Beth's pARTy: the finished canvas!

This past weekend I hosted a 5th birthday pARTy for my middle daughter. If its not obvious from the unusual use of upper/lower case it was an ART theme (I posted a pic of the invitation a couple of weeks ago ;)

An art supplies buffet... to cut down on the sugar!

This was the sign we put up at the front of the house

 My 4 favourite aspects of the theme were:

1) The art/craft tables

2) The dessert buffet (minus the dessert ;)

3) Art palette cookies

4) The cake!

1) I had 6 art/craft activities outside: decorated paper mache boxes, cards, foam finger puppets, paper cutouts, foam bracelets and portraits (pictured above are my eldest and her Nanny, getting all creative :)

I had a selection of art smocks as well as a bucket of warm, soapy water and towels, so the kids could wash their hands onsite and not have to traipse through the house with paint or glue on their hands.

2) The art supplies buffet was my favourite feature. Dessert/candy buffets always look amazing, but its just a ridiculous amount of sugar, so I decided on a more parent-friendly option and created a table of colourful art/craft supplies for the kids to fill their party boxes.

Mini water paints: Party Shop (Mornington)
Mini scissors: Reject Shop
Crayon erasers: Reject Shop
Rainbow crayons: Reject Shop
A5 and A6 paper rolls: Reject Shop
White boxes: Pack It In

I also had several lolly options available, but you could easily leave the lollies out all together.


3) I saw these adorable paint palette cookies on a blog (cutest little things) and really wanted to make them, but I couldn't find a palette cookie cutter anywhere. So I took DIY to a whole new level and made my own cookie cutter. I found one in my collection that was the closest to the shape I wanted and used a pair of pliers to bend the metal into the shape. The above photo isn't a great angle, but I was too busy with the party that this one was taken by my 8 year old ;)

4) And of course, for those of us who grew up with the Women's Weekly birthday cake book, the cake is always the most important thing at any party. As a kid, I would spend the weeks and months leading up to my birthday pouring over those pages, choosing the cake with the most lollies/chocolate/biscuits/icing-to-cake ratio.

Now that I am a mum, I am at the other end of the experience, watching as my girls angst over which cake they want- cake is too important to leave until the last minute!

This one was a no-brainer, with an artist's palette cake right there for me to emulate. I added another fun touch by colouring the cake batter and creating a rainbow marbled effect inside the cake.

Beth's mouth was full of food when she blew out the candle. For anyone who knows Beth, this is not at all suprising- that girl LOVES food so much, there's no activity worth interrupting a meal for ;)

Decor was really anything brightly coloured, or vaguely art themed and there was so much available in $2 shops, Reject Shop and party supplies websites- I could have spent a small large fortune on party favours and crafts.

But for Beth, as it should be for all 5 year olds, my efforts paled into comparison to spending the morning with friends and family she loves!

Please post any questions below and I will attempt to answer them as fully as I can.

Love Gubby xo

(Warning: Gratuitous nephew photos)

Beth's pARTy... first sneak peek

Beth is turning 5 in a couple of weeks. A few of her friends had Art Factory parties, so we decided on an ART party at home... so there's still plenty of creating, but Mummy gets to be her usual obsessive party planning self.

It is one of the easiest and most fun themes I have done. Kids craft is so cheap in $2 shops, so there are plenty of different crafts on the day as well as fun, colourful and useful items for the goody bags!

These are the invites and I am so pleased with how they turned out:

Looking forward to sharing more details with you.

Love Gubby xo

A special something for a special someone

My littlest person turned 3 on Easter weekend. With my committment to handmake gifts this year, I knew the gifts I made for my own family had to be super-special.

So I put it out to the facebook community and got some great ideas. In the end I decided on a baby carrier- she really loves dolls and soft toys at the moment.

My very creative friend at Stitch'd lent me a pattern and I found a super-cool set of fabrics at Spotlight.

I had to unpick and restitch a few things that I wasn't happy with and when I make it again I will add some card/plastic in the base and some kind of stiffener in the sides so it holds its shape better.

It is the first gift I have made with such love and effort for any of my girls, so I was a little nervous, but I think she's happy with it :)

Love Gubby xo

Super Francesca

My biggest baby turned 6 in November. Much to her mother's delight, she chose a 'superhero' theme; a nice break from the pink that defines my life :P

And with the help of wonderful friends and family it was an absolutely perfect day and a wonderful party.

Decorations were red, blue and silver- very super hero- and my hubby placed all of our dolls houses etc in the entrance, so guests had to 'leap a tall building' to get into the party!

Everyone went to great effort to get into the party mood. My sisters and Momo were Zap, Kapow and Boink and did a great job of playing the villians for the day.

As you can see, the kids had such a wonderful time chasing and being chased by Zap- the world's most dramatic bad-guy!

My littlest Super Girl. Doesn't she make your heart melt?!

And here's my middle-sized Super Girl. Her super power is the ability to eat more than any human who has ever lived!

How many aunty/niece combos do you think have such an awesome photo in their collection?!

I was really disappointed with the cake- but she's 6- she loved everything about the day and the kids will eat any cake, especially if its chocolate

Goodie bags included some green 'kryptonite' candy, a small water gun for fighting grime, a couple of glow bracelets, some 'kapow' candy and some galactic popping candy

And here she is... my beautiful big girl. I love the way this photo captures her so brilliantly.

Made with love

In October and November, my husband's extended family celebrate many many birthdays. 8 birthdays in 8 weeks to be precise. This year I decided I would like to hand make some of the gifts for my sisters in law.

Beginning with some kits from Kaisercraft. This one was for my sister-in-law, Lisa. She's a graphic designer, so i wanted something for her desk!

 Cover the kit in paper- these are also Kaisercraft: Peachy Keen. I love this set. There are matching rub-ons and some really cute pearl stickers. 

Assembled

And edges painted

I also made a set of drawers for my other sister-in-law, Paige. Could be used for craft storage, jewellery, make-up. A really compact set but the drawers are quite roomy

Penny 1st Birthday Barnyard Bash

On Friday my baby turned 1. We celebrated on the weekend with family and friends at the Norris Farm (aka our house in Doncaster ;)

I made use of a stock image for the invites. Crystal added the text, Adele printed them for me- so lucky to have such talented and useful friends :)

Tri brought baby chicks and hay from her parent's farm to add to the farmyard feel and there were plenty of 'farmers' to help out with the animals (read: children ;)

I have been planning this party for a long time. I realised that it was the last birthday party that's really all about me- even by her 2nd birthday Penny will have preferences and opinions ;)

I had so much fun planning foods and decorations to fit with the theme; chocolate and coconut 'haystacks', farm fresh chocolate easter eggs, popcorn and oat biccies ' straight from the fields', pigs in a blanket... I even cut the fairy bread out with farm animal cookie cutters!

But my efforts pale into insignificance next to my incredible sister and her perfect cupcakes.

Seriously? How amazing is she?? She stayed up late the night before the party to make them and was such a huge help getting everything ready on the day!

For the kids I put together party 'buckets' rather than party bags. The buckets were on sale at Riot art and I filled them with farm-themed books and stickers; egg cups; sippah straws; pony biscuits and Peggy Pig lollies (from Coles, of all places :) They look fantastic all on the table together and probably only cost me around $5-6 each to put together (thanks to the shopping efforts of my good friend, Jemimah)

For the grown-ups I made Limited Edition 'Penelope Norris' chocolate bars. I used the same stock image for the wrappers. They looked great all stacked up in the box!

It was a fantastic day. I was so pleased to be able to make such a special day for my baby girl.