It's a Craft Party! (Turning 5)

We celebrated Maddie 5th birthday party last weekend! She was involved in a lot of the planning and came up with many of the concepts. She asked for a Gabby's Dollhouse party with all the crafts and activities that are aired in the show. We based the party from the Netflix-series characters in Gabby's Dollhouse.

We started with sending out "cat" invitations that are available to download on my Etsy shop. Maddie wanted to make sure she colored each one. We added some fun stickers and decorated the envelope with cat stamps. As a reminder, we sent out a short video of the party that showed each of the stations to prepare guest of the activities.

Order Invitations:

Illustrated by Jazzy's Creation and Design. I purposely made them black and white so she could add color to them.

Then I started with the decorations. For affordable decoration, re-use cardboard, I created two giant cardboards white cats and a giant cardboard dollhouse. These made a great addition for play and photo props. I also got DollarTree decorations (cat theme), and I made birthday banners out of paper, and I put together the balloon garland.

DIY Cardboard House:

Supplies: Large cardboard, Plaid paint & glitter, Xyron multiple hot-glue gun, and painters tape

Step 1: draw out your dollhouse on the cardboard, then cut out the the dollhouse out, then paint the details. Use the painters tape to divide and separate the paint.

Step 2: with the extra cardboard, cutout windows, roof signals, eyes, ears, etc. Add color/ paint and hot glue onto the large cardboard. Instagram DIY Video of Dollhouse

Cat Props

Instagram Picture of Dollhouse

Create Rainbow Noodles Video (IG)

Cat Piñata(s)

DIY Cardboard Cat:

Supplies: Large cardboard, spray paint, black Plaid paint, & sharpie.

Step 1: draw out the cat face, cutout the cardboard out, and then spray paint from top from bottom (real close) to get drops running down to look like fur. Then brush out the drops or leave as is, but do use a sharpie/black paint to create an outline. Instagram DIY Video of cardboard cat

Instagram picture of cardboard cat

Craft Station:

Baby Box from Gabby Cat is made out of cardboard and she likes making crafts so we had a crafting area! Fun materials for wooden cutout consisted of fun shape felt, pipe-cleaners, pom-poms, etc. We did have couple of glue guns which is why I sent a video ahead of time so parents knew that kids would need to be supervised for these activities.

Game Station:

Maddie also came up with all the fun activities: she asked me to place the cats around the party area so the kids could find them, like scavenger hunt. We also had Gabby Dollhouse printable that are found on their website. I bought some DollarTree puzzles for those who would like to do that (like my daughter).

Safety First Station:

As you walk in, we had a welcome station, where we provided sanitizer, cat mask (made with Artesprix Sublimation pen), cat ears (handmade sewn with felt), and bubbles. For fun, I created felt cat ears for every guest instead of party hats. Then I also drew cat faces on kids mask to go with the theme. How to use Artesprix Sublimation

Also gabby shoes (IG)

DIY Gabby ears (IG)

Taking Turns (Piñata, Signing Birthday Card, and Claw-machine):

We also had a claw-machine filled with goodies that the kids took turns, next to the pull-down string piñata that was shaped as a rainbow cat that I made. As you know, Jazzy's Creation & Design is popular for our piñatas, and Maddie said she did not want a traditional piñata, "no, piñata." She has had three dramatic experience involving piñata. She was once pushed down and trampled by the other kids. Then she told me how she felt when she didn't get what the other kids got during the rush. So I decided to make a pulling down piñata with a door so there was no fighting nor pushing. Just grabbing a handful of goodies. I also placed the birthday card there so the kids would sign their name as they took their turn for the piñata.

Food (Sushi Bar):

Fits the cat theme and this was also a suggestion by Maddie. At one point she asked if the party could be at the sushi restaurant. Sadly, they do not have rooms to rent. Kashrootz Catering put together the sushi bar with some really fun shape rice balls.

Sprinkle Cupcake Station:

Cakey is a small white Gabby Cat who is half-kitty/half-cupcake and makes sweet treats. We decorated our own cupcakes! We also had confetti cake that I covered with sprinkles and then created a cake-topper. I do like to cut-corners and I used Maddie's Gabby's Dollhouse toy as cupcake/donut holder.

DIY Cake-topper, I made this topper by printing on color and using my cutting machine to cutout details. I did recreate the Gabby's Dollhouse to read Maddie's Dollhouse since it's her dollhouse party.

DIY Cupcake Activity, use paint trays to separate sprinkles for the kids to decorate their cupcake.

Party Decorations:

There was a lot of affordable decorations that you can make like pool-noodle rainbows, felt cats pieces, printed cats, and more. These decorations take a lot of space that covers a lot of the negative space.

Party Favors:

Order party favors on my Etsy shop or create them on your own. Find how to make mini piñata video on YouTube. I started off with making 20 mini white cat piñatas as guest favors. Due to the last minute guest, I created baby box with little white boxes found at the DollarTree, and with construction paper I cutout details. I filled mini piñatas with stickers, pencils, erasers, and small toys.