Crafty Tuesday: A Care Bear Party

Twenty years ago celebrating a birthday with a Care Bear party theme would have been easy, but today that is a feat.  Not even the party store in my area had Care Bear or rainbow items.  Luckily I had the help of my wonderful mother-in-law and we pulled off a great Care Bear themed party.

My first stop was over to Etsy where I purchased the birthday card.  I had these (in purple) printed at Costco and pulled out some envelopes that I already had on hand.

My daughter wants to be a Care Bear when she grows up and told me she wanted a dress like one.  Using the Simplicity 5489 pattern I was able to create her the perfect Love-a-Lot dress.  I have only sewed for two years so I am easily intimidated by patterns and complex instructions.  Let me just say, this pattern was a dream!!!  I really recommend 5489 to anyone who wants to make a basic dress for a little girl.

What better cake for a Care Bear party than one that is a rainbow?  You HAVE to check out Omnomicom’s site for directions on making the easiest rainbow cake ever.  I used Wilton colors and made the recipe with the eggs, oil, and water instead of Sprite Zero.  (Now I am very curious what a cake with Sprite Zero tastes like).  I also used my favorite Buttercream icing recipe from Wilton.  I could seriously eat that stuff all day long.  Normally shortening mixed with butter is disgusting, but add some powdered sugar and you have pure deliciousness.  I cannot buy store bought frosting anymore and always turn to this recipe.

Full disclaimer: I stopped working on the cakes after they were baked.  My mother-in-law is incredibly talented and cake decorating falls in to the spectrum of her abilities.  She did all the cake decorating.

Here is the inside of that beautiful cake.  Isn’t it amazing that simply blobbing colored cake batter in to a pan and baking it can yield something so fun?  You can tell in this photo that I made two different batches of batter.  In the future I will definitely double the recipe so the colors are the same.

Wouldn’t a Care Bear themed party be perfect at this point?  You would think so.

But my talented mother-in-law also made crayon holders as party favors.  She made Care Bear ones for girls and Curious George ones for the boys.  I was so excited when she found Care Bear fabric at her Walmart.  The Walmarts in my area discontinued their fabric section and the fabric stores in my area did not have any Care Bear fabric.  Sometimes (perhaps only this time) living 3,000 miles apart works to our advantage.  We added a Care Bear fruit snack and a coloring sheet and had truly awesome party favors!

For the birthday banner I used care bear printable images and created a fun fireplace masterpiece.

My daughter had a great fourth birthday. Making the stuff for her party was rewarding with her reactions. There is no better way to have a great party that to pour love in to everything that you do!

Here is the link to my younger daughter’s Minnie Mouse party from January – in case you wanted more little girl party ideas!