The Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion and Toto - Dorothy's companions. Wizard of Oz themed party!

Dorothy had three companions on her trip to Oz: Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Lion. It was imperative that they were included in the party decor. Not to mention the need to incorporate Dorothy's best friend Toto!

We've already seen how I initially introduced Dorothy's companions in the invitations and R.S.V.Ps:
http://inthehedgerows.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/invitations-and-rsvps-wizard-of-oz.html

Toto on the invitation

Dorothy's companions on the R.S.V.P

Scarecrow

The obvious way to incorporate the scarecrow was to make a scarecrow.. Unfortunately by the time I got around to making him there was very little time or money left. Added to this, I'd never made a scarecrow before...

The Scarecrow

Ok so there's definitely room for improvement but I think for a first attempt he didn't look too bad at all! Everyone thought he was brilliant!

I wanted to include the scarecrow in other ways. I knew that straw would be easy to incorporate. My first thought was straw bales for everyone to sit on but that was a little impractical. So instead I decided to create miniature straw bales and use them as sign holders.
They were so easy to make! I used an egg box and cut up kitchen roll tubes and covered them in a few layers of yellow tissue paper.

Egg box wrapped in tissue paper

The next step was incredibly messy. I covered them in straw, stuck on with a hot glue gun. This took a number of attempts to make sure that all areas were covered and no tissue paper showed through.

Covering the egg box in straw

Covering the kitchen roll tubes in straw

Once they were covered completely I tied some thin twine around the egg box to look like a bale. I cut the straw around the base of the kitchen roll tubes so it would stand, leaving the other side looking 'scruffy'. They were looking a little plain so I tied a thin red ribbon around them for extra detail. As I said before these were going to be used to hold signs so I stuffed the inside of the kitchen roll tubes with tissue paper for the sticks to go through.

Kitchen roll stuffed with tissue paper

The finished sign holders

These were really cute and easy (if a little fiddly) but they added such a nice touch to the table.

Tin Man

The tin man was my favourite of the companions to make. I thought about just having a funnel and oil can on the table but I wanted something more, so I decided to create a miniature tin man!
I collected 4 cans of the same size for the legs and body, 2 smaller cans for the arms and a squarer shaped can for the head. I had a lot of trouble finding a way to glue these together, I ended up using LOTS of hot glue and even then it wasn't very stable! The glue helped to build up a flat surface when cold so the cans could stick together. 

Tin Man under construction

Once I had the basic tin man structure I added a funnel for a hat and cut off the tip of another funnel for his nose. I had to paint the whole tin man in a metallic silver colour as the funnels were red plastic! To add a bit of character I added some adorable googly eyes.

Completed tin man

He looked so adorable on the table and was my mums favourite of the companion's decorations!

Lion

The lion was going to be the hardest thing to incorporate. I started off with a lovely (big) lion helium balloon in the garden.

Lion balloon

This could have been enough but I wanted to add something else. I found these adorable 3D lion cookie cutters on eBay:

3D Lion cookie cutters

I found that the recipe on the back of the packet made the cookie dough expand too much. I adapted a different recipe so the dough didn't expand (look out for my cupcake and cookie Wizard of Oz post). Even with the dough not expanding, it was difficult to slide all of the pieces together. When they did fit I held them together with a small amount of icing sugar.

3D Lion cookies

They looked brilliant - and tasted pretty good too! I teamed them with one of the scarecrow-inspired sign holders with 'Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!' on it.

Everyone loved the way Dorothy's companions were incorporated into the party - stay tuned for my incorporation of the 2 wicked witches and of course, the flying monkeys!

Rainbow Pinata - Wizard of Oz themed party!

One thing my mum asked for in the party was a pinata. I looked around but unfortunately Wizard of Oz themed Pinata's are hard to come by... I decided to go for a rainbow design and found a few on the internet but they were a little pricey for what I was after. The decision, time to DIY!

You may have already seen my rainbow pinata from photo's from my original blog post: http://inthehedgerows.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/weeeeerrrrreeeee-off-to-see-wizard.html

Rainbow pinata background

Before it was strung up and destroyed it was used as the table background.

How it was made

I have never made a pinata before and haven't done papier mache since I was a kid!
For any of you thinking about making your own pinata, Pinata Boy is a fantastic reference: http://pinataboy.com/ - One day my pinata's might look like his...

Basic structure

To get the arch shape I started by attaching balloons together with tape. This was incredibly fiddly but eventually I got something close to an arch. I then curved the gaps between the balloons with cardboard, packed out with scrunched up newspaper. From briefly researching on the internet it was advised to use as little cardboard as possible to make the pinata easier to break. 
Once the structure was formed it was time to use papier mache! It was generally suggested that 4 layers of kitchen roll would be tough enough to hold the pinata full of sweets but soft enough that it could still be broken. I decided to do 3 layers of newspaper and 1 layer of tissue paper - leaving the two base (ends) open.

Basic balloon structure

Cardboard and balloon structure

Completed papier mache

By the time the papier mache was finished I was feeling quite disheartened as shape was very bumpy and lopsided - but I was persistent as I was sure the tissue paper would bulk it out! Once it was all dry I popped the balloons, removed them and sealed the ends with more papier mache

Time to decorate!

I drew different sections on the pinata and painted them the colours of the rainbow as a guide when applying the tissue paper. I then stabbed the pinata to create weak points, cut a hatch in the top, filled the pinata with sweets and glued the hatch shut. Before adding tissue paper I cut slits along the back and threaded thick red ribbon through to hang it up with.

Painting guide

Fully painted

Sweet hatch

I cut the tissue paper into rectangular strips all of equal size and began gluing them on with a hot glue gun. Always start and the bottom and work up layer by layer. I did this on either side until the tissue paper met at the top. To hide where the paper met I did a thin layer of tissue paper which ran down the edge.

