Both of my children were born in December. Poor planning. After going through the year of pictures for our 2007 photo album, I realized with sadness and a sense of pride that our older daughter grew up this year. She just turned five and is asking questions like “Does Santa have a job?” and too frequently dismisses things as “just pretend”. She is coming up with her own (and surprisingly funny) jokes and has started wearing blue jeans and a ponytail.
We read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland over the last few months and decided to have a birthday party with a Wonderland theme. I’ve been looking at the Alice birthday party pictures posted over at Design Mom and thinking what a lovely theme it would be. I’m posting pictures and download-able invitations, party hats and garland.
Of course the girls wanted to dress up as the characters from the book, so I made Alice and Queen of Hearts dresses. I made these giant tissue roses to hang from a chandelier using this method. But I stacked two or more groups of folded tissue paper in an “X” shape before wrapping with the chenille stems, which created fullness for such a large flower. Also, I find that it helps reduce tearing if you fluff the tissue before you wrap it with the stem.
I made this mobile with fabric created by iron-on transfer paper. I just cut out the designs and sewed together with an Alice in Wonderland patterned fabric. I then sewed on ribbon and tied each one to an arm of the chandelier. The mushrooms were made with felt, burlap, stuffing and thread spools. I embroidered the dots by machine, made a basting stitch to gather them, stuffed the inside, and hot glued the tops to the base. This was a very last minute project, but one of my favorites.
I made two garlands; one with playing cards (jumbo-sized cards would have been better) and one with print-outs of the characters. Here are the images for the cut-out garland: wonderland-cut-out-garland.pdf.
The children sat at a small table and drank tea. I made this runner with fabric that I bought from sonatine over at Etsy. I don’t see it there anymore, but Reprodepot has some great Alice in Wonderland fabric here. For the ribbon flower, I used the pattern at Martha Stewart that you can find here. I served scones and tea sandwiches with cream cheese and orange marmalade cut in the shape of hearts. We used red roses for the centerpiece and made cakes from this rose-shaped pan (in all the frenzy, I neglected to get a photo of the cakes). I decorated the cakes with icing flowers at the base and icing in the rose petals, but it would be lovely with powdered sugar and a rose in the center. Kids do like icing.
We played “Pin the Tail on the Cheshire Cat” with a nice poster board drawing created by my husband (no photo). We sent the kids home with this “Drink Me” hot chocolate mix, shown below. I wanted to do something with “Eat Me”, but the fourteen-year-old in me just couldn’t do it.
I did not get around to making party hats for the party, but I made some samples and am posting the templates below. You can put them together with glue dots or staples (be sure sharp part is on the outside). You can find thin elastic at the fabric store and staple or securely tape it to the inside.
Here are the party hat templates:
queen-of-hearts-party-hat1.pdf
Our invitations were a bit different, but I am posting the basic design as a fill-in invitation (.pdf file below). We printed ours on scallop edged paper, size 4.5″x6.25″(A6 envelopes).
And I have also posted a page of characters that you could print on sticker paper, which we used in the pinata. We tried a homemade pinata and it seems that my engineering skills need some work. All of the strings pulled at once! The kids didn’t really mind; they just wanted the candy. So if you want to dress up a store bought pinata (or cover up the princess design), you could glue some tissue flowers on it. Another case of me trying to make something that costs $8.99 to buy.
Congratulations on putting together such a wonderfully creative and handmade birthday party! The girls look so happy. The mushrooms are really cute and the playing card garland is such a simple, unique idea with big impact. Thanks for sharing the templates. Lots of inspiration here!
This is so wonderful! You did so much for this! Too bad my girls are either too old or into Bratz (yuck!) for this. Beautifully done. Thank you for sharing.
What an amazing party – everything looks so wonderful. You are really setting the bar high for any birthday parties I will throw for my daughter! I think I need to start planning now for next year!!! (her birthday is in December too.)
WOW! I want you to be my mom (not really, mine is pretty great, but…) I would die to have a birthday party just like that…and I’m 32!
This is fabulous!! The picture of the girls in their dresses is priceless.
Wow, this is beautiful! DD’s birthday isn’t until May but I’m definitely tucking this idea away!
