Saturday, January 29, 2011

Back to school apple party for Imara

Phew, another party complete, I am bushed after this one! This party was for my 3rd daughter Imara she turned 4 on the 29th January. Since school was starting back (after 8 very long weeks) on the 2nd February and Imara was starting a new Kindy I thought a back to school theme would be a good way to encourage some enthusiasm for school amongst my elder girls and hopefully make it easier for Imara to start the new year. I made a list of all the things Imara loves, apples, drawing, reading, writing etc and tried to draw some inspiration from her likes. I also looked, drooled and was inspired by Amy Atlas's Back to School bake sale, a feature Amy did for Parents Magazine back in September 2010. So many cool ideas, where to start! I featured the apple throughout the party as well as the bookworm because Imara always takes an apple to Kindy and LOVES to read the most. To start with I made Imara's apple invitation using Kikki K's apple tags, I just printed the details on some blank cardstock and cut it to fit the apple shape, I then used the Kikki K envelopes and stickers from their stationary range to send them off to her friends.


I then started off by painting some MDF boards with blackboard paint and with the leftover paint I covered an old dining table (that already had a lot of scribbles on it) top so the girls could have fun drawing on it after or during the party with some chalk. On the blackboard I stuck a white tree wall decal which also became the focal point for my table and the "vessel" for my homemade apple cookies. Yep, I hung apple cookies from my "tree", it looked so cute and best of all the girls just had to undo the ribbon bow if they wanted to eat one. I was then inspired by Bird's Party free downloadeable back to school printables (I used them on labels, tags and pencil toppers), they are amazing, but if you want something different please visit Bird's Party shop because she has some AMAZING designs to suit everyone.


The banner infront of the table I made using Dimple Prints free downloadeable alphabets, thank you Carli they are so cute, Carli also has an Etsy shop HERE.


The best thing about the blackboard paint on the table and walls is that I could use both surfaces as giant "lables" for my sweet goodies. Any excuse to write on walls and furniture ;-)
The building blocks (red ones on the right side of the table) are custom made by Lilly-Pilly arts on Ebay.


For the cake I decided on a small chocolate sponge filled with chocolate fudge icing, Imara's favourite flavour. Everything on the cake is edible and made from fondant, Imara loved the bookworm the best.

Instead of traditional platters and cake standsI decided to use mini blackboards resting on books (covered in craft paper) that I had lying around the house.


One of the items I made for the dessert table (since Imara LOVES drawing) are these cute pencils, I used mini sponge rolls (you could use twinkies or tootsie rolls) for the body of the pencil and mini icecream cones cut in half for the pencil leads. I then covered it all in coloured fondant.


Yummy apple pops inspired by Bakerella




Scrummy vanilla buttercake cupcakes with numbers, apple and worm toppers made from fondant.


One of Imara's favourite drinks is plain milk, so had to have that at the party! Instead of printing lables I bought these cute blackboard labels from Bradensgrace Wallart and wrote the word milk using plain white chalk. How cute are the polka dot straws from Tout Mon Amour? I love them, and they have heaps of other goodies, so please visit them to see for yourself.



The gorgeous birthday girl wore a custom made apple skirt with polkadot frill from Janum, thank you Majd I love the skirt! I made a matching T-shirt with a $4 Target T-shirt and some left over felt and fabric.
The party table was decorated with melamine plates (from Spotlight) and home made polkadot napkins and party hats (inspired by Kate Landers) I wrote each child's name on the table, in chalk, above each plate as place cards.


At the back of each chair is a handmade library bag containing a children's book about apples ;-) I made the bunting flags from Kokka green and red apples, Chalkboard Letters and Numbers fabric, Kaufman Metro Market Apple in Red and Michael Millers lime green polka dots fabric.



Each child took home these cute mini suitcases with Penny Scallan bag tags and stickers.


and each suitcase contained 1 x edible crayons, I handmade these using Parties by Hardie's cute tutorial, alphabet cookie snacks (made by me because I couldn't find any to buy at my local store grrr), notebook (covered in funky apple fabric) and pencil + apple. Hope you enjoyed reading about the party, please also join me on my Facebook Page, I would love to see you there.
Last but not least a HUGE thank you to Amy Atlas for featuring this party, I am beyond thrilled and honored!!!

Cheers,

Leoni

36 comments:

  1. WOW!!!! That is one amazing party. Congrats on being featured on Amy Atlas - what an honour!!!

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  2. Every detail is amazing, congrat's on being featured on Amy Atlas. Well done :)

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  3. You've done an AMAZING job here, i'm now your biggest fan ever! Do you have a twitter?? I sure wanna follow you, and yay congrats for being on Amy Atlas'
    Eloïse From France

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  4. Your table and ideas are so inspiring. The details are just gorgeous, your one very clever lady who knows how to style! Thanks for sharing and "Happy Birthday" to your little princess. xx

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  5. Amazing party, love your blog come and visit me, I am from brazil and the parties there are AMAZING. i AM FOLLOWING YOU.

