This was a really fun party theme to do because there's not much out there... they don't make Itsy Bitsy Spider themed party supplies, ya know? So, it forced me to come up with my own ideas.
First, the invitation. There are actually a lot of Itsy Bitsy Spider invitations out on Etsy.com. I liked this one, but the colors weren't quite right so I decided to use the general format and create my own. I also came up with my own wording, which I am extremely proud of because I'm not normally good at that stuff, LOL!
I like going old-school and sending out paper invitations, I get them printed at OvernightPrints.com. They have great quality and are super cheap, but (unlike their name would imply) shipping takes forever if you don't pay extra. I try to do stuff far enough in advance that I don't need to pay extra (it takes about a month for normal shipping.)
I started planning this party in October because that's when all the spider stuff is out in the stores. Most of the stuff was either the wrong colors or too menacing-looking, but I did find a couple things I got great use out of.
The first was this big googly-eyed spider that I found at my local Safeway grocery store.
Claire LOVES this spider so much that I had to buy a wreath hanger and hang it on her bedroom door. She says "Hi Mr. 'Pider!" to it multiple times a day.
A couple of my favorite elements of the party were the candy dishes. I found these spider votive holders at my local Kroger-affiliate grocery store in October. The glass dishes are candle holders from Michaels. I glued them together and put some colorful jelly beans in them. Can't wait to use these again for Halloween!
I also found these glittery spiders at Walmart around Halloween, they came in a 12 pack. I used some of them to decorate Dollar Tree baskets (the same baskets I used for her first birthday party), and some to decorate the wall. The green background pictured here is wrapping paper from Dollar Tree, I used it to cover a large painting behind the food table and that's where I hung the wreath and the glitter spiders. The flowers are also from Dollar Tree spring selection. Napkins are from my local Kroger-affiliate, polka-dot ribbon from the dollar bin at Michaels.
The other things I found at Halloween were these felt spider web place mats at Michaels. I glued pieces of green patterned scrapbook paper underneath them. I was going to use them under my candy dishes, but the spiders on the candy dishes didn't stand out enough because it was black on black, so I used them on the food table instead.
Next up are some hanging sun and rain cloud decorations made out of tissue paper. I could not get a very good picture of these due to the lighting, but they were REALLY cute. Some tutorials here and here for the tissue paper part. For the rain drops, I cut the shapes out of blue cardstock and just sandwiched the fishing line in between two pieces and glued it.
For the cupcakes, I had a vision that did not turn out quite as I had hoped. I wanted them to look like these cupcakes from Wilton, with two flowers and a tiny spider next to the flowers.
Alas, lessons learned.
They still looked nice grouped around the cake.
The cake topper was commissioned through Lynn's Little Creations on Etsy. She made our wedding cake topper, so I decided that I was going to have her make Claire's birthday cake toppers every year, and then we would turn them into ornaments for the Christmas tree. It's kind of hard to see the spider in this picture, but he was so cute!
I made some Sunny Lemon Gumdrops using a star shaped silicone mold. I followed this recipe from Sew Can Do and used lemon extract. They were delicious!
My pride and joy -- the cookies!
I got the idea for the plaque cookies from this sample picture at Karen's Cookies, and the idea for the sun at Glorious Treats. I made the rain drops with a heart cutter and then just sliced them in half.
This beautiful quilted table runner was made by Claire's Great-Aunt Cindy. There is a matching place mat that goes with it that says, "It's My Day!" We used it at her first birthday party and will be using for every birthday to come. It just happened to match the cookies perfectly, that was not planned! :-)
And finally, the party favors. These are little magnetic Itsy Bitsy Spider scenes using printable magnet paper. I cut the shapes out with my Silhouette portrait. The metal background is a burner cover (2 for $1 at Dollar Tree).
Whew! That was a lot of pictures! The party was a blast! Here are a couple more of the birthday girl trying to sneak some jello... and the look on her face when she realized she was caught.