I love this idea and was looking for an idea for my daughter’s 2nd birthday. Her first birthday was Vintage Baby – no one understood. I have you beat designonpost, Isla’s birthday is in September, I’m a planner and I’m always about 6 months to a year ahead. But the ideas are whirling in my head already, thanks again!
These ideas are awesome! I’ve been looking at Alice in Wonderland stuff for my sweet 16 and this is cool. I saw the movies but didn’t read the book… I must say that the characters from the book look really scary!
Hi, I’m planning a alice in wonderland party for my 5 year old and found your blog, so nice to see all the ideas you have come up with.
I LOVE your ideas! Where in the world did you find that beautiful Alice in Wonderland fabric????
Thank you so much for taking the time to post all your wonderful and creative ideas. Especially for someone like me, who loves to do parties but really needs help with the process.
Your ideas are wonder-ful and your children are very luck to have you as a mom…congratulations!!!
Hi! I just wanted to say thank you so much for all your awesome ideas! My younger sister (who’s actually turning 17) is having an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday on July 12th and your blog was one of the only places we could find great ideas! The images for the garlands were awesome and we just wanted to thank you because we’re really into throwing parties no matter how old we are!!! =)
Hi!, I loved all your cut outs but id like to ask you a favor do you have a template for the hot chocolate labels id love to do that but with a tea idea for a baby shower. if you can email them to methat would be great. Thanks
and again your hard work for your little girls birthday party will not be forgotten.. i wish i had a birthday party like this. All i ever got when i was a child was mcdonalds birthday parties and your regular clown at a party party.. lol
Thank you so much for the wonderful ideas and downloads. Believe it or not some of your ideas will be great for my daughter’s bridal shower.
What great ideas! The artwork really is helpful in putting together the theme for my daughter’s 5th birthday. I wanted to know if you had a template for the hot chocolate labels…it was so perfect and creative and different from the usual party favors! Thanks for sharing all your ideas.
What a fun party! I love it, thanks for sharing the templates and ideas, I can’t wait to give it a try for my daughter’s 3rd bday party! THANKS a bunch!
so i’m thinking i want to use this theme for my sweet sixteen birthday party… how might i convert it to an older version??
Your ideas are GREAT. THanks for sharing with us- and I am sure you have helped many people throw a Great Tea Party! 🙂
I am throwing an Alice in Wonderland themed baby shower and stumbled upon your ideas which are great! Question, I can’t seem to manipulate your artwork of Alice for the invite. I found the same artwork online, but it is only black and white and I love how you have her dress blue. How did you do that? Or do you have the artwork you could email to me? Thanks!
Also, I meant to ask if you had a template for the hot chocolate sticker. I am giving everyone loose tea as a favor and would love to modify that. Thanks.
I’ve been looking for inspiration for my daughter’s Alice party (not wanting to go the Disney route) and I’ve found it here! Beautiful job – you are extremely creative!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I wanted to throw this theme for my 3 year old. I needed some inspiration. Thanks for sharing.
What a beautiful birthday party!!! I was actually looking for Alice in Wonderland fabric. I’m making a Wizard of Oz quilt for my niece (her bedroom walls are amazingly detailed hand-painted scenes from the book) and thought I’d look for Alice fabric as a birthday gift to myself (which is tomorrow – I’ll be 41!) Your girls are lucky to have a wonderful mom like you!!! I wonder what you did this year?! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Can you please send me the templet for the hot coco? Thank you
My friend, who is turning 27, has decided she wants an Alice in Wonderland party. Coming up with ideas has been hard because they don’t make much Alice in Wonderland stuff, but this blog has been a HUGE help to me! Thank you!
im thowing a baby shower for my best friend and i expect this to help with the ambiance greatly!
Where did you find the Alice in Wonderland fabric? I’ve looked everywhere!!!
My daughter is planning a baby shower for her sister on April 18th. The theme is “Alice in Wonderland”. I’m helping with the shower and I was thrilled to see your website. How creative you are!! Is it possible to send me the template for the hot chocolate? It would be a perfect favor for all the guests. Thank you so much for your help!
Where did you find the Alice in wonderland material? My daughter LOVES the movie and collects Alice stuff.
I’m planning my daughter’s 5th birthday party and this is just the best, Thank you so much for sharing!
