Made By Me Craft Parties is Five!

September 9, 2019October 8, 2019Leave a comment

Oh my goodness! I can’t believe that Made By Me Craft Parties is celebrating it’s 5th birthday in October! Five whole years of bringing crafty sparkly joy to parties in Dorset. To say thank you to all my customers, followers, supporters and future customers, I’m throwing a craft party to celebrate!

The Story Of Made By Me Craft Parties

Five years ago Made By Me was just little old me running ‘bronze, silver and gold’ craft party packages. But why did a set it up? To cut a long short short, it was my family. I didn’t have aspirations for world dominance in the world of parties, in contrast, I wanted a career that fitted in with my young family. I won’t bore you with all the details, but you can find out more about my story here.

How I’ve Grown

It’s been a steep learning curve of website building, networking, marketing and developing new parties. I’ve met some amazing small business owners along the way who’ve helped me enormously. My parties have developed over the years with attention to detail and a vast array of craft materials by my side!

Five years later, I’ve won an award for Creative Of The Year from the Successful Women in Business Awards. I launched the Spa of Our Own parties. Sarah, from Biscuits By Sarah B and I joined forces to create our wonderful Mini Makes & Bakes toddler classes. School holiday craft classes were launched in 2018 and I’ve written a blog for Hotter Shoes with Joanne Dewberry.

Also, I’ve collaborated with some amazing businesses to create the most wonderful parties and events such as Oddbods, Chillout Retreats, Castlepoint, Portobella Parties and The Wedding Crecherz to name but a few!

Made By Me craft Parties ran a craft table forOddbods blogger event in Bournemouth

Children making bath fizzers at the spa of our own craft party by Made By Me Craft Parties

Made By Me Craft Parties won the Creative Award at the Successful Women In Business Awards 2018

Made By Me Craft Parties ran a team building day for small business owners

Thank You, You Wonderful People!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank every single one of you for each like or comment on social media. For booking a party or for asking me to collaborate with you. But above all for sharing the love of Made By Me Craft Parties to your friends and families!

Tank you for supporting Made By Me Craft Parties

I’m so very grateful for all the love you give my sparkly little business. I hope it’s clear how much passion and effort goes into each party and event that I run for you! I certainly couldn’t do it without you!

Win A Place At My 5th Birthday Party

Finally, to celebrate this special birthday, I’m having a PARTY! I’ve given away 8 tickets to customers through 4 different competitions and I’m looking forward to celebrating with them all on the 20th October.

Furthermore, I’ve joined forces with the marvellous Sarah from Biscuits by Sarah B who will be supplying some beautiful biscuits. Samantha from Samantha Prewett Photography will be taking some gorgeous photos to capture the moments and memories of the day. And Rachael from Bakery Boxx is creating a beautiful cake for us to devour!

Here’s to another five years of amazing craft parties. Woop Woop!

close up of a rainbow of colouring pencils

Printkick Arts and Craft Kits Review

September 5, 2018February 25, 202010 Comments

Over the summer break, I was lucky enough to be sent some lovely craft goodies to review by Printkick, who are a small family business established in 2001.

We were sent a lovely range of children’s arts and craft kits which I decided to take with us on a trip to Yorkshire to visit my family. Printkick are usually found producing and selling personalised printed mugs for small business in the UK, but the launch of their new website has brought a few surprises!

Izzy (8) and Austin (5) couldn’t wait to get their mitts on the box of delights, first out was the gorgeous colouring books. Izzy plumped for the grown up flowers and plants colouring, she loved that the coloured pencils came as part of the book which is perfect for crafting on the go (or in our case on holiday). Austin picked the hard back kids colouring book. We loved that the paper for both books was good quality and thick and the colouring was only on one side of the paper. Austin’s book also had plenty of pages at the back for his own doodles and pictures.

Printkick Colouring books — Beautiful colouring pencils and a hardback book for colouring on the go

Next up, we cracked open the fabulous wooden craft box. It has crayons, watercolours, rubber and pencil sharpener inside and the wooden box is very grown up and perfect fro travelling. As there was only one paintbrush, I brought along a couple of my own artists brushes. Izzy decided to use the colouring book to paint in, which worked brilliantly!

