Roarsome Dinosaur Party Details

June 8, 2017June 7, 2017Leave a comment

I love party planning and adore making party venues look special. I’ve themed lots of girly parties, but dinosaurs were a whole new world for me. I recently decorated our local Girl Guiding hall and transformed it into a prehistoric jungle for my son Austin’s 4th birthday party.

The theme of the party was set with these adorable invitations. I designed and printed the words and hand stamped the dinosaurs using my ‘No Bones About It‘ stamp set from Stampin’ Up!

Orange is Austin’s favourite colour, so the colour scheme ended up being green and orange, with a dash of yellow to brighten things up. I made lots of lovely jungle leaves and hung them around the room with green and orange streamers and yellow balloons.

I dressed the party table with a plain white table cloth and punched out lots of orange and green circles and then added some plastic dinosaurs with … (wait for it!) …. party hats on! How cute! (PS I know that the first photo is a dragon, not sure how he snuck onto the table!).

I made signs for all the dinosaur activities that we did. I printed off the wording finished them off with my dinosaur stamp set and then popped them in these versatile frames.

The hungry dinosaur explorers all sat down to party food served in individual orange, green and yellow lunch boxes from Party Pieces. I added a bit of decoration with hand stamped labels. I made the labels using the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch from Stampin’ Up! I love using these boxes as they reduce food waste and are a lot easier than preparing a huge buffet.

I incorporated a game into filling the party bags at the end of the party. We gave out plain paper bags decorated with hand stamped labels for the children to collect their dinosaur eggs.

As a final surprise, Mr Made By Me dressed up in this rather marvellous dinosaur costume and as you can imagine he was very pleased with himself! The kids loved it too!

I hope I’ve inspired you with some dinosaur roarsomeness for your next party! To find out more about how I can run a craft party for you please get in touch with me at lexy@madebymeparties.co.uk

Bye for now,
Lexy 🙂

Stomp, chomp, growl, roar! It’s a dinosaur craft party!

May 12, 2017May 16, 20177 Comments

My little boy Austin turned 4 this year and had been begging me for a party with his friends. He decided he’d like a dinosaur party, which I was pleased about, as you can really go wild with this theme.

I normally run craft parties for children aged 5+ but even some 5-year-olds have quite a short attention span so I often need to have lots of activities and back up plans! Bearing this in mind I was a bit worried about keeping twenty 3 and 4-year-olds occupied! (Luckily I had a few big brothers and sisters who I enlisted as my helpers)

We started off decorating dinosaur explorer hats with lots of alphabet and dinosaur stickers. The kids loved this activity and all popped the hats on their heads ready for their first adventure!

You can’t have a dinosaur party without a dino dig, so we went off to a mini sandpit to excavate for dinosaur bones!

I had a pot of paintbrushes, plastic spoons and mini sieves on hand for the children to look for bones in the sand. I made the bones using a pack of dinosaur skeleton sand moulds and poured Plaster of Paris into the lightly greased moulds. I also hid some small plastic dinosaurs amongst the sand too.

Then it was time for some dinosaur themed games! We played musical footprints and a game with a spinner where the children had to roar/stomp/flap/dance like a dinosaur (very funny).

We calmed things down a bit with a story, I found an excellent book called Mad About Dinosaurs by Giles Andreae and it captivated the children and got them ready for food.

Finally, I enlisted my band of helpers and we did a big dinosaur egg hunt. Plastic green eggs were hidden all over the hall (it was raining otherwise we would have done it outside). Each child was given a paper bag and had to collect eggs and exchange them for their party bag items (a dino tail ruler, dino stamp, chocolate bar and a dino activity book).

For those children who were a bit younger or who didn’t want to take part in some of the activities, there was some dinosaur colouring and a themed play area with grass, dinosaurs, plants and boulders.

