Guest Post - Handmade Invitations

Delighted to hand our blog over to Candice today, one of our stylists as she explains how she made her daughters party invitations.

It has become a tradition in our house that the making of the birthday invitations is a team effort – Its her party after all!  

Admittedly my daughter does have a party-planning mum - but its her enthusiasm about her impending birthday (and child-like abandon with the glitter) that seems to make her birthday invitations really special.

Our past efforts have involved her tea-staining Pirate maps before lightly baked them or making vintage key bracelets for her Alice in Wonderland party invites, so we had to come up with something equally fun.

This year she has chosen a Wizard of Oz party and we thought what better way to invite her friends than from the Wizard of Oz himself on a sparkly scroll! 

A New Take on an Old Favourite - Pass the Parcel

According to my google search "Pass the Parcel" originated from Medieval times, the game traditionally involved a trinket or token such as a ring or piece of chocolate being wrapped up in cloth, finished off with ribbon. There was also the concept of forfeits involved to those who didn't win!

So, how has such a simple game achieved longevity in the now innovative and creative party world? Originality. The concept of this game is basic and accessible for everyone and anyone. Low budget? Yes. Outlandish party theme? Easy.  Extravagance and attention to detail? No problem. The beauty of this game is it's adaptability to any occasion and age.

A Gift - The New Invitation

Over the last year we have been noticing a real trend for different and exciting invitations.  The hand-written, filled-in invite has been replaced by a new breed of personalized, themed and sometimes shaped invitations.

We always see the invitation as a pre-cursor to the party, a taster of what is to come and from our perspective as a party planners, we like to ensure it is as stylish as the party itself.

Recently our clients have been asking for us to push the boundaries of the traditional invitation and we have been creating invitations, which are in themselves small gifts.  Examples include a Wonka bar with a golden ticket, a paint box with the invite inserted into the lid, a book and sweets in a gift bag, a pirate invite in a bottle and cupcakes and themed cookies as well.

We decided to look further into this as a concept and see what other exciting and interesting ideas we could find out there as well as sharing some of our own.

How about adding crayons to an art party invitation
as One Charming Party did here 

Let's Go Lego!

Today we’re taking a journey into the land of endless colourful opportunity… LEGO!!! What I love about this theme is you can apply it to any gender! The endless options of colours and Lego characters available allows for a completely bespoke party theme.

The timeless, instantly recognisable blocks have built countless forts, pony stables and castles and what better way to celebrate with a theme exuding fun and creativity.

Here’s a brilliant idea to entertain the children; LEGO DRESS UP! From the hair to the outfits or even yellow face paint, a Lego Dress-Up Station filled with colourful plain t-shirts and black shorts provides the perfect activity to get the children involved in the theme, bringing it to life.

Lego Sweetie bags are a brilliant idea. Again, the contents can be altered and the bag can be customised with names and images! If you want to get really inventive, the bags could be tied up with coloured ribbon holding pieces of different Lego as weights. The balloons could be also weighted with Lego shaped blocks… I could go on and on. The below sweetie bags by Les Enfants are adorable and unisex with little chocolate Lego men and theme coloured jelly beans!