Create-Celebrate-Explore

A Build-A-Bear Party

We went to a Build-a-Bear Workshop birthday party recently for a special little friend.  It's such a fantastic spot for a party, I highly recommend it, and all of the kids had a wonderful time.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera that day, but here is an Instagram photo of the cake I made for the party.

One moment that touched me, was each of the birthday guests were asked to choose 2 hearts for a bear.  The first one they placed into their own bear.  The second heart each child placed into the birthday girls bear.  What a beautiful sentiment.  It's the special touches like these that make a party so special.

 

Handmade Teddy Bear Ear Headband

Hmm, I think I promised to post the tutorial for the teddy bear ears from the twins birthday party a week ago.  Oops.

Without further ado.

Step 1:

Cut out the pieces of felt required:

• 1 long strip to make a sleeve for the headband - measure the width of the headband, double it and add an extra 5mm for stitching.  Measure the length and do the same.
• the large part of the ear - Cut a piece of paper to the correct shape and use that as a template.  You will need 4 of these per headband.
• the small inner section of the ear - as above, however you will only need 2 of these per headband.

Step 2:

Stitch the long sides of the sleeve together using an over-edge stitch (either using the sewing machine or by hand).   Pull the sleeve over the headband, fold the ends over and stitch by hand.

Step 3:

Stitch the inner ear to the outer ear.  Then stitch the back and front of each ear together.  Use a couple of strands of embroidery thread. 

Step 4:

Put a small amount of stuffing in each ear.  This is to help the ears stand up and fill them out a little so they don't flop over when stitched to the headband.

Step 5:

Stitch each ear to the sides of the headband.  Stitch as close to the edge of the headband as you can.  If you stitch the back and front of the headbands close together the ear will most likely flop.

And there you have it.

I purchased the plain white headbands from Amazon.  They are $17 for 50.  I found this to be the most cost effective way to do a large number of these, plus I have a lot of headbands left over for future craft projects.

These would make a great Halloween gift for your child to hand out to their classmates at school, or as party hats, which is what we did.

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Crescendoh ... The Crafty Crow

A Bears and Bees Birthday Party

Our twins turned 4 on Saturday.  4!!!!  I can hardly believe it. 

We celebrated with a Teddy Bear Picnic. 

The twins had a marvellous day and were on such a high for the remainder of the weekend.

THE INVITATIONS

Instructions to make these invitations can be found here.

THE PARTY HATS

Instructions to make the Bumble Bee Headbands can be found here.  I will be posting instructions for the Teddy Bear Headbands in the next day or two.

A produce box from the market turned upside down, painted and holes punched into it proved to be the perfect way to stand the headbands up.

THE CAKE

I loved how it turned out.  I had my head stuck in the refrigerator for a day as I iced it because the house was so warm and I needed to keep it cool, but the kids loved it, and that is all that matters.

DECORATIONS

Decorations were kept fairly simple.  There were lots of balloons, red and white check cloths on the ground with matching cushions, plain white table cloths, a handmade banner above the cake table and picnic themed tableware.

THE FOOD

For the kids:

Snack cups: (pictured above) containing cheese sticks, popcorn and pretzels.

Teddy bear sandwiches: assorted whole wheat and white bread cut into the shape of teddy bears.  Half were filled with cheese, the other half with nutella.

Assorted snacks: Candy, Sun Chips and Teddy Grahams.

For the adults:

Peach and Brie Quesadillas: Flour tortillas filled with peach and brie slices, with honey on the side for drizzling.

Sausage Rolls: A typical Australian party food - see here (and served with tomato sauce ketchup)

Tea Sandwiches: Assorted whole wheat and white bread filled with roast beef and mango chutney

Salsa and Corn Chips: Homemade corn and black bean salsa with corn chips for scooping.

Produce: A bowl of fresh red and yellow cherry tomatoes and another with peaches.

Beverages:

Lemonade, Chocolate Milk, and bottles of water both large (for adults) and pop-top (for the kids).

As you can see above to help reduce spills, we put out plastic cups with lids and straws.

