Happy birthday to my Squishy-bug!

Can I just start out by saying that I adore my Cameo? Nay. I LOVE it. That little machine has made my life in the last several days leading up to the Bug Birthday Party so.much.easier. And since much of the party was "hand-crafted" I'm going to share with you (sorry, you may see elements again in the form of scrapbook pages).

I'm also going to say that I don't know why my heart was set on a bug party, but since it was, I sort of had to do it all myself because bugs are sooooo not "in" this year. I did get some ideas from other bloggers though, oh, and pinterest. Couldn't have found those blogs without it. :)

Craftaholics Anonymous was my launching point for the bug themed foods. Peanut BUTTERfly sandwiches. Cracks me up every time. You'll see more from their party below, they teamed up with another blog to create the backdrop they used.

A bug party wouldn't have been complete without some delicious chocolate covered strawberries! The idea for these came from Homemaking Fun. She did a whole bug themed evening for her family one night. Awesome idea! I might have to start doing themed family nights for my clan.

These Caterpillar kabobs were from Julie Kundhi's blog. She made them for a preschool snack, but let me tell you that they were as much a hit with the toddler as with the Papa! And I don't know how she got her icing (whites of eyes) so perfect, I eventually gave up and just made all the caterpillars have uni-whites.

I decided to cut out these bugs in my backdrop several months ago, and then when I saw this backdrop at Creative Juice I knew that I needed to take my buggy idea to another level! Their backdrop was created on foam board, but I already had this rod for hanging our artwork and I adapted it to my party needs! I loved the idea of using a cheapy tablecloth as a background and then adding elements. They hand cut and glued tissue paper "grass"to it, sans bugs. I decided to cut my grass from solid cardstock on the Cameo and then stapled them right to the tablecloth. Some of the grass didn't stay totally upright, but neither does grass in real life.

There were lots of those little vinyl bugs hung all over my dining area, but that would require that I show you all the furniture scuffs on the walls. I had also planned some games and crafts for the younger party guests, but they just wanted to play with toys. Maybe next year.