Claire's 1st Birthday Panda Party

It is still so hard to believe my little munchkin is a year old! When people tell you how quickly the time goes by with a little one, you assume its cliche...until it happens to you! As you may or may not know, I love me some theme parties, and since this is probably the only time in her life Claire cannot tell me exactly what kind of party she wants, my hubby and I decided on a panda theme, because of our love of all things panda bears (don't ask...). You might be surprised to know there are very few panda party supplies out there...enter craft nerd! Claire's outfit consisted of a pink onesie and two appliques found at my fave, Hobby Lobby. Her skirt was made from pink ribbon and bright pink, lime green, black, and white tulle. You can find instructions for making a tutu using these materials HERE!

http://bebehblog.com/the-most-unnecessary-craft-tutorial-ever-baby-tutu/

Colors chosen to go along with this theme were black and white polka dot, pink, and lime green. I found pink and green tablecloths at Five Below and taped down black and white polka dot streamers to the middle of each table (streamers, along with pink, green, and polka dot balloons were purchased at HL). Each guest received a fortune cookie to go along with the panda/China-theme (and who doesn't love fortune cookies!).

I used plastic, iced tea jugs as a base for these panda centerpieces. Faces were cut out of sticky-backed felt and google eyes were adhered to black spots using a low-temp, glue gun. Black, duct tape was wrapped around each jug for the panda's chest, while rectangular pieces of tape were cut and folded so that there was a short tail of duct tape remaining to stick onto the jugs for ears. Ears were rounded off using scissors. Arms were cut out of black felt and adhered to the jug using small pieces of black, duct tape. Balloons were then easily tied to the handles of the jugs.

 

Panda decor proved to be pretty easy to find, considering all of the stuff we have sitting around our house. The smash cake was created using a bear cake pan purchased at Michael's, cake mix ('aint nobody got time fo' cake made from scratch!), white icing, and black sprinkles that my awesomely, creative sister-in-law helped me place in all the appropriate places to make it look like a panda. Panda cupcakes were based loosely on a Pinterest picture I had seen. Ears and black behind the eyes were made with baking chocolate discs and noses made with regular, chocolate chips. We placed a little icing on the backs of candy eyes and placed them on top of the baking discs to complete our masterpieces!

Lovely panda cutout models

Panda cutouts were made using foam core boards (purchased at my local dollar store) and black paint, and scissors and kiddos' favor bags were created using white, paper bags, black cardstock, and a low-temp, glue gun. Since the contents of the girls' favor bags were a little different than the boys', I also glued some pink bows to the girlie bags!

The banners read "Happy 1st Birthday Claire" and were made using fabric cut into triangles and sewn onto white ribbon and sticky-backed, felt letters. The pandas below the banner featured monthly pictures of Claire on their bellies.

 

I found green, paper, lanterns at my local craft store and transformed white, paper lanterns into hanging pandas using a permanent marker for the face and black cardstock for the ears. Claire's chair cover was made using a white pillowcase decorated with black felt made to look like a panda face. This was a super, easy project that I would highly recommend for any birthday theme!

 

Claire's chair cover, table centerpiece, and the birthday girl (in panda outfit #2 due to the cake massacre) checking out some gifts

Total cake demolition



Bubble and water-play stations were set up outside for antsy kiddos...an absolute must for summer, birthday parties!

 



Baby Tutu for Monthly Photos



Cutest little model I ever did see!

The inspiration for this project was an adorable sticker pack called "Sticky Bellies" that I found at Hobby Lobby ($9.99 for a pack of 12/ $6 if you've got one of their 40% off coupons)! In the package, colorful stickers are labeled 1-12 months and meant to be displayed on baby's onesie or shirt for monthly pictures. A picture of an adorable baby girl wearing a Sticky Belly on a shirt and a sweet, little tutu gave me the perfect idea for the ensemble my baby girl could eventually wear. I have seen instructions for and pictures of adorable ribbon and tulle tutus that I have been meaning to make for what seems like forever now. I went to my local Wal-Mart and bought 1 yard each of brightly colored blue, pink, purple, and green tulle, along with polka-dot, pink ribbon and followed the directions I found online through the website indicated below (keeping in mind I measured the ribbon according to baby's potential waist and height adding lots of extra so that it expands as she does; the directions call for a larger child's dimensions):

http://bebehblog.com/the-most-unnecessary-craft-tutorial-ever-baby-tutu/

A view of the entire skirt...I may add more tulle pieces to fluff it up a bit

Bonus pic of a Steelers tutu I made for my little munchkin (please pray she doesn't hate me some day for making her wear all these flippin tutus!)