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

[stealthsquiggle]

We appear to have filled another thread

I can't to Jungle again! I am an out and proud party fanatic and I don't want to

I am actually considering going out and buying her a copy of Elmer in a bid to steer the Elephant party rainbow-wards

Elmer is a genius idea - jungle and rainbow and ephants all rolled into one.

almost perfect fabric for Elmer bags

Oh yes elmer!!!! My dd loves elmer and the book people always have elmer sets you could use as party bag equivelent.

So they do - 50p a book

You cod do one of those rainbow cakes where inside it is layers of various coloured cake.

www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=222601

i meant this but its out of stock

oh my word

Squeeeeeal that cake is brilliant. Talk about throwing down the gaunlet stealth!!

Search on ebay theres loads if elmer stuff but type in elmer eyfs and a theres a listing for elmer inspired learning pack loads of stuff in it can be used for games/decorations. Cant link cos im using the app.

Right, so I just need to sell DD on Elmer now then :) We've borrowed it from the library before but that was ages ago. The Ephant she loves the most is a beautiful lilac and cornflower blue coloured one that my Sister brought her back from Thailand but he's not bright enough to go with the bouncy castle. Maybe I could merge the two and just do bright elephants rather than a full on Elmer?

Would the Elmer party bag books still work then?

I'm not sure that my cake making skills are up to an actual elephant! I used to think I was good at cakes before I came on here Maybe a rainbow cake like jojane suggested, frosted in white with little sugarpaste elephants marching round the edge holding each others tails? I could do a big 3 for the top and stand it on my lovely white cake stand. I could get some bright balloons to decorate the table with (and give away after) and/or bright bunting and have skittles and those chocolate animal biscuits to snack on?

Not sure my sewing skills are up to embroidered bags either Maybe white paper ones again with bright card elephants stuck on to match the cake ones?

I hate shortcuts but need to play to my strengths as it is only a week before Christmas. I need to make it easy so I can be stressing about icing Christmas cakes and wrapping presents simultaneously.

This little ephant is cute

How cute is this cake

I could maybe even make the topper from FIMO rather than sugarpaste so that she can keep it afterwards?

I am not sure I am up to that particular ephant cake either - I was trying to work out how he has been done - I think scaffolding must have been involved.

Rainbow cake and bright elephants sounds good - you could make the elephants in advance in lots of different colours, and maybe have bunting round the side of the cake if you are feeling really ambitious. I don't see an issue in combining unbranded ephants with Elmers - he is, after all, just the ultimate in brightly coloured elephants!

How about plain canvas bags with names and elephants printed on them? Something like this? Or paper ones would be fine too, of course.

paper elephants for invitations? I have bought stuff from her before and she will do any combination of colours you ask for..

You could combine those paper elephants with numbers (just ask for all '3's) and balloons for an almost-instant recreation of that invitation you linked to.

Whatever I do also needs to be cheap (see above week before Christmas excuse) I think I've still got some white paper bags left over from DS's party.

I wasn't suggesting buying lots of bags at that price - I am sure I have seen them cheaper - but those white paper ones are lovely too (I used them for DD's cooking party) - you could put the same elephants on them to match invitations?

Elephants in general would work. The benefit of elmer is that you can link in to the patchwork/colours and tie it all together. If you made one from fimo you could make a basic elephant and cook it to get the shape set then patchwork him after and cook again.

If you did elephants round the edge you only need to do grey ones then cos elmer is different isnt he. Or make a patchwork sugarpaste rolled out and use an elephant cutter for them all grey icing and one patchwork.

Look at these!! :)

I need to find an elephant shape that I like and then do the invitations, cake, party bags and thank you cards to all match sot that everything goes together I think and then try to match card and icing colours as closely as possible. If I stick to bright, primary colours it should be easy-ish

Ooh, like that idea DW!

Is there any danger of DD changing her mind?

OK, I am signed up for my facepainting course. . It will be too late for DD's party though. Do you think I would need to seek parental permission before sticking these on their little darlings?

It's always possible but she has liked Ephants for a long time now so I'm hoping it'll stick for another few months. I won't buy anything yet though just in case.

I might check with the parents that the party kids don't have any major skin conditions but I think you'd be safe with those.

I'm taking the children swimming now but will look into face painting course when I get back

Go for it stealth!!! My sil tried to facepaint the baby til i told her it would be smeared all over my boobs when i fed her. She was most pissed off. Not sure a five month old would be bothered about being decked out as a butterfly!

I still haven't sorted my course out. I keep looking at this thread and thinking about it though :)