Tag: parties

Five of the Best Independent Party Suppliers

2 Comments

So, you’ve got a special party to plan. Perhaps a birthday, hen party or wedding?  Wouldn’t it be nice to support small businesses and buy unique, beautiful or handmade party supplies?

I’ve scoured the internet to bring you five of my favourite party supply businesses suitable for adults and children alike, I hope you’re going to love them too!

First up … badges and hats …

If it’s a special birthday, Ellie’s Beautiful Mess hand makes fabric hats and number badges that will make you squeal!  The sparkly, glittery, squishy numbers will have everyone singing “happy birthday to you” all day long!

Birthday Hat

Personalised Felt Party Hat By Ellie’s Beautiful Mess

Let’s talk about party decor

Hello Party sell the most fabulous balloon garlands kits that really stand out from the crowd (I really want to cover my whole house with these).  I also think a tassel garland brings a bit of sparkle to any party, plus you can keep it up long after the party is over!

Balloon installation

DIY Balloon Garland Kit by Hello Party

Best party suppliers, by Made By Me Craft Parties

Tassel Garland by Hello Party

Balloons to Behold

Bubblegum Balloons make it easy to brighten anyone’s day, celebration or party with their inflated and personalised Bubble Balloons – arriving perfectly party ready by post.  Whether you’re hosting a Mermaid themed soiree or a Superhero extravaganza, there’s something for everyone.

Send a balloon in the post

Tropical Bubble Balloon by Bubblegum Balloons

Perfect Pinatas

You’ve decorated your venue and you’ve nailed the badge or hat to wear.  Surely every party needs a pinata?  Kate from Pinyatay hand makes every pinata to order and they’re absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  Possibly too lovely to smash up, so you could just use them as a centrepiece if you can’t bear to destroy them or you could purchase one of the pull string options.

If you’re organising a hen party you might just want to check out one of the listings at the bottom of the page (I won’t say anymore, chuckle, chuckle!)

Hand made cloud pinata

Cloud Pinata by Pinyatay

DIY Photo Booth

Foil letter balloons are bang on trend at the moment and Best Day Ever supply some excellent choices which are perfect for photobooth backdrops.  Add in some tissue paper pom poms or honeycomb balls and a tinsel curtain and you’re good to go!

Alphabet balloons

Foil Letter Balloons by Best Day Ever

These lovely small businesses are my personal favourites, but I’d love to discover more.  Who do you recommend?  Which party suppliers, trends and brands are you coveting on Instagram?

Thanks for reading, my next blog is all about independent suppliers of sweet treat and party table accessories, so please get in touch if you can recommend someone who fits the bill.

Crafty, sparkly hugs,
Lexy x

Roarsome Dinosaur Party Details

1 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!

DSC02278

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!).

dino hats 2

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.

dino sign 2

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.

party tea 2

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.

DSC_1261

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!

IMG-20170129-WA0000

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!

7 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.

Blowing out the candles

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!

Dino hat making 2

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.

dino dig 2

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.

Dinosaur Story Time

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).

egg exchange 2

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.

_G107861

Dinosaur Decopatch

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

Roar! for now,
Lexy 🙂

Unique and beautiful party decorations

Leave 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.

Pin wheel collage

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.

blog 2My 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.

blog 3

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!

70th banner2

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.