Saturday, June 9, 2012

More birthday party pictures

Hello Kitty Birthday Banner (Thanks Jamie!!)






Pictures from the 4th birthday party.  I said in my last Hello Kitty post (see Really...Hello Kitty?) that I wasn't a fan of Hello Kitty...before our Hello Kitty party.  Now, I can honestly say, I'm a big fan!  
You can find Hello Kitty themed items everywhere...all different kinds of things.  They even make Hello Kitty duck tape (which you can find at both Hobby Lobby and Michaels)!  One of my good friends asked me to post more pictures from our Hello Kitty birthday party so this post is for her.  You can see the birthday sign another one of my good friend made for us.  It turned out fantastic!  She found a perfect princess Hello Kitty to draw on the sign.  It is hard to see in the picture but she even put a sash on the Hello Kitty with "Princess" written in glitter.  What a great friend!

Petting zoo with baby pigs, dwarf goats, a black lamb, guinea pigs, baby chicks, ducks and rabbits.

Feeding the dwarf goats at the petting zoo


Bottle feeding the black lamb

Bottle feeding the cute potbelly piglet

Strawberry marshmallows with pink and purple candy melts and glitter (sprinkles).  Thanks Mary for all the help!!!
Name banner with Hello Kitty "cupcake" wrappers and glitter painted 4.
Hello Kitty Ribbon Topiaries
I love the way the ribbon topiaries turned out.  And the Hello Kitty ribbon I found at Michaels was an added bonus.  If you want to make your own ribbon topiaries, you can easily do it.  It is a project that looks so cute, but is so relatively simple.  It takes a few hours, but the fact that you can easily make it ahead of time made it a first choice for me.  

I made mine by purchasing a preformed topiary from Hobby Lobby.  They are about $10, but if you utilize their online coupons, you can pay between $6-$7 including tax and the topiary is all put together for you.  The ball on this topiary is about 4 inches, so it doesn't make as large of a ribbon topiary as some you might find on the internet that use a 5 inch ball.  But I was willing to take a smaller ribbon topiary as a trade off to having it already put together. 

Next I bought 6 different ribbons trying to keep them all at least 1 inch wide.  Since the ribbons spools were different lengths, you should be able to cover two topiaries with less than 2 spools of each of the six ribbons.  Cut each ribbon into 4 inch lengths.  If you have a ribbon with a figure or picture, be sure to cut the ribbon so that when it is rolled, the picture you want to see will be on the outside.  

Take each ribbon and make a loop with it.  Take a typical sewing pin and stick it where the ends of the ribbon come together and then insert the pin into the ball.  Do this over and over again until the ball is covered.  I like them best when the ribbons are turned all different ways.  I've read that the pins with the pearl balls on the ends are easier to use than the flat topped pins.

Just for an extra added touch of depth, I also used a sheer ribbon that I cut a "V" out of each end and instead of looping the ribbon, I put one of the looped ribbons in the middle of the sheer ribbon before attaching it to the foam and let the "forked" end of the ribbon stick out of the topiary.  You might be able to see those sheer ribbons sticking out in the picture above.

Next I bought a basic terra cotta pot and spray painted it white.  You can easily cut the base of the topiary with a knife to shape it to fit in whatever you use for a finished base.  I hot glued the Hello Kitty ribbon around the top of the pot.  I also wrapped a ribbon around the stick securing it at the top and bottom with hot glue.

I used three different colors of tissue paper to match the colors of the party but you can use anything...tissue paper, crinkle paper, colored rocks, lolly pops, balloons, etc.  I cut the tissue paper into four pieces to make smaller squares.  I then started in the center and twisted each piece of paper in the center and inserted it into the foam base securing it with a sewing pin. 

And that is it, cute ribbon topiaries that can be used for center pieces and then later in the girl's rooms as decorations.


Hello Kitty Birthday Cake with handmade tulle ruffle.

This cake was fun to make.  I used Satin Ice fondant icing (apparently it is the preferred fondant used by the Cake Boss).  This is the first fondant cake I have made.  The front two cakes were chocolate cakes from the Cake Boss' cookbook (his book says to use Dutch-Process cocoa powder) and under the fondant was chocolate buttercream...thanks to Alice Currah at Savory Sweet Life! The center cake was an 8 inch pink and purple vanilla cake with italian cream custard another Cake Boss recipe.  And the top of the center cake was a strawberry cake (thanks to Foodiebride at Confections of a Foodie Bride) with a simple strawberry buttercream frosting.

The gumballs were a fun touch and I was lucky to find those at Hobby Lobby.  As this was my first time to use fondant I was too afraid to attempt to make a fondant Hello Kitty like I have seen on the internet.  Some people are really amazing with what they can do.  So instead, I opted to get some Hello Kitty toys and used them to top the cake.  And that way, the birthday girl can have them after her cake is long gone to play with.

Hydrangeas from my garden
Hello Kitty balloons from Party City and pink and purple pinwheels in a decorative pot.

Perfect to send leftover cake and cupcakes to preschool to celebrate with school friends.

Pink and Purple Hello Kitty Princess Cake
Hello Kitty Squinky Machine

In addition to the goody bags each party attendant received, each departing guest would receive one Hello Kitty Squinky from this adorable Hello Kitty Squinky machine (didn't I tell you that Hello Kitty is everywhere).  I thought it would be fun for them to put the "coin" in the machine and get a Squinky.  In order to make sure there were enough Squinkies for every guest and not wanting to keep track of who had received one and who had not I decided that they had to be on their way out the door in order to receive their soft and squishy prize.  That plan back fired a little because was the word got out that you had to be leaving, the cute little guests all wanted to leave right then so they could take part.  I guess on the bright side it made things easier on the parents trying to get out of the door. :) 

This party was a lot of fun to plan.  It made me wish I had a lot more time to do things such as this.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures!


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