Creative Party Blog

There is nothing that caps off a party like using a theme appropriate thank you note. Here our pig doesn’t match the invitation exactly. I can’t say that I like for everything to be so matchy matchy.

Of course for several years, the kids don’t even know what a thank you not is but your guests or their moms do! These are crucial if you receive gifts in the mail from relatives and for presents that you don’t open in front of the giver.

I’m told that it is now not necessary to write a thank you note to someone who sees you open a gift and you thank right there. But, with my Southern upbringing, I just can’t do that. I have to always write thank you notes and my kids will learn to do so as well.

Resources: Piggy Thank You Note came from Paper Rabbit Designs.

Because I made such a unique invitation and it was so large, I needed to make my own envelope as well. Now you can purchase all kinds and sizes and colors of envelopes. At the time, I didn’t know that. So, I jumped in to making my own.

It’s so easy to make your own envelope. Below you’ll find a template for a smallish envelope. Take it and develop your own. The key is to fold the sides with an overlap. Unfold and cut the corners and then refold and glue.

Directions: To make your own envelope, print out our template and adjust to size. (This is for a square envelope) Cut your paper and fold along dotted lines. Use a glue stick type glue so it doesn’t make the paper pucker once the glue dries. Close with a sticker or more glue. Decorate or leave plain. These really lend themselves all kinds of custom possibilities.

Resources: Click here for our Free Envelope Template.

Making a custom favor box is a special additive to a child’s birthday party. The parents notice the extra effort you’ve made and the kids love to play with the boxes later. And if your child is like mine, Anne loves to put hair clips and such in the box and keep in on her dresser.

We used the boxes for my son’s first birthday pig party. Knowing the kids love cupcakes, I couldn’t decide between doing cupcakes and a big cake. So…..I did both. The cupcakes were inside the favor boxes to be taken home and eaten and then I made a big pig cake to be eaten at the party. You can see it in another post.

I found a box template online and adjusted the size to be as large as possible based on the size of my paper. I used heavy scrap booking sheets which limited the size if I wanted the box to be out of 1 sheet. I now want to make much bigger box and do one side per sheet of paper but that’s another story.

This custom made cupcake favor box was made out of light pink scrap book paper. When cutting and folding, you really have to be precise. Otherwise your box will be woppy jawed. I love that term. Anyway. I glued the side of the box together only. The top and bottom simply fold in. Embellish your box however you like. These have a simple ribbon glued to the top and continues on the underside. Using a letter punch, I punched out all the kids names and glued those on as well. That way you know each kids got their own box and it’s really more special that way! Kids love to see their names on thing. Monogramming is good!

The final dimensions of this box ended up being 3″ square. Now, I’m thinking it would be fun to make gift boxes for presents……we’ll see what I can come up with.

Resources: Template for Cupcake Box

. Ribbon came from Michaels and Letter Punches also came from Michaels.

Photography by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

What better party to have birthday noses (other than hats) than for a pig birthday party? The kids were all 4 years of age and below at this party and they loved wearing the noses and laughing at each other. And the moms totally enjoyed laughing at the kids as well.

These were a last minute thing as I didn’t decide to even have a real party until a week or so before the party date. Planning a party at the last minute doesn’t allow time to be too thoughtful in party favors so the noses were perfect. There weren’t enough parts to have hats for each child as there were 15 kids invited. Since I would have had to make noses for each of the pig hats, I decided to stop with the noses.

Each pig nose was pretty easy to make. You cut a semicircle for the front of the nose out of pink scrap booking paper. The side is a rectangle piece of paper long enough to wrap around the semicircle plus a little and wide enough for the nose plus a part to glue to the back of the semicircle. Fold over about 1/3″ longways on the rectangle. Then slit the folded part every 1/5″ or so to allow you to shape it in the semicircle of the top of the nose and glue. It’s easier to glue half of it first and hold in place with clothes pins and then go back to do the second half. We’ve also put up a template for you. See link below in Resources.

After the noses are dry, cut 2 brown oval pieces for the nostrils and glue to the top. Take the smallest hole punch you have and cut holes on either side of the nose to tie the elastic around it. Test the length with your child’s head and use a very thin elastic to fasten.

These birthday party pig nose favors will take a little time to make but are mindless and can be made while talking with your hubby in the evening so he doesn’t think you are a recluse!

Resources: Make your own with our Pig Nose Template. Scrapbooking paper found at any craft store selling scrap booking supplies like Michaels.

View our video on How To Create Your Own Pig Noses.

