Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party

For my daughter’s 4th birthday, she requested an Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party.  She had just finished watching the Disney cartoon version for the first time and thought the whimsical characters were fun and exciting.  My daughter’s birthday is in April, but because I’m a HUGE planner, I began planning the fun a few months before (right before Christmas to be exact).  So, I of course immediately turned to Pinterest.  I found some AMAZING and  easy (and fairly inexpensive) DIY decorations which made the party a huge hit with the kids and adults.  I probably went a little overboard, but there were so many cool and fun things to make that I just couldn’t stop myself!!   Many of the finds on Pinterest led me to blogs and Youtube videos for the instructions, which I will share here to hopefully make your Alice in Wonderland party planning go much faster!

Now, here’s the pics from the party, along with instructions/locations for the decorations shown:

Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party Decorations:

First, the signs I had at the party.  All of these were created with poster board I purchased at the dollar store (2 for $1.00).  For the pictures and text on the signs,  I purchased 8.5″ x 11″ printable label paper (available on Amazon, link below) and printed Alice in Wonderland pictures I found on the internet, as well as my own text that I created in Microsoft Word, onto the label paper.  I then cut out the text and pictures and stuck them on the poster board to create the signs.

Here are the two signs I created using the poster board and label paper:

 

 

 

I also used a poster board to create a sign for the tea cup planter painting station.  For this sign, I drew a tea cup and saucer onto the poster board with a pencil, and then painted it in using craft paint I purchased at Hobby Lobby:

 

The last signs for the party were the arrows on the trees that were also in the Disney version of the Alice in Wonderland cartoon.  These I created in Microsoft Word, and then printed onto 8.5″ x 11″ photo paper and cut out the designs and attached them to the tree.  If you are proficient in Word, this should be fairly easy.  If not, I do have these arrows for sale in my Etsy store for immediate download for $5.00.

The table coverings were all purchased at Oriental Trading Company.  I purchased the “light blue tablecloth roll”, located here  (since i had quite a few tables to cover, the roll was a cheaper option than individual table cloths).  The dollar store also sells blue table cloths, but they may be a different hue of blue, and often they are very thin and see-through, but it is an option if you are planning the party on a budget.   For the food, drink, and dessert tables I also purchased the light blue pleated table skirt to add a little extra oomph to those tables since they were in full view. And lastly, I added pink and white striped table runners.  Here are some pics of the tables and decor:

Next, are the giant flowers that Alice encountered in Wonderland (when she was shrunk down of course).  For these, I did find some “bread and butterfly flowers” on Pinterest as well as some of the other whimsical flowers, but I also found instructions for these GIANT flowers that were beautiful and so easy to make, so I chose to make them for the party instead.  To make the flowers, all you need is a bunch tissue paper (I bought several packs at the dollar store), round plastic deli food tray lids (purchased mine at Party City – I used smaller lids than what were used in the video, this will save you some money as the smaller lids are cheaper and you’ll use less tissue paper), large paper clips, and a glue gun.  Here is the link to the Youtube video instructions for making the flowers, it is very short and easy to follow.  And, here are some pics showing the flowers:

 

Next were the queen’s Knaves.  For these, again I used poster board purchased at the dollar store (gotta love that place!),  the label paper I used to make the signs above, red and black streamer paper, and red and black construction paper that I purchased at Hobby Lobby.  For the shoulders, head, and feet, I drew the shapes onto the construction paper, cut them out,  and then glued them onto the poster board.  For the white heart faces, I cut those out of additional pieces of poster board and glued them onto the head.  I then made the heart shaped mouths with the smile through them, and the heart shaped noses in Microsoft Word, using the “insert shapes” feature, and then printed them onto label paper, cut them out and stuck them on.  I did the same for the “card” portion of the knave (printed the numbers and the hearts).  Here are some pics of the Knaves:

Instead of providing “goody bags”, I created “mad hatter hats” for each kid to wear and take home.  These were a bit time-consuming (took me a whole weekend to make several hats), but turned out really cute.  We also had large teacup planters for the kids to paint and take home.  This was a fun craft for the kids to do during the face painting.  (We also hired a children’s entertainer to come as Alice.  She did a wonderful job entertaining the kids, told stories, and did face painting.  For those living in larger cities in California, I highly recommend The Cinderella Company if you are looking for an entertainer for your child’s party.  They do a fantastic job!  But back to the hats. I purchased everything needed to make the hats at Hobby Lobby, except for the headbands (in the video you’ll see they use lace to hold the hat on,  I chose headbands that I bought at the dollar store so the kids could easily put them on and remove them.  Here is the instruction video for the hats and here are some pics:

 

And, as I mentioned, we had large teacup planters for the kids to paint as a craft while waiting to get their face painted.  The teacup planters came as a pack of 6 for around $20.  I ordered them here.  The kids had a blast painting them.  I purchased the smocks to protect the kids clothing from all the paint at the dollar store and I purchased the paint and paint brushes (purchased a large variety pack of cheap paint brushes) at Hobby Lobby.

I also made an Alice in Wonderland Queen of Hearts wreath that I hung on a door on our patio (you can see it to the right in the first picture below).  I found the tutorial for the wreath here.  I bought the wreath form, the paintbrushes, and the paint at Hobby Lobby.  All of the red and white roses were purchased from the Dollar Store.

 

 

For the characters that I had around the area of the party,  I found great tutorials for how to draw the Alice in Wonderland characters.  I’m not a good artist AT ALL, yet I was able to draw these characters using the instructions provided (took many tries with a pencil and eraser, but eventually they turned out great!).  The only character I could not draw well was Alice, so I did not finish that attempt.  I drew the characters onto poster board purchased at the dollar store.  Once I had the characters drawn to my liking, I painted them with craft paint from Hobby Lobby.  Here are some examples and the link to the tutorials:

Cheshire Cat

Mad Hatter (unfortunately I didn’t get a good close up pick of the Mad Hatter during the party, you can see him in the background here):

Catepillar

Queen of Hearts

 

One of the last decorations I had was the table centerpieces.  For these, I used some of the extra teacup planters I had bought and then purchased floral foam and flowers at the dollar store.

Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party Food

Lastly, the food.  For the main lunch, I just had sandwiches, macaroni salad, chips, and fruit and veggies, nothing spectacular.  But for the dessert, I found some really cute ideas on the Disney Family website for making teacup candy holders and Cheshire Cat cupcakes.  Unfortunately I don’t think the website has the teacup instructions anymore.  But I made them using these cookies for the base, ice cream cones for the cups (cut off the bottom of the ice cream cone and use the top), and then round jelly candies for the section between the cookie and the cup, and then I cut a round jelly in half to make the handle.  I used cake decorating icing gel as the “glue” to hold the pieces together.  I made the cake myself, using fondant to decorate (as you can tell, it’s not perfect!)

I think that covered everything about the party.  I hope some of this information will help you plan your next Alice in Wonderland spectacular party!