I am offering a dinosaur themed craft party as part of the Made By Me Craft Party packages. For older children there are options for dinosaur decopatch, a dinosaur spotters log book or decorating fabric cases to keep a set of mini-dinos in, as well as any of the options in this blog post. If you’d like to know more about booking a party with us, please contact lexy@madebymeparties.co.uk

Dinosaur Decopatch

Keep an eye out for all the dinosaur party details in my next blog post!

Roar! for now,
Lexy 🙂

Ker Pow!

June 16, 2016April 27, 2017Leave a comment

It’s been ages since I last blogged, but I promise you I’ve been beavering away running craft parties and coming up with new designs and themes for you (not sunning myself in the South of France …sigh).

First up is the superhero cuff. Of course, boys like crafting too and I’m keen to include lots of party options for them. Keep an eye out for my Superhero ‘Capes, cuffs and masks’ party option which is coming soon, but for the meantime, the cuffs have been added into the Bronze package. If you’ve a mix of boys and girls you could choose to have a mixed activity of crowns and cuffs.

I’d also like to introduce The Sun Catcher. Sun Catchers are a lovely option for craft parties, especially in the summer. I’ll provide all the high quality materials to produce a masterpiece that can be treasured for years to come. The children will be able to add pom poms, tassels and ribbons to their creations to give them extra wow. I’ve added the Sun Catchers to the Gold party package.

So that’s a taster of some ideas I’ve been working on, I hope you like them. What would your child choose to make if they had a craft party? I’d love to hear from you and discuss your party needs, you can contact me at lexy@madebymeparties.co.uk

My Little Pony Party – All the fun and games!

November 26, 2015April 27, 2017Leave a comment

I recently hosted a My Little Pony Party for my daughter Izzy. You can read all about the party theme and décor over on my previous post. I’d now like to share with you the details of the fun and games.

As the My Little Pony Party had quite a few young guests I decided not to do a craft activity this time, but in the usual Made By Me style, I wanted to make the games a bit unusual!

We warmed up with a disco and some musical statues and bumps just to get the party started and swiftly moved onto Cloud Blowing.

The opening credits of My Little Pony show the ponies on a hot air balloon in the clouds and Rainbow Dash is a Pegasus (for those of you not in the know!) so a cloud blowing game fitted perfectly! I lined the children up on one side of the hall behind a pre-marked line and gave them each a straw and cotton wool ball (the cloud). The aim of the game is to blow the ‘cloud’ across the hall to the finish line using only the straw. It was very funny and a real hit.

Cloud Blowing game

We finished off the party with a quieter game of My Little Pony Bingo after the party tea as the children were getting quite lively. This meant the children went home slightly calmer (and I hear they were all shattered).

While the games were going on we also had Rarity’s Beauty Boutique where the party guests could get their faces painted with cutie marks and mini temporary tattoos.

Rarity’s beauty station

The photo booth was very popular (especially with the boys!). I provided a basket of fancy dress and created a gorgeous backdrop of a giant silver cloud with a rainbow of hearts dangling down. I was so pleased with how the photos turned out.

Photo booth fun!

You may have noticed that the birthday girl wasn’t wearing any old dress. I had planned on buying a new party dress but apparently that was too easy ;). My daughter wanted a more fancy dress feel to her outfit, so I got the tulle out and went for it! She was delighted with the end result.

Rainbow Dash tulle dress and headband

Izzy’s actual birthday was on a Monday and she had mentioned that she would like to wear a 6 badge to school. Sadly she reminded me at 5pm on the Sunday and I had totally forgotten (oops). So I had to raid the craft room, where I used a few of my glitter and ribbon scraps to put together this beautiful badge. I was so pleased with the final result I plan to offer these up for sale. Isn’t it funny how new ideas and products can sometimes come along by accident?

When my daughter asked for a My Little Pony party, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed with the theme choice. But over the last few months I’ve developed a bit of a soft spot for these brightly coloured crazy ponies!

** UPDATE **
You can read all about Eliza’s My Little Pony themed craft party over at the Chelsea Mamma blog.

My Little Pony Party – The Little Details

November 12, 2015April 27, 20171 Comment

I recently styled and hosted a My Little Pony Party for my daughter’s 6th birthday and it was so much fun!