Top Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

I didn’t make these pig hats for each of the kids. One the birthday boy got a pig hat. Since he was 1 the other kids (especially the older ones) enjoyed it more than he did.

The hat itself was made from some nice and stiff scrap booking paper. Unfortunately, you can only get one hat out of each page. Then the pig ornaments were a kit I got at Michaels. I believe it was a Martha Stewart kit for something else and I’m sure it’s not available any longer. But it would be easy enough to make on your own.

Directions: Start by using felt for the end of the nose and ears. The tail is simply a pipe cleaner. The side of the nose is simply some additional scrap booking paper. Eyes and nostrils would be fine cut out of brown construction paper with a simple hole punch. To keep the pig hat on, I added some super thin elastic. It’s important to customize the length of this to the size of your child. If you want to make the nose 3D, you could cut a form to be covered by pink paper or tissue out of something light like styrofoam.

Have fun with your pig party hats. If you have time, it would be certainly fun to make them for all the kids but doing this for the birthday child and then the noses you’ll see in another post, was super cute.

Resources: Template for Pig Face, Felt, Scrap Booking paper and Pipe Cleaners can all be found at craft stores like Michaels.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

Cupcakes are a great favor for a simple party for little ones. There’s nothing better than going home with a cupcake to eat later. I made a custom box for the kids to carry them home in so that the icing didn’t get all over the car! You can see those in another post.

For this pig party we had a regular size birthday cake in the shape of a pig face. Because of that, I didn’t want the cupcakes to be replicas. So, I used the colors and just made simple dots. This could also be done in black and white for those pigs that are black and white. Not all pigs are pink!

Here I used my cream cheese frosting for the pink layer and for the dots. It makes the decoration a little sloppy just like a pig!

For this piggie birthday party, I didn’t plan very far in advance.  Instead of having a special centerpiece or table display, I decided to display the favors in one big pile in the middle of the table.  Keep in mind that this party was for my 1 year old son so it was all minimal.  Any big party you plan for a 1 year old is for yourself and not the children.  And that’s O.K.  if it’s your thing but we just weren’t in to that for this party.

The boxes are custom boxes with cupcakes inside.  On top is the birthday boy’s pig birthday hat.  Instead of making each child a birthday hat, I chose to make them all piggie noses to wear.  Those are organized and displayed on the boxes for a fun extra dimension to the stack.

Table decorations at birthday parties are all about color and carrying on the theme.  When it’s in a home the decorations don’t need to be as large as if you were in a building with high ceilings.

This pig birthday party theme was really fun.  Ages of the kids who attended ranged from 6 months to 4 years and all enjoyed the creative theme.

This was so much fun to make and create! This invitation was for my son’s first birthday party. I totally wasn’t going to have a party until the last minute and a week or so before the party, I started humping it!

I created the invitation and realized the only envelope it would fit in was a office supply store type envelope and that just wouldn’t do! So, I made the envelopes. I created the envelope first because you are limited on what size of paper you can get. Once I saw how big the interior of the envelope was, then I knew what dimensions I could make the pig. I still had to turn the piggie invitation sideways to get it in the envelope properly.

The envelope for the pig party invitation is just a chocolate brown. Now the invitations did take a bit of time to make. The tail in particular was a bear to cut out. I only needed to make like 6 of these so it was worth the time! The pig body is out of a pink polka dot paper. Ear interior nose and tail of the pig is out of a solid pink paper. The pig’s eyes, nostrils and hooves are out of the same chocolate paper as the envelope. I cut everything out freehand and then punched the eyes out with a hole punch. Just easier and looks better.

The tag line on the pig party invitation wording went like this…..”Join us for an Oinkin’ great Playdate. To Celebrate our Little Pig’s First Birthday!” Make sure you use a brown ink pen. Have fun with your own pig birthday party invitation.

Resources: Scrapbooking paper can be found at almost any craft store these days. To make a pig like this one, use our Pig Invitation Template to make it easier!

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

Nothing like a Pig Birthday Cake for a little piggie boy. My husband wasn’t thrilled about my son’s first birthday party being all pink and brown but he got over it.

I couldn’t really find a pig cake pan that I liked, so I crafted my own pig face. By making 2 round cakes, I used one for the base of the face and then the other to cut up for the ears and nose.

I warn you. Once you cut cakes, they are much harder to ice. You’ll need to put a harder icing on the bottom and let it set so that the next layer doesn’t pick up all the loose cake particles. The colors if this pig cake could be pink and brown as I’ve done or even black and white. You could do a white pig with all kinds of cool black spots or even give the pig a black eye. Have fun with it!