Friday, October 1, 2010

Olivia themed birthday party for Emma!

pig pops and sippy cups
Pinata time

Layla coloring
running crazy



exhausted B-day girl
I am a HUGE Olivia fan and have been since I walked past a Walden books window display ten years ago and purchased my first Olivia book. I fell in love with this little piglet that loves art and ballet and just has a lot of energy. Ten years ago I had no idea how I would one day have my own little Olivia in the form of Emma. They really are one in the same, Emma loves to read, dance, explore and get into trouble. She especially loves to wear me out! I knew I wanted to throw my little girl an Olivia themed party back in January when she started fawning over the Olivia books and the TV show. I started looking but no place made any type of Olivia product, so I decided to make most of the decorations either by hand or by transforming an already preexisting item. Of course I looked to my many blogs including Amy Atlas and Sara’s Party Perfect as well as the wonderful world of Etsy to find inspiration. For the water bottle and candy labels I googled "how to create label templates + free" and found really basic, easy to use templates. It is amazing what one can do simply in Word and with basic mailing labels.
THE TABLE: I knew I needed to present a table where food and drinks would be laid out in a stylish manner-nothing short of what Miss Olivia herself would want. I stuck to the red and white theme/color palette and I now realize that her table bordered on a "circus flair" which is fine with me as the second Olivia book has her saving the circus.
I ordered a majority of the table ware, table cloths, bunting through Oriental Trading. I made individual sized meals for the little ones and pizza and fruit for the adults. I wrapped each sandwich in a cellophane bag and adhered one of Emma's stickers which I made on a PC using Word and regular mailing labels. The mac n cheese were put into little containers I found at the Container Store and I attached small wooden spoon with bakers twine to each container so each child would have their own and feel somewhat "grown up". They really were the hit and kids love being able to feed themselves and feel special. My friend Claudia Sanchez helped me with her amazing calligraphy by writing the name tags that went on each sippy cup and treat bag as well as the food labels. I then made sticker labels to go on the lids of the mac n cheese that said Lunch with Emma! The image is from one of her books, Dinner with Olivia and I simply changed the text in Photoshop.
I would like to mention that I got the wooden spoons through the lovely website Garnish, along with the baker's twine and red paper straws. They are an amazing source for party ware and have incredible customer service. I also wanted to mention the paper “popcorn” vases that held both the flowers and the straws were ordered through Hicks Paper Goods. The images for the straw toppers and the treat bags were downloaded through the Nick JR site which has great printable images for all their shows in case there are Yo Gabba Gabba or Wonder Pets fans out there. I could go on forever talking about this and if there are more questions please feel free to contact me. It was such a delight planning and making all of this for my little girl that I am already planning her third birthday party. She and everyone had a great time and thought I feel I can’t wait for next year, I really can as I don't want miss E to grow up too fast...she is still my baby!!!
**Note** I somehow forgot to mention my favor bags so to see them click on this post called Loot. http://emmawillcutyou.blogspot.com/2010/10/loot.html

30 comments:

  1. great job! my son loves olivia too! HA!

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  2. What a wonderful party! I'm founder of catchmyparty.com and I'd love to feature your party in our Party of the Day on our homepage. Please email me at jillian@catchmyparty.com if you are interested. Again, great job!

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  3. I absolutely LOVE this! My niece is named Olivia and I am dying for her to have an Olivia theme for her first birthday. Too cute! You did an awesome job!

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  4. This is a super wonderful party!!! My daughter's name is Olivia and she is dressing as Olivia for Halloween this year. Maybe we'll have to do a party for her 5th next year. I've used the straw toppers from Nick Jr. before. I LOVE the bag that the candy stix came in!

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  5. Great Party! I was wondering where you got the stripped popcorn boxes from?

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  6. At Sheek Shindigs, the popcorn boxes are from Hicks Paper Goods and I ordered them from www.lemontreepaperie.com.

    Just search for "favor boxes" and you shall find. They have 4 designs and are just lovley!! I love you blog btw!

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  7. Thanks so much for the info!! Can't wait to go browse them.

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  8. so cute! love your ideas... olivia would be proud! come check out my parties sometime: bethkruse.blogspot.com

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  9. So cute! I am using this theme for my sisters baby shower and I would love to know where you bought that adorable cake topper! Calebsmom45@yahoo.com

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  10. Wow. it's like you read my mind. My daughter loves Olivia and I'm currently planning her party. I love the circus theme tie-in to go with the book. thank you so much.

