April Foster: A Dog Party!

It's no secret that Claire loves dogs. If dogs had a fan club, Claire would be in it. She may even found a group next year for anyone interested.

She has a dog shirt I bought in 3 sizes and she wears one of them every day, rotating as they become dirty (you might have noticed her lack of wardrobe diversity on my Instagram feed).

Going into her 3rd birthday, I wanted her to have an extra special day. She is at that age where she remembers everything and I wanted this birthday to really stand out. What better way than throwing a dog party?

Thanks so help from members of the Studio Calico community, Claire had a magical day with lots of dogs. You can read all the ideas I received here in case you want to throw a similar celebration for your dog-crazy youngin'.

The banner was created in 3 pieces.

Stars - cut from cardstock on my Silhouette machine, then sewed through.
Dogs, tags, gold doilies. Dogs were cut with the Silhouette as well. All pieces stitched through.
Leaves - cut from cardstock on my Silhouette machine as well, then stitched through.

We picked out stuffed dogs for our party guests to "adopt" at the end of the night. But by that time, the temptation of them had overwhelmed Claire and when I went to gather the kids to collect them, I noticed all the bags were on the floor, crinkle paper everywhere and missing dogs. So, we put out a search and collected enough for the kids to choose from.

Quote from Claire's favorite book....I know you never would have guessed it!

Pinwheels cut from my silhouette and attached together with large brads. These are probably the simplest decorations to make and they came together quickly as well.

Cupcakes from Ivey in Franklin, TN. They were SO GOOD! I heard they were good enough for Carrie Underwood, so I figured they'd be good enough for me. Confirmed.

And, some left over die cuts I used on Claire's packages. I didn't think she'd actually appreciate them, but I was wrong. She wants to keep anything with a dog on it.

The festive dress we got for the occasion from Mini Boden. This made her day, plus got her out of the aforementioned dog shirt for a few hours.

A couple ideas we implemented but didn't take photos of:

Decorated treat bags with leftover scrapbook supplies (gems, enamel dots) and puffy dog stickers from the Target $1 section.
Dog Ears. Every guest got to pick a pair of dog ears to wear for the evening. We all got into the fun because Claire was having such a good time with it. I just googled "dog ear headband" and lots of party supply stores popped up.