Emma's recent birthday party at a local pottery studio allowed us to craft a celebration as colorful as our 7-year-old girl. Gifts and favors suited our sunny palette of light pink, raspberry pink, yellow, lavender, turquoise, lime green and orange. Here are a few of our favor-ite things.
Festive Favors
We sent guests home with tubes of gumballs in Emma's favorite colors. (The tubes were a special offer on boutique flash sale site GroopDealz; gumballs from Party City.)
Personalized thank-you tags tied to the tubes added sweet parting words. I removed Emma's name and included the graphic above, in case you would like to use it for your personal crafting or party planning.
I added dabs of paint to our tags and tied them to the tubes with coordinating strands of ribbon. (Turquoise polka dot bucket from Michaels.)
We also sent guests home with a mini paint palette from Party City.
I ordered two 12-count sets of watercolors and had enough favors leftover to send paint sets to school along with Emma's birthday "super snack." Find them here.
Our pottery studio, Artistic Expressions in Prattville, Ala., fired the pottery pieces the children painted. I picked them up after the party and packaged them to pass out to our guests.
Above, find the graphic I used for name tags. Feel free to copy for your personal use.
I found these sweet polka dot sacks in the Easter section at Hobby Lobby. They coordinate perfectly with Emma's favorite colors. I placed pink paper shreds inside to cushion the girls' pottery masterpieces and secured the top with ribbon threaded through holes punched in the top of the bag.
As a thank you for hosting a birthday party at Artistic Expressions, the studio makes a special dessert plate for the honoree. Above, Emma's keepsake coordinates with our party printables.
Favorite Finds
The top picture in this post shows wrapped gifts in the background of our tablescape. The lime striped package was a gift from Joe and me, and the smaller pink polka dot gift was a present from Christian. Seven-year-old Emma was delighted to open these gifts.
My kids have always loved Legos. For years the boys have collected Star Wars and Ninjago Lego sets, and the girls would play along for the fun of building. But with last year's introduction of the Lego Friends series, Mary Ashley and Emma are now enthusiastic collectors themselves. Emma was over the moon to discover this Heartlake Stables set. Find it discounted here
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To coordinate with her new stable set, brother Christian surprised Emma with Olivia's newborn foal. Find this set here
and a variety of Lego Friends offerings here
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A pink chevron pop-up canvas tote from Pottery Barn was perfect for transporting party supplies to the pottery studio, and now it provides storage for Emma's new Lego pieces. Find pop-up totes in a fresh palette of colors here.
I just have to share 9-year-old Mary Ashley's thoughtful gift. I think she must be the sweetest big sister ever. With her birthday falling a month before her little sister's, Mary Ashley usually gets a little spending money in January. Every year she uses most of her cash on spoiling her little sister with birthday gifts and surprises. This year was no exception. Mary Ashley bought toys and candies for Emma in the weeks leading up to her birthday, then used the bulk of a fabric store gift card to buy fleece to make Emma a blanket. Mary Ashley chose fabric to coordinate with Emma's party palette, and she insisted on buying enough yardage to make a blanket large enough for Emma to use as an adult and pass on to her children. Mary Ashley invested hours into this project, cutting the selvage edges off the fabric and sewing a decorative stitch around the perimeter. Emma has enjoyed snuggling up with her soft new blanket, and it warms my heart to know that Mary Ashley has such a giving spirit.
I hope you have enjoyed catching a glimpse of a few of our pARTy favorites.
Let me close with a word to my regular readers. Unfortunately, since turning off comment moderation, my blog has become a target for spam. It is frustrating to view my comments -- eagerly anticipating hearing from friends like you -- only to discover that many of the comments are solicitations. I hate to make innocent commenters jump through hoops to connect with me, but at least for a time I need to turn on word verification. I hope you will still take the time to share your thoughts, as I read and treasure each comment you post.
In my next post, I will share a tutorial on the necklaces Mary Ashley and Emma wore to the party, so stop in next week for this fun, easy project.
