I swear, I scoured the internet for Alice In Wonderland paper to print invitations onto and there was nothing, nada, zero! All I wanted to do was find printer paper with an Alice in Wonderland theme which I could simply print Lily’s invitation onto… After searching for a whole day, I finally threw in the towel… When I stumbled upon an Etsy seller, Tamar, of Tamar Invitations, and her Alice In Wonderland inspired invitation. This invitation was perfect for Lily’s Wonderland Tea Party, it was not the typical Alice characters and icons, while the icons for the main characters are modest and clear, maintaining the atmosphere of a toddler party.
And… To make this invitation that much better, it is accompanied with place cards. Ohhh… I think my heart skipped a beat just then, I’m a huge labeling person. Having the ability to label the food, drinks, and dessert is the icing on the cake. I used the place cards as labels for the food, desserts and drinks.
Happy Birthday Banner!!
I have a soft spot for a fun and creative birthday banner…
Each letter printed on 4x6 card stock, in between each word is an image from her invitation design. The banner is strung together with yard and hung over our mantle. With all the flowers I created for the Garden of Living Flowers, the fireplace looked a little busy and active, but once I finished I realized Wonderland is busy and active, it was a win-win!
The Garden of Living Flowers is Lily’s absolute favorite part of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. Each time the flowers begin their singing of “All in the Golden Afternoon” she starts bopping, bouncing, and swaying to the music.
Being Lily’s beloved scene in the movie, I chose to transform our dining room into the Garden of Living Flowers…
There was a sale running at my local craft store, 75% OFF artificial flowers… And although I would not normally use artificial flowers, in this case, it was my only option. There is a slight chance I bought the store out of artificial flowers after I left, I snagged bright and colorful gerbera daisy, several chains of pansies, pure white and bright pink lilies, daffodils, and many more…
From the craft store, I also bought several different sized google eyes. With all my supplies, I prepped my work space and got to crafting… I began with manipulating the wires within the petals and stems of the flowers to create the features of smiles and noses, and locations for eyes to be placed. Using a hot glue gun I glued into place two google eyes on each flower.
The only flowers I didn’t add google eyes to were the daffodils and chains of pansies. The flowers were too small to even worry about adding eyes and since they don’t have eyes, I just placed them in places guests probably wouldn’t notice they were missing google eyes.
I draped the chains of pansies around the chandelier in the dining room, creating an illusion of the flowers growing from the ceiling. There are also flowers placed in all the open containers in the room… decorative vases, candle holders, change cups, and more…
The outcome is a cute, corky, and a little wonder… for Lily’s Mad Hatter Tea Party
Tamar also created adorable Water Bottle Labels for our guests with a "Drink Me" message.
Do you remember in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, when Alice in speaking to the door knob? Following the instructions on the bottle, she sips from the bottle in an attempt to shrink down to a sensible size and walk through the door. Of course, not everything works as she has planned and after drinking from the “Drink Me” bottle she ends up shrinking to a tiny-tiny size and floats through the key hole in the bottle.
Well… Last time I checked, with a party in July, there will be a great deal of drinking water. Why not dress up those water bottles with adorable “Drink Me” labels decorated with icons from our invitation! It is perfect! After sending my request to Tamar, she was more than happy to design water bottle labels for Lily’s Alice in Wonderland party!
My one suggestion... Be careful while taping the labels on. I taped these on with wide, clear packing tape because it covered the whole label. I was hoping this would prevent water from seeping onto the paper and the ink from bleeding, but it still did. Looking back, I could have changed a few things... I'll just know for next time.
Every Party would not be complete without a Party Favor! I prefer to keep my party favors as simple as possible…
Again, Tamar was pleased to help in my request for the design of a chocolate bar label for Lily’s party favor. I sent her a little message from the birthday girl and from there, Tamar got to work.
On my side, I bought a big box of Hershey bars from our local store. After printing the labels designed by Tamar I trimmed off the excess paper, snagged one of the kid’s glue sticks, wrapped the Hershey bars in the labels, and glued it on.
I have to toot my own horn on this one… Not only is this a wicked simple favor, but everyone LOVES chocolate, right?
Mad Hatter Tea Party Games: Pin the Smile on the Cheshire Cat!
The Cheshire Cat, known for his distinctive mischievous smile, was is perfect partner for a party game… considering all the mischievous games he is playing on Alice. Plus, our little Lily has a passionate love for cats, Lily and this game is a match made in heaven.
I brought Tamar’s digital design to a printer, having it printed to 2 ftx2 ft poster paper. Then to create the smiles for pinning, I traced the smile from Tamar’s Cheshire Cat (to get the same size) and made 10 smiles on poster paper.
The game was a success… As long as I could get the kids away from the kiddie pool! It was a hot July afternoon and the kids were having a blast in the cool water. Also, I would suggest using double stick tape for sticking the smiles onto the Cheshire Cat, I just stuck tape onto the smiles and the kids had a little trouble making it stick… Lesson learned.