Printkick paining set in a wooden box — Beautiful grown up painting box

As soon as I saw the the artist box I knew what I wanted to do with it and when I arrived home I sprinkled a little Made By Me Craft Party magic! I used a little washi tape, some gems, paper flowers and a wooden flamingo to add a summer vibe to the box. I think the plain wooden box would make an excellent birthday party activity to decorate with paint, stickers and gems and then they could be used as a party favour.

Personalised Art Box — Summer themed art box

We were also sent a cute pre printed little fabric bag and a backpack which both came with fabric pens. These bags would make a lovely activity for younger children if you’re doing a DIY craft party or they would make perfect party bags to fill with a few goodies and of course cake!

Unfortunately, the tote bag was a bit young for my children, so we didn’t try it out. If you’ve got a pre-schooler who’d like to try it out, pop a comment below and I’ll pick a name out of a hat at the end of September.

Printkick colour your own backpack — Colour your own backpack

Printkick tote bag — Decorate your own mini tote bag

We had so much fun with all the arts and craft kits, the kids said they were ‘awesome’. I think they’re perfect to pack for travelling and as party favours – they’re useful, aesthetically pleasing and a good price too.

I also really like that Printkick have charitable and environmental commitments, they recently ran a campaign with the ADHD Foundation for Neurodiversity , the umbrella project was simply beautiful and inspiring. Printkick have also launched a new eco-friendly products range, which is an issue close to my heart (I did a geography degree back in the day!)

Thank you Printkick for the opportunity to play with your lovely products! We had a great time. I think we’ll be packing the colouring for our trip abroad later in the year.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to comment below if you’d like the mini colour in tote bag!

Introducing: A Spa of Our Own Craft Parties

June 7, 2018February 13, 2019Leave a comment

I’m so excited to launch the Spa of Our Own craft party. This party option is available to all age groups and includes the following activities –

Bath Bomb making
Lip gloss making
Make-up bag decorating
Flip Flop decorating (older teens and adults only)

The child or teen party is an hour and a half and for the adult option, I allow 2 hours so you can spend a bit longer making and perfecting your creations.

You’ll make 2 bath bomb muffins, in your chosen colour and scent, adding some beautiful dried flowers on the top. You’ll also package them up beautifully and add a tag so you can gift them if you’d like to.

Next up, you’ll learn to make your own lip gloss in a colour of your choice and then put it into gemstone pots which you’ll decorate and embellish.

All materials are thoroughly tested for fun factor and quality by my team of keen crafters (ie my children and their friends).

We take party testing very seriously here at MBM HQ

Don’t just take my word for it, here’s what one of the mums said after her daughter’s Spa Craft Party

“Thank you so much, Lexy for a fabulous party! Hope and her friends had a great time and they all went home with beautiful flip-flops and lip gloss. Love how organised you are and all the tiny creative details. Looking forward to having one of your lovely parties again in the future.”

All set up for eager 8-year-olds to make lip gloss

To book your party email me at lexy@madebymeparties.co.uk or pop over to the contact me page

Once the lip gloss is all mixed up, it goes into beautiful gemstone pots

Your party room will smell amazing once the bath bomb making gets underway!

Do you need more spa craft party inspiration? Check out my post where I organised a pamper party for my daughter.

How I Created A Beautiful Children’s Craft and Pamper Party

November 11, 2017November 9, 20175 Comments

My daughter recently turned 8 years old (how did that happen?!). She decided that she’d like a pamper party, however I couldn’t resist adding in a little of the Made By Me Craft Party magic and sparkle!

My printer has been playing up recently and caused no end of headaches, so I cheated with the invitations and bought some on ebay, but I think they’re very cute!

Personalised pamper party invitations

I tend to get a bit over excited about party planning and decided to make life a bit less stressful this year, so we served the girls with a simple bbq and cake at the end of the party and nibbles to keep them going. So once I’d booked the beautician, I was free to knock myself out with the details and some extra fun activities.

Previous experience has taught me that people don’t always arrive on time to parties, so I got the girls going on a fun activity while they trickled in through the door. This also allowed our beautician to set up in peace!

I purchased some plastic champagne flutes and the girls decorated them with foam stickers, gems and Sharpies. Once they’d completed their masterpieces, I added some Pop a Ball rose gold shimmer to some flavoured fizzy water. Oh my goodness, they absolutely loved it and felt so grown up! Not only did the drink become all shimmery, it went into bubble overdrive!