WOWZERZ! i am planning to have a sweet 16th and have an alice in wonderland themed.I have looked everywhere to find a website that had good ideas, and this one took the cake..and ate it! i just love the hot chocolate idea, could you pretty please put a template on your site? it would be very handy! thank you so much! xoxo
THANK YOU! You’ve made my day! I’m planning my soon to be 3 yo daughter a wonderland party and was so disappointed in everything I had found (up til now) on the web.
You’re blog is wonderful & I’m adding you to my favs!
Deven
homeschooling mommy of Kol, Jul, Elle & Liv
Wow!
Searching for Alice party ideas and you’ve done all the work for me! Thanks so much. I’ll certainly link to you when I post our part on my blog 🙂 Cheers!
Wonderful Wonderland! I am working on a baby shower for my daughter-in-law; who wants the theme to be alice in wonderland and what a delight to find your post. I would be grateful for any templates you have converted to baby shower theme! What lovely and lucky little girls you have.
I’m not easily impressed, but i’m in complete awe for what you have done. Nice work!
You have totally inspired me to get vreative and start using my very underused creative talents. Thankyou for the great ideas and recomendations.I am now so excited cant wait for my daughters 1st birthday.I cant stop looking at this page
Oh my goodness! This is the cutest party I’ve ever seen…and thank you so much for sharing the cutouts and everything! My youngest daughter will be 7 in a couple of months and I think she will like this!
I am having a alice in wonderland themed sweet 16 and this gave me such great ideas. thanks!
I absolutely love this idea. I would really love the template for the “Drink Me” labels. Also where did you find the jars you used for the hot chocolate. Thank you.
wow…what a fabulous job you did with this party…it’s inspiring…and you’ve been so generous with your instructions…I’m besotted by everything!
O M G !!! You are sooooooo damn creative!! Your kids are so lucky to have a mum like you! geez i even wish you were my mum, after looking at those pictures!! I would love to see what you come up with for a major birthday, like sweet 16, or 21!!! No doubt about it, you have a gift! … and i am jealous. i cant even sew a button!! thankyou for sharing this
Amazing! I stumbled across your post while planning an Alice Party for my baby’s first birthday. I’m curious if you could share what pattern you used for the Alice and/or whether you make such dresses for sale on Etsy. There is surpisingly a lack of blue dresses for little girls (every thing is pink) and I don’t want to go the Halloween route (dresses are such bad quality).
Also, would you be willing share in more details how you made the mushrooms. They are too cute!
I wanted to thank you for such wonderful inspiration! I am throwing my daughter an Alice in Wonderland themed party for her 8th birthday! I would really appreciate it if you could email me the template for the hot cocoa favors!! Thank You SOOOOO much!!
I saw your post months ago and it inspired me to do an ACE party for my son’s first birthday! Anyway, I know everyone has asked 100 questions, but I have one more…
Where did you get the Alice graphics? I’d love some of the bunny and/or card graphics. I know you linked to your cut outs. But I want to make an invite, etc. Did you buy them?
If you get a chance, I’d appreciate it! 🙂
Thank you for posting such a beautiful party and all the fun downloads!! Makes me want to do an Alice party for my daughter, too!
Where did you get the high resolution images for the mobile???
My daughter’s Sweet 16 is in April and these ideas are great even for her. We are using some of your ideas and adding the New Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland ideas together. This should be one great Sweet 16!!!
The favor idea is fabulous. Can you share your label also? Where did you buy the small jars?
Thanks so much!
My 6 year old daughter has been wanting a Alice in Wonderland party. You have alot of wonderful ideas. I really like the hot chocolate idea as a favor. Would you be able to send me the template for the hot chocolate label?
What was your pattern for the mushrooms? I need to make some giant mushroom tops (like life size). Were they just a circle pattern and then you gathered them together after the stuffing?
Thanks!
Hi! I stumbled upon your site when I was actually looking for Alice In Wonderland party ideas. You did such an amazing job and I have found tons of inspiration for my daughter’s Mad Hatter Tea Party party next weekend! Would you be able to send me the template for the hot cocoa? I would REALLY appreciate it! I’ll be following your blog for more fabulous tips and ideas! <3
Jen, The Mad Hatter