Hello Kitty Party -3yr- Kitty Pillow Craft

My little girl Erin was turning three and wanted a birthday party to do with cats, so Hello Kitty made the purr"-fect party choice. Since most all of the guest at this party were also three-year-olds (2 boys I decided that the best approach to this party was going to be hands. We held the party in the fellowship hall of our church so we had plenty of space; a fully furnished kitchen; several large tables as well as two round CHILD SIZE TABLES - I've learned this is a very important feature to a party with small children! We chose the theme a couple of months before her birthday so this gave ample time for planning and clearance aisle shopping. (Birthday is March and I lucked out with post-Valentine early Easter buys)

I found Hello Kitty valentine cards (Clearance at Target) that were essentially small pink & white polka dotted blank note cards with envelopes (20 ct). To jazz them up I printed out a full body color picture of Hello Kitty from the Sanrio website but I first altered her t-shirt in Photoshop to read "Your Invited" instead of "Hello Kitty" cut out the figure and placed it onto the front of each card with pop-dots (a scrapbooker's delight!) I printed the info; date time location & rsvp # along with a picture of Erin and a little catchy saying: Erin is turning three and it would be lots of fun to spend this day with you. There will be lots of games and fun things to do. We'll even eat a little cake and ice cream too! I adhered it to the inside of the card with double sided tape. (I could print 4-up per sheet).

I purchased Hello Kitty plates at Target (on sale!) the center of the plate had a large picture of Hello Kitty's head with a bright pink background and the outside of the plates were white with polka dots of green tangerine blue pink. Very cute. I also purchased cooridinating napkins. Decorations consisted of streamers of white green and bright pink pulled from each corner & middle of each wall of the room and twisted to the center (from a total of 10 locations) There was lots of ballons some helium filled others not! I also purchased a Hello Kitty birthday sign (Target). Three long rect. tables were decorated with pink tableclothes ($1 each at Dollar Tree) as well as two round child size tables.

On the center of round table table was a small gift bag (pink with blue stripe & pink with white polka dots - came 3 for $1 at Dollar Tree - actually for baby gifts but plain so they worked well and just the right size) to which I placed a Hello Kitty sticker on the center of each side (stickers came from the Valentine Kit and amazingly enough didn't have red hearts on them!) I filled the bag with a little white tissue paper and some birthday wired garland (Dollar Tree) cut into long strips and stragtically placed in the bags. I purchased party hats which were pink with Happy Birthday & Balloons from the Dollar Tree and matching party blowers to place at each kids seat. (the table sat 9 and we had 8 kids +birthday girl!!) The other round table didn't have any chairs placed at it which I will explain shortly. The rect. tables also had a gifts bag in the center but also small tubs of pink & blue cotton candy (Sam's club.) I also found Hello Kitty plastic Easter eggs shaped like her head and placed them on the tables. along with a few bowls of peanuts and mints.

We had lots of food to please little kids and adults...finger sandwiches chicken tenders cocktail meatballs veggie tray (broccoli cauliflower carrots & celery) fruit tray (pineapple strawberries grapes - green and red) asst. cheese platter with pepperoni Pickle/olive tray cheese ball and crackers. Individual ice cream cups - very good idea for small kids less mess!! And of course cake - a 10" white two-layer cake; the top was iced pink with a Hello Kitty head with her signature bow (the bow was green since Erin's party was on St. Patrick's Day) and the words Happy Birthday Erin in white the sides of the cake was iced white and had various colors of polka dots to mimic the plates!! There was water juice chubs and pop to drink. I did a little research on the Hello Kitty website and she is all about coloring baking crafts etc. so as guest arrived I had printed coloring sheets from the Sanrio website for them to color at the round table ( with no chairs - this was the activity center area). Also there were self-adhesive party foam stickers (found large bucket at Wal-Mart) Hello Kitty stickers (Target - party section) and rectangular foam sheets (5"x7") so they could make cards for the birthday girl to keep. The coloring sheets when completed where then hung on a string and held up by clothes pins (to which I glued foam shaped flowers) for a coloring contest and everyone received a prize - a tub of cotton candy! We went ahead and ate before playing games so that the adults would also be occupied.

