My daughter Noelle is the girliest of girls (her ancient-Egyptian themed party of 2009 being a fluke), and for her 8th birthday she wanted a jewelry-themed party. Colors? Pink and purple, of course. Her birthday is in December, so the stores were selling lots of Christmas decorations which doubled easily as jewelry. We decorated the door with ribbon and some Christmas ornaments…I mean earrings.
I decorated the table and backdrop using more jewelry, like the pearl garland (I mean necklace) on the front of the table which I picked up at the 99 Cents Store in the Christmas section. I also filled jewelry boxes with candy bracelets and necklaces, and purchased some pink and purple votive holders.
I’ve been experimenting with sugar recently with moderate success, and I made some edible sugar gems for the cupcake toppers which were made out of fondant and outlined with fondant beading that I made using a small bead mold.
The cake was white fondant with bows outlined with fondant beading.
When we were kids growing up in Queens, NY, my mom always made treasure hunts for our birthday parties in the park across the street. (Remind me to tell you about the time Alan Schlanger, the neighborhood bully, looted the treasure box.) We always loved the treasure hunts, and now I make one for almost every party. I typed out the clues and hid them all over the house and yard.
Instead of giving out goody bags, I made a bag for each guest and put them in the treasure box.
The kids always take the rules very seriously.
It’s fun watching them run around finding the clues.
Of course finding the treasure is the best part.
No party of mine is complete without some crafts, so I bought a bunch of jewelry boxes and had the kids decorate them with stickers and craft paint (fun but messy), and bought a variety of beads for making necklaces and bracelets.
Some questions you might have are:
1. Who took those incredible photographs?
and
2. Was the party a lot of work?
The answers are:
1. The incredible photographs were taken by Shannon Lee of Shannon Lee Images. I am eternally grateful to her.
2. Yes, I worked my ass off, but it was worth it.
