Have you ever hosted a party with a dress code? I have! For Magen’s 10th birthday party earlier this summer, the invitations specified what the attendees should wear: anything sparkly! Because what girl doesn’t love sparkles? I even got in on the sparkly action with some sequin shoes that I bought on extreme clearance a few years ago… just in case I ever needed them.

The sparkle theme was inspired by a sheet of holographic foam core that Magen wanted me to use for her double-digit birthday photoshoot. Two years ago, I started a tradition of cutting out giant numbers to use for a birthday photoshoot, and this year’s was the easiest, because I didn’t even have to paint the numbers. (Here are the amateur 8, the greatly-improved 9, and Hayden’s soon-to-be-retired six.) The main photoshoot was with the birthday girl and her friends, but unfortunately I can’t post them here, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

Instead of games, this year we did sparkly crafts with sequins and glitter. I’m not sure if that makes me brave or crazy, but I’m very glad we didn’t have any glitter mishaps!

Each girl designed and stitched her own framed sequin art. I bought a bunch of small black picture frames from Target and cut sheets of white craft foam to size. The girls used colorful sequins and clear seed beads to decorate their foam, attaching them with thread and a beading needle. Perhaps someday I’ll write up a good tutorial, but basically the thread comes up through the sequin and the bead, and then goes out over the edge/side of the bead and back down through the sequin. It’s more complicated than gluing the sequins on, but it holds them in place very securely — and the beads give it some extra dimension. This is the sample I made for the girls. It’s not perfect, but you get the idea.

The glass is behind the foam, so the frame can easily be used for a photograph again when we get tired of the sequins… or more likely, when she’s no longer ten years old.

The girls also made their own glitter tattoos inspired by this tutorial. They cut their own stencils out of contact paper and adhered the stencil to their skin. I then brushed on Elmer’s glue with a paintbrush, removed the stencil, and sprinkled the glitter onto the glue.  So cute!

I love that Magen always wants angel food cake for her birthday, because it’s so easy to decorate! I made a little bunting out of shiny foil wrapping paper that I bought at the dollar store and added 10 tall, glittery sparkler candles.

Sparkler candles are tricky! Due to the fumes, it’s best to use them outside, but then the wind is a problem!

The shiny paper that you saw on the invitations and the cake bunting also made fun colorful labels for the water bottles. I removed the original labels and attached my new labels with clear packing tape. Excessive? Maybe. But the girls even took their water bottles home with them at the end of the party, so I’m pretty sure they loved it.

And of course, no sparkly party is complete without sparklers! It was daytime, so the sparklers didn’t have the same visual effect as they would have had at night, but the girls had fun lighting the sparklers in the middle so that they burned in both directions!

I considered having a water balloon fight with a bit of glitter inside each water balloon, but decided against it for two reasons — (1) it’s a lot of work and (2) the glitter that would have stuck to the girls’ clothes would have ended up in our house and in their parents’ cars. Maybe someday!

Do you have any favorite ideas for sparkly crafts? We have lots of glitter and sequins left over, so I would love to hear your ideas!

There are plenty of blogs out there that feature birthday parties with creative themes, amazing decorations, exquisite styling, and professional photos of the happy event. This isn’t one of them.

When I host a party, I’m usually so busy getting everything set up that I feel lucky to find a moment to take pictures before the guests arrive. So here are just a few very basic snapshots of the soccer-themed birthday party we hosted in our backyard to celebrate our happy six-year-old.

Doing a photoshoot with a giant number has become a tradition at our kids’ birthday parties. It only costs a couple bucks to make (I stock up on foam core at Michaels when it’s 50% off), and then we use the large number in their bedroom as a big, fun decoration until their next birthday rolls around. They love it and so do I.

The kids always ask me to create a treasure hunt, so I made a photo-based treasure hunt for the gang of energetic little boys who are still learning to read. For the hidden treasure (which doubled as the party favor), I bought a reusable water bottle for each kid, filled it with sweet treats, and strung up a tag with each boy’s name on it so they didn’t accidentally eat each other’s Skittles.

