Happy Halloween!

My son, my niece and I had lots of fun decorating pumpkins! We chose to use ornamental pumpkins, so the small size would be easier to handle for little hands. 

Bollywood Karaoke Party featured by Birdcrafts!

My "Bollywood Karaoke Party" was featured by Bird on her blog: http://www.birdcrafts.blogspot.com/ on Thursday, October 7th, in her "cool customers" section! Yippee!!

Bollywood Karaoke Party

Our family hosted a surprise 60th birthday party for my father in law. The theme was "Bollywood Karaoke". With the help of Birdcrafts party printables (visit her shop at Etsy.com) and a Bollywood karaoke machine, we had a party fit for a Bollywood movie star. 

I designed a Welcome sign to coordinate with the party printables from BirdCrafts...

...and a Bollywood Karaoke sign to define the karaoke area.

I absolutely LOVE party pom poms, so I had to make some! Only to discover that back in the early 70's in India when my inlaws got married, they had similar paper "torans" at their wedding. This created a lovely nostalgic feel!

Borrowing from the party pom pom idea, I made coordinating paper flower centerpieces.

Rather than filling them with candy, I filled these apothecary jars with flowers, feathers and beads.

I used the labels from the party printables collection to customize some "Filmfare Awards" to honor the best karaoke singers of the evening. The Filmfare Awards are Bollywood's version of the Oscars/Academy Awards.

Each table was named after a famous Indian playback singer and had on it a homemade photo holder, with a photo of the singer and his/her name.The photoholders were made of floral wire and beads. Each table also had on it the party printable elephant centerpieces.

The party favors, placed at each table setting, were small apothecary style jars, filled with candy. I used the party printables and rhinestones to embellish the jars.

Each table also has a karaoke song booklet, containing all the Bollywood songs for the karaoke.

In the entry way, I placed a table with the welcome sign and a guest book. I made a large "60" out of tissue paper flowers to place on the welcome table.

I embellished the guest book with rhinestones too.

I used the party printable banner for the front of the cake table.

I found small decorative elephants to place on the cake table and around the party venue.

I placed cardstock letters along the front of the table (also embellished with rhinestones!)

I made a custom banner to hang over the cake table.

I embellished the elephant cutouts with more rhinestones!

Here are more photos from the party.

I decorated the karaoke area with vintage Hindi movie posters.

I also found some movie-themed coasters to place on the tables.

I used hurricane vases for floating candle centerpieces. I added a few drops of food coloring to the water and floated the candle on top.

Toy Story Party

My son got a Buzz Lightyear from my mum for Christmas last year and has been in love with the Toy Story movies ever since (way before the current Toy Story 3 craze). So the theme for his 3rd birthday in July was obvious.

Here is a photo of my son posing with "Buzz Lightyear". I had a friend agree to dress up as Buzz for the party (but shhhhh, don't tell my son that it wasn't the real Buzz!) I bought the adult-size Buzz jump suit online, but I wasn't a fan of the wings that came with it, so I made my own out of card. The costume also didn't come with a helmet, so I made one out of two plastic bowls stuck together to form a sphere and cut to allow breathing room! My son wore his Buzz Lightyear pyjamas that I found at the Disney store online and his home-made wings too. (Yes, he is STILL wearing those wings at home!)

I turned my home into the movie set of Toy Story. Our living room become "Star Command".

For party favors, I used store-bought Buzz Spaceship favor boxes and included Toy story goodies, such as pencils, crayons, and board books.

Since the barn and tractor were such a hit, I had to make another over-size cardboard plaything for this party. I made the Buzz Lightyear Spaceship out of a large box. It is accurate to the movie--check, if you don't believe me!

I made Little Green Men cupcakes to go along with the Toy Story cake.

Of course, the whole Toy Story gang were invited to the party!

Our dining room became "Andy's Room", complete with the blue sky and cloud background featured in the first Toy Story movie. I made a custom banner reading "Sohan's Turning 3", based on the Toy Story movie logo.

Again, I designed the cake and had a local bakery make it for me. I added cake toppers ans star candles to complete the cake.

I made Space Ranger certificates, which Buzz autographed for each child, while taking photos with them.

I bought alien party hats online for the children to wear at the party.

Etch had a special message for my son that day...

We took photos of each child in the Buzz Spaceship.

I made a Toy Story banner out of the movie posters. Since my son was turning 3 and Toy Story 3 has just been released, it worked out perfectly!

Our family room become "Sunnyside Daycare" from the Toy Story 3. I set up the room with a ball pit, alphabet mats on the floor, Sohan's "art" hung on a clothes line with pegs, and LOTS of toys.

Our kitchen become "Pizza Planet", featuring pizzas and other Toy Story themed food and also the amusement arcade (a.k.a the party games). We played Pin the Face on Potato Head. I made the over-sized potato head face and body parts out of card stock backed with magnetic sheeting. We also had a "Mr Potato Head Factory" where the children got to make their own Mr. Potato Head out of real potatoes and assorted craft supplies. Finally, we had the "Claw" game, where the children pulled plastic aliens out of a bowl filled with rice, using kitchen tongs.

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