Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Our handmade caterpillar birthday party.

I received a few emails asking about our little homemade caterpillar party that we had for our baby girl's birthday. Some of you were wondering if I made the caterpillar "party hats" and the caterpillars. So I figured I would give you all a closer look and quickly show you how I made everything.



We made the usual chocolate cupcakes with lots of sprinkles, a mini cake, chocolate covered strawberries and sugar cookies.

I planned on making a cute little argyle birthday cake to go along with the theme, but went wrong in some many ways. So instead my little argyle cake became an ugly diamond cake, oops!

See why I turned it around? Not pretty.

We baked some sugar cookies and made them into lollipops. I loved making them into little swirly pops, cute and yummy. It was pretty easy. Make some sugar cookies (I used Martha Stewart's recipe) and then divide the dough into 3 different bowls. Add food coloring to each bowl. Then roll out the dough onto a powdered sugar work surface and use your rolling pin to shape into a rectangle. Repeat with remaining dough. Then pile all three rectangles on top of one another. Cut the dough to make it even and into a nice rectangle shape. Starting with one edge, roll up the cookie dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for about an hour in the fridge or overnight. Take the roll out of the fridge when ready and cut into 1/2" wide pieces. Poke a lollipop stick in about 1". Cook a little longer then you normally would a sugar cookie. You want them to be a little harder than usual so they stay on the stick.





Our cute little caterpillar bunting. My little guy made the caterpillars by using his Elmer's glue and our cake sprinkles. Aren't they adorable?! Totally his own creation, this momma was not involved on this one at all, except to police him from consuming too many sprinkles.

I used some of our drawstring bags that we normally have toys in as the goodie bags.

And our much loved little caterpillars.

I never took pictures on how to make them because they are so easy to make. Make 5 little pom poms and 1 larger pom pom. Use your hot glue to just glue them together. I used a lot of glue here. For the little antennae I simply wrapped shortened wooden skewers. I hot glued them into the larger pom pom and then topped them off with tiny little poms. They hold up pretty well. We still have one caterpillar intact. My little girl is giving these little critters much love.


For the cute little caterpillar "party hats" I bought some headbands from Walmart and started wrapping some wreath making wire around the head bands. I'm not sure which gauge it was. When I got to the antenna part I wanted to make them a little stiffer for holding up the pom poms, so I pulled out enough wire to wrap around the headband 4 times and then wrapped the four wires together all the way down to the base of the headband.

You don't have to be too picky on what it looks like because you are going to cover the wire with the yarn.

Once all of the wire is finished grab some yarn. Starting on the bottom edge of the headband place some glue and carefully start wrapping the yarn around the edges to cover up the headband. Keep wrapping the yarn around the entire headband and antennae. I only used hot glue on the bottom edges of the headband.

Hot glue some pom poms to the top of the antenna and add a little fabric rosette if you want.



I also made a cute little wreath to match.

I spray painted the wreath ring and then hot glued on some pom poms and rosettes. I also wrapped some wooden circles in yarn to make those little yarn circle do-dads.

And since I had some leftover pom poms and rosettes, I made a few "flowers."

It was a lot of fun putting this little party together. I'm sure the kids would have liked it just as much even without the decorations but it was fun finally making a birthday party a little more special. After all, our little baby only turns 1 once!





10 comments:

  1. Such an adorable birthday! You did a fabulous job on everything!

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  2. Sending birthday wishes your way! I guess it was caterpillar kinda month!

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  3. What an amazing party! And that last photo of your little gorgeous baby is so precious!!! I am so impressed - our parties usually consist of deli sandwiches and cookies / cake. I can never seem to organize something as gorgeous as this. Great job Momma!!!

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  4. what a cute party! great job!!

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  5. Adorable. I love the colors you chose and the pom poms are just so cute and add such great texture. Sweet details.

    Visiting from Somewhat Simple.

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  6. came from crazy domestic - love the headbands and the pompom caterpillars!

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  7. I just found your blog and am your newest follower. This party is ama-ZING! I love everything about it. You are one talented woman, thanks for the great ideas!

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  8. This is just adorable! Love the cupcakes and cupcake stand!

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  9. Awww!!! Everything is too stinkin' cute!!

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  10. Wow, very well done! Love that last picture... too much fun!

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