My favorite little detail for the party was the cupcake topper I created — and I was so proud of myself for planning ahead and making them a whole week before the party. Ha! I found a soccer ball graphic on the internet and designed a simple number six in a circle for the opposite side of the cupcake topper. Then I just cut them out with a circle punch and glued them together with a toothpick in between.

Another summer, another round of family birthday parties complete!

Call me old fashioned, but I still believe in the value of a handwritten thank you note, whether it’s for a gift or a kind deed. Friends who celebrate your 9th birthday in the backyard and grandparents who send gifts from a distance all deserve to be thanked for their generosity.

During Magen’s birthday party, we snapped a photo of her with each of her friends just before she opened their gift. Then I printed out the photos, trimmed them, and stitched each one to a piece of cardstock printed with a simple “thank you.” Inside Magen wrote a sweet little note of appreciation.

Family members who live at a distance received cards with our family photo, but the cards with colorful pictures from her party are my favorites. By the way, I made that great big number 9 Magen is holding in the same way I made the giant number 8 last year. It’s just foam core and acrylic paint. So fun!

Yesterday we mailed out a stack of invitations to a birthday party for a girl who will soon be nine years old. (Didn’t she just turn eight?)

Washi tape and an old-school Dymo label are my envelope embellishments of choice these days, but this was the first time the label has instructed the recipient to PARTY! Inside the envelope, each girl will find a mini party — or at least a sneak preview of the birthday party they’re being invited to.

The birthday party invitation is a simple white card with a mini paper flag bunting on the front and party details printed inside. I punched two tiny holes near each of the upper corners and tied on a piece of white crochet cotton. Then I hung the folded pennant flags over the string and glued them together, trying to avoid gluing them to the string.

The tiny flags were cut from sheets of 12×12″ textured cardstock that I bought for 47 cents each. So for less than $2.50, I’ve made six birthday party invitations and about 40 feet of flag bunting to hang at the party.

I love how the bunting looks when it’s literally tied to the card, but if you have either less time or less patience, stitching the flags to the card would also work just fine.

Four score and seven days ago, Magen had a birthday and invited several friends to celebrate with a sleepover. One of the little party favors is still sitting on Magen’s nightstand, which either indicates that it was amazing… or that she can’t get it open to access the goodies inside.

When I was shopping for party supplies back in June, these little paint cans at Michael’s caught my eye, and I knew immediately that I wanted to use them as favors.

The brightly-colored paint cans are so fun and festive, but I opted for the clear paint can instead.

The sides of the paint can are flexible plastic, so I suppose the all-metal cans would be more durable, but the clear plastic of this style really allows you to show off the contents.

I stuffed the little paint cans with fun but inexpensive treats — flavored chapstick, a flip-flop keychain, bubbles, paper soap from Pier 1, and a few Starburst and Laffy Taffy.

The lids were easy to put on, but they were somewhat challenging to remove when the girls discovered the favors at the end of the treasure hunt. (They were easily popped open with a table knife.)

I personalized the mini paint can favors by adding a little paper circle with each girl’s name on the top. I forget what kind of glue I tried to use, but it didn’t adhere well (as in, not at all), so I ended up just using a little loop of tape to attach the circles to the lids.

There are endless possibilities for these mini paint cans, so I’m eager to find another excuse to use one!

What 8-year-old girl wouldn’t love a birthday photo shoot?

This one did.

For Magen’s big day, I created a large number eight that she could pose with for lots of fun pictures.

I made the big number eight out of a 20×30″ sheet of 3/16″ foam core. I made a template out of newspaper, traced around it onto the foam core, then cut it out with my X-Acto knife. The final dimensions are about 19×28″.

I then painted the foam core with acrylic paint — in this case, Apple Barrel’s Plum Kiss. I also decided to spraypaint the opposite side with metallic silver paint, but that caused the foam core to warp a little, so I would recommend not doing that. And then in a step that might be considered overkill, I colored in the edges with a black Sharpie and the project was complete.

The large foam core number was surprisingly durable, and survived a slumber party, two photo shoots, and several flights into the air. It was a simple project with a big, fun impact.