Girl's 6th Birthday - A Jewel Party Part 2

More about the Jewel Party! :-) It was a success, but it took a lot of planning - mainly because I couldn't find any similar jewel themed parties online to copy! Ha! So, if you have a little girls party coming up - feel free to save yourself some time and use these ideas -- they'll have a blast!

As guests arrived they each chose a Jewel Tattoo - to put on their cheek, ankle, hand, etc. Oriental Trading sells them by the dozen:

Next - with all their excess energy, we sent the girls on a Treasure / Jewel Hunt. I had already hidden about 6 eggs, each with a clue to the next egg. I used silly phrases like "'Wii' love sparkle" and "How many 'carrots' is this emerald" to send them off to the tv room and garden, etc. The last egg was sitting on a treasure box of jewel prizes: Ring Pops, Candy bracelets and coil bracelets.

Then we headed to the table for crafts. 12 places were set with a wooden jewelry box, snap bracelet and 2 cups of self-sticking jewels. Most supplies came from Oriental Trading. I also set out paints and glitter glue for each to decorate as they pleased:

note: the jewelry boxes came in unfinished wood, so I spray painted some pink and some white ahead of time. I also had glue on hand in case some of the peel-n-stick jewels needed extra help sticking.

The girls just went to town glitzing up their treasures.

Next up was a Jewel Walk. Much like a cake walk, but with jewelry prizes, of course! I printed out 14 numbered jewels (12 girls plus little brother and his friend! so cute to join in with all the girls!) and taped them in an oval on the patio. In case you've never done a cake walk ... you play music and all kids walk around the circle. Stop the music, draw a number. Whoever is standing on that numbered jewel at that time gets to come pick their prize. Then start the music and keep going until you get the last person so everyone gets a prize.

 The girls chose a necklace and flowered jewel ring:

Next activity was a Jewel-studded Crown Pinata:

Anxious little feet awaiting their turn to whack the pinata!

Time for cupcakes and other treats. Then presents and that was a 2-hour party! Success! Phew!

Jewel Birthday Party Part 1
Jewel Birthday Party Part 3

Girl's 6th Birthday - A Jewel Party Part 1

My daughter just turned 6! We celebrated with a "Jewel Party" theme. She invited 11 little girls over and we made jewel crafts, played jewel -themed games and won jewelry prizes!  :-)

The pink cake featured a large pink glass paperweight surrounded by smaller pink glass gems. Pink. Pink. PINK!  Here's the 3-layer cake before I set the jewel on top. I used 5 popsicle sticks trimmed down to support the weight of the large glass diamond.

The cupcakes were strawberry with, naturally, pink frosting. Assorted jewel rings topped them off as favors for the guests.

For drinks I made custom labels for pink and purple gatorade bottles. The colors match the party and personalized labels make sure everyone knows which drink is theirs. I used the jewel art to match the invites (which I'll show later) and added "You are dazzling!"

Each invited guest had one with her name already printed on it, then the blank ones were for the moms or just extras to have on hand.

In addition to the cupcakes, I set out a bowl of red and green grapes; a bowl of red and purple jello jiggler cubes; purple gum balls etc. The first two of which you can sugar to look more jewel-like. Who knew but there was a run on the jello of all things! 


Happy Birthday, sweetie!

More on the games and invites next time!
Jewel Birthday Party Part 2
Jewel Birthday Party Part 3

Kids Easter Party - Krispie Egg Treats

Heading to a Kids Easter Party with krispie egg treats in hand!

Rice Krispie treats have been made into every imaginable shape, so I thought I'd try eggs for this Easter party. It's easy enough for little kids to help and mine loved it! We sprayed regular size plastic eggs with cooking spray ... along with our clean fingers. Mush a glob into one end of the egg and squish down with the other side until it closes. Open and voila:

We mixed colored Easter sprinkles right into the cereal. Then since these are for a kids' party we had to add some more fun color:

These bright glitter gel tubes were easy enough for the kids. We just did the top part since it seems like the gel will take a long time to dry:

Off to celebrate Easter at the park!

"Jesus!" Easter Eggs

Today I'm re-posting one of my most popular Easter "Inspiring Ideas." It's from a few years ago, but it's a pretty timeless tradition you can do with your family.

 . . . . . . .

Celebrate Easter with this "Jesus!" display:

Coloring eggs for Easter to celebrate new life in Jesus is a classic tradition. I thought it'd be fun to do a batch with my kids this weekend - to test an idea I had of using letter stickers:

Coloring Easter Eggs: Natural Dye Tutorial

After boiling 6 eggs, I dried them and adhered the letter stickers:

I tried natural ingredients - a first for me - to make my dyes. I googled to find a list of options. I started with blueberries. I heated a small handful of fresh blueberries with a bit of water and white vinegar. Then I strained it into about 1/2 cup hot water:

Next I tried cooking some spinach for green. I learned you'd need A LOT of spinach :-) to get a good green, as you can see mine looks more like pale yellow:My third choice was to be red/pink using cranberry juice ... but this ingredient ended up coloring the eggs brown. I took the one I had in the "green" and gave it a second bath in the blueberry to turn it aqua. Here are our eggs cooling and drying:

I really liked the mottled finish on my eggs, although you may try wiping them a bit for a more even finish. Lastly, I removed the letter stickers to see if my technique worked:Yeah!!!! It did! :-)The kids thought this was pretty fun, so we'll color eggs again ... AND we'll try some other ingredients so my daughter can get her pink eggs! Although she really liked the blueberry dye because it looked a bit purple.

Art Print Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to last week's God is Good art giveaway winner Sally!

She wins her choice of 8x10 art print from my

inspirational collection on Etsy.

Thanks all!

 Sally said...

Jeanne, I love your work. My favorite is "May Your Cup Overflow" - but I love everything I've seen!

Art Print Giveaway - God is Good!

I've added 3 new color versions of my original "God is Good All The Time" vintage sign art to my Etsy shop:

There's now Pink, Vintage Yellow and Aqua ...

... in addition to the original red version. So, what color would you choose???

Enter to win a free God is Good art print, or another 8x10 of your choice from my art collection, by leaving a comment on this post. Don't forget to become a "fan" on the "Jeanne Winters" facebook page I'll be doing giveaway posts over there, too! 

(One winner with a U.S. shipping address. Ends midnight April 16, 2011. Please don't forget to leave an email or link for me to reach you.)