Last week we celebrated our oldest daughter’s 4th birthday. She wanted a mermaid birthday party and wants to be a mermaid for Halloween. So, I gathered up some of my crafting supplies, purchased some fabric, and got to making. Even though the birthday party didn’t go quite as planned, our daughter loved her costume and enjoyed the activities.
Invitations
For the invitations, I used the retired Scalloped Thinlits Die to get the look of a mermaid/fish tail. I used Very Vanilla for the card base and the thin scalloped outline. For the color scales, I used Island Indigo, Pool Party, Soft Sky, Wisteria Wonder, and Elegant Eggplant. I cut the color papers to 5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″ to fit the size of the die. I only needed 1 piece for each of the purple colors, and 3 pieces for the blue colors.
After die cutting all the papers, I adhered the vanilla scallop outline pieces to the card bases about an inch and a half from the top. Then I randomly added in the color pieces, using more blues than purples, and trimmed off all the overhanging pieces to clean up the edges. I used a couple retired stamp sets for stamping “You’re invited” on the front and the date/time/place info on the inside.
Telescopes
As a fun activity, I made up some plain telescopes for the kids to decorate. For each telescope, I taped together two toilet paper rolls and wrapped them with printer paper (it was more flexible than using cardstock). I cut out the bottom of a 4oz. mini coffee cup and glued the toilet paper roll just inside the bottom.
Treasure Hunt Clues
We used the telescopes during the treasure hunt. To make the clues, I found and adapted some clues from a search on Pinterest. I rolled them up and put them inside the test tubes that came in the September 2016 Paper Pumpkin kit (originally intended for Halloween treats/decorations). To dress them up, I used some retired Pool Party ribbon to tie on the numbered circles.
Treasure Chest
The last clue led to the treasure chest of birthday favors. The favors were made using the Baker’s Box Thinlits Dies and Island Indigo cardstock. Each box was filled with a handful of chocolate gold coins before closing it up. I used the same ribbon as before to tie the stamped circles onto the boxes (I also stapled the box towards the top to help it stay closed better). On the circles, I stamped one of the fish images from the Seaside Shore stamp set in Island Indigo ink, and the “thank you” image from the Endless Thanks set in Wisteria Wonder.
Costumes
The costumes are inspired by Ariel and Flounder from The Little Mermaid. I followed this tutorial to make the mermaid tail, and used a seashell stencil and fabric paint to make the top. The tights were purchased at Target. I used blues and purples for the fabric colors because there wasn’t a great selection of green colors in the type of fabric I wanted.
For the Flounder inspired costume, I bought a bright yellow onesie, and turquoise ribbon, tulle, and crochet elastic. I sewed a few strips of ribbon to the front of the onesie. I used the crochet elastic to make a band for the tutu and a headband. For the tutu, I tied a bunch of 12″ strips of tulle (folded in half) to the bottom of the larger band. For the headband, I cut out some tulle circles, sewed them together to form a little poof, and attached it to the headband.
The costumes worked out great, so we are all set for Halloween next week!
Now, I’m off to go finish up the thank you cards to send to those who sent birthday gifts.
In case you are wondering what current Stampin’ Up! products were used in some of these projects, check out the items below.
Product List
Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com
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