, I couldn't just let this idea go and had to do it.  I was still able to use the Avery template so at least I didn't have to spend time getting the circle just right.  After looking at several office supply stores, I gave up and printed the template (with my personalisation) onto my trusty full page label and hand-cut all the circles.  It took several nights after the E's had gone to bed, but at least I caught up on a few TV shows.  I even had Mr.H peeling and sticking while watching cricket.  I love the finished product.  Too cute!


Hello Kitty Lollipop Centrepieces

Each centrepiece cost me less than $3 to make (using a few bits and bobs I had around the house)!  I am not kidding!  The lollipops were a lucky find at Kmart for $1 each.  The red and pink swirl were the perfect match, and I designed the sticker on the lollipop for personalisation.

I love old fashioned swirl lollipops

Who doesn't love a windmill?  They are so whimsical.  These were too easy to make, I couldn't stop making them!

I used scrapbook paper with 200 gsm (for my marketers.  Every marketer gets a crash course in paper weight and psm colours).   I cut it down to a 5" square to suit my centrepiece.

Fold the in half and in half again.  Then measure 1/3 from the centre and mark it with a small dot.  Using scissors, cut to the dot.

My cheat in place of pins and fiddling with wooden dowelling, was to use these every cute scrapbook brads (found in different shapes and colours) and a plastic drinking straw.  Yes, a straw!  I used a sharp tool to pre-pierce a hole in the centre and on the alternating edges of the paper.  Also one through the straw where the windmill will sit.  I then started to 'thread' the alternating edges onto my brad, through the centre and finally through the straw.

Scrapbook paper, flower brads, and straw.

Voila!  Windmill!

Hello Kitty Ears

This was a last minute addition.  MissE loves her hats but I don't love the cone-shaped party hats.  I saw a few images of Hello Kitty headbands with just the signature bow but I like the ears too.

I picked up 2 bunches of plastic headbands for $2/5 at the dollar store.  I cut a template of an ear on the fold of the white felt so that I could simply glue the sides together onto the headband.  The bows are red felt.  I cut a long oval and a rectangle.  I pinched the oval to form the pleats then wrapped the rectangle around the middle to form the centre of the bow.  I used my needle and thread to sew it to one of the ears so it would be secure.  I then glued the sides together again.

Hello Kitty Sushi
This was so cute!  Daiso recently opened in Sydney, Australia and I visit every few weeks to check out what's new.  On an earlier visit, I saw a whole rack of sushi and onigiri making tools, including rice moulds.  MissE now will only eat her rice if it's in shapes but that's another story.  So off to troll the internet I went and found a Hello Kitty Onigiri Decorating Set (www.jbox.com).

I had a few practice runs, and thank goodness because first I cooked the rice to dry, then the small pieces (eyes and whiskers) were sticking to my fingers more than the sushi.

So what if I had to get up at 7:00 am to cook the rice and then make them?  They are pretty darn cute!

Seaweed eyes and whiskers, corn nose and carrot bow

Strawberry Lemonade

I am so in love with this mini milk bottle trend at the moment.  I snatched these up as soon as I saw them!  It being Summer, I didn't want to fill the milk bottles with milk.  Just say No to curdling!  In the Summer, nothing is more refreshing than Lemonade... and again, to match our party colours, Strawberry Lemonade.

Here is my Strawberry Lemonade Recipe:
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp grated lemon peel
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 pint strawberries, hulled and halved
In a medium saucepan, bring the water and sugar to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves.  Add the lemon peel and lemon juice, stir, and remove from heat.  Let cool completely, then strain into a pitcher.
In a blender puree the pint of strawberries and add to the pitcher with the lemon juice.  Stir well to combine and refrigerate until chilled.
Add an additional 2 cups of water (or sparkling water for extra zest) and stir well.  Serve chilled.

Hello Kitty Wall

Having a little girl who LOVES to colour, I knew exactly where to go to "create" her wall/ cake backdrop.  There are many websites that offer free printable colouring pages.  You can find any TV show character, etc if you look.  I chose a few and simply taped them to the wall.  My leftovers went on the colouring table for any of MissE's guests feeling creative.

Speaking of cake, want to know how I put both of them together?  You'll have to read the next post!