ENTERTAINMENT

Teddy Bears:  It was a Teddy Bear Picnic afterall, so each guest brought their favorite bear with them.

Balloons: we took 2 Balloon Time helium balloon kits with us so my husband was able to blow up balloons on request.  We took extra balloons in the party colors and scattered them in a large empty room.  The kids loved that.

Photo Boards:  Here are the instructions for the Bumble Bee photo board.  I sketched and had my son paint a Teddy Bear one the morning of the party too.

Craft Table: Coloring pages and a couple of small craft projects.

Bee Movie:  We lay red and white checked cloths and pillows on the grass and played the Bee movie while the kids ate their lunch.  It was a big hit. And it was only $5 at Target. 

Playground: There was a playground at the location we had hired.  Thankfully there was also a large tree to provide shade on what turned out to be one of our hottest days.

Grass area: There was also a large grass area where the kids could run, where we lay out the cloths and pillows for the movie and also where we put out some extra large balls for the kids to kick around.  We also had a couple of bumble bee flying toys.

Music:  We played Marisol's favorite CD - the one she listens to (almost) daily in her bedroom while she hosts tea parties for her dolls, and that the kids listen to outside when they are splashing in their little pools.

TREAT BAGS

After scouring various stores for a couple of weeks, I came up with quite a collection of bee and bear themed gifts for the kids, ranging from: stuffed toys, jigsaw puzzles, sticker sheets, craft activities, books, and bags of Teddy Grahams to name a few.  Each gift was wrapped in paper and tied with yarn and placed in a large picnic basket.  As the little guests left they were able to choose a gift from the 'lucky dip'.  Bags were also provided to hold gifts, craft projects and headbands and to tie balloons so it would be easier for the kids to take their goodies home.

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Catch My Party ...  Bird Crafts ... 10marifet.org ... Everyday Celebrating 

Tutorial: Bumble Bee Headband

Instead of party hats for the twins upcoming birthday party, I decided to make cute headbands - especially seeing as we are getting so close to Halloween and one can never have enough costumes.  This is one of the headbands the kids will be sporting.  There is one more to go.  I'll give you a hint.  It's a Bees and Bears party.

 

Materials:

• Black headbands - I purchased these - 36 for $14.99
• Thin black feather boa
• Black pipecleaners
• Gold glitter glue
• Hot glue gun

To make:

Put a small dot of hot glue just off center at the top of the headband and wrap about 1 inch of black pipecleaner around.  Do the same on the other side.

Attach a small amount of the black feather boa to the top of the headband - again, using the hot glue.

Curl the ends of the pipecleaners.

Dab a small spot of gold glitter glue to the tip of the 'antenna'. 

Done!

 

Tip:  Add a red dot to turn these into ladybug headbands.

 

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Cool Craft Sites / Bueno bonito y barato / Craft

Teddy Bear Picnic Felt Creation

Inspired by the twins upcoming Bears and Bees Birthday Party I made this new felt creation for them.

Do your kids love felt creations as much as mine do?

Tip: draw around cookie cutters using a fabric marker to make your felt shapes - this works great if you have cookie cutters of dinosaurs, sea creatures, zoo animals, numbers and letters.

Teddy Bear Picnic Party Invitation

The twins are having a teddy bear picnic for their birthday party this year.  They also requested we have bees too.  I'm not quite sure where that request came from, but now they are having a bears and bees party ... picnic style.

The invitations are going out this week.  They would have gone out last week, but my initial idea of handmade jigsaw puzzles were ... let's just say ... thwarted by a pair of 3 year olds wielding paint brushes and a bowl of water.

I think these turned out much cuter than the handmade jigsaw puzzles anyway.

I had been carrying around these canvas book covers for years.  When I say years, I mean we've moved house 3 times.  I had initially purchased them to use as class gifts when Jay was in elementary school.

To use them as the cover for the invitations I hand drew and painted a bumble bee to match the one I did on the photo board and printed it on transfer paper to iron onto the front of the book cover.  Then using a fabric paint pen added the smaller details.  Inside I put a little felt bear peeking out of one side and the invitation with a map of the party location on the other side.

 

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