After a few minutes of snacking we sang and marched around the room to the "Ants Go Marching" song only it was "Cats Go Marching" we stopped at number three - in honor of the birthday girl. This loosened everyone up and then we played a revised game of "Hot Potato" with a musical white cat I found on clearance at Wal-Mart. Quite cute - looked like a furball with eyes and whiskers and when you squeezed it it played music sounded like it was laughing hysterically and vibrated. The children would pass this along and whoever was caught with the cat when the music stopped was out the last one standing won the cat. (The little girl was thrilled with her prize!!)

Next we made a craft - Hello Kitty pillows. And the boys at the party really liked this much to my surprise. Anyway I used two standard size white wash clothes per pillow (18ct. for under $4 at Wal-Mart) and sewed them into the Hello Kitty head shape (realtively easy using a sewing machine - I suggest cutting a pattern on white copy paper or wax paper to pin to the wahsclothes while sewing). Leave a small two inch opening on one side and flip inside out. Before the party I also sewed two 1" black round buttons for her eyes and a 1/2" pink button for her nose. (NOTE: make sure you don't sew the buttons to the back of the pillow and REMINDER: Hello Kitty's eyes are lower set then a traditional cat or person's face). I made 4" long bows out of red and pink 1.5" ribbon (stiffer ribbon words best no satin) and then sewed to one side near her ear. At the party the children took their pillow and stuffed them using polyfiber (any craft store or Wal-Mart) and then lucky for me I had two people who volunteered to sew up the seam when each child finished! Extremly cute and it's funny what party ideas can pop into your head when folding laundry!!! (Total project cost was about $2 each I found that the buttons are the expensive part).

Even though we had a big cake my daughter wanted to decorate cupcakes at the party. So I had several un-iced cupcakes and a few bowls of colored icing (left over from her cake - my mother is a cake decorator...lucky me!) to which we also had sprinkles Hello Kitty gummies and M&Ms to decorate with. The kids loved this the best. After they decorated their cupcake Erin posed with her cake for a few pictures we sang "Happy Birthday" and while the guest ate cake & ice cream she opened her gifts. I had a small door prize for the adults at the party and a guessing game to play - Count the Hello Kitty's in the room (which is what was found on the decorations cake table decor etc.)

As "Thank You" gifts for the children I purchased small purses from the "Dollar Tree" and filled them with Hello Kitty gummies magic wand flower sunglasses braclets candy necklace little T-shirt shaped notepad pencil Hello Kitty candy-filled egg 3 smarties 3 dumdums and 3 miniature chocolate candy bars that I made wrappers for on the computer to go along with the Hello Kitty theme and the words "Erin says Thanks for Coming!" The boys received similar items but their's contained a football (soft-foam) and was placed in a sand castle bucket. For thank you cards I found blank note cards at Wal-Mart (20ct) with various colored small polka dots on the front and with the words "Thank You" toward the bottom. I placed a Hello Kitty sticker in the center of each (left over stickers from the coloring/card center) and then I hand wrote personalized thank yous and signed them from me and Erin on the inside. It was a great party the Moms were very impressed with the pillows and I was especially pleased that everyone had a great time.

A FEW ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS: If on a more limited budget skip the "Thank You Gifts" let the pillow be the "Thank You" gift. Also skip the themed plates use solid color or white plates just accent with themed napkins you can usually get 16 napkins for the same price as 1 pkg of 8 plates. Instead of buying a cake just bake cupcakes get a couple of cans of icing and some sprinkles - you can't go wrong with kids if you have sprinkles! And omit the foam sheets & stickers just use the coloring sheet print outs from the website. I hope this helps someone create an amazing party for their little girl. Erin is still taking about it 6 months later as are many of the parents. And thanks for some of the party ideas I've found on this sight - it gives me a fantastic spring board of ideas for planning my kids' parties!"