Nursery Rhyme 1st Birthday

With my daughter was turning one, I wanted to have a party for her with an original theme. I saw the Cricut Nursery Rhyme cartridge and was instantly inspired! I went with a vintage feel in pink and green.  With 24 kids invited, and paper crafting nearly everything, I had my work cut out for me. :o)

The invitation was done using card stock and ivory tulle. The cow jumping over the moon die cut was done using the Nursery Rhyme Cricut cartridge, the background of the smallest square is a nursery rhyme print and the edges are hand stitched for a vintage feel.

A close up of the invitation

The decorations included pink tissue paper pom poms, green tulle, ivory balloons, and some imaginative uses for stuffed animals. A friend of mine and I combined our childrens' toys and found ones that related to nursery rhymes.

Neither one of us had stuffed pigs, so I improvised with balloon pigs and added their housing materials in little piles....straw, sticks and stones.  Source

Little Bo Peep was made using one of my daughter's dolls, her last year's Easter Dress and the shepards hook was made by bending a witches broom into a cane shape and wrapping in florests tape.

Jack Be Nimble was tricky, since I don't have many boy toys.  I used a warrior man who was not dressed appropriately so I cut an adult sock for his night shirt and a baby sock for his night cap.

Old King Cole was transformed from a wizard to a king by adding a foam crown, felt pipe and felt robe.

Here is one of the displays.

The mouse as he's running up the clock

Three Little Bears and Goldilocks

The Three Little Kittens and one of their lost mittens

The lost mittens

I wanted to make a piece that had pictures of my daughter from birth to present time. I cut out coordinating card stock mats using the Cricut Storybook cartridge and adhered back and white photos to them. I attached the photos to bent floral wire and poked them into floral foam. I filled in the rest of the vase with moss. I added the flowers and crystal beaded garland for a whimsical touch.

A close up of the arrangement

The banner was done using the Storybook Cricut Cartridge

A close up of the banner. I accented with Diamond Stickles.

Here is the favor table upon walking in. The party favors included a pail, custom-made coloring book, box of crayons & a homeade lollipop with felt lamb cover.

This is the backside of the table.

The coloring books were covered in cream cardstock, stapled, then bound with a folded piece of cardstock (pink for girls, green for the boys) I used the Storybook Cricut cartridge to cut out each child's initial for their coloring book.

The coloring book had 8 pages of nursery rhyme pictures. The crayons were wrapped in coordinating paper and tied with twine. Source

A close-up of the wrapped crayons

This is one of the lollipops with the cover on. It was done by attaching two felt circles together until the half-way point, one big half-oval for the face, 2 little half-ovals for the ears and a circle for the poof. Googly eyes finished it off. We hid the lambs around the house and the kids had to find Little Bo Peep's lost sheep.

This is how it slid on. The lollipops were ordered from Etsy. The seller did an amazing job! There were 12 pink and 12 green done in perfect shade for the party. The green ones were lime and the pink were cherry. I would definitely order custom lollipops from AmySweetDream again!

This was the set up for the Jack and Jill relay game. On one side of the yard, there were 4 buckets full of water and the other side there were 4 empty buckets.  The kids were divided up and all took their little buckets to fill them with water and run them over to the empty ones to try to be the first team to fill up their respective empty ones first. Also learned the lesson that a balloon arch and a windy day don't mix! It was still festive though. :o)

The kids had so much fun playing the game, we played it four times.

For the Humpty Dumpty game, my mom painted a gorgeous Humpty Dumpty scene on four pieces of foam core with water colors. Then, it was cut up into pieces. We put the pieces on the floor and the kids all worked together to "put Humpty together again"

The menu had all Nursery Rhyme inspired foods. Roast Beef sandwiches (This Little Piggy), Chicken Salad sandwiches (My Black Hen),  Watermelon Stars (Twinkle Twinkle), Veggies (Mary Mary Quite Contrary), Pumpkin Muffins (Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater), Marshmallow Roses (Ring Around the Rosies), Deviled Eggs (Humpty Dumpty), Cheese cubes (Three Little Mice), Potato Salad (One Potato, Two Potato), Cole Slaw (Old King "Cole"), Pigs in a Blanket (Three Little Pigs), Lemonade Cupcakes (Pat-a-cake)

I got this recipe for Lemonade Cupcakes from a friend. After the cupcakes come out of the oven, you make a little slit in each one and pour a little bit of powdered sugar/lemonade concentrate inside. They are so moist and lemony! I cut the wrappers out of green and pink cardstock with the Cupcake Wrapper Cricut Cartridge. The toppers were cut with the Storybook Cartridge and attached to toothpicks.

This is the marshmallow "roses" which are marshmallows dipped in Wilton Candy Melts and rolled in sugar pearls. The kids are cut out using the Nursery Rhyme Cricut Cartridge.

The veggies were arranged in (new) flower pots and gardening tools were put around it to go with the Mary Mary Quite Contrary them of that dish.

My 2 year old modeling a birthday hat

The birthday girl enjoying her cupcake

These were her birthday bloomers. I ordered them from Etsy here. The seller makes custom bloomers, but she had these ones posted and they were ideal for her party.

Here's the birthday girl all dolled up. I found this nursery rhyme dress on Etsy and was astounded at my luck. Perfect print, perfect size and amazingly affordable. I received a surprise matching headband too.