Ladybug Details...

Planning a party is just as much fun, if not more, as the party itself in my mind. So, for those of you thinking about planning a ladybug party, here are a few of our party details... and you know, it's all in the details!


The Invitation
I ordered the invitation from Announcing You on Etsy. All I had to do was email Amber the picture and wording I wanted on the invitation. Amber did a great job customizing the invitation to my specifications- I requested the kwekel font since I had already used it on the birthday banner. Amber emailed me the file, I saved it to my computer, placed my order on Walgreens.com and voila I had my invitations complete in less than 8 hours!

I also have to add how much I love this picture of Ava. We had a brief photo shoot (10 minutes) in my parent's backyard to try to get a good picture to use for the invitation. I'm glad she was so cooperative!

The Birthday Banner

The birthday banner was inspired from Etsy as well. There are so many too choose from on their site but I knew I could make one myself. Just cut circles out of coordinating scrapbook paper that matches your party, then print your letters in a cute font and cut those out in a smaller circle. Attach with a glue stick then use a hole puncher to attach the individual circles together. I strung one string through each word, but instead you could just tie each circle together one at a time.


The Cupcakes

I searched the Internet for a cute ladybug cake and just never seemed to find one that I wanted to try to replicate. So after stumbling upon the TomKat Studio blog's cupcake toppers, I knew we would have cupcakes instead of a cake this year. (Not to mention that all of my cake decorating tools are still in storage...but we'll discuss that in another post... ugh.) My mom made these delicious homemade chocolate cupcakes with a wonderful butter cream icing. I can get the recipes if you want them...


The Cupcake Toppers

I knew I could make these myself as well, and the process is just about the same as the birthday banner. I cut these 2" circles out as well, but did purchase a 1 1/2 inch scallop circle punch. (I wanted a 2" but Michael's didn't have one). Simply attach to a 4" lollipop stick with glue- I put matching backs on the toppers so they would be extra cute. I think I created about 4 or 5 different toppers using the leftover scrapbook paper from the banner. I also added coordinating ribbon to add a special touch...


The Party Hat

Here's the template for the party hat. I enlarged it a little and cut the hat out of a 12" x 18" black foam sheet. I cut the "2" out of a glittery white foam sheet and attached it with hot glue. The red feather boa was just cut to size and also attached with hot glue. (Save the rest of the boa to decorate something else at your party!) Then I simply stapled on some of the leftover ribbon to each side so I could secure it on Ava's head. She absolutely loved it and looked so adorable!


The Tableware
I found these super cute ladybug plates on the Big Dot of Happiness. I also purchased their matching thank you notes and personalized sticker labels (I used some of these for the cupcake toppers). I bought 3 yards of the black fabric with tiny white polka dots for the table cloth and thought it coordinated nicely. I wrapped the black silverware up in a red napkin and tied it with a white bow with black polka dots.

I hope you enjoyed your ladybug party baby girl!