Princess Tea Party

So last year we put on a cool beach party for my daughter's birthday, but this year we could no longer avoid the requests for a princess party. The very thought made me feel somewhat queasy, all that pink how would we cope? In the end I just decided to embrace it in the hope that next year my daughter will have moved on, and besides you can't have the same theme twice can you?!

The Invitations

As our little princesses were being invited over for tea I made some personalised tea bags with my new best purchase - the retro embossing label maker with pink neon tape. Then I cut out some tea pots and cobbled together some bright invitations.

The Games

Find the Frog Prince - we hid lots of frogs around the garden. The girls had to collect them and put them in the pond (aka paddling pool). One of the frogs had stars on his cheeks - he was the real prince.

Pin the Princess on the Fairytale Castle - girls love dressing up games so I thought they would like to put together a bespoke princess which they could then use for the pin the princess on the castle game. At the end of the party they could also take home their completed princesses. My husband even knocked up a fantastic card castle! This game was a real hit - although there were some minor princess moments as to who had which hairdo for their princess stick...

Make a Crown - I bought some craft kits with foam crowns and gems for the girls to decorate and they all got stuck in and wore them for the rest of the party. Of course they could also take these home afterwards.

The Cake

It had to be a princess dress complete with pearl waistband, jewels (fondant icing rolled in edible glitter), and piped buttercream roses.

Cardboard Bird House

Monday morning really should have been taken up with washing and recycling but when faced with a large pile of card accumulated over the weekend I decided to take a leaf out of my daughter's book and recycle some of it into something fun.

And here is the result, a bird house for our under stairs shop, which we've named the West Wing:)

Return of the Wheelie Whale

Today I paid another trip to Squeegee & Ink to release some creative energy. This time my wheelie whale got the screen printing treatment!

Screen ready for printing layers

Now which colour?

HELLO WHEELIE WHALE

Tightrope Toucan

Today was wet, windy and downright miserable. The fact that the clocks were changing had totally passed us by so we woke up in a sleep deprived confused blur, but nothing could dampen my spirit as I was taking the day off! 

Destination 'Squeegee & Ink' http://www.squeegeeandink.com/ in Newbury for a screen printing workshop.

If you've ever seen your child's face light up listening to the honking drones of the toucan saxophonist in In The Night Garden you will understand why I thought my daughter would love a 'T' themed toucan picture. 

The Studio Manager Chessie was a fantastic tutor and really helped me convert my drawing of a tightrope walking toucan (in the twilight) into a layered image in Illustrator. The image was then converted into black segments and printed onto a clear film ready for all the clever light exposure jiggery-pokery. Then paint, squeegee, go. Well really not quite that simple but you get the idea! 

So blue or pink moon, which one to choose?