Shirley's party advice part 3 - in which Shirley may make a guest appearance

[stealthsquiggle]

We appear to have filled another thread

[Tinkerisdead]

Isnt captain barnacles that polar bear one. If it is then his hat is more pirate hat shaped than sailor hat so you could get away with making a ridgid catd crown/pirate hat. Foam would work too for reusable etc but may not be as rigid.

But adding the collar belt etc details in felt would be easy on the pj's. Literally cut out and stitch on or even fabric glue. Is peso the little penguin? He's my favourite.

[Tinkerisdead]

Card i meant!

[Blatherskite]

Yes, Barnacles is the Polar bear. There's also a Penguin named Peso, a Cat named Kwazii and an Otter named Shellington, a Squid named Inkling, a Dog named Dashi, a Bunny named Tweak and a Vegimal named Tunip :)

This is Barnacles.

Felt is fairly rubbish to wash which is the only thing putting me off using it as it would be easier. I was thinking about it in bed last night (saddo) and wondering if just buying a pale blue school shirt would be easiest for the collar as I could cut it off and sew it into the neck of the PJs. I could use the spare fabric for the belt and the shoe covers. Shirts are fairly cheap from Supermarkets.

The only felt bit I am thinking of is some sort of holder for the compass. Hopefully, it could be made detachable. In the picture it has a wide yellow band around the edge. I might ask my Sister. She occasionally makes hand stitched baby bootees in felt so she should be able to help.

I am a little worried we're going to overshadow the birthday boy with this outfit though!

[stealthsquiggle]

Do you mean a polo shirt, blathers? That would work... I did have a polo shirt that colour (promotional one of DH's) but I think I used the last of it to make a scarft for a dragon and a rugby shirt for a mouse I am pretty sure I have cotton that colour, though (and can check the stack of throwgiveaway T shirts as well)

[Blatherskite]

I was thinking a cotton shirt but a polo shirt might be better. I was going to pinch one of DH's work shirts (he goes through the elbows fairly regularly) but I think it would have to be a kids one else it wouldn't fit.

A scarf for a Dragon and a rugby shirt for a Mouse sound perfectly plausible to me - see above for the leftover paint from a Dinosaur pirate hat

[stealthsquiggle]

damn - just realised that you mostly need the collar. I might well have thrown away the collar as I used the rest (before the scarf and rugby shirt) to line a bag. I will check tomorrow when DH is not going at me...

[Blatherskite]

I've had a look online and it would seem our local supermarket does 3 pale blue polo shirts for £4!! Enough matching material to do the collar and all the other bits I should think so no panic if you can't find one

[Tinkerisdead]

Lol at the full octonauts breakdown.

[stealthsquiggle]

DrsW - I meant to say about the brick embossing. The bit no-one but DH saw of the basket cake was me cursing and swearing and crying because the basketwork embosser didn't work properly on bastard chocolate sugarpaste once it was on the cake - I simply couldn't press hard enough to get it to go in without crushing the cake. It was too late for me as the paste was on the cake by then, so I had to settle for what I could get (not much) but on that basis I would definitely recommend having a trial run. You could always cover the cake with a thinnish layer to get it smooth and then stick panels of brick on top?

[Tinkerisdead]

I def need a trial run!! And to make pastillage bootees. But at least with those i can keep them for final day. Actually i could ice a dummy cake couldnt i. And keep the pastillage towers.

[TheScottishPlayer]

Blatherskite - this month's Octonauts mag has Captain Barnacles accessories - compass, badge for belt and something else that I can't remember!

[Blatherskite]

Thanks Scottish

[Blatherskite]

We got the actual invite this morning. It says "Siblings welcome" and now I'm plotting a Tweak outfit for DD too

[stealthsquiggle]

cool - so we you get to play with 2 outfits - I made DD a jedi youngling robe for a Star Wars party DS went to when she was ~18mths old (she was invited, because I was helping).

[Blatherskite]

I've been asked to help too like i could help myself !

The birthday boy has a little sister about the same age as DD so at least they'll each have someone to play with while the boys race round like loons :)

[stealthsquiggle]

I can't believe I didn't know there was a on MN (presumably for today only?) I meant to say, Blathers - the knight party you went to sounds fab but the idea of killing a balloon dragon would have either of my DC in floods of tears - we are very definitely on the dragons' side in this household. DD in particular likes Jane and the Dragon, and any other knights who are friends with dragons, but we definitely don't approve of dragon killing

[Blatherskite]

I didn't know we had a either!

The 'dragon' was pretty much a collection of green and red balloons and if I hadn't have been told what it was, I would never have guessed I could- -have done better--

[Tinkerisdead]

Blathers look at the cake on here...

karaspartyideas.com/2012/03/lego-themed-5th-birthday-party.html

[Blatherskite]

Wow! That's amazing

[stealthsquiggle]

That is exceptionally cool. I really must start thinking about what theme(s) I am going to get DH to talk DD into for this year. She is stuck on "dragons" at the moment, but I am not sure how much scope that will give me with
6yos (well, 5yos, really, since DD is the oldest)

[Tinkerisdead]

Yes i thought that cake was cool but surprisingly simple.

Dragons is tough. Is she really into nothing else?

[Tinkerisdead]

www.thepartyanimal-blog.org/how-to-train-your-dragon-birthday-party/
projectnursery.com/2012/04/a-dragon-party-tips-from-the-trenches/

[stealthsquiggle]

She is into everything - she is mostly into dragons because DS is, TBH, and she loooooooves her big bro (especially right now, as we are a week into him being away for 2.5 weeks and she really really misses him and so do I). I have always resisted "branded" parties (so themed to a TV show ones, mainly - I wouldn't have the same issue with books [hypocrite]) so I would want something generic, and gender neutral - so far she has had princesses&pirates, and a cooking party.

[Blatherskite]

Well, I've just been on the most pointless shopping trip ever and have managed to buy nothing I went in for - including an Octonauts magazine

I went into the huge WHSmiths and looked through an entire aisle of children's magazines but there was nothing!! We are getting close to the end of the month I guess so maybe they've sold out?

I'm not too worried though as I have ordered a proper working compass from ebay which I'm planning to make a little felt holder for and I have some transfer paper left so I can print out and iron on Octonauts badges to the outfits. If I'm making DD an outfit too, I'll need more than one badge anyway so that works out well as they'll match this way. From what I can see online, the other gift seems to be 2 mini megaphones Not sure I've ever seen Captain Barnacles use those before but it's been a while since DS watched Octonauts so maybe it's a new thing.

Knowing DS, I think he's going to be fascinated by the working compass any way and it probably cost around the same as the magazine would have and at least this way, we'll get some long term use out of it.


I love the Puff the magic dragon take on the Dragon party. That table is beautiful. The little lunch boxes look great too

[Blatherskite]

You could print out a load of for a dragon party and let each child make one? If you printed them on card, they'd be better. I did them a while ago and they really work