Saturday, May 28, 2011

A Crown for my Princess!

I loved the idea of a birthday crown, for my daughter to wear to her 4th birthday party. The theme of the party was Rapunzel, and we invited all of her preschool friends to celebrate at the park. Our special surprise was an entertainer, who dressed up as the "real" Rapunzel, and led the kids in lots of fun party games. She was amazing! And the little girls "oohed and aahhed" over all of the flowers in her long hair!  Three and four year olds are just adorable!

So, here is a copy of the invitation... I used MS Paint to do the "spray painted" background, and then cut the tower out of scrapbooking paper.  That's ric-rac and a yellow button on the roof of the tower, and pink yarn braided to make Rapunzel's hair.  Why pink, you ask?  Because according to my little girl, if it's not purple, then it should be pink!  And I had some pink!  Yay!  Then I used a zig-zag stitch to make a border on 2 sides.  All of the info is on the other side...

"Hear ye, hear ye, Lainey is turning 4!  Please help us celebrate the royal occasion with a party...  RSVP to the Queen"   

The Rapunzel theme was inspired by our then-current favorite book, "Falling for Rapunzel," by Leah Wilcox.  It's an adorable modern twist on the Rapunzel story.  Leah Wilcox is one talented lady!  We love her "Waking Beauty" book too. 

Instead of giving typical treat bags, we got a paperback copy of the book for each child as their "take home" treat!   I always get a sinking feeling when we leave the birthday party and I know I have to check through the treat bag for junk I'd rather not let my little munchkins have, and then dispose of it when they're not looking... so I LOVED the idea of getting them one nice thing instead of a bag full of junk.  (Not that they don't love the junk)!

I'm hoping I can find a way to theme out our future parties based on books... I think it worked so well, and made it pretty easy to keep everything in line with the theme. 

So what about the Birthday Crown?!  There is a great tutorial on The Long Thread blog (which I love to read)!  And I pretty much followed her instructions, except for adding in some extra rows of velcro to make it a little bit adjustable.  I loved that it was so pretty on both sides, and easily dolled up to suit any princess - or prince for that matter! 



I added rows of ribbon, lace, ric-rac, fabric flowers, felt heart shapes, buttons galore, and little crocheted flowers to decorate it!  'Cause this was one of those times where more really is more - even if it means spending over an hour sewing on little yahoos and doo-dads! 

Happy Birthday little princess!  Your mommy loves you!