The decorations were all themed around Rainbow Dash and her rainbow mane, so lots of bright bunting, tissue paper pom-pom clouds, and table confetti were the order of the day. I was particularly pleased with the rainbow we created with the simple use of crepe streamers (although it did put my brother through slight trauma trying to get it all even to fit the gap).

Rainbow table confetti and party ware, pom pom clouds and crepe rainbow.

I decorated the party table with a plain white table cloth and sprinkled large tissue paper circle confetti down the middle. I used rainbow and My Little Pony napkins and found these awesome plastic bottles with straws. They were so good as there were no drinks spillages and I can use them again. I then finished the look with a few foil balloons.

For the party tea I used cardboard lunchboxes from Party Delights and they were so effective! They saved a lot of time and there was a lot less wastage. Inside I put 2 finger sandwiches, a yoghurt tube, small packet of rasins, and I found some cute cardboard muffin pots to put a few cocktail sausages and sausage rolls.

Easy party tea!

Dessert was a selection of small cakes, some great rainbow cupcakes and these brilliant rice crispie cakes lollies that I found on the Capture By Lucy blog. My daughter absolutely loved making them for her friends.

Beautiful rainbow cup cakes, easy cake pops and a Rainbow Dash masterpiece!

The birthday cake was made by a good friend and inside there were layers of rainbow sponge (sadly I didn’t get a photo of that).

As you might already know, I like to make party favours a bit different (without spending fortune). Befitting of the rainbow theme we gave each party goer a small tin of rainbow paints and a strip of rainbow laces wrapped in a belly band of pretty paper and a thank you tag.

Paint pallet party favours

I had a ball planning and designing this party and the birthday girl had such fun! I’ll be back soon with another blog about the party activities and the dress.

Friendship is magic … (as the My Little Pony motto goes!).

If you would like me to run a party similar to this one or something totally different, please get in touch at lexy@madebymeparties.co.uk

Want to learn more? see what Chelsea Mamma thought about our MLP craft party making manes, tails and decorating pencil cases.

Sew, a needle pulling thread!

June 19, 2015April 27, 20174 Comments

In truth, I’m not much of a sewer. In my head I’m amazing and I have a fabric stash that makes my husband’s eyes roll up to the sky and a bookcase full of gorgeous sewing books that sit on the shelf gathering dust. Sadly, in reality I have a go at making something, do an ok job and then put it all away and forget all the skills.

I’ve made a blind, a skirt, half a dress (I know, I know!), taken up jeans and made a boat load of reusable shopping bags (Christmas presents one year). But each time I start a new project, my confidence seems to have left the building.

I love pattern, I love design, I love clothes and bags and I love fabric. So when I had a chance to enter a competition with Hillarys Blinds, I grabbed the chance to stroke some pretty fabric and make something useful. My first challenge was deciding which fabric to use, there were 4 to choose from and all equally delicious. I opted for Safi Turquise as blue is one of my favourite colours.

The second challenge was deciding what to make. Usually I decide what to make and then buy fabric (unless I see fabric that is too gorgeous to pass up of course!). So I delved into that dusty bookshelf to seek inspiration and now I have a list of things to make as long as my arm (oops!).

I decided on making a tablet case for my Samsung Galaxy as the fabric from Hillarys is so soft and quite robust. Here’s how I did it and how I got on!

If you want to know how I made it, here are some brief instructions (bearing in mind the measurements are for a Samsung tablet).

