A Pink and Gold Ballet Birthday Party

My daughter Allie, and one of her best friends, Faith, were born 5 days apart and are pretty much inseparable. Both being lovers of ballet, dress-up and anything pink, a ballet dance party was clearly in our future!  It didn't take long for Faith's mom and I to decide to combine our creative talents and have a joint party to celebrate our little girls turning four.

The birthday girls, Allie and Faith.

Even though it was a joint birthday party, we wanted Allie and Faith to show their own personal style at the party. To that end, we had separate cakes and different activities that were favorites for the girls. Faith loves art and Allie loves to bake. For Faith, we set up a kids' craft table with blank ceramic ballet slippers from Clay King to paint. For Allie, we had an activity station set up for the kids to create their own necklaces out of mini glitter cookies. What kid doesn't love an edible necklace?

Allie painting a ceramic ballet slipper at the painting table.

A variety of "cookie charms" for the make your own necklace craft.

In addition to the ballet themed crafts, we had a make-up and temporary tattoo station set up for mini makeovers. And, of course, we had a ballet lesson led by Allie and Faithie's ballet teacher!

A ballet lesson for all the little party guests!

The dessert table featured the two different birthday cakes and a variety of homemade treats provided by Faith's mom, Jennifer. She is an expert baker, and made gorgeous cupcakes, ballet shoe cookies and pink and gold chocolate covered strawberries. The beautiful birthday cakes were ordered from our favorite local bakery, Skiff's.

The large "A" and "F" are cardboard letters I purchased from Joann's. I wrapped them in pink tulle, and decorated them with tulle flowers and pearl buttons. The tassel garland was handmade from pink and gold tissue paper I found at Target.

I searched high and low for the perfect cake topper for Allie's birthday cake. I couldn't find one I liked, so I created my own! I sent my illustrator files to the online laser wood cutting company, Ponoko, and received my product in less than 8 days. I decided to jazz up the raw wood with some fine gold glitter using Mod Podge as an adhesive. I absolutely loved the results!

Custom laser-cut wood cake toppers.

One of my favorite DIY activities is creating chalk art. For the party, I created this adorable ballet-themed "Welcome" and "Thank You" chalk art on Allie's RH Baby & Child chalkboard easel. You can view my previous post on chalk hand-lettering to achieve a similar look yourself!

In addition to the "Paint Your Own Ballet" slippers and Cookie Necklace party favors, we also gave the party guests these ribbon dance wands and gold lace crowns I made.

Handmade Ribbon Dance Wands and Gold Lace Crowns Party Favors

For the favor bags, I made "Ballet Academy" stickers and attached them to plain kraft-paper shopper bags I found online at Amazon.com. I made the "Thank You" tags with a stamp and embossing powder, and hung them with ribbon from the handle of the favor bags.

Party favor bags and thank you tags.

I had so much fun planning this party and it was a huge success with happy ballerinas all around!