Elmo Themed 2nd Birthday Party Invitations

Our first daughter turned 2 in the middle of December and a little thing like having a second daughter was not going to stand in my way of throwing her a fabulous party. However, having a newborn does complicate party preparations a bit.  So, it took a little while to get this stuff up. First thing first though- the invitations!

I actually finished these the day I was induced (I was late again!) and mailed them the day we got out of the hospital.

Elmo is a theme that is surprisingly difficult to make fun for kids AND sophisticated for the adults. I felt that most of the Elmo party stuff you can buy is good for just kid parties, but doesn't fit the bill when it will be mostly adults.  So, these hand made invitations had to help set the tone.

 

I started by cutting the eyes, nose and mouth with a 1 inch circle cutter i had lying around. Then cut out the heads by hand and hole punched black paper for the pupils. After putting them all together I created the text and spaced it out to account for all the room I needed to later add the Elmo head.

 

The invitations were a huge success and everyone loved how creative and different they were. I have gotten so many compliments on the caliber and the personal touch.  One thing I always make sure I include with the invitations is a custom made email for people to reply to. I think it always adds an extra special little something!

 

Anyway, hope these inspire your own invitations! Thanks for reading!

Large Name Letters with Tissue Paper Puffs

One of the decorations I am doing for my daughters birthday is her name in large 20 by 14  inch letters.  However, I really wanted to make it special so I am decorating them with hundreds of tissue paper puffs (not sure what else to call them, so if you have a better name please let me know!).  While it is certainly time consuming,  they look so beautiful when you are done, I just could not resist. 

What you will need:
- Foam core
- T square
- Pencil with flat eraser/pen with round flat bottom
- Cutting board
- Exacto knife
- Tissue paper
- Scissors
- Glue

First, I needed to measure and cut out the letters from the foam core.  Next you will want to cut out hundreds of squares of tissue paper.  I used 2 inch squares because I wanted some volume but not tons.  Once you have the squares, take your pen or pencil and put the flat part in the middle and wrap the square around it.

To make the project go faster, I put down a line of glue, but you can add a dot if glue to exactly where you want to stick the tissue paper puff if you would like. Please note that if you use too much glue the foam core will curl slightly when it dries.

Lastly, you press it down into the glue and do the next one.  After a while it will start to really come together!  Once you are done, you can also glue a ribbon all around the edge to hide the foam core from showing and really add a touch of sophistication.

It may take a while, but is incredibly easy and adds a nice personal touch to any event :) Here is a picture of how it looked at the party:

Elmo Themed Party Pictures

I will post more specifics later, but here are some pictures from our fabulous Elmo Birthday Party for our daughter's 2nd birthday!