Mermaid Party

Welcome to the Mermaid Party!

My girls LOVE LOVE LOVE “The Little Mermaid” movie!  They love pretending like they are mermaids even more!  The funny thing is that when I was their age my sister and I loved mermaids too!!!   All three of my girls have birthdays within 3 weeks of each other.  It’s like having Christmas in the summer (my birthday is within that 3 week span too)!   I knew that they wanted a Mermaid Birthday Party and so I searched the web for the best ideas.  Just follow along to find out how you can make your own Mermaid Party and I am also sharing where I got all the great ideas… and some of my own ideas!

First off I made this super cute invitation.  I just love this little mermaid… isn’t she cute?   If you would like to use this invite and want the watermark free vector or psd files let me know at bubblynature (at) gmail (dot) com.  I have different prices for personal and commercial use so let me know which option that you would like.   I also have just the mermaid in case you want to build your own invites or other party decor with the mermaid… so just let me know what you would like and I can give you the prices!

When the girls arrived at the party they were greeted with bubbles and balloons! So fun!

Now for the wave CAKE!  Yes, I made this myself.  I was inspired by the Ombre Ruffle Cake that Kim from the Tom Kat Studio used for her daughter’s Mermaid Party.  I followed the Ruffle Cake Tutorial from Bubble and Sweet.  It was not easy, but something that an intermediate cake decorator could handle… maybe a beginner if you give yourself a good day to do it!    The starfish is from Hobby Lobby… they didn’t have any white starfish when I went, but I painted it white with a pearlized white acrylic paint.   I added sand dollars from Hobby Lobby and sea shells from the Dollar Tree.

The “sand” on top of the cake is graham crackers that I crushed with my food processor… it looked so real and added a bit of flavor!   The candy “pearls” were pearlized sixlets candies from Hobby Lobby!

I also put some coconut flavoring and teal color paste from Wilton into the white cake mix that I used for the cake… made it a little more tropical!

See the faux white coral pieces to the sides of the cake?   That is just the fake coral from the live fish department (at Walmart) painted with white spray paint (I used the kind that is for plastic).   I saw those on several other blogs and thought I might try it out… it worked wonderfully!

Next up are the cupcakes!  I bought the stand for the cupcakes from Pick your Plum when they were having a promotion a few months ago.  The candles are from Walmart and the cupcake liners are from Walmart as well.  They were both found in their cake decorating isle.   The white shell candies were made using candy melts and a seashell mold by Wilton from Hobby Lobby. I just used whipped Betty Crocker icing colored with Teal food color paste made by Wilton.  The cupcakes themselves were a “cheat” of mine.  Since I knew I was strapped for time I used Hostess cupcakes in all the flavors… it worked, but if I had the time I would have baked my own.

 We also made Blue Punch from this  Blue Pina Colada Punch recipe!   Add some mason jars (for older girls only),  pretty striped straws and blue umbrellas… yummy and pretty!!!

We also made Starfish Shaped Pizza and Seashell Salad!   For the Seashell Salad I used cooked shell pasta, Newmans own Italian Dressing, chopped black olives, shredded carrots, chopped bell peppers, and fresh grated parmesan cheese.   You can really use any pasta salad recipe you want and just use the pasta shells in lieu of the other pasta varieties in the recipe.

To make the Starfish Shaped Pizza:

We used a premade pizza crust (any will do) and used a cookie cutter to cut “sea shapes”.  We topped the seashells and starfish pizza crusts and topped them with pizza sauce and toppings (we also used mini pepperonis which were so cute).  Then we baked until the cheese was bubbly… so yummy!!!

 These Starfish shirts were inspired by Disney at Ruffles and Stuff.  She posted a tutorial for a Starfish Tank that you will have to check out.  It was so easy to make and very cheap… so we made them for ALL the girls that were coming!   We also bought some plastic pearl necklaces from a dollar jewelry store in our town.

The birthday girls’ shirts were white tanks with aqua blue glitter starfish and the birthday friends all had aqua blue tanks with sliver glitter starfish.  The tanks came in packs of three from Target and Walmart.  We had to buy a couple of packs to get all the right colors, but they were still quite cheap.  (I “think” the brand is fruit of the loom).

The mermaids in the jar was a BIG hit with all the girls.  They each got their own to take home!  I first saw this idea from the Mermaid Party at the Tom Kat studio and decided to create my own version.  The Jars are the tall baby food jars with painted lids.  I used pearlized acrylic paint for the lid.  The little “squinkies” mermaid rings came in a pack of 5 from Target in the toy section.  I cut down a little paper umbrella to fit into the baby food jar and places a little shell in their too.  The “sand” is just raw sugar and I also added a few plastic pearls.   So adorable!

 The rest of the decorations were easy too.  I found the mini buckets at the Dollar Tree and the shovel is from the Dollar Spot from Target.  The shovels were originally yellow and I painted them white with pearlized white paint on top of that.    The silver buckets are also from the Dollar Spot at Target and inside those are some more pearlized sixlets from Hobby Lobby… these were aqua blue!  I have to admite that at $6.99 the pearlized sixlets were a splurge, but Hobby Lobby usually puts out a 40 percent off coupon on their website about every other week!   The blue “wood” under all the decor is actually scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby.  All the seashells and starfish are from Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Tree.   I just mixed in some fake pearls and plastic shiny beads to complete the look!

The napkins and plates are from Target.  The umbrellas are from Walmart and the stripy straws are from Etsy.  I just love the monochromatic blues!!!

We also had star wands from Target and aqua plastic cutlery from Target.

It turned out to be a pretty and elegant… yet FUN party!

 I just love all the little details that went into everything and the girls had a blast helping me decorate the room.  After all the food and cake was eaten they went outside to play in the sprinkler out back… then they watched the Little Mermaid movie before going to bed!  I think I am crazy for making it a sleepover, but the girls really had a great time…  seeing the smiles on their faces was the best part of all!!!

(see my Mermaid Party Pinterest board too!)

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