Super Super Heroes!
When you're turning five, you love super heroes and puppies and pink, what else would you do but combine all those elements for one Super Hero Pink Puppy Party? From the moment they arrived, and the birthday girl made sure to walk around and check on each of her guests, to the moment they left with capes fluttering behind them, these kiddos were super cute, super fun, super heroes!
Once the husky puppies had been stuffed, given a heart, and the children had made collars/name tags as well as capes and masks for them, I asked them each to introduce their puppies and tell us what super power they would have. The birthday girl made my day when she answered, "I'd be able to shoot glitter!" Talk about a soul sister! The other super powers included being able to shoot flowers, just being super, being able to fly, being invisible, and being able to shoot sparkles. Bam! Gettin' it right!
At Gigi's I like to keep the crafts with a "homemade" flair. I distinctly remember making crafts from whatever we could find in the house growing up and I want to encourage kiddos to do the same today (didn't hurt that my parents were graphic designers with a gazillion amazing supplies hanging around, but you get my point!). So, when I started looking into making capes and masks, yes, there are a ton of silky, perfect capes available online. But, if you take an Adult small tshirt (gotta love those box stores right down the street with $4 tshirts in just about any color you can imagine!) cut a cape shape out from the back and around the collar, then... voila! One super hero cape ready for embellishments! Put out some adhesive backed letters, stars and lightning bolts and let the kids loose. Every cape was totally unique and super - just like the kiddos.
PS - Here is the template I based the capes off of from Tutus & Tea Parties (thank you, Pinterest!). Because I never take the time to measure/pin/read directions, I didn't actually mark each shirt before cutting. I went a little out past the side fold on each shirt (to get a wider base for the cape) and then cut up towards the collar in a somewhat straight line. I did use super sharp sewing scissors which helped cut a straight and even line and which, by the way, if you don't already have one pair of golden scissors that you use only for fabric - do not use them on paper and dull the blades - you should have. Trust me, makes all the difference! There's no need for pinking sheers as the tshirt (knit) material does not fray. I saw a few online project templates that included saving the sleeve to use as a mask, but I prefer the traditional mask shape so I just used a generic template, cut them out from stiff felt and added stretchy string, for the masks. It was a bit time consuming, but just as with any handmade item or gift, it was done with love and that shows through in the end. The kids smiles said it all.
