For baby.sweets4ever's first birthday party, I based the party around his favorite rattle and book at the time,
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle.
I start planning parties months in advance, so I can take full advantage of coupons and deals. I buy everything and store it in big plastic totes labelled by event. I kept his theme a surprise to friends & family until invites were mailed. I'm doing the same this year!
I love a good surprise. I linked to supplies and resources where applicable -- I hope they help someone!
Invites -- I designed them in Photoshop, printed them at home & then assembled with mini brads. I used the Martha Stewart Circle Cutter to cut out these bad boys (THANK GOODNESS for the cutter, or I would have lost my mind
).
Wrapped & ready for hand-delivery:
I decided to design the food to match the story in the book. I created little caption cards to match the text of the book. If you are familiar with the book, you might recognize some of the food!
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan Photography
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan PhotographyChocolate fountain (purchased on Craigslist for $25)
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan Photography
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan Photography
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan PhotographyI created the the tiered serving platters from glass plates and colorful plastic parfait glasses from Dollar Tree. I stacked them and glue them together with E6000 glue. Here I am running test setups to see which final designs I wanted to glue in place!
Mini rainbow lollipops (orientaltrading.com)
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan PhotographyI designed the cake and "smash cake" (cake just for baby.sweets4ever to destroy by himself) and had a local baker,
Short North Piece of Cake, create it for me.
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan Photography
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan Photography
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan Photography
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan PhotographyI ordered a fabbbbulous custom bib from
Fresh Vintage. Mention you found her on Craftster!
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan PhotographyI created favor buckets for the kids that doubled as table centerpieces. I bought many of the supplies on Ebay, orientaltrading.com and my local Dollar Tree.
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan PhotographyI printed little name tags and attached them with The Very Hungry Caterpillar pins.
Photo courtesy of Kelly Maughan PhotographyI bought recycled pencils and little poms from Dollar Tree and glued them together to make little caterpillar pencil toppers.
My pile of supplies...
Trying to organize the chaos...
My inspiration for the party theme... baby.sweets4ever with his Hungry Caterpillar rattle.
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