First layer of tissue paper

Tissue paper layers almost complete

Hiding the tissue paper meeting

 The base of the pinata was left painted otherwise the tissue paper would have been crushed.

Finished pinata

Ok, so the pinata wasn't a perfect rainbow shape and it took far too long to do but it was a pretty good first attempt! Everyone loved it! 
I was so scared about the ribbon not holding that we didn't hang it until it was going to be destroyed, but it was nearly invincible! Everyone had a go at it but it wouldn't break. In the end someone had to take a sledgehammer to it! 
I'll definitely be making more pinata's in the future.

Taking a sledgehammer to it!

Invitations and R.S.V.P's - Wizard of Oz themed party!

The first thing to consider when planning the party were the invitations as they set the theme.

I figured I could go in either of 2 directions - a bright happy theme representing Dorothy and her companions or a dark and mysterious theme representing the Wicked Witch. I decided the brighter theme would set a happier tone for the party and decided to create an invite from the man himself, the Wizard of Oz.

I started to look at a number of different types of invitations and took inspirations from designs such as those below: (all links to these photos are at the end of this post)

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Design 4

Taking inspiration from the few Wizard of Oz themed invitations out there I decided to work with three main colours/patterns; red (Dorothy's glittery shoes), yellow (the yellow brick road) and blue gingham (Dorothy's dress). I wanted to incorporate as much as I could from the Wizard of Oz into the invitations, from the text to the envelope. Here's the final invitation:

Wizard of Oz invitation 1

Wizard of Oz invitation 2 

The Text:
As I said before I wanted the invitation to be from the Wizard himself hence why it reads 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has requested your presence'. It would make sense that the party would be held at the Emerald City (with it relocating to the address of the party). 'Somewhere over the rainbow' was an absolute must and I added the 'Sorry no munchkins allowed' at the bottom as we didn't want any kids at the party. 

Other thoughts:
I managed to incorporate a lot of things from the movie: The rainbow, poppies at the bottom of the invitation along with a little Toto silhouette hiding behind them, the red glitter of Dorothy's shoes, blue gingham ribbon from Dorothy's dress and the yellow brick road background. It can be a little difficult to see but the yellow card is actually embossed with a brick design (see further down for a better photo).

R.S.V.P's:
I wanted the R.S.V.P to stand out from the invitation, I made it smaller and used green glitter card (to represent the Emerald City). It was simply slotted in an envelope at the back of the invitation itself. Check out the cute Wizard of Oz lion stamp I used in the corner - stamped with green ink and dusted with green glitter whilst it was still wet. I teamed this with green ink too!

The back of the Invitation with the R.S.V.P in the envelope

I wanted the R.S.V.P to be a bit of fun - not just a simple Yes or No. This was the perfect opportunity to incorporate some of the main characters: Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion and the Wicked Witch. I wanted to create a response based on each characters personalities/phrases whilst keeping it comical and light-hearted. Each character's answer was represented with a picture.
The responses were divided into 3 categories: Those who could come (both willingly and reluctantly), those who couldn't come and those who always say they will come but never turn up - there's always one!

R.S.V.P

One big issue with R.S.V.P's is that people send them back without a name on them and as I liked the design and didn't want to have to put a space for names I numbered each R.S.V.P on the back in invisible ink. Those numbers corresponded with names on an invitation list. So, when an R.S.V.P was returned I could light up the ink and see who had sent it!

So how were they created?
The process itself was very simple. I used an XCut Big Shot Die Cutting Machine and various nesting dies to cut the shapes and a Docrafts Papermania Embossing folder to get the brick effect.

XCut Big Shot

Nesting Dies

Embossing Folder

The Big Shot is my favourite crafting tool, I always get clean, professional results and it's much more practical then cutting by hand when you're making over 20 identical invitations and R.S.V.P's!

All of the invitations assembled

The card was then assembled using (lots of) small foam squares to add more dimension to the invitations and R.S.V.P's. I punched holes in either side of the invitation on the yellow card and threaded gingham ribbon through.

The layers of the invitation

Needless to say the invitations were a big hit! Everyone loved them and loved the comical responses of the R.S.V.P!

Wizard of Oz invitation pictures:
Design 1: http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/MommiesInk
Design 2: http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/GwynnWassonDesigns
Design 3: http://www.loveitsomuch.com/stores/wizard-of-oz-ruby-slippers-handmade,403516.html
Design 4: http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/venspaperie

If you would like to use any of my photo's please link to my blog and let me know - thanks!

Weeeee'rrrrreeeee off to see the Wizard! - Wizard of Oz themed party!

It was my mums 40th Birthday recently and she wanted a big party, luckily she asked me to create a theme and handle all decorations.

I toyed with a lot of ideas: masquerade, vintage, 70s etc but in the end I HAD to go with her favourite movie - The Wizard of OZ. Why? Because not only would it be a really fun theme to incorporate, but also because it's so different, I knew she'd love it!

The verdict? - Of course she loved it! Check out the main table:

The main table

I have to say this was the most enjoyable thing I've done (whilst stressful at times). I managed to find so many ways to add a 'Wizard of Oz flare' to things.

Birthday messages book - tutorial to follow

Stay tuned for tutorials and reveals of the birthday messages book (above), invitations (both real and prank), incorporating Dorothy's 3 companions, little important details and more!

Pages:
Invitations and R.S.V.P's: http://inthehedgerows.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/invitations-and-rsvps-wizard-of-oz.html
Rainbow Pinata: http://inthehedgerows.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/rainbow-pinata-wizard-of-oz-themed-party.html