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  11. Wow! Your Olivia party for Emma is amazing. The mac & cheese in the little container with a spoon -- so cute! I would love for you to link it up to my party: http://phubie.blogspot.com/2010/10/get-link-party-started.html

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  12. I just wanted to let you know that I featured your Olivia party on my blog tonight: http://phubie.blogspot.com/2010/11/link-party-showcase-parties-for-girls.html

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  13. thank you so much! I love reading your blog!

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  14. Where is the tiered cake stand from? LOVE it! My daughter is turning 1 in January and I'm already hard at work on an Olivia party... they're our favorite books to read together!

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  15. Little black press, Im sorry I am just getting your question, the tiered cake stand, I believe you are talking about the white one, it is actually two cake stands placed on top of each other. I bought them at TJ Maxx, you can do so much with stacking!!!
    The red and white cupcake stand, is actually foam and is from Oriental Trading. Please let me know if you have more questions or need help on making things. Im sure your little girl will have a fabulous party! there are so many Olivia toys out now, some would make perfect cake toppers!!! good luck!

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  16. Amazing creativity displayed in your party! Love all your decoration! I am planning my daughter 3rd birthday and would like to know where you got the sippy cups?

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  17. Maria,
    I got the sippy cups at Oriental Trading. THey are such a great site to get loads of inexpensive party items. good luck.

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  18. Where did you find the pinata? And did you make your own water bottle labels? Or did you find them somewhere? And lastly, is that an olivia journal that you had guests write notes in? I can't seem to find one anywhere!

    Thanks so much, LOVE all of your ideas!

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  19. Hi Trish,
    Thanks for your kind words.
    The pinata was a Disney princess pinata that I got at Oriental trading. I simply removed the princess image and printed my own image of Olivia from the NIck Jr website and glued it on. I think I also pasted some tissue paper to make it look more seamless. The Nick Jr site has some good printable images.
    Yes I did make the water bottle labels, I got the template from googleing "free water bottle template" online and then played in photoshop. If you wish I could email you my template.
    Lastly the journal is indeed an Olivia journal that I bought 10 years ago when the first Olivia book came out. I was holding onto it and realized that what better occasion to use it than my little girl's birthday.
    I hope this helps and if you have more questions please feel free to contact me!

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  20. Trish,
    I had to go back to look at the pinata. My husband helped me. He also used red heavy cardstock from Michaels to cover better the hole that was left when we removed the princess image. here is the link at Oriental, http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=12&sku=70/5714&mode=Searching&erec=2&D=princess+pinata&Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&Ntk=all&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&N=0&y=0&Ntt=princess+pinata&Dx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&x=0&sd=%26%2365279%3BDisney+PRINCESS%26%23174%3B+Friends+Pull+String+Pi%26%23241%3Bata#RL2

    You can pretty much do whatever with any premade pinata.
    Good luck!

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  21. Thanks so much for responding and being so helpful! I truly love everything you did.... I don't have a creative bone in my body and really wish I could just hire you to come duplicate everything you did for Emma! If you could email me any graphic/template/whatever else you still have that could be helpful, I would SOOO appreciate it! My email address is tricianmcdonald@gmail.com Thank you SOOOO much!!! :)

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  22. Also, could you post a link to the mac/cheese containers please? I've looked everywhere from the dollar store to michaels and can't find anything similar.... I'm not searching the container store's website and not finding anything. :(

    thanks so much!

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  23. Yoohooo... are you still there? :(

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  24. This is probably the most amazing party idea I have seen. I found your site while looking for pig lollipops and the ones you had at your party look just perfect. Would you please be so kind and share where you got them. Thank you so much, your party is so inspiring!

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  25. Petra,
    Thank you for your kind words. The pig pops were adorable and a great hit. I got them at Oriental Trading!!! I tied red ribbon around each one and then placed them on a Styrofoam brick that I covered in red wrapping paper. super easy! good luck!

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  26. hello:
    i love your olivia party ideas. i am in the middle of planning my girls birthday party and would love to use some of your ideas...can you please tell me where you got the cake figurine? from which toy? also, were the mac n cheese containers $3.49 each?
    thanks so much..
    annie

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  27. Hi,
    the cake topper was an actual olivia toy i bought ten years ago when the book came out! I have been a huge fan for a while.
    The containers I think were less, maybe 2.50. Not more than 3.50. From the container store, but I wish I had used some from Garnish.They have great container products...\\let me know if I can answer any more questions and good luck.

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  28. Oh my god! Wonderful pictures. Red and white decoration is looking pretty amazing. I can’t take my eyes off these pictures. It is a great idea to decorate an event space San Francisco like this, I would so want to do this for my kid’s birthday party.

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