This weekend I hosted an Olivia (the Pig) themed Valentine's Day party for my little Kate. I have to start by explaining why "Olivia"... Kate adores the cartoon and books but basically, pigs in general. She loves the color pink and pigs. I think the two have something to do with each other, but I digress. It only seemed fitting to host a little Valentine's Day themed afternoon of crafts and treats with Olivia as the inspiration. If you are a parent and your kids love Olivia, you know there really isn't very much out there. We made almost everything ourselves and stayed within a reasonable budget. We all had a fun and fabulous afternoon!
The feather boa hanging wreath, so easy and inexpensive to make but received the most comments. This idea can really be used for almost any themed party or event. I will post the DIY instructions for this project in another post if you're interested. Another HUGE hit was the cut out Olivia. We enlarged and printed the picture, then pasted it on foamcor board, cut it out with an exacto knife and the finishing touch, her trademark RED bows made out of ribbon and clipped on.
I wanted the flowers for the adult's table to be very clean and fun like the rest of the party. I took three different styled vases and filled them with two different RED flower varieties, roses and tulips. I then tied black and white striped ribbon knots and finished it with a RED rhinestone center. After all, everyone loves a little bling!
Another fun idea - the infamous IKEA frame was used to take pictures of each of the guests when they arrived. The little girls LOVED this idea....
My little Kate stylin' in her "Olivia" dress (from Gap)
We attached white mailboxes (from Target) to the back of each chair with fun ribbons.
The mailboxes also served as their party favor.
We were using the kid's table for the crafts so we did not want to create a big, bulky centerpiece that would take up room. I created three RED carnation pomanders and finished them with ribbon bows in coordinating colors. They looked fun and festive on the table and went with the theme perfectly.
Olivia loves theatre and drama, so we created a mini theatre using the TV and RED curtains. We played episodes of Olivia in the background as the girls were working on their crafts.
Oh the Martha Stewart pom poms...they will be the death of me. I try to make them perfectly round every time and every time they come out oddly shaped. I have accepted this is my pom pom fate and put them up anyways. We also hung red rose pomander and cascading rose petals for a finishing touch.
We love LOVE love the Oreo truffles, but found a fun recipe for chocolate dipped Oreo lollipops. We wanted to try something different and the girls loved them!!!
The party was in the afternoon, so we served light refreshments and yummy sweet treats. Olivia's favorite color is RED. All of our food and drinks were RED. We served mini heart pizzas, mini barbecue chicken sandwiches, mini pigs in a blanket, bruschetta bites, Parmesan pinwheels with RED peppers and sun dried tomato dip. For the desserts, we served strawberries & cream, RED velvet cupcakes, white chocolate dipped Oreo lollipops, heart shaped sugar cookies with RED frosting and RED candy galore...
Our mini fashion shoot with Olivia and feather boas.
When it came time to choosing crafts and activities, we had three requirements, the activity had to be easy, had to keep the little girl's attention and most of all not messy! We settled on 5 different activities. We printed coloring pages off of the Olivia websites, as well as the paper dolls (above) We also purchased heart frames, turned them into mini chalkboards and had the girls decorate them with glittery stickers.
Another project was the chocolate candy necklace. The girls squealed with excitement when they saw this project. (A little help from the adults was needed) Basically, the necklace is made out of saran wrap, tissue paper, candy and ribbon. I really enjoyed this project because everything was precut and ready, there was no gluing, stringing, or wiring involved. We used mini chocolate bars, but you can use any candy. Even the parents adored this easy craft idea and created necklaces for themselves!
Little Ella with her mini candy necklace.
The mailboxes were filled with candy, stickers and a little feather boa accent piece for fun.
Another activity was playtime with the RED Glittery Playdough - do I really need to tell you this was a favorite amongst the little girls? The playdough was homemade in our kitchen. We purchased small containers at Target and then put our own label on. After they played with the playdough at the party, they were able to take their little containers home for some more fabulous fun!!!
The little host with the guest of honor - OLIVIAAAAAA...
There are so many links and DIY projects, I will create another post soon - so stay tuned!!!