As the girls arrived to the party, they each personalised a plastic champagne glass with stickers and Sharpies

Each girl created a beautiful personalised glass to drink from at the party and to take home at the end.

I was worried about keeping the girls captivated throughout the pamper element of the party as they needed to wait around to have their nails done. (I was worrying unnecessarily because the girls loved the foot spas!). Once the girls had been beautified with face masks, nail varnish, hair curling and makeup, they came over to the lip gloss making station. This activity went down a storm and the girls loved it so much that they asked for extra pots to fill and decorate. The pots looked like giant gemstones and I gave them more gems and the trusty Sharpies to decorate the lid.

All set up for eager 8 year olds to make lip gloss

A couple of the girls checking out each others lip gloss results!

Once the lip gloss is all mixed up, it goes into beautiful gemstone pots

A dash of glitter finishes off the handmade lip gloss beautifully!

Finally, I set up a photo booth so the girls could show off their new looks and use some fun props. I decorated it with bunting, circle fan decorations and a sequined backdrop. We themed the party in pink, turquoise and a spot of gold and I think it looked stunning!

Say Cheese!

A friend made the cake and did an awesome job of it, but I think we were eating cake forever because it was so big!

If you’ve been following my party adventures for a while, you might know that I’m a huge champion of party favours that are useful, unique and fabulous. This party was no different and I spent a happy afternoon trawling the shops for pamper themed goodies. I’m rather pleased with myself and came up with a clear makeup bag filled with; a body pouffe, lipstick eraser, lipstick pen, nail varnish highlighter, nail file and a packet of tissues. As most of the girls were only 7 and 8 I felt that make up wouldn’t have been appropriate. Of course, I had to do a bit of personalisation and hand stamped each girl’s initial onto a tag and tied it on with some ribbon. The favours were surprisingly reasonable in price but looked stunning.

Grown up party bags

I loved planning this pamper party and I’ve been inspired to add a pamper craft party option to my packages, so watch this space as I’ll be launching it soon!

The birthday girl and I 🙂

Roarsome Dinosaur Party Details

June 8, 2017March 6, 20191 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, 2017April 4, 20197 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.

Austin loved his dinosaur cake and party by Made by Me Craft Parties

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.

If you’d like me to organise a bespoke party like this for your child, please contact me (Lexy) at lexy@madebymeparties.co.uk 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 activities in this blog post.

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, 2016February 26, 2020Leave 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 Craft Mania Party. 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 my Catching the Sun and Casing your Dreams party. Sun catchers are a lovely option for craft parties, especially in the summer. I’ll provide all the beautiful 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.

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, 2015February 26, 2020Leave 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, 2015July 15, 20205 Comments

A Rainbow Pony Party

I styled and hosted a My Little Pony Party for my daughter’s 6th birthday and it was so much fun! I must admit, I’ve never been a big fan of character birthday parties and all the branded gear that goes with them. So I took the MLP theme but added a huge dose of rainbow decorations and added the occasional branded ballon or napkin.

Party Decorations

The decorations were all themed around Rainbow Dash and her rainbow mane. So lots of bright bunting, streamers, 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).

The Party Table

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 from Home Bargains. They were so good as there were no drinks spillages and I can use them again. I finished the look with a few foil balloons.

Rainbow Pony Party Tea

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, a small packet of raisins, and I found some cute cardboard muffin pots to put a few cocktail sausages and sausage rolls.

Sweet Treats and the Cake

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.

Cake collage — 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 (I was so busy running around at the party, consequently I didn’t get a photo of that).

Party Favours

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

Craft Parties and DIY Party Kits

Finally, if you’re local to Dorset, you can book a Pony Craft Party with me. If you’re not local or want a small party, I’ve created a beautiful DIY rainbow pony craft kit, perfect for a DIY craft party at home or as a gift for a horse-crazy child.

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

Pony craft kit, including pony mane and tail making and pencil case decorating

I had a ball planning and designing this party and the birthday girl had such fun! Find out all about the party games and activities here.
Friendship is magic … (as the My Little Pony motto goes!)…

Made By Me: making craft parties special

February 9, 2015October 4, 2017Leave 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.

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 🙂

Made By Me Craft Parties

Beautiful, fun and Personalised Craft Parties in Dorset and the South

Tag: Craft party