Our DIY Mermaid Party

This week our precious little Miss H turned 3, to celebrate we had a mermaid themed party.

Luckily we had a perfect day and all our little mermaid guests got to enjoy a splash in Miss H's brand new mermaid pool and a BBQ to boot.

Never one to do things by half I spent the past month planning and crafting little details for the party.

I think the thing I was most proud of was the mermaid cut out I made, it was a huge hit with all kids too, and made for some super cute photos of all of our little guests.

I had kept a large box we got from one of our many online shopping deliveries, armed myself with some paints and headed into the laundry.  I will admit that I didn't really have a plan and just kind of started to paint.  I started with the shape the of their bodies and tails and then moved on to hair and the finer details like scales, seaweed and clam bras. I then outlined it all with black paint and painted the background blue.  The Hubstar then got involved to make a structure for the back so it could stand up, I can't really go into details about how it was done as I had NOTHING to do with it, but I've added a photo so you can have a little look see.  It didn't take me as long as I thought it would to put together, and I will defiantly be doing more of these bad boys at future themed parties!

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Next crafting the girls and I got stuck into was making paper mache starfish.

To make the paper mache you will need

• old catalogues or a old magazine
• Egg carton
• Water
• PVA glue

We started by ripping up an old magazine and and two egg cartons, putting them in a bucket and soaking them in water for about 20 mins.  Then once they were all nice a soft I got the girls to get their little hands in there and mash up all the paper, after kneeding it for about 5 mins, I squeezed out the excess water and place it into my mix master, turned it on high and watched it turn into a pulp.  Once it's nice and squishy and pulpy, and almost clay like I once again squeezed out the excess water and added some PVA glue.  I didn't measure how much I added, I did it more by feel, you can feel the glue is the whole way through the pulp and it kind of feel tacky. 

The next thing I did was create a little template of starfish that we could use to help us get the shape right.  You can find the pdf for the template here.

Now here's the fun part, using the pulp to make the starfish, we basically placed the pulp directly over the pictures of the starfish and then let them dry over night.  Once they were completely dry the paper peeled off the back and we were all set to paint them.

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Ever party needs a party bag, or in this case a mermaid kit! Our mermaid kits included a a little tub of play dough, some bubbles and what every mermaid needs a mermaid tail.

I made up some cute mermaid kit labels and glued then onto some brown paper bags that I had in my pantry, you can find the printable labels on the link below.

The mermaid tails were really easy to make, I ordered a pack of crocheted 'tutu tops' from a etsy store and then tied 30cm lengths folded in half to the bottom row of the crocheted tutu top.

Mermaid Kit Printable labels 

mermaid tails made from crocheted tutu tops with
lengths of tulle tied to the bottom row.

                                                

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Now on to the serious business...THE CAKE

I am far far from a professional cake maker, but I do enjoy a challenge when it comes to the kids cakes.  This year Miss H picked out a mermaid tail cake.  About a week before the party I made the tail topper out of fondant, doing this in advance gives the fondant plenty of time to set nice and hard.  

I used three cakes to make up the shape of the cake, one 6" deep round cake tin and two 8" round cake tins.  As for the actual cake, Miss H requested a strawberry cake, not exactly the type of cake I'm use to making, so I cheated and used two Betty Crocker Strawberry packet cake mixes.
Once the cakes were baked, cooled and ready to decorate, I myself organised and set the camera up and filmed the process....much easier than trying to explain what I did.

My only regret with the cake was rushing with it (we were heading off to a family christmas party), so I didn't roll out the fondant thin enough, so I think the end result looks a little clumsy, but the birthday girl loved it, and really thats all that matters when you're making a cake for a three year old!