I measured out 2 pieces of the Safi Turquiose fabric for the outside measuring
24.5cms x 66cms
and 24.5cms x 22.5
One piece of lining fabric (I used a blue/grey polycotton)
Wadding measuring 24.5cms x 57cms

1. Fold a 1.5cm hem on the bottom (short end) of the smaller outer fabric and iron and then repeat the process again and sew a 1cm hem.
2. Put the 2 remaining larger bits of fabric right sides together and pin, then sew a 1 cm seam allowance along the top.
3. Open out the pieces from step 2 and place the wadding on the wrong side of the lining, pin in place and sew a straight line into the wadding 1 cm away from one from step 2.
4. Fold the outer fabric over so that the right sides are facing out with the wadding in the middle.
5. Place the outer fabric facing up and the stitched end of the fabric nearest you. From the stitched end, measure 27.5cms and put a pin on each side at this measurement (as a guide) and then pick the stitched end up and fold it so the fold is where the pins are and then pin the top in place.
6. Put the smaller piece of fabric on top, right side down and line up with the top edge. Pin in place.
7. Sew round the three edges with a 1cm seem allowance (the remaining side is a fold, so no need to sew that).
8. Trim the corners at 45 a degree angle.
9. Turn the whole thing inside out (a magical moment!)
10. Complete the project with some sew on velcro to secure the flap at the top.

Finally I added decorative button from my stash of pretty things! Et Voila! I’m insanely pleased with how it turned out and our tablet is now nice and snug in it’s new home! (It also seems to make an excellent sleeping bag for teddies and dolls!).

I had a great time experimenting and re-discovering my love of fabric and sewing. You can check out the other competition entries here. Everyone has done an amazing job!

Unique and beautiful party decorations

May 14, 2015May 14, 2015Leave a comment

Since I started up Made By Me Craft Parties it’s amazed me how many people want something a little bit unique and special for their celebration events. I thought it would be nice to share some of my commissions and inspire you lovely people!

First up, and quite possibly my favourite so far is my pin wheel commission. The Students’ Union at Bournemouth University contacted me about designing and making something special for their centrepieces for an awards ceremony. This is what I came up with; it’s fun, fitting for an awards ceremony and reflects the seaside location too! These would also look fabulous at a wedding in pastel colours.

Bunting seems to have struck a cord in many people’s hearts for a while now and I’ve made up lots of bespoke paper bunting this year.

My mini bunting makes a perfect party bag gift and has been a best seller. It comes beautifully packaged and can be personalised and themed however you want.

I really enjoy pulling whole parties together, this spectacle themed party was one of my most challenging briefs to date, but I think it works beautifully. I sourced a cake and balloons before creating paper bunting and this gorgeous photo booth prop jar. I bet hours of fun was had with the beards and glasses!

I do love a good party and I’m looking forward to my next challenge! If you would like me to create bespoke party decorations for a party you are planning, please get in touch with your ideas at lexy@madebymeparties.co.uk.

Made By Me: making craft parties special

February 9, 2015May 4, 2015Leave a comment

Planning a party can be a stressful and expensive business and the choice of themes and activites out there is mind boggling! A craft party gives people a chance to bond, relax and create something a little bit different to take home.

So, who am I? My name is Lexy and I’m a crafty (not like a fox!), mother of 2, a born planner, organiser and fun loving too. I’ve made my own greetings cards since I was a child and have tried my hand at loads of different crafts; I’ve sewn, beaded, painted, stuck, cut and glittered my way through life and have loved every minute!

A Made by Me craft party is all about having fun and creating something fabulous! I can teach a new skill or create craft activities to fit a theme of a party, for example decorating a castle for a princess party or making hot air balloons for a balloon party.

So who are the parties for?
My aim is to spread the love of crafting and my parties can be tailored to fit any age and ability. Children’s birthday parties are an obvious choice, but lets be honest, adults love to get creative too, so I offer activities for team building events, hen parties and baby showers. Or how about keeping the kids entertained at a wedding or as part of the entertainment at a summer festival?

What crafts can we do?
The craft parties include crafts such as pencil case decorating, tote bag decorating, decopatch (decorating paper mache shapes), tutu making, castle decorating, card making, paper bunting and bird boxes, notebook decorating, crown and mask making, ceramic money box painting and the list is always growing! I can match the activities to any theme and colours.

What’s included in a Made By Me Craft party?
I want your experience to be as stress free and enjoyable as possible, I will run a craft party to suit your interests, needs and theme and make it age appropriate.
I can also do a mixture of party games, face painting and crafts for younger children.
I’ll bring all the craft materials, aprons for the younger children and a table cloth.
I’ll clean up afterwards and make sure everyone goes home with something to be proud of!
You can even use many of the craft items your guests produce as part of the party bag/favour. How about filling the decorated pencil cases or tote bags with a few sweets or a small notebook and pen?

What makes Made By Me special?
The reviews and testimonials I’ve received speak for themselves, but you can count on me to listen to your needs and requirements and create a bespoke service just for you. If you can’t see what you want on my website, just ask me if I can help.
I think attention to detail makes all the difference, so I’ll make sure the art materials are laid out beautifully and the party will have a bespoke welcome sign too.

What else can I offer?
I can make or source, invitations, party bags and favours to fit your party theme. I’ll also design and make bespoke party decorations, such as bunting, banners and photo booth props.
Not enough time and a whole party to plan? Working with tried, tested and trusted crafts people, I can arrange the whole party for you; the cake, photographer, decorations, balloons and favours. I’ll work closely with you and help take the stress away from party planning!

How can I book a party or a service offered by Made By Me?
Simply call me on 07779 870183 or email me at Lexy@madebymeparties.co.uk with your party date, requirements and theme (if you have one) and we can take it from there!

Thanks for reading and I hope I can create a crafty party for you soon 🙂

Minnie Mouse is in the House!

January 19, 2015May 18, 2017Leave a comment

I really thought my daughter would like a princess party for her 4th birthday last year, but she surprised me by choosing a Minnie Mouse party.

Some of you may have noticed that I’m not a big fan of using branded character party accessories, I’d much rather use the essence of the character and the colours for my themeing. With this in mind I used lots of Minnie silhouettes, dots, bows and of course pink and black! I was particularly pleased with how the black paper plates with Minnie ears and bow came out (all hand made of course!).

As it was a party for 4 year olds, the activities were kept simple and traditional, including pin the bow on Minnie (sorry – there are no photos as I was busy making sure they all had fun!) and we also did some Minnie cookie decorating in the garden.

I made this tutu for the birthday girl and it looked utterly gorgeous! One of my craft party options for older children is a tutu making party – how much fun would this be? Get in touch for more details at lexy@madebymeparties.co.uk

The party favours were these super cute mini popcorn boxes filled with themed hair accessories, sweets, the cookies from the craft activity and hand made Minnie ears (Mickey ears for the boys). We gave these out at the start of the party and they’re still being used in dressing up boxes a year later. I personally think it’s better to put together useful and long lasting party favours and bags. I can create bespoke and special party bags for your party, contact me to discuss your requirements at lexy@madebymeparties.co.uk.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Minnie Mouse party, thanks for reading. Meeska, mouska … Mickey mouse!

It’s all in the details!

January 5, 2015May 4, 2015Leave a comment

As well as making your parties extra special and entertaining people, did you know Made By Me Craft Parties can provide all the party extras? invitations, event theming and party favours are all a speciality.

Here are some gorgeous examples of a recent Frozen themed party. I wanted to give a feel for the Frozen colours without using the characters, so to set the theme I designed these frosty Invitations and added a bit of subtle sparkle on the snowflakes.

I adore the handmade touch and made these cute party favours for each of the guests. The Olaf favours also matched the invitations.

I transformed the party venue into a beautiful Frozen wonderland with touches of handmade icicles, meters of bunting, balloons and snowflakes throughout. This pom pom bunting is so cute and can be used for all sorts of themes and I was really pleased with how the icicles turned out.

The existing playhouse was crying out to be turned into Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and the conservatory looked perfect with meters of handmade blue and sparkly silver garlands.

Thanks for popping by and I hope you enjoyed this post 🙂 Contact me, Lexy at Lexy@madebymeparties.co.uk and ask how we can help make your party planning a breeze!

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