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  6. GREAT job. This is darling! Thanks for the shout out. Would you mind if I post this on my blog? You can shoot me an email dimpleprints@yahoo.com

    Thanks, Carli-DimplePrints

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  7. Thank you all for your kind words ;-)
    Carli have shot you a mail.
    Eloise, no I am not on twitter, have been resisting the urge ;-)

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  8. Wow Leoni! You put so much effort and time into this. Love your attention to detail!

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  9. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this with a vengeance!! The most beautiful apple/back to school party EVER!!!

    WOWSER!!!

    Would love to share your fabulous, inspiring ideas over at Bird's Party Blog!! Please let me know if this is ok? Or pls feel free to submit it here: birdcrafts(at)gmail(dot)com

    YOU ARE A STAR!!!
    XOXO

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  10. Incredible! I just found your blog through the amazing Amy Atlas, and her posting of your beautiful party. You are totally amazing too!!! I only wish I currently had a young child the age of your lucky daughter to host this party for! ;)

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  11. Thank you for the lovely comments everyone.
    Bird, I've already commented on your blog but will email a reply as well, I would love to be on your party blog xxxx

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  12. What a fabulous party! Every detail is perfect!

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  13. Amazing party Leoni - just too cool for school! Congrats. x

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  14. Super cute! I am in love with the blackboard labels on the mini milk bottles, the pretzel "crayons"... pretty much everything! ;) Thank you for sharing -- what a lucky birthday girl! Dawn @ KitchenTravels

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  15. beautiful. what a lucky little girl.

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  16. Just perfect! An incredible effort to obtain this amazing party. I also would like to feature it on my blog. Please, let me know if you agree with it.
    Best regards from Argentina!
    Daniela
    (perfectparty@hotmail.com.ar)

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  17. Wonderful party!!! I featured it today in my {party envy} post.(I am so happy for you that Amy Atlas featured your party, what a dream come true!) Great job! Stop by and check it out!

    http://frillsandfrolic.blogspot.com/2011/02/party-envy-back-to-school-birthday-bash.html

    Amanda

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  18. Gorgeous. I wonder if i could bother you for stockists of a couple of items. Mini Blackboards?? Mini suitcases?? Did you use a stamp on the library bags to make the apples??

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  19. Thank you Daniela & Amanda for the feature ;-)
    Kirsty, you mean the mini blackboards the food is resting on? I bought those from Ebay but have also seen them in various dollar shops. The mini suitcases are from "Baby's got style"
    For the library bag I cut out an apple and leaf from felt and hand stitched it on each library bag using blanket stitch. Hope that helps.

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  20. This is absolutely one of the most precious things I have ever seen!

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  21. What a delight! Found your beautiful and creative work through Amy Atlas. Where do you source those mini-milk bottles? Is this a southern thing? Here in Briz-venice everything comes in parmalat plastic!

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  22. Hi Wendy, I bought mine from Bed, Bath & Table but they usually sell out pretty quickly. Sharnel Dollar Design also has them in her online shop and I think she may still have some in stock if you hurry.
    cheers,
    leoni

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  23. how brilliant -- you are very talented and creative!

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  24. This party is amazing - I want to do an off-to-kindergarten party for our playgroup this summer and you gave me lots of fun ideas!

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  25. My daughter turns 6 and starts Kindergarden in September 2012! I am wanting to do her a school themed birthday party and I loved everything about yours! Where did you get the red suitcases from? I would love to buy some for her party!
    Thank you! You out did yourself

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  26. Hi Franne,
    My suitcases were bought from "Baby's got Style" online :-)

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  27. Just fantastic! Love your uses of the chalkboard theme & so many applications for decoating w/apples. What a special birthday to remember for your darling girl. I also appreciated how you used several different sources for your inspiration - the post was well thought out and I appreciate your writing style.

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  28. This is the most amazing party I have ever seen! You are absolutely brilliant. Can I ask how you hung the apple cookies from the tree? I see that you mention ribbon, but would love any further advice for this non-creative person! :)

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  29. Hi Leoni, love this party and just featured it on my blog at That Cute Little Cake
    http://www.thatcutelittlecake.com/2012/08/pin-of-week-back-to-school-party.html
    Thank you so much for sharing !
    Virginie

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  30. Those are all amazing, even I would enjoy that party.

    Uniform

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  31. I just found this party through I Heart Naptime, and was completely enchanted by the way you hung the cookies from the tree on the backdrop. So, so sweet and clever! Nikki from Tikkido.

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  32. I think this is one of the most significant information for me.
    Kids Clothings

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