Party: Frozen Princess Tea Party (DIY)

Update: I'm selling my carefully curated supplies for this birthday party on eBay right now. You can find a listing for party supplies for 8 guests and a deluxe set of supplies for 10 guests.

One of the amazing things about children is that they arrive with their own personalities. While these two seemed intent on imitating their older sister with all of her likes and dislikes they are now comfortable admitting that they love princesses and all things "girly." In fact, they now remind me at times, "Mom, remember I'm a girly girl?"

If they are embracing that side, then I thought I would embrace it for them too. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for character parties I decided I would give them a Frozen party with no reservations.

So I took the Snow Queen theme and added "tea party" to it. Because what could be better than a princess tea party for a couple "girly girls"?  Oh, we had so much fun! I used white, silver and aqua of course, and added some fringe, pressed glass "crystal," and snowflakes. To make it a more interesting for myself I also tried to incorporate a bit of an Art Deco vibe, beginning with the invitations.

I have kept a set of mismatched pressed glass dessert plates for years and love using them, especially for birthday cake. When I thought of pairing them with glass "teacups" (actually thrifted punch cups), and found these "silver" plates at the dollar store, I knew it would be the perfect place setting for our Frozen tea party. I punched out snowflakes from glitter cardstock, glued them to "silver" (plastic) napkin rings (also from the dollar store) and finished them with adhesive rhinestones. Fit for a princess, right?

Then I set out to design a tea party menu inspired by the two-bite food of a classic tea party but friendly enough for our four through six year olds. I kept it pretty simple but it was still a lot of fun. My favorite part was finding smaller "silver trays," miniature silver spoons and forks and individual serving cups (actually plastic shot glasses and mini plastic wine glasses) for setting up the buffet.

We made snowflake-shaped strawberry jam sandwiches with snowflake cookie cutters and topped them with glitter paper snowflakes I cut with my Cricut Explore (get my .svg snowflake file here).

Filled small cups with fresh raspberries topped with a yogurt-covered pretzel.

Topped fresh blueberries with whipped cream and a silver spoon.

Created tomato toasts with melba rounds.

Spooned vanilla yogurt into footed cups decorated with snowflakes punched out of blue paper.

Created triple-stacked Nutella finger sandwiches with Art Deco fans leftover from the invitations.

And, we piled miniture powdered donuts into a tower topped with a snowflake and sprinkled them with aqua dusting sugar.

With all of that I totally gave out on the cake! I purchased a white iced sheet cake from Costco and topped it with Frozen figurines, snowflakes and art deco fans in lustre papers.

All the guests were invited to wear princess attire, which they did. It was adorable. And, one bonus I hadn't anticipated was that it made for nicely color-coordinated photos.

I used paper snowflakes (.svg snowflake file) cut with my Cricut Explore for placecards in silver placecard holders. Finding their places was definitely part of the fun. And the tea? Blue sports drink, of course.

The girls loved the tea party.

They had a great time picking out their favorites from the buffet.

I made snowflake "Elsa" wands for each girl and placed the bunch in a tall crystal vase filled with aqua glitter balls as a centerpiece for the buffet. I set the vase on a punched white platter from IKEA onto which I scattered crystal "ice."

Each girl also received a snowflake favor bag filled with a Frozen bottlecap necklace, an aqua and white swirl pop and a Snowman charm bracelet kit. (More details on these favors here.)

This party didn't involve quite as much DIY as my typical birthday bash. I just didn't have the time. Thank goodness so many resources are available locally and online. I borrowed round tables from a friend and ordered these white round tablecloths, and dressed up my white IKEA chairs with these blue organza bows. The bows were so much less expensive than I imagined, and a lot less work than sewing them myself!

I had ideas about sewing the girls' Elsa and Anna dresses but it turned out they both wanted to be Elsa, and I decided to put my efforts someplace else and just buy them! I've realized it's not possible to do it all so I pick and choose. I purchased the Disguise Elsa costume for Tess (above) and the Butterfly Craze Elsa costume for Scarlett (below). 

I had an Elsa wig (which runs a bit small) but at the last minute I had to find another so Scarlett wore also a Rapunzel wig (sized a bit bigger).

My own princesses really got the posing down! So funny. They had been observing the "real" Anna and Elsa who visited the party. 

This was the first time I combined the celebration for Tess and Scarlett and it worked out really well. 

They are such good friends and loving sisters, similar to the sisters in the Frozen story.

Hopefully it will stay that way. Family provides so many  opportunities for acts of true love. It's my  real life fairy tale.

Happy birthday, girls!

FYI, my party supplies are piling up so I've decided to package up and sell many of the things I procured for this Frozen party. I'll be posting info about it on my blog in the next few days if you are interested. UPDATE:  I'm selling my carefully curated supplies for this birthday party on eBay right now. You can find a listing for party supplies for 8 guests and a deluxe set of supplies for 10 guests.

Disclaimer: This post contains some affiliate links to products I have actually purchased and recommend. If you purchase a product from a link here I will receive a small commission to offset my blog expenses. Thanks.

Sewing: Rickrack Place Mats and Napkins (Tutorial)

It's that time of year: the Spring tease. Real or not, the warmer weather and bright sunlight have me excited about parties! In our family there are usually a bunch of them between Spring and early Fall. In case you are experiencing a similar warm weather excitement, I thought I'd share a tutorial from a party a few years ago (this first appeared on Kirtsy). (You can check out Audrey's Vintage Zoo Birthday Party here.) These rickrack napkins and place mats would be a fun Spring update or a great detail for your first outdoor event.

Rick rack, or “ric rac” if you prefer, is so simple: up-down-up-down-up-down. Yet whatever it adorns is suddenly transformed with vintage pop and lightheartedness. I think it’s the perfect way to add a smile of color to otherwise plain place mats and napkins whether you are going for modern and bold or sweet and old-fashioned. And, not only does the addition of rick rack make a big impact, it makes one without too much effort. What could be better? If you can find a couple hours you can have a whole set of new place mats and napkins just in time for dinner.

I think I have to order some fabric to make some more of these! We need something fun for weeknights.

Click through to see how to do it:

Room Design: Bleached Tablescape for Thanksgiving (Tutorial)

 

Last year I decided on a "bleached" tablescape for Thanksgiving: I gathered fallen branches, pinecones and acorns from my backyard, dusted them with white paint, and arranged them in different glass containers for a monochrome effect.

 

 

I varied the scale by mixing in some similarly whitewashed pumkins and gourds and grounded it all on a crisp white tablecloth. What I love about this look is that everything else pops--the bit of gold on the china, and especially whatever food will be served on those plates.

 

 

I shared the steps for this DIY in a Kirtsy slideshow last year and now I'm bringing the tutorial home. Click to read about